Killing Ruby Rose – Jessie Humphries

Book one of Ruby Rose. First published May 1st 2014 by Skyscape.

Genre: Young Adult Thriller/Suspense

Note: To view spoilers, highlight the white text.

In sunny Southern California, seventeen-year-old Ruby Rose is known for her killer looks and her killer SAT scores. But ever since her dad, an LAPD SWAT sergeant, died, she’s also got a few killer secrets.

I have to admit, in this case I did judge the book by its cover and the main reason I bought it was because it was so pretty to look at. I even let my sister read it first without arguing about who had dibs. She devoured it and urged me to read it so that we could discuss it, which piqued my curiosity. My sister – much like me – is very vocal about books she loves and we recommend them to each other so that we can properly discuss and dissect the nuances of the text.

So, of course, I HAD to read it ASAP.

Killing Ruby Rose was so much more than I expected. I was ready for some watered-down Veronica Mars type story but Killing Ruby Rose took a turn in an unexpected direction.

The story was more gritty than I expected it to be. Ruby has real issues and the therapy part of the story felt real. Her issues weren’t brushed over, but addressed and incorporated into the story. The plot itself didn’t pull any punches. Some things,like when Ruby has to ally herself with a rapist, were hard to swallow but the way the dilemma was presented made you understand why Ruby made the choices she did.

One thing that did frustrate me was Ruby’s inability to put some things together. She’s meant to be very smart and she’s been stalking her targets for a while, compiling information to build a case, yet she can’t see what is in front of her. It could be understandable at points – especially for the bigger plot twists – because she is under a lot of stress, but some of the things seemed glaringly obvious and it was a bit disappointing that the reader could put the clues together and the amazing Ruby couldn’t.

The romance with Liam was well-written, and at no point overwhelmed the story: it was a thriller to the end which I liked. He was supportive of Ruby and with her every step of the way. However, some of the other supporting characters needed more development, like Ruby’s mother. We got told that she was cold and unloving and left to rely on Ruby’s assessment of her. We learnt more about her dead father than we did about the people surrounding Ruby, and although he is an integral part to Ruby’s development, it was a bit disappointing to have a well-rounded main character surrounded by two-dimensional ‘extras’.

The conclusion wrapped up enough questions to not leave you feeling cheated out of answers and enough open for a sequel. I’m interested to see how Ruby’s new living situation pans out and how the revelations she faces about her past affect her future.

Score

7/10

Recommended to…

Fans of Veronica Mars or other crime shows. The Gallagher Girls series is also a good choice if you want something more lighthearted but with teenage girls still kicking ass – this time as spies, not vigilantes.

Clueless Dogs – Rhian Edwards

Guest review by Kristina Adams.

First published by Seren Books, 2012.

Clueless Dogs explores the human condition from life, to illness, to death, and an array of emotions in between. The book begins with a child at parents’ evening, in the appropriately titled ‘Parents’ Evening’. We meet a character with an overactive imagination but a distaste for studying. This continues with the grotesque ‘The Hatching’, describing a bug emerging from its cocoon and beginning its life of destruction.

We then move on to illness, with poems like ‘Broken Lifeboat’ – a powerful poem, viewing a dying parent from the perspective of a child playing with her dolls, describing the cushions as ‘Pillow sharks [lying] in wait’.

The collection continues with more poems about life, death, and illness. ‘Bridgend’ is about teenage deaths and suicides in a small town, where they’re ‘dropping like flies’ and nobody knows why. The use of this cliche fits in with the rhythm and conversational tone of the poem, and ‘flies’ rhymes with ‘suicides’ at the end of the next line. However, this seems out of place for a poet with such a talent for description, and is not necessary as there is no rhyme scheme.

The children are dropping like flies
in my home town. Nineteen suicides
in no time at all. Nanna would have called it
a Biblical curse. Others are guessing
it’s some kind of fashion
and hanging is all the rage.

‘Going For A Light’ is a narrative poem about a retired miner, who is crippled by an explosion. He loses a lung, and part of his stomach, but continues to chain smoke. He becomes a ballroom dancer, using his compensation to buy a dance hall. It is not the only narrative poem in the collection, but it is one of the most vivid, talking of someone surviving a near death experience, only to fade away through illness several years’ later.

Always something rolling round in his mouth,
never words though, not till he started dying proper
and we got into a halo round his armchair,
tobacco tin on his lap, his old face back.

There’s a break from the saddening, as the collection segues into the nostalgic. We hear about memories, and the quirks of the human condition, such as the ‘self-made man/the seller of houses’ who can’t enter his home unless someone else is in. The nostalgia continues throughout the middle of the book with three poems named after childhood.

The poem in which the title comes from, ‘Outcast Hours’, observes people who are waiting patiently – or not so patiently – in an airport. The title ties in well with the rest of the collection, comparing us all to wandering dogs, either with no aim, or with the aim of following everyone else.

Wheel-footed suitcases scurry
about me like clueless dogs,
flip flops tick-tock
on the polished rink of the concourse.

The penultimate poem, ‘Pest Controller’ has the poet talking to a pest controller about the poetry that she writes (in between graphic descriptions of her rodent problem). ‘What kind of stuff do you write?’ he asks. ‘Love poems, the dark side,’ she replies. ‘Then you don’t know what love is.’ She does indeed explore the dark side of love. The banality that can come with long term relationships, such as in ‘Quotidian’; the jealousy that we can have for a close friend in ‘Polly’; one night stands in the cleverly arranged poetry quartet of ‘Strangers’, ‘Eyeful’, ‘Sea of Her’ and ‘After’, and long-distance relationships in ‘Skype’. Edwards examines the human condition in an honest, sometimes brutal, way. She sees her characters for who they are, not who the world wants them to be, presenting them in a relatable, sometimes humorous, way.

Score

9/10

Recommended to…

Anyone with a dark sense of humour or that’s a fan of Philip Larkin.

The Lucy Variations – Sara Zarr

First published January 1st 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Genre: Young Adult Fiction / Coming of Age

Note: This review contains spoilers.

Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. The right people knew her name, her performances were booked months in advance, and her future seemed certain.

That was all before she turned fourteen.

Now, at sixteen, it’s over. A death, and a betrayal, led her to walk away. That leaves her talented ten-year-old brother, Gus, to shoulder the full weight of the Beck-Moreau family expectations. (more)

I’ve only read one other book by Sara Zarr, Story of a Girl (which I didn’t enjoy as much as I thought I would) but I decided to give The Lucy Variations a chance. I saw it on my tutor’s shelf and the lovely cover made me ask to borrow it. 

The Lucy Variations is beautifully evocative. I particularly love the descriptions of the music and the piano playing. However, my favourite part of the book is Lucy herself.

She’s such a brilliant character. She’s flawed, emotional and very real. You want her to succeed, and you feel her pain every time her family pushes her aside. Her journey of self-discovery is real and relatable. She’s a sixteen year old girl who feels her best years are behind her. The relationships in the novel are really well written. The Beck-Moreau dynamics are complicated and yet Zarr seamlessly introduces you to their lives.

The whole family is driven, pushing both Lucy and her brother Gus to be the best. Lucy’s grandfather is an imposing figure, the head of the family and from the moment you learn about their strained relationship you want to know more. Death doesn’t seem to faze them. When Gus’ piano teacher dies during a lesson, they casually set out to find a replacement.

This is where Will enters their lives. Even though Will is Gus’ piano teacher, he takes an interest in Lucy’s musical career – the one she has given up. He pushes her to look inside herself and analyse what she wants. Is it to perform? To simply play again? It’s his questions about her refusal to sit at a piano and play that set the story in motion.

Her strange relationship with Will becomes the centre of the story. It is this relationship – a mix of friendship, admiration and perhaps love at some point – that allows Lucy’s character to slowly unfold. The relationship is slightly mirrored by Lucy’s relationship with her young literature teacher. They are not physical relationships, but Lucy’s attraction to older creative men is part of her character to the point where she’s blind to her friend’s feelings for her. Lucy seems to be reaching for what she can’t have for most of the novel, so I’m glad that by the end she found a balance of sorts and grew into herself.

The book is written in the third person, which I find works very well for this story. It lets you take a step back and see the whole picture rather than having the narrative fully coloured by Lucy’s perspective. I doubt we’d have been able to appreciate the other side to her family’s character if we had been in Lucy’s head all the time. But as Lucy grows, so does her family. Her relationship with her brother is strained at times due to Lucy’s blind selfishness, something the reader can appreciate thanks to the third person narrative. Gus is suffering from the weight of Lucy’s decision to stop performing, and coping as well as he can. The brunt of the Beck-Moreau’s expectations have been transferred onto him.  It’s enlightening to Lucy to finally realise and see herself in Gus.

In conclusion, The Lucy Variations is a powerful coming of age story about a girl who walked away from her family’s expectations and has to learn how to deal with the consequences. 

Score

7/10

Recommended to…

Lovers of Sarah Dessen and/or Sarra Manning – basically any writer named ‘Sara’ or similar it seems. The musical element reminded me of Just Listen, another powerful coming of age novel. I’d also recommend Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols, another novel which includes music and going against family expectations. 

Throne of Glass – Sarah J. Maas

Book one in Throne of Glass. First published August 2nd 2012 by Bloomsbury.

Genre: Fantasy

Note: To view spoilers, highlight the white text.

“My name is Celaena Sardothien. But it makes no difference if my name’s Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I’d still beat you, no matter what you call me.”

Throne of Glass revolves around Calaena Sardothien, an eighteen-year-old assassin serving a life sentence in the salt mines of Endovier. That is, until she is dragged before the Crown Prince and his Captain of the Guard. Prince Dorian offers her a chance at freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

I’ve read many conflicting reviews about Throne of Glass, and they all hinge around one fact: whether you like Celaena or not.

Personally, I loved Celaena as a character, which might be why I devoured the book in record time. She’s arrogant, petty, self-obsessed, judgmental, sometimes emotional and vulnerable. She’s obviously not written to be liked, which makes me like her more: she feels real and relatable. Calaena is, after all, an eighteen-year-old girl. You have to expect her to act her age at some points. The downside to this was that sometimes she could be too perfect. I wanted to find just one flaw which is why I burst out laughing when Chaol told her she snored like a bear.

The first chapter – in the mines – had me hooked. I wanted to know what crimes an eighteen-year-old girl could have committed to end up in such a dire situation. I was also drawn to her blood-thirsty nature, not many young female characters are like Calaena and it was a welcome change. I love that she can be ruthless in one moment and then turn around and gush over a pretty dress the next second. The competition was interesting to read about, but I was disappointed there weren’t any more women involved in it.  At times it didn’t feel like a competition, so much as a means for Calaena to show off how talented she was. I never once doubted that Calaena would end up winning the competition. Her training sessions with Chaol, however, did add to her character and at those times she didn’t feel as perfect or arrogant as in other parts of the novel.

I liked the introduction of the Wyrd and the deeper mystery surrounding the glass castle. It added another layer to the story you can see leading into the following books of the series. As for supporting characters, I was glad when Nehemia was introduced as such a strong female character, and love her development in the next book. She seems to ground Calaena, becoming very central to her life. The villains seemed too obvious, which was a shame. There was so much potential for a well constructed antagonist. At times , I felt that the book was just a set up to the following novels in the series. The king could’ve been built up to be more threatening. I hope that in the following books we get to see an eviler side to him. For now, he just seems to sit on his throne plotting and give both Calaena and Dorian the creeps.

I’ve read many complaints about the love triangle. I didn’t find it that distracting myself – there wasn’t that much focus on it. I found there to be a nice balance between the competition and the romance, and the eventual outcome of the ‘triangle’ felt quite organic to me almost to the point that I didn’t even consider it a triangle.

I’m really glad my sister placed the books on my table and nagged me until I read them. I immediately started Crown of Midnight once I’d finished.

Score

7.5/10

Recommended to…

Lovers of fantasy involving some political intrigue, and also fantasy with strong female characters. If you enjoyed Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers, this is a good follow-up series. Also check out The Assassin’s Curse if you enjoyed Throne of Glass.

Followed by…

Crown of Midnight

Dark Places – Gillian Flynn

Guest review by the voice behind The Writer’s Cookbook, Kristina Adams.

First published May 5th 2009 by Shaye Areheart Books

Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller

Gillian Flynn is most famous for writing Gone Girl, but she’s also written two other novels: Dark Places and Sharp Objects.

Dark Places tells the story of Libby Day, a twentysomething whose life changed forever when she was just seven: her mother and two sisters were killed on the same night, and her brother got the blame. She’s spent her whole life living on the money donated by kind-hearted citizens, but twenty years later that money’s run out. She agrees to speak to a club that are fascinated by her family and convinced that her brother is innocent. Libby, on the other hand, has spent twenty years insisting that he’s to blame. Can she be persuaded to the contrary?

Style                                                                           

The story is told from three perspectives: Libby, her mum and her brother. Libby’s perspective is in the present day whilst her mum and brother tell of the events leading up to That Night. I found some of the parts told by Libby’s mum and brother slow, but they were necessary to the story and discovering what happened. A lot of it is information that is vital to the reader that Libby must find out on her own or can never know.

Characters

Libby is a dark, dark person. When something triggers her PTSD or depression she refers to this as her ‘dark place’. For anyone with depression or PTSD she’s a very relatable character, and for anyone without it’s an insight into how the mind of someone with either condition works. That being said, I would be very careful reading this if you yourself are in a ‘Dark Place’ – I find dark books very difficult to read when in a dark place myself.

Opening

I found the book slow to get off the ground, but I decided to give it a chance, reminding myself that it wasn’t Gone Girl (which I’d read first). It doesn’t immediately grab you, but it is worth sticking with because there are some truly crazy characters and there’s a twist at the end.

Plot

The plot is intricately weaved with a twist or two, just like in her other books. I did predict part of the ending, but I don’t know if that’s due to writing style or me reading more crime novels.

Score

7/10

Recommended to…

If you enjoyed Gone Girl or Sharp Objects, I’d recommend this book. Likewise if you’re into crime, mystery, thriller or drama, or a fan of Tess Gerritsen. Gillian Flynn is classed as a crime writer but what she really writes about is the brutality of relationships that many people are scared to think about, let alone write.