Book Review: The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

December 12, 2016 Ali@abookishlife2 Comments

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This is a slightly better than OK story about a teenage girl, Andie, who find her plans for the summer go out the window when her congressman dad gets pulled into a scandal. She finds herself doing things she never would have dreamed of, spending time with her father, taking a job walking dogs and starting a relationship that could last more than her previous 5 week record.

I have to admit I struggled at the start of this story. There were too many characters, strange names (for me at any rate) and I just couldn’t warm to Andie. Even her friends Toby, Palmer and Bri describe her as a Type A personality. She’s an overachiever with her whole life planned out who needs to be in control of every situation including her relationships. It’s kind of understandable given her father’s job and the fact that she’s always in the spotlight but it does make her a difficult character to like.

I found myself not having much sympathy for her when things started to go wrong. What she viewed as a major crisis didn’t really seem like the end of the world to me but that may have been partly due to me being tired and stressed. I also found myself getting frustrated about how she dealt with things. Rather than just accepting and moving forward she bottled everything up and refused to accept it. The opportunities she got, like being offered a job as a dog walker, she viewed as beneath her. Honestly, I kind of wanted to give her a reality check and say welcome to the real world.

Anyway, it was probably around a third of the way through that this started to turn around for me. When Andie is faced with a real problem, when she starts to relax and form a real connection to someone, that’s when I began to finally engage with the story.

I do think it’s a little on the long side and a bit slower than I would have liked but there were some really good moments and some real emotions. I did find myself in tears on a couple of occasions and some parts made me smile (scavenger hunt and emoji bet). While I did think the romance and the dog walking was cute probably the best part of this story for me was the relationship between Andie and her father. It’s quite unusual to find any parents in YA/NA reads so I liked that this was a big feature of this one.

Overall a good story that I enjoyed but probably a little too long and dragged out to justify more than 3.5 stars.

Blurb

Andie had it all planned out. When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future. Important internship? Check. Amazing friends? Check. Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks).

But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life. Because here’s the thing—if everything’s planned out, you can never find the unexpected. And where’s the fun in that?

Book Review: His Bloody Project

December 10, 2016 Ali@abookishlife2 Comments

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I should have hated this book. It has pretty much everything I avoid when choosing a read, it’s historical fiction, it has an unusual format and worst of all it was on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize (I have to admit I hear award nominee and avoid like the plague). However, this book proved to be my surprise hit of the year. I loved it and I don’t think I’ve stopped talking about it since.

It’s set in 1869 in a small crofting community in the highlands of Scotland where a brutal triple murder has been committed by 17 year old Roderick Macrae. There’s no question that he committed the crime but there is the question of what drove a shy and intelligent young lad to carry out such a violent crime.

The story is told through a collection of documents beginning with witness statements from the other crofters and Roderick Macrae’s own memoir which describes the events leading up to the event before finishing with post mortem reports, a psychological evaluation and transcripts from the trial.

I think it’s this format that makes this book such a success and is a stroke of genius by the author. Each of the “documents” collected in this novel has a unique voice and perspective on the events which keeps the reader guessing until the end on both Roderick’s motivations and his character in general. They vary in length from a page to almost a third of the book but each and every one is written with such incredible skill that they feel genuine.

The witness statements at the start are among the shortest at a couple of pages each but as well as giving you that individuals perspective on the events, they also create a picture of that individuals character and I could visualize exactly the type of person they were from their words. The post mortem reports are short and factual, as you would expect, but still managed to make me sit up in shock. Reading them I found myself feeling like a detective on the case trying to decipher from the evidence and statements what really, truly happened.

Roderick Macrae’s memoir, written while in prison at the request of his advocate, makes up probably the largest proportion of the first half of the story and is very convincing reading. It gives you a real sense of life in the village and I have to admit had me completely buying in to Roddy’s tale of persecution and feeling sorry for the hard and lonely life he seemed to lead. The murders are described by him in some detail and by the time I got to them I was kind of willing him on. As the perpetrator of these violent acts, and facing a hanging if found guilty, he is however an unreliable narrator and there are some alternative theories put forward which left me questioning his story.

One of these comes from James Bruce Thomson, a psychiatrist brought in by the advocate to try and prove his client not guilty due to insanity. Thomson’s evaluation of Macrae, part of a book he’s written, is included in the collection and presents a very different picture of Roderick. As Thomson himself doesn’t come across as the most likeable character (elitist, rude and arrogant would be a mild description) you can’t really trust his version of events either but it does make you wonder, particularly when he gives his theory on the stand as part of the trial.

I think it was this constant questioning of what really happened that made this such an enjoyable read. I was desperate to talk about it with someone and get their perspective and theories (I think I’m going to suggest it for book club for this very reason). Also, despite my general dislike of historical fiction I think the 1869 Scottish crofting community setting added to the general atmosphere of the story and was so well described that it felt authentic throughout.

This is definitely a book I would recommend (and already have) to anyone and everyone, even if like me they avoid historical fiction and award nominees 🙂

WWW Wednesday: 7th December 2016

December 7, 2016December 6, 2016 Ali@abookishlife17 Comments

The WWW Wednesday meme is currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Here’s this weeks WWW.

Currently Reading

I couldn’t resist wandering off my reading plan this week and making a start on Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land. It’s a dark psychological thriller I received from NetGalley. The story is about a 15 year old girl Annie who turns her serial killer mother into the police. She’s placed into foster care but is struggling to work out just what kind of person she is and whether she can go up against her mother in court.

It’s being promoted as one of the most extraordinary debuts of 2017 and now that I’m around halfway through I’m starting to agree. I have a few little niggles with the writing style but it’s addictive reading.

Recently Finished

Two books finished again this week. The first one was His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. The story is about a 17 year old boy who murders three people in a small crofting community in the Scottish Highlands in 1869. It’s told through a collection of different documents including witness statements, autopsy reports and newspaper articles covering the trial however the majority of the book is made up of the accused’s memoir.

I really, really liked this book despite it being different from my usual type of read. It’s not a fast paced thriller but reading all of the different perspectives around the same series of events is fascinating. It’s a book I’ve been desperate to talk to someone about to see what they think really happened so I’ve been recommending all over the place. Lyrebird

The second book I read this week was Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern. It’s about a documentary crew who come across a woman in the mountains of West Cork. She’s been living alone in a cottage for 10 years with almost no one knowing of her existence. When they discover that she has a unique talent for mimicry, they make her the subject of a documentary but will taking her away from her home open new doors for her or destroy her.

I think I read this whole book more or less in a day. It’s definitely an interesting story and Ahern’s writing is as always engaging. It does switch perspectives quite a lot which I found a little irritating and there were a few parts of the story I wasn’t convinced on but overall an enjoyable read.

Reading Next

So I gave up all hope of reading The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo for book club so looks like I’m skipping this month’s meeting. There are just too many tempting books sitting on my kindle. I think I’m going to try and read another couple of NetGalley books before the holidays. I managed to get Gone by Elisabeth Naughton and Behind her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough so I’m leaning towards one of them. I also still really want to read The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson.

The Unexpected Everything Gone (Deadly Secrets, #2) Behind Her Eyes

Have you read any of the books above or have any other book you’d recommend? Leave comments and links below.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Teaser Tuesday: 6th December 2016

December 6, 2016December 5, 2016 Ali@abookishlife12 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of Books and a Beat.

Teaser Tuesday | BooksAndABeat.com
This week my teaser comes from Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land, a title I received from NetGalley. It’s a dark psychological thriller about a 15 year old girl whose mother is a serial killer. I’m around a third of the way through and absolutely loving it.

My Teaser

An area of London where style trumps practicality. Appearance matters. Air kisses, as knives are simultaneously slid into backs. Twisted.

~ location 654