Tag: reading

Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

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The Truth About Alice by Jennifer MathieuThe Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An interesting story about slut-shaming and stereotypes but unfortunately while it was easy reading I never really connected to it.

THE BLURB

From the author of Zoella Book Club book MOXIE comes a startling book about stereotypes, slut shaming and the battle for popularity.

Everyone knows Alice slept with two guys at one party.
But did you know Alice was sexting Brandon when he crashed his car?
It’s true. Ask ANYBODY.

Rumour has it that Alice Franklin is a slut. It’s written all over the ‘slut stall’ in the girls’ bathroom at Healy High for everyone to see. And after star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, the rumours start to spiral out of control.

In this remarkable novel, four Healy High students – the party girl, the car accident survivor, the ex best friend and the boy next door – tell all they know.

But exactly what is the truth about Alice? In the end there’s only one person to ask: Alice herself.

MY REVIEW

Umm, I’m really not sure about this book. I didn’t hate it but I’m not convinced I liked it either. I think I’m just struggling to work out what the point of it all was. Plot wise it reminded me a little of 13 Reasons Why, being about a teenage girl who’s slut shamed, bullied and ostracized by her so called friends who would rather be popular than loyal. It looks at the damage rumors and gossip can do particularly to girls giving it a little bit of a feminist vibe.

It is pretty easy, although slightly troubling (are all high school students really behaving like this), reading and I thought the style was very interesting. It’s told from the point of view of four different characters, none of which are Alice, and jumps around in time to reveal the truth behind the rumors.

Some voices were more likeable than others, I kinda liked Kurt, but all were very distinct and you could tell immediately whose story you were hearing. You do get a very real sense of them and what’s behind the stereotypical facade.

My biggest issue though is that the story doesn’t really go anywhere. There are lots of rumors about Alice, we find out if they’re true and if they’re not how they came about but to be honest I didn’t particularly care. The decision to tell the story from other points of view meant I felt no connection to Alice so while I was a little curious I wasn’t invested and the narrators weren’t likeable or intriguing enough to hold my attention.

It was only at the very end when at long last we get Alice’s chapter that I thought “yes, finally I’ll start to feel it” but nope the ending turned out to be the biggest let down of the story.

It’s very possible it’s just me and the mood I’m in right now but given my love for the author’s other book Moxie this was a bit disappointing. There do seem to be a lot of rave reviews so please don’t let me thoughts stop you from picking this up.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy. As always all views are my own.

WWW Wednesday: 28th February 2018

Ali@abookishlife23 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.

WWW Wednesday

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?

Currently Reading

IA Man Called Ove had to put my next RL book club book, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, on hold for a bit while I finished off a couple of ARC’s but I picked it up again yesterday morning and I don’t think I’ve put it down since. There is just something I love about Backman’s writing and Ove could be one of my all time favorite characters. He’s just such a grump, always insisting that no one does things properly but he secretly has a heart of gold. I think I’ve spent the past 24 hours alternating between laughing and crying. I am crossing everything that this has a happy ending as I don’t think I could take the alternative.

Speaking of books I suspect may not have a happy ending I’m also reading Wye: A Zombie Novel by Jack Croxall. I picked up X: A Short Story by the author last week because it fit a challenge and it seemed promising so I wanted to read more. I’ve also just been in the mood for a zombie story. I find the human behavior in these types of stories so fascinating.The Black Witch (The Black Witch Chronicles, #1)

Finally, on audio, I started listening to The Black Witch by Laurie Forest at the weekend. I’d put a hold on this at the library and completely forgot about it, so was surprised to get the notification it was in. It seems to be quite a long one (around 16 hours) and I’m only a couple of hours in so it’s pretty early days but I do think this could be good. I have some suspicions that it may be a little tropey and possibly slow (hardly anything has happened in 2 hours) but hopefully I’ll still enjoy it.

Recently Finished

Things have thankfully calmed down at work and I’ve had a few days off so I’m finally starting to get back into my reading. I am still struggling to decide what I want to read but I am at least finishing the books I’m starting rather than abandoning them after a few pages (or at least most of them).

The Boy on the Bridge (The Hungry Plague, #2)

The first book finished this week was The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey and I even managed to get a review up. This was one of those books I’d been wanting to read for ages but hadn’t been able to squeeze it in and, if you’ve read the Girl with all the Gifts, you’ll know it was probably not going to be a quick and easy read. I’m not sure I would say The Boy on the Bridge was quite as good but it is worth reading to get answers to a lot questions. It also has an absolutely incredible ending which on its own bumped my rating up at least half a star.

The Last LaughBecause I’m an idiot, the next book I picked up after the traumatic ending of The Boy on the Bridge was The Last Laugh by Tracy Bloom. I have no idea what I was thinking as this was yet another emotional read, it’s about a 45 year old woman who is diagnosed with a terminal illness and discovers her husband is cheating on her (fun times!!!). Thankfully though while I did cry for a large proportion of the story there were quite a few laughs too. This is my second or third book by Bloom and I do like her writing, I flew threw the whole story in more or less a day. You can read my full review here.

The third and final book finished this week was The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin, which I listened to on audioThe Lathe of Heaven. I have to confess I listened to the last couple of hours on double time (I don’t recommend this) because I had to get it finished by a specific time for a challenge. Unfortunately as a result I didn’t get to appreciate the ending which I’m sorry about as I was finding it fascinating. This is the one and only book by LeGuin I’ve read, it’s probably not something I would have sought out, but I enjoyed it so much more than I expected. Hopefully I can pick up some of her other books soon.

Reading Next

Pretty much all of my reads over the last couple of weeks have been rather emotional so I’m feeling a bit fragile. I think I therefore need something more up beat and happy, or possibly super dark and violent, just not another sob fest. I do have a few rapidly approaching ARC publication dates so I’m leaning towards The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu or Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris. I’m also going to see Holly Black and Alwyn Hamilton at the end of March so I may go for one of their books.

Bring Me BackThe Truth About AliceHero at the Fall (Rebel of the Sands, #3)Tithe (Modern Faerie Tales, #1)

Have you read any of the books on my list this week? Any others you’d recommend? As always please feel free to leave comments and links below.

Happy Reading ❤

Teaser Tuesday: 27th February 2018

Ali@abookishlife9 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. 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 The Purple Booker.


This week my teaser comes from A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, yep at long last I’m finally reading it. I swear this has been on my TBR forever but I put it into the hat at my real life book club and it finally got picked. I’ve spent most of today reading it and have been absolutely loving it. Ove is just so lovely and even though he’d hate it I just want to give him a cuddle 🙂

My Teaser

Ove presses the soles of his shoes into the snow. He has certainly not begun this day with the intention of letting women or cats into the house, he’d like to make that very clear to her. But she comes right at him with the animal in her arms and a determination in her steps.

~ Pg 139 A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

BlurbA Man Called Ove

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots – neighbours who can’t reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d’etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents’ Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.

But isn’t it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so? In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible..

Review: The Last Laugh by Tracy Bloom

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The Last Laugh by Tracy Bloom
The Last Laugh by Tracy Bloom

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Often heartbreaking, occasionally hilarious and always very real and touching. I very much enjoyed this story. One to be read in the house with a big box of tissues on standby.

THE BLURB

‘I’ve googled it, how to die,’ Jenny says to Maureen. ‘It was full of climbing this mountain, swimming that sea, becoming a marathon runner and raising millions for charity.’

‘Sounds like bloody hard work. You can make it more fun than that surely?’

Jenny discovers her days are numbered at the same time she discovers her husband is having an affair…

Frankly, her life was tough enough already. Two tricky teenagers, her mother’s constant complaints, friends who aren’t up to the job and a career which has been spiralling downwards since she won ‘Sunseeker Tour Rep of the Season’ twenty years ago.

And now this: a cheating husband and a death sentence.

Enough is enough. Jenny vows to keep both catastrophes a secret. She takes her life – and death – into her own hands and decides to live as she did when she was happiest… in 1996. She plans a spectacular 1990’s themed party in place of a wake that she herself will attend. But will she be able to keep her secrets for long enough to have the party of a lifetime?

MY REVIEW

Based on the synopsis I had a sneaky suspicion that this was not going to be a happy book (it’s about a 45 year old woman who finds out she has cancer and that her husband is having an affair on the same day) but while it is heartbreaking and poignant there is something very positive and uplifting about it. I may have cried my way through around 75% of the story but the other 25% had me laughing out loud.

Bloom’s writing is very real and easy to fall into and from the very first page I was totally behind main character Jenny. My life may be in a completely different place but there was something very relateable about her and the situation she finds herself in. She’s such a likeable character, down to earth, funny and far too nice and caring, she’s the type of person I’d want as a friend so watching her going through this was heartbreaking.

While the story is about how Jenny deals with her diagnosis the focus is definitely not on living with cancer. Things like treatment, pain and other complications are mentioned but as Jenny is trying to ignore them, they’re generally glossed over quickly. Instead the focus is very much on the relationships in her life and the author portrays them brilliantly. Again there was so much to relate to and many of the situations felt very familiar, spending time with family but never having a real conversation, the one upmanship and judgement from so called “friends” and how sometimes even the best of friends drift apart over time.

I’m probably making this sound like a really depressing story but it’s really not. There are so many funny moments scattered throughout I found myself crying one second and laughing the next. Jenny’s attempts to bring 1996 back and her family’s reactions are hilarious and elderly friend Maureen’s no nonsense and practical approach had me laughing out loud. I also loved the freedom Jenny found to speak her mind to those around her, I was cheering her on the whole way.

If I had one quibble with this book though, it’s probably the ending. It was a little too sudden for me and seemed to come from nowhere. I can’t think of a better ending but it just felt a little incomplete to me.

Overall though this was a really great read and I found myself flying through it. I would recommend though that if you do read it you keep the tissues handy. It’s an emotional rollercoaster.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. As always all views are my own.

WWW Wednesday: 21st February 2018

Ali@abookishlife44 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.

WWW Wednesday

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?

Currently ReadingThe Boy on the Bridge (The Hungry Plague, #2)

I finally made a start on The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey at the weekend and while I haven’t made a huge amount of progress with it, I’m around the 20% mark, I’m really enjoying it. This is one of those books that I’ve been wanting to read for ages but kept putting off because it never seemed like the right time. I absolutely loved the previous book in the series, The Girl with all the Gifts, and I think this has the potential to be just as good. It certainly has an interesting cast of characters.

A Man Called OveI also picked up my next book club book, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, from the library last night and needless to say I couldn’t resist starting it immediately. As I’m writing this I’ve literally read only the first two chapters but I’m already in love. There’s something very easy about Backman’s writing and Ove is my kind of character (I’m also a bit of a grump). This was actually my pick for book club so I’m keeping everything crossed that everyone enjoys it. My last choice, More Than This by Patrick Ness, got a bit of a mixed reaction but I’ve heard nothing but great things about this one and I loved Backman’s latest book Beartown.

The Lathe of Heaven

On audio, I’m making good progress on The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin. I probably would never have picked this up if it wasn’t for the reading challenge I’m currently participating in but I’m glad to have had the push. I’ve never read anything by LeGuin, and I often struggle with sci fi, so I was a little wary going in but I am finding it such a fascinating and engaging story. If someone could explain the title to me though that would be great, I thought a lathe was a woodwork machine.

Recently Finished

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide, #1)

My reading has been all over the place again this week, lots of starting and abandoning books and reading super short stories to fit challenge tasks. I did however manage to finish two books.

The first of these was The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee. This was a book I was ridiculously excited about and it did not disappoint. It’s just such a fun and cute read about two young men on a tour of Europe. It is possibly a little bit tropey but it’s packed full of action and a lot of their adventures were unexpected. I can’t wait for the next book in the series, The Ladies Guide to Petticoats and Piracy.Bellamy and The Brute (Bellamy and the Brute, #1)

The second book finished was yet another fairytale retelling (I have an addiction), Bellamy and the Brute by Alicia Michaels. As you can probably tell from the title it’s a Beauty and the Beast type story and I really enjoyed it. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was great, it’s not one that’ll stay with me, but it had it’s moments. There are elements of gothic horror about it and it has some truly creepy sections but I don’t think the author goes far enough and it becomes a little scooby doo (they would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those meddlin kids).

Reading Next

One of the team challenges I’ve been taking part in ends on Monday night so that should free me up to read pretty much whatever I want. I have loved being pushed out of my comfort zone but I have to admit I’m looking forward to being able to read more of what I want. I do have a lot of ARCs sitting on my shelf (I’ve lost my 80% 😦 ) so I do need to focus on them but they’re all books I’ve been looking forward to so it’s not exactly a hardship 🙂

The Last LaughThe Exact Opposite of OkayBring Me BackSam & Ilsa's Last HurrahThe Truth About AliceThe Queen's Rising

Have you read any of the books on my list this week? Any others you’d recommend? As always please feel free to leave comments and links below.

Happy Reading ❤

Teaser Tuesday: 20th February 2018

Ali@abookishlife4 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. 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 The Purple Booker.


This week my teaser comes from The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey. It’s a companion novel (is that the right word?) to one of my favorite books, The Girl with All the Gifts and is one I’ve been wanting to read for ages but am only now getting around to. Very early days, I’m 5% in, but so far so good.

My Teaser

Seven weeks into a fifteen-month mission, ten years after the world ended and a hundred miles from home, Dr Samrina Khan is pregnant.

But this is not Bethlehem, and there will be no manger.

~ 4% The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey

BlurbThe Boy on the Bridge (The Girl With All the Gifts series)

Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy.

The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world.

To where the monsters lived.

ARC Review: Everything is Lies by Helen Callaghan

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Everything Is Lies by Helen Callaghan
Everything Is Lies by Helen Callaghan

My rating: 4 of 5 star

Unexpected and gripping, Everything is Lies is yet another great thriller from Helen Callaghan.

THE BLURB

No-one is who you think they are

Sophia’s parents lead quiet, unremarkable lives. At least that is what she’s always believed.

Everyone has secrets

Until the day she arrives at her childhood home to find a house ringing with silence. Her mother is hanging from a tree. Her father is lying in a pool of his own blood, near to death.

Especially those closest to you 

The police are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide. But Sophia is sure that the woman who brought her up isn’t a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is up to Sophia to clear her mother’s name. And to do this she needs to delve deep into her family’s past – a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were there . . .

What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born?

MY REVIEW

This is only Callaghan’s second book but she is fast becoming one of my favorite thriller writers. I very much enjoyed her first book, Dear Amy, but I think this may be better. There are still a couple of issues but it’s a gripping read and one that really surprised me with some of its twists.

The story begins with main character Sophia out another pretty much compulsory night out with her work colleagues. She receives a call from her mum begging her to come home as there’s something important they need to discuss but, having had a few drinks and with a handsome architect showing some interest in her, she brushes her off. When she visits the next day however she discovers her mother dead and her father seriously injured. The police believe her mother killed herself and attacked her father when he tried to stop her but Sophia doesn’t believe it. The plot thickens when she discovers some notebooks her mum had been using to write about her past revealing secrets that it seems some people will do anything to conceal.

I don’t really want to say much more about the plot than that, as I think it’s better to experience the twists and turns for yourself. I unfortunately stumbled across a review with a major spoiler but I have to admit that despite this I did find it to be completely different from what I was expecting.

The story begins in the present then flashes back to the past via the notebooks and while I did like the present day story I have to admit it was the flashbacks I found so much more intriguing and actually felt like that was the more developed part of the story. Her mother’s story, and her mother was so different from what I (and Sophie) believed her to be and the other characters that are introduced are so much more fascinating and complex.

Sophie was a pretty likable lead, intelligent, principled and determined but I’m afraid I couldn’t feel much connection to or empathy with her, I think because there just wasn’t enough of her. It seemed to me as if her role was primarily to find and read her mother’s notebooks. Her life and her issues (problems at work) felt a little pushed to the side making it difficult to really get to know her, particularly in the first half of the story where the notebooks make up the majority of the narrative.

I can’t however complain too much about the amount of time spent on her mother’s story as it absolutely fascinated me. She frustrated the heck out of me and a lot of the time I wanted to give her a shake but there was something so understandable about her actions that even when she was doing the stupid thing I still found myself rooting for her and found it impossible to look away.

Callaghan can definitely write an engaging story and this was one book I found myself reading late into the night and thinking about at odd times. I do think maybe too much time was spent on some things and not enough on others but for the majority of the book the pacing is just right. I did see a few of the twists coming but there were certainly elements that caught me by surprise something which is pretty rare.

If I had one main criticism of the book however it would be the ending, not so much that I disagreed, more that it went on a little too long. Again I felt the balance was off between what I wanted to know and what I was happy not to.

Overall a great story and I can’t wait for Callaghan’s next one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy. As always all views are my own.

WWW Wednesday: 14th February 2018

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.

WWW Wednesday

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?

Currently ReadingThe Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide, #1)

I’m a little bit all over the place with my reading again, I think I’ve read the first few pages of I don’t know how many books then changed my mind. I have however finally settled on The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. I’ve been desperate to read this ever since I first heard about it but had been starting to get a little worried it wouldn’t live up to expectations. I only started it this morning but I’m already loving it. If only I didn’t have to go to work and could just stay in bed all day reading.

BraveThe other book I’m kinda reading at the moment is Brave by Rose McGowan. I say kinda because I started it but after reading around 15-20% I parked it. I’d picked it up out of curiosity after hearing so much about it but I’m not sure it’s for me, or at least not at the moment. It seems like it’ll be an fascinating read but the tone is just so angry and so anti men (and the whole of Hollywood) that I don’t think I’m in the right mood for it. I can understand why McGowan is so angry but right now I need something a bit more positive and happy.

On audio, I’ve somehow started listening to 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I’ve seen the TV series, read the book, so I suppose I may as well complete the trifecta by listening to it too. Honestly I was just hunting for something short and easy on Overdrive and this popped up. It does work really well as an audio as they have different narrators for Clay and Hannah so it’s almost like a conversation at times. I’m not sure if I’ll finish this as I have another audio I should probably be starting and really, I’m pretty sure I know the story.

 

Recently Finished

The Duchess Deal (Girl Meets Duke, #1)

I’ve been working flat out since Christmas so it’s safe to say that I’m reaching the tired and grumpy stage and am finding it harder and harder to concentrate on pretty much anything. It’s definitely affecting how much I read and also the type of book I’m picking up but I have managed to finish three books.

The first of these, The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare, was a book I’d received from Netgalley and was a really easy and fun read. It’s historical romance and is a Beauty and the Beast type story. A Duke left horribly scarred from his time at war convinces a poor seamstress to marry him so he can have an heir to his title and property. They bicker, they tease each other and they flirt a lot so it’s very funny and pretty steamy. Perfect for my mood.Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)

The second book finished, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. was also pretty heavy on the romance but that’s not why I loved it. This is a series I’ve been trying to find for ages but I don’t think has been available in the UK (or at least I could never see it anywhere). It’s a dystopian about a girl who’s been locked up in prison alone for 264 days because her touch is lethal, and then she gets a new cell mate.

The style of this is very unusual and actually there’s a warning from the publisher at the start so you know it’s deliberate. MC Juliette is a little unbalanced after being alone for so long so she repeats, she counts, she loses her way in the middle of sentences. I know a lot of people have complained about it but I loved it. It was when it became more coherent and normal that it lost it a little for me. I am however looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Just need to wait till it’s released in March.Grey (Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian, #1)

The third and final book finished this week was Grey by E.L. James. Shameful confession time, I actually kinda liked Fifty Shades. It’s wrong in so many ways but for some reason I found it addictive reading. Grey is the Midnight Sun of the series and tells Fifty Shades from Christian’s side. Not entirely sure we needed to hear his side but it does give a bit more of his history. No doubt I’ll read Darker at some point but I have no plans to rush out and buy it 🙂

Reading Next

I have a few fast approaching publication dates for ARCs I haven’t read yet so I’m thinking I should probably make them my priority. I also need to try and find a book by an author who died this year for a challenge so I think I’m going to try an Ursula K Le Guin. I’m not a big sci fi fan though so not sure how I’ll fare.

The Last LaughThe Boy on the Bridge (The Hungry Plague, #2)The Exact Opposite of OkayThe Lathe of Heaven

Have you read any of the books on my list this week? Any others you’d recommend? As always please feel free to leave comments and links below.

Happy Reading and Happy Valentines Day ❤

Teaser Tuesday: 13th February 2018

Ali@abookishlife3 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. 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 The Purple Booker.


This week my teaser comes from Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. This is a series I’ve been desperate to read for ages but for some reason has never been available in the UK (or at least not on Amazon). Luckily it now looks like it’s going to be released in March and I was lucky enough to get an ARC from NetGalley. Needless to say I dropped everything to read it and really loved it (or at least the first half).

My Teaser

I’ve run out of words. My pockets are full of letters I can’t string together and I’m so desperate to say something that I say nothing and my heart is about to burst through my chest.

~ 65% Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

BlurbShatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Review: Goodbye Perfect by Sara Barnard

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Goodbye, Perfect
Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Goodbye Perfect has some wonderful character development and depth but while Barnard handles a difficult topic with real skill I’m afraid the storyline just wasn’t for me.

THE BLURB

When I was wild, you were steady . . .
Now you are wild – what am I? 

Eden McKinley knows she can’t count on much in this world, but she can depend on Bonnie, her solid, steady, straight-A best friend. So it’s a bit of a surprise when Bonnie runs away with the boyfriend Eden knows nothing about five days before the start of their GCSEs. Especially when the police arrive on her doorstep and Eden finds out that the boyfriend is actually their music teacher, Mr Cohn.

Sworn to secrecy and bound by loyalty, only Eden knows Bonnie’s location, and that’s the way it has to stay. There’s no way she’s betraying her best friend. Not even when she’s faced with police questioning, suspicious parents and her own growing doubts.

As the days pass and things begin to unravel, Eden is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the world, her best friend and herself.

MY REVIEW

Hmm As a huge fan of Barnard I really wanted to love this book but for some reason it just didn’t happen for me. It may just have been that the story, about a girl whose 15 year old best friend runs off with her music teacher, made me uncomfortable or it may just have been that I was in the wrong frame of mind when reading it but I just didn’t connect with it the way I have with the authors other books.

It is very well written as you would expect from Barnard and even though I didn’t love the story I did find it very readable and flew through the whole thing in a couple of days.

There were elements about it I absolutely loved, the relationship between main character Eden and her adoptive family (the fact that the main character was adopted), inclusion of a teenager who is a carer for his mother, the way it looks at how people are judged based on their background. All wonderfully done and so great to see in YA fiction.

I am not sure I necessarily connected with Eden but she was very different from what I expected and from what you usually find in these type of stories. She’s not had the easiest of lives, is argumentative and immature in some ways but her attitude and goals are very grown up in a lot of ways. She’s just full of contradictions, which I thought was wonderful, and she’s not the only one. Almost every character has layers and depth, something I loved, and I really liked how both they and the relationships between them developed through the story.

The pacing is maybe a little on the slow side and I did find myself getting frustrated with it, particularly in the start. I felt like a lot could have been resolved much faster and much easier and far too much time was spent with Eden going back and forward trying to decide whether to tell everyone what she knows. With my general uneasiness around the teacher student relationship I just wanted it to be resolved and for the story to move elsewhere.

I think these are me issues however rather than any kind of problem with the book and based on the other reviews I can see that a lot of people have really loved it. It is definitely a worthwhile read even if just to get some discussion around the issues it raises.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. As always all views are my own.