The Flight of a Starling by Lisa Heathfield

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320

Publisher: Electric Monkey 

Released: 29th of June 2017 

Rita and Lo, sisters and best friends, have spent their lives on the wing – flying through the air in their trapeze act, never staying in one place for long. Behind the greasepaint and the glitter, they know that the true magic is the family they travel with.

Until Lo meets a boy. Suddenly, she wants nothing more than to stay still. And as secrets start to tear apart the close-knit circus community, how far will Lo go to keep her feet on the ground?

Trigger Warnings: Suicide 

What I Have to Say 

I can't give this book a good review. I can't do that because it left me feeling awful. It left me shaking and scared and in a really bad state for the whole of the next day. So much so that I ended up having to miss my class and go home because I couldn't manage. I want to discuss exactly why at the end of this review for people who don't want spoilers. But if you have any triggers, be sure to check out the trigger warning above, because this book triggered me really badly. 

So one short paragraph about what I like for the people who don't suffer from the same stuff as I do. 

I liked the circus life and the characters a lot. Heathfield showed a really interesting culture that went on in the little circus and I would have loved to see more of it. Also, Rita and Lo were such interesting characters. I really think that if it hadn't been for the ending, I would have really loved this book. 

On to the SPOILERS: 

This book showed a very graphic suicide. It showed a character taking pills, including details like how many pills she took and all the feelings that she had while taking them in detail. I haven't been suicidal for a long time, but this book revived all of the feelings that I had back when I was. It was only for the short time between when I finished the book and I went to sleep as I'd stayed up late to finish it. But as I said. I was shaken really badly during the next day. 

I worry about this book falling into the hands of someone who's actively suicidal. The readership of this book is teenagers, who can be more susceptible to this sort of stuff. I know from the acknowledgement that this wasn't the authors intention, so I just really feel that it shouldn't be this detailed. 

This book has really made me question whether to pick up any more of Lisa Heathfield's books again because there was no warning for this and I don't want anything like this to happen again. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Electric Monkey for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 416 

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books 

Released: 4th of May 2017 

When fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she’d imagined won’t be exactly like she anticipated. And once she returns to her grandfather’s estate, a bit banged up but alive, she begins to realize that her injury might not have been an accident. One of her family’s employees is missing, and he disappeared on the very same day she landed in the hospital.

Desperate to figure out what happened, she befriends Euan McEwen, the Scots Traveller boy who found her when she was injured, and his standoffish sister Ellen. As Julie grows closer to this family, she experiences some of the prejudices they’ve grown used to firsthand, a stark contrast to her own upbringing, and finds herself exploring thrilling new experiences that have nothing to do with a missing-person investigation.

Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travellers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime.

What I Have to Say 

Mostly, this book made me want to read Code Name Verity again. I'd forgotten how awesome Julie was as a character. This book was amazing and I loved it, but not as amazing as Code Name Verity was. I think it would take a lot to beat Code Name Verity though. 

The story was so good though. It really showed prejudice but also in a way that showed the privalidge that Julie had. I think it was especially interesting because it showed the Traveller's feeling annoyed when Julie did things for them, even when there really no choice for her in certain cases. I think it really helps show that even though we have the best of intentions, we still have so much privilege and we have to acknowledge it. It's definitely one of those cases where having a book about prejudice written from the point of view of a privileged white girl can actually address the issues in a good way. 

The mystery was really good too. I love how Wein makes you think that you know what happened, at least to a certain extent and then throws in a new piece of evidence that completely changes everything. It wasn't as big a reveal as with Code Name Verity, but it was still pretty awesome. 

I definitely need to read Code Name Verity again now. 

My thanks go to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review.