Matilda by Roald Dahl

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 240

Publisher: Puffin
Released: 4th of October 2018 

The original, magical story with a brand new cover from Quentin Blake! 

October 2018 marks 30 years since Matilda was published! This brand new jacket comes with a never-before-seen illustration of Matilda as the Chief Executive of the British Library - one of the careers that Quentin Blake himself has imagined that Matilda might have at 30 years old.

Matilda Wormwood

A remarkable child with a magical mind.

Mr and Mrs Wormwood

Matilda's parents - liars, swindlers and TV addicts.

Miss Trunchbull

Headmistress of Crunchem Hall and the world's biggest bully.

Bruce Bogtrotter

Chocolate-cake-eating extraordinaire!

These are just some of the unforgettable characters from this classic story by the world's number one storyteller - now with a brand-new cover design from Quentin Blake to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the publication of Matilda.

What I Have to Say 

I grew up as a book loving child in a house full of books. Matilda was one of my favourite movies. I must have watched it hundreds of times over the year. So it seems crazy to me that up until now I hadn't actually read the original book! I have no idea why I never read it, I think it's a book I would have adored as a child. 

Unpopular opinion time: I never really got along with Roald Dahl. I read a lot of the books but there were only a couple that I actually liked and if I'm honest, even those I liked the movies more than the books. I just find them a bit gross. The descriptions of a lot of the characters, especially the villains, the way that Dahl as the narrator talks about the kids... Reading this as an adult, made the bits that I didn't like really clear to me. Especially as I could compare the bits I really enjoyed about Matilda to the bits  I really didn't like about the other books. Such as the Twits, which I really hated and is mostly comprised of the gross grotty bits.

Aside from my dislike of Roald Dahl, I really did enjoy reading this book. Despite how I feel about it, Dahl is a massive part of my childhood and it really took me back to that and to the movie that I really loved. It was nice to see the new illustrated cover by Quentin Blake (be sure to check out the other covers that have been released for the 30th anniversary) and it's so great to finally know that I've read this book and what I've thought about it. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with this copy for review. 

 

Spooky Reads for Halloween!

If you've been a regular reader of this blog for a while, you might know that I'm a complete wuss when it comes to scary stuff. Books are easier for me than movies which tend to give me sleepless nights because I can't get the imagines out of my head, but some books still scare me so much.

That said, there are some scary books that I've really loved, so here are a few of the ones I'd recommend.

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood and Co.) by Jonathon Stroud 

When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood and Co. step in . . .

For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.

Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.

Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again . . .

Some of these books have scared the life out of me and left me reading until daylight because I'm scared to turn the lights off, others have been milder, but it's still a series I really enjoy. The characters and plots are worth being so scared and yeah okay, maybe I enjoy it just a little. 

I tend to find these books alternate with the first, third ect. being super scary but the second, fourth ect. being a lot milder. I'm not sure if this is deliberate or if it has just happened to land that way, but for me it's helps me feel prepared. I prefer the milder ones, but they're all fantastic. 

The Name of the Star (Shades of London) by Maureen Johnson 

Jack the Ripper is back, and he's coming for Rory next....

Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London to start a new life at boarding school just as a series of brutal murders mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper killing spree of more than a century ago has broken out across the city. The police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man believed to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him - the only one who can see him. And now Rory has become his next target...unless she can tap her previously unknown abilities to turn the tables.

I read these so long ago now, it's high time for a reread! I didn't find these books particularly scary. They were more fantasy/ adventure to me. But there's ghosts so they totally count.

The Name of the Star was my favourite, mostly because of Jack the Ripper. I loved to see an American take on England though. It was interesting to see my country and the boarding school experience through a different perspective. Maureen really did her research well though and has been over here a lot so I would say they're pretty accurate in terms of Britishness.

As I Descended by Robin Talley

“Something wicked this way comes.”

Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them.

Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey.

Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word.

But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily.

Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school.

But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line. 

This one frightened me a lot. I read it during the day so I luckily was able to get the stuff out of my head before I had to go to bed, but there were some really creepy scenes. 

This a retelling of Macbeth but set in an elite boarding school and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both girls. It's lesbian Macbeth! I loved it so much: it was an amazing retelling and knowing the original play fairly well made me really enjoy seeing the way it was adapted to the setting and different versions of the characters. 

So that's just three of my top spooky reads.  Have you read them? Do you want to? What are your favourite books when you're in the mood for something a little creepy? Let me know in the comments! 

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 374 

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Released: 6th of November 2018 

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It's the highest honor they could hope for...and the most cruel.

But this year, there's a ninth girl. And instead of paper, she's made of fire.

In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it's Lei they're after--the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king's consort. But Lei isn't content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable--she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.

Trigger Warnings: Kidnap, sex trafficking, forced prostitution, rape, animal death.

What I Have to Say 

I have been looking forward to this book ever since I heard about it, which was a very long time ago. Every step in between from seeing the cover to finally getting hold of a copy at YALC this year has added to the excitement. It was so, so amazing to read it after all this time. I'm so glad it was good, because with that amount of hype it would have been a huge letdown! But it lived up to my excitement and now I'm desperate for the sequel. 

So lets talk about girls. This book is LGBT and the girl that Lei falls in love with is my new crush. A beautiful, bad-ass girl with hidden secrets that just make me love her more. The LGBT representation in YA has been so much more geared towards male pairings that it's just so amazing for me to have such a beautiful fantasy book that has two girls who are madly in love at it's centre. 

The world building was beautiful. Gorgeous and inspired and so wonderful to see so many of the different parts of Asia represented in the girls. I hope we'll get to see more of the world in the next book. I could do a whole paragraph on the world-building, but the girls are at the heart of this novel and I've only had time to talk about two of them! Every one of the girls is wonderful. I loved all of them. It was interesting because I couldn't help but love each character for the way they affected me, but at the same time I found myself hating a couple of them because of their actions.  I am fully invested in all of them though. I want to see them reach their full potential and get out of the horrible position they're in!

I really cannot wait to find out what happens next. These girls have far from reached their full potential, because like the title says, they may be paper, but at their hearts they are fire.

My eternal gratitude goes to Hodderscape for having ARCS on their stall at YALC. 

A Little Bird Told Me by Marianne Holmes

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 272 

Publisher: Agora Books 

Released: 13th of September 2018 

Besides, if you were one half evil, wouldn't you want to know about the other half? 

In the scorching summer of 1976, Robyn spends her days swimming at the Lido and tagging after her brother. It’s the perfect holiday – except for the crying women her mum keeps bringing home.

As the heatwave boils on, tensions in the town begin to simmer. Everyone is gossiping about her mum, a strange man is following her around, and worst of all, no one will tell Robyn the truth. But this town isn’t good at keeping secrets…

Twelve years later, Robyn returns home, to a house that has stood empty for years and a town that hasn’t moved on, forced to confront the mystery that haunted her that summer.

And atone for the part she played in it.

Trigger Warnings: Domestic abuse, some child abuse, animal death, stalking

What I Have to Say 

This book was pretty good if a bit predictable in a lot of ways. I think by the end there wasn't much that I actually hadn't guessed. But I really liked the characters and the plot was compelling. Sometimes I do find it nice to have a mystery story when I guess a lot of it. It makes me feel clever. Mostly though, this was just a nice relaxing read. It was a good story that I didn't have to work too hard to understand.

I liked Robyn a lot as a character. The changes between her sections when she's older and when she's younger are really well defined. It's easy within seconds of starting a chapter to know which ones are which. (They were also alternating so it's really not hard to keep track, but my concentration has been really bad this week and a couple of times I forgot and read a few sentences before I remembered). It's really great to see two different voices for the same person that have distinct differences but without any doubt that it's the same person. 

The other characters were good as well. The theme of hidden abuse running through the whole story was perfectly done. The way that it was all connected together worked really well and highlighted how bad spousal abuse can be for many women and children stuck in terrible circumstances. 

 3.5 stars

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

The Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 384 

Publisher: HQ Young Adult 

Released: 1st of November 2018 

One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself. 

What I Have to Say 

This was basically an anime with the unique style and twists I've come to know and love from Julie Kagawa. Though without the actual animation bit, naturally. Kagawa has taken some of the stereotyped characters from Japanese anime and given them her own touch, managing to keep the characters that anime fans know while giving them a touch that is so specific to Kagawa's writing.

This book is everything I've ever wanted. Kagawa has brought in so many myths and creatures from Japan and brought them to life in a beautiful and vivid world. I love the epic quest style story and the twists and turns that used to create this story. It's so amazing how a simple fantasy structure can be so revitalised with a different type of mythology to draw from for inspiration. 

Yumeko is the sweetest. I love her so much. From the first page, I was drawn into her character, how she had the trickster side of the fox but there was also a side of her that was a sweet kind caring human girl that peeked out through her actions at some points during the book. I also love the fact that her strength is shown so much through tactics and tricks rather than outright fighting. It's become a bit of a problem with YA that all of the supposedly "strong" female characters are strong just because they can fight. It's great to see someone who's definitely a strong female character but who relies more on illusions and tricks as well as her knack for persuasion to get what she wants. 

Tatsumi is great as well, though maybe a little predictable that he's falling into a romance with Yumeko. And Okame! So many sarcastic comments about being a ronin (disgraced samurai) and his drinking and general roguish nature. I laughed out loud so much at some of the jokes in these books, especially some of Okame and Yumeko's lines. 

This was one of those books that I almost didn't want to pick up each day because it meant I was closer and closer to finishing it and having no more to read. I can't wait for the sequel. 

My thanks go to HQ for providing me with this copy for review. 

My Reading Companions

It's Sunday! Hope you're all having a nice lazy day with lots of time for reading. I thought this would be a nice time to do a little post about my pets. Everyone wants pictures of cute pets right! So allow me to introduce my reading companions and what they add to my reading experience (gotta keep it book related somehow right?)

Meet Hera (left) and Jess (right), two Cocker Spaniels who live with me and my family. We've had them for quite a while now, re-homing them both when they were puppies.

Hera is the oldest, we got her in 2009 and she's been my baby ever since. She hangs out curls up with me on the couch, sleeps in my bed and follows me out the room in order to look over me when I'm away from the rest of the family. My favourite thing is reading in bed with her nestled up with me under the covers. You don't know comfort until you've had a dog snuggled against you as a hot water bottle.

Jess is less good at being a reading companion, despite her being the one pictured snuggling with me in the picture at the top of the page (it's a very posed picture and Hera won't snuggle on command). One of my strongest memories of her as a puppy was trying to read Teri Terry's The Book of Lies on my kindle while I was watching over her. She kept licking the screen and losing my place by turning the pages. It wasn't so funny at the time but now it's a good memory. Nowadays though, she does sometimes come settle in the basket I have for them in my room, so she has become better at allowing me time to read as she's grown up.

Neither of them have ever destroyed a book. Hera did have a run in with one when she was a puppy, but she didn't harm it and luckily it was only one particular book she wanted. Jess will steal everything from forks to wet wipes, phones to make up brushes, but luckily books have never held any fascination for her so they're both completely safe in our house full of books!

For me, my dogs are truly the best company when it comes to reading I love having my dogs with me when I'm reading and just the sound of their breathing helps me relax so much. I can't imagine what my life would be like without dogs.

Do you have any stories about reading with pets? Or just stories about pets? I'd love to hear about them in the comments! 

Broken Things by Lauren Oliver

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 336 

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton 

Released: 18th of October 2018 

It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods. 

Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.

The only thing is: they didn’t do it. 

On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.

Trigger Warnings: Animal Death, rehab, hoarding, sacrificial style murder 

What I Have to Say 

This book was intense. I loved everything about it from the prologue to that ending (that ending! Okay I'm also a little furious about that ending. But it was completely perfect.) The story was so intriguing, knowing virtually nothing about the suspects except who didn't do it (though maybe they did and it's all just a ruse to make you sure that it's not them?). 

I think seeing how the people who have been accused or arrested, but not convicted of a crime, are treated is a new favourite thing to read about in crime novels. It's so awful how people just assume that person is guilty from the moment they're arrested, despite the mistakes that police can make and it's such an interesting thing to show. These two girls have gone through so much harassment and worse at the hands of a community that is so sure that they're guilty; the way they've suffered and found their own ways of escape for five years, it's emotional but so fascinating to read.  It just makes it so interesting to see a story start from there and work through them trying to prove their innocence. 

I loved the excerpts of Lovelorn and the fanfiction that the girls wrote as well. Especially as it was so integral to the plot. It was great hunting for details in every excerpt to try and work out whether it was important. The only thing I'd say that was not so great about this book was how gory some of it was. 

Honestly, if you're still unsure about whether to read this book, read the prologue. It left me breathless with excitement for the rest of the book. 

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