The Great Sea Dragon Discovery by Pippa Goodhart

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 272

Publisher: Catnip 

Released: 5th of July 2018

Cambridge, 1860

Would a plant drink ink as happily as it would drink water? Is there anything that eats a cat? How did any spider know how to make such a perfect sticky net for catching flies?

Bill’s head is full of questions and it always seems to get him into trouble. Especially when one of his experiments causes his father to lose his job. Bill gets a bit of money for his family selling interesting fossils he has found.

But it’s not much – and then someone else needs his help and fast.

And it just so happens that Bill has discovered something – something that could be the answer to his problems. But for the rest of the world, it is something that questions everything…

What I Have to Say 

This book had a lot more going on in it that the blurb suggests. And the blurb is pretty exciting to begin with. There's a lot hidden beneath the surface of both Bill's hometown and his family just waiting to be uncovered as things begin to change. 

I loved how sciencey it was despite Bill's class and time period basically meaning that he doesn't know what a scientist is and that it's a real job, it is undoubtedly what he is. From the moment he puts a daisy in his teacher's inkwell to see what will happen to it, the reader is let in on his scientific mindset and given the perfect glimpse of who he is. Or one layer of it anyway. 

I also really liked the way it showed how kids can internalise things so easily. How when parents call their child bad, the child starts to believe it, no matter how good his intentions are. It's an important point to make and I kind of wish they'd done more to challenge that believe in him. 

Definitely a good read for anyone interested in science and history. 

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

Superpowerless by Chris Priestley

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 336

Publisher: Hot Key Books

Released: 15th of June 2017 

David is sixteen. A pretty ordinary boy, in most ways - he just wants to hang out in his bedroom, reading his dad's old comics. Comics that are full of his heroes - those figures whose lives are charmed, special, unique. 

Life hasn't been easy recently for David, though. His father died just a couple of years ago, he has a fractious relationship with his mum, and he has fallen out with his best friend. But, David has a secret, which he hasn't told anyone. He has superpowers. He can soar through the air, he has superhearing, he feels and hears everything super-keenly. So life should be easier, then, shouldn't it? But somehow it's not - and when David gets involved with the girl next door, gorgeous Holly Hunter, he begins to realise just how very complicated it can get. 

David's harbouring another secret, a deeper darker one, and on this journey from boyhood to manhood, will he have the courage to face up to it?

What I Have to Say 

This was really not the book for me. There's a certain kind of book that's written about selfish teenage boys who only think about sex all the time. I know that according to a lot of people and the media that this is accurate to teenage boys, but I really just don't believe it. Some of the selfishness can be accounted for by the depression, but mostly I didn't believe it. 

The superpower element was interesting and it was a good way to show David processing events, but the artwork wasn't to my taste at all and again, so much of it was centred around sex and David watching Holly through the scope that it really put me off. 

I also felt that there was barely any personality written for the girls at all. Holly was beginning to develop a bit towards the end, but other than sunbathing and a crush on Robert Downey Jr, she really didn't have much of a life outside of helping David through his grief. Ellen had even less going for her. She was just there for David to lust after. 

In all. I just didn't like this book. If it hadn't been for review, I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing it. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hot Key Books for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Boyfriend List and The Book Book by E. Lockhart

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 256

Publisher: Hot Key Books
Released: 14th of July 2016 

Ruby Oliver is fifteen and has a shrink. But before you make up your mind about her, you should know that she has had a pretty awful (and eventful) past ten days. She has: 

* lost her boyfriend

* lost her best friend (Kim)

* lost all her other friends (Nora, Cricket)

* did something suspicious with a boy

* did something advanced with a boy

* had an argument with a boy

* drank her first beer (someone handed it to her)

* got caught by her mom (ag!)

* had a panic attack (scary)

* lost a lacrosse game (she's the goalie)

* failed a math test (she'll make it up)

* hurt Meghan's feelings (even though they aren't really friends)

* became a social outcast (no one to sit with at lunch)

* and had graffiti written about her in the girls' bathroom (who knows what was in the boys'!?!).

But don't worry, Ruby lives to tell the tale. Through a special assignment to list all the boys she's ever had the slightest, little, any-kind-of-anything with, comes an unfortunate series of events that would be enough to send any girl in a panic. 

What I Have To Say 

These was really not my sort of books. I probably could have told that from the titles, but it was E. Lockhart who I really like so I gave them a try, but it was just a lot of complaining about relationships and Ruby wondering why boys wouldn't kiss her. It probably would have been more interesting if I was the sort of girl who'd had lots of boyfriends and spent my time wondering whether boys wanted to kiss me, but I went to an all girls school so I was never really that sort of teenager. 

Also, the footnotes really bothered me. Some of them were halfway through sentences meaning that you had to find the footnote just for some pointless comment and then find the 

place you were again. 

Admittedly, it didn't help that my copy was an e-proof, meaning that I had to hunt down the relevant footnote, so it did make it more difficult, but even so, some of the comments were so annoying. 

These just weren't the books for me. There were some vaguely funny bits, but mostly I was bored or irritated. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Hot Key Books for providing me with this copy for review.