Moonrise by Sarah Crossan

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 400

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens 

Released: 7th of September 2017 

'They think I hurt someone. 

But I didn't. You hear?

Coz people are gonna be telling you

all kinds of lies.

I need you to know the truth.'

Joe hasn't seen his brother for ten years, and it's for the most brutal of reasons. Ed is on death row.

But now Ed's execution date has been set, and Joe is determined to spend those last weeks with him, no matter what other people think ...

What I Have to Say 

This one took me a while to get into. At first the characters didn't seem that likable and the story progressed really slowly. But as I got into it and it was getting closer to the execution date, it got more gripping. 

I really liked Joe as a character as the novel went on. He was so faithful to Ed and seemed to really care about his family even though they didn't really seem to treat him well. He spent so much money to go to Texas and see his brother who he hadn't really seen since he was really young and so only had vague memories of. He was willing to stay in Texas even though he was barely scraping by enough to eat. 

I still like the poetry-ish feel of the book, but it isn't as exciting as it was in One. It was new and unique then, but now it's a little less new. It's still cool and easy to read though. 

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

Day 7 by Kerry Drewery

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 448 

Publisher: Hot Key Books 

Released: 15th of June 2017 

Other Books in the Series: Cell 7 

Martha Honeydew has been released from the terrifying Cell 7. But despite her new freedom, the corrupt judicial system is still tracking Martha's every move. And Isaac, her only trusted friend, is now imprisoned in the very same cells she was. Isaac saved Martha's life, it is only right she now saves his. 

But with Martha still a target, her chances of saving Isaac are remote. Martha begins to question whether it is ever possible to escape government scrutiny. 

Will Martha and Isaac ever reunite? 

Will they ever live in a better world?

What I Have to Say 

I loved Cell 7 so I was really looking forward to Day 7, but it made me feel a bit disappointed when I found it a little repetitive. For a lot of it, it kind of felt like the same plot as Cell 7 but with Isaac in the cell instead of Martha. It was different enough to keep me interested, but I think it could have been more different. 

I love the whole concept of it though. Everything is a conspiracy. Everything is manipulation and I feel like in this book we saw more of that. We saw how everyone's strings are being pulled behind the scenes. Not just the presenters of the TV shows but even Martha and Eve and everyone else. I love reading about manipulation and how hard it is to escape from this kind of thing. 

I'm looking forward to the next book a lot. I don't like the repetitiveness, but I still love the whole idea and everything else about, Kerry Drewery's writing is beautiful and the different styles really bring it all together. 

I can't wait to see what happens now. 

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

Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320

Publisher: Electric Monkey 

Released: 30th of June 2016

June's life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one – and a secret one. She is trapped like a butterfly in a net. 

But then June meets Blister, a boy in the woods. In him she recognises the tiniest glimmer of hope that perhaps she can find a way to fly far, far away from her home and be free. Because every creature in this world deserves their freedom . . . But at what price?

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Child Abuse, Racism

What I Have to Say 

This book was grim! I like sad books, but this was depressing levels of sad. Obviously it is a pretty dark subject matter, so I was expecting it to be a pretty dark read, but what I wasn't expecting was the second half. The child abuse in the first half was interesting and a good view into what many children are suffering through, but the second half, I just didn't need. 

The main reason I didn't like the second half is that I kept thinking of people who are going through child abuse reading it. Children and young adults who are suffering like June does might pick up the book in order to feel less alone or seek advice of how to escape the situation. And what they will find reading this book is a very grim picture. 

I'm not saying that it's a bad story to tell. I think that any story whether it is a positive or a negative one deserves the right to be told, but I feel that, in YA especially, there is more responsibility to the readers who might be suffering and until there is a suitable number of positive books out there on a particular subject, I feel that writing negatively about such a subject might only cause pain. 

That's not to say that it's a bad story. It may have been a bit too dark for me, but there are many aspects that a reader could enjoy and the story-telling was perfectly done. The characters were well written and easy to engage with  and the feeling of sympathy for June was very quickly established. 

If you like dark books then this will be a very good read, I just worry about the message it sends to people like June. 

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