The BOY who SWAM WITH PIRANHAS review

Title: The Boy who Swam with Piranhas

Author: David Almond

Release Date: 5^th September 2013

Publisher: Walker

‘Fish fish fish fish!

FISH FISH FISH FISH!

Fish in buckets and fish in bins!’

Stan’s Uncle Ernie has developed an extra ordinary fascination with canning fish, and life at 69 Fish Quay Lane has turned barmy!

Then barmy becomes barbaric and Stan runs away with the fair, where he finds himself a new kind of family: Dostoyevsky and Nitasha from the hook-a-duck, the mysterious Gypsy Rose... and the legendary Pancho Pirelli, the man who swims with Piranhas.

Finally, Stan has a chance to shine; to be the person he was meant to be. But does he have the courage to dive into the churning, swirling waters of the piranha tank?

Stan finds his life monotonous working for the family fish business and when his Uncle Ernie does something (almost) unforgiveable, Stan decides to run away with the fair. Fitting into a new kind of family, Stan realises his destiny

The boy who swam with piranhas is a touching book that is both funny and sad at the same time. The speech is written in David Almond's phonetic style for some of the characters and this is really the only thing that linked it to The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean, well, that and the strange larger than life characters which are beautifully constructed. See (http://lilypadlibraryuk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-true-tale-of-monster-billy-dean.html) for my review of The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean.

To say that I disliked the abstract style of The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean, I loved the structure of this tale (although that probably says more about me as a reader than David Almond's writing!). For me, the story flowed and it was very clear cut which bits the reader was meant to enjoy, the story wasn't predictable, just nicely comfortable. The settings were detailed and elaborate and added depth to the story as the characters travel cross country to be together again.

The characters of Uncle Ernie and Nitasha were the most complex because they weren't necessarily good or bad characters, they offered something much more complex. All the other characters are very clearly labelled as 'good' or 'bad' and offer security, we are meant to like Annie and Dostoyevsky and dislike Clarence P Clapp and his ‘lads’ whereas Ernie and Nitasha do some bad things but are so well loved by the other characters that they can be forgiven.

There was a little interlude where the storyteller threatens to abandon the track of the current story (following Stan) and drift off to another location where Annie and Ernie are. This almost reminded me of Lemony Snicket who likes to go off on a tangent and creates frustration for the reader who really just wants to know what will happen next!

Overall a nicely enjoyable read. It was really easy to get into and offered lovely creative characters that were lively enough to leap off the page. I would recommend this to someone who wants to read something a little bit quirky (but not as abstract as The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean) and I would be shocked if you didn't find at least 75% of it highly enjoyable. The illustrations are also really well done and add to the character of the novel.

4.5/5 An unusual book with a carnival feel 

Apologies from Mrs Brown

Good morning blog followers!

I wish to offer my sincerest apologies for being such a bad blogger in 2014. However... I would like to think that I have a very good excuse.... I am now a married woman!!!!!!

I have spent quite a while doing wedding-y things and that has meant that the blog has been neglected.

This does not mean that I haven't been reading... quite the opposite. On our honeymoon, my husband (!) and I bought about 50 books (not an exaggeration) and as the weather was a bit miserable, spent a lot of time in the hotels reading!

I have therefore a lot of books to blog about and so you might be bombarded over the next week as I try to catch up with my reviews!

To anyone who might be interested, we had a lovely day and I am now happily married to Mr Brown. The weather stayed lovely while we were at the church and then proceeded to chuck it down when we moved on to Cafe Cargo but it was wonderful and we got some stunning photos!

So watch this space for some epic reviews!

Much love

Georgia Brown  

Missing Ellen Author Q and A

To celebrate the festive season I've brought you a very special gift... Lilypad Library's FIRST EVER author Q and A!

 

Welcome to Natasha Mac a'Bhaird, author of the fantastic 'Missing Ellen' which was released in October (check out my review posted earlier). Natasha's novel about the difficulties of friendship is beautifully written and I am ridiculously excited about interviewing her!

So here it is YA fans, my Christmas present to you!

 

 

Hi Natasha, thanks so much for taking time out to do this Q and A, it is actually a first for the Lilypad Library! 

Maggie and Ellen are such different characters, do you see yourself more like Maggie's character or Ellen's character?

I think Ellen is the person I would have liked to be as a teenager, but Maggie is more like who I really was – and still am! I was definitely the more law-abiding type who thought deeply about things, whereas I would have loved to be more carefree and more exciting like Ellen. But as I’ve got older I’ve realised it’s more than OK to be a Maggie! There are room for all sorts and I like how opposites like Maggie and Ellen often seem to attract – their personalities seem to balance each other well.

 Did this make it easier/more difficult to write Maggie's letters?

I found Maggie’s letters easier to write than the flashbacks but I’m not sure it was because I identified more with her. Ellen was just as real in my mind. There is a lot of emotion in the letters, I could hear Maggie’s voice in my head and they just came pouring out. The narrative was more difficult and took a lot more thought and time!

 
For me the ending really came as a shock as what happens to Ellen isn't revealed until the very end. Did you know what was going to happen to Ellen before you started writing or did Maggie's story come first?

I did know what was going to happen. The ending came first in a way – it was just a matter of figuring out how I was going to get there!

 

Despite Ellen's behaviour, did you want readers to sympathise with her throughout the novel?
Ellen can be a bit thoughtless and has no regard for rules but that certainly doesn’t make her a bad person. I think we see her softer side in how kind she is to her brother Robert, putting her own life on hold to mind him after school when her mother’s not up to it.

Apart from Ellen and Maggie, who was the most interesting character to create and why?

Liam was interesting and more of a challenge for me because I’ve never been a teenage boy! We don’t get to see as much of what’s going on in his head as we do with the two girls, but I hope he comes across the way he is in my head – a nice, kind, ordinary boy next door! Pete and Spider were interesting in a very different way as it’s always quite enjoyable to create bad guys.

Are any of the characters based on real people?

Not intentionally, but possibly one of the teachers has something in common with one of mine. I’d better not say any more!

 

Thank you so much to Natasha and O'Brien Press for allowing me to do this Q and A. I would definitely recommend reading 'Missing Ellen', it is brilliant! (Any of those of you who get book/amazon vouchers etc for Christmas, this is a good one!!!!) 

 

So that's it from me before Christmas day arrives!

 

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

 

Much love,

 

Georgia x

You're Dead Review

Title: You’re Dead

Author: Nicholas Adams

Release Date: December 1990

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks

Lisa is thrilled when her boyfriend, Skip, makes the school debating team – until the initiation leads to his death. The other members convince her that it was just a tragic accident. Then a mysterious and horrible second incident convinces her that somebody on the debating team does more than just talk.

And now she must run for her life!

After Skip dies, Lisa tries to get her life back to normal. However, there is still suspicion surrounding Skip’s death… can Lisa find out what happened without putting herself in danger? Or does the killer already have her in their sights?

I chose this book purely on its condition. It was returned to library and I just couldn’t resist the old book smell, the yellowing pages and the feel of it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really up to scratch. The blurb reveals that Skip dies, which is fine, but  this is a major plot point that doesn’t actually happen until half way through the book.  After reading the blurb, I was expecting there to be mystery surrounding Skip’s death from the off. However, I just felt that I was waiting for Skip to die so I couldn’t get attached to his character or emotionally involved. Skip is actually quite a nice guy and if the blurb hadn’t revealed that he died then I think I would have found the book much more engaging and would have been saddened by his death.

The characters of Lisa and Donna are easy to relate to and after Skip’s death it is Lisa’s character that leads the story.  The setting of Pine Island is well described and does offer typical but effective horror to the book. Unfortunately, this is about all that the story offers in terms of good storytelling. While the characterisation and settings are brilliant, the plot seems to jump about a lot and I struggled to engage with what happened.

In regards to the murder, I was expecting something more dramatic (the haunting cover illustration suggests a very eerie and highly motivated murder) but this seemed missing. Towards the end there is a lot of intrigue as some of the other characters make themselves seem suspicious which did make the ending interesting.  The last chapter is a bit cheesy and (although I normally like a bit of cheese) I was a bit deflated by this. This odd ending altered the entire mood of the book, trivialising the rest of the events.

Overall, I was disappointed by this story. I have recently reread some of the Point Horror books (review) and after reading a lot of criticism on the books, one thing that continually comes up is the simple gratification of the horror genre that the tales offer in comparison to much more complex modern horror stories (I agree with this statement to some extent but I don’t think it is necessarily a negative thing). I thought that this tale, one of the Horror High series, might offer similar tropes to point horror stories. However, I just found it a bit boring. The time frames aren’t consistent and I did feel like I was actually living a school year with the students!

2.5/5 Unfortunately, the blurb revealed far too much too soon.

Zom-B City Review

 

Title: Zom-B City

Author: Darren Shan

Release Date: 14^th March 2013

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Books

HOW MANY SURVIVED THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE?

WHERE DO THE LIVING HIDE IN A CITY OF THE DEAD?

WHO CONTROLS THE STREETS OF LONDON?

B SMITH IS SETTING OUT TO EXPLORE...

B escaped from the underground complex and now has nowhere in particular to go. Will she come across any other Zom-heads or is she destined to wander alone?

The way that ‘Zom-B City’ is written, with the mix of mysterious characters and epically chosen locale appealed much more to my Shan-fan senses than the earlier books in this series.

It is interesting to see how Shan has turned the zombie genre on its head and allows the zombie race to have a voice (see my earlier review for ‘Warm Bodies’ and BBC 3’s ‘In the Flesh’.). B is horrified by the atrocities she committed as a zombie (much like Kieren the main character in ‘In the Flesh’ who is plagued by nightmares) and is determined to allow her body to be used for medical research to try and 'cure' other zombies. Her nature as a Zom-head allows her to view a zombie nation from the inside, rather than running from it, giving the reader an unusual perspective.

It is quite an unusual book in that B spends a lot of her time alone rather than running away from zombies and it is very post-apocalyptic in this sense as B shows us the devastated landscape and recognisable landmarks that have been altered or destroyed. For this reason, I did find the novel much more interesting than its two predecessors.

While B is meandering her way through the broken wreckage of London she meets a variety of odd characters who treat her with caution and occasionally assist her with her progress. She has decided to assist the humans and her ultimate goal in this novel is to be picked up by the army. However, as always, things don’t go to plan and B is left confused and horrified by what actually happens when the army do show up on a rescue mission.  

Those Shan-fans out there who shunned this series might find that this book brings back what they know and love about Shan's work - a haunting sense of beasts and humanity as well as an ending that offers more questions than answers. The illustrations add to the graphic descriptions and the cover design is particularly eerie and colourful without cheapening Mr Dowling’s haunting presence.

I am eagerly looking forward to reading Shan's next novel (already waiting patiently on my book shelf) as I think he has picked up his pace with the series and I am really getting into it! I would encourage people to give this a go. It definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste as the books are getting more graphically gory but those who like a good apocalypse (!) or characters that can give you nightmares will enjoy this one.

4.5/5 Shan is back at his best.

 

Missing Ellen Review

Title: Missing Ellen

Author: Natasha Mac a’Bhaird

Release Date: 7^th October 2013

Publisher: O’Brien Press

‘sometimes it feels like I’m the one who’s missing. I’m like a ghost looking on at everything that’s happening and not really a part of it at all.’

Ellen and Maggie have been best friends for as long as they can remember – sharing clothes, passions and secrets. But now Ellen’s not there and Maggie’s left alone. Looking back over the events before Ellen’s disappearance, Maggie tries to make sense of her friend’s actions. At school and at home, she feels no one understands what she is going through – except maybe Liam, the boy next door who has always had feelings for Ellen.

Ellen has gone... can Maggie cope without her best friend?

This book is written with the past running alongside the present. Maggie's letters to Ellen explain what is happening after Ellen has left and the rest of the novel gives us an insight into what happened previous to this.

I really didn’t see this ending coming! Throughout the novel, Ellen is simply referred to as 'missing'. The title of the book offers two meanings, Ellen is missing (she is Missing Ellen) and Maggie is 'Missing Ellen'.

The novel also offers us the stories of two characters as well as that of past and present. We are shown the disastrous life of Ellen and her dysfunctional family, her fascination with boys and lack of interest in how her actions affect others. In complete contrast to this, there is Maggie, a young girl in no hurry to grow up, who just wants to enjoy herself at the local disco but who gets dragged into trouble by her best friend. Even with Ellen gone, Maggie struggles to deal with life without her friend, determined to be loyal to Ellen even if this challenges her own happiness.

I had a friend like Ellen when I was younger (in fact we are still friends now) and I know how Maggie feels about being treated second best to her friend's newest romance. However, despite always being treated this way, Maggie feels compelled to support her friend and this is why what happens to Ellen is so distressing for her, she feels that she should have supported her friend better, maybe even 'seen it coming'. Maggie's character is really likeable and at the beginning of the novel, so is Ellen's, as they are both teenage girls having a good time. However, Ellen's erratic behaviour and apparent disregard for her friend's feelings meant that she simply became more irritating as the book went on. This didn't mean I felt any less upset at the end (you really need to read the book to find out what happens), as I had sympathised with Maggie throughout and so felt her pain (yes, there were tears!).

While I don't feel like the novel preached, it does contain a lot of lessons in common sense. It deals with families, friends, alcohol, relationships, school and growing up in a really serious way. Allowing Maggie to tell her story instead of Ellen adds another layer to the tale, allowing readers to see how she feels.

I think that different readers will all take something different from this novel, as I said, I had a friend like this in high school and so understood Maggie's point of view. But those who behave/d more like Ellen in their youth might sympathise more with her character and feel lucky that their story didn't end like hers.

5/5 Emotionally compelling and haunting, right to the end.

With many thanks to O’Brien Press for sending me a copy of the book.

Hysteria Review

Title: Hysteria

Author: Megan Miranda

Release Date: 14^th February 2013

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books

YOU WANTED HIM.

YOU NEEDED HIM.

YOU KILLED HIM.

LIFE CAN CHANGE IN AN INSTANT.

FEAR CAN TAKE YOU TO THE VERY EDGE.

Mallory’s old life is dead. Her boyfriend is gone; his blood washed from the kitchen tiles. Still it stains her mind. She can’t ever go back.

Monroe Prep School is her new start. But everyone thinks they know what happened that night. They think they know her. They don’t.

SECRETS ARE DEADLY.

SECRETS ARE THE ONLY REAL CURRENCY.

Mallory killed Brian. But things didn’t end there. Not only is Mallory tormented by Brian’s mother but she can’t get Brian to leave her alone either. Mallory’s parents are unsupportive when it comes to dealing with Brian’s death and how it has affected her mentally. They think that sending her off to Monroe Prep School will change things but Mallory finds that she can’t escape her demons. If anything, they have followed her there and are nearer than ever to dragging her down. Will she ever be free of the ghosts of the past?

Hysteria had a very ‘Point horror-esque’ feel to it. Mallory is haunted by the boy she killed who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. She is tormented by Brian’s family and the girls at school; even those who pretend to be her friends have ulterior motives.

The setting of the boarding school creates the perfect atmosphere for the eerie content of the novel. The descriptions of the bedrooms, corridors and woods that surround the school all captured my imagination and created a dense space that the characters filled (the descriptions of Mallory’s kitchen also creates an intense sense of space). However, I felt that when Mallory leaves the school and stays with her mother in a hotel, this sense of claustrophobia was lost and took away from the haunting sense of the book.

Mallory’s characterisation was convincing, the first person narrative means that her fear is passed onto the reader directly. The flashbacks are really interesting and as each one occurs, the events of Brian’s death are untangled for the reader and reveal more about Mallory’s character and the truth about what happened, although we later find out that even Mallory’s account can’t be entirely trusted.

I did enjoy this book but felt a little like the ending was rushed. The entire book builds fear and terror throughout but then everything comes to a head and is resolved within the last few pages and as I mentioned previously, when Mallory leaves the school, the tension in the book almost disappears. I felt like the ending deserved more time than this as what happens was actually quite interesting!  

3.5/5 Overall the book is worth a read for some atmospheric moments but the ending might disappoint those who like a proper resolution.