‘What do we do?’ ‘Just tell them your name and who you are,’ Howard said. ‘You’re joking me,’ I said. ‘Just say it. CFeatured on my 2014 favourites list!
‘What do we do?’ ‘Just tell them your name and who you are,’ Howard said. ‘You’re joking me,’ I said. ‘Just say it. Come on. For Cedric’s sake.’ ‘I’m Isabella,’ I said in a poor copy of Cedric’s singsong voice. ‘But you…’ I pointed at the hives with a single finger, ‘you can call me Izzy.’ Howard glared at me. ‘My name’s Izzy,’ I said, enunciating clearly. ‘And I live at Stagcote Manor.’ The thrum of the hive intensified.
The Prophecy of Bees harks back to something that was all the rage ten to fifteen years ago; small town superstitions and weirdness.
Inevitably, in these stories, the main characters will be new to a town and they will see that something is off, but their friends and families won’t listen to them.
There will be little hints, things that don’t add up, strange superstitions about how sharpening your knives after sunset is inviting thieves to the house. And then you’ll hear the scratching. Then the stories of unfortunate endings begin to come to light. And still, no one will listen, because you’ve been “crying wolf” all along.
‘What is this?’ she said, her back to the wardrobe. ‘Oh,’ said Amanda. ‘That’s my coat.’ ‘And what’s it doing in there?’ ‘Hanging up?’ Amanda suggested cautiously. ‘But, darling,’ her mum said in a quieter voice. ‘It’s all wet. Look, it’s dripping. Hang it up downstairs by the radiator. I’ve told you before, don’t just stick it in the cupboard. It’ll get mouldy. When are you ever going to learn?’ ‘On Monday at school,’ Amanda said.
Meet Amanda Shuffleup. She’s funny, imaginative, and has a best friend named Rudger. Rudger’s not real, but nobody’s perfect.
He stood up. He could do this. What would Amanda have done if she’d been in his shoes? Probably complained her shoes were too big, but after she’d’ve gone through the door and faced whatever was on the other side
They’re the best of friends, and they do everything together; travel to other planets, journey through the jungle, make their way twenty thousand leagues under the sea.
But then Mr Bunting knocks on the door of the Shuffleup house, and catches a whiff of imagination.
Once he catches that smell, he keeps turning up everywhere Rudger goes.
I had a pretty good idea going in that I would enjoy this book. What I didn’t know was that I was going to spend a whole day telling myself I would read “just one more chapter” putting off breakfast… and then lunch… until there were no more chapters left to negotiate over, and it was practically dinner time.
Often, when entering a fictional world that is different for our own–be they far in the future, on another world, or in a place ruled by magic–we have to learn the rules, and there’s often at least a little confusion as we try to catch up and figure out what exactly is going on.
The only conversation between us is the tap of our feet. Pit-pat, mine say. Pit-thunk, hers reply. Pit-pat, mine insist. Pit-thunk, hers maintain. Pit-shuffle-shuffle. My little skip and slide earns a funny look from Jo. What? It's tiresome the way they argue.
Meet Meda; she eats people's souls.
I jerk him from the corner, popping him free like a hermit crab from its shell, and he comes apart in my hands. So easily. Imagine a child at their first birthday. He is the cake.
[image]
She's not all bad... She's trying to be good, so she only eats the souls of really bad people.
And she even feels bad about it. Eventually.
But unlike him, at least I'm ashamed of my wickedness - when I'm not revelling in it. Like a dog wallowing in a mud pool, I love the glop and splash of ick. It's not until after, when the stink dries stiff and itchy that I regret it.
But she can't help being a little bit morbid and disturbing, at least by "normal" standards.
I stroll down the corridor and the flickering fluorescents celebrate my passing, humming in praise. I spin, bow and hum along. Bloody footprints trail; bloody fingers smear the walls.
I prance, I dance on the gritty floor. Vengeance is sweet, sweet music. I spin, arms outstretched.
[image]
Don't get me wrong, this book isn't all about morbidity and eating souls. She gets to hang out with some kids in a secret society school, and makes some very interesting observations as an outsider. Not because she's part demon watching human toddlers through teens, but because she never did get much experience with schools or being around other kids, for their own safety. She's a slightly evil girl, pretending to be a good girl, pretending to be a bitch, and she's loving every minute of it.
Without any prodding from Jo, I shove my leg between Hannah and the blonde thing, wedging myself between them on the bench, and they gasp and squeal. Had I pooed in my pants, the table couldn't have emptied faster, or by people with more disgusted looks on their faces.
Deep down, she's there to learn all about demons, which make up half of her lineage, but she ends up making friends along the way.
There's Chi:
Short for Malachi, which means it really should be pronounced "Kai" but for the first seventy-odd pages, I had to tell myself not to call him "Chee" in my mind, and eventually landed on a compromise in "Chai". He's overly trusting, and believes in the good in everyone, something that Meda herself often mocks him for. In her mind.
Uri:
Short for Uriel. He fancies himself as a future Chi, and shadows and copies everything Chi does, but deep down he's sweet, with a good sense of humour, and has some crazy good insight for his age.
And Jo:
A snarky girl who's more than a little bit angry at the world, for taking her parents from her, and the use of one of her legs, which renders her useless as a demon hunter, according to the heads of the Templar chapters. She doesn't want to be treated like a cripple, she wants to take out her anger on some demons, but no one will let her. Jo doesn't really trust Meda, right from the start, and in the long run, I think that leads to a much more powerful friendship, and one of my favourite parts of the book.
This book had all the right feels in all the right places, and even when I saw one twist coming from a ways off, I enjoyed the reveal, and there was sure to be another twist I didn't see coming, close on its heels.
I loved everything about the characters, the style of writing, and the sense of humour.
The discussion goes something like this: Asinine solo plan where I risk it all to save the planet! Chi. Rude comment. Jo. Fake attempt to be included in dangerous mission. Me. Slightly less asinine plan involving the two of us. Uri. Rude comment. Almost-sane plan using Chi and me. Jo. Overprotective response. Chi. Reeaaally rude comment! Jo. Cringe-worthy comment about Jo's leg. Chi. Head explodes. Near homicide. Jo. Life saving intervention ending the debate and getting everyone to agree to Jo's plan. Me. And the crowd goes wild! That last bit might be a slight exaggeration. But I do get them to agree that Jo's plan makes the most sense.
I loved the fact that while Meda was the main, point of view character, everything didn't revolve around her. Other things were going on, too. And the romantic relationship wasn't angsted about by her, because he should have chosen her, because she's so much better. She wasn't interested. Which is just... WEIRD for a YA these days.
I'm trying to remember the last time I felt so entirely sated by a book and, while a few come quite close(The Lost and The Martian being two recent examples), this one filled me up more.
This book made me laugh, made me cry, and had me walking around with a big goofy grin on my face, even AFTER I had stayed up until 5am reading it and only had three and change hours of sleep before I had to go to work and deal with the general public - something not always easy to do on a full EIGHT hours of sleep.
This book had me using my sticky tab notes, just so I could remember where the quotables were without having to get up and type them as an update, which would have required me to stop reading the book to make said updates, and boyfriend would likely see that I was still awake and insist that I go to sleep.
This book had a bit of a special snowflake as a main character, but her dry voice and natural snark made me not care in the least, because she was just so much FUN, and she wasn't naive and sweet as pie like most YA heroines these days. This girl had fangs and claws, and wasn't afraid to bite.
Oh, and don't even get me started on the bittersweet feel of the last scene.
In short, this is definitely a favourite book for the year, I will be buying any and all future books by this author, and you can steal my soul any day, Meda.
THIS is what a quirky, dry humoured character SHOULD be.
4.5 stars rounded up because I couldn't bring myself to give this a 4.
This is one of my favourite new reads so far this year.
Plot: Lauren Chase didn't make plans to travel into the desert, she just decided not to turn at the traffic lights on her way to work and kept on driving. Until she was lost. Until she found herself in a town called Lost. Where the people are crazy, the dust storm never ends, and everything that's ever gone missing goes to be found.
This book was incredibly well written, and at no point did I find myself thinking that things were unrealistic, at least for the world they inhabited. Of course some things were unrealistic, they're in a town where lost things go, but it all felt so very real.
Ok, before I gush all over the place, let's have a look at the things that bothered me or weren't explained properly (YET! There's hope for the second and third books to do so):
The person in room 12: This is something that comes up right at the start of the novel. Room 12 at the motel has a longstanding lease of sorts, and there's someone in there, someone we're not meant to bother. But we never do find out, in book one at least.
Her infatuation with Peter: Every single time she meets him for the first half of the book, she mentions how beautiful he is:
"His chest is decorated in a swirl of black feather tattoos, and he's almost unbearably beautiful."
"He is as stunningly beautiful in the darkness as he was in the storm."
"Her reminds me of light on the water, flashing and changing and unpredictable and beautiful."
I get it, he's gorgeous. And you know what, when faced with a gorgeous mysterious guy like Peter, I would probably keep thinking those things too. I think my problem was that we were reminded every time we saw him. Like "Here's Peter, he's the mysterious, gorgeous one."
[image]
For the record, I'm a little bit in love with Peter too, Lauren. I've never really used the term "book boyfriend" before, but...
The ambiguous explanation of Lost: Everything that's lost goes to the town by the same name. Car keys, leftover food, dreams, houses. And at one point the character wonders if something in particular will show up in lost. Then she remembers how she threw it away, didn't lose it, so it can't.
But... Do people really "lose" the last bit of their cheeseburger? An apple with a bite out of it? I understand that these things needed to show up, because otherwise the people of Lost wouldn't be able to eat, but it bothered me a little.
Also, when it comes to things like houses, some seemed to have been lost to foreclosure, some to murder, and so on. I'm guessing they could only be figuratively lost, like "the memory of home" was lost. When a house is foreclosed it still exists in the real world, usually, it just doesn't exist for its previous owners.
The Missing Man: I'd like further explanation of why The Missing Man did what he did (view spoiler)[ why he walked away (hide spoiler)]. I like to think I know, but it was never explained. (view spoiler)[ Is The Missing Man her missing father? There were some things he said that led me to believe he was. But I never found out for sure. (hide spoiler)]
Despite these things, I LOVED this book. It could be the contrast between the book I just struggled through and this, but I never found myself pulling out my hair at how stupid someone in the book was, or at how bored I was reading about them.
Some of the things I loved:
The Writing: It felt witty, punchy, natural, and like a breath of fresh air after some of the really forced writing I've read of late.
The Concept: This was a slight twist on the old trope of a town you can never leave, as well as that old (view spoiler)[ seriously, spoiler (view spoiler)[ "was it real, or was it all a coma dream?" (hide spoiler)](hide spoiler)] chestnut. However, the power of the story wasn't in its twists on cliches, but rather in its people.
The Characters:
I liked Lauren's method of telling the story, but I also loved the people she encountered:
Peter, the completely gorgeous guy who talks in riddles, fairytales, and nursery rhymes. Who is reminiscent in ways of J.M. Barrie's original lost boy, and so ancient and tired in others. Who has a habit of being there when you really need him, but never gives you a straight answer. Who is damaged in his own way by this town he calls home.
“Why are you here, Little Red?” he asks. “Not the universe here, but here here. Or perhaps the universe here, since that would explain it.” “Just trying to get home,” I say. “Poor damsel. You’re doing it wrong.” He sounds amused.
Claire the little girl who "lost" her parents, and has had to learn to scavenge and survive in the town called Lost. A lot like Peter in that she still has childish fun, but knows when to put down the toys and pick up the knife. The little girl who just wants to be a part of a family again.
“It’s not a nice song, is it? Babies shouldn’t fall.” “It’s not nice,” I agree. “Wonder why it was written that way. Much better, ‘When the bough breaks, the cradle will fly, and up will go baby, into the sky.’”
Lauren's Mother, has cancer and she's come to terms with it, though Lauren has a hard time even saying the word "dying". Having accepted her "fate" Mrs. Chase sees the funny side to everything, and doesn't dwell on the negativity. This makes for some very touching scenes between Lauren and her mother, and just adds to the heartbreak of the situation.
“Everyone makes exceptions when you’re dying,” Mom says with satisfaction. “It’s as if every statement I utter is a last request that has to be honored. I’m thinking of asking for something completely ludicrous, like for the entire staff to dress in medieval garb.” “There might be rules against that.” “Who would think to make a rule about not wearing medieval garb? I’m betting that it hasn’t come up before. After me, they might make a rule about it. Maybe they’ll name it after me. I’d be immortalized in the hospital employee handbook.”
Each of these people(even the guy who often talked in riddles), and some of the others besides, all felt incredibly real to me. They all felt like there was more below the surface that we were just starting to see. At one point I yelled at something that Lauren had done, which earned me a confused look from my boyfriend, and later on I was in tears and then laughing, and sometimes both at once. These characters forced their way into my heart and refused to let me go, and I want to meet them.
For the duration of the book I was interested, for the duration of the book I was entertained, and when I found myself all out of duration, I didn't want to leave Lost.
I would like to immediately lose my memory of this book so that I can go back to the start and read it all over again. I will be buying the physical copy, and the next two books, but can NOT wait six plus months for the next installment.
Commence impatient nail biting, now.
This ebook was provided in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin. ...more
Do you remember what outside looked like the last time you saw it? Did you really take it in?
Did you pay attention to the colours of the clouds at sunset, the green of the grass, the colours of your neighbour’s cars?
Did you notice the blankets over the windows of that house down the street? Did you notice how few people were out and about?
It’s too late now.
If you didn’t notice it then, you’ve missed your chance, because looking outside from now on could send you mad.
You’ve heard it on the news, watched, terrified, with your sister.
You’ve spoken with your friends and your parents on the phone about what’s going on, but they have no more idea than you do. You’ve waited for the news to reveal what’s going on as people the world over withdrew from the outside and shut their eyes. As you did the very same thing.
Something is sending people mad. Something is sending people so mad that they kill themselves, sometimes taking loved ones out on the way.
And you’re never going to be able to look outside again.
Bird Box is Malorie’s story told at two different times in her life; the spreading of this phenomenon when she has just discovered she’s pregnant, and over four years later when she is looking after two four year old children she simply refers to as “Boy” and “Girl”. Names aren’t something you worry about when these are the only people you ever see, when you’re unsure there’s anyone else left in the world. These chapters alternate, so each switch in time reveals something else that is relevant to the story of the other.
On the one hand we have Malorie and her sister, just after Malorie became pregnant, watching as the world closes up around them. This is the period of time where not everyone believes the hype, but the ongoing news reports make it hard not to at least take precautions after a while.
There’s the nerve-racking drive to a safe house that Malorie finds an ad for in the newspaper. A slow drive with eyes closed, opening them occasionally to get her bearings, knowing that at any minute she could see the thing that sends her mad and suicidal.
'Whatever they are,' Tom says, 'our minds can't understand them. They're like infinity, it seems. Something too complex for us to comprehend, do you see?'
On the other hand, Malorie and her kids are making a break for relative safety via the river behind the house. A journey that is done completely blind. They will have their blindfolds on and are told not to remove them under any circumstances. Malorie hasn’t opened her eyes outside in over four years, and her children have been taught not to their whole lives.
As babies she trained them to wake with their eyes closed. Standing above their chicken wire beds, flyswatter in hand, she’d wait. As each woke and opened their eyes, she would smack them hard on the arm. They would cry. Malorie would reach down and close their eyes with her fingers. If they kept their eyes closed, she would lift her shirt and feed them. Reward.
You really understand how afraid Malorie has been, these past four years, when you see how much she has gone through for these babies, and how she would respond if they happened to disobey her and send themselves mad.
Malorie knows that if the children were to remove their blindfolds, if they were to scream before going mad, she still would not open her eyes.
The whole premise of this story is just incredibly creepy. There’s a something we can’t ever look at. These somethings don’t make a sound, they may not be able to, and they may be watching you as you stumble around with your eyes closed. They may be following you, waiting for you to lose your nerve. Heck, you might be surrounded by a whole crowd of them right now.
In her private darkness, she understood a creature could be sitting at the bar beside her. Possibly the place was full of them. Three per table. Watching her silently. Observing the broken, blindfolded woman and her seeing eye dog.
So long as you don’t look at them, you won’t go mad. But that’s like being told that you’re being stalked by an angry spirit and being told you can’t turn on the light.
A couple of things bothered me about this book:
• The news suggested, incredibly quickly, that this homicidal phenomenon was a result of a person seeing something. There were only a few reports by this stage, and, considering that a lot of the people who saw the something killed those nearest and dearest to them, I fail to see how this became the answer so. very. quickly.
• At one point they go searching for dogs left abandoned or locked inside when their owners lost their minds, and they gain the trust of these dogs by giving them RAW MEAT. Up until that point in the novel, the survivors had been living off canned goods they had managed to stockpile before the shit really hit the fan. There are many mentions of how everyone looks skinny and underfed, and like they haven’t been getting all the nutrients a full diet would give. There are MANY mentions of eating canned fruit, not a single mention of meat, raw or otherwise. I understand that they could have meat in the freezer, due to their luck at holing up in a hydro powered house, but surely this would have been consumed in the five months they’ve been trapped there, rather than being kept on hand in case they needed to win the favour of abandoned dogs?
• The titular “bird box”, which two of the survivors discover while out and about looking for supplies and dogs. They hang it on the porch as an early warning system, because the birds get louder when people approach them. The thing that sat weirdly about this for me was that the box is described as closed in, so much so that the survivors don’t know what’s in there until the people who found it explain. So you clearly can’t see the birds, and the birds mustn’t have a clear view of the world outside the box, yet they get louder when people get closer. I would have preferred more of an explanation of this. Do they see through holes in the box? Do they feel the warmth of a person, sense the movement in the air, SMELL a person approaching?
• When Malorie is thinking about something, battling with herself on something, her thoughts refer to her as “you”. I was having a hard time putting a finger on why this felt so wrong for me, until a friend suggested it’s “like she has an angel and devil on her shoulders, battling for her soul” this is spot on what bothers me about it, and I felt like this could have been handled better.
But, when I managed to look past those things, the creepiness was well done, as was the being unable to see what was going on because the characters were unable to see.
It’s a story about banding together and surviving, about group dynamics and how things can drastically change those dynamics as the world disappears around you. It’s a story that gives us insight into how we would deal if something so very integral (to a lot of us) was taken away.
It’s a thriller that gives us a scare that hasn’t been done to death already, and which we can experiment with, stumbling blindly down our own driveway. Something that is a lot harder to do with zombies.
I have no doubt that I would likely be long mad and dead in Malorie's world, because I wouldn't be able to live with not knowing WHAT they were. Even now, I think that unanswered question might send me mad. ...more
I didn't know it before, but this book is something the astronaut wannabe inside me has been waiting her whole life for.
Actual rating 4.5 stars.
When I was a kid, my dad and I would go out and look at the stars through his telescope, or just stare up at the sky as a whole, and watch for satellites and shooting stars.
Confession time: I still do it, and actually asked for money to put towards a decent telescope of my own for my birthday.
I have no doubt I could be an astronaut.
If I didn't like sleep and comfort so much, and if I had more drive when I was younger.
Even now, if someone told me I could have a real chance at going into space, I would work so hard for that chance. I'd completely forgo sleep, if they told me that would help.
And I like my sleep.
There's something about space that has always amazed me and terrified me at the same time. Made me feel like somewhere out there is my destiny, and at the same time made me feel so small and insignificant.
Got that in your mind? Good. Now go and read this book.
Don’t take that the wrong way, this book isn’t for everyone. Some people will be bored by the details, some people (I’m sure) will think there isn’t enough detail.
This book was the third bowl of porridge for me; just right.
The Plot:
Mark Watney was the lowest ranking in a crew of six astronauts meant to spend 31 days collecting samples on Mars. On the sixth day, the mother of all storms showed up and, rather than having the roof cave in on a planet with no human life-supporting atmosphere, they decided to evacuate. Watney, our POV character, was hit and impaled by a big antenna on his way to the MAV(Mars Ascent Vehicle), and the others left without him, believing him already dead.
Then he woke up.
Alone.
The only person on the planet.
With everyone(NASA, the rest of his crew, the people of Earth) believing him dead.
There’s no way to communicate with anyone since the method for communicating with Earth was on the MAV his crew escaped on.
It’s not completely hopeless. His was the third mission of five planned Mars Missions. The prep for the fourth mission was already underway when they landed on Mars. He just has to figure out how to stay alive for the four years in between. On enough food to get one man through about 300 days. In a habitat designed to last 31 days.
There are no aliens in this book. Don’t go into this book expecting alien contact. That would have ruined this book.
I Loved:
The style of writing, and Mark’s character.
The book opens on a log entry, and the first five chapters(48 pages, give or take), are told in log form. By the end of the fifth chapter I was so engrossed in this story, and so separate from the real world, that I actually found myself believing that I was really reading the logs of someone who was, or had been stuck on Mars. There were no aliens.
I love aliens and other weird shit, but the fact that this book had none was awesome. Aliens would have taken this book in a different direction, and made it less believable.
The detail.
If I ever get stuck on Mars, in a habitat that will keep me breathing, I will know how to make soil for plants to grow in. Provided I have some sort of plant to grow. I hadn’t thought about it to that depth before, but the knowledge of how to introduce much needed bacteria into the process was fascinating.
Mark’s sense of humour.
It took a bit to get used to the style of writing, but once I did I felt like I could easily be friends with Mark. He’d do well in Australia, with his sense of humour. And at times he made me laugh out loud, or grin stupidly. In public.
Didn’t love, but understand:
The shifts in perspective.
As much as I loved the first five chapters, I found the sixth chapter jarring. Suddenly we weren’t reading Mark’s logs, but were watching the people of NASA as they dealt with the loss of one of their people.
I understand why it was done, I think it would have likely been a harder book to be engrossed in if it was ONLY Watney’s POV for the whole 369 pages, but it did shake me out of the story a bit.
A bit of Dues ex Machina.
Shit hit the fan, I can understand that these things weren’t meant to last as long as they did, and they weren’t being used in their optimal conditions, but I felt like it was one thing after the other. Once again, I get it. He’s stuck a LONG way from home, where each little mess up could mean death, and he’s the only one watching his back. Shit happens.
Now, I don’t know if Watney is just WAY more determined and clever than I am (hey, put me in a bind, and I WILL work a way out, but I don’t know that I would think of a lot of the things he did), or if it was just a case of “we need to work out a way for Mark to survive this disaster, and I can’t think of a better way, so it’ll have to be this”, but it seemed like he overcame a lot of the issues way too easily.
Sometimes, at work, I have to do displays to advertise books. I will often come up with an idea, and then something happens that makes it not work (can’t get the materials, a similar store did a VERY similar design, the boss doesn’t like my suggestion), but the second idea is ALWAYS better than the first. Sometimes this did happen in the book, but more often it was a case of getting it right the first time, or trying the same thing again until it was successful. Once again, this is a little hard to tell, reading just his logs, so it could be that more time has passed than it feels like for us, reading it.
I didn’t feel like this detracted from the book much, if at all. It was still an amazing ride.
It ended too soon.
I wanted to see what happened (view spoiler)[when Watney returned to Earth, and I totally want to google online and watch all his live interviews and so on, and the documentary on his time on Mars, but then I am hit with the realisation again that none of this happened in our world, and there is no more.
I want to read more on this, I would like to read more books on Mark, but... I know that would be pushing it, “jumping the shark” and so on. (hide spoiler)]
It was a good place to wrap it up, and if it had’ve gone longer, it would have likely dragged.
It doesn’t matter. I still want MORE.
I’ll definitely be looking out for more books by this author. Thanks, Andy, for letting this wannabe Martian live on another planet for a little while.
In 1968, after the zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage motFeatured on my 2014 favourites list!
In 1968, after the zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda-and he begins to move.
This book was not what I expected, at all, and I found it an incredibly refreshing take on the zombie genre.
Stony is just a normal boy growing up in a house full of girls, normal, except for the fact that he’s not alive. There were times while reading this book that I felt like I was reading someone’s real life story. When I could completely overlook the fact that he was zombie, when I saw him for the person he was, regardless of his grey skin.
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