Book Review: Watching You by Lisa Jewell

I started writing this at Christmas.

YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WATCHING

You’re back home after four years working abroad, a new husband in tow. 

You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now you’re crashing in your big brother's spare bedroom. 

That's when you meet the man next door.

He’s the head teacher of the local high school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him. 
All the time. 

But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession. 

Or that someone is watching you.

This is the third novel by Lisa Jewell I have read and reviewed, Since She Been Gone is still pretty much my favourite but now I can see patterns in her works. Like Teenagers and Adults being on the same level, with kids tending to know more than adult characters. That's probably true of life as well.

There are a lot of unlikeable characters at play and people doing morally wrong things.

The setting of this book involves a group of rich people, living in fancy houses and lot of strained relationships.

There is Autism Rep in this book and makes me go okay. It's not terrible, maybe bad aspects to start
with, I wasn't sure where she was going with this character at the start. We do have a character that's probably socially stunted, perhaps more from the way he's being raised than being on the spectrum.  Jewell goes on that labels are a good thing so I can get behind it and the characters are involved with the plot. It's definitely on the better side of Autistic rep, and there's more than one character with it. It's more on the exampling side but makes sense with the plot.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Gate Locks. It's a decent thriller in a world with bloated failed shockers.

Read: 20/12/2019 to 22/12/2019
Reviewed: 26/12/2019 - 18/03/2020
Narrator/s: Gabrielle Glaister
Medium: Audiobook
Published Date: 12th July 2018
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital
Source: Library
Content Warning for Book: I'm not sure, but memory says: Death, Suicide,

Book Review: House Swap by Rebecca Fleet

We going to have an accidental theme.

‘No one lives this way unless they want to hide something.’ 

When Caroline and Francis receive an offer to house swap, they jump at the chance for a week away from home. After the difficulties of the past few years, they’ve worked hard to rebuild their marriage for their son’s sake; now they want to reconnect as a couple.

On arrival, they find a house that is stark and sinister in its emptiness – it’s hard to imagine what kind of person lives here. Then, gradually, Caroline begins to uncover some signs of life – signs of her life. The flowers in the bathroom or the music in the CD player might seem innocent to her husband but to her they are anything but. It seems the person they have swapped with is someone she used to know; someone she’s desperate to leave in her past.

But that person is now in her home – and they want to make sure she’ll never forget . . .

This book is sadly not really a thriller, it tries to have a twist but especially doesn't work and with the audiobook production I was more annoyed than anything. It mostly dances around the facts of the story, or things that they no reason to dance around other than laziness and to drag this thing out. The characters are very bland, they work in marketing kinda bland (they might not work in marketing, it just reference to obsession with marketing as a job in film. I don't know what they work as). I think this lacking important thriller elements as well as the characters not having much development. I guess we're meant to feel sorry for them, but I don't know who they're meant to be.  The audiobook performance was fine, not sure why they decided to spend the money on four narrators for this book. Frankly, it would have worked better with just one, with the dumb twist. It's probably OMG moment when the narrators switch but as soon as the POV was introduce it was clearly not going to be who she thinks it is, otherwise they couldn't market this as Thriller.  This book does have Thriller elements, like an obvious mystery that you know will be solved as soon as you know what terrible secret the MC has, so it's not thrilling at all. There's also the Husband's mystery drug problem, that he started because of stress, so it is a prescribed drug. I know it's not antidepressants but imagining it was and his wife was just being an arse about him still taking it, it would really fitted with this book. It's never stated so feels very McGuffin. I guess it's a sleeping pill, he's a therapist, so maybe he's meant to have self-prescribed them but that would be a scandal on it's own.  If this is not a Thriller what genre is it? I guess Drama, or just fiction for what it would be market in bookstore or library. The idea of that's promised on the back is a Thriller, but its more about petty relationships. Most of the relationships were sex scenes: have an affair and it's love because the sex is good. I'm Ace so if this meant to have been some great love story with tragic ending, it's okay if you say so. The one time it goes to back to a thriller, it sways away again. I got really excited that something was going to happen but then it didn't so back to petty nonsense.  Overall, I gave this book 2/5 stars for Dead Hamsters. If want something that's actually a thriller then go for You Let Me In (I will review this book soon, I read it first and probably should have review it that way.). It's actually a thriller and I didn't question not finishing it. It has a similar feature of someone renting their House to someone while they away.

Book Review: We Are Young by Cat Clarke

This book continued the trend of YA coma books I'm reading.

Three People died

and no one's asking why.

But I need answers.

I have to find out

what really happened 

that night.

Back once again with another Cat Clarke book, this time the actual year of publication. Reviews of most of her books can be found here. I found Cat Clarke by her YA debut and I have followed her since. She an auto-buy author. Basically, I really like her writing and have high expectation of her.

This book does involve a band and the main character really like playing music, but it not really a music book. They only have gig practices and only pop artists are named. I mention because someone else said they thought the vinyls indicated it as a heavy music book. No, they broken vinyls that the thing to play attention to and obviously to match Clarke's other books.

Evan Page is suspicious about her Stepbrother's car accident that involved four people that didn't belong to the same circle. Basically, this is a murder mystery involving drugs and spoilery things. I did miss that Evan's last name was Page so I was real confuse when people would call her that. Did she go through a name change and it was somehow not picked up in certain places during the revisions. Nope, I'm just Dyslexic.

Characters and their relationships with each other play a big part. Different families dynamic are explored within Evan own family  and her interactions with the families of those in the car, as she tries to solve the mystery of why.

Within the Band, there is a triangle of Exs with Evan at the centre. Evan is bi, Sid and Daze are friends and that events of the novel explore her feeling towards them. It's a nice addiction. I like it.

This book deals with a lot, most of it going into spoilers. (I do Trigger warnings in my labels). Clarke manages to handle all these well. The ending is slightly preachy, but also was a coherent and is a satisfying ending. With it being a hard subject, there no real satisfying ending of this book.

Overall, I give this 5/5 stars for Earned Guitars. In terms of mystery, I never guess exactly what was going to go down, which I often do and the writing is good as usual. Cat Clarke continues to breaks hearts. Breakfast Tim will stay with me and I will wonder about his career.

I got this book for Review off of NetGalley and is being published by Quercus Children's Books on 3rd of May 2018.

Book Review: Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

Why talk to your family about any of your personal issues?

In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help.

Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind.

But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped.

And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool . . .

Paula Hawks has returned with about a pool, a drowning pool and the river that leads to the pool, the town next to the river, and I guess the people in the town. The follow-up to her popular debut, The Girl on the Train (reviewed). I am glad that this book wasn't titled The Girl in the Pool or do I immensely regret that it wasn't. It would probably be called The Girls of the Waters. Pool just sounds like holiday fun, rather than murder and death.

This novel is told in the point of view of a cast of  (over ten) characters. Jules, sister of dead Nel is probably the focus, but there is no clear protagonist. Most these characters are unlikable. All of them are, some of them are despicable. It was fine, but it was quite a detached affair. The pool was the focus, but also didn't feel like personification location. It was more just a lot of shit has gone down at this part of the river. It's conspiracy of a town, who cares about people's sad little lives and horrible personalities. There were attempts at redeeming, but I didn't care enough about these characters to care. Except for the few I wanted to die. This was more about the plots, which fine in a thriller especially when you are juggling so many characters to tell a story.

There are some similar plot motifs from Hawkins début, you argue repeating themes if you felt like it. There is several mysteries going on. The discovery of Nel's body in the river is the starting point, but its a track so we loop around a lot. Nel herself was interested in the drowning pool's history and mysteries, writing a book about them (which we do get excepts from), therefore pissing off the locals because everyone needs a motive. There is obvious red herring. There is some stuff in the plot that makes no sense, I mean people make no sense.

I now would like to randomly point out that a teacher having a relationship with a student is criminal offense under the The Sexual Offenses Act 2003 unless that student is 18 then it's a grey zone of probable firing (though can still be charged for). The teacher if caught would be put on the sex offender register. I can't imagine a way a teacher would not know that. (Once again if you're under 18 years old, don't trust people who are immediately interested in you sexually who are two years older than you. There is something wrong with them and I have not been proved wrong in this. Girls are not that maturer than boys, this is a myth that I won't get into a rant at the moment).

I listen to this on Audio book, with David Weyman, Imogen Church, Rachel Bavidge and Sophie Aldred. Like I said there is tons of character, so these actors just jump around a lot and characters have more than one voice actor, I guess the choice of having more than one came from them knowing it would make money and The Girl on the Train leading its self so well to having more than one voice actor and does gave the best distinction by actually having different voices to change to, especially as some characters are real minor and forgettable. They were all fine, we got a vast range of British Accents, though I did think Welsh which this book is definitely not set in Wales. It set in middle England or upper England. I don't know enough about English motorways or remembered the town's name to see if its a real place. Hours from New Castle or something. 

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for missing jewellery. This novel kept me interested is what I want from Mystery Thrillers. While different from her debut (which is should be), it is of the same level as her last novel. Once again if you like thrillers and the idea of this plot, gave it a go.

Book Review: The Deviants by CJ Skuse

 Who wishes their dad was "Chris Pratt or Tom Hardy"?
 

Growing up in the sleepy English seaside town of Brynston, the fearless five – Ella, Max, Corey, Fallon and Zane – were always inseparable. Living up to their nickname, they were the adventurous, rowdy kids who lived for ghost stories and exploring the nearby islands off the coast. But when Max’s beloved older sister Jessica is killed, the friendship seems to die with her.

Now years later, only Max and Ella are in touch; still best friends and a couple since they were thirteen. Their lives are so intertwined Max’s dad even sponsors Ella’s training for the Commonwealth Games. But Ella is hiding things. Like why she hates going to Max’s house for Sunday dinner, and flinches whenever his family are near. Or the real reason she’s afraid to take their relationship to the next level.

When underdog Corey is bullied, the fearless five are brought back together again, teaming up to wreak havoc and revenge on those who have wronged them. But when the secrets they are keeping can no longer be kept quiet, will their fearlessness be enough to save them from themselves?

This is the third book by C.J. Skuse that I have read and reviewed (Dead Romantic and Monster); this is the first one not to have a link to classic horror films. This one is more the horror of people. A
 thriller mystery sort of book as we don't know what the characters are hiding or why.

The format of this book is interesting. Its told from the point of the view of the Main Character Ella as she is being asked questions by someone at the end of each chapter. I liked this technique to move the story along as well as an interesting way to introduce each chapter's content. That being said, I felt the ending was a bit forced. It reminds of a book by Susie Day (which I won't say in case you have read it and don't want to be spoiled at all for this book), in both have cool ideas but trap themselves in the execution of the end. I get the ending and fit with the theme of the book; it just didn't feel like a natural concussion for me.

There are flashbacks within Flashbacks throughout this book, this worked well with the characters are dealing with the results of the past. Somehow, is only mildly confusing.

While related on the characters, this book is more plot heavy in that the characters don't feel like real people and more like archetypes; They have all have different backgrounds despite all living in the same area which is realistic. Ella herself is well defined but none of the supporting are more than support beams to the story, which is fine since they do support it and I'm at the point over-analysing.

The characters seem a bit old during the past events to be behaviouring the way they all do. They all 13 years old, but act more like eight years. 13 years old are childish but they start to get uppity about it at that age. I mean they already in Secondary School at this point. Living with thirteen year old, I just don't buy it at all.

Now it's time for the most pointless part of any review: Rachel Verna points out something odd. This novel takes place on a Wednesday, 4 August therefore happens in 2010 but couldn't have because  'Scream Eggs' are mentioned in a past section, a product not released until 2011. Probably just a mistake or in-attempt to be timeless, especially as the Commonwealth games are meant to be 2 years in the story. Funfact, the next 4th Wednesday is 2021. I'm not sad enough to figure out what the year must it be for all that to be true, just sad enough the notice the date is wrong and then to check if I was right.

An odd book for both my main disabilities to be name dropped (once you start having several you start ranking them, asthma is currently last). None have effect on the characters or the book's plot. Corey has minor cerebral palsy, doesn't come into the plot at all. It kinda tries at one point then walks out the door. During, the novel he's not really affected by it, but it does affect the way other characters see him. I don't know about enough about cerebral palsy to say whether it was a good portray or not. It seemed fine, but with the story not being told by him, it was obviously not a focus in a story with so much plot. Now, I'm going to stop the bit where I over-analysing the effort for diversity in a book.

Overall, I gave this four out of five stars for Carrie Reenactments. This book has clear moral about vengeance it tries to survey, but in my opinion kinda gets lost. CJ Skuse seems to be maturing as a author based off her last two books, definitely good improvement since Dead Romantic. Skuse continues to have interesting ideas and I'm excited for the next one.

I got this book for review off NetGalley and is being published by Mira Ink on 22rd September 2016.

Book Review: Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard

Finally, a contemporary without the main character declaring her love...romantically.

Here’s my theory on Significant Life Events: everyone has them, but some have more than others, and how many you have affects how interesting you are, how many stories you have to tell, that kind of thing.

I was still waiting for my first one.

After yet another typical summer where nothing of any significance happens, Caddy vows that now she’s sixteen this year will be different; she’ll get a boyfriend (a real one), lose her virginity and experience a Significant Life Event. If only Caddy knew what was just around the corner - a whirlwind of wild spirit and fury with a dazzling smile and sad eyes by the name of Suzanne – and a significant life event that no one could have predicted.

Caddy and Rosie have been BFF’s since they were little girls, but when enigmatic and beautiful new girl Suzanne starts at Rosie’s school, Caddy allows her insecurities to threaten her friendship with Rosie. Caddy wishes she were more like Rosie and Suzanne – confident, funny and interesting – but beneath the make-up and bravado lies a secret side to Suzanne that intrigues Caddy. Despite their differences very soon the three girls are inseparable, and things get a whole lot more complicated.

Under Suzanne’s influence, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But climbing out of bedroom windows for forbidden midnight walks on the beach begins to lose its shimmer as Suzanne’s troubled past is revealed and her present begins to unravel. The course of friendship and recovery is rougher than any of the girls could have imagined, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.

The books opens with the character stating she wants to get a (first) boyfriend, lose her virginity, have a significant life event. This last one is confusing as wouldn't the two above it be significant life events? She listed them first. To be honest this is not a good start for me. However, the book gets a lot better.

Caddy is our narrator, she self-proclaimed as being boring and I don't know if this is the reason why she reads that way. There lot of discussion about self worth in this book and the two main characters both struggling with it. Except this not satisfying when both characters are flat and don't feel like real people at all. Caddy has nothing going on besides her best friend, Rosie and she doesn't like going out. She too much of a Mary Jane to be able to attach to her.

Whilst the relationship between the girls being the core of the in book, its not that great. The girls are sometimes terrible to each other for very little reason and never felt they cared that much about each other. I think it comes down to not buying the characters. Certain things are done well in their interactions. I don't know how the characters could feel more real and feel like they have a history. I think it just one of those things: it might just come down to my bad start with the book.

 This book deals with abuse and the mental consequences of suffering from it. This is the best part of the novel. Its about the aftermath after leaving the abuse. This done well and I think it manages to capture the mental state of the sufferer and how complex relationship with their abuser can be. 

The ending of this book is rather disappointing. The actual ending is okay and works, but the way we get to it is badly executed. The dialogue before it especially. It just too much on the nose.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for sunflowers. The idea of this book is really solid and does manage to capture the complex nature of abuse. The girls' friendship could be better,especially as that meant to be the base for the novel. I would like to see a book with a similar focus on friendships and do think this a strong début. 

 I got this book for Review off Netgalley and it is being publish by  Children's Books on 11 February 2016.Macmillan

Book Review: Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten

 I totally didn't buy yellow nail varnish because of this book.

When June met Delia, she was a lifeline. Their intense friendship gave her a sense of belonging, of security, that she’d never had before. She felt braver, smarter, funnier, more attractive when Delia was around. But then something went wrong, and Delia and June haven’t spoken for a year when an announcement is made at their school that Delia is dead. 

June barely has time to mourn before Delia’s ex-boyfriend convinces her that Delia didn’t kill herself but was in fact murdered, and June is fast swept into a tangle of lies and deceit – and a conspiracy she can barely conceive of, never mind believe.

"Wow" was reaction to the the end of this novel and the book in general.

The book's main narrator and protagonist is June who is trying to figure out what really happened to her ex-best friend. June feels like a real person and the emotions are done really well.

This book is mostly in first-person with a dash of third-person during flashbacks which were used to give us glimpses of important moments in June & Delia's relationships which I think was the best way to show us them when they were still friends. 

This story does revolve around June and Delia's friendship so the characterization  is of course important and it is thankfully done well. Both girls feel like real people and I found myself questioning both of their actions. I just love how complex their relationship is with each other.

The plot of this book was good and kept you guessing. I went down a few wrong thought paths and for a rare change I never saw the solution coming but it worked and was almost perfect. The ending is ambiguous but it works well with the rest of the story.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for maraschino cherries. This book was awesome book about friendship and how much you can really know someone.

I got this book for Review off NetGalley and it was published by Electric Monkey this month.

Book Review: Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington

Two lives might have made escape easier.

The perfect life or the perfect love. You choose.

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she shifts to her 'other' life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she's a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she's considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other. 

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments that bring her dangerously close to the life she's always wanted. But if she can only have one life, which is the one she'll choose?

 This is a really cool concept, except for I never really got why Sabine needed to make a choice. Even having explained in the actual novel, I still never got the character's motivation.

The main character Sabine is pretty bland and clearly doesn't have a strong personality considering how different her behavour and her persona are in the two "lives", I don't mean her wealth status in that at all. Her general attitude, generally sucks.

The ending of the book was pretty obvious after a certain point. I did not like the very ending, I just don't think it was a healthy or realistic attitude to continue to have. The whole suicide angle was not what I was expecting when it said "choice" in the blurbs.

Overall, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars for split personality. It was interesting idea and the execution was alright. If your intrigued by the summary then I would recommend reading it.

I got this book for review off NetGalley and it is published by Orchard Books.

Book Review: Half Bad by Sally Green

I own two editions of this book because the design of this cover is awesome.

Wanted by no one.
Hunted by everyone.

Sixteen-year-old Nathan lives in a cage: beaten, shackled, trained to kill. In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most terrifying and violent witch, Marcus. Nathan's only hope for survival is to escape his captors, track down Marcus, and receive the three gifts that will bring him into his own magical powers—before it's too late. But how can Nathan find his father when there is no one safe to trust, not even family, not even the girl he loves?
  
This book was overhyped. When publishers/a mass lot of reviewers get excited about a book, it does more damage than good. I did like it and enjoy it, but I looking through this book reviews on goodreads a lot of people didn't like. Someone actually claimed that the whole book was a prologue, which is a nonsense and it would be annoying prologue. I think the problem with is highers expectations and people who would never pick up a book because the plot not really them, does pick up and guess what they don't like it but they got pressured into it (Note to self: do a video about over hyping).

This book is parts in the point of view main character and mostly in first persons, however, it is separated into parts and  the first part in seconded person. Not sure why that choice was made completely, except maybe it's normal target of engaging the reader but I did like how a scene was told in second and then first. I do the like the general sturcture of this book, with the parts and chapters.

The world building is interesting but problematic. Though, I don't think I can really judge in a proper critical manner till I've read the whole trilogy (or at least the second book). The book is plotted pretty well, the book ends where it should and is good start for trilogy. There is a tiny empty second half of the book, that is a bit lacking in realism. The ending is also sappy.

Some of the characters and relationships are good, some are just er...er. Nathan is a okay character, I cared about him, though a big problem with him is that he is given a characteristic that are ignore in the plot, lazy solved and it kinda bugs me. I can forgive it but having a similar characteristic myself it annoys me. There is romance in this book, but I know nothing about the main romantic interest except what find out from a I.D. and a family tree. She is literally just plot point, in terms of the plot that really bad thing. I don't care if we ever see this character again, except for Nathan's sake that can't carry a romance. There is sort of another romance that I feel is walking a tightrope as the end of this book (and not just because of love triangles). However, I care about the other party, we know personal stuff about this character and I want to see development instead of there being nothing to develop.


In this world, magic is meant to favour woman, woman tended to be stronger but it's strangely patriarchy. I'm not sure how to explain this without spoilers. I guess what I mean is by the end, almost all the big players are men and they are also arguably bigger players than that one woman. I don't know, I'm mean thinking about feminism in relation to media (which books do come under) so playing in the back of my mind, counting the genders of who influence the plot. Especially, since they don't have to be that sex. The woman are mostly just sisters (other relations as well) and dead. Some could say that it opposite of female lead YA books where woman are usually, no sometimes all the big players and men are dominant in the background. But no most YA still have mostly male villains so not the opposite at all. Something unsatisfying about this setup, it's no more sexist than most media but feels bit mismatching with the setting.

Overall, I give this book 3 out of 5 stars for bone samples. I originally gave this book 4 stars but in reflection it doesn't quite deserve that rating. There is a lot to discuss in this book and there are things set up in this book that could go terribly wrong in the next book so I'm anxious to see how things turn out. Though, I did enjoyed reading this novel and I want to see where this series is going. If I'm good then a review of the sequel will be out next week.