Book Review: Girlhood by Cat Clarke

Bordering School in Scotland and a Dead twin, what does that remind me of?

I lost myself

               when my sister died,

  and these girls rebuilt me,
     piece by piece.
I thought that nothing could 
  ever come between US.
I thought I knew who I was...
        Until
                  the new girl 
                        showed up.

This book came out on my Birthday and I went out and brought it on my Birthday which was an 2 hour journey for me. So course I've only read it now, despite also receiving a NetGalley of it as well. I don't even read the NetGalleys of my favourite authors on time (though I only got access to it, a day before it came out).

I've read most of Cat Clarke books (except one only published in America and the one that's not out yet). This was the most disappointing. It was the only one that didn't make me cry. It's not bad. It's not okay. It's is good. However, it was not Clarke ripping my heart out like she has with every other book. Even my least favourite book of her books made me cry. Though, I like this one better than A Kiss in the Dark.

It's similar to Cat Clarke books in I sat and read it in one sitting. Because you have to read Clarke in one sitting or you will spend all your time thinking about it, even if you're a sleep.

Okay, so what didn't work for me. The big conflict is a lot smaller than other Clarke books, it relays on subtly and relationships. The relationships and friendships are done well, but the issue is obvious from outsider point of view (even without another character saying exactly what's happening). Yes, I am not 17 like Harper is, but I think

Harper's relationship with her sister is a bit shallow for me. The idea of someone losing their identical twin sounds horrific, especially when they in their teens. This happens before the book and is one of Harper's defining issues. My problem is it all feels like plot to me. We have Harper talking about parts of their childhood and her death, not really flashbacks, more Harper talking to the reader about her sister like we were her friend/therapist. Anorexia is usually a slow death, so the time line feels a little muddled. Harper's guilt plays a role, but maybe a more hit and run death would have worked better. Clarke has done grief for a sister before and it worked then, so why didn't work now for me.

This also some girl on girl sexual tension which I always appreciate. We have a canon lesbian, Bi and someone at least willing to go there. It has almost nothing to do with the plot which is fun. There's some romance stuff, but it also like nothing. It's definitely a friendship book. I really should have loved this book.

Clarke as always, likes to tackle a harder subjects. We have grief, body image issues, depression and other stuff that's too much a spoiler to talk about in a review.

I thought the plot was going one way, it didn't which is probably for the best. The plot works for the most part. 

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Stone Bars. The real problem is Cat Clarke is amazing and this didn't stab me in the heart, so I'm disappointed. Maybe I'm just getting more heartless as I get older. My actual guess, is that Clarke was juggling a lot more important characters than she normally does and my expectation was too high. I'm still going to shove Cat Clarke books at people, even they talk about books.

I got this book for Review off NetGalley and Quercus Children's Books. But I always going to read this anyway. It was published on 4th May 2018.

Currently £4 on Amazon (Affiliate Link):https://amzn.to/2HW1eLK

Book Review: Charlotte Says by Alex Bell

My Nana is out on that Isle somewhere...in pieces.

Following the death of her mother in a terrible fire, Jemima flees to the remote Isle of Skye, to take up a job at a school for girls. There she finds herself tormented by the mystery of what really happened that night.

Then Jemima receives a box of Frozen Charlotte dolls from a mystery sender and she begins to remember – a séance with the dolls, a violent argument with her step-father and the inferno that destroyed their home. And when it seems that the dolls are triggering a series of accidents at the school, Jemima realizes she must stop the demonic spirits possessing the dolls – whatever it takes. 

Another Red Eye book and the Prequel to Frozen Charlotte. The last book ends with a set up for a sequel, but I actually forgot that I said I would rather a prequel. Past me got what she wanted I guess. I would have to read Frozen Charlotte to see how much this book links up but there are nods to the first book in this.

Jemina is our leading lady and like most Edwardian girls without family, she needs to find work and she takes a job she barely qualified for as a teacher at Bordering School in the Isle of Sky. It's terrible, with abusive headmistress and her spooky past catches up to her.

We learn what's the deal with Frozen Charlotte books are and we get some fun Victorian ghost fun. The Victorians were obsessed with ghosts, it one of their many quirks. This book actually place ten years after Queen Victoria died, but who cares about any of the Edwards. I know I don't.

I don't care for Henry calling Jemina "Darling Girl", is he a middle-aged man? Did other young people really refer to people their own age as that? Weird thing: None of the main characters that ain't antagonists appeared to be from the Sky or Scotland. I mean this is for plot reason I guess, but why?

Overall, I give it 4/5 stars for Tiny Wigs. Alex Bell continues to be my favourite of the Red Eye writers I have read. This was decent addition to the Frozen Charlotte lore and I love them more now (but still would advise against listening to them, I'm hoping to finally read the other books in the Red Eye series before Halloween (I was an idiot who missed out on getting Fir by Sharon Gosling for review. Oh, well.) Strangely enough, it's the other female writers that I've not read yet. Though, I do own books by all of them (including the only Red Eye books I have physical copies of).

I got this for review off of NetGalley and it is being published by Stripes Publishing on 7th September 2017.

Book Review: S.T.A.G.S by M.A. Bennett

Geer's attitude to fish is why we have an overfishing problem.

Nine students.
Three bloodsports.
One deadly weekend.

It is the autumn term and Greer MacDonald is struggling to settle into the sixth form at the exclusive St. Aidan the Great boarding school, known to its privileged pupils as S.T.A.G.S. Just when she despairs of making friends Greer receives a mysterious invitation with three words embossed upon on it: huntin' shootin' fishin'. 

When Greer learns that the invitation is to spend the half term weekend at the country manor of Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular and wealthy boy at S.T.A.G.S., she is as surprised as she is flattered. But when Greer joins the other chosen few at the ancient and sprawling Longcross Hall, she realises that Henry's parents are not at home; the only adults present are a cohort of eerily compliant servants. 

The students are at the mercy of their capricious host, and, over the next three days, as the three bloodsports - hunting, shooting and fishing - become increasingly dark and twisted, Greer comes to the horrifying realisation that those being hunted are not wild game, but the very misfits Henry has brought with him from school...

This idea was cool, but...disappointing? I was expecting more full-blown horror over having nightly dinners with drunk antagonists. Apparently, this was a thriller, a thriller that everyone liked. It literally didn't occur to me to ever label this book as such. I guess it is technically, there's a mystery in deadly situation. But...it pretty obvious from the start.

This book is told from a reflective Geer in first person, this mean once in a while we get a reminder than bad stuff is gonna go down. It hypes up to nothing in my opinion. Yeah, something happens, but its kinda small (in terms of books). 

The bad guys are bad, the main characters do stupid stuff for no reason. The ending doesn't work well for me. I have specific reasons, but we don't do spoilers here. They feels like this book had another ending at one point, because something that happens would have made more sense if the characters had done the more obvious thing. I really hope that things weren't changed to force a sequel because this book doesn't need one and the ending would have been stronger. Like I feel like its been set up for one, but I don't think there's enough interesting stuff going on for another book. There's nothing wrong with being self-contained.

We have another pointless romance. Why ROMANCE? This is weakly use to give character motivation, that's not needed, nor is it done well. It's stated. The motivation could have been about finding courage instead pairing up characters for no function.This is more a general YA complaint, I'm just going to complain until someone gives me friendship and and developed characters. I actually would have liked the relationships, the thing is this book just has a lot small scenes that overbalance it into the negative for me and with only 300 pages they have a big impact in my memory when trying to review this book.

Geer is all about the film references, since she named after film star. I usually enjoy this sort of thing; but it soon becomes apparent that this a crutch to cling to, using other people's imagery and emotions than your own ability. Also the youngest film she references is Twilight. 

I live in the country, I basically always have. Deer and pheasant are roadkill. If you're city folk, you might be horrified by shooting a deer, but pheasant are pigeons of the country in the same seagulls are the pigeons of the coast. Deer are counted as vermin due to how many they are. They like to jump in front of cars in pairs, like sheep. Pheasants choose to wander roads to be ran down and cause damage to cars. There a point where Geer (a name that never flows) picks up a dead pheasant, I thought it was alive, never questioned it until she started crying in her head. Pheasants are stupid, a pheasant would let you pick it up as it stares at its dead comrades. If I wanted I could catch a pheasant, I could with my bare hands. Literally, no reason to do so. Hunting Pheasants is the same as fishing in fish farm. I don't approve hunting without reason, eat what you catch and don't agree with some of the practices in this book but as a country girl I have kill pheasants and I will probably kill again (Stop jumping in front of my car).

Geer becomes dislikable when she doesn't care about fish...The one thing that there is not an over-abundance of (though, they probably farmed anyway).  Though, if your a city girl like Geer, you won't know this stuff so really this is just my pet problem. I often have those.

 The plot while interesting, makes very little sense. Modern society is bad, there clearly think its bad in several ways, but ends up being all about the internet. The arguments for and against the internet are hella weak. It involves the media's wrong definition of what an online troll is. Trolls don't specifically harass someone and bully. Troll is someone who intentionally annoying and idiotic, yes often offensive, but not towards individual people. The art of the troll is annoy large groups of people. If someone sends you a death threat or personalised insult they are not a troll. Sadly some people are just as dumb as trolls pretend to be. Though, it probably getting to the point that media is dumb enough that kept repeating that, the definition might have changed for younger people, but living with a 13 year old, I can tell you they don't call their antagonists trolls. It kinda felt like it was written by someone who doesn't use the internet (with research I can tell that this non-debut novelist has to be at least ten years older than me and therefore did not grow up with the sites that can be argued to have shaped the modern internet and might be like my sister who knows nothing about internet despite using it daily). The arguments are dumb because hate mail has existent since the start of anonymous mailing systems have and bullying has been a problem for like always. Geer nor any of the characters challenges this argument meaning it doesn't do much. Argument have to be challenged to stand at all. By the way, I would have took Vine out of this book, as vine has been dead for a year, there is no way it couldn't be took out. It just quickly dates this book. I wonder if Vine had a bigger part until it died or no one noticed it died (I got an arc but it doesn't have the Proof disclaimer at the front so...I'm going with its the finished novel).

There's an obsession with rich YouTubers...yeah some of them are trash, but YouTube is never defended as being more than a place for rich boys doing nothing and hosting viral cat videos. Its hosts several community involving intelligent discussion and artists as well. Also there are tons of daily vloggers that puts tons of work into their videos. I've been on YouTube for ten years and the target market will include people who remember YouTube always having been a thing for them. If this is gonna be such a thing in the novel, then at least give me a character that watches YouTube. Geer loves films, there are tons of films on YouTube and there is the more legal practice of reviewing and discussing films. There are groups of young filmmakers that make short films on YouTube. There are production value on YouTube. It would have better if anyone had challenge them.

Overall, I give this 3/5 stars for This is M.A. Bennett's first YA novel. This an okay, quick read that tries to place class snobby within the internet age. Secret murder societies in bordering schools are over done and the internet aspect just wasn't done well enough to be interesting. I think a big problem is this book is that it wasn't as cool as the summary made it sound and therefore I am disappointed. There were things I should have liked and enjoyed about this book, but sadly it was very whatever. It's an okay read, if certain things had been different it could have been brilliant.

BTW, I read this on my phone. I read books on my phone the majority of the time, phones are carry of media. Another argument that could have been used in their favour.

Update: I have access to the acknowledgements and pretty much confirms my suspicions.

I got this book off Netgalley for Review and it being published by Hot Keys Books by 10 Aug 2017.

Book Review: Monster by C.J. Skuse

The real monster is Slut Shaming.


At sixteen Nash thought that the fight to become Head Girl of prestigious boarding school Bathory would be the biggest battle she’d face. Until her brother’s disappearance leads to Nash being trapped at the school over Christmas with Bathory’s assorted misfits.
 
As a blizzard rages outside, strange things are afoot in the school’s hallways, and legends of the mysterious Beast of Bathory – a big cat rumoured to room the moors outside the school – run wild.
 
Yet when the girls’ Matron goes missing it’s clear that something altogether darker is to blame – and that they’ll have to stick together if they hope to survive.
 
This is the second book by C.J. Skuse I have had the pleasure to read (and reviewed). I like this book a lot better than Dead Romantic. The ideas are more interesting and the characters were somewhat better. Still flawed though.

I love the fact the chapter headings were horror films. It could be argue that these were used for overshadowing, but some were just distracting and kinda forced. Though, normally I don't sit analysing chapter titles.

The characters are mostly a diverse bunch of girls. They are kinda stereotypes: the stuck-up bitch, the rebel, the kid, the creepy weirdo and the proper pure protagonist. They feel okay as characters when reading it, but there's not much to them or their relationships with each other. There is almost something there, but not fully. 

The slut shaming and emphasis on the main character being virgin is problematic, especially with the ending. These are realistic issues that go on within groups of teenage girls, but its not addressed at all that's it a issue. Also the "slut" is presented as being unlikable and is also a sadist. Even if Skuse was mirroring the horror trope of the protagonist being a virgin, its just something that should be abandoned (unless virgin is in a recipe).

The plot is okay. There is the idea of what a monster is something I thought was good. The ending could have been better set up and loses all realism after a point. The bordering school in the middle of nowhere is a good horror setting, however, I found the complications of that to be too tedious especially as they are in walking distance of other people.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for priest holes. I enjoy reading this book, it wasn't that scary and I never felt any tension for the characters. It was still a decent idea and good light read.

I got this book for review off NetGalley and is being published on 24th September 2015.

Book Review: Killing the Dead by Marcus Sedgwick

I brought this on 5th of March, but online so it only came the day I wrote this.

Follow the dark, dark path
Into the dark, dark woods
To the dark, dark bridge
By the dark, dark water.

Linger.
Let the ghosts of heaven
tell their story.

This book is 2015 World Book Day and I thought I would review it while you can still buy it. Also somewhat in a reading stump and busy so having a short thing to review is a good thing for me. It's annoying but expected as there is stuff I'm meant to be doing. Ar...If I could ignore everything in my life and make YouTube videos.

This is set in a girl's Bordering school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts; name Foxglove which sounds like the name of a fantasy character that looks like a fox and slaps people with gloves. 

 The story revolves around the school a year after a girl has killed herself and there's not much else I can say without spoiling anything.

This book is told in third-person with changing euphansis on character about every chapter. It works well for the story. 

My only problem with this story is that motive for a small thing a teacher does, isn't explained. It minor, but still it's problem and we should judge it harshly for having one single issue. Of course, that last sentences is not true.

Overall, I gave this little book 4/5 stars for chewing gum. It's interesting story and definitely worth a read for £1.