Book Review: The Last Tiger | Julia Riew and Brad Riew

The Last Tiger by Julia Riew
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked this up because a) it was really pretty and b) it was inspired by true stories from Korean history.

In a classic rich girl falls in love with poor boy story, Choi Eunji and Lee Seung face not just class prejudice, but also racial discrimination - both from within and without. Whilst both of them are Tigers, the rich Choi family are considered race traitors/collaborators for sucking up to the Dragon administration to preserve their family wealth and power.

The POV switches between Eunji and Seung, which provides a well-rounded background to what both of them are facing and the obstacles they have to overcome. From Seung, we understand the struggle to survive - and the hope for a better future - only to be beaten down again and again by circumstances and those in power. From Eunji, we learn that even the rich can be powerless when everything they have is beholden to another party. Her life may seem like a fairy tale to others, but we soon see that one misstep by her father - or her - could end in not just a fall from favour, but death.

Kenzo Kobayashi is an annoyance, and I couldn't quite figure him out. He switched from helping Eunji to betraying her to double-crossing the Dragons so seamlessly, all coloured by Eunji's dislike of him, that it was difficult to pinpoint what exactly about him annoyed me.

I think my one criticism of the book is that at random times, often in speech, they seem to lapse into a kind of modern (teen?) slang which feels a little out of place with the setting. Still, since this is a YA book, maybe that was meant to resonate better with its intended audience.

All in all, I enjoyed reading The Last Tiger.

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Book Review: Elsewhere | Gabrielle Zevin

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Liz Hall gets hit by a car, dies, and goes to Elsewhere, where she is supposed to age backwards until she is born again.

Elsewhere is mostly about coming to terms with death and grief. Liz grieves for the things she will never experience in life: turning sixteen, prom, falling in love, learning to drive - all the things one associates with adulthood. The themes may seem heavy, but the writing itself is light, dealing with Liz's denial and anger in ways that aren't too over-the-top and yet full of teenage angst. I mean, how else do you accept you're dead when you wake up on a ship with no memory of what happened?

But as Liz soon finds out, she can still have most of those longed-for experiences in Elsewhere, once she lets go of her past life on Earth. It won't be exactly the same, but living is what you make of it, no matter where you are. She even gets more than she bargained for, with heartbreak thrown into the mix!

There's no twist ending to this. You know from the start that when Liz ages down young enough, her story in Elsewhere will end, rather like another death, but culminating in a new birth.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from Farrar, Straus and Giroux via Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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#bookreview: Deeplight | Frances Hardinge

Deeplight by Frances Hardinge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I WOULD HAVE READ IT FASTER IF I WAS NOT TRAVELLING.

...which is a strange way to start a review, but it's truth. Deeplight is one of those books that demands you devour it in one, or at the most two, sitting and I feel that I have done it a disservice by reading it so slowly. lol.

In premise, at least, Deeplight pings a little bit of Pratchett's Nation--the gods are dead, what do humans do now? Well, the humans in Hardinge's island chain of Myriad are making profits out of it by diving into the seas and collecting godware for sale. What Hark does best is tell stories, a skill that often helps get him out of trouble--and scam continental tourists for easy money. When a job goes wrong, Hark's life changes in many ways, and not always for the better.

Deeplight feels in many ways like an exploration of the various friendships that a troubled young person may have in their life and how it impacts them. There's Quest, the ex-priest, who trades stories for stories in a bid to understand Hark and offer advice. There's Kly, the Sanctuary supervisor, who has a soft spot for Hark and offers him leeway and understanding even when he messes up. There's also Dr Vyne, the one who bought his indenture, who offers him a second chance and a brand of tough love that keeps Hark on the safe and narrow--for now.

And then there's Jelt. The childhood friend and protector who has saved him many times--from the exact same trouble he caused. Hark's friendship with Jelt is a clear case of abuse and gaslighting. It sat uncomfortably with me in the beginning, seeing the way Hark question his own decisions and push aside his worries just because he feels like he owes Jelt something, that Jelt--being bigger, stronger, better--may be right about his cowardice and disloyalty. I wanted him to break away from Jelt, to stay clear of that obviously toxic relationship, but in a novel, things have to happen so again and again, Hark gets sucked into Jelt's downward spiral, drowning in deeper and deeper waters even as he tries to stay clear of the heavy hand of the law.

But Hark has resilience and Hark also has good, wise friends in Quest and Kly and Selphin who together try to save the world from ending.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Pan Macmillan via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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#bookreview: Speak No Evil | Liana Gardner

Speak No Evil by Liana Gardner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. Liana Gardner sure pulls at your heartstrings with Speak No Evil.

Melody Fisher has been shunted from foster home to foster home ever since the death of her mother and the disappearance of her father. Every time she has spoken up to defend herself, something even worse happens, so she gradually falls into silence. But now, she needs to speak again, to tell her side of why she stabbed Troy.

Gardner brings you on a journey of recovery through song and memory as Dr Kane, Melody's therapist, uses the one thing that holds Melody together to help her communicate again: music. She anchors each chapter in a song, using the lyrics--beautifully written by Lucas Astor-- to bridge Melody's present and her traumatic past. Melody's gift may be the gift of song, but Gardner's true gift is evoking the emotions of a vulnerable young girl and giving her voice through this story.

Melody's story isn't an unfamiliar one. Right from the beginning, I knew why she stabbed Troy. Discounting insanity--and Melody is definitely not insane--there can only be one reason why a young girl would attack a bright, promising young athlete. Only one reason why courts and public opinion would want to side with a promising, white jock against the word of a troubled, mixed-race girl. We've seen it in the news all too often. She must be lying. Gardner holds no punches, describing the things that happened, not in a voyeuristic, pornographic or erotic way, but in Melody's dark memories and trauma--take this as a content/trigger warning.

Yet, in the midst of the darkness, shines a beacon of hope:
It is not your fault.
You are more than your past.
You are stronger than you think you are.
You are a survivor.
We will stand with you.

If these are the words you need to hear, let Gardner whisper it to you again and again through Dr Kane's patience, Rebecca Prescott's persistence, and Quatie Raincrow's love and wisdom.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Vesuvian Books via Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

---

Speak No Evil releases on 1 October 2019.

#bookreview: Spice Bringer

Spice Bringer by H.L. Burke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ever since I read Coiled, I think I've been a little bit of a Burke fan. So I was quite excited for Spice Bringer!

The story is set in a lush, beautiful, fantasy world--full of colour and spice--with slightly Indian undertones. I was initially slightly wary of this--after all the publishing kerfuffle and fuss, you tend to look askance at stuff like this... but whilst Burke uses the real world for inspiration, this fantasy world is all her own.

Alk, the ornery fire salamander, is one of my favourite characters in this book. He's sarcastic and prickly, hiding a caring heart that has a soft spot for the girl he watched grow up. The interplay between Niya and Alk made me chuckle with amusement many times. And the ending! It made me cry.

Spice Bringer is all about Sacrifice for the Greater Good and Putting Others Above Yourself, which are good things to read about in this increasingly selfish society. It's also very much a story about Personal Responsibility and Keeping Your Promises. (And I don't really know why I'm capitalising those things.) I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's a story that believes in the good of people.

Spice Bringer is also a love story, of course. What YA fantasy isn't? But Niya knows she will never live a long life, so she vows not to fall in love... and Jayesh is supposed to be a monk, so he's not supposed to fall in love... Can you see that perfectly mushily stupid setup there? There it is... all that diabetes-inducing sweetly forbidden love. It made me cry.

You'll notice I mentioned crying twice already. Which is strange because I rarely ever cry while reading. The one short story that made me cry (a lot) was Orson Scott Card's Gert Fram. Another book I cried (a little) at was J.M. Frey's The Silenced Tale BUT I CRIED THREE TIMES IN THIS BOOK. It's either it's really good or I'm really PMS-ing, or both.

Note: I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher. I was given the book with no expectation of a positive review and the review is my own.

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A deadly disease. A vanishing remedy. A breathless journey.

All her life, Niya's known she will die young from the fatal rasp. She survives only with the aid of vitrisar spice and a magical, curmudgeonly fire salamander named Alk. Then an ambitious princess burns down the vitrisar grove in an effort to steal Alk so she can claim her rightful throne. Joined by Jayesh, a disgraced monk, Niya and Alk must flee to the faraway Hidden Temple with the last vitrisar plant, or all who suffer from the rasp will perish.

But even as Niya’s frustration and banter with Jayesh deepen to affection, the rasp is stealing away her breath and life.

For a girl with limited time and a crippling quest, love may be more painful than death.

Spice Bringer releases August 28 so get your copy today! 

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Born in a small town in north central Oregon, H. L. Burke spent most of her childhood around trees and farm animals and was always accompanied by a book. Growing up with epic heroes from Middle Earth and Narnia keeping her company, she also became an incurable romantic. 

An addictive personality, she jumped from one fandom to another, being at times completely obsessed with various books, movies, or television series (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Star Trek all took their turns), but she has grown to be what she considers a well-rounded connoisseur of geek culture. 

Married to her high school crush who is now a US Marine, she has moved multiple times in her adult life but believes that home is wherever her husband, two daughters, and pets are.

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#bookreview: The Incendiaries | R.O. Kwon

The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finished reading The Incendiaries a week ago, and I still don't know how to write this review. It's haunting. Entrancing. Captivating. It's also difficult to read. Highly polarizing. I want to yell at the book that this is not how faith works. This is not what Christianity is! And yet I identify. I've asked these questions. I've thought these thoughts.

Time is fractured--the story is told in three voices, each with different starting points. They meander between present and past, through actual and imagined happenings (in the novel's world), and sometimes it's not very clear what is real, what is imagined, and what is just perceived. It's slightly unconventional, but it works. The only thing I can seriously fault it for is the lack of quotation marks a la Cormac McCarthy.

John Leal's story is told in the third person. It starts from way before, from the North Korean prison that sowed the seeds of his cultic behaviour. They're small sound-bites, little flashes of background. If they weren't there, you probably wouldn't notice, since his story also plays out in the other narratives.

Will Kendall tells his own story in the first person. His is the easiest to follow, and the voice that I identified with the most--not his entitled white male persona (I love you, you can't leave me), but his struggles with faith (Are you real, God? If you're real, why aren't you speaking to me?). His story starts with his reimagining of the Phipps building bombing, his effort to understand. Then he backtracks to the start of his relationship to Phoebe, from when they first met and pushes forward to the present, to the aftermath of the bombing, his implication in it because of his links to the cult. Will is a Nice Guy, and his relationship with Phoebe is problematic. Even though it starts off sweet, it turns obsessive, delusional and abusive. Will is remorseful after the fact, but does that ever really change anything?

Phoebe Lin's narrative is the most difficult to read. It often starts off in the third person and meanders into the first, often flitting between present and past with little notice. I cannot tell if it is someone else telling her story, or if she has multiple personalities she shifts between (she sometimes refers to herself by her Korean name, Haejin). She's drawn to the cult for what it purports to offer: a way to cleanse her soul of guilt.

The Incendiaries is raw, offering up a fractured, misguided understanding of Christianity and faith. Will yells into the void for a God he does not believe in anymore. Phoebe performs penance for the things she cannot forgive herself for. John just wants the world to burn for its sins.

It's also the love story of two people whose religious journeys are diametrically opposed: Will's faith had led to action, but ultimately left him dry and unfulfilled whilst Phoebe hopes that her actions will lead to faith in hopes of forgiveness from her guilt. It's a relationship doomed from the start, inherently incendiary.

Note: I received a digital copy of this book from Edelweiss. I was given the book with no expectation of a positive review and the review is my own.

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#bookreview: Die For Me | Dan Rix

Die for Me by Dan Rix
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In contrast to most of the other Dan Rix books I've read so far, this actually appears to be the most low tech, on the surface at least. In fact, most of the story reads more like a YA mystery but then again, this is Rix, so expect some super techy reveal.

Jaden and Danae are trying to come to terms with their girlfriend/best friend's suicide/murder. Suicide because she did jump off a four-storey building, leaving behind a suicide note. Murder because she was abruptly taken off life-support by her parents that very same day with no explanation, without waiting to see if she would come out of her coma. But the more they dig into the mystery that is Sabrina's suicide note, the stranger things become. The school counsellors, Katie and Benji, start acting weirdly, as does the headmaster, Mr Feeney.

Rix spends a lot of time exploring both Jaden and Danae's feelings--both about the suicide and their relationships--and while that was interesting at first, the constant back and forth over who likes who (or not) becomes a little too much after it's been prolonged once too many times. Then again, I'm starting to age out of this kind of YA (I've said that for a while now, but yeah), so an actual teen or a younger reader might relate to this much better than I can at this point of time.

I'm not quite the best fan of the voice either, as each section jumps from POV to POV, all in the first person, so you get different sections in Jaden, Danae, Sabrina, and even Mr Feeney's voice. If you're not one who likes that kind of head-hopping you're probably gonna want to sit this one out. The good part about it, though, is that it does provide that much more tension. (Still ambivalent over the need for Feeney's voice, but whatever).

Overall, Die for Me is quite an intriguing read, at I'd say 3.5 stars.

Note: I received a digital ARC from the author. I was given the book with no expectation of a positive review and the review is my own.

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