I was introduced to Zog when I borrowed the short film from the library. After watching it twice I finally read the book, and Zog became my new favourite dragon. Naturally I then ordered the sequel from the library and bought my own copy of the film so I could watch it to my heart’s content.
I’ve been eagerly anticipating this read and I’m so disappointed that I was disappointed by it. At the end of the first book, Princess Pearl, Gadabout the Great and Zog head off on a new adventure. This book begins with the Flying Doctors living the life of their dreams. Pearl is finally a doctor, Gadabout is performing surgery and Zog is flying them from patient to patient.
They tend to a sunburnt mermaid, a unicorn with an extra horn and a lion who’s got the flu. Everything was going well and I was along for the ride … until Pearl is imprisoned by her uncle because, “Princesses can’t be doctors, silly girl!” The men (Gadabout and Zog) are then charged with trying to save this damsel in distress. It isn’t until Pearl diagnoses her uncle’s illness and cures him that he decides it’s acceptable for a Princess to be a doctor. As if she needed his permission! Released from captivity, Princess Pearl and her two male saviours (who, incidentally, tried to save her but didn’t) go off on their merry way, smiling and waving to the man who imprisoned her.
Nope, sorry. That’s not a book I’d want to read again or put in front of a child. The first book? No hesitation. I still absolutely love it. I just wish I’d stopped there and imagined for myself the wonderful adventures that were to come for the Flying Doctors.
I loved the illustrations in this book; they’re the reason I’m giving this book 3 stars instead of 2.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Meet the Flying Doctors: Princess Pearl, Sir Gadabout and, of course, their trusty ‘air ambulance’, Zog the dragon, as they fly around the country, tending to a sunburnt mermaid, a distressed unicorn, and even a sneezy lion.
Hot Dog, Lizzie and Kev are trying to come up with the perfect act for the Toy Town Talent Show. With a voucher to spend on toys as the winning prize, the friends are already daydreaming about the toys they will choose.
The day after the talent show Lizzie’s sister, Emma, is getting married. When the wedding plans fall apart at the last minute it’s up to Hot Dog and his friends to step in and save the day.
As usual I loved Dan McGuiness’ illustrations, but especially enjoyed seeing Lizzie playing the drums.
and watching the cute Daredevil Hamsters perform their act.
This is such a fun series for both the target audience and adults who aren’t embarrassed to admit they still love kids’ books. With friendship and teamwork at the core of each of the stories, they provide readers with both lessons and laughs.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Hotdog and his friends want to win the Toy Town Talent Show, but the competition is tough!
I love being a fly on the wall while Kathy Ryan works. She’s an occult investigator but her investigations aren’t limited to our world. She’s also instrumental in protecting our world from entities and gods from other worlds and dimensions, and that makes for some imaginative, entertaining and sometimes gruesome descriptions.
Paragon Corp have been sending a group of scientists through a gateway to another world, one they believe is currently uninhabited. Their assumption is challenged when only one member of the Green Team returns, and some of the people who have been involved in the project begin to display strange and potentially deadly symptoms.
“Did you feel that? Can you feel that? It’s all around us. I didn’t really escape. You can’t escape them. They infect you, and … and that infection comes through.”
Kathy is hired to investigate, bring the Green Team back and prevent any unwelcome inter-dimensional guests from hitching a ride to our world. Joining her through the gate are Sergeant John Markham, Officer Carl Hornsby and Dr Jose Rodriguez, a scientist and researcher. Soon they will discover that Hesychia, named after the goddess of silence, is unlike anything they’ve previously encountered. Physics works differently there and shortly after their arrival they learn that they are not alone.
Maybe we feel safer or somehow less invasive if we believe we’re exploring a monument to something long gone rather than the home of something living.
This is the fourth in a series and I’ve been along for the ride since the second book. Although there are references to events that have taken place in previous investigations you could easily jump right into this series at any book and not be lost. I definitely want to read the first book in the series to find out how it all began though.
I love the descriptions of the worlds and creatures that inhabit them in Mary SanGiovanni’s books. In this book I particularly enjoyed reading about the substance of the portal and the pareidolia (characters see faces in wood grain, curtains, etc).
I imagined Dr Greenwood, the project’s lead researcher, as a villain of the “mwahaha” persuasion. I was hoping he’d accidentally get pushed through the gateway and left to fend for himself in Hesychia.
I was disappointed that practically everything the group came across when they first arrived in Hesychia was easily identifiable. A gate. A library. Books. Trees.
“How many people can say they got to visit a library on an alien world in another universe?”
The descriptions did become more what I’d come to expect from this series as the book progressed. I also wished that Kathy had more page time in the beginning (she barely stepped foot in the book until about 20%) but once she began investigating she made up for lost time.
From the ‘I see Ghostbusters everywhere’ file: Naturally when I read, “Are you gods?” my brain automatically went here …
While this book’s survivors get some much needed rest (and therapy) I’ll be sitting here trying to look patient as I wait for Kathy’s next investigation to commence.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Lyrical Underground, an imprint of Kensington Books, for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Kathy Ryan’s work as an occult investigator often leads her to the outskirts of society, law, and even reality …
Knowing that other dimensions exist is one thing. Venturing into them is quite another. In the course of its experiments, Paragon Corp – a government-sourced theoretical physics research institute – has discovered a supposedly empty alternate world. There is strange, alien flora but seemingly no sentient beings … just a huge, abandoned city that a team of scientists is sent to explore.
Then the scientists disappear. Kathy Ryan is hired to make her first foray into an alternate dimension in order to locate the team, bring them back, and close the gate for good. Instead, she discovers that this supposedly dead city may be nothing of the kind. Her rescue mission has become a terrifying race to prevent the potential destruction of the boundary between two worlds – before mayhem reigns over both …
Mum and I were walking on the beach a couple of months ago and saw something in the distance. As we got closer we both agreed it looked as though Grug had come to the beach and was having a sleep facedown in the sand. We were suitably amused and I decided I had to memorialise this momentous occasion.
Okay, so perhaps our imaginations are a tad overactive. This is what Grug actually looks like at the beach.
During his day at the beach Grug builds a sandcastle, gets dumped by a wave (giggles are appropriate when you see the look on his face), soaks up the sun and chases his beach ball.
While I was disappointed that my favourite snake, Cara, wasn’t invited along for this adventure, this book earned some points for parading Grug in front of me in his beachwear – striped pants that look like pyjamas, some cool sunglasses and a floppy hat.
I’ve loved Grug since I was a kid. I don’t care what he does; I’ll be there cheering him on.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
A day at the beach is fun but don’t forget the sunscreen Grug!
You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.
Chanel Miller was raped on Sunday, 18 January 2015.
I was raped three days earlier (80 hours before Chanel was, if you take time zones into account). Once I saw that date in print and realised how little time separated our experiences, I couldn’t help but see her story personally. So this is going to be a different review than I would usually write. Feel free to skip the bits where I talk about me.
Chanel learned what happened to her at the same time as the rest of the world. She was treated in a hospital, endured the indignity of a rape kit and spoke to a detective who believed and didn’t judge her. This sexual assault gained worldwide attention but it was Brock Turner’s name we knew; Chanel’s identity was erased. The trial resulted in guilty verdicts on three counts but, in my view, the punishment did not fit the crime; it may as well have been a slap on the wrist.
The detective who ultimately decided I would not step foot in a court room reviewed my statement and asked me, “How is that even possible?!” They didn’t make contact with the man who raped me but did phone my psychologist to ask if I have a mental illness that would cause me to make up something like this and oh, by the way, the description I told the police matched the description I told my psychologist. I also privately reported the rape to two other relevant institutions in the hope that speaking up would prevent this from happening again. Those two institutions told the man who raped me what I had said; this resulted in two threats from him to take legal action against me. For telling the truth. In Australia, where defamation laws are beyond insane.
I didn’t follow the story of Chanel’s sexual assault in the media. Even still, I knew the words Standford, rape, swimmer. My introduction to this book was via a publisher’s emailed newsletter, which is how I learn about so many of the books I need to read. I wasn’t sure it was for me though, until I ugly cried my way through I Am With You. I needed to know more about this intelligent, creative woman.
Still, I waited patiently for my library to purchase a copy. I made it all the way to page 23 before I finally figured out I needed my own copy, one I could highlight to my heart’s content and return to as often as I needed. I don’t know if I’m more grateful or sad that I found this book so relatable.
This is Chanel Miller’s story. Author. Artist. Daughter. Sister. Friend. Girlfriend. Survivor. A woman who has experienced raped, but who is so much more.
This is an attempt to transform the hurt inside myself, to confront a past, and find a way to live with and incorporate these memories. I want to leave them behind so I can move forward. In not naming them, I finally name myself. My name is Chanel. I am a victim, I have no qualms with this word, only with the idea that it is all that I am.
Although our stories are vastly different, so much of Chanel’s story resonated with me. While I hurt for her and was furious on her behalf as I read about her experiences, I was also lifted by her strength, determination and resilience. I had trouble reading some parts, either because they reminded me too much of my own story or, oddly enough, because they didn’t. I needed to step away and distract myself with a children’s book or play with Lego at times, but my overall takeaway from this book is hope.
The hope of words reaching out to me and encouraging me to hold on when difficult times find me:
You have to hold out to see how your life unfolds, because it is most likely beyond what you can imagine. It is not a question of if you will survive this, but what beautiful things await you when you do.
The hope that comes in the form of a narrative that doesn’t sugar coat what recovery from trauma looks and feels like:
As a survivor, I feel a duty to provide a realistic view of the complexity of recovery.
The hope that therapy can offer:
It feels better when the story is outside myself.
Although I don’t know Chanel I feel like I got to know her as I read her story; this is a woman I would want to be friends with. I loved being introduced to Chanel’s family and friends, and want to personally thank every single person who has supported, encouraged and validated her. My heart grew several sizes as I read about professionals who exuded empathy and compassion. Sure, there were others I wanted to slap, but the ones who went above and beyond reminded me that there are people out there who can soften the blow when trauma finds you.
Chanel truly is a writer. She can paint a scene so vivid that I felt I was inside it. She took me on an emotional journey with her; I may have felt it more because I was revisiting my own at the same time but I think I would have felt the highs and lows regardless.
I want to recommend this book to everyone, but especially to those whose professions bring them into contact with victims of sexual assault, whose responses can either provide validation or add to the trauma.
This book does not have a happy ending. The happy part is there is no ending, because I’ll always find a way to keep going.
If I were Chanel I don’t think I would ever want to read another word written about me. I’m just so proud of her though. Chanel, if you ever read this, please know that I believe you and I am with you.
Although I’ve never attempted anything like what Chanel has accomplished here I have needed to write statements that include the details of sexual assault and know how impossible it can feel both to find the right words and to revisit memories with sharp edges. Chanel has done an incredible job and I’m really look forward to reading whatever she writes in the future.
You can search for resources in over a hundred countries at:
Please know that it was not your fault, you are not alone and I believe you. 💜
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
The riveting, powerful memoir of the woman whose statement to Brock Turner gave voice to millions of survivors.
She was known to the world as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on Stanford’s campus. Her victim impact statement was posted on BuzzFeed, where it instantly went viral – viewed by eleven million people within four days, it was translated globally and read on the floor of Congress; it inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Thousands wrote to say that she had given them the courage to share their own experiences of assault for the first time.
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways – there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.
Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humour, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.
I’d like to introduce you to my new favourite dragon, Zog.
He’s Madam Dragon’s most enthusiastic student and he desperately wants to earn one of his teacher’s golden stars.
Throughout the book Madam Dragon’s students learn all of the dragon basics, including flying, roaring and breathing fire.
“Now that you’ve been shown, you can practise on your own”
While Zog is practicing his new skills he encounters Pearl, a caring, friendly young girl. Throughout the years they continue to meet and become friends.
I usually try to read the book before I see the movie because the book is always better, right? This time was different. I was introduced to Zog and Pearl via the short film, and it was only as I was watching the Special Features that I realised Zog had books written about him long before he was animated.
I borrowed the DVD from my library, assuming I’d make it maybe 5 minutes before ditching it. This was not to be. I fell in love with this orange dragon! Then I introduced Mum to him and as we watched it together, she fell in love with him too. We plan to watch it at least another couple of times before my loan expires.
Naturally I followed up by borrowing the book from the library, which solidified my love for these characters. While I adore this book, I actually enjoyed the movie more. Shh!!! Don’t tell the book I said that.
What clearly came across to me in the movie was that while Zog and Pearl tried their best to live up to others’ expectations of them, they were denying who they really were. When they were honest with themselves and others about how they were feeling and what they truly wanted out of life, they were given the opportunity to fulfil their dreams.
It was obvious in the movie that Zog didn’t really fit in with the other dragons. Pearl’s story was also expanded so I gained more of an understanding of the role she was being trained to fill. I liked them in the book but their personalities came to life on screen and I was more focused on their friendship developing through the years. I smiled while I read but I laughed throughout the movie.
Now that I know of Zog’s existence I’m looking forward to going on more adventures with him. I’ve already ordered Zog and the Flying Doctors from the library so you’ll be hearing all about that just as soon as I can wrestle a copy from a child’s hands a copy becomes available.
I’m adding the movie to my list of DVD’s I absolutely must own. This is one of those stories that I would happily read/watch over and over, with or without a child.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Zog, a young accident-prone dragon, who wants to be the best student in dragon school, is the keenest dragon in the school, but will he ever win a golden star?
I’m having a bit of a bad run at the moment, disappointed by books I’ve eagerly anticipated for a long time. This series has been on my radar for two and a half years. I purchased two books and was fortunate enough to obtain a copy of the third from NetGalley. I was really looking forward to a series binge but 20% into this book I was dragging my feet and asking, ‘Are we done yet?’
Fortunately the second half of the book picked up for me but I’m still not entirely convinced I want to spend more time with the main characters. Because I requested a review copy of the third book I will continue the series and am hoping to be blown away but right now I’m looking at all of the glowing reviews for this book and wondering what I missed.
Seven victims. Three boxes each. Twenty-one. Twenty-one boxes over nearly five years. He had toyed with them. Never left a clue behind. Only the boxes. A ghost.
Porter and his team have been tasked with finding the Four Monkey Killer. When a body is found, along with the killer’s latest box, it’s a race against the clock to find the latest victim.
She knew of the Four Monkey Killer. Everyone in Chicago did, possibly everyone in the entire world. Not just that he was a serial killer, but the way he first tortured his victims before killing them, mailing body parts back to their families.
There are multiple chapters from the perspectives of Porter, Clair (one of the other detectives), the latest victim and the killer but I only noticed two distinct voices, the pretentious serial killer
Sometimes I ramble
(You sure do, Mr 4MK) and everyone else. Porter, Clair and the latest victim all sounded alike to me. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and I’d be hard pressed to tell you much about anyone’s personality.
I liked the idea of a serial killer using the concept of the four monkeys to choose their victims.
The four monkeys comes from the Tosho-gu Shrine in Nikko, Japan, where a carving of three apes resides above the entrance. The first covering his ears, the second covering his eyes, and the third covering his mouth, they depict the proverb “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.” The fourth monkey represents “Do no evil.”
[Huh! I just noticed the picture I found of the Shrine have the second and third monkeys in a different order. Go figure!]
Some of the scenes described in the killer’s diary were a bit too far fetched for me. I know there are as many different types of dysfunction as there are dysfunctional families, so who knows? Maybe somewhere out there is a family who closely resembles this one. I hope I never meet them!
Because it was so outrageous I found their topsy turvy moral compass funny at times. Do not swear, do not say bad things about other people, do not steal, and treat women with dignity and respect were some of the rules, yet at the same time it was completely acceptable to torture and murder people.
There were some fairly gory scenes in this book, and rats. Many, many rats. These didn’t worry me but they may put off some readers.
While I didn’t hate this book (it definitely did get better in the second half for me) I don’t think I’m going to remember much of it. Actually, while I was writing this review not even 24 hours after finishing the book it occurred to me that I couldn’t remember what happened in the end. Sure, I remembered a couple of key events in the final few chapters but I had to go back and check the last couple of pages. That’s really unusual for me.
I would encourage you to read some ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reviews as well before deciding if this is the book for you or not. So many people absolutely love it. I wish I was one of them.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
For over five years, the Four Monkey Killer has terrorized the residents of Chicago. When his body is found, the police quickly realise he was on his way to deliver one final message, one which proves he has taken another victim who may still be alive.
As the lead investigator on the 4MK task force, Detective Sam Porter knows even in death, the killer is far from finished. When he discovers a personal diary in the jacket pocket of the body, Porter finds himself caught up in the mind of a psychopath, unraveling a twisted history in hopes of finding one last girl, all while struggling with personal demons of his own.
With only a handful of clues, the elusive killer’s identity remains a mystery. Time is running out and the Four Monkey Killer taunts from beyond the grave in this masterfully written fast-paced thriller.
I wish I were surprised. I wish any of this were still strange to me.
Before I say anything else I have to mention the cover! Aykut Aydoğdu’s cover art is incredible and it’s what drew me to this book in the first place. Of course, the blurb sucked me in too but the cover had already solidified my need to have this book in my life.
I’m often wary about reading books that have a lot of hype surrounding them. The longer it takes me from discovering a book I desperately want to read to actually holding the book in my hands, the higher my expectations grow. Unfortunately this can result in reality feeling like a colossal let down, when it was actually the pedestal I built that was mostly to blame for the disparity.
I’ve been anticipating this read since January and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it. It was a quick read and I definitely wanted to know what was going to happen. I never felt a connection with any of the characters though, so no matter what they experienced I felt like I was watching on dispassionately from the sidelines when what I wanted was to be cheering them on, feeling their pain and mourning their losses.
This story is told from the perspectives of Hetty and Byatt, but Reese’s story is also important and I would have liked to have seen the events unfold from her point of view as well. Although I know some information about each of these girls I wasn’t invested in their friendship or their survival.
Once thing I absolutely loved was the descriptions of the Tox’s impacts on the individual characters. If you’re squeamish this may not be the book for you but I was all in for the flare ups of their conditions. I wanted to know why the effects were so diverse and I did get a partial explanation for the differences between students and teachers, and male and female, but I wanted more. I know in stories like this you don’t always get access to knowledge that the main characters aren’t privy to but I would have loved to have been able to read a confidential military report, even if parts of it were redacted.
Because this story begins a year and a half after the Tox began the Raxter girls have already settled into their new normal. It’s brutal but a lot of the emotion that would have been evident in the beginning has already evaporated. There are some scenes where you catch a glimpse of what life would have been like prior to the Tox but you don’t get to see everyday life devolving. This may have helped me to become emotionally involved in the outcome.
I expected to feel the urgency of the events in this book but I never did, even though numerous scenes should have had me on edge. Maybe I set my expectations too high. If I’d read this book earlier or on a day when I was already feeling more emotional I may have felt more for Hetty and her friends. I don’t know.
Despite my whinge (sorry about that. I had hoped to be rambling about my love for everyone and everything I encountered), I’m still glad I read this book. I don’t think I’ll ever want to reread it but I am still interested in reading the next book by this author.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her.
It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.
But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there’s more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.
A book about books is always going to suck me in. I can’t help it. I’ve been obsessed with books for as long as I can remember, even before I could read myself. I’m so thankful to my mother for introducing me to the magic of reading. Thanks, Mum!
This picture book asks the question:
Why do we need books?
Now if I was going to answer that question you’d likely be reading an essay but Alessandro Sanna has managed to capture the basics in fewer words than I’ve used to write this review so far.
Two children gradually discover some of the wonders that books have to offer.
Would I have wanted to read this book over and over as a child? Probably not. I discovered all of the reasons why I specifically need books as I grew up and I’m still learning new reasons as an adult. As an adult, though, I want to read any book that is essentially a love letter to books.
I’m so happy my library has a copy of this book. I hope it serves as a catalyst for some future bookworms.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Everything starts with a question, like this one: Why do we need books?
In Castle of Books, two children go on a creative journey to discover the answer to the question “Why do we need books?” As they pore over piles and piles of books and discover the incredible worlds and words within, they find lots of answers to this question: to observe, to discover, to imagine, to understand each other, and so much more.
I’ve loved abandoned places photography since I first learned of its existence. Although I’ve enjoyed poring over photographs of many abandoned places, including castles, hospitals and amusement parks, this is the first book I’ve read that focuses exclusively on theatres.
Featuring the history and photographs of twenty abandoned theatres, Matt Lambros took me on a journey through America. The theatres included in this book are located in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
My favourite photograph is from the interior of Loew’s Majestic Theatre in Bridgeport, Connecticut. There’s a haunting quality to this image, with its blend of light and shadow, and it makes me want to ascend those stairs to find out what’s beyond them.
One thing I absolutely adored in this particular book is a feature I haven’t come across in other abandoned places photography books I’ve loved – images that highlight what a building looked like in its prime contrasted with ones that show its decay over time. Somehow being able to view the before and after side by side is both fascinating and even sadder than seeing the after in isolation.
The passage of time has caused RKO Proctor’s Theatre in Newark, New Jersey to be almost unrecognisable when compared to its heyday.
Then there’s Detroit, Michigan’s United Artists Theatre, whose Spanish Gothic interior had a creepiness to it even before time stripped away some of its shine. This is the theatre I most want to see in person.
Thank you so much to NetGalley, Jonglez Publishing and Xpresso Book Tours for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
In the early 20th century the streets of small towns and cities across America were filled with the lights and sounds of movie theaters. The most opulent – known as “movie palaces” – were designed to make their patrons feel like royalty; people would dress up to visit. But as time went on it became harder and harder to fill the 2,000+ seat theaters and many were forced to close.
Today, these palaces are illuminated only by the flicker of dying lights. The sound of water dripping from holes in the ceiling echoes through the auditoriums. In After the Final Curtain (Volume 2) internationally-renowned photographer Matt Lambros continues his travels across the United States, documenting these once elegant buildings.
From the supposedly haunted Pacific Warner Theatre in Los Angeles to the Orpheum Theatre in New Bedford, MA, which opened the same day the Titanic sank, Lambros pulls back the curtain to reveal what is left, giving these palaces a chance to shine again.
Schizanthus Nerd 