Tag: 3 stars

Halloween Carnival Volume 2 – Brian James Freeman (editor)

Like most collections of stories, this one included both hits and misses for me. The first story was my favourite.

Mr. Dark’s Carnival by Glen Hirshberg – 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Professor Roemer loves exploring the myths surrounding Mr. Dark’s Carnival with his freshman class each year. Everyone in eastern Montana knows the legend but while everyone claims to know a person who knows a person who has experienced the Carnival, no one has known the truth firsthand. Until now.

I really enjoyed the growing sense of dread as I read, where the anticipation of the scare was half the fun. Sometimes what remains unseen can be scarier, when you feel unbalanced as you wait for jump scare that may or may not be coming. I had some unanswered questions including the significance of “3-7-77” and the fate of Robert.

Stepping into that foyer was like stepping into a coffin. Worse, actually. It was like walking completely out of the world.

The Facts in the Case of My Sister by Lee Thomas – 🎃🎃🎃

Davey is three years older than Joyce, his sister, and as a child she enjoyed being his assistant as he tried out new magic tricks. Now he watches helplessly as she lays in a hospital bed. I found this story predictable and while Halloween was in the background it wasn’t the focus. The monsters in this story are of the human variety, which is scarier than if they’d been pretty much anything else.

“There are no monsters, Joyce. They’re just in your imagination.”

Mischief Night by Holly Newstein – 🎃🎃🎃

When some kids decide to prank their assistant principal on Mischief Night it sets off an unexpected chain of events. This story read more as a cautionary tale and the story of Willard Cole is quite a sad one. It didn’t have the creepiness I’d hoped for and didn’t even really feel much like a Halloween story.

In Pennsylvania, the night before Halloween is known as Mischief Night. Kids play harmless but annoying pranks, like throwing toilet paper into trees, soaping windows, and egging cars. Occasionally lines are crossed, and what was annoying becomes malicious. Sometimes even deadly …

The Ghost Maker by Del James – 🎃🎃

A hitman reminisces about his introduction to a life of crime, does another job and gets invited to a Halloween party. After stressing out about his costume he is ready to attend the party and before anything Halloweeny actually happens the story ends.

All Saints’ Day is when the Saints in Heaven and the good Catholics of this world share the strongest bond. It’s also the one day I feel least comfortable doing what I do.

The Pumpkin Boy by Al Sarrantonio – 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Creepy clowns. That’s all I have to say about that.

“Uncle Lollipop loves you!”

Themes of loss and grief play out in various ways in most of the stories.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hydra, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Glen Hirshberg, Lee Thomas, Holly Newstein, Del James, and Al Sarrantonio bring the ghouls of the most haunted night of the year to life in a chilling collection of stories curated by master of horror Brian James Freeman.

MR. DARK’S CARNIVAL by Glen Hirshberg
Halloween is more than just a holiday in Clarkson, Montana; it’s a tradition passed down through generations. Only this year, the ghosts of the past may just be a little closer than usual.

THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF MY SISTER by Lee Thomas
When David was young, he believed in magic. In fact, he wanted to become a magician himself. But meddling in the forces of the mind has consequences beyond what an eleven-year-old can see.

MISCHIEF NIGHT by Holly Newstein
Cabbage Night, Goose Night, Devil’s Night – they’re all the same. Before the treats come the tricks. It’s all in good fun … until someone gets hurt.

THE GHOST MAKER by Del James
When people need to disappear, I make them vanish. The catch? I’ve always got to be on guard – because that knock at the door may not just be a little monster looking for candy.

THE PUMPKIN BOY by Al Sarrantonio
When boys start going missing, Detective Len Schneider is determined to make it right. But his partner knows that there are worse things out there than a dead kid. 

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Robots vs. Princesses Volume 1 – Todd Matthy

Illustrations – Nicolas Chapuis

Robots versus anything is always going to be something that interests me and with the “Transformers meet Disney Princesses” marketing attached to this graphic novel I couldn’t help myself. I had to check this one out.

Princess Zara is the only princess who hasn’t chosen her animal for the upcoming recital. The princess’ songs tame wild beasts and apparently the recital is a good place to find yourself a prince.

I’m not certain if Princess Zara is actively seeking a prince but she does want a baby dragon (don’t we all?!) so she sneaks off to the Forbidden Woods to find one.

Meanwhile Wheeler, a robot, decides it’s time to bail on the chaos of Chromia and the abuse he has suffered there.

Zara and Wheeler’s introduction is understandably awkward,

especially when you realise Zara’s song has somehow transformed this downtrodden robot into a mechanical dragon. But not everyone is happy about their new friendship. Well, it’s only sort of a friendship in the beginning. Zara is using Wheeler to wow the crowd at the recital but she does appear to like him as well and they do become friends during the story.

I’m not sure the wild animals of Harmonia would be overly thrilled by being mind controlled by random princess songs and forced to do housework, make clothing or dance on cue.

Sure, they are smiling but are they happy or is this Stockholm syndrome?! Only their therapists know for sure. Anyway, moving on …

Battle scenes and background information ensue, along with some sweet conversations about friendship. We learn a little about the Centurions and the Decimators. Then, before you know it, it’s time for the big battle that’s been centuries in the making.

The battle rages on until what I thought was going to be an Obi-Wan Kenobi moment

turned into, um, the possibility of something else. 😜

Okay, time to get your mind out of the gutter! They don’t mean the euphemism.

The princesses and robots make for an unusual but fun combination. It was nice to see the princesses involved in the battle scenes and while this story is self contained there are definitely strong hints that a sequel could be in the works. I enjoyed the story but it’s not one that I plan to reread.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Dynamite Entertainment and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

When plucky Princess Zara stumbles upon the Decimator defector Wheeler, she sets in motion events that will pit the spritely cleverness of fairy tale princesses against the raw power of giant robots! The dream match you never thought you’d see begins here.

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The Shape of Night – Tess Gerritsen

Spoilers Ahead!

The prologue sets this book up as something with the potential to be deliciously creepy so I was eager to continue reading. I absolutely fell in love with Tess’ Rizzoli & Isles series (both book and TV versions) but have only read one of her standalone books prior to this one, Playing with Fire.

I read a couple of early reviews prior to beginning this book that mentioned ghost erotica. I thought, ‘Nah, it’s Tess. She wouldn’t go there, surely.’ Yeah, so I was wrong. If someone told me that I’d been punked, that some other miscellaneous author wrote this, it would make much more sense to me than it really being Tess. I wouldn’t have requested this book for review had the blurb even hinted at this content, but here we are.

Running from a secret shame and seeking oblivion at the bottom of a bottle (or, more accurately, many bottles), Ava escapes to Brodie’s Watch, a hilltop mansion overlooking the sea.

I’d hoped for a serene place to write, a place to hide. A place to heal.

Ava is a food writer who needs to work on her very overdue next book and a gorgeous, somewhat isolated house that was formerly owned by a sea captain seems like the perfect location. It isn’t long before Ava becomes aware of the home’s unsettling past and some more recent mysteries that the residents of Tucker Cove aren’t especially forthcoming about.

To the casual visitor, Tucker Cove seems quaint and picturesque, but it’s also a village that guards its secrets and protects its own.

I’d already ordered this book from the library for my mother before I began reading it and since neither of us have ever voluntarily read anything that could be confused with erotica before, I’ve warned her of what’s in store. (Now, that’s an interesting conversation to have with your Mum.) If you’re into 50 Shades of Spectral BDSM you’ll probably enjoy those scenes but when I was reading some of the more graphic bits I was a bit like:

As soon as I suspected this ghost’s intentions I was ready to call my Winchester boys so they could deal with him. I personally would have taken this book much more seriously if there hadn’t been sex with a ghost/demon. Sorry, Tess, but whenever I stumbled upon snippets like I want him to light the match and set me on fire, to prove that the living can satisfy me the way the dead do I ended up getting the giggles. It wasn’t supposed to be funny but it struck me as so absurd I couldn’t help finding humour in it.

Because it’s still a Tess book (it is; I double checked the title page) there’s got to be a dead body. Even though our main character is a food writer, not a police officer or medical examiner, I expected there to be some mystery surrounding this person’s identity. As soon as the body was found I thought there was only one person it could be, and sadly I was right.

Artists create, they don’t destroy. They don’t kill.

I won’t tell you if an artist is the culprit or not but obviously Ava isn’t acquainted with Dennis Rockmond from his two Season 3 Rizzoli & Isles episodes, ‘This Is How a Heart Breaks’ and ‘Melt My Heart to Stone’, if she doesn’t at least consider the possibility.

I expect a challenge where Tess’ stories are concerned, oftentimes not knowing who did it or why until just before (or when) it’s finally revealed. This time I knew who the big bad was as soon as I met them. I also figured out early on what Ava’s shameful secret was, so wasn’t surprised by anything (other than the whole BDSM thing).

“You are the one I’ve been waiting for.”

I’m unsure if this is a real inconsistency or if I missed something but when Ava first encounters the sea captain she winds up with bruising, yet no subsequent encounters leave a lasting mark on her. It infuriated me that it’s not challenged when the sea captain refers to Ava as his possession and even more so when she was okay with that!

I have to believe that with a cat called Hannibal, the main character drinking Chianti at one point had to be a deliberate choice by the author, one that I very much appreciated.

I’m not interested in pigeonholing writers. I usually enjoy it when authors write outside the lines of what I’ve come to expect of them. I think there are going to be a lot of surprised Tess fans out there where this book is concerned though, besides myself and my still pretty much unsuspecting Mum.

About the cover: There is no way that cat in the cover image is anywhere near the 26 pounds that Hannibal, Ava’s cat, is supposed to be in the book. It seems poor Hannibal had to diet before he was allowed to pose for his big moment. For comparison, this is what a 30 pound Maine Coon looks like. Meet Omar from Australia.

So, where to from here? I will definitely be reading any future Rizzoli & Isles books, no questions asked. However, after not loving two standalone books by this author in a row, I think I will be holding off to read some early reviews before deciding if their next standalone is for me or not.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bantam Press, an imprint of Transworld Publishers, Random House UK, for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

We’ve all done things we’re ashamed of …

When Ava arrives at Brodie’s Watch, she thinks she has found the perfect place to hide from her past. Something terrible happened, something she is deeply ashamed of, and all she wants is to forget.

But the old house on the hill both welcomes and repels her and Ava quickly begins to suspect she is not alone. Either that or she is losing her mind.

The house is full of secrets, but is the creeping sense of danger coming from within its walls, or from somewhere else entirely?

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Violet – Scott Thomas

Spoilers Ahead!

“You know, you ought to keep an eye on a little girl like that in this town.”

Kill Creek was one of my favourite reads of 2017 and I have been eagerly anticipating another Scott Thomas book ever since. When I saw the listing for Violet on NetGalley I jabbed that ‘Request’ button so hard it wouldn’t have surprised me to find an index finger shaped crack in my iPad screen. I was so excited about this book but I didn’t fall in love with it like I was supposed to and as a result I’ve spent the past fortnight dreading writing this review.

I still really want you to read Kill Creek and I hope that you love this book too. I want to be wrong about Violet. I want the problem to be me, not the book. However, I have some problems with this book that would have prevented me from reading beyond the first 10% if I hadn’t committed to reviewing it.

“There is something wrong with this place.”

While Scott’s debut was deliciously creepy and plot driven, with a group of horror writers attempting to survive Finch House (this house was my favourite character!), Violet is more atmospheric, an exploration of grief across time and its impacts upon multiple characters. I don’t usually mind novels where a slow burn gradually builds into a cataclysm of sorts but I found the set up too drawn out here. There were some nibbles along the ways but most of the payoff came after my interest had faded.

Her abuse of prescription medication chased down with a lot of alcohol, combined with the grief of her recent loss and snatches of memories of a more distant one, made Kris an unreliable narrator. This, along with her additional voices, those of Shadow Kris and Timid Kris, made me question whether anything I was reading was actually happening or not. Which parts of the story were real and which were distortions brewed up by a cocktail of trauma, chemicals and the possibility of an undiagnosed mental illness?!

Now, I’m rarely a fan of unreliable narrators in my life, either inside or outside of books, and as a result I never warmed to Kris. I was wary of trusting anything she relayed to me and so I kept her at an emotional distance. I probably would have connected with her daughter, Sadie, but because I saw her mostly through Kris’ eyes I didn’t know what to believe where she was concerned either.

“It is all connected, don’t you see that?”

Some words were used so frequently that I found myself being taken out of the story each time I came across them. By the time I reached 10% I’d considered counting how many times I encountered “like”, “as if” or “as though”. This trio weaved their way throughout the book, sometimes appearing two or three times on a (Kindle) page.

Then there were the descriptions of the house overlooking Lost Lake in general and of the cleaning process. Kris and Sadie need to make the neglected house habitable and the cleaning process was described in such detail that I was tempted to go clean my own home just so I could stop reading about it.

The lake house had helped Kris get through one of the most awful summers of her life. It could do the same for Sadie.

I hate that I felt like I was slogging my way through this book. The tidbits that teased of what was to come would usually have me hooked, poring over every word to make sure I didn’t miss any clues, but it didn’t work that way for me here. I didn’t feel like the story truly started until almost 70% and by then I was drained.

There were some glimpses of the magic that I enjoyed in Kill Creek and I could see myself enjoying a movie adaptation of this story, where the details that felt drawn out in the book could be captured quickly by the camera panning over each room, but overall it didn’t live up to its potential for me.

“Don’t be afraid to remember, Mrs Barlow.”

Despite all of this, I am still looking forward to the next book by this author. Their first book made such an impression on me that I am keen to see what other horrors they’re going to unleash upon my imagination. Maybe if I reread this book when I’m in a different head space I’ll find a new appreciation for it. If that’s the case I’ll definitely be letting you know. Until then I think I’m going to go with the hope that it’s not you, highly anticipated book; it’s me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Inkshares for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

For many children, the summer of 1988 was filled with sunshine and laughter. But for ten-year-old Kris Barlow, it was her chance to say goodbye to her dying mother. 

Three decades later, loss returns – her husband killed in a car accident. And so, Kris goes home to the place where she first knew pain – to that summer house overlooking the crystal waters of Lost Lake. It’s there that Kris and her eight-year-old daughter will make a stand against grief. 

But a shadow has fallen over the quiet lake town of Pacington, Kansas. Beneath its surface, an evil has grown – and inside that home where Kris Barlow last saw her mother, an old friend awaits her return. 

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Lost and Found – Orson Scott Card

Spoilers Ahead!

Ezekiel is almost 15 and in ninth grade at Downy High School. His usual mood is one of “resentful loneliness”. The other kids have actively avoided him since the fifth grade because they think he’s a thief, although he isn’t. He actually has a micropower, which enables him to find things that are lost and return them to their owner.

It was as if he had been born with this mission in life: to see that all lost things were returned.

Beth is almost 14 but is in tenth grade and declares she’s “smart enough for college”. She tells Ezekiel she’s “a proportionate dwarf” and her height is referenced at every opportunity during the book, often in offensive ways. Beth is Ezekiel’s only friend.

Ezekiel’s micropower is of interest to Dr. Withunga, who runs the Group of Rare and Useless Talents (GRUT). The others in the group also have their own individual talents, which run the gamut from being able to make people yawn to knowing if someone’s belly button is an innie or an outie when they’re fully clothed. While these talents are used by the participants they’re not exactly lining up to save the world with them. These are micropowers, after all; there’s no one from DC or Marvel in sight.

Until Ezekiel is approached by a police officer with an unusual request. Help him find a missing girl. Except Ezekiel has never found a person before, only objects. Scrunchies appear to be a particular forte.

I was really excited to read this book. I love anything superhero related so figured anything even hinting at micro heroes would be right up my alley. I’ve had Ender’s Game on my TBR pile for years but this is my first Orson Scott Card read. I’m not sure if there’ll be a second.

I loved the concept and there were sections of this book I would have loved as a kid. I’m certain I would have spent considerable time figuring out what my micropower would/should be and I would have cheered Ezekiel on as he figured out what he was truly capable of.

Adult me is conflicted. I had trouble figuring out the audience for this book. The writing felt like I was reading a middle grade book but then very dark themes were introduced, which would be more suitable for older readers.

I found the reveals predictable and I didn’t like most of the characters. Ezekiel could be a semi thoughtful human being at times but when he was in “brat mode” I found him insufferable. Besides knowing which character had which micropower, the kids in GRUT were fairly interchangeable. No one had a distinct voice and practically everyone in this book was trying to out-snark each another.

While I usually enjoy banter it exhausted me here. Most of the characters spoke almost exclusively in sarcasm (I would usually love this) but there was a lot of dialogue that was mean, rude and offensive.

I wanted to throw my Kindle at the wall with the sentences that irritated me and needed to switch my brain into ‘don’t question this’ mode whenever law enforcement allowed children to be involved in their investigation. What police officer would allow a child to be involved in interviews? What police investigation includes a child wandering with the officers into unsecure locations where they expect to encounter the baddies, who probably have weapons?

Some conversations had me scratching my head:

“But that’s how scared I am, Dad. I’m just shaking. Like I’m freezing cold.”

“It’s going to be a chilly night, maybe under forty. It really is getting cold.”

Others infuriated me with their poor taste, even if they were intended to be sarcastic. A psychology professor calls Beth Ezekiel’s “companion animal” and doesn’t seem to understand why Beth can’t see the “joke”. I almost refused to keep reading because of the flippant use of ‘crazy’ and ‘insane’, like when Ezekiel “played the crazy-kid card”. And who thought this was a good sentence: Maybe almost getting killed and killing a guy yourself was a weight loss program that could really catch on.

Although it’s made clear that Beth has her own mind, and a very intelligent one at that, Ezekiel and her father both take it upon themselves to speak on her behalf towards the end of the book. At no time has she requested this. She even annoyed me at times. Even though I assumed this was sarcastic, when discussing who could own a lost toy cement mixer, she comes up with, “With a truck it has to be a boy.”

The trauma that Beth experiences is glossed over and there are unanswered questions, like which police officer/s were involved in the crimes.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

“Are you really a thief?” 

That’s the question that has haunted fourteen-year-old Ezekiel Blast all his life. But he’s not a thief, he just has a talent for finding things. Not a superpower – a micropower. Because what good is finding lost bicycles and hair scrunchies, especially when you return them to their owners and everyone thinks you must have stolen them in the first place?

If only there were some way to use Ezekiel’s micropower for good, to turn a curse into a blessing. His friend Beth thinks there must be, and so does a police detective investigating the disappearance of a little girl. When tragedy strikes, it’s up to Ezekiel to use his talent to find what matters most. 

Master storyteller Orson Scott Card delivers a touching and funny, compelling and smart novel about growing up, harnessing your potential, and finding your place in the world, no matter how old you are.

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Just Lucky – Melanie Florence

Lucky is 15 and lives with her grandparents. Her best friend, Ryan, is literally the boy next door. When her grandfather dies, Lucky does her best to take over the role of caring for her grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s. An accident brings the attention of the authorities to their home situation, resulting in Lucky being placed in foster care.

A series of foster placements take her away from the familiarity of what used to be her life. Some placements are weird, some are okay and some are downright creepy. None of them are home. All the while, Lucky holds out hope that soon she and her grandmother will be able to return to their own home.

Although the publisher’s website states the target audience for this book is 13 to 18 years, the writing style felt more suitable for younger readers, with the exception of some swearing. This made me think this was a Hi-Lo book, although I cannot find any information to support this assumption. This was a short book with over sixty very short chapters, and a quick read. I didn’t have any problems with the overall story but I wanted it to be fleshed out more.

While I was told what was happening I never got beyond the idea that I was reading a series of, ‘this happened, then that happened, this person said this, then that happened’. There weren’t many expressed emotions, other than some tears (after which I was consistently told that Lucky wasn’t a crier) and the fact that almost every time Lucky encountered confrontation she resorted to physical violence, even though there was no indication she had ever behaved that way before.

I stand by my previous reviews where I’ve said we need more books about foster care. While I loved that this book talked about foster care and did explore a few of the different types of homes foster kids are placed in, I felt there were some missed opportunities as well.

I’ve read a few books recently that have included so many young adult social issues that it began to feel like I was reading social issue soup and this book felt like that too. Although plenty of boxes have been checked (most are included in my content warnings) it felt like their existence was only acknowledged in Lucky’s story rather than adequately dealt with.

Lucky is Indigenous; her grandparents are Cree. While bannock is mentioned (which I definitely need to try for myself) and Lucky experiences racism based on her heritage, this was pretty much the extent of its inclusion in this book. The author also has Cree heritage and I would have loved to have learned more about this.

There were gaps in the story that I filled in myself. For example, Lucky’s best friend comes out to his conservative religious parents, his father beats him up because of it, Lucky’s grandmother confronts his parents and comes back to the house with some of his belongings, saying he’ll be staying with them for a few days. Then there’s no follow up, except a couple of years later he’s mentioning his aunt and uncle, yet we’re never told that he moved in with them. I made up scenarios of when and how that went down myself.

The descriptions were quite repetitive. While there were a few more that I’m not mentioning here, food smelt “heavenly” four times and something was “amazing” nineteen times. If this is a Hi-Lo book the repetition makes sense. If it’s not, I have a problem with it. Because I don’t know for sure, I’m currently sitting on the fence about it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Second Story Press for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Fifteen-year-old Lucky loves her grandparents. True, her grandmother forgets things, like turning the stove off, or Lucky’s name, but her grandfather takes such good care of them that Lucky doesn’t realise how bad things are … until she loses her grandfather and is left caring for her grandmother on her own. When her grandma sets the kitchen on fire, Lucky can’t hide what’s happening any longer, and she is sent into foster care. She quickly learns that some families are okay, and some aren’t. And some really, really aren’t. None of them feel like home. And they’re certainly not family.

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STET – Sarah Gailey

Fireside Magazine Issue 60, October 2018

STET is a 2019 Hugo Awards finalist in the Best Short Story category.

This story is told in an unusual and interesting way. It’s a scientific paper with annotations. For me the story came alive more in the annotations, although the footnotes provide sufficient information for you to learn the story behind the story. I tend to gloss over whenever I encounter copious footnotes in any text so that influenced my reading experience here.

I had to force myself to get to the guts of the actual story. I felt the pain and anger in this piece but overall it didn’t work for me. I see journal articles and I automatically think of dry, wordy documents I drudged through to find information for university assignments, so I don’t think this format was ever going to be a winner for me.

You can read this short story online here. I found this version didn’t flow as well for me as the PDF version with handwritten notes, even though they contain the same text.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
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The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat – Brooke Bolander

Uncanny Magazine Issue 23: July/August 2018

The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat is a 2019 Hugo Awards finalist in the Best Short Story category.

This was a predictable but fun fairytale featuring three raptor sisters, whose names translate into human as Allie, Betty and Ceecee. They are a “hunting pride of matriarchal dromaeosauridae”. The youngest sister, Ceecee, encounters a bumbling Prince and his stead while hunting in the forest and as a result the sisters’ happy lives get more complicated.

I found the Prince to be more a caricature than anything else. I liked the Princess and appreciated her yearning to shed the yoke that had been placed upon her. Although I understood its purpose, I think I would have liked this tale of female empowerment more if the man in the story had a personality that extended beyond his stupidity.

You can read this short story online here.

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Rating: 3 out of 5.
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The Undoing of Arlo Knott – Heather Child

When I read the blurb for this book it reminded me of an episode of one of my favourite TV shows growing up, Round the Twist. Paul Jennings was one of my favourite authors and I loved encountering the unexpected in his stories. He wrote the episode, Spaghetti Pig Out, where a main character finds a remote control that can pause, fast forward or rewind anything or anyone it’s aimed at. This coincides with a spaghetti eating competition and the school bully just so happens to find out about the remote before the competition begins. Naturally he decides to use the remote control to attempt to win the competition, with amusing and quite disgusting results. I loved that episode! Anyway, I digress.

I was intrigued by this book’s blurb. Arlo can reverse whatever he just did. Imagine the possibilities. The mistakes you could fix. The pain you could undo. Who hasn’t imagined what they’d do if they had their life to live all over again. If only …

This book begins at Part 6! I loved that! Given Arlo’s ability to reverse actions it was the perfect touch for me; simple but so smart. I also appreciated the simplicity of the chapter headings, guiding me through Arlo’s life by telling me the age he was during the events of each chapter.

I’m currently surrounded by a constellation of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reviews so am keenly aware that I’m an outlier where this book’s concerned. I absolutely adored the concept, which reminded me not only of the TV series you’ve probably never heard of but also The Butterfly Effect and Groundhog Day. I even thought I could detect small traces of Final Destination.

The first problem was that I really didn’t like Arlo from the beginning. At all. He was arrogant, self centred, immature and lacked empathy. I don’t generally mind not liking characters and I’m usually fairly enthusiastic about loving to hate certain characters, but when the main character is so obnoxious I find it harder to care what happens to them. Sure, Arlo does grow as a character, some of the things I hated about him aren’t as prominent as his story progresses and some positive attributes emerge, but he never became someone I’d want to have a conversation with.

When he begins using his ability, power, gift, curse, genetic abnormality or whatever else you may want to call it, I found myself fairly consistently pleading with him not to be a cliché and then rolling my eyes as he gambled, womanised or otherwise disappointed me. Thankfully he does eventually find more interesting and varied ways to manipulate people and circumstances but the majority of these manipulations are ego driven.

While I learned the facts of a number of characters’ lives I didn’t connect emotionally with anyone. I was definitely interested in finding out more about several but my interest never extended far enough for me to worry about their future or consider reaching for a tissue if their lives encountered anything resembling tragedy. Given my propensity to ugly cry while reading, I was surprised by my lack of emotion.

I found Arlo’s story too drawn out for my liking and found myself getting bored early on. By the end of Part 6 (remember, this was the first part in this novel) I would have abandoned it if I hadn’t committed to reviewing it and temporarily set it aside to read another book before picking it back up again. Had I not continued I would have missed out on the final part, which I found intriguing but predictable. As I was reading I kept thinking that there was only one possible way for this book to end. Nevertheless, I anticipated and hoped for a blindside, but it didn’t happen.

If you enjoy novels that are more character driven, where you experience the excitement and the mundane throughout the years with a flawed main character, you’ll probably really enjoy this book. I expect it will be a popular book club choice, given the questions of morality, philosophy and psychology that it raises. I’d encourage you to check out some ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reviews as well before deciding if this book is for you or not.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group (UK), for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

What if your life had an ‘undo’ button?

Arlo Knott discovers he can rewind time – just by a minute or two – enough to undo any mistake, say the right thing or impress his friends with his uncanny predictions …

But second chances aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. As wonderful as his new life is, a mistake in Arlo’s traumatic childhood still haunts him and the temptation to undo, undo and keep undoing could be too much to resist. 

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The Friendship Lie – Rebecca Donnelly

Cora is 11 years old and has a twin, Kyle. She also used to have a best friend, Sybella, who she met on the first day of second grade. The twins’ parents both work in environmental science.

Their dad ran a garbology project that studied what happened to peoples’ trash and recycling after they put it all in their curbside bins. Their mother worked on the technology that tracked each lucky piece of garbage that was part of the project.

Now it’s the fifth grade and Cora and Kyle’s parents are divorcing. Their parents are so separated, in fact, that their mother is working in Belgium for a year while she thinks about the future. Meanwhile her kids are still in California and Cora thinks her life is garbage, what with her mother on the other side of the world and in the wrong time zone to be able to give Cora much needed advice about her friendship problems.

Their father wants to “show the world what happened to the things it tried to get rid of.” However he appears positively clueless about how sad both of his kids are; while Cora is obviously sad throughout the book, Kyle hides his sadness behind a wall of positivity. I wasn’t a fan of either parent and found some of the father’s garbage related behaviour downright creepy.

I know it was all about the ongoing environmental message but the twins’ father continually bringing all of their neighbours’ garbage into their apartment and sorting through it in their bathtub horrified me. If I discovered my neighbour had been regularly stealing my trash and rummaging through it I would send them my own message, likely in the form of some very expired dairy product poured all over whatever I was discarding that week.

While there was some diversity included in story, with a teenage girl who has girlfriends and another character whose mother is white and father is black, it felt like its inclusion was token rather than having any bearing on the plot. Both topics were barely mentioned before disappearing from the narrative. Homelessness is also included in this story, mostly as a way to track a specific item’s movements through the book, and the opportunities to either make a point about homelessness or provide resolution for this specific character were missed.

I loved everything about Aquafaba and how it fit into the story, and I liked Auntie Lake. I wanted to hang out with Auntie Lake more. I think I would have really liked Kyle if his personality extended beyond loving dogs, and being the nicest and most positive person on the planet. On the flip side, I detested new girl Marnie from the first time I met her, both because she was so irritating but also because she was practically two dimensional and didn’t appear to have a back story.

The first half of the book is told exclusively from Cora’s point of view, starting with ‘After’ and then catching up to now with ‘Before’ chapters. There are a couple of chapters in the second half of the book from Sybella’s perspective, a character I liked much more than Cora. There are also diary entries from 1974 written by a then-seventh grade Penny and odd little public service announcements Cora leaves on her mother’s voicemail.

Since everyone is so garbage conscious in this book I wasn’t sure why the research assistants were setting up the Trashlympics in a way that created more trash, like using duct tape to mark the lanes for the relay race Trash and Dash. Given the other clubs the school was offering focused on art, robotics and gaming, I was surprised there was enough interest from elementary school aged kids for there to be a Trash Team in the first place.

Although there’s also some friendship drama thrown in as well, big chunks of the early part of this book felt like extended public service announcements for all things environmental – sustainability, making sure you put your trash in the correct bins, the problem of plastic in the ocean. I found the second half of the book interesting and this mostly made up for the parts in the first half where I really struggled to want to continue reading. However, had I not committed to reviewing this book I wouldn’t have continued reading long enough to get to the parts I enjoyed.

I expect if I was reading this book as an environmentally conscious 9 to 12 year old this could be an entirely different review. Maybe I’ve forgotten what is considered fun at that age. Maybe Trashlympics are one of those things. I’m interested to see what the actual target audience think about The Friendship Lie.

Thank you to NetGalley and Capstone for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Cora Davis’s life is garbage. Literally. Her professor parents study what happens to trash after it gets thrown away, and Cora knows exactly how it feels to be thrown away. Between her mum and dad separating and a fallout with her best friend, fifth grade for Cora has been a year of feeling like being tossed into the dumpster.

But Cora has learned a couple of things from her parents’ trash-tracking studies: things don’t always go where they’re supposed to and sometimes the things you thought you got rid of come back. And occasionally, one person’s trash is another’s treasure, which Cora and Sybella learn when they come across a diary detailing best-friendship problems.

Told in two intertwining points of view, comes a warm, wry story of friendship, growing up, and being true to yourself. The Friendship Lie will speak to any reader who has struggled with what to hold on to and what to throw away.

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