Tag: Spoilers

Definitely Daphne – Tami Charles

Spoilers Ahead!

Annabelle and her father usually travel where her mother’s work takes her but this time her mother’s assignment is TDY (Temporary Duty Yonder) and Annabelle and her father have to stay behind. While she’s serving in Afghanistan for six months Annabelle and her father will be living civilian life. For Annabelle that means the seventh grade, in an actual school with other kids.

All of a sudden the shy girl who used to enjoy being homeschooled while wearing her pyjamas is having fashion emergencies and hiding out in the janitor’s closet. To help Annabelle adjust to civilian life and get a support system in place before her mother’s deployment her parents arrange therapy for her.

This was an easy but predictable read. I loved that the main character’s mother is in the Air Force. I haven’t come across a book for this age group that talks about what it’s like to be a military kid before so I loved that this book explored different characters’ feelings and behaviours relating to this experience. There’s a build up to when Annabelle’s mother needs to leave but the leaving itself doesn’t happen in this book so you don’t get to find out how Annabelle copes when it actually happens.

While I liked the concept of Annabelle talking about trying new things on her vlog I had to suspend my disbelief to get through the sections where the other kids at school are discussing Daphne in front of her, not realising that Annabelle is Daphne. What’s happening in Daphne’s world coincides perfectly with what’s happening at their school and the vlog begins soon after the new kid arrives; the new kid who just so happens to look exactly like Daphne if she was wearing a wig, costume and glasses. Annabelle’s ability to hide in plain sight rivals that of a superhero.

I would have liked to have gotten to know Annabelle’s mother better but enjoyed drooling over her father’s amazing homemade dinners, especially the pizza. I liked Annabelle’s friend John but I never really got much of a sense of Clairna or Nav’s personalities.

I wasn’t quite sure how Rachael was supposed to be maintaining her status as fashion queen if money was tight in her family. I also never figured out what made her so popular that her legions of fans needed to wait outside the bathroom to take selfies with her other than the fact that she’s pretty, but then again I actively avoided the popular kids at school so I doubt I’ll ever understand popularity.

I didn’t find Daphne’s vlogs particularly funny but I may be too old and decrepit to understand their humour. I’m always hesitant when I come across kids using slang and referencing specific songs in books because it dates them so quickly so I have that concern for this book. Personally I think the whole ‘squad’ thing has already been overdone.

With the hype surrounding the Daphne’s first two vlogs it didn’t make sense to me that there’d be almost no interest in the third. I would’ve thought that a significant amount of the people who watched the first two would have also watched the third. How would they know it wasn’t as good if only 9 people saw it?!

While I understood that Annabelle has spent years being homeschooled she talks about watching Netflix and references watching rom-coms so I was surprised that she was as clueless about school life as she was. She didn’t know what a locker was or what ‘putting your face on’ means. I did appreciate some of the other humour relating to Annabelle’s lack of experience in the American school system though.

I was more than a little shocked that it was possible to get an emergency Sunday afternoon appointment with a therapist and that when Annabelle’s mother rang the therapist out of the blue they got straight through. I also cringed when the therapist continually shared details of their appointments with Annabelle’s parents.

In my experience therapists will outline any exclusions to the confidentiality of their appointments up front and while it was true when the therapist said that nothing shared in the appointment would leave the room, Annabelle’s parents were brought into the room to catch them up. While it didn’t seem to be a big deal for Annabelle I know that if I’d attended therapy as a kid and the therapist had then told my parents everything I told them, any trust I had developed with the therapist would have been broken. I hope that kids who read this book aren’t put off by this.

Hopefully the age group this book is marketed towards won’t have already heard variations of this story so many times they could tell you how it’s going to play out step by step but most of the story felt clichéd to me. You’ve basically got a new kid who’s trying to fit in. They become friends with the nice kids who they ditch when the queen bee pays them the slightest bit of attention. Eventually they realise they made a mistake, realising that their nice friends are actually true friends.

Then you’ve got the super obvious secret identity cliché that only one special person and the queen bee figure out before the big reveal. If the main character finally tells everyone the mystery person is actually them and that they’ve been lying to everyone for so long they risk losing every friendship. Oh, and the big reveal can only ever happen at the school dance in front of the entire school.

Despite the clichés this was a sweet book and I did enjoy it. I think military kids in particular will find themselves in Annabelle but those whose parents move frequently for work will also relate to constantly being the new kid. I thought Annabelle’s struggles were handled sensitively and appreciated that her strengths were also highlighted.

Completely irrelevant but welcome to my brain: Because I’m weird I tend to accidentally notice patterns in books. If I was going to go all Sesame Street on you this is where I’d tell you that today’s review has been brought to you by the number 2. In the space of three sentences I found ‘Second Chance’, ‘two carts’, ‘Two Tony’s’ and ‘two hours later’. Further down that page there were ‘two screens’. I’m sure this was unintentional but once my brain sees something like this I then look for it for the rest of the book.

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

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

In front of her followers, Daphne is a hilarious, on-the-rise vlog star. But at school Daphne is the ever-skeptical Annabelle Louis, seventh-grade super geek and perennial new kid. To cope with her mom’s upcoming military assignment in Afghanistan and her start at a brand new middle school, Annabelle’s parents send her to a therapist.

Dr. Varma insists Annabelle try stepping out of her comfort zone, hoping it will give her the confidence to make friends, which she’ll definitely need once Mom is gone. Luckily there is one part of the assignment Annabelle DOES enjoy – her vlog, Daphne Doesn’t, in which she appears undercover and gives hilarious takes on activities she thinks are a waste of time. She is great at entertaining her online fans, yet her classmates don’t know she exists. Can Annabelle keep up the double life forever?

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Squishy Taylor #1: Squishy Taylor and the Bonus Sisters – Ailsa Wild

Illustrations – Ben Wood

Spoilers Ahead!

I’ve already read the first six books in the Squishy Taylor series but when the opportunity arose to revisit where her story began I jumped at the chance. It’s been almost two years (wow, that’s flown!) since I first discovered Squishy in my local library and I wanted to know if she was still as adorable as I remembered. Of course she was!

I love Squishy. I love her bonus sisters (twins Jessie and Vee). I love her baby brother. I love her Mum, her Dad and her bonus Mum. I love all of the extra people you meet as you explore Squishy’s world, even the cranky, mean ones. Squishy is one of my favourite book kids. She’s one of those people that you say, “You’ve got spunk, kid!” to, even though you can’t remember the last time you called someone ‘kid’ and you’ve never told one they have ‘spunk’ before.

This series is aimed at kids from 9 to 14 years but I would have probably read this when I was around 7 or 8. In the series Squishy is an adorable, energetic 11 year old, with her bonus sisters five months older and a grade higher at school. I also personally feel they tend to act younger than 11 but it’s not like I have a lot of kids in my life to compare them with.

I expect this series and especially the first book would helpful for readers who are new to blended families. I appreciate that the situation Squishy finds herself in is realistic. While she Skypes her Mum each day, she misses seeing her face to face. She’s having trouble adjusting to the new family that’s been moulded together when her Dad remarried. She feels ganged up against by her twin stepsisters. I absolutely adore the idea of having bonus people in your life; for example, bonus sisters instead of stepsisters. The concept of bonus puts such a positive spin on a difficult situation and Squishy’s attitude realignment is a pivotal scene in the first book.

Squishy and her bonus sisters get into trouble. At times they’re manipulative and make downright dodgy decisions to do mean things to people, but they’re kids. They bounce off one another and come up with schemes they’d never dare to try to pull off alone. Overall they’re sisters with big hearts who want to help people and love to solve mysteries in their neighbourhood.

Baby siblings rarely get named in children’s books these days for some reason and this was the book that made me notice it. In this series, I’ve only ever known Baby as Baby (so far). Perhaps he’ll get a name at some point.

Throughout the series I’ve really loved Ben Wood’s illustrations. The pictures have a fun energy about them and Squishy’s personality in particular shines through. You get the sense he really enjoys bringing this family to life and unlike a lot of children’s books I’ve read recently, Ben’s illustrations work with the feel of the book and what’s happening in the pictures lines up with what’s happening in the story. A few months ago I wouldn’t have commented on something that seems so trivial but after the amount of images I’ve seen recently that appear to have little to do with the details mentioned in the story, this has become a new selling point for me.

Squishy asks the all important question when making a decision in this book: “Which is more fun?”. A lot of adults could learn something from her.

Naturally because I’ve just reread the first book in the series I’ll need to reread the others as well before I read books 7 and 8 for the first time. 😃 Thank you so much to NetGalley and Capstone for reminding me how much I love Squishy.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Sita ‘Squishy’ Taylor is a cheeky, sneaky 11-year-old who lives with her dad and step-family in a very crowded apartment. Luckily for Squishy, their building is huge – and there’s always plenty of mysteries to investigate! Like …

Who’s that hiding in the basement?

Why does Squishy have to share everything with her new step-sisters?

Why is her next-door neighbour the crankiest man in the world?

Why are green jelly snakes the yummiest?

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The River Keepers – Michael F. Stewart

Spoilers Ahead!

While I was reading this book I kept trying to think of ways to talk about it without including spoilers but I can’t think of any way of saying what I want to without them, so ⚠️ Beware! Spoilers ahead! Read on at your own risk! ⚠️

I’m not sure who writes blurbs for kid’s books these days but The River Keepers was not the book I was expecting it to be when I first read the blurb. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing as I was entertained by this book and expect it to be well received by its target audience, but I found I spent time trying to reconcile my expectations with reality. I thought there’d be more focus on sci fi, fantasy and magic and I definitely didn’t expect the environmentalism message.

In The River Keepers we meet 11 year old twins Natasha and Reagan, their younger sister Penny and their parents. Their father is a writer and their mother is a nutritionist. The family home is for sale and neither twin want to move house or school, and don’t understand why they’re moving in the first place. The twins plan to sabotage the sale of the property.

After lightning destroys the iconic oak tree in their farmhouse’s yard, the twins discover that the oak is hollow inside and has been the home of a gnome. They find a scroll on the table in the home and gold globs (“gnome guts”) that feel like putty inside the gnome when they accidentally fling him across the yard and break him. I’m not quite sure why one of them has no problem pocketing the gnome’s guts yet they have a problem with their father fixing and painting the dead gnome.

I won’t give away any of the adventures but as you would already know from the blurb, the sisters transform into various animals throughout the book. There’s information about ecosystems and a great message that anyone, including kids, can take action to make positive changes in their local environment.

The twins walk to school with friends Maya and Oscar (and I had the Oscar Mayer jingle in my head each time this pair were mentioned) and the twins end up roping them into their plan to steal and free all of the neighbourhood’s zombie gnome slaves. I wasn’t sure why Natasha wrote in her letter that there was a fee of $9.99. If she was all about freeing the gnomes, why add a charge? The gnome activism reminded me so much of Hermione’s Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare (SPEW).

I enjoyed the adventures when any of the sisters transformed into animals and experienced the world as each animal did. This is what I thought I’d signed up for and I would’ve loved for these scenes to be longer and for more animals to have needed their help. I wondered what happened to their clothes when they transformed into animals as they are naked when they transform back into humans. I expected for the 11 year old to be embarrassed to be found naked in the kitchen in the middle of the night by her parents, especially her father, but I didn’t detect that she felt uncomfortable about this at all.

I wasn’t a fan of the book’s use of the word ‘nutso’. I understand that it’s slang but I personally don’t like the word, especially when it’s used to describe people. I also wasn’t a fan of the mouse death scene or the battle to the death between one of the sisters and a centipede.

I liked the writing style and found the book easy to read. I’m unsure if this book has a planned sequel or not but the ending felt abrupt. So, here’s the section of the review where you tell me I read too much into a book that’s aimed for a middle school audience (if you haven’t already), but I’ve always been a prolific question asker so I most likely would’ve had similar questions had I read this book as a child.

While it’s implied that the end of the story is only the beginning of the twin’s adventures, I never found out if the family did end up moving house and if so, where they went. If they moved, did the girls pass on their gnomishness to their friends? As the twins had realised that their younger sister was indeed trustworthy with important secrets, why was she not included in the decision the twins made near the end?

Did the friends continue to steal the gnomes in their neigbourhood and if so did they get caught, as Natasha clearly broadcasted her intent with the letters she wrote to gnome enslavers and the police have already asked about the missing gnomes. Did they ever get in touch with the Gnome Freedom Fighters (GFF) who made the gnome slavery video on the internet and has a hashtag something like #freethegnome gone viral? Were all of the stolen gnomes zombies or were some just statues?

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

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

What would you do if your sister turned into a skunk?

How about a mouse? Or a frog? Would you want to be a snake?

Have you ever wished to swim like an actual fish? Wouldn’t you worry that a snapping turtle might take a bite out of you?

In The River Keepers, two sisters must rise to meet an unexpected challenge. It’s a story infused with the magic and drama outside their backdoor -perhaps yours, too.

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The Curious Chronicles of Jack Bokimble and His Peculiar Penumbra – James Demonaco

Spoilers Ahead!

I was ready to adore The Curious Chronicles of Jack Bokimble and His Peculiar Penumbra from the beginning, just for the title alone. Jack is different. He has a magical shadow which he learns to use to explore the world in a way no one else can. He can touch and manipulate items with his shadow, feeling with his physical body and shadow simultaneously. While Jack is shy and fearful, his shadow is not and it cannot feel pain.

Jack’s father, who has a small nose but an exceptionally gifted sense of smell, is excited about Jack’s difference. Jack’s mother, however, who runs an advice website called ILLMAKETHEDECISIONSYOUCANT.COM (unfortunately it’s not a real website – I checked) is concerned, worrying that Jack’s ability will scare people away. Jack’s mother is also a champion farter, smelling up the pages whenever she’s anxious or excited.

This book deals with bullying, being an outcast, friendships, loneliness, wanting to belong, and learning to accept and celebrate your differences. I thought it was wonderful that James DeMonaco explored peoples’ fear of anything or anyone who is different and points out that differences aren’t actually scary after all. There’s some good vocabulary building, often thanks to Louis the Lip, who’s pretty much described as practically perfect in every way (sorry, I love Mary Poppins so had to describe him like that 😊), with the exception of his personality.

I liked Jack as a character. He’s sensitive, intelligent, inquisitive and non-judgemental. He’s a lonely boy who desperately wants friends but is excruciatingly shy. He stands up for what he believes in and wants to use his shadow powers for good. I enjoyed most of the sequence of events and although it’s hinted at several times with one of my pet peeves (see below), I can see this story working as the first in a series.

I enjoyed the quirkiness of Jack’s parent so much and particularly loved the pet names they call each other, always something different so as not to be boring. It’s so hard to pick a favourite pet name for each but I was fond of Sir Spits When He Speaks and Whimsical Wife with Weird Digestion. My favourite character was the lion with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He was adorable.

I was so annoyed that the only two children not scared of Jack’s abilities are the ones who have personally benefited from them, yet they still allow peer pressure to stop them from being his friend. This makes a really good point about the power of peer pressure but I was so angry with those kids for a while.

It seems that each children’s book I’ve read recently is taking their style or ideas from Roald Dahl. Remember the chalkboard incident in Matilda? It’s pretty much replicated in this book.

Moving on to my irritations, question marks and pet peeve occurrences, some with spoilers so reader beware. While these are plentiful, please don’t think they mean I didn’t enjoy the book. I really did. When I want more or have lots of questions, it means I’m invested in the storyline and I understand that if there is a sequel a lot of my questions may be answered then. Only the first point detracted from my enjoyment of the book.

I found the interjections by the listener and the storyteller discussing the characters and sequence of events really irritating and thought it disrupted the story rather than adding value with it. While I understand the purpose of these exchanges I felt the story would have flowed better without them.

How can a shadow speak with Jack? I don’t remember reading how this is explained and Jack’s shadow doesn’t seem to be verbal so maybe this is something that happens once only the shadow remains?

Is it one of the magical properties of this type of shadow that after death it no longer needs to be attached to a person for it to be projected?

How can Jack communicate with all of the animals in the Central Park Zoo? Is this part of the shadow magic as well?

Hopefully if the events in this book had really happened a teacher wouldn’t have allowed three children to head back into an area soon to be engulfed in fire by themselves just because one of the children insisted they could save the animals. At least have the guts to go in there with them or maybe keep them out of harm’s way and wait for the firefighters to save the day? I know, I know. It’s only a story but as I said, I was invested.

Jack becomes the most popular kid in school after the fire and all the kids, except Melinda and Larry, want to do is ask him questions about his shadow. It feels as though instead of going from someone to be feared to a friend who can be relied on to look out for his friends, he becomes something of a curiosity for quite a while. And the cousin that was frightened of Jack at the beginning of the book? He comes out of the woodwork and wants to be friends with him … after Jack is on the news. I loved Jack and wanted everyone to see him for the awesome kid he is, regardless of his abilities, and I wanted everyone else to be as pure hearted as he is.

There’s a chapter called Back to School, Not Starring Rodney Dangerfield. While I personally appreciated this nod to one of my favourite movies I doubt any kid reading this would know who Rodney Dangerfield is or would have seen the 1986 film.

🚨 Pet Peeve Alert 🚨
“but that is a different chronicle”
“his story is for another day”
“but that’s a different story”
“That’s for another time”
I don’t know why but sentences like those really bug me, although that’s my problem, not the author’s.

I applaud Jack’s forgiving nature. I think if I was the one treated like a leper because I had a special talent I would have happily slapped every single rotten bully across the face with my shadow hand, but I guess that’s one of the many reasons why I haven’t been entrusted with my very own super shadow. 😜

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

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Shortly after Jack is born, strange things are afoot in the Bokimble house – glasses fall from shelves, and nothing seems to be where Mr. and Mrs. Bokimble left it. Jack’s parents begin to sense that there’s something strange about their son, and it’s not long before they realize that he has a secret friend: his magical shadow. 

Is Jack’s shadow a superpower that he needs to control and master? Or is it a curse that will separate him from others? Travel with Jack on his boyhood journey as he learns not only how to control his magical shadow but what it means to be different – a story that mines the potential for magic and mystery in all of us.

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Halloween Carnival Volume 3 – Brian James Freeman (editor)

Spoilers Ahead!

🎃 Horrificent Halloween Book! 🎃

N.B. Horrificent is totally a word (at least it is in my world and it’s my review so you’re in my world now whether you like it or not) and should be imagined as a unique blend of horrific and magnificent.

Halloween Carnival Volume 3 is the third of five volumes of short stories being released in time for Halloween. While I promise you I know how to count I didn’t feel like reading something the length of a novella when I started Volume 2 and then got sucked into these stories.

The Way Lost by Kelley Armstrong – 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

I absolutely loved this story. It was short but grabbed me from the first sentence – “Every Halloween, one child in Franklin lost his way and never came home.” Children in Franklin know not to go near the forest on Halloween night. Dale, however, can’t help himself. He watches at the edge of the forest, hoping to solve the mystery of how Franklin’s children lose their way, a mystery no one talks about. The creepy atmosphere in this story and the enticing dread had me wanting to sit by the edge of the forest to dare myself to uncover what was really happening to the children of this town. I need to read more by this author!

La Calavera by Kate Maruyama – 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Trish works hard on her calavera for this year’s Día de los Muertos Festival at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. She attended each year with her roommate of five years, Jasmine (pronounced Yasmeen). On the day of the Festival Trish receives a phone call at work from Hector, who is supposed to still be in jail. This is a tale of binge-watching, waffles, family, obsession and letting go. I worked out how this story was going to play out fairly early but I still really enjoyed it.

The Devil’s Due by Michael McBride – 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

Building the initial dread into full blown panic and then hovering around desperation for the rest of the story, this one blew me away. Taking place in Pine Springs, Colorado, this town was founded in 1867 and has a long history of prosperity. Huddled in their ranch on the evening of 30 October, Thom and Tammy silently wait, hoping against hope that this isn’t their year. Their daughter and son are asleep upstairs, unaware of the danger that infiltrates their postcard perfect community this night every year. This year there’s a bloody handprint on the Martin’s door and soon the mayor and chief of police will be coming to collect Thom so he can do his duty. I’m going to be checking out this author’s other work for sure.

A Thousand Rooms of Darkness by Taylor Grant – 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Anne has phasmophobia (fear of ghosts) and samhainophobia (fear of Halloween), and with good reason. Panic attacks and phobias have contributed to the breakdown of Anne’s previous relationships so she is understandably terrified of telling the new love of her life, Evan, of her crippling fears. But this year her haunting starts early. I enjoyed the buildup to Halloween and the increased fear Anne faces. I loved the initial twist but the final wrap up felt a tad rushed.

The Last Night of October by Greg Chapman – 🎃🎃🎃

Gerald sits in his wheelchair, oxygen mask affixed trying to deliver its breath to his emphysema affected lungs, watching the front door. He keeps watch every Halloween night until dawn, waiting for it to come. It comes every Halloween without fail. This Halloween Gerald can’t avoid it. This novella started with such promise but I found a key component of the story implausible. It jarred me out of the lovely flow I was in and I never got my momentum back.

While I had no problems with the crossroads and what the boys found there I didn’t believe that Martha could so easily convince Gerald to kill his friend. They were best friends and yes, I understand they were kids and terrified, but even if that was always going to be the outcome I would have expected a longer exchange between the three characters before the murder occurred.

My favourites in this collection were The Way Lost and The Devil’s Due. I think The Devil’s Due may have won in the photo finish but both stories had me taking note of who wrote them so I can explore their work further.

The overall theme that runs through these stories is that things are not always what they seem and while I’d expect this in Halloween tales, there’s bloodshed in each of them. While I’ve only read two of the five volumes so far I much preferred this one overall than Volume 1. I loved that even after working out that all of these stories had elements where things were not as they seemed, there were still some where I didn’t pick up on the twist until after it happened.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Hydra for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Kelley Armstrong, Kate Maruyama, Michael McBride, Taylor Grant, and Greg Chapman unleash the unsettled spirits of the past in five frightening stories collected by celebrated editor, author, and horror guru Brian James Freeman.

THE WAY LOST by Kelley Armstrong
The kids in Franklin don’t ask questions. Each Halloween, one of them disappears into the forest. Dale promised his mother he’d never go into the woods alone. But the kids in Franklin also lie.

LA CALAVERA by Kate Maruyama
The Día de los Muertos Festival at the Hollywood Cemetery used to be ours. Now, without Jasmine, it’s only right that I go one last time in her honour – before I let her go for good …

THE DEVIL’S DUE by Michael McBride
Pine Springs, Colorado, has prospered for generations by honoring its traditions and its promises. Then one man refuses to do his civic duty – and the price he must pay is fatally steep.

A THOUSAND ROOMS OF DARKNESS by Taylor Grant
Samhainophobia: an irrational fear of Halloween. Phasmophobia: an irrational fear of ghosts. For Anne, these terrors are more rational than she knows.

THE LAST NIGHT OF OCTOBER by Greg Chapman
Every year, one little boy wearing a grotesque Frankenstein mask comes knocking at Gerald’s door. Gerald has always managed to avoid him … until this year. 

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The Murders of Molly Southbourne – Tade Thompson

Spoilers Ahead!

💉 Halloween Haemorrhage Book! 💉

Molly Southbourne’s parents teach her four very important rules:

“If you see yourself, run. Don’t bleed. Blot, burn, bleach. Find a hole, find your parents.“

Sorry, but that’s about all you’re getting from me about The Murders of Molly Southbourne. If I tell you any more than what you read in the book’s blurb I’m going to spoil the story for you.

This novella is a quick read and I needed to keep reading to find out how it was all going to be resolved. There’s a nice twist and potential for another book. I’m usually a fan of endings that don’t form question marks above my head but for Molly I really feel the ambiguity of what happens after the final sentence works in its favour. Having said that, should there be another Molly/molly book I would be interested.

Despite rule #2, there is a fair bit of bloodshed in this book so if you’ve got a case of haemophobia and an overactive imagination, buyer beware. It’s in context with the storyline and I didn’t feel it was gratuitous at all.

There was one section that really annoyed me because it didn’t feel like it belonged in or added any value to the story. I didn’t see why there had to be a threesome with Molly, the professor and a molly. Call me a prude if you want but I just don’t see why you’d be interested in having sex with your doppelgänger and if for some reason you were, why you would when you know you’re going to kill them in a few hours time.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

The rule is simple: don’t bleed.

For as long as Molly Southbourne can remember, she’s been watching herself die. Whenever she bleeds, another molly is born, identical to her in every way and intent on her destruction.

Molly knows every way to kill herself, but she also knows that as long as she survives she’ll be hunted. No matter how well she follows the rules, eventually the mollys will find her. Can Molly find a way to stop the tide of blood, or will she meet her end at the hand of a girl who looks just like her?

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The Deep Sky Saga #1: Achilles – Greg Boose

Spoilers Ahead!

Achilles, the first book in a planned trilogy, follows Jonah Lincoln, a first year cadet on board the Mayflower 2 on its way to Thetis, a planet in the Silver Foot Galaxy, accessible from Earth through a wormhole. After crash landing on one of Thetis’ moons, Achilles, Jonah and the other survivors start to try to come to grips with their situation. Suddenly all of the adults vanish, leaving the kids alone in a world they know almost nothing about, despite the 1,200 plus page report about Achilles provided to each of them during their 380 day spacecraft journey, which apparently almost none of them bothered to read.

The first half of this book was basically non-stop action. Things exploded, were ripped apart, were on fire. People lost arms, were impaled, sliced in half. We ran, we jumped, we climbed. Pretty much everywhere we went the body count rose. I really should have been keeping count but more than two thirds of the people we started with have been obliterated, exploded, sliced, diced or squished.

The body count rose so quickly without a great deal of character development so a lot of the deaths had me thinking, ‘Which one was that again?’ then moving on without being sure because there was bound to be another gruesome casualty right around the corner. The maiming and death scenes in this book were quite visceral. Greg Boose is certainly fond of blood, vomit and froth dripping from nostrils.

The only way you were getting any respite from the constant action in the first half was if you were unconscious or dead. Like the characters I just wanted to go and have a quick nap to get a small amount of respite from the mayhem. There were a couple of times where I was so caught up in the action that I’m pretty sure I was holding my breath, particularly around the time there was the threat of people being impaled on porcupine trees. Throughout this book, when you think their situation can’t get any worse, hold on, because it can and will.

The word that kept coming to me while I was reading the first half was cinematic. I could see the bloodshed and chaos unfolding around me like I was watching a movie. I was immersed in this strange world with its awesome gravity that allows you to leap over obstacles in a single bound and run with ten foot strides. The locations and the wildlife were described so well that Greg Boose seemed to implant a series of photographs in my imagination.

I liked Jonah as a character but I did get frustrated with him continually saying that his recruitment as a cadet was his opportunity to start over, which was almost immediately followed by him wanting to give up or thinking he should do something yet failing to and beating himself up for it. As an orphan who grew up in a series of abusive foster homes, Jonah is a survivor and as he desperately wanted to make a new life for himself I expected a dogged determination and stubbornness from him that didn’t really shine through.

Around the halfway mark we met Tunick who from the get go reminded me of Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. I felt like I was suffering the effects of a hallucinogen whenever he was flitting around. He was hyper, he was all over the place emotionally, he was unpredictable and the things that came out of his mouth made a fairly limited amount of sense. He was the town weirdo and yes, I did enjoy hanging out with him although I’m glad I was able to do so at a safe distance.

As I’ve mentioned before, the lack of character development was an issue for me. We learned bits and pieces about some of the people but not enough for me to form attachments to them or to consistently distinguish which person had just been killed off. When I got to the big reveal of who someone was near the end of the book I actually had to ask myself who they were. I recognised the name but didn’t know which kid it was.

Then there was a description of how this person acted just after the crash and I was like, “Oh!”. Then, “Hold on. I need more information. Is he the one that …?” I proceed to search that person’s name on my Kindle and it turned out it was the one that … but I think that was just a lucky guess. My Kindle name search also revealed something else about that person and I honestly thought that fact related to a different person. That sort of thing doesn’t usually happen to me.

The final quarter frustrated me no end. I get that there needs to be a set up for the second book but the storyline lost my interest. Without the vivid descriptions of new locations to hold on to I was annoyed with a lot of the characters and had some ‘Seriously???’ moments.

I have some unanswered questions and frustrations that are bugging me now that I’ve finished reading. I understand that this is the first book in a trilogy but I expect by the time the next book comes out I will probably have either forgotten about them completely or they won’t be burning questions anymore.

I may have missed it but I don’t remember there being an explanation for how the kids knew which symbols to press and in what order on the wall when they were in the cave. I know there were academics who probably figured out a pattern or something but Jonah also knew what to do intuitively and he wasn’t an academic.

Not completely separate from the above, who created the portals? How? Why? Is there a codex somewhere that explains what each symbol means, what order you need to press them in to wake them up and what each symbol combination does?

Why wasn’t Jonah as greatly affected by the verve as the other kids?

When Jonah is being guided by the thin white line, it that a side effect of the verve or a side effect of his blood disease?

Is the blood disease a real thing or is there something else about Jonah and Brooklyn that causes their eye issues?

As Jonah himself even wonders, what was so special about him that got him recruited? Is it something related to the eye thing?

Why is he now the chosen one and what’s the deal with those stupid seeds?

Who or what is Zion?

Different kids keep trying to tell Jonah why Thetis is such a bad place. Just once, would he please let them finish their story?!

In summary, the descriptions of location, animals, plants, blood and guts, all awesome. The character development, not so awesome. My rating is difficult so I’ll break it down for you:

  • First half of the book with all the cool descriptions and the movie playing in my mind – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • Third quarter with Johnny Depp 2.0 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • Final act with question marks and frustration levels peaking – ⭐️⭐️
  • Overall rating – as there are so many academics in this book I’m doing this mathematically. If my maths skills haven’t failed me, the average across the board is 3.75, so I’m rounding up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

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

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

The year is 2221, and humans have colonized an earthlike planet called Thetis in the Silver Foot Galaxy. After a tragic accident kills off dozens of teenage colonists, Thetis’s leaders are desperate to repopulate. So the Mayflower 2, a state-of-the-art spaceship, sets off across the universe to bring 177 new recruits to the colony. 

For Jonah Lincoln, an orphaned teen who’s bounced between foster homes and spent time on the streets of Cleveland, the voyage is a chance to reinvent himself, to be strong and independent and brave the way he could never be on Earth. But his dreams go up in smoke when their ship crash-lands, killing half the passengers and leaving the rest stranded – not on Thetis, but on its cruel and unpeopled moon, Achilles. 

Between its bloodthirsty alien life forms and its distance from their intended location, Achilles is far from an ideal resting place. The situation is already dire, but when all of the adults suddenly disappear, leaving the teenage passengers to fend for themselves, Jonah doubts they’ll survive at all, much less reach Thetis. Especially when it appears Achilles isn’t as uninhabited as they were led to believe.

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Pride of the Decent Man – T.J. Kirsch

Spoilers Ahead!

I was surprised by how emotionally attached I became to the main character in Pride of the Decent Man. Told in chapters, this graphic novel follows the life of Andrew Peters. Growing up in an abusive home, Andrew’s Grandma teaches him to hold onto the good times to get through the bad. His Grandma takes photos throughout her life to reflect on as she grows older. Inspired by her, Andrew begins to write, capturing his thoughts and experiences in a series of journals.

Andrew tries to do the right thing in his life but allows his friend Whitey to consistently rope him into plans which never turn out the way he intends. The idea of redemption is common in a lot of what Andrew has been reading and when he discovers he has a daughter he hopes that his chance to redeem himself has come.

My heart melted when Andrew reads to his daughter what he wants to say to her. He’s more comfortable writing than speaking and the fact that he wanted to get this interaction with his daughter just right was so touching.

Ultimately Andrew is a good man who strives to overcome his past and I imagine he just wants to be the kind of man who his Grandma, then girlfriend and finally his daughter will be proud of. He leads a quiet, often solitary existence and I found myself really liking him. I was proud of him for taking responsibility for his actions and I wanted everything to turn out well for him.

In under 100 pages, T.J. Kirsch made me connect with his main character more than a lot of authors of 400 plus page novels do. The writing was fairly sparse but this made the words that were written have more of an impact. The illustrations told the rest of the story, allowing access to Andrew’s emotions. Sometimes in graphic novels you can feel a disconnect between the story and the illustrations. Given that this graphic novel was written and drawn by the same person, there was no feeling of anything being lost in the translation.

I really liked the interplay between the handwritten portions of Andrew’s journals and the speech. The flashback scenes added to the story and were done in such a way that they blended in to the story and I didn’t find them distracting as a reader. I loved the use of the birds’ silhouettes throughout and particularly loved the symbolism of the brightly coloured butterflies in the final panel.

I suppose part of what drew me to Andrew was the fact that I’m also more comfortable expressing myself through writing than speaking. I do know I wasn’t expecting a great deal from this graphic novel and I’ve come away having read it twice so far with respect and admiration for this rough around the edges main character.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, NBM Publishing and Papercutz for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

In a sleepy New England town, Andrew Peters is born into an abusive family. As he grows older, he seems to be on the right track, using writing as his outlet — but his best friend Whitey is always pulling him in the opposite direction. Andrew eventually lands himself in prison, and shortly thereafter, learns he has a daughter. The shock resolves him to a path of redemption and an attempt to live his life as a decent man.

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The Little Red Wolf – Amélie Fléchais

Illustrations – Jeremy Melloul

Spoilers Ahead!

Well, that was dark and depressing. The young wolf is on his way to his grandmother’s house to deliver a freshly slaughtered rabbit and is warned to stay away from a certain area of the forest because that’s where the horrible hunter and his daughter live. On the way he gets distracted, hungry and lost. He eats the rabbit intended for his grandmother and then worries about getting into trouble.

Along comes a nice young girl who offers to take him to her place for a replacement rabbit and he naïvely follows, unknowingly walking into a trap. We end up hearing two versions of the same story at the end of the book, both told as songs to the same tune. In one version the wolves killed the hunter’s wife. Therefore, wolves are evil and we must kill them all. In the other version the hunter’s wife was friends with the wolves and when the hunter couldn’t find his wife one night he got worried and searched for her. Seeing her with the wolves he was afraid and shot at the wolves, accidentally killing his wife.

While some of the illustrations are intricate and gorgeous, others are dark and would most likely give young children nightmares if this was their bedtime story. I know that generally the fairy tales we’ve known all our lives didn’t originate with the Disney version we’re used to but that doesn’t mean I want to read them to a young child. I can see this book being appreciated by some older children and adults but I personally wouldn’t want to buy it.

Thank you very much to NetGalley, Lion Forge and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

A young wolf, on a journey to bring his grandmother a rabbit, is charmed by the nice little girl who offers to help him … but nice is not the same as good.

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Dollface Volume 2 – Dan Mendoza

Spoilers Ahead!

Disclaimer for this review: I haven’t read the first volume of Dollface and I hadn’t checked out its reviews prior to reading this graphic novel so my interest in Dollface Volume 2 was based solely on its blurb and the image on the cover.

Emily and Ivan are the students who made Lila. Emily’s girlfriend Paige attends school in California while Emily is studying at M.I.T. Emily wants to visit Paige but can’t afford the travel cost or time because of mid-terms so Ivan, a ghost, creates a portal and the three of them whoosh through the portal to L.A. Once in L.A., Lila’s witch alert system activates so she and Ivan go check it out while Emily catches up with Paige. Then all hell breaks loose.

I like the concept of a 17th century witch hunter being transported to present time into the body of a doll that a couple of students created with a 3D printer. Also I generally love all things relating to witches, ghosts, tattoos, people with brightly coloured hair and blood spatter, so I figured this was a pretty safe bet for me. This time I was mistaken. Not much offends me but I personally found this graphic novel quite disgusting and wrong on so many levels.

Had I not committed to reviewing this graphic novel I would have stopped reading as soon as I turned the page and saw the woman eating babies in the basement of a medical clinic that offers abortions.

I’m sure there’s an audience for this type of graphic novel but it’s definitely not me. I take full responsibility for not doing enough research before I requested a review copy of this one. Had I done my research I would have known I wasn’t part of the target audience. Lesson learned.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Once Upon a Blurb

The adventures continue as Lila, Emily and Ivan set off to sunny California in search of the next witch on Lila’s list. In this story, Emily meets up with her long distance love, Ivan learns more about his ghostly form and Lila exhibits what she’s capable of when pushed to the limits. Get ready for California carnage in Volume 2 of Dollface: Tales of the ball jointed witch hunter!

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