At Certain Points We Touch by Lauren John Joseph Mini Monday Review (Spoiler Book Review)| CarenzaOnBooks

Today's Mini Monday review is for At Certain Points We Touch by Lauren John Joseph. I was kindly sent a digital copy of their latest release via NetGalley, so thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy to read. Normally, these posts are spoiler free, but I can't figure out how to talk about this book without discussing potential spoilers. It's now out in the UK in hardback and kindle editions. 

Taken from Google Images

Plot

It's four in the morning, and our narrator, a trans writer living in Mexico City, is walking home from the club when they realise that it's February 29th – the birthday of the man who was something like their first love. Piecing together art, letters, dirty DMs and memory, they set about trying to write the story of a doomed love affair that first sparked and burned a decade ago.

Ten years earlier, and our young narrator and a boy named Thomas James, long aware of one another across bars and readings and other murky late-night gatherings, fall into bed with one another over the summer of their graduation. Their ensuing affair, with its violent, animal intensity, its intoxicating and toxic power play, will initiate a dance of repulsion and attraction that will cross years, span continents, drag in countless victims – and culminate in terrible betrayal.

A riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman, narrated with caustic wit and deep sorrow, At Certain Points We Touch is a story of first love and last rites, conjured against a vivid backdrop of queer London, San Francisco and New York - in all their colour, struggle, decadence and resilience.

Taken from Goodreads.

What I Liked

One of the few things that I liked about this book was how diverse the characters were. Our main character was trans, there were various sexualities represented, characters from all over the world and different backgrounds. I don't think I've ever read a book so diverse as this. Sadly, this is where my glowing praise for the book ends as it was basically the only thing I liked about this book. 

What I Didn't Like 

Which means it's time to talk about the things I didn't like about this book. The main relationship between Bibby and Thomas was beyond toxic. It was abusive. I despised Thomas, he was just an awful character with no redeeming qualities. Bibby was one of those characters that would never do anything to help themselves and would complain about how bad their life was. Having read a little bit about the author, there are similarities between the characters. Both were born in the UK, educated in America and went onto become successful writers in various fields. I just couldn't stand either of the main characters. It seemed they used sex to try and fix their relationship. And it was always quite graphic, brutal sex. Every time there was a sex scene, it was uncomfortable to read. Most of the reviews on NetGalley were four or five stars, and then there was mine at two stars. I probably wouldn't recommend this book as it just wasn't a good book due to the characters, plot and poor writing. Normally, I would refrain from talking about a book so negatively as I don't think it's helpful to other readers and reviewers, but I would not recommend reading this one.

What did you think of At Certain Points We Touch?? Did you have a better reading experience than me??

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson Book Review (Contains Spoilers)|CarenzaOnBooks

Title- Open Water

Author- Caleb Azumah Nelson

Series- N/A

Published- 2021

Page Count- 163 pages

Publishing House- Penguin

Genre- literary fiction, modern fiction

Rating- 4/5 stars

About the Author

Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer. His debut novel, Open Water, won the Costa Book Award for First Novel.

Taken from Wikipedia.

Plot

In a crowded London pub, two young people meet. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists--he a photographer, she a dancer--and both are trying to make their mark in a world that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence, and over the course of a year they find their relationship tested by forces beyond their control.

Narrated with deep intimacy, Open Water is at once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity that asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body; to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength; to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, and blistering emotional intelligence, Caleb Azumah Nelson gives a profoundly sensitive portrait of romantic love in all its feverish waves and comforting beauty.

This is one of the most essential debut novels of recent years, heralding the arrival of a stellar and prodigious young talent.

Taken from Goodreads

Opinions   

Open Water is currently the fiction book of the month at work and one I had wanted to read for a while. I had heard a lot of good things about it and rightly so. This book has some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read. I've recently started underlining/annotating my books and I highlighted so many great lines in this book. To think that Caleb Azumah Nelzon is only in his twenties and the potential he has ahead of him is insane. This book won the Costa First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year, which it deserved. If the only thing that you take away from this review, is that it has beautiful writing, then I'm okay with that. 

The story was a very interesting one. It was a lot of small threads being pulled together to form this overall story. I'd say the main one was the love story between the main characters, whose names you never actually learn. Then what it's like to be a young, Black artist is another important theme discussed. There's also a lot of racism and how Black people are treated in the UK. For a book that's only 163 pages, it packs a lot in. It very rarely feels like there's too much happening and the story moves at the right pace. 

Speaking of the story, the reason I gave it 4/5 stars was because it was predictable that they would break up. It always seems to happen and it would have been nice to see them stay together as a couple. They clearly cared for each other and could have supported him after his traumatic experience with the police. I also wanted to get to the relationship a tiny bit quicker as I'm impatient and that stage of a book is always interesting.

At the end of the version I had, it included the short story Pray, which Caleb Azumah Nelson wrote for the BBC Young Writer's competition. You could really see the growth in his writing from Pray to Open Water. I actually struggled with Pray because the writing style was so different. I can't wait to see what he writes next as he is such a talented young writer. I imagine this will be one of my favourite books of the year. 

What did you think of Open Water??  

The Hatmakers by Tamzin Merchant Mini Monday Review (Spoiler Free Book Review)| CarenzaOnBooks

Welcome to the first in a new series on my blog, called Mini Monday Reviews! In essence, these are going to be small reviews, focusing on the things I liked and didn't like, in either a book, film or TV show. They aren't going to be as detailed as my normal reviews, but a chance to highlight some of the things I've been reading and watching that I wouldn't get a chance to review normally. Without further a do, let's get into the first Mini Monday Review! 

Plot

Cordelia Hatmaker's father is lost at sea and she is determined to find him. Along the way, she learns of the King's madness and how the other Maker families have all had precious items stolen from them. Together, this leads Cordelia on an epic adventure across an alternative version of Georgian London, filled with magic, madness and a little bit of mayhem. 

For more information on The Hatmakers, you can read the Goodreads page, by clicking here. 

What I Liked

This was our Children's Book of the Month at work (I work as a bookseller at my local Waterstones) and I forgot to bring my book to work one day, so on my break I started this. I was hooked. I hadn't read much kids/middle grade before and this is definitely the type of book I'd like to read more of. It had exactly the type of adventure I like, which is something goes missing and our characters have to hunt for clues. I thought Cordelia was a great character. She was fierce and determined, but also capable of showing her sadness after her father went missing and when she fell out with her friend. I thought the world of the Maker families was quite unique alongside the typical tension between rivals. It left enough room to be intrigued for a sequel, which comes out later this month. It was just a really good adventure story with solid characters and a story that kept you wanting more at just the right pace. 

What I Didn't Like

I feel like the blurb was a bit misleading as it seemed that the focus would be about Cordelia's father being missing, where as this quickly became a smaller plot line. The main plot line was about the missing Maker's items, which was a good plot line, but not what I expected. I also guessed who the villain was as it was fairly predictable. Overall, I have very few complaints about this book as I really enjoyed it and it's sparked an interest in reading more books like this.

What did you think of The Hatmakers by Tamzin Merchant?? Are you excited for the sequel?? 

The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Google Images

Title- The Key in the Lock

Author- Beth Underdown

Series- N/A

Published- 2022

Page Count- 304

Publishing House- Penguin

Genre- Historical fiction, gothic, mystery

Rating- 3/5 stars

Note- thank you to Penguin for sending me an eARC via NetGalley to review. 

About the Author

Beth Underdown was born in Rochdale in 1987. She studied at the University of York and then the University of Manchester, where she is now a Lecturer in Creative Writing.

The Witchfinder’s Sister, her debut novel, was published by Viking in the UK and Ballantine in the US in 2017, was a Richard and Judy bestseller and won the HWA Goldsboro Crown Debut Award. The Key in the Lock, her second novel, is out now with Viking.

Taken from Beth's website.

Plot 

I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unfurling out of an upper window and a hectic orange light cascading across the terrace.

By day, Ivy Boscawen mourns the loss of her son Tim in the Great War. But by night she mourns another boy - one whose death decades ago haunts her still.

For Ivy is sure that there is more to what happened all those years ago: the fire at the Great House, and the terrible events that came after. A truth she must uncover, if she is ever to be free.

Brimming with secrets, this lyrical haunting historical thriller is perfect for fans of Elizabeth Macneal, Sarah Waters and Diane Setterfield.

Taken from Goodreads

Opinions

I'd like to start this review by thanking the publishers for sending me an eARC to review via NetGalley. I received a copy in exchange for a review. Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres to read and one I find myself gravitating towards more. When I joined NetGalley, this was one of the first books I saw and thought that sounded interesting. I feel very lucky to have received an early copy to read.  

Before I get into my actual review, I want to quickly talk about the format of the book. So I was sent a digital copy to review and while I'm grateful, I think this format attributed to some of my problems with the book. I've seen quite a few people on Twitter talk about the format of these documents and how it makes them difficult to read. I have to agree. The layout is really odd, with sentences being randomly broken. It isn't always clear when there's a new chapter. I think there's a way to fix it, but I personally don't know. I just wanted to add that to my review as that's part of the reason why I gave it 3 stars.

Now, let's get into the review. The first thing I want to say is that I found it difficult to get into. This is a dual narrative story, with one half being in 1918 as Ivy grieves for her son, and the other half in 1888, the events of Polneath fire. In the 1918 sections, I noticed the author would have quite lengthy flashbacks to 1888, which I found confusing. I couldn't always work out which time section I was reading about. For example, in the 1888 section, Ivy's future husband was referred to as Boscawen until the last few chapters. While in the 1918 sections, he was Richard. I think to ease confusion, it would have made more sense to keep him with the same name. I understand why the author did it as it led to a big reveal that they had gotten married, but they felt like two different characters. 

Out of the two storylines, I preferred the 1888 one. The mystery around William's death and the creepy things that kept on happening at the house were much more intriguing to me. I also found Ivy a much more likeable character in the 1888 storyline. She felt more human, more compassionate. There was a focus on what was happening in the moment, rather than drifting between the two storylines. It was also a fairly compact story, with the events taking place over a week, rather than a year. The 1800s is a time period I gravitate towards reading anyway, so the 1900s one threw me a bit. This is entirely a personal preference. 

I have mixed feelings about Ivy as a protagonist. At times, I found her compelling. In the 1888 storyline, she grew on me. She was intelligent, kind and fierce. In the 1918 one, she was very selfish. She didn't seem to care for Richard or the people that worked on her house. She was all over the place. Her connection with Edward felt really unhealthy. He was significantly older than her and took advantage of her. I think at around the halfway mark, Ivy became a more likeable character, but that was because it took me almost half the book to get into the book. 

The reveal at the end that Edward was actually the villain rather than his father wasn't the most exciting twist. To me, it undermined the whole plot, which was about finding out why Tim had died and what had actually happened in 1888. I didn't really like Edward, he felt a bit off to me. He just wanted different women to sleep with and was not a very nice person. We learn quite early on that Ivy was involved in Old Man Tremain's (Edward's father) death. However, all she did was cover for Edward. I was expecting a bit more, that she had been partially responsible for the fire. It wasn't the best ending.

Overall, after a rocky start, this did grow on me. I think I enjoyed the last half more, apart from the ending. I can see why people liked this, but it wasn't entirely for me in the end. The Key in the Lock comes out today and I've included a link here where you can purchase a copy from Waterstones. 

What did you think of The Key in the Lock??

The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Title- The Christmas Murder Game

Author- Alexandra Benedict

Series- N/A

Published- 2021

Page Count- 353 pages

Publishing House- Bonnier Books

Genre- murder mystery, Christmas 

Rating- 3/5 stars

About the Author

A K Benedict read English at Cambridge and Creative Writing at the University of Sussex. She writes in a room filled with mannequins, clowns and teapots.

Her debut novel, The Beauty of Murder (Orion), was shortlisted for an eDunnit award and is in development for an 8-part TV series. Her second novel, Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts (Orion), was published in February 2016 and The Stone House, a tie-in novel for Doctor Who spin-off Class, was published by BBC Books in October.

Taken from Alexandra's website. 

Plot

Follow the clues. Find the fortune. Solve the Mystery. This Christmas is to die for. Let the game begin...

'Endgame has kept our secrets for half a century, now it's time for it, and its secrets, to have a new owner.'

When Lily returns home to her aunt's manor house, she discovers that in order to inherit, she and her estranged cousins must stay together over the Christmas week and take part in a family tradition: the annual treasure hunt. But as they are drawn deeper into the game, the clues seem to point not to the deeds to the manor house, but to the key to a twenty-year-old mystery: what really happened to Lily's mother?

As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, it becomes apparent that the game has turned deadly and that Lily is fighting for more than just an inheritance: she is now fighting for her life. Does she have what it takes to survive? 12 clues, 12 keys and 12 days of Christmas for the heirs of Endgame House to find their inheritance, but how many will die before Twelfth Night?

Taken from Goodreads

Opinions

I bought this on a whim at work because I wanted something festive to read as I really wasn't feeling festive. I had seen this on the shelf and thought it looked interesting. With hindsight, I wish I had read more reviews of it as I probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise. 

I think the best way of summarising how I feel about this book is that I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I enjoyed it. It was easy and fun to read. I read it in a few days when I wasn't feeling well and was having to commute for work, so it was nice to have something to take my mind off everything. There were also some great descriptions, such as "she tutted like a pissed off clock", which really made me chuckle. I thought that was a great description. Without looking too closely at the plot or the writing, this was actually an okay book. I originally gave it 3.5/5 stars, but after some consideration I decided to deduct the half star as it didn't feel right.

Now let's get to the other hand. Let's start with the quality of the writing. It wasn't that good. The author seemed very fond of odd similes that didn't quite work. It was good that they were thinking out of the box with their description, but the similes were really odd and ended up detracting from the point. The plot was also kinda predictable. I figured out quite early on that Tom was the murderer because it's always someone close to the main character. He was just a bit too nice and obsessed with Lily. Then there was the incest between cousins (which I think is a thing), that didn't sit well with me. Lily was also kinda a dull protagonist. She just kept on doing stupid things that put her in danger. 

This book did have good LGBT+ rep, with gay and bisexual rep. It also called out biphobic people, which you don't often see. Overall, while this was a fun and easy read, I had a lot of problems with it and I wanted to write a quick review about it. 

This is my last blog post of 2021, which is crazy to think. But to whoever is reading this, thank you for reading my little blog. I've had a lot of fun creating content this year and can't wait to see what I create in 2022!

What did you think of the Christmas Murder Game??  

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Title- The Wolf Den

Author- Elodie Harper

Series- The Wolf Den trilogy

Published- 2021

Page Count- 451

Publishing House- Head of Zeus 

Genre- historical fiction, feminist

Rating- 4/5 stars 

Trigger warnings- sexual assault, violence and offensive language 

About the Author

Elodie Harper is a journalist and prize-winning short story writer. Her story 'Wild Swimming' won the 2016 Bazaar of Bad Dreams short story competition, which was judged by Stephen King.

She is currently a reporter at ITV News Anglia, and before that worked as a producer for Channel 4 News. Her job as a journalist has seen her join one of the most secretive wings of the Church of Scientology and cover the far right hip hop scene in Berlin, as well as crime reporting in Norfolk where her first two novels were set – The Binding Song and The Death Knock.

Elodie studied Latin poetry both in the original and in translation as part of her English Literature degree at Oxford, instilling a lifelong interest in the ancient world. The Wolf Den is the first in a trilogy of novels about the lives of women in ancient Pompeii.

Taken from Elodie's website.

Plot

Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii's brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den...

Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father's death plunged her family into penury. Now she is a slave in Pompeii's infamous brothel, owned by a man she despises. Sharp, clever and resourceful, Amara is forced to hide her talents. For as a she-wolf, her only value lies in the desire she can stir in others.

But Amara's spirit is far from broken.

By day, she walks the streets with her fellow she-wolves, finding comfort in the laughter and dreams they share. For the streets of Pompeii are alive with opportunity. Out here, even the lowest slave can secure a reversal in fortune. Amara has learnt that everything in this city has its price. But how much is her freedom going to cost her?

Set in Pompeii's lupanar, The Wolf Den reimagines the lives of women who have long been overlooked.

Taken from Goodreads.

Opinions  

I think this came out at the beginning of the year just as we went into Lockdown because I remember seeing it in the windows of bookshops and thinking it looked interesting. I was quite surprised by how quickly this came out in paperback as it can usually take 9-12 months for a book to come out in paperback. I bought a copy in Oxford during my birthday bookshop crawl in August. I am a big fan of historical fiction, I'd say it's one of my favourite genres. I tend to read a lot of Greek inspired historical fiction, so I was excited to read a Roman inspired one. 

At first, I struggled with the cast of characters. I did read this book while I had a bad head cold, so I found concentrating on all the names and remembering who was who a bit challenging. However, these characters grew on me. No one was good or bad. They were just people, trying to survive in the brutal world they found themselves in. The protagonist, Amara, did some questionable things at times, including hurting the people she loved, but it was so she could live to see another day. Felix, the manager of the brothel, was set up to be this horrible person, but when you learnt of his backstory, it was clear that he was just filling the role that had been given to them. Everyone had layers and I enjoyed how realistic they felt. They were a very strong set of characters, wonderfully crafted by Elodie Harper.

One of the things I wasn't the biggest fan of was how Amara seemed to bounce from man to man. It felt like by the end of things, she had too many love interests (which is completely the wrong word, but I can't find the one I'm looking for). It seemed that nearly important man she met fell in love with her. It's a trope that gets used a lot and is personally not a favourite. This was one of the few qualms I had with this book.

I felt that this book captured the brutality of the situation the characters found themselves in. Elodie Harper really didn't shy away from throwing everything she possibly could at her characters. They went through so much. The two character deaths of Cressa and Dido were gut wrenching. Especially as Dido's came so soon after Cressa's. I think saying I liked how brutal this book was is the wrong way of phrasing it, but the honesty and brutality throughout this book kept you hooked. I had to know if the characters were okay. Yes, it did take me ten days to read this book because of how busy I was, but I made time to read it because I cared about these characters.

This is the first book in a trilogy and I am now impatiently waiting for the other two books to come out in paperback so I can inhale them. I love historical fiction with strong female characters, so this ticked all my boxes.  

What did you think of the Wolf Den??

Once Upon a Winter: A Folk and Fairy Tale Anthology Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Taken from Asha's twitter

Title- Once Upon a Winter: A Folk and Fairy Tale Anthology

Author- edited by H.L Macfarlane

Series- N/A

Published- 2021

Page Count- 369 pages

Publishing House- Macfarlane Lantern Publishing 

Genre- anthology, short stories 

Rating- 3/5 stars

About the Antholgy

A list of stories and contributors to the anthology:

The Biting Cold by Josie Jaffrey
The Match Girl by Rebecca F. Kenney
Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bharat Krishnan
A Pea Ever After by Adie Hart
The Snowdrop by H. L. Macfarlane
Silverfoot’s Edge by Ella T. Holmes
The Storm Hags by Caroline Logan
The Boggart of Boggart Hole Clough by Jake Curran-Pipe
Around the Hawthorne Tree by Jenna Smithwick
The Best Girl this Side of Winter by Laila Amado
The Snow Trolls by S. Markem
Lord of the Forest by Katherine Shaw
Queen of the Snows by Joyce Reynolds-Ward
Long Meg and the Sorcerer’s Stones by M. J. Weatherall
The Frost of Mercy by A. J. Van Belle
Wintercast by R. A. Gerritse
You Can’t See Me by Kate Longstone

Taken from Amazon

Plot

Once upon a time stories travelled from place to place on the tongues of merchants and thieves and kings alike. Under the blanket of night they were exchanged between children, and passed on to their children, and their children after them. Details were altered from one generation to the next until thousands of tales existed where once there were few.

In the spirit of these age-old stories comes Once Upon a Winter, a seasonal anthology of folk and fairy tales from 17 authors across the globe. It covers the Gothic, the romantic, the whimsical, the frightening and everything in-between, and features both intriguing twists on classic tales and exciting original stories.

The first of four planned seasonal anthologies from Macfarlane Lantern Publishing, Once Upon a Winter is sure to have a story for just about everyone. Grab your copy in time for Christmas today!

Taken from Amazon

Opinions

I'd like to start this blog post by thanking the team at Story Origin for sending me a digital proof ahead of publication to read. They were a really nice team to work with and it was easy to apply to receive a copy. As a small blogger/content creator, it can be hard to get to this stage with a company, so it was lovely working with them.

I found this anthology through Twitter, after seeing someone I follow rave about it. I don't normally read anthologies or short story collections, but this sounded like something I would enjoy. There was mentions of fantasy and queer characters, which are two things I enjoy reading about. One of the big things going for this collection was the wide range of stories featured in it. From how the authors approached the theme, to the age range of the intended audience, I felt that there was something for everyone. They all felt like very original takes on the fairy tales included. I particularly enjoyed the environmental theme throughout this anthology. It felt very relevant at the moment. 

My favourite story in the collection, without a shadow of a doubt, was A Pea Ever After by Adie Hart. I liked the mythology of the world, the characters and just the story in general. It really stood out to me within the collection.  I would actually like to read more about this particular world as I could see these characters having a lot of fun going off on different adventures. I would also be interested in reading more of Adie's work. It was a fun, light hearted, feminist and queer story. So it ticked all my boxes. 

Personally, I struggled to connect with most of the stories in this collection. There was so much potential, but it often felt rushed or lacking in world building. At 369 pages, this is a very long anthology. I read it during a very busy period of my life, and I thought it would be something I could easily dip in and out off, but it took me almost two weeks to read it. While there was a wide range of stories, I think it could have done with a bit of tailoring as at times it felt like the target audience was adults, then YA and then for children. All the jumping around made it hard to follow. I can see why people have enjoyed it, but I think it just wasn't for me in the end. 

   

What did you think of Once Upon a Winter??

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Title- Detransition, Baby

Author- Torrey Peters

Series- N/A 

Published- 2021

Page Count- 340 pages

Publishing House- Serpent's Tail

Genre- feminist, LGBTQIA+, contemporary

Rating- 3.5/5 stars

About the Author

Torrey Peters is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, published by One World/Random House, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She is also the authors of the novellas Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones and The Masker. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa and a Masters in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth. Torrey rides a pink motorcycle and splits her time between Brooklyn and an off-grid cabin in Vermont.

Taken from Torrey's website. 

Plot

A whipsmart debut about three women—transgender and cisgender—whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires around gender, motherhood, and sex.

Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.

Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?

This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel. 

Taken from Goodreads.

Opinions 

I borrowed this from my local library after stumbling across a copy while looking for something else. I had wanted to read this after seeing it was nominated for the Women's Fiction Prize, which some people challenged as Torrey is a trans author. Having read it, I can say that I believe it deserved to be nominated as it tackled important issues for women and was written by a woman. I felt that this had a strong start, I was immediately hooked in and wanted to find out what happened next. 

The premise was very strong. The discussions around what it is to be a mother or a parent in the modern age was interesting. I liked that we had three very different perspectives on womanhood from three people who experienced it differently. I felt that bouncing between Ames and Reese's perspectives helped with what the other was saying. I would have liked a bit more insight into Katrina's perspective as it wasn't always easy to connect or sympathise with her. We got to see what Ames and Reese were thinking, where as we didn't with Katrina. I think it would have added something to the story.

I loved the three main characters. They felt so real, raw and chaotic. Reese in particular, with some of the decisions she made, felt like someone you will probably meet at some point in your life. Her emotions and life were always all over the place. Even though we are told she had everything, we got to see that she didn't and that she was just human. I think I enjoyed reading from Ames/Amy the most. He felt grounded in reality, with all the different stages in his life. His journey from when he transitioned to Amy and then back to Ames was an interesting one. I personally like reading about flawed characters with engaging backstories and I certainly got this with this book.

I didn't like the ending. I found it too rushed and it wasn't quite what I wanted from this book. We've spent all this time reading about these people becoming ready to be parents, only for it not to happen. I would have loved to see them form a queer family and raise this child. We spent so much time reading about them wanting to be parents, all those decisions and then Katrina's choice to have an abortion, kinda came out of nowhere. I felt let down by the ending, as otherwise I would have given this 4 stars.

A small qualm I had with this book was that I found the chapters too long. I would have preferred shorter chapters, especially as they were covering quite large amounts of time. I'm someone who likes to read to the end of the chapter and then finish my reading sessions, but the longer chapters in this made it difficult. This is a personal preference, but did impact my reading experience.   

 

What did you think of Detransition, Baby??

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

 

Title- The Devil and the Dark Water

Author- Stuart Turton

Series- N/A

Published- 2020

Page Count- 548 pages (UK paperback)

Publishing House- Sourcebooks Landmark

Genre- murder mystery, supernatural, crime and detective

Rating-4/5 stars

About the Author

Stuart lives in London with his amazing wife and daughter. He drinks lots of tea. What else?

​When he left university he went travelling for three months and stayed away for five years. Every time his parents asked when he’d be back he told them next week, and meant it. Stuart is not to be trusted. In the nicest possible way. He’s got a degree in English and Philosophy, which makes him excellent at arguing and terrible at choosing degrees.

Having trained for no particular career, he has dabbled in most of them. He stocked shelves in a Darwin bookshop, taught English in Shanghai, worked for a technology magazine in London, wrote travel articles in Dubai, and now he’s a freelance journalist. None of this was planned, he just kept getting lost on his way to other places.

He likes a chat. He likes books. He likes people who write books and people who read books. He doesn’t know how to write a biography, so should probably stop before he tells you about his dreams or something. It was lovely to meet you, though. Stuart's debut novel is called The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle in the UK and The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle in the US. They're the same book. Don't fret.

Taken from Goodreads.

Plot

A murder on the high seas. A detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist.

It's 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Traveling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent. But no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A twice-dead leper stalks the decks. Strange symbols appear on the sails. Livestock is slaughtered.

And then three passengers are marked for death, including Samuel. Could a demon be responsible for their misfortunes? With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent can solve a mystery that connects every passenger onboard. A mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board.

The breathtaking new novel from Stuart Turton, author of the The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, winner of the Costa Best First Novel Award.

Also taken from Goodreads.

Opinions 

In 2018, I was trying to find a copy of the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I stumbled across the Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle instead. I realised it was not the same book, but the blurb intrigued me, so I bought it. I read it and I knew that this was an author I wanted to read from again. Stuart Turton is a very clever writer. He crafts these clever mysteries that feel fresh and unique. I'd highly recommend reading his first book as it's an incredibly good mystery. So when I saw he had written another book, I patiently waited for it to come out in paperback. I thought this was as good, if not better than his first book.

I just kept on wanting to read more. There were so many layers to this mystery that it kept you hooked from beginning to end. You had to know if each mystery was connected and what lay around the corner for these characters. I read it in 8 days, some days I would easily read almost 100 pages, where as others I would read a chapter or two. I think for a book of this size and complexity, I'm happy with how quick I read it. It's always a good sign to me if you want to read more and have that "one more chapter" mentality with a book. 

I adored the enclosed setting of this book. Aside from action at the very beginning and end, this mostly took place on a ship. That really added to the mystery and creepy elements of this book. The ship was the perfect location for a mystery like this as while it had limited places for the action to take place, there was also enough variation in the settings. You really felt trapped alongside those characters and that danger was lurking near by. Some of the action, such as the leper appearing outside Sara's cabin, was so good because until it was revealed how it was done, you genuinely couldn't figure it out as a reader. 

Speaking of the characters, I really liked Sara and Arent. Let's talk about Arent first. He was definitely the John Watson to Sammy Pipps' Sherlock Holmes. Yet he also felt like his own character. Like Turton's mysteries, his characters also have layers. The backstory of Arent's father and his time as a soldier really added to his character. He also felt real because he was balanced in believing in his own abilities and experiencing periods of doubt. I also really liked Sara. She was a strong, practical woman, but she was also a realist. In a time when a woman's role was to raise children and do her duties to the family, she had just enough spark to feel bright, but also knew when to be sensible and look out for herself and her daughter. She always put her daughter's interests first, even if that meant having to encourage her to hide her intelligence. Sara and Arent compliment each other nicely, making for an excellent detective duo. Their romance was a bit rushed, but as they worked well and seemed to care for each other, I didn't mind as much.     

Probably the main reason I didn't give this book five stars was that I didn't really like the ending. I had personally been holding out for a big supernatural reason as to why these terrible things had been happening and in the end it came back to the people on the ship. The reveal that Sara's best friend killed her husband because she was one of the wronged people from the witch hunter past was okay. What I didn't like was that Sammy was actually her brother. He was a very interesting figure as a detective, but to learn that he had done all of that so he could get back at someone didn't sit right with me. I did like the idea of them going off and righting more wrongs as a little team. But the overall reveal as to why all these things happened and so many people died didn't blow me away. I just wanted something a bit spookier and I didn't quite get those vibes. 

I am very excited to see what Stuart Turton will write next as he just keeps on bouncing from strength to strength and having such interesting ideas. I wasn't a big murder mystery fan before this, but if there are more mysteries to read like this, then I will be reading them. He has become an auto-buy author for me.  

What did you think of The Devil and the Dark Water??

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Title- The Thursday Murder Club

Author- Richard Osman

Series- The Thursday Murder Club series

Published- 2020

Page Count- 396 pages (UK paperback)

Publishing House- Penguin

Genre- murder mystery, cosy crime, crime 

Rating- 3/5 stars

About the Author

Richard Thomas Osman (born 28 November 1970) is an English comedian, producer, television presenter, writer, and the creator and co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show Pointless. He has also presented the BBC Two quiz shows Two Tribes and Richard Osman's House of Games and has been a team captain on the comedy panel shows Insert Name Here and The Fake News Show. He has gained recognition for his appearances on many British panel shows.

Osman worked at Hat Trick Productions alongside Ben Smith before becoming creative director of the television production company Endemol UK, producing shows including Prize Island for ITV and Deal or No Deal for Channel 4. He is the writer of the 2020 novel The Thursday Murder Club.

Taken from Wikipedia

Plot

THE FIRST BOOK IN THE #1 BESTSELLING THURSDAY MURDER CLUB SERIES BY TV PRESENTER RICHARD OSMAN

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

Taken from Goodreads

Opinions

Prior to me reading this book for my second pick of the Spoopathon, I had listened to members of my book group talking about their feelings on it. I think I was the only person who hadn't read it and there were some mixed feelings. Some liked it, others didn't and there was one individual who passionately didn't like it. It just so happened that I was about to start reading it that evening. I was interested to see where I would fall on the wide spectrum of readers. 

I'll start with the positives. I found this book very easy to read. I read it in three days. Despite the problems I had, which I'll discuss later in this post, there was a part of me that wanted to find out what happened next. It moved at quite a natural progression and I didn't mind moving between the characters. I'm glad that it was an easy read as that's one of the things I gave it stars for. 

Another positive is that I didn't mind the characters. Let's talk about the main four. They were an odd bunch, but they seemed to work well. I have seen a few comments that said Ibrahim was only included to have a more diverse cast and to some extent I have to agree. Elizabeth was the most interesting out of them as she had the most layers to her characters. Joyce was okay, as was Ron. I felt that in some of the side characters, the hairdresser in particular, there was a very fine line when it came to stereotypes. The hairdresser being gay and loving gossip just felt a bit cliche. I realised quite early on that I was not the target audience for this book, but I thought the characters were okay.

Let's get into my main problem with this book. I personally felt the writing was bad. I think this is a case of a celebrity getting to write a book as the quality of the writing wasn't great. It made it hard for me to follow the plot of what should have been a quite simple book. Things kept on being revealed that weren't linked to the two main crimes of the story, which has left me confused as to who committed which murder and why. Going back to my point about the characters, PC Donna was a great character, but one I only realised was a person of colour after reading about her for a while when someone specifically said it. It felt like it was just a throw away comment. I know this is a fiction book, but some of the things that happened were unbelievable even for a murder mystery. The police wouldn't just give away information the way these characters did. It just frustrated me to no end. 

It probably won't come as a surprise, but I won't be reading the sequels to this series. I can see why people like it as it's a unique premise and certain parts of it remind me of my own relatives, who live in a residential home. Sadly, it's just not for me. I am planning on giving my copy to my grandma as I think she'll like it.

What did you think of The Thursday Murder Club??

The Foundling by Stacey Halls Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Title- The Foundling

Author- Stacey Halls

Series- N/A

Published- 2020

Page Count- 383 pages 
Publishing House- Manilla Press

Genre- historical fiction, feminist  

Rating- 3/5 stars 

To read my review of Stacey's other book, The Familiars, click here.  

About the Author 

Stacey Halls was born in 1989 and grew up in Rossendale, Lancashire. She studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and has written for publications including the Guardian, Stylist, Psychologies, The Independent, The Sun and Fabulous. 

Her first book The Familiars was the bestselling debut novel of 2019. The Foundling is her second novel.

Taken from Stacey's website.

Plot

A mother's love knows no bounds. . .

London, 1754. Six years after leaving her newborn, Clara, at London't Foundling Hospital, young Bess Bright returns to reclaim the illegitimate daughter she has never really known. Dreading the worst - that Clara has died in care - the last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been reclaimed. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why.

Les than a mile from Bess' lodgings in a quiet town house, a wealthy widow barely ventures outside. When her close friend - an ambitious doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her young daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her - and will soon tear her carefully constructed world apart.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of Georgian London, 'THE LOST ORPHAN' explores families and secrets, class and power, and how the pull of motherhood cuts across them all. 

Taken from Goodreads. 

Opinions

I read and adored The Familiars by Stacey Halls in July, flying through it in about four days. It had a compelling plot, an interesting main character and historical period/setting I was very interested in. I read it while on holiday in Devon and was so in love with it that I immediately bought her second book in paperback in Devon. I was sure that this was going to be a book I loved. Sadly, I was wrong.

I think having the dual perspectives after only having one in her previous books didn't work for me. I didn't mind Bess' POV. It was similar to Fleetwood from The Familiars and I liked her. I felt that she was an interesting main character, with the mystery surrounding how she became pregnant and her lower class background. If the book had been entirely from Bess' POV, I think this would have been just as interesting as The Familiars. Bess was fierce, she had great friends and other characters to interact with. She felt down to earth and real. I'll now explain the other POV and why it didn't work for me.

Alexandra was the other POV. She was Charlotte's adopted mother and to put it bluntly, I didn't like her. I found her POV confusing, at times I thought her parents were alive, others it was clear they were dead. It was very clear she didn't want a child and spent a long time talking about how she wasn't fit to be a mother. I felt no sympathy for her. I was just irritated by her and wanted to get back to Bess' POV. Her ending with giving Charlotte back to Bess and somehow ending up in a relationship with the doctor felt off. We just didn't click and that's part of the reason why I gave this book a lower rating than The Familiars.

Asides from the characters, I didn't connect with the plot as much. For one thing, the big reveal of how Alexandra came to have adopted Charlotte was fairly weak. Alexandra's sister just happened to be there when Bess was dropping Charlotte off. It felt a bit too convenient. Just like Alexandra's sister having to leave for the country as soon as Bess was hired. The romance between Bess and Lyle felt a bit out of the blue, but it was nice to see her have a happy ending.

I did like that it highlighted to conditions of Foundlings in the 1700, many of whom were left by their mothers for better lives. I think Stacey Halls is great at highlighting important issues to women. This book was about motherhood and what it meant to be a good mother. I just struggled to connect with it as much as I did her previous book. I did find it easy to read and flew through it again. I'm now unsure if I want to read her third book. I may give it some time and then pick it up, but before this I would have said Stacey was one of my auto-buy authors. This book has made me unsure how I feel and I might need a third book to determine my thoughts.    

What did you think of The Foundling??

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid Book Review (Contains Spoilers)| Carenza Bramwell

Title- Malibu Rising

Author- Taylor Jenkins Reid 

Series- N/A 

Published- 2021

Page Count- 365 pages

Publishing House- Penguin Random House 

Genre- Modern Literature 

Rating- 4.5/5 stars

About the Author

Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of the New York Times Bestselling novels Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as well as One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. Her books have been chosen by Reese’s Book Club, Read with Jenna, Indie Next, Best of Amazon, and Book of the Month. Her novel, Daisy Jones and the Six, is currently being adapted by Hello Sunshine into a limited series for Amazon. She lives in Los Angeles.

Taken from Taylor's website.

Plot

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six.

A lifetime holding it together.

One party will bring it crashing down.

Malibu: August, 1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over-especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud-because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he's been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can't stop thinking about promised she'll be there. And Kit has a couple secrets of her own-including a guest she invited without consulting anyone. By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family's generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them . . . and what they will leave behind.

Taken from Goodreads.

Opinions 

Like almost everyone in the book community, I have been swept away by the sheer talent that is Taylor Jenkins Reid. I adored The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which I consider to be one of my favourite books of all time, and I enjoyed Daisy Jones and the Six. So, it goes without saying that I was incredibly excited for this book. It actually came out in May but I decided to hold off reading it until August as I wanted to read it in the month it was set. I'm actually really glad I did this as it add a bit of a special twist to my reading experience.

I could not stop reading this book. I read it in 2 days because I was just hooked from beginning to end. At no point was I bored or wanting to read something else. This story had it's claws in me and held me the whole way. I think aside from Daisy Jones, I have flown through all of Taylor's books (well the three I've read). There's something in her writing, which I'll go into more detail about later in this post, that makes it impossible to put down. 

The Riva family were a very compelling cast of characters. They were all very flawed, yet they were likeable. I loved that we got all of their perspectives and we saw how events from their past impacted at them during the party. I'm not sure I could even pick a favourite because they all had different interesting aspects. I even liked Mick because you got to see into his perspective and that he wasn't a truly terrible character. They might be some of my new favourite cast of characters.

I only have one complaint about this book and that is that I didn't care for the non-family perspectives scattered throughout the book. Yes they did add flavours to the book, but I just wanted to get back to the central characters and plot while I was reading them. I also felt that some of the secrets that we learnt along the way would have had a stronger impact if the whole Riva family had learnt them. I have a feeling that this will make it onto my favourites list at the end of the year as I just adored this book.

Taylor Jenkins Reid has cemented herself as one of the most talented writers around at the moment. She just keeps on improving with each book she writes. Her characters are flawed and real, her stories have mysteries that you just need to know how they end. I need to catch up on her backlog of books because I don't know what I'm going to do until her next book is out. I cannot wait for the TV shows of her books as I know they'll be epic.