Grizonne Reviews

Annabel Pitcher has a track record of awards and praise, and I can understand why. I read and enjoyed her first three books, with Silence is Goldfish being particularly powerful. It was clear that The Last Days of Archie Maxwell would be a slightly different reading experience due to its narrator and probable intended audience; while Pitcher’s protagonists tend to be girls, this book tells us the story of Archie, a teenage boy who is facing a lot of confusion about his life, friends and family. The book was designed to be physically easy to read, as many people have trouble reading for various reasons. As a result, the novel is short and manageable and the font is large and clear. The pretty rain-themed headers at the start of each chapter are helpful as they break up the text and allow the reader to track their progress through the book. As for the plot, the premise is interesting: Archie’s father reveals he is gay and leaves his family. Archie and his sisters are in shock at

The sequel to The Secret Cooking Club , Laurel Remington’s Confetti & Cake has a pretty, colourful cover which, combined with the title, gives the impression that the book will be light-hearted and fun. The blurb adds to this idea, and so I expected an easy read that would not be particularly profound. However, I was in for a shock – Confetti & Cake is, in reality, a complex novel with real depth and some incredibly sad and heavy moments. It moved me, made me think, and never failed to surprise me. The protagonist is Scarlett, a thirteen-year-old aspiring cook whose blog becomes an unexpected success and catapults her to fame. As well as learning to live with her newfound stardom, Scarlett has to come to terms with her mother remarrying, her father’s attempts to contact her after years of silence, and the approaching anniversary of the death of her best friend’s parents. Scarlett also navigates the tricky waters of first love, and struggles to find a balance between onl

From Westlife and Take That to The Vamps and One Direction, boybands will be a familiar part of life for most millennials. Even though I am personally more interested in folk and indie music than pop, the phenomenon of boybands and how they are so deeply adored does fascinate me. I was looking forward to finding out what Chris Russell had to say on the subject in Songs About Us . The sequel to Songs About a Girl , Songs About Us centres on Charlie Bloom, a gifted teen photographer who is asked to take backstage photos for the popular fictional boyband Fire&Lights. Charlie finds herself the object of two members’ affections, and is faced with the decision of whether to stick with misunderstood Gabe or take a chance on gentle Olly. If that all sounds cheesy and fan-fiction-esque, it is. However, fortunately there is much more to this novel than the romance, and it is the other layers of plot that make Songs About Us a success. Firstly, there is an emphasis on family, and how

One of my favourite series is Hilary McKay’s Casson books; I love the cosiness and chaos of everyday family life that they evoke. Since finishing the series I’ve been looking for a fictional family to fill the void the Cassons left, and now I think I’ve found them. Sita Brahmachari’s Levensons are lovable and realistic. Their third book, Tender Earth , and its narrator, Laila, offer a world to escape into that is both flawed and, at times, incredibly beautiful. Laila is the youngest child and has always been babied. When her two elder siblings leave home at the same time, she has to learn very quickly to stand on her own two feet. Once settled into secondary school, Laila begins to search for some bigger project to be part of – she considers trying dance but then, inspired by the memory of her activist Nana Josie, she decides to give campaigning a go. Considering its subject matter, it is inevitable that Tender Earth will be a somewhat political novel. Not every reader will agre

I was new to Carrie Firestone’s books and began The True Colour of Forever (also published as The Unlikelies ) with some curiosity. The premise of a girl becoming YouTube-famous is very topical to our generation. However, the blurb on my edition of the novel is misleading – Sadie does not become some big star, she just receives a small amount of fame locally after going to the aid of a distressed baby. Once I had readjusted my expectations for the story, I did enjoy it on a superficial level. Sadie’s voice is realistic for a seventeen-year-old, the other main characters are fairly engaging and the locations – various parts of the Hamptons in New York – are vividly described. I appreciated the prominence of Sadie’s family in the novel: her father’s bizarre but intriguing backstory, and Sadie’s interactions with her two very different grandmothers. There are some nice little details of daily life that made the novel feel that bit closer to reality. However, I also had a number of

Holly Webb has written a number of series for children – the Puppies and Kittens series, the Rose and Lily stories – and when a novel is part of a larger series it is tempting to suspect it may lack individuality. Indeed, having read some of Webb’s animal stories when I was younger I can confirm that they tend to be very alike, though well-written. Her Venice series, however, is something else. I reviewed its first instalment, The Water Horse , for Cuckoo back in 2015 and I was impressed by how Webb succeeded in making the setting of historical Venice – with some magic thrown in – seem so appealing to young readers. The writer’s passion for the city shone from the pages and the sights, sounds and smells of the palaces and canals transported me back in time. The Girl of Glass is the fourth book in the series, and I was hoping it would match the quality of The Water Horse while also covering new territory. It did – quite literally. We are taken out of Venice proper and instea

Kody Keplinger is known for her excellently gritty high-school mean-girl novels, including The DUFF , which was recently made into a film. So my thoughts on beginning Run were that it would probably read along the same lines. However, to say it surprised me is an understatement. Run genuinely blew me away. Set in a small town in Kentucky, it transports the reader to an intense, beautiful but very flawed world which, as the book covers a year, we see in every season. Issues tied to the US South such as religion, family loyalty and the want for education versus a simple life are all held up to the light. Keplinger is clearly proud of being a southerner and has huge affection for her own small hometown, yet she also captures perfectly the frustration of the protagonists who just want to “get out of Mursey” and see something else of the world. Who are our protagonists? The narrative is split between Agnes, who tells the past, and Bo who brings us the present. Agnes is a kind, gentl

With its tropical-looking cover, it would be easy to assume Ride was set somewhere more exotic than Newquay. However, this romp around the Cornish town’s surf community is a fun and insightful one. Iris Fox, a professional surfer, is our protagonist. For all her talent and success, her character comes across as being down-to-earth and humble. The narrative joins Iris immediately following a split from her boyfriend, Zeke. Upon returning home, she has to face Zeke’s family, to whom she has become like a daughter and sister, while also attempting to move on with her life. Newquay’s rugged charm is well-described; the author’s love for the town shines through the pages. So does her love of surfing and surf culture: the language and imagery used to capture Iris and Zeke’s moments on the waves are powerful and will excite surfing dilettantes and enthusiasts alike. For the final book of a trilogy, Ride does a good job of introducing the reader to the main characters and relationships

As an Austen fan I was always intrigued by Lydia. She is portrayed in Pride and Prejudice as ditzy and irresponsible but what if she is just a misunderstood, ambitious young woman far ahead of her time? By giving Lydia a voice Natasha Farrant lets us see new corners of her mind and memory, allowing her to be reinvented as a feisty tomboy who dreams of equality and being able to do the same things as her male friends. Lydia is a novel of two halves. The first is set at Longbourne, the Bennet family estate, and is basically Pride and Prejudice from Lydia’s point of view instead of Elizabeth’s. It is well-written and the moody weather makes for a powerful backdrop to the high-society melodrama here. However, for me, the book really begins when Lydia moves to Brighton. The seaside haven is written brilliantly and evocatively; the endless descriptions of the sea and cliffs are rich, colourful and sensual. Lydia comes into her own and grows up completely in just a few months. New char

Seriously ill girl emerges from reclusive state out of love for charismatic boy. Teen who hasn’t left house in years rediscovers world. Both these concepts seem to have been done to death in the last few years – in fact, I reviewed a book from the second mould, Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas for Cuckoo myself last year. Louise Gornall’s Under Rose-Tainted Skies takes both ideas, combines them but also twists them around to create something new, insightful and genuinely moving. Norah is our seventeen-year-old protagonist. She has been confined to her house for four years due to severe agoraphobia, OCD and other mental health issues. When handsome Luke moves in next door, Norah is desperate to appear ‘normal’ to him, first by hiding her condition and then by attempting to cure it. While this may all sound rather cliché, the novel is lifted by several aspects. Firstly, the characters are solid. Norah’s voice is convincing and original; although she makes some bad choi

The word ‘summer’ in the title of a YA novel is often an indicator of something sunny, fluffy and coming-of-age. Eden Summer is very different. In place of sun we have the ever-changing weather of Yorkshire and in place of fluff we have a sad but poignant story, one that is not a coming-of-age tale in the traditional sense. Jess, our protagonist, has already come of age, in a manner; she has survived a terrible incident that has led to her having a wisdom beyond her years. The novel’s aim appears to be to examine what happens after that; after a life-changing incident. This is what makes Liz Flanagan’s début really interesting. Jess goes to school one day to find her best friend Eden missing. Soon a manhunt is underway, the level of concern of all involved no doubt heightened by the fact that Eden recently lost her sister. Jess is at first infuriated at how the school failed to support Eden properly following that loss, just as they failed Jess after her own life-altering event. A

Think Twice is the sequel to Sarah Mlynowski’s Don’t Even Think About It and there is a strong sense that the author assumes the reader has read the first book. Having not read it, I never really felt truly immersed in this second tale of mind-reading high school kids in New York. For this among other reasons, Think Twice makes for a rather unsettling reading experience. One of those reasons is that the novel’s narrative hops bizarrely from first person plural to third person. We know the narrator is one of the kids but don’t know which until the very end, as they refer to the group as “we” and “us” but talk about their self as an individual in the third person. If it sounds confusing… it is. In addition, twenty main characters is just too many to get to know properly. At the start of the book there is a list of the twenty kids and their interests and I had to flick back every few pages thinking, who’s Mona, again? Who’s Levi? It doesn’t help that most are one-dimensional stere

Like, I imagine, much of Diane Chamberlain’s audience, I started off a Jodi Picoult fan. Although Diane has been writing for over twenty-five years, her work recently had a big push in the UK with the tagline, “Like Jodi Picoult? You’ll love this!” I had the chance to purchase a set of three of her books quite cheaply so decided to give her a go. To say I was hooked is an understatement – I devoured the three in no time and shot straight to the library to see if they had any others! I have now read nearly all her books and actually prefer her to Picoult. Chamberlain’s novels are full of twists and turns – often not very believable ones, but I try to overlook that! Although she occasionally ventures into states such as New Jersey and California, the vast majority of her work is set in North Carolina. Having not known a great deal about it before, I’ve enjoyed exploring the state’s towns, cities, the Outer Banks and Topsail Island through Diane’s tales. I’ve prepared a selection of

The blurb and tagline on my edition of Chosen by Lucy Coats are rather misleading. They imply that the novel will tell the immortal tale of Anthony and Cleopatra. However, although Mark Anthony makes an appearance, Chosen is set years before all the drama and its focus is actually on Cleo’s amazing journey to the Egyptian throne. It is a journey the reader takes with her across deserts and seas, through underground chambers and among sphinxes and gods. If you came for love, however, you will not be disappointed; there are two romances weaved throughout the book, both slightly unconventional for the time and place and both fascinating to follow. The novel is divided neatly into two halves of almost exact equal length. The first is based mainly in the Egyptian countryside; the second between the two great historic cities of Rome and Alexandria. It was pleasant to be able to explore Rome – a refreshingly cliché-free Rome – through Cleo’s eyes, and the Alexandria segment was dark but

Before reading Gary D. Schmidt’s latest offering I saw reviews declaring it to be a tearjerker, which isn’t always my thing. The premise also sounded very similar to Anita Shreve’s Light on Snow , an excellent book to which I doubted anything else in the same vein could measure up. In other words I was unsure how I would feel about Orbiting Jupiter . As it turned out, I was very pleasantly surprised. Firstly, the voice of the protagonist, twelve-year-old Jack, is strong and consistent; he is a good kid who wants to do his best but who finds himself in some tricky situations. Secondly, the setting of rural Maine in the heart of winter is vividly described and engulfs the reader in a frozen white world. Finally, the prose is so radiant it manages to blind the reader to the fact that the plot is rather ridiculous and contrived. The plot is hard to outline without spoiling the book. I’ll just say that Jack is given a new foster brother, Joseph, who has had a hard life and the two hav

The concept of shape shifting is hardly original, yet there is still something very appealing about it. As a kid I longed to be able to transform into a cat and as a teen I loved Kate Thompson’s Switchers series. Perhaps our interest lingers because it is because it is one of the few things humans still can’t do: we can fly, bring people back from the dead and predict a good deal of the future thanks to technology. Even so, we may never be able to become a cat or an eagle or a wolf at will, and we always crave what we can’t have. With this in mind, the slew of books and films with this theme becomes more understandable. Simon Thorn and the Wolf’s Den is the first in a series of five books about Animalgams – humans with the ability to “shift” into another creature. Unlike in Switchers , where anyone can be any animal, each Animalgam has one specific species they can shift into, and unlike, for example, the Animagi in Harry Potter , they have no control over which animal they get;

Having enjoyed Emily Sparkes and the Friendship Fiasco , I couldn’t wait to see what she would get up to in Competition Calamity , the second book in this new series. It is impossible to review this book without giving spoilers for Friendship Fiasco , so I recommend reading that before reading this review! Competition Calamity , unlike its prequel, has a definite plot. Emily attempts to stop her mum from winning a competition that would put their chaotic family and home on TV. I was slightly disappointed as one of my favourite things about the first book was its lack of plot and slice-of-life feel. I also think the tight structure of Competition Calamity meant some of the potential for humour was lost. There definitely weren’t as many laugh-out-loud moments as in Friendship Fiasco . That being said, it did grow on me. After her dramatic exit in the last book, the ridiculous Chloe is back and, contrary to Friendship Fiasco where she was just a pain, here she is actually really f

I began the first volume of the new Emily Sparkes series with some trepidation. Emily is 11 and it’s 10 years since I was that age. How much had Year 6 life changed? Would Emily’s life be full of technology? Would I be able to empathise with her? I soon found out the answer as I laughed and sighed at her misadventures. Emily is a wonderful character and her family and friends are all pretty realistic. There were many moments of primary school nostalgia and she doesn’t spend all her life online – the Internet is present, but not overpowering. There isn’t much of a plot in this book. Friendship Fiasco is more a slice-of-life type story, following Emily over the first two weeks of her sister’s life. Emily has to deal with her best friend moving away, the bad influence of new girl Chloe and the dilemma of what her sister’s name should be. I liked this style, as it allowed me to get to know Emily and made for a light, relaxing read, without any high drama. I approved of how healthy

I happen to have reviewed several novels for Cuckoo which are aimed at people younger than me. I don’t mind this at all; I’ve discovered some great books. But it meant that when reviewing This Raging Light , a young adult novel, I had to come at it with a different approach. Instead of thinking “would kids like this and is it appropriate for kids”, I simply had to ask myself “do I like this book?” And answering that question isn’t as easy as you might expect. The story tells of Lucille, a 17-year-old who has to look after her little sister Wren after their mother abandons them. She is also falling passionately and hopelessly in love with Digby, her best friend’s twin. The plot is fairly simple and covers a relatively short period of time, meaning everything is rather intense with huge helpings of description, metaphor and fancy prose. One of the complicating factors for me reviewing This Raging Light is that it treads very similar ground to two of my all-time favourite books: Ka

Based on its title, cover and blurb, I thought Love Bomb would be a standard ditzy-teen-girl story in the vein of Georgia Nicholson and Electra Brown. However, I was to be surprised. While it contains elements of that particular sub-genre, this novel also has a much deeper, sadder side. It forms part of Jenny McLachlan’s Ladybirds series, which follows a former gang of four girls who fell out and are drifting back together. Love Bomb follows the quirky, unpredictable member of the group, Betty. She has just turned 15 and wishes her mum, who died when Betty was a toddler, was still around to advise her as she juggles school, music, friends, her own love life and her dad’s. Then she discovers some secret letters her mother wrote her, guiding her from beyond the grave. Something I greatly admired in this book is Betty’s characterisation. We all know or knew a girl like Betty at school: loud, tactless, often acting without thinking and causing trouble as a result. In real life the

Before reading The Water Horse , I knew Holly Webb as “the lady who writes all those books with sad puppies and kittens on the front.” I skimmed through a couple of those when I was a tween and they were pretty good, but certainly for younger children. However, I was drawn to The Water Horse by its Venetian setting and the fact that it was clearly a fantasy tale first and foremost, rather than another animal book. We meet Olivia, Princess of Venice; her long-suffering maid, Etta; her father, the Duke; and her scheming aunt, Lady Sofia. The story begins at a party where Olivia, after dancing so fast she makes herself sick, suddenly breaks free from the spell she has been under and begins to question her privileged existence. She sneaks out of the palace at night to meet her poorer citizens and encounters more than she bargained for: a giant horse that lives in the water. Lucian explains that he is an ancient and highly powerful creature and he and Olivia join forces to try to put t

When I was younger I read some horse-y stories, but tended to find them too girly and repetitive. Storm Horse looked set to break the mould with its moody grey cover and older male protagonist, so I was eager to see how different it would be. Our Dutch protagonist, Flip, is 12 years old. After the death of his father, he moves from Amsterdam to a stormy island. There he meets his aunt, uncle and little cousin Renske, who are to be his new family. They are poor and the island seems quiet to him, after the chaos of the city, but Flip settles and is relatively happy. Then the equine element begins when Flip rescues a drowning horse and has to help him overcome his trauma and learn to be a working animal. For me, the story of Storm the horse was okay, but couldn’t have held the book up on its own. The plotline of a difficult horse being trained has been done so many times before. What made this book stand out for me were the setting and the human characters. The island of Mossum i

What do you think of when you hear “girls’ school stories”? Enid Blyton’s Saint Clare’s and Malory Towers series probably spring to mind. However, there were actually a number of similar series written in the 1900s and there is one in particular I want to highlight as I think it is excellent, powerful and still relevant today. That is the Chalet School series by Elinor M. Brent Dyer. Elinor was born in South Shields. After a turbulent childhood she became a teacher and wrote school stories as a hobby and to entertain her young friend Hazel Bainbridge, an actress who, incidentally, went on to be the mother of Dynasty star Kate O’Mara. In 1925 The School at the Chalet was published. It tells the story of Madge, a British 24-year-old who starts a school in the Alps. Her little sister, Joey, is the school’s first pupil and rather mischievous. The book was a success and spawned over fifty sequels starring Joey and many other girls and teachers. The series still has a huge fan base t

I have long been a fan of Hilary McKay. Her Casson and Exiles series showcase her ability to capture the gloriously chaotic life of large families, a talent surely nurtured by her own upbringing as one of four sisters. So, I had high hopes for Binny in Secret . The novel incorporates two alternating stories, which eventually collide. One tells of Binny’s antics. I felt it moved quite slowly and I wasn’t attracted to Binny – she is sulky at best and really nasty at worst. Rose, in the Casson books, can act in similar ways but is clearly a decent person and the reader can understand why she behaves as she does. Binny, on the other hand, just seems like her own worst enemy with no real excuse for her unpleasantness. Some synopses I’ve read talk about “bullying” but it didn’t seem to me that Binny was being bullied; she just starts a petty feud with several other girls at school by refusing to apologise for a mistake she made. The second story, however, was exemplary and is what I’ll

Leah Thomas’s debut Because You’ll Never Meet Me is hard to categorise. It would be easy to brand it sci-fi (and a quick look at reviews shows many readers have); however, I would, personally, call it contemporary YA with some sci-fi elements. The story is told in letters between fourteen-year-old American, Ollie and sixteen-year-old German, Moritz. Both have serious medical issues. Ollie cannot go near electricity without having a seizure so lives alone with his mother in a cabin in the woods. Moritz was born without eyes and has a serious heart defect. His need for an electronic pacemaker means that, in theory, he and Ollie can never meet. Seriously ill kids facing love, heartbreak and death are very much in vogue in YA fiction at the moment and most of what I have read of this type is, to me, exploitative and not very good. Because You’ll Never Meet Me is refreshingly different. Ollie and Moritz are two ordinary boys who happen to have lived extraordinary lives. They don’t spe

I was attracted to Cassandra Parkin’s debut novel by its beautiful and unusual cover and its intriguing blurb, which promises a story of mystery and music. The Summer We All Ran Away alternates between two tales: the life of a group of outcasts squatting in an old house in Cornwall in the present day and the antics of rock star Jack Laker in that same house in the 1970s. The novel really wasn’t what I expected it to be, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some elements pleasantly surprised me; for example, in the present day narrative, Tom’s back-story is fascinating and the family-like connection between himself, Kate, Priss and Davey is sweet and genuine. I also really appreciated the fact that the story lacked sentimentality and sap, whilst retaining real emotion. The blurb suggests that all five squatters are directly linked to Jack and his actions over the ‘70s summer, whereas, in reality, only two of them are directly connected. I did, however, enjoy all of their stories.