Book Review: Euphoria Kids by Alison Evans

Euphoria Kids

by

Alison Evans

Publisher: Echo Publishing
Publication date: 4th February 2020
Genre: Young Adult / LGBT / Fantasy
Pages: 247
RRP: $19.99 AUD
Format read: Paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via B Fredericks PR

Ever since the witch cursed Babs, she turns invisible sometimes. She has her mum and her dog, but teachers and classmates barely notice her. Then, one day, Iris can see her. And Iris likes what they see. Babs is made of fire.

Iris grew from a seed in the ground. They have friends, but not human ones. Not until they meet Babs. The two of them have a lot in common: they speak to dryads and faeries, and they're connected to the magic that's all around them.

There's a new boy at school, a boy who's like them and who hasn't found his real name. Soon the three of them are hanging out and trying spellwork together. Magic can be dangerous, though. Witches and fae can be cruel. Something is happening in the other realm, and despite being warned to stay away, the three friends have to figure out how to deal with it on their own terms.

Although not the intended readership, I absolutely loved this magical and tender story.

Alison Evans has a wonderful way of expressing feelings and emotions.

Iris is a plant child. They grew from the ground. The child of Clover and Moss. They know they are different. A non-binary child that talks to the fairie, Saltkin, in the garden.

“I didn’t want to be a strange baby made of plants, but it hasn’t caused any problems. I don’t know if anyone else can tell.”

Babs is trans-gender, a witch left a spell on her that makes her invisible. Life can be lonely when you are cursed with bouts of invisibility but one day Iris sees her and a friendship begins. Iris can see that Babs is made of fire.

I enjoyed watching the friendship between Iris and Babs develop and also the introduction of the new boy, a trans-gender who hadn’t yet discovered who he was.

“Here’s a boy, not sure of his name or what he is made of. Iris grew from a seed under moss, brimming with new magic. And me, a fiery mess of a girl, crackling when I walk. I forged my own name. I’m invisible sometimes, but I know who I am.

He just needs time. I hope he knows that.” - Babs

Babs’ words are filled with such confidence and compassion.

The characters grew and developed. There was no mention of bullying and the teens were responsible, caring and respectful of their parents. In turn the parents were supportive. It was such a heart-warming thing to see these loving close-knit families.

The magical element of the story is captivating. The teens live on the edge of the National Park and within the park is The Realm, a dark place they are warned to stay away from.

As Babs is drawn to the forest the tension mounts, making this a story that is hard to put down until you know the final conclusion.

Euphoria Kids is a tender, touching story seeped with magic bringing to life the earth, the plants and all things magical.

I finished this book wanting more!

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

My Rating   5/5

Photo credit: Goodreads

Alison Evans is the author of Ida, which won the People’s Choice Award at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2017.

Their second novel, Highway Bodies, was published earlier this year and they are a contributor to new anthology, Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories.

They are based in Melbourne. 

 




This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie Author Challenge 

#AussieAuthor20  

 

Book Review: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell #BRPreview

My Dark Vanessa

by

Kate Elizabeth Russell

Publisher: Harper Collins Australia 
Imprint: 4th Estate - GB
Publication date: 9th March 2020
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 384
RRP: $29.99AUD
Format Read: Uncorrected paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Better Reading

 

Vanessa Wye was fifteen years old when she first had sex with her English teacher.

She is now thirty-two and the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student of his. Vanessa is horrified by this news, because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn’t abuse. It was love. She’s sure of that. But now, in 2017, in the midst of allegations against powerful men, she is being asked to redefine the great love story of her life – her great sexual awakening – as rape.

Nuanced, uncomfortable, bold and powerful, and as riveting as it is disturbing, My Dark Vanessa goes straight to the heart of some of the most complex issues our age is grappling with.

Vanessa is a 15 year old student when she is sexually abused by her 42 year old teacher. Vanessa thinks this is love and she is lolled and manipulated into thinking that their relationship is truly what love is.

We see Vanessa years later as an adult. She is not well adjusted and the abuse had clearly taken its toll on her.

When another victim outs Strane, Vanessa is forced to look back on her life and redefine what she thought was the love of her life.

My Dark Vanessa is a deeply disturbing story. Timely in the current  #MeToo era.

Right from the start it is obvious, from an adult’s point of view, that Vanessa is being groomed and reading it sends a chill through your body.

My Dark Vanessa is a story of manipulation, abuse of power and turning a blind eye. It is not only the perpetrator who is at fault here. Knowing adults need to speak up for children and denounce this behaviour.

My Dark Vanessa is a psychological drama that delves into the mind of an abuser and their victim.

“ALL HE DID WAS FALL IN LOVE WITH ME AND THE WORLD TURNED HIM INTO A MONSTER.”

Russell portrays the brain washing that a predator uses on their victim to turn the events around to be the victims fault.

Narrated in the first person, Vanessa’s story is heart-breaking and anger inducing; a book that will be on my mind for a long time to come.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

My rating  5/5

I’m a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. My debut novel, My Dark Vanessa, is forthcoming from William Morrow (US), 4th Estate (UK), and will be translated into over twenty languages.

Originally from eastern Maine, I earned an MFA from Indiana University and a PhD from the University of Kansas.

This is also my Books and Bites Bingo - Category 5 #BooksandBitesBingo2020 

 

This week I will be completing the category 'Scary'.

It scares me to think there are men out there, in positions of trust, preying on our children and that other adults turn a blind eye. 

 

Book Review: House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon #BRPreview

House on Endless Waters

by

Emuna Elon

Translated by Anthony Berris & Linda Yechiel

Publisher: Allen & Unwin 
Publication date: 3rd March 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction / WWII
Pages: 320
RRP: $29.99AUD
Format read: paperback uncorrected proof
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Better Reading

At the behest of his agent, renowned author Yoel Blum reluctantly agrees to visit his birthplace of Amsterdam to meet with his Dutch publisher, despite promising his late mother that he would never return to that city. While touring the Jewish Museum with his wife, Yoel stumbles upon a looping reel of photos offering a glimpse of pre-war Dutch Jewish life, and is astonished to see the youthful face of his beloved mother staring back at him, posing with her husband, Yoel's older sister Nettie…and an infant he doesn't recognise.

This unsettling discovery launches him into a fervent search for the truth, revealing Amsterdam's dark wartime history and the underground networks which hid Jewish children away from danger-but at a cost. The deeper into the past Yoel digs, the better he understands his mother's silence, and the more urgent the question that has unconsciously haunted him for a lifetime-Who am I?-becomes.

Part family mystery, part wartime drama, House on Endless Waters is an unforgettable meditation on identity, belonging, and the inextricable nature of past and present.

 

Yoel’s discovery on a trip to Amsterdam, the place of his birth, of old picture of his parents, his sister Nettie and a baby boy too young to be himself, sets off a crisis; of who am I?

Suddenly he feels he doesn’t know his mother. The woman he was so close to had secrets from him that went to the grave with her. With this new revelation he starts to question their close relationship.

Piecing together scraps of information from older sister, Nettie, Yoel returns to Amsterdam to write his greatest book ever and in the process discover his past.

Through her haunting prose Elon delivers a story of a displaced Yoel Blum, a man who is sensitive and deep feeling however finds he is unable to give of himself to others.

“…..only he alone is alone. So transparent and voiceless that he often thinks he doesn’t really exist.”

As Yoel writes his story it becomes a story within a story and at times his characters blend into his real life. Yoel, so immersed in his story, experiences bouts of paranoia and a sense of persecution when out in public.

Elon describes the beauty of present day Amsterdam whilst not denying the underlying horror of the past that still lingers. Through Yoel’s story we learn how slowly every freedom was taken from the Jewish citizens, first their rights, their passage and then their possessions.

I enjoyed the unique way Elon tied the two timelines together. They are not expressed in separate chapters however blend into each other blurring past and present, fact and fiction.

The character of Yoel is hard to connect with at first and I took pleasure in his growth from a closed man to one who appreciates those around him and started to open up a little.

House on Endless Waters is a fascinating tale of one man’s journey to unlock his past and discover his true self. Elon, in her unique writing style, brings to the fore stories that must never be forgotten. 

House on Endless waters has been impeccably translated from Hebrew by Anthony Berris and Linda Yechiel and a  big kudos must go to the translators for how seamlessly the story flows.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

My rating  5/5

This review is part of the Passages to the Past Historical Fiction Challenge 

 

 

Emuna Elon is an internationally bestselling, critically acclaimed novelist, journalist, and women's activist. Born in Jerusalem to a family of prominent rabbis and scholars, she was raised in Jerusalem and New York. She teaches Judaism, Hasidism, and Hebrew literature. Her first novel translated into English, If You Awaken Love, was a National Jewish Book Award finalist.  

#BRPreview #2020HFReadingChallenge 

 

Book Review: The Wolf Hour by Sarah Myles

The Wolf Hour

by

Sarah Myles

A gripping thriller set in Africa

Publisher: Allen & Unwin 
Publication date: 1st September 2018 
Genre: Crime / Thriller 
Pages: 352 
RRP: $29.99 AUD 
Format read; Paperback 
Source: Own read

Thirty-year-old Tessa Lowell has a PhD in psychology and is working in Uganda to research the effects of PTSD and war on child soldiers. She joins a delegation travelling across the Congolese border, deep into the African bush, for peace talks with Joseph Kony, notorious leader of the Lord's Resistance Army.? 
At the camp Tessa meets thirteen-year-old Francis, already an experienced soldier and survivor of shocking violence. The talks stall, and the camp is attacked by other rebels who take Tessa. Isolated in an increasingly volatile situation, she tries to form a bond with Francis. 
In Melbourne, Tessa's parents are notified of the kidnapping, but learn there is little that government agencies can do. Desperate, they contact their son Stephen, an astute if manipulative businessman based in Cape Town. He agrees to search for his sister but has other reasons to contact the rebel forces.
As Tessa's time runs out, her family begins to fracture. Her parents arrive in Uganda to hear awful news about what she has endured. They also learn the devastating truth about the kind of man their son has become. Only they have the power to stop a terrible injustice. But at what cost to their family? 

 

Tessa goes to a community camp in Uganda with the aim of studying the child soldiers who have escaped from the LRA. The camp is trying to get these children accepted back into their villages. Tessa wants to write a paper on the children and PTSD. Tessa insists on joining a delegation on a dangerous mission of peace talks with Kony, leader of the LRA, deep in the Congo.

Personally I can’t understand why these academics, and journalists too, who know nothing about the traditions and superstitions of the tribes put themselves in such dangerous situations and expect to be safe. One character actually outs Tessa as a white saviour, doing what she does to ultimately benefit herself.

Myles descriptions of Uganda, the beauty and the horror, were exceptional. The heat, the mosquitoes and the smell of unwashed bodies was real. I fell into the story. There was a foreboding sense of danger as the delegation moved deeper into the Congo.

I easily empathised with Tessa’s parents, the fear they felt and also the utter helplessness when you are so far from your child. Although I didn’t like the way they, especially the father, treated Stephen. Calling upon him when Tessa was in danger then trying to bring him down after. I’m sure they could find another way around this moral dilemma.

Myles gives her readers a fully rounded look at what is happening with the LRA and the child abductions. There is no preaching as we see everyone’s point of view, leaving the reader to make their own conclusions.

The Wolf Hour is a rivetting and emotive read. Highly recommended! 

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

 

My rating   5/5

Photo credit: Goodreads

Sarah Myles grew up in rural Australia where she fell in love with reading, story and landscape. She has trained and worked as a nurse, travelled through Europe, the Americas and Africa.

She is the fiction author of two novels THE WOLF HOUR and TRANSPLANTED. Currently she divides her time between writing and family, living in inner Melbourne and on the surf coast of Victoria, Australia.

This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie Author Challenge 

and the Australian Women Writers challenge

#AWW #AusBookBloggers

 

  

Storybook Corner Book Review: The Gruffalo's Child (15th Anniversary Edition) by Julia Donaldson

The Gruffalo's Child (15th Anniversary Edition)

by

Julia Donaldson

Illustrated by Axel Scheffler 

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

Imprint: Macmillan Children’s Books

Publication date: 24^th September 2019

Genre: Children’s / Picture Books

Pages: 40

RRP: $14.99 AUD

Format read: Paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

The Gruffalo said that no gruffalo should
Ever set foot in the deep dark wood.

But one wild and windy night the Gruffalo's child disobeys her father's warnings and ventures out into the snow. After all, the Big Bad Mouse doesn't really exist … does he?
The Gruffalo's Child is the number one bestselling, much-loved sequel to the worldwide picture book phenomenon that is The Gruffalo. Julia Donaldson's trademark rhyming text and Axel Scheffler's brilliant, characterful illustrations combine once more to ensure that the Gruffalo's Child has followed firmly in her father's footsteps and that her story is one that children will ask for again, and again … and again!

Children have always enjoyed tales of dark, scary creatures and the Gruffalo’s child is no exception. The Gruffalo tells his daughter she should never go out in the deep dark wood or the Big Bad Mouse will be after her.

The Gruffalo’s child decides to find this Big Bad Mouse. She isn’t scared. The story follows her through the snow swept woods as she comes across different animals; a snake, an owl, and follows tracks to see who they lead to. Will she find the Big Bad Mouse?

The Gruffalo’s Child is told in rhyming verse and the use of voice variation gives depth to the story. Scheffler’s illustrations give the Gruffalo’s child a human like dimension as she carries her favourite toy, a doll made of sticks.

The Gruffalo's Child 15th Anniversary Edition features:

- A wrap-around snowy wood play scene and press-out characters for an interactive reading experience.

- Plus additional book content including letters from author Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler.

- The Gruffalo's Child Song.

- A Gruffalo's Child quiz.

- And tips for putting on a Gruffalo's Child show!

We all enjoyed playing with the wrap around scene, acting out the story and also making up our own stories with the animals.

With this 15^th Anniversary Edition you can be assured the Gruffalo will delight yet another generation of children.

The Gruffalo’s Child is on the 2020 NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge list for K-2.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Our rating  5/5

About the author 

Photo: Pan Macmillan Aus

Julia Donaldson is the author of some of the world's best-loved children's books, including modern classics The Gruffalo and the Gruffalo's Child, which together have sold over 17 million copies worldwide, and the hugely successful What the Ladybird Heard adventures. 
 

 

 

 

About the illustrator

Axel Scheffler is a star illustrator whose instantly recognisable, warm and witty illustrations have acheived worldwide acclaim and numerous awards. Axel is the illustrator of some of the world's best-loved picture books.

Other books we've read by Julia Donaldson: