Always Buy The Book

Valentine Grey Sandi Toksvig Rating: 4/5 The short version: If you stick around to the end, this book makes every second worth it. This review will contain spoilers. I picked up Valentine Grey because of its author. Historical fiction isn’t something I read much of, and I especially didn’t have much of an opinion about the Boer War before I read it. But I know and admire Sandi Toksvig for her honesty, humour and openness, and the book deals with the issues of gender and sexuality- not something I’ve seen a lot of fiction dealing with. I wanted to see what Toksvig’s style was like. It was good- not perfect, because there were issues with pacing at times, but with enough power and skill to make up for its little flaws. The critique of society is built up slowly throughout the book, and no side in the war is presented as morally superior- not even the heroine. As a queer British woman, I recognised so much of our society today in the flawed society of the book, ...

The Book Thief- review Markus Zusak Rating: 4/5 The short version: A book which completely deserves its reputation. This review will contain spoilers. I appreciate that if you haven’t read this book already, you’ll probably have heard a lot about it anyway. I also know that there are a lot of books about WWII, and it is easy to get fed up of them. So I am going to   try and explain why you should read this book anyway. If you have somehow never heard of The Book Thief, it’s about Liesel, a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany, and the humanity she experiences along the way. Her books take on an emotional significance to her life, and she also becomes friends with a fugitive Jew. It’s also narrated by Death. That should tell you quite a lot about the book; it’s creative, but in no way cheerful. For me, one of the most refreshing things about this book was its focus on the ordinary people of Germany who suffered because of the war. Liesel is blonde-hair...

The Next Together- review Lauren James Rating: 4/5 The short version: This book juggled a lot of plot and characters, but it broke my heart anyway. This review will contain spoilers. Most authors I read try to stick to one genre per novel. Sci-fi, or romance, or mystery, or historical. It’s easy to see why- it could be very difficult to make the different conventions of each genre fit together into one cohesive story. Of course, the best books defy all the conventions and make their stories work anyway. That is what The Next Together does . There are several different storylines in The Next Together. The main one is the story of Matt and Kate, who discover that several identical versions of themselves have played major roles in different parts of history, and then have to stop a government conspiracy themselves. Three of their other lifetimes are also explored, and each lifetime ends with acts of heroic sacrifice. What really made me admire this book was ...

Front Lines- review Michael Grant Rating: 5/5 The short version: It’s a challenging project, but Grant follows it through wholeheartedly, and it pays off. This review contains spoilers. It also mentions racist language and behaviour and (feared) sexual assault. Only a very, very brave author would take on such a huge challenge as writing an alternative history of WWII. In fact, there are only a few authors who I’d trust enough to read if they did it. Michael Grant is one of those authors. His Gone series is still compelling even though I’ve read it quite a few times, and his balance of strong character development, exciting action sequences and emotional heart makes a perfect combination in Front Lines. The concept of the books is exciting. It’s the story of the WWII we know, but with a difference: girls are in active service, too. It opens with a foreword from a mystery narrator and goes on to tell the tales of three girls (Rio, Frangie and Rainy) as they b...