March 2023 Mini Reviews
Published: 23rd February 2023 by Little, Brown
I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review.
I had such high hopes for this, as it sounded exactly like my kind of thing. I normally enjoy a boarding-school setting, especially one where the protagonist revisits their past, and possibly unearths some deeply-hidden trauma while returning to the school years later, like The Divines by Ellie Eaton, which I loved. However, this just didn't work for me. I kept hoping that something would change in the narrative to make Bodie's (quite frankly unhinged) pursuit of her old roommate's murderer make sense, but it never really did. I couldn't understand why she in particular felt the need to go digging around, not for any particular sense of justice or looking to gain some closure, because she openly admits that her and Thalia were only roommates and not friends. I was not a fan of the whole 'husband being accused of something inappropriate' subplot, nor did I care for the fact that Bodie could so easily forget about her kids, her shitty husband, and the co-host of her podcast. A bit of a shame.
2 stars
Dazzling by Chikodili Emelumadu
Published: 16th February 2023 by Headline
I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review.
I feel like I need to make a point of seeking out and reading more non-Western literature this year; I think it's so easy to become distracted by the bestsellers and any highly-anticipated debuts without exploring works from further afield. While I wasn't completely blown away by Dazzling, I did really enjoy it and found that it told a much more unique story than most of the other works I've read so far this year. I did enjoy all of the different narratives that this book was written in the perspective of, as it allowed for multiple stories to be told in the space of one novel. I was pleasantly surprised by how intelligent both of the girls sounded in their turns as narrator, I felt that their voices were very strong and they did a great job in telling their stories. Unfortunately I do feel as though my attention wavered towards the end, and I wasn't as invested as I had been in the beginning.
3 stars
Done Dirt Cheap by Sarah Nicole Lemon
Published: 7th March 2017 by Amulet Books
I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review.
This was such a pleasant surprise for me! I went in knowing nothing about it apart from the fact that I've had it for review for far too long and I really needed to get round to giving it a go, and I'm so glad I did. I really enjoyed the premise of these two girls who have been brought up in differing dangerous situations coming together and helping each other through the hardest times, not giving up on the other when everyone else had. I don't come across it often in YA novels, but I liked the motorcycle gang element - definitely enhanced the sense of drama and tension and a good old bad boy.The dual narrative of Tourmaline and Virginia was well-done, and expressed each girl's individual insecurities and jeallousies while also presenting how they both viewed their friendhsip with the other. This wasn't a mind-blowing book by any means but it's the first one I've stayed up to finish in a long time!
3.5 stars
The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein
Published: 4th May 2017 by Bloomsbury Children's
I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review.
I really enjoyed Code Name Verity when I read it many years ago, I thought it was a really well-done YA Historical Fiction, so I went into this one with quite high expectations. They weren't fully met, but I did have a lot of fun reading this, so I can't complain! I liked the little illustrations dotted throughout, they felt very fun but possibly a bit too juvenile for a YA novel, especially when compared to some of the subject matters in The Pearl Thief. I feel like there were a lot of good ideas here, but not all of them were executed consistently. Maybe it was a case of too many things being done at once, because I did find myself getting confused at times in the first half. However, I do think Wein really pulled the story back together in the last third, and helped to tie up some loose ends of the mystery. Overall it did just feel as though the focus of the story was too often on aspects that didn't interest me as much as ther actual pearl thief storyline.
3 stars
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