The Unadoptables by Hana Tooke

 In the autumn of 1880, five "unadoptable" orphans make a daring escape from their orphanage to evade the clutches of a sinister gentleman. Embarking on a daring adventure, they begin looking for a family of their own, which may already be closer than they realise.

(It's a pity that so much emphasis and attention has been placed on the title because that really is such a small part of the story. I would say that this is a piece of historical fiction which reflects the views and beliefs of the time period in which it is set. Any prejudice is clearly shown to be a flaw or ignorance in the antagonists and is nothing to do with the children themselves.)

What I liked about the story - I loved that each of the five children is an individual with their own quirks, values and beliefs. I have a clear picture in my head of who Lotta, Egbert, Sem and Milou are. Fenna (who is selectively mute) I have less a picture of, but I think that would change on a second reading. 

I love that there is a point where Milou acknowledges she is behaving selfishly. Too often characters behave selfishly without repercussions or self-awareness and it makes them really annoying to read about! Her need to find her birth family above what the others in the group want is understandable but it does put the others in danger and it's good that this is acknowledged.

Whilst the story never made me cry, it did make me chuckle in a couple of places and also gasp out loud as there is a surprise and shock or two.

The baddies are very very bad - think evil laughs and (figurative) signs over their heads saying these are the bad guys. But other characters in the story are well-rounded with flaws and their own believable motivations.

It's well written and the plotting is tight, with things that are casually mentioned early in the books being tied up by the end. It also has some memorable lines - 

"I suppose there's only so much normal the five of us can realistically get away with."

and also:-

"I'm making you nervous? She's speaking in tongues."

Things I struggled with - At 384 pages it's quite a long read and I didn't always feel completely engaged with the story and characters. It's a book that I enjoyed whilst reading but I could put it down and not feel the need to pick it up again. However, it is a story that grows on you, probably for me starting as a D and ending as a B- hence the C review. I think you'd get more out of it on a re-read as you'd have more appreciation for the deft plotting.

Overall - I liked it but didn't love it. Lovers of YA historical fiction may find it more appealing.

(I received a free copy of this book for review)

The Lost Soul Atlas - Zana Fraillon

From the back cover - " For as long as Twig can remember, it's been him and Da - family over everything. So when Twig finds himself alone on the streets, he feels totally lost. That is until he meets Flea, a cheerful pickpocket, who feels like the best friend he never had.

But then Twig wakes up in the Afterlife with just a handful of memories from Earth and one big question...how did he get there?"

I am conflicted about this story. On the one hand some of the writing is beautiful, so well written and eventually I was pulled into the story but on the other hand I feel slightly mis-sold on the fantasy aspect of the book and it's based around the Oliver Twist trope which I don't like.

Firstly, the writing. I think Zana Fraillon has a wonderful knack for choosing phrases that will live with you after you've finished the story. "Fight the forgetting." which is a constant throughout the book. "Impossible is what they say when they don't want you to try." "With a map, anything is possible." It's worth reading the book for the beauty of the language.

I liked how it could have been set anywhere - the reality of children living on the streets didn't require the city to be named - which is horrifying that this is a universal reality. It could have been in any city. Some details do narrow the choices - for example the police have guns and a hotel is referred to as the Highett (Hyatt?) But those details feel incidental to the setting.

It took a long time for me to get pulled into the story - too long really - it was page 252 of a 320 page novel. If I hadn't been reading it for review I would probably have given up before then. But I think that's the point at which I was completely pulled in, all the disparate threads are coming together. The characters felt more alive and it also felt more hopeful, and that things are possible. I wanted to know how it was going to end.

I don't like the Oliver Twist trope (I really can't stress how much I dislike Oliver Twist) which is essentially what you have here in the reality based sections of the book. Twig (the Oliver character) causes things to happen and has things happen to them, but it doesn't feel like he has any agency of his own. You could say that that is because of the circumstances he is in - a child on the streets - but Flea (Artful Dodger) is a much more dynamic and engaging character. I felt for most of the book Twig was a passive character who I wasn't that interested in reading about. 

A lot of the early chapters have a downbeat hook ending. For example - "But neither the boy nor his Guardian would notice. Not until it was too late."And - "I should know by now, that if I really cared for Flea, I should never have wished at all." Basically, something is going to happen and it's going to be something bad. This is perhaps the main reason I found the first part of the book so difficult to get through.

 

I also think if you are buying this for the fantasy aspect of the book, you should be aware that the majority of the story takes place in the real world. Twig is tasked with opening up the Crossings between the Afterlife and our reality, so that when people die they don't forget who they are, as part of this he falls back into his memories of being alive - hence why so much of the book takes place in the real world. This allows the reader to slowly understand what happened to Twig and how he ended up in the Afterlife and combines it with a quest element of opening up the crossings.

As a fantasy reader I was looking forward to seeing more of the dynamics and creatures of the Afterlife, because what we did see was fascinating and unique. As the story is called The Lost Soul Atlas I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that the fantasy elements would play a major part. Instead they are more stepping stones between memories. This is the other reason I found the first part of the book so disappointing. We'd fall into a memory and be there for several chapters, then return to the Afterlife for one chapter before falling into another memory.

Up to page 252 I would give this book a D, and the last 60 or so pages a B because they brought everything together. So I've given it a C which I think is a fair rating.

Overall - it ended up as an okay read from me. Part of me would like to read it again to appreciate how all the story threads fit together, as I said it is cleverly written, but I don't think I could face reading the first 200 pages again. Maybe in a couple of years.

I received a free copy of this book for review.

Fallen by Claire Delacroix

When Lilia Desjardin's estranged husband's death is declared an accident, she knows that it will be up to her to discover the truth. Life in the Republic is lived under a cloud of suspicion and fear - a future dystopia where those unaffected by the radiation from multiple nuclear strikes live at the expense of those who were mutated and scarred (shades). The former angel Adam Montgomery sacrifices his wings in order to complete an earthly mission. His path will intersect with Lilia's and the two of the them will work together to find out exactly what is being kept hidden.

I think the last time a book had me this conflicted was Ghostland by Jory Strong. This is quite a long review and has some slight spoilers in it.

Things I liked.

The cover. :)

Adam's story was by far the stronger of the two. From the moment his wings are amputated, he is a character that you want to know more about. As is Raphael the second angel to come to Earth during the course of the story.

The majority of the worldbuilding (with one exception, see below). I thought the future dystopia was an absorbing and fascinating world. How the author had set up a unique class system based on mutancy and gender. And how the angels infiltrated the system, as shade, as cop.

The mystery was well thought out and multi-layered, revealing a corruption that will require heavenly intervention to overcome.


Things I didn't like

Whilst these are personal dislikes and it's a much longer list than the likes, I stress here that the likes and dislikes ended up balancing each other out. Which should give you an idea of how much I liked the worldbuilding and mystery aspects of the book.

We're back to genre labelling again. This is not (for me) paranormal romance. The hero and heroine spend the majority of the book apart. So when they suddenly decide they are in love it doesn't feel organic. It feels more like it's happening to serve the plot rather than because the characters feel an emotional attachment. At the beginning when they first meet Adam thinks :-

More than her physical assets, he liked the spark of her intellect.

He's only just met the woman. I wish that the author had felt able to let the relationship develop over the course of the trilogy - if that were possible, obviously I don't know what is intended to happen in future books, but this felt rushed.

I liked their relationship at the end.

Montgomery couldn't be dead, not when she was starting to count on him.

But it feels like we skipped an awful lot of steps to get to that point. Also the blurb for the next book seems to suggest that Raphael has got his own designs on Lilia, I'd be interested to see just how far the 'paranormal romance' label is going to be stretched.

Initially I did have a problem with the city being called Gotham. Mainly because for me that name is synonymous with Batman.

The Sumptuary & Decency laws - whereby women are not allowed to cut their hair, have to be covered up when they are out in public and have to wear corsets. This narked me for a couple of reasons. At a couple of points in the story Lilia runs about both to lose Adam, and to chase after a Shade, all whilst wearing a corset which didn't seem to cause her any problems. Women not being able to cut their hair just seems silly to me. I think there are other ways to show the subjugation of women. (I also wonder about the gender ratios? Women being built for survival and already being the majority gender on the planet. It seems to me that there would be an even greater disparity following an apocalyptic event - leaving women in the vast majority.)

The story took a long time for me to get into. At page 118 the story settles into itself as Lilia comes into her own as a character. But I didn't really get absorbed into the world until page 216. This is a long time to wait to get pulled into a story.

I felt that there were gaps in plot logic, especially in the first half of the book. The angel shades don't talk so how does everyone know their names - did they write them down? If so, why don't they write down what else they want to say. Adam thinks he recognizes Lilia because it was her face on her husbands tattoo p.53, which he saw on the body. But it was mentioned that Adam was on the team that informed Lilia of her husband's death p.22.

Maybe my main problem was that for most of the book I didn't like Lilia. The reason for this being that she keeps doing stupid things. She doesn't get the relevance of the ugly necklace - this is supposed to be a reasonably intelligent woman. She drinks with people she suspects of being involved with her husband's death. For the first half of the book she keeps assuming that the things that keep happening to her are Montgomery's fault.

If this were the first in an openended series I don't think I'd pursue it any further. However, according to the author's website this is the first in a trilogy, and I am intrigued enough by the mystery, by what Raphael's mission may be, by what Adam and Lilia may do next to want to check out the next book. I hope with the worldbuilding set-up out of the way, that the next book takes a lot less than 200 pages to pull me in.

Mind the Gap by Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon

Now for something a little different. Mind the Gap was the Kelley Armstrong book club book for August, however I got a little behind and ended up reading it in September. One of the things I most enjoy about the bookclub is the potential to expand your reading horizons, reading books you wouldn't normally read.

Mind the Gap follows Jasmine Towne, who following her mothers murder by the mysterious Uncles, hides in the forgotten tunnels of London's underground system. Here she meets a group of children - the United Kingdom - looked after by an old man called Harry. With nowhere else to go she joins them - but the Uncles haven't stopped looking for her.

I'm not sure this is a book I could recommend to others. I would say it's a Young Adult book, except for the use of the f-word throughout, and I'm not sure what adult market it's aimed at. But as I said at the beginning this isn't the type of book I usually read so I'm not going to know...I guess.

It's also somewhat depressing, painted in monochrome rather than colour. Pardon the pun - but there's little light at the end of the tunnel. It seems whenever Jaz thinks she's found a place or a person for herself something goes wrong. Don't get too fond of any endearing character.

Jaz as a heroine, didn't always ring true to me. In the flashbacks she doesn't always sound like a teenager. Her response when her mother wants to warn her about men.

"A Dali would woo me with his intellect, a Picasso would make me see things in a different way, and a Warhol would just show me his dick."

My niece and her friends are 14, and I don't think any of them know who Warhol is, let alone Picasso and Dali. And even if they had heard of them, I'm not sure they'd construct such an argument.

However, there was a lot here I enjoyed.

I felt like there were many Londons being woven into this story. Quite a lot of it had a Dickensian feel, the United Kingdom gang is reminiscent of Fagin and his boys from Oliver Twist. The use of the passage from Great Expectations towards the end of the book I thought worked really well.

There's also a slight fairy tale feel. Jaz likens herself to Wendy Darling (Peter Pan) and when she first descends into the Underground there is an atmosphere of Alice going down the rabbit hole.

The descriptions are wonderful and drew me into the book. When Jaz first flees into the Underground we're there on the Tube station with her, feeling the trains screaming past and seeing the unwelcome darkness of the tunnels. On the first burglary I was with Jaz as she entered the house, I felt her exhilaration and fear as she realizes there is another burglar in the house with her, and could almost taste the adrenaline rush as she decides to go ahead with her own robbery anyway.

It may seem from some of the above that there wasn't as much about the book that I enjoyed as I didn't. However, although this book isn't a keeper for me, I am glad I read it, after all you shouldn't get too stuck in your reading comfort zone.

Embrace the Darkness by Alexandra Ivy

SPOILERS BELOW SPOILERS BELOW SPOILERS BELOW

Embrace the Darkness is the second in the Guardians of Eternity series. Following the events in When Darkness Comes (Book 1), Viper (chief of a vampire clan) buys the Lady Shay (last of the Shalott demons, though technically she's half human) at auction. This annoys her more than a little as in the previous book she did save his life. Way to show the gratitude. Though Viper's motives may appear nefarious, he actually wants to protect Shay. However, unknown to both of them, she's actually in a lot more danger than they suspect. To survive, they'll not only have to depend on each other, but also their friends - both old and new.

I have a problem with this book, and to be fair, it's probably not so much to do with the book itself or how well it's written. But I think I have moved away from being able to appreciate Paranormal Romance. After reading Iron Kissed and Another One Bites the Dust, this was just so nice. Too nice. The bad guys were bad, the good guys were good. It was well written. There were nice (there's that word again) comic touches from Levet, the heroine's gargoyle companion. But I don't think it's quite for me any more.

Shay and Viper have some strong dialogue and a great chemistry. I found Viper to be the more well-rounded character of the two, Shay was not quite so interesting. Maybe I'm biased.

Levet is the little gargoyle with the big heart. He works as both a sidekick and a conscience and has some of the best lines.

...a moment of blessed silence before Levet was shifting impatiently. "What's in the box?"
"Obviously, we don't know yet."
"Is it going to take long?"
"It will take as long as it takes."
"Are we having snacks?"

LOL

There are some inconsitencies in the plot, or maybe I didn't pick up on all the subtleties. Specifically relating to Shay's curse. It's said if she injured Evor (the troll who owned her) she felt pain. So why doesn't she know when Evor is injured during his kidnap? Is it only when she attacks him that she feels pain. This wasn't clear to me.

There's also a tendency to pull back from things, for example when Viper talks about the time before he was a clan chief how terrible things were for him. Shay questions him, but he just says - 'you don't want to know'. Also about the powers of each vampire clan chief - it's confidential. I'll make allowances for this once in a story, but more than that and it starts to annoy.

Alexandra Ivy does know how to keep her readers interested. New vampires are introduced here - Styx and Santiago. And there's mention of a 'young and fierce werewolf'. She puts in just enough to keep you interested in where the story is going. I also like that she makes the bad guy a little more three dimensional than your standard evil overlord. We get a glimpse of the hero he might have been in the past.

I'll also mention that we're also kept up to date with Abby and Dante from Book 1. I'm glad we didn't spend too long with Abby as she seems to have become one of those all-powerful characters.

It's a pity that the most interesting characters for me were Levet and Styx. In the same way I found Viper to be the most interesting character in Book 1. Somehow when the characters are the main focus of the book they fall a little short of expectation. I hope that Styx who will be the hero of book 3, will live up to his introduction in this book.

It's a nice story, well written with engaging moments. Slightly too light for me. The humour, and chemistry between the characters lifts it above a lot of the other paranormal romance out there. Recommended for fans of Jacquelyn Frank and Alyssa Day.

Book 1 - When Darkness Comes (available)
Book 3 - Darkness Everlasting (May 2008)