Book Review: A Darkly Beating Heart

A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith

Released: October 25th, 2016
Publisher: Roaring Book Press
Format: ARC, 272 pages
Read: September/October 2016

Description from GoodReads: A time-travel story that alternates between modern day and 19th century Japan as one girl confronts the darkness lurking in her soul.
   No one knows what to do with Reiko. She is full of hatred. All she can think about is how to best hurt herself and the people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt, Reiko’s parents send her from their Seattle home to spend the summer with family in Japan to learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping back in time into the life of Miyu, a young woman even more bent on revenge than Reiko herself. Reiko loves being Miyu, until she discovers the secret of Kuramagi village, and must face down Miyu’s demons as well as her own.

Review: Time travelling thriller about bitter teenagers in Japan? Sign me right up! This book was exactly what I'd hoped it would be, without me knowing what was about to happen at every twist and turn.
   Miyu is a wonderfully deep character who contrasts well with Reiko, who seems to only want revenge. Along with this, I found Reikos subtle "Hi I'm bi" attitude refreshing. There was no "Wow maybe I'm not straight" moment that seems to accompany her romance with Jiro.
   The way we discover important plot points in the book is a work of art. There is no foreseeable plot twists here (or maybe I'm just oblivious!) and they all clicked wonderfully. There were parts that creeped and grossed me out in a good way. They were tasteful, if that's possible, and all added to the plot.
   However, this novel is just under 300 pages. About 250 pages (not literally) build the plot and characters up beautifully, making me care, and interested me in what would happen to these dark darlings. The last 50 pages was left to make a complete ending. I was pretty sure that no author could wrap up a book in a neat bow in a mere 50 pages. And oh boy... was I right. The ending didn't fit the novel. You would find this kind of ending in a book aimed at 12 year olds. (Is that too mean?)
   But I did love the book. I adored it! Give me more, Lindsay Smith! I would like a follow-up!

Quotable Quotes:

• "I have mastered the path of hatred, and I know now where it ends. It ends with my revenge."
• "I'm tired of walking around with these memories in me, throbbing like a knife I never bothered to pull from my back."
• "Your mindset creates your reality, no matter what you believe."
• "We are all defined by our past, our choices and circumstances have made us who we are. It's all there, carved into us indelibly. But... it is not our present. Or our future. That's what we control. It's what we choose to do with the past that is entirely up to us."

Rating: 8/10

Read if You Liked: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, confusing but generally ok time travel, Ink by Amanda Sun, Japan?

Optimistically yours, Ola <3

Book Review: The Telling

The Telling by Alexandra Sirowy

Released: August 2, 2016

Read: July 2016

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Format: ARC, 400 pages

Series: Stand-alone

Description on Goodreads:

    Lana used to know what was real.

    That was before when her life was small and quiet.

Her golden step-brother, Ben, was alive, she could only dream about bonfiring with the populars, their wooded island home was idyllic, she could tell the truth from lies, and Ben’s childhood stories were firmly in her imagination.

    Then came after.

    After has Lana boldly kissing her crush, jumping into the water from too high up, and living with nerve and mischief. But after also has horrors, deaths that only make sense in fairy tales, and terrors from a past Lana thought long forgotten: Love, blood, and murder.

Review:
  This isn't a spoiler, no matter what you may think, but I am a committed member in the Alive-until-literal-body-is-proven-dead club. As soon as Ben's death was described, and I learned that he fell off a cliff into the water below, I believed that he was alive. I've watched waaaay too many of my favourite characters on TV shows die then come back to life. There's always a loop hole or a small detail that someone missed, that proves the person isn't dead. So for the majority of THE TELLING, I searched for Ben. But what happens, I will not say.
    Ben and Lana share a complex relationship, considering their horrible childhood ( before meeting each other). The stories Ben tells Lana bond them and make them closer siblings. These stories, although quite morbid, are unique and really interesting. Beakless black birds and  rosary peas, an odd combination. Also in these stories, Lana and Ben are the common protagonist, always killing the villain the same way the villain killed its victims. Lana the Brave is outgoing and fearless, unlike her current realistic self.
    Lana's relationship with Josh Parker is short and not really there. Of course they're good friends, but if you're looking for a strong romance, this is not the book for you. They act nervous and semi-casual around each other, but you can't feel their connection. It's as if she doesn't like him and is awkward around him just because he's a guy. In short: not very lovely dovey.
    The mystery was kept alive during the entirety of the novel, and made me switch between many suspects. I couldn't figure out who had the right motive and how each murder was pulled off. Why did Maggie hide where she did? Why does everyone suspect it was Fitzgerald Moore? And what did any of this have to do with Lana and Ben?
    By the end of this thriller, Lana finds out the true nature of many of the people around her. Many are not who they seem to be, and each of these discoveries is even more captivating than the one before.

Quotes:

• " I was an earthworm dreaming of being a python."
• " The good and bad are indistinguishable in the dark."
• " You can't go back in time any more than you can regrow a lung once you've lost it. The only thing to do is learn to breathe with just one."
• "Gant, the idyllic island where the millionaires of Seattle flock with their 2.4 kids, labradoodles, and trophy wives. Gant, where shit doesn't stink and bullshit is recyclable, where everyone gets to be white, rich, and an asshole."
• " Perception is nine-tenths of everything, and you only need to appear okay for them to think you are."
• " People wear sadness like they wear hats."
• " I'm tired of hearing what anyone but me thinks I should be. I want to define myself. If I am small, it's my choice. If I'm daring, it's because it's who I am. If I'm good, fine. If I'm bad, that's on me."

Rating: 9/10

Recommended if you like: thrillers, high school drama, reading about bullying, family drama, murder mysteries, the Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy, books about story telling, obsessions.

Keep flipping pages,

Lauren

Book Review: Cruel Beauty

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Released: January 28th, 2014
Read: December 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages

Description from GoodReads: Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
   With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
   But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.
   As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

Review: I've always loved the sort of mystical Arthurian time period of books like Grave Mercy or Fairest, and Cruel Beauty just clicks with it.

   The story is well-paced and keeps you interested by twisting the story a little further and further (not unlike the staircase on the cover) until it unravels at the end. Which was a little confusing. Actually scratch that, it was very confusing. Maybe the next book will clear things up a bit.

   Familial relationships in this book are seen as very important, including the awfully taut ones that Nyx has with her father, sister, aunt, and even her dead mother. Even though she hates them throughout the book, she still feels a sort of obligation and love to them, which doesn't seem to be requited. 

   Altogether, it's a pretty great book!

Quotable Quotes:

"Where you go, I shall go; Where you die, I shall die, and there will I be buried."

"He is a monster, and maybe I am a monster for pitying him."

"From nothing into nothing how swiftly we return."

"... Lose myself in the embrace of the one person who had ever seen my heart and claimed to love me after."

Rating: 9/10

Read if You Liked: Grave Mercy, Ella Enchanted, Beauty and the Beast, Graceling

Optimistically yours, Ola