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BOOK REVIEW – Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) by Leigh Bardugo

February 1, 2016 / Anna

Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1)
by Leigh Bardugo
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Kaz's crew are the only ones who might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

*Buddy-read with my fellow fantasy lover, Kat*

One word before I start : ~~I don’t~~ I’m not sure I trust you, Leigh Bardugo. You let me down before, and ice isn’t forgiving. You taught me that. This said, you wrote a hell of a great book here. Here I am, caring for all these characters, and I’m not gonna lie : I’m scared to death now. Well done.

*bows*

What Six of Crows offered me is a plot that kept me guessing, in a Locke Lamora fashion (By the way, Kaz does remind me a lot of Locke, but as I absolutely adore Locke, I won’t hold these reminiscences against him. More for me. Yum). If the beginning was slow-ish, with a writing, albeit good, that didn’t hold my interest for long spans of time – I needed to pause every few pages – from 25% I was fully invested : once the team was constituted, the characters dynamics just exploded and damn. I enjoyed the hell out of this.

Fantasy readers won’t be surprised by the alternative POV and the big cast of characters and – surprise, surprise – it is really well done, the transitions between the different characters being ones of the best I ever read. That is to say,
✘ No rehearsing of everything but a plot that flows smoothly.
✘ No multiple retelling of the same event over and over again.
✘ No confusion and “who the fuck is talking right now” syndrome : I’ll come to the characters later, but I can safely state that they all have their own voice, thank you very much.

This being said, the success of Six of Crows definitely lies in its complex and interesting characters. Frankly, I feel like everything has already been told about them, so I’ll only put my highlights here :

➊ I say YES to the banter and wary trust between Kaz and Inej (Inej chapters being my favorites). The development of their relationship was fantastic and I couldn’t get enough of them together. SHIP SHIP SHIP.

➋ Inej is a female lead I could adore. She wants everything, and she doesn’t settle for less. YOU GO GIRL.

➌ Kaz is relentless in his scheming and planning, and just at the moment you think that you finally get his personality, he takes a decision so ruthless that you stand there, wide eyed. Of course he’s my favorite character, what do you think. PSYCHOPATHS FOR THE WIN.

➍ Jesper’s tendency to have the last word was hilarious. Also, as my adorable buddy-reader pointed it, he spreads J.C.’s vibes (Legion) that I couldn’t ignore. Bahahaha. Guns. TELL ME I CAN SHIP HIM WITH WYLAN. PLEASE.

➎ Matthias and Nina made me feel instantly – these two have a well rounded love/hate thingy going on and it was a pleasure to follow their fights (because I’m a masochistic like this XD).

➏ GIRL FRIENDSHIP! To see Nina and Inej making fun of the silly men was the BEST. Finally female characters that have something else to do that slutshame and hate each others. THANK YOU.

➐ I truly enjoyed Matthias…. lag between his “morals” and the team’s lack of them. It made for the funniest thoughts and interactions.

Not to mention that the interactions between them were fully enjoyable, sometimes hilarious, sometimes meaningful but never lacking depth.

As I loved the characters, the flashbacks, bringing slices of their previous life, interested me a lot. In my opinion they gave a most needed background and above that, LAYERS to the characters and helped me to understand their reactions. This is the purpose of flashbacks, and not to drown the reader under useless details like some books do.

The language may have been stripped out of Dutch but frankly? I don’t care. I read too much REALISTIC and HISTORICAL books massacring French culture to feel really annoyed by this in FANTASY. I mean, what’s the big deal? Is she saying that it’s Dutch? Nope. So yeah she took words and altered them and blablabla, here’s the sound of the fucks I give

ZzzzzzzzzzzzZzzzzzz

So what? She didn’t create a whole new language? I don’t need another Tolkien. Please not another Tolkien.

This said, I can see how it can be annoying for Dutch speakers. No, really. I read books that did it in French and it WAS annoying. Like a private joke that isn’t remotely funny. I’m sorry for you guys :/. It remains that for me, as soon as she’s not selling some colonialist and white woman saving crap like Tiger’s Curse did, I don’t find it offensive or insulting. But you’re definitely free to disagree with me on this^^

Also, I find the need to point out that I usually read more adult fantasy and that YA fantasy hardly comes closed to it (in my eyes) but I genuinely thought that she did a great job at her world building. Before people complain about the fact she took Dutch settings – In my eyes, world building isn’t only about settings and words. World building is also about magical systems and gang organizations and power and traditions. I need to feel invested and believe in a world. I did. End of story. (or, there are Grisha in Amsterdam and I need to plan a vacations there ASAP. JUST TELL ME)

Oh, about the names. Many readers pointed how ridiculous they sounded and I won’t deny that fantasy books usually offer us better names for their characters. Like Kettriken, from my beloved Robin Hobb. Or is it Rheyn? Oh, and do not forget Froi, Finnikin and Evangeline from Melina Marchetta. Kelsier and Elend from Brandon Sanderson. Not to mention my favorite little cutter, Jorg. And don’t get me started about Jezal, Logen, and Glokta from Joe Abercrombie‘s First Law trilogy.

Oops. It seems that I do deny it. Really, fantasy names never fail to make me roll my eyes. As Francesca would say,

“I’d read fantasy if they had simple names like Jane and Bob from Wagga,” I said. “Why does it have to be Tehrana and Bihaad from the World of Sceehina?” – Saving Francesca

(The girl is definitely onto something.) Truth is, I don’t care, I just roll with it. It certainly won’t spoil my enjoyment.

*shrugs*

► All in all, Six of Crows managed to do something I didn’t think was possible after Ruin and Rising‘s disaster (for me, again) : making me invested in the Grisha world again. Well done.

BOOK REVIEW – Split by Swati Avasthi

January 24, 2016 / Anna

Split by Swati Avasthi
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
A riveting portrait of life after abuse from an award-winning novelist.

Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret.

He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend, who is keeping his secret.

At least so far.

Worst of all, Jace realizes that if he really wants to move forward, he may first have to do what scares him most: He may have to go back. Award-winning novelist Swati Avasthi has created a riveting and remarkably nuanced portrait of what happens after. After you’ve said enough, after you’ve run, after you’ve made the split—how do you begin to live again? Readers won’t be able to put this intense page-turner down.

“It’s not really all right, is it? I mean, who would miss that bastard? Shouldn’t I hate him, just simple, pure hatred? Shouldn’t I write him a thank-you note for getting me out of there, for not wanting me around anymore?”

Every time I open a book labeled as realistic fiction, I brace myself, knowing that this genre covers such different kinds of stories. What will that be? A stereotypical high school cutesy? A misleading “issue book” where romance outweighs everything? A flat and boring nonsense?

Sometimes, though. Sometimes its pages contain larger than life characters whose journeys are related with such honesty and depth that we feel a little like voyeurs. Sometimes we realize how wonderful it is that an issue we read about over and over again can be pictured in a different – yet real – way. Sometimes opening this realistic fiction novel feels like being punched in the guts, our throat closing, the air thinning around us.

This is how realistic fiction should be, and Split did a splendid job at it.

Never an abusive homelife – and its consequences – has been tackled with such sincerity. I mean, perhaps it has, but I have yet to read these books. See, I often complain about twirling moustaches evils and one-dimensional characters and I can assure you that you’ll find none of them here. Don’t get fooled, I’m not saying that Jace and Christian’s dad isn’t to blame because Christ! I want him to burn to death but Swati Avasthi perfectly pictures how difficult it can be to escape an abuser – how he/she twists the reality – your reality – so much that you convince yourself that hoping for a better life is just a stupid dream. If I’m thankful enough to never have been through that, one of my best-friend did and I know how upset she would feel whenever someone implied that she was to blame for not having reacted faster. That kind of bullshit made her positively furious, and she was oh so right to be. Come on, assholes. Just try and use your brains. But I digress – In that account, Split was raw, painful at times, but – sorry, I’m repeating myself – fundamentally honest.

And you’ve got the brothers. Aw, Jace and Christian. I can’t express how much I loved seeing their complicated relationship unfold, all guilt and desire to escape and just be. They made me care and laugh and cry. I wanted to shake and protect and hug them. None of them is perfect, and their mistakes – their anger, their denial – were sometimes hard to stomach, but their fierce love and loyalty was straight-on beautiful. Swati Avasthi doesn’t shy away from the psychological effects of such abuse and Jace’s struggles to escape how it changed him. Following him was heartbreaking, yet so very hopeful.

Just – read this book, okay? I can’t promise you that you’ll enjoy every second of it, because some parts made my heart ache – others made me furious – but in the end, even if I would have wanted for some questions to be resolved View Spoiler », I can’t deny that Split is a powerful book, and Jace and Christian characters who will not be easily forgotten.

How comes that this novel isn’t more widely read?

BOOK REVIEW – Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

January 23, 2016 / Anna

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Today is Leonard Peacock’s birthday. It is also the day he hides a gun in his backpack. Because today is the day he will kill his former best friend, and then himself, with his grandfather’s P-38 pistol.

But first he must say good-bye to the four people who matter most to him: his Humphrey Bogart-obsessed next-door neighbor, Walt; his classmate, Baback, a violin virtuoso; Lauren, the Christian homeschooler he has a crush on; and Herr Silverman, who teaches the high school’s class on the Holocaust. Speaking to each in turn, Leonard slowly reveals his secrets as the hours tick by and the moment of truth approaches.

In this riveting look at a day in the life of a disturbed teenage boy, acclaimed author Matthew Quick unflinchingly examines the impossible choices that must be made—and the light in us all that never goes out.

When the low, heavy sky weighs like a lid
On the groaning spirit, victim of long ennui,
And from the all-encircling horizon
Spreads over us a day gloomier than the night;

When the earth is changed into a humid dungeon,
In which Hope like a bat
Goes beating the walls with her timid wings
And knocking her head against the rotten ceiling;

– Charles Baudelaire, Spleen

Damn you, Leonard Peacock : you made me remember of who used to be one of my favorite poet when I was a teenager. Ha, Baudelaire with his genius misanthropy, his (often) poor opinion of women and his endless melancholy, always full of irony and cynicism… I would have hated him if I didn’t love him so much. Truth is, being close to Leonard felt like that : all hate and contempt and understanding and despair.

Leonard is no conventional hero, and I can see how his unlikeable traits could create great hate in the readers’ heart. Not me, though. How much he made me want to hate him, I never did.

When the rain stretching out its endless train
Imitates the bars of a vast prison
And a silent horde of loathsome spiders
Comes to spin their webs in the depths of our brains,

All at once the bells leap with rage
And hurl a frightful roar at heaven,
Even as wandering spirits with no country
Burst into a stubborn, whimpering cry.

– Charles Baudelaire, Spleen

Let’s not shy away from the truth : he is a sexist, conceited human being. But see, this is where I have to explain what I hate in books. I hate when sexism is normalized, accepted, encouraged, even. I hate it with passion. Does that mean that every book has to be rid of characters who think like that? No, I don’t think so. There is a definite difference between (1) condoning a behavior by giving readers the impression that sexism is normal, and (2) picturing a fucked up character and how he sees life through his prism. It is definitely different, and here lies the talent of an author : for me, a writer in the first situation lets his story tainted by offensive stereotypes, let it drown. A writer in the second position owns it. He controls it. Frankly? It’s obvious that what Leonard thinks is often offensive. I mean – GAH. The guy wants to kill someone and himself for fuck sake! Of course his head isn’t the better place to be! I sure didn’t expect anything else : despair and hate are more often than not intertwined, unfortunately.

— And without drums or music, long hearses
Pass by slowly in my soul; Hope, vanquished,
Weeps, and atrocious, despotic Anguish
On my bowed skull plants her black flag.
– Charles Baudelaire, Spleen

Yet I can’t deny that the hate – so much hate – gets hard to stomach at times, especially because it is tainted by so much arrogance. Yet I can’t completely dismiss his feelings. Yes, he is judgmental, he assumes many things about his classmates and all the adults in his life. All the time. It gets uncomfortable sometimes and I won’t deny it. Yet it seemed real to me, because yes, there are kids like him everywhere. Yes, the moral questions he wonders about constantly are valuable. Are we all monsters? Are we delusional?

I have more memories than if I’d lived a thousand years.

The desire to end all things
A heavy chest of drawers cluttered with balance-sheets,
Processes, love-letters, verses, ballads,
And heavy locks of hair enveloped in receipts,
Hides fewer secrets than my gloomy brain.
It is a pyramid, a vast burial vault
Which contains more corpses than potter’s field.
— I am a cemetery abhorred by the moon,
In which long worms crawl like remorse
And constantly harass my dearest dead.
I am an old boudoir full of withered roses,
Where lies a whole litter of old-fashioned dresses,
Where the plaintive pastels and the pale Bouchers,
Alone, breathe in the fragrance from an opened phial.

– Charles Baudelaire, Spleen

But don’t get fooled by his conceited mind. Leonard suffers, and at no moment can you dismiss his despair because of his behavior. I couldn’t, anyway. Along the way you realize more and more and more that Leonard has problems. Real ones. Devastating ones.

I know how stupid that can seem because DUH look at what he planned! but seeing him mixing half truths, real despair and delusions – it broke me a little. We have a word in French, le désenchantement. It was often used to refer to the post-1830 generation when youngs didn’t know what to do anymore, now that epic careers weren’t possible – no more Napoleon – and that the politic system just looked stuck, between Monarchy, Republic and Empire. One of my favorite book of all times, Stello, explores this melancholy through the life of a poet who tries to find what political system would give him the more freedom. Truth is – there’s none. Freedom is in him, in his poetic quality, in his otherness – Leonard reminded me of him. It’s scary how misunderstanding can lead to violence.

If Leonard wants people around him to be helpless and pathetic, it’s only because he is. He made me laugh, though (what? I do have a soft spot for smartasses^^) ~~The Jesus parts were PRICELESS~~

That winged voyager, how weak and gauche he is,
So beautiful before, now comic and ugly!
One man worries his beak with a stubby clay pipe;
Another limps, mimics the cripple who once flew!

The poet resembles this prince of cloud and sky
Who frequents the tempest and laughs at the bowman;
When exiled on the earth, the butt of hoots and jeers,
His giant wings prevent him from walking.

– Charles Baudelaire, The Albatros

I can’t deny that some parts made me feel so much. Shivering. Tearing up. Yet it wavered – not my interest, because I was hooked from the beginning – but the emotion. It was so weird to see that I could connect on such a strong level with Leonard and then just – stop. Perhaps it was meant to be. Perhaps I was way too exhausted. Regardless of the reason, it prevented me from completely love Leonard’s story, but didn’t hide to me how important this story is.

Let’s talk about Leonard’s relations with women, okay? They made me furious at times.

A lightning flash… then night! Fleeting beauty
By whose glance I was suddenly reborn,
Will I see you no more before eternity?

Elsewhere, far, far from here! too late! never perhaps!
For I know not where you fled, you know not where I go,
O you whom I would have loved, O you who knew it!

– Charles Baudelaire, To a Passer-by

Sigh. As other reviewers pointed it, Leonard shares a very bad opinion of women in general and doesn’t show any respect most of the time. Plus, he’s a stalker. I hated him for it, but as I said earlier, I’m not supposed to love him. I don’t have to condone his actions and his way of thinking, and at no moment did I feel any pressure to do so. Quick never intend to redeem him, and I’m okay with that.

My poor Muse, alas! what ails you today?
Your hollow eyes are full of nocturnal visions;
I see in turn reflected on your face
Horror and madness, cold and taciturn.
– Charles Baudelaire, The Sick Muse

Truth be told, I’m not sure that this review will help you determine if Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is for you. What can I say? I’m not even sure it was for me. What you need to know is that it’s by no means a perfect book, with several characters a little too one-dimensional and stereotypical (the mother, for example) and a male lead you’ll perhaps want to strangle sometimes. Yet I don’t regret reading it, and his story will probably haunt me a long time. I’d say that it means something, doesn’t it?

PS. All the poems are from William Aggeler’s translations (1954), but I strongly advise you to read them in French if you can.

BOOK REVIEW – Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

January 12, 2016 / Anna

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S King
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.

So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.

When he was a child in his foster home, my father wasn’t allowed to eat butter. Every day he would see the family children eat it at breakfast, but never once did he break the rule. People in nowhere town, nowhere country France never stopped reminding him that he didn’t belong : part Algerian, part Parisian (like a different nationality for them really), he was the kid parents warned their children against, because god forbid any kind of open-mindedness. In the sixties, difference was not a good way to go. When my mother told me this, I cried. I cried because I had no idea. I knew that my father’s childhood wasn’t all sunshines and rainbows but he never liked to talk about it, and I didn’t press him. Truth is, I always thought that I’d had the time to sit down and really talk someday. Later.

I was wrong, because now it’s too late, and that feeling? All frustration and guilt and anger and love. Reading Please Ignore Vera Dietz felt like that, and this story reached to old and hidden parts of me I didn’t even remembered.

This is my second book from A.S. King, and by far the strongest. First she managed to perfectly capture the essence of grief : indeed it’s rarely devoid of anger – blind, unfair anger we almost never see pictured in books – and that explains partly why I could connect so strongly. People don’t warn you how mad you are when someone you love die. Sadness you expect, but anger? No, and it’s a shame really, because you can’t think clear and guilt is never far. You think you shouldn’t be angry. You think there’s a problem with you, somehow. Don’t.

This is realistic fiction at its finest, that is to say, raw and painful and crazy and beautiful. See, I’m not stranger to grief, and yet, (or because of it) books that deal with grief often piss me off so much that I’ve been delaying reading Vera’s story for more than a year now. I should have trusted my friends, because this story is nothing like the others I read before. What I have a hard time to stand in that kind of books is the “purposeful way” the death of a loved one is often used. It’s as if they would make us believe that we only lose people we love to find our destiny or some shit. Fuck that. Sorry guys, I’m a down-to-earth bitch (sorry mum, I tried!). A.S. King adds so many anecdotes that made me pause and think, “oh, yes, that“. The way you can’t help but imagine how it goes, under the earth, even if you know you shouldn’t. The way you find yourself speaking alone or consider completely impossible things. Your mind is reeling, but truth is, sometimes there’s no answers. Sometimes you have to go on to find them, and here lies the beauty of Vera’s story.

The story is organized with chapters alternating between Vera’s life in present time – after Charlie, her best friend, died – and flashbacks where we come to see how their relationship evolved during their childhood and their adolescence. All the events intricate perfectly and I found the way the story was written really wonderful because everything made sense. We think we know where the story is going, but as in real life, the journey is more important than anything here. And little by little, we realize that we didn’t really know what to expect in fact – This story surprised me.

If you’re not new to A.S. King, you know that she is more likely to insert a paranormal side in her stories. If the dreams bothered me a little in Everybody Sees the Ants, I have to say that it worked perfectly here. But then, this is Charlie, and I may be partial. I don’t care.

Both main characters are unlikeable and yet so endearing. I loved them fiercely. First of all, Charlie. Aw, Charlie, what a fucked-up you were. What a bunch of self-loathing, devil may care charm, unforgettable male-lead you are. I’m warning you here : you won’t agree with everything he did or said, but you won’t be able to stop yourself from loving him. I couldn’t. You won’t be able to stop yourself from hating him, either. He’s messed-up, an asshole, and his actions made me want to slap him – really – sometimes. But the important is, his flaws aren’t romanticized. We’re never served some crappy romance crap where unforgivable behavior is condoned. It isn’t.

As for Vera, the better way to express my feelings is to say that I could understand her : she is flawed, broken, but strong and willing to do anything she can to go on and to refuse hypocrisy. Yet she is judgmental (she kinda slut-shames at some point, yes). She is delusional. I won’t deny any of that, but she’s more. As I already said countless times, I don’t care about flaws if the characters are multi-layered. In the end, I really, really liked her because she was real and incredibly brave yet sometimes so scared. This is reality, people. We aren’t adjectives but complex human beings. She made mistakes, didn’t act when she had to to protect the ones she loves, but she is aware of that. Every fucking second of her life.

These characters never failed to make me feel deeply, and I am amazed of the depth and complexity of the relationships pictured. Vera and Charlie, Vera and her dad, Charlie and his parents – nothing’s useless, everything’s three dimensional and kinda messed-up. I loved it.

How can we escape our “destiny”? Can we, really? What of self-fulfilling prophecies? See, when I was in College I worked a lot about that kind of things – because our self-confidence is also linked to our teachers’ remarks, for better or for worse – and this is something I really care about. That’s why I found really interesting that A.S. King chose to deal with it, and in my opinion she did a great job showing that everything is always more complicated than we think : what part of our unconscious fights against the path we don’t want to follow? What part of the collective unconscious convinces us that we are going to repeat our parents’, our background’s mistakes whatever efforts we make?

How far goes the influence of others? Should we ignore them?

So many characters in this book struggle against what they think are their destiny : Vera, her father, Charlie. I couldn’t help but care for them, so, so much. My only complaint would be that I would have loved for the story to contain other strong female characters. I missed them.

Alright now, forget everything I wrote. Just FORGET IT. The truth, the real truth? I cried like a fucking baby. More and more along the way, and it wasn’t because some smart-ass decided that cancer kids were hot or some shit. It wasn’t even because Charlie dies, because really, THAT’S IN THE BLURB, ANNA. No. I cried out of rage, out of stupid decisions and SO MUCH WASTE. I cried because I can’t even count how many people Charlie reminded me. I cried because FOR FUCK SAKE, CHARLIE. I cried for Vera’s dad. I cried for all these kids who have no idea what they can do with their lives – and I don’t fucking care how lame that sounds.

I laughed, too. A lot. I’m sure it counts somewhere?

To sum-up, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an astounding book that kept me captive – for real, I had to stop yesterday because it was 3am and ANNA YOU HAVE SCHOOL TOMORROW! I thought about it all day long and jumped on the very first occasion to resume it. Now, rare are the books that have such a great power on me. I wasn’t completely satisfied in the end, but who cares? I wanted more, but who cares? Some revelations let me down, but who cares?

… I’m still immensely impressed. *bows*

BOOK REVIEW – Little Peach by Peggy Kern

January 10, 2016 / Anna

Little Peach by Peggy Kern
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
What do you do if you're in trouble?

When Michelle runs away from her drug-addicted mother, she has just enough money to make it to New York City, where she hopes to move in with a friend. But once she arrives at the bustling Port Authority, she is confronted with the terrifying truth: she is alone and out of options.

Then she meets Devon, a good-looking, well-dressed guy who emerges from the crowd armed with a kind smile, a place for her to stay, and eyes that seem to understand exactly how she feels.

But Devon is not what he seems to be, and soon Michelle finds herself engulfed in the world of child prostitution where he becomes her “Daddy” and she his “Little Peach.” It is a world of impossible choices, where the line between love and abuse, captor and savior, is blurred beyond recognition.

This hauntingly vivid story illustrates the human spirit’s indomitable search for home, and one girl’s struggle to survive.

Incredibly powerful and important. From page one hopelessness seized my throat because the truth is, I can’t imagine. I can’t understand. I don’t come from money, but at every moment of my life I had someone I could count on. To think that there are people out there who have to face awful times alone breaks my heart. And these fucking words, overused and torn, seem void of meaning.

“What do you do if you’re in trouble?
I wait for the answer to come to me. But there’s only darkness and Calvin’s voice and my own heart, pounding like feet on the pavement, running away, running away, running away.

Michelle’s voice is wonderful in her simplicity. She rings true, and never does Peggy Kern allow her writing to sound fake and ornamental. This is realistic fiction done right, when the characters seem genuine and true to life, when the heavy issues dealt with aren’t sugar-coated or hidden under a blanket of romance. For all of the young-adult contemporaries I read, Little Peach is the first tackling the oh so excruciating subject of child prostitution – or prostitution, for that matter. Why is that? Why, with all the books released every week, important issues like this one aren’t covered? Of course harsh it is. Of course you’re going to want to throw up and cry and wail. Of course we all need to escape reality sometimes and fluffy rainbows serve their purposes. But as much as I hate this world sometimes, I live in it. You do, too.

I can’t imagine going through life with blinders constantly on, and there’s so much atrocity in the news everyday that I know that most of us want to forget it and really, it’s human. Yet I genuinely think that sometimes, we need to take an unblinking look at our world, even if it disturbs our bubble.

Perhaps it won’t change anything, but we can’t be sure now can we? For things to change we need to open our eyes about these subjects, we need to be aware and I’m really glad that talented and dedicated authors like Peggy Kern offer teenagers some ways to do it.

► All in all, here’s a thought-inducing, eyes-opening page-turner with well-crafted and strong characters for whom I cared immensely. Strongly recommended.

Jen	Chelsea
Arielle	Cassie

Jen	Chelsea
Arielle	Cassie

BOOK REVIEW – Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Synopsis:

BOOK REVIEW – Split by Swati Avasthi

Synopsis:

“It’s not really all right, is it? I mean, who would miss that bastard? Shouldn’t I hate him, just simple, pure hatred? Shouldn’t I write him a thank-you note for getting me out of there, for not wanting me around anymore?”

BOOK REVIEW – Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

Synopsis:

When the low, heavy sky weighs like a lid On the groaning spirit, victim of long ennui, And from the all-encircling horizon Spreads over us a day gloomier than the night;

– Charles Baudelaire, Spleen

When the rain stretching out its endless train Imitates the bars of a vast prison And a silent horde of loathsome spiders Comes to spin their webs in the depths of our brains,

– Charles Baudelaire, Spleen

— And without drums or music, long hearses Pass by slowly in my soul; Hope, vanquished, Weeps, and atrocious, despotic Anguish On my bowed skull plants her black flag. – Charles Baudelaire, Spleen

I have more memories than if I’d lived a thousand years.

– Charles Baudelaire, Spleen

That winged voyager, how weak and gauche he is, So beautiful before, now comic and ugly! One man worries his beak with a stubby clay pipe; Another limps, mimics the cripple who once flew!

– Charles Baudelaire, The Albatros

A lightning flash… then night! Fleeting beauty By whose glance I was suddenly reborn, Will I see you no more before eternity?

– Charles Baudelaire, To a Passer-by

My poor Muse, alas! what ails you today? Your hollow eyes are full of nocturnal visions; I see in turn reflected on your face Horror and madness, cold and taciturn. – Charles Baudelaire, The Sick Muse

BOOK REVIEW – Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Synopsis:

BOOK REVIEW – Little Peach by Peggy Kern

Synopsis:

“What do you do if you’re in trouble? I wait for the answer to come to me. But there’s only darkness and Calvin’s voice and my own heart, pounding like feet on the pavement, running away, running away, running away.

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When the low, heavy sky weighs like a lid
On the groaning spirit, victim of long ennui,
And from the all-encircling horizon
Spreads over us a day gloomier than the night;

When the rain stretching out its endless train
Imitates the bars of a vast prison
And a silent horde of loathsome spiders
Comes to spin their webs in the depths of our brains,

— And without drums or music, long hearses
Pass by slowly in my soul; Hope, vanquished,
Weeps, and atrocious, despotic Anguish
On my bowed skull plants her black flag.
– Charles Baudelaire, Spleen

That winged voyager, how weak and gauche he is,
So beautiful before, now comic and ugly!
One man worries his beak with a stubby clay pipe;
Another limps, mimics the cripple who once flew!

A lightning flash… then night! Fleeting beauty
By whose glance I was suddenly reborn,
Will I see you no more before eternity?

My poor Muse, alas! what ails you today?
Your hollow eyes are full of nocturnal visions;
I see in turn reflected on your face
Horror and madness, cold and taciturn.
– Charles Baudelaire, The Sick Muse

“What do you do if you’re in trouble?
I wait for the answer to come to me. But there’s only darkness and Calvin’s voice and my own heart, pounding like feet on the pavement, running away, running away, running away.