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where our team of writers love to talk all things books, sharing reviews, features, lists, interviews and more.

Getting lost in a book is escapism at it's finest and it's what everyone who contributes here thrives on.

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Monday, 31 December 2012

Fantastic Mr Fox | Roald Dahl | Review



I read Fantastic Mr. Fox when I was younger, but when the Roald Dahl collection arrived I decided it was time to re-read one of my old favourites. I always enjoyed this book as a child and have more recently watched the film (although I found this not quite so enjoyable), but it was time to see if the book appealed in the same way to an adult reader.

Roald Dahl has such a great appeal to children, mention The Twits or The BFG and there is an instant recognition of such great stories.  Fantastic Mr Fox is another instant hit, detailing the lives of a family of foxes who steal food from 3 local farmers. But these are no ordinary farmers, all 3 are set up to entertain and amuse with the description of their physical appearance and personalities. These 3 obscure farmers decide to take revenge and try to hunt down the fox family.

This may be a children’s book, but it has a certain magic which allows for enjoyment still to be found when reading this book as an adult. Lots of us remember reading them as children and are desperate to read them to our children (an excuse because we want to re-read our childhood favourites). It is the adventurous story lines, magical events and humorous characters which keep us entertained throughout the whole book.

I would recommend this book to any Roald Dahl fan, child or parents – this is not a Roald Dahl book to be missed. 5/5 stars

This post was written by regular reviewer Laura, get to know her here.
*Photo © Laura
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Sunday, 30 December 2012

Go Ask Alice | Anonymous | Review

“I really am only one infinitely small part of an aching humanity.”

I had a problem when I sat down to write this review. I planned to review The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer for you all. Unfortunately, no matter how late I stay up, I just haven't managed to finish it. So it's with massive apologies I change the topic of this review to a book I've read enough times to give you an honest review. Go Ask Alice was a book my mum read when she was younger, she handed it to me when I was 12 and I read it too. The book focuses on the effects of recreational drugs via the journal entries of a young girl, Alice.

Go Ask Alice follows Alice, a young girl with a promising future, as she is introduced into the world of drugs. At first it's through no fault of her own, a spiked drink at a party. Slowly Alice begins to fall into a dark spiral. She becomes addicted, moves away from home and watches, via her journal, as her life falls apart. Alice's journal entries are extremely heart breaking and it almost hurts to watch her go through her issues alone.

Go Ask Alice was rumored to be a journal of a real girl, Anonymous, who used drugs, it even states it on the blurb. However, over the years it has become more and more clearer that the person who actually wrote the book was a lady by the name of Beatrice Sparks. Beatrice is also well known for her story Jay's Journal.

The journal entries are a great way to set out a book, it's interesting to hear the stories from a single point of view. I especially like the way that the journal entries are periodic, there's no set time interval between entries. Listening to Alice recall months at a time in a single journal entry is sad, and then we watch as Alice loses her journal and continues to write on sheets of paper and junk she finds on the streets.

Reviews on this book are always extremely different. People either hate or love this book and I think you can understand why, being such a controversial topic. Whether you believe if the book is fiction or not, the themes and story are still relevant.

I think the reason my mum handed me such a controversial book at such a young age was to deter me. The life experiences of Alice as a result of her drug use is shocking, none of which you'd wish upon your worst enemy. The book acts as shock value, scaring readers into living a life free of drugs.

Go Ask Alice provides for a short, captivating read with a prominent message. The book is timeless, regardless of being published in the early 70's, the themes are relevant for generations to come.

Recommended for:


This book is yet another coming of age story, however I find the themes are that little more darker than your traditional coming of age book or self discovery book. If you enjoyed Crank by Ellen Hopkins, Puberty Blues by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette, and even The Perks of Being A Wallflower.

This post was written by regular reviewer Taylah, get to know her here.
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Blogger's Bookshelf Review Round Up #2

Saturday, 29 December 2012

Blogger's Bookshelf Review Round Up #2

2 11 - 26 12 review

Hello everyone, hope you all had a lovely Christmas and welcome to our second review round up post!
We also had an abundance of guest posts and mini collabs this month:

And of course this month's group collaboration post on our Favourite Reads of 2012. Don't forget to start sending your answers to our next group collaboration post on your Top 5 books/series you vow to read in 2013. Just send us a tweet or email us which 5 books or series' you want to read and why.

On a final note, everyone on the Blogger's Bookshelf team would like to wish you all a Happy New Year!
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Wednesday, 26 December 2012

Candor | Pam Bachorz | Review


“Oscar Banks lives in the pristine town of Candor. Son of the mayor, he is good-looking, smart and popular. And he knows something he’s not supposed to – he knows about the brainwashing Messages embedded in the music that plays all over the town.” Source

Candor is described as a young adult psychological thriller and was inspired by author Pam Bachorz time spent in a real life model town in Florida.

Our main character is teen Oscar Banks who has spent years working on counter-messages to keep those that are played around Candor from entering his own mind whilst also running a secret business helping other teens to escape before it’s too late (in exchange for a substantial amount of money!). In order to keep his secret and ensure his father continues to believe he is the perfect son Oscar pretends to be just that and so far the whole town has fallen for his act. Overall Oscar is a relatively likeable character despite some of his comments and I think he is a pretty perfect protagonist for this story in particular. Very early on in the book we are also introduced to Nia, a new resident of Candor who quickly becomes an important part of Oscar’s story when shortly after meeting they defy the messages “Keep Candor Beautiful” and “Vandalism is wrong. Never deface someone else’s property” by spray painting graffiti on the otherwise perfect streets. Nia is your typical rebellious teen with a sketchy past which in true YA style catches Oscar’s attention. Of course Oscar’s father is also an important character within the book; mayor of Candor and creator of the message system that controls its’ residents, although not the main focus of the story he is a dark and intriguing presence throughout.

The beginning of the book was fairly interesting with quite a lot of questions being raised about the unusual town of Candor and it’s residents. When I was approaching the halfway point of the book I began to wonder just where the story was going, nothing dramatic or shocking had happened so far and I was starting to question when the ‘deeply chilling’ story promised by the book cover was going to kick in. Towards the end of the story some parts felt quite rushed and for me this did slightly unbalance the book overall. The final chapter, although predictable, is somehow captivating at the same time and definitely leaves you wanting to find out what happened next.

I found the Stepford-esque town of Candor an interesting place to explore and overall it was a good read. Despite there being no particularly surprising events and some elements feeling rather unbelievable, even for such a town, I found the subjects of surveillance and in particular brainwashing interesting and a nice variation from the other dystopian settings that are currently popular in YA.

 If you are interested in Candor there is a real website for the fictional town complete with resident interviews and property listings which you can find here. Pam Bachorz’ website also has links to a podcast series spoken from the point of view of Oscar’s father and mayor of Candor, Campbell Banks.
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How The Grinch Stole Christmas | Dr Suess | Review

Monday, 24 December 2012

How The Grinch Stole Christmas | Dr Suess | Review

Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve! How excited is everybody right now?
I thought I'd give you a little review filled with festive cheer in the form of my favourite Christmas tale of all time ... How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess.

It's a tale known by many of the Scrooge-like Grinch, who's lived in a cave on a mountain overlooking the little Whos in the idyllic Whoville. With his tiny cold heart (that was two sizes too small) the Grinch is sick of the Whos and their noisy holiday preparation and even louder and cheerier singing voices, so he's decided he's had enough. He's putting an end to Christmas and stealing all of the Christmas cheer away right from under the Whos noses on Christmas Eve, dressed as Santa Claus himself accompanied by his trusty companion Max.

We all know the ending here...

And the whole message of the book can be summarised with just one line:
"What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

It's a message of goodwill to all and that all the material possessions and presents and fanciful feasts are really nothing compared to spending Christmas with the people you really care about =) Not to mention the fact that it's never too late to let your heart grow for Christmas day. 

Reading Soundtrack

You're A Mean One Mr Grinch: Glee Cast; Winter Wonderland: Michael Buble; Where Are You  Christmas: Faith Hill; All I Want For Christmas Is You: Mariah Carey; Welcome Christmas: How The Grinch Stole Christmas soundtrack; 

For lovers of:

CHRISTMAS! of course :) How The Grinch Stole Christmas movie and for any of you Christmas Scrooges out there!

And on a final note!

Everyone here on the Blogger's Bookshelf team would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!


This review was written by Ria, find out more about her here.
Image via GoodReads & design by Ria
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Sunday, 23 December 2012

The Book of Lost Things | John Connolly | Review



The Book of Lost Things follows David, a young boy who is mourning the loss of his dead mother. As a result of this, he starts to have unexplainable fits and seizures which result in him going to see a therapist. The books in his life are also starting to talk to him, telling him of what stories they hide. Things don't help much when Rose appears. After capturing his father's attention, Rose soon becomes David's stepmother and has a baby boy of her own called Georgie. David is determined to hate these newcomers as no one can replace his mother and he believes it's entirely wrong to move on with life so soon after his mother's death.

Then even weirder things happen. David spots what can only be described as The Crooked Man sitting at his bedroom window and a voice which is not unlike his mother's starts talking to him. Overcome with curiosity, he is drawn to where the voice seems to be coming from - a crack in the wall of their garden. As a German bomber plane starts to crash in his garden, David hides in the crack and immediately finds himself in a new world. A world with wolves pretending to be men, a world with a broken King leading it and a world where David's mother could be alive.

After meeting The Woodsman, David must find the king and hope that he will find his way home through The Book of Lost Things. But will he survive?

This was the second time I had read this book.  When I sat down to read this book, I remembered a few bits but was totally amazed to realise I had forgotten half of what the story was only after five years since I had first read it.

What makes this book so amazing for me is there are a lot of fairytales in here that are completely twisted to be told in a totally different way. Most of the fairytales are from the Grimm Brothers. Some of these Grimm stories were completely new to me but there is a huge bit at the end where the author talks about these fairytales which inspired him to write this book and actually includes the fairytale so you know how the actual story goes. This entire section is more than 100 pages long making the book look a whole lot bigger. The story itself is 348 pages long but it's 512 with this extra material. The author has got all of these fairytales and with the addition of a character and a story, he has weaved all these fairytales to make his own. There are popular characters as you have never seen them before, making the likeable unlikable. I would say vice versa but I'd be telling a lie.

I really think this book does not get enough credit and that people should definitely read it, including you, yes you! I first borrowed this book so I didn't have my own copy. John Connolly actually came to my city but I thought he was only signing his new book (which I can't remember as it's not important.) After he had gone and I went to my bookshop, I saw a copy with the glorious "Signed" sticker on it. Therefore I had to buy it and the picture you see below is my very own copy!

I love this book so much that it is now tied first with The Book Thief. I honestly didn't remember how excellent it was. Therefore, I'm giving it five stars, it was that amazing.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy and, like me, is a big fan of the Once Upon a Time TV show. If you love fairytales or just want to try something new, then I can say wholeheartedly that this is the book for you.



This review was written by regular reviewer Lucy. Get to know her here!
Photos by Lucy Donnan

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