The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Mary Ann Shaffer | Review

Friday, 4 May 2018

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Mary Ann Shaffer | Review

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” 

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb…. 

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. 

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever. - Goodreads

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After a weekend of reading and finishing the two books I had brought away with me (seriously, Anjali, only two!?), I was in need of another novel to pick up. Thankfully the house I was staying in was just as much a library as my own, and I was soon flicking my way through The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I recognised the title from a movie I had seen the trailer for, and thought it would be another great book to read before I saw the film. And how right I was.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a wonderful story about Juilet, the writer, who makes friends with strangers down in the Channel Islands. The story is told in letters - a format which I don't actually enjoy and the reason I didn't give this book 5 stars - as Juliet corresponds back and forth with the society, as well as her best friend Sophie, her publisher Sidney, and various other people in her life. 

When Juliet goes to Guernsey to meet the people she's only ever written to and to write her book about their society, their relationships grow, fall apart, come back together, and new ones are formed. There's a little more drama alongside the writing of her book, a few more stories to be told, a man to avoid, and a man to find.

While the letter form is not my favourite, Juliet's personality was really apparent in her writing, and I can only imagine she would speak like she writes. I really loved her as a character, and some of her expressions and sentence were gold. Here's a sample:

• “I don't want to be married just to be married. I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with."

• “That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive - all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.” 

• “Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life.” 

The other thing I loved about this book was that it was about books. It was a story-lover, writing a book about people who made a club for reading and talking about books. Brilliant! 

The movie came out in late April, and while I haven't seen it yet, I'm so looking forward to it. It stars Lily James, Matthew Goode and Michiel Huisman, and while the trailer looked a bit different to the book, I hope it's just as good.

Have you read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society? Seen the movie? 

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The Tower's Alchemist | Alesha L. Escobar | Review

Monday, 5 September 2016

The Tower's Alchemist | Alesha L. Escobar | Review

*Image from Amazon.

Summary:

In a time and place that mixes World War II with magic, Isabella/Emelie/Noelle is a spy for the SOE and an Apprentice-Level Alchemist who left the Grey Tower, where all people with magic get trained, to help out the war effort. Isabella gets assigned to go behind enemy lines to try to bring into custody Dr. Veit, who has used his knowledge of magic to create a chemical weapon called, simply, The Plague. Naturally, it doesn't go according to plan and she must find a way to destroy the chemical weapon, get out of the war-zone safely, all the while keeping herself out of the hands of Grey Tower Agents and the Black Wolves who wish to use her to get her father.

Review:

This was quite the adventure! I'm not gonna say it was all a fun ride because there was genuine emotional turmoil included, but that just helped to make it such a good book. This world's use and acceptance of the reality of magic was seamless. It never seemed out of place for someone to be able to create symbols and unleash the elements. 

Isabella is a strong and intelligent woman, as someone in her line of work should be. Her tools of the trade mix traditional spy gear with magical gear. She has emerald glasses that let her see in the dark. She has red garnet lipstick that, when kissed, allows her influence over the kisser. A wonderful blend of spy and magic gear.

My favorite part of this book is the entire cast and crew of characters. It's so easy to feel for the people she meets behind the lines, the people who have lost everything, the people who are tired of fighting but continue to do so. It is written in such a way that much of the history of World War II is still there, there's just magic involved as well. The people of Britain are still conserving every ounce of food and cooking with even the most disliked ingredients (liver sandwiches, bleh). The people of France are on strict rations with curfews and are killed on the streets if suspected of any Marquisard activities or sympathies. This book almost brought me to tears through its characters.

All of this and I've barely scratched the surface the Grey Tower vs the Black Wolves! The Order versus "vampires" that drink the blood of wizards to gain their energy. Plus, the hunt for Isabella's father who is believed to be a Drifter, a magician who can travel through time. There is just so much going on in this book, but it is so well balanced that it never feels overwhelming. It never feels like the author is skipping over important details. 

This was a great read. If you like magic-in-the-real-world, or fictional stories set in World War II, or stories about magical forces at war with each other, I highly recommend this book. I couldn't put it down!

This post was written by Rachel.

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Code Name Verity | Elizabeth Wein | Review

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Code Name Verity | Elizabeth Wein | Review

*image via GoodReads

“I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.”

Our story starts in 1943 in an abandoned hotel in Nazi occupied France, where Queenie, a British spy, has been captured and tortured by the Gestapo. Her captors soon convince her to become a collaborator and she has been allowed to write down the events that led to her capture in the hope she will divulge some secrets about the British War Effort. 

But Queenie isn’t giving up her information that simply. She’s going to tell her story, but her story starts back home in England with her best friend Maddie. Fearless, flying Maddie who was the pilot who flew her to France in the first place.

The written account Queenie provides her Nazi captors is as much Maddie’s story as it is her own and actually start with Maddie’s upbringing and ambitions to one day fly aeroplanes. Queenie herself is not introduced as a character in Maddie’s story until much later, with the two of them meeting whilst serving together in the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force). The two young girls are from completely different worlds (Queen is a from a Scottish legacy, Maddie country girl brought up by her Jewish grandparents) and if it weren’t for World War II, they may have never met. 

As well as detailing bits and pieces of the war effort to appease her captors, the account Queenie provides ends up becoming so much more than a forced confession but an incredible account of two best friends who make a sensational team.

So what’s my verdict?

I started Code Name Verity pre-LeakyCon and actually got to meet Elizabeth Wein at the convention. At the time I confessed to her that I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction – quite daring of me I know! – but I was enjoying what I read of her book so far. She urged me to go on and that if there was a book to get me into the genre she hoped this would be it. Luckily for her, she was definitely right about that.

For me it did start a little slow – though this may have been the large break I had in the middle of reading the book – but once I fully immersed myself into the story I found myself stuck into a brilliantly written and heartfelt story of two wonderfully brave young women. Queenie, our main narrator, clearly admires Maddie and her confidence not only as a person but as a skilled pilot. But Queenie is also an astonishing woman in her own right, her talents lie in deception and her language skills in French and German prove to be more than useful to the Special Operations division of the military.

Unlike most fiction in this genre, the historical details provide a seamless backdrop to the main chatacter’s journey. The technicalities are there with types of planes, the airfields and dated slang but slotted in easily within the story and aren’t forced upon the reader.

Though Maddie and Queenie are obviously our main protagonists, the book plays host to plenty of others both allies and enemies. The most interesting characters for me were Queenie’s captors themselves. Though morally corrupt at face value, with Queenie living under their thumb for the majority of the book Wein does manage to give those in the Gestapo stronghold a voice too, with surprising effects.

Overall, I’d completely recommend Code Name Verity. The story is captivating and the ending with leave you heartbroken. It's great to read story set in this era with two strong female protagonists, who are both heroes in their own right. 

Reading Soundtrack:

Part Of Me: Katy Perry; Night & Day: Sarah Blasko; This Is The Thing: Fink; Night Terror: Laura Marling; There You'll Be: Faith Hill; Soldier On: The Temper Trap

For lovers of:

The Book Thief, Carrie's War, other WWII historical fiction and kick-ass female characters.

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Briar Rose | Jane Yolen | Review

Monday, 22 July 2013

Briar Rose | Jane Yolen | Review

“Once upon a time…” Becca and her sisters grew up hearing the story of Sleeping Beauty from their beloved Grandmother Gemma. On face value it feels like the original fairytale but it’s not the traditional story with a happy ending. Gemma’s version ‘Briar Rose’ was indeed the beautiful princess who was placed under a sleeping curse along with the rest of the inhabitants of her castle, but this princess was red headed – like Becca’s own Grandmother – and when the prince comes to save the day, the only person to wake from their slumber is Briar Rose. It was an unusual and at times scary story for the young girls but a tale that they made Gemma tell over and over again. 

Now a young woman, Becca still remembers the tale and as her ailing Grandmother Gemma is lying on her deathbed she makes a remarkable confession. Gemma is the princess who awoke from her slumber and her last wish is for Becca to find the castle and the prince from what she thought was just a fairytale.

With only a single mismatched box of Gemma’s belongings to guide her, Becca embarks on a fairytale-like quest of her own into her family’s history. Her search for the truth isn’t the easiest when she finds out that Gemma may have lied about her whole past and even her name. Becca has a breakthrough, which takes her away from her life in America to Poland to follow tale that spans back in time to the Second World War and the horrors of the Holocaust. 

So what’s my verdict?

This book was not what I expected. What starts out as a girl trying to find out whether a fairytale can really exist in this world turns into a moving journey into her Grandmother’s life before she immigrated to America. Telling the finer details of this story would reveal major plot points, but as I mentioned in my summary the story takes Becca away from the fantastical elements of the Sleeping Beauty story and replaces it with something much more haunting. The truth in the tale, told in a separate story within the book, is more disturbing than Becca can imagine and even more to so for the reader when you realise there were many stories just like it during the midst of World War II.

It’s not so much Becca’s story (though her journey does lead her to question everything she knew about her own life and childhood) but that of Gemma herself. Peppered with flashbacks to Becca’s past, when Gemma would be retelling the story to her young granddaughter, Gemma’s presence is felt throughout. Briar Rose is essentially historical fiction at it’s darkest; nevertheless it’s a poignant story that will leave you realising why Gemma chose to remember the fairytale than the truth. 

Reading Soundtrack: 

The Woods: Daughter; Young & Beautiful: Lana Del Ray; Fix You: Coldplay; Poison & Wine: The Civil Wars; Hospital Beds: Florence + The Machine; Human: Charlene Kaye 

For lovers of

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Schindler’s List and The Diary of Anne Frank.

Image (c)Ria Cagampang

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Chains | Laurie Halse Anderson | Review

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Chains | Laurie Halse Anderson | Review

“Momma said that ghosts couldn't move over water. That's why Africans got trapped in the Americas.. They kept moving us over the water, stealing us away from our ghosts and ancestors, who cried salty rivers into the sand. That's where Momma was now, wailing at the water's edge, while her girls were pulled out of sight under white sails that cracked in the wind.” - Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains

Chains is a story about freedom. A story about a nation's fight for freedom. But most of all it's a story of a little girls fight for her and her sister's freedom. Isabel and her sister Ruth are two young slave girls living during the American Revolutionary War that are promised freedom upon their owners death. But instead of receiving freedom they end up in a rich an influential Loyalist family in New York City. But Isabel never gives up her and her sisters fight for freedom and because of that she gets caught in a whole nations fight for freedom...

Chains is a very detailed story with lots of interesting information about the American Revolution era. That being said, I would like to start of by saying that historical fiction isn't usually a genre I go for, so you should probably keep that in mind while reading this review. For most parts I thought that Chains was an enjoyable, interesting and engaging read but I have to admit that there was one thing that made me struggle more than necessary while reading this book. I do think that Laurie Halse Anderson is a talented writer but this novel just suffered a bit from all the historical facts that were crammed into this story. Some explanations and parts of the story were made just to prove or explain a historical fact and that did take away some of the flow and magic of the actual story. So I felt a bit lost and disconnected as a reader sometimes. Even if I felt for Isabel and her sister I also think that the character could have had a bit more depth to them. Sometimes I felt like there was no explanation or logic behind why a character was acting or doing what they were doing. 

With those little things out of the way, I still want to end this review with saying that I do think that this is a good novel and that I honestly think that you might enjoy it even more if you're used to reading historical fiction. Because this is a well-written book with an interesting story-line. But I have to base my rating on my personal reading experience and based on that Chains deserves 3/5 stars.

This post was written by regular reviewer Niina, get to know her here.

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