A Land of Never After by R.L. Davennor

 

Ebook provided by BookSirens for review. Thank you.

Read May 2022.

3/5 stars

So I will preface this by saying that I have never read Peter Pan, I don't think you need to though. This book takes a few familiar elements: Wendy, Peter, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, the Lost Boys and Neverland and completely twists them.

Wendy has just left the orphanage where she grew up when she runs into Peter who then steals her satchel, so she follows him straight into Neverland. But Neverland sits under a horrible curse, kill and steal a being's life force or rot. But who is responsible for the curse? One Captain Hook. Peter's long-standing rival. Everyone has secrets and somehow Wendy is the key to everything.

I thought that the story and ideas were great but there were elements that were lacking. The pacing was strange, one chapter ended with Wendy falling asleep then the next opens with her running through the forest with no explanation, some kind of training session maybe? I'd also have like more development. Wendy didn't seem to have much personality beyond the basics. Also her 'friendship' with Peter is a bit something and nothing. They have a deep conversation about something which seems all but forgotten after apart from one small aside.

I might read the sequel if I come across it but it doesn't feel especially memorable enough overall to actively seek it out.

Stef Out x

Goodreads: Here

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It Helps With the Blues by Bryan Cebulski

 

Ebook provided by BookSirens for review. Thank you.

Read April 2022.

4/5 stars

This was a strange and engaging little book. We follow a nameless narrator and his connections? I'm not sure how to word it. We open with our narrator and his friend Jules just hanging out, she then invites Dennis who is struggling with something. We later learn that Dennis has taken his own life.

What follows is our narrator pondering over his various friendships, peppered with letters some have written themselves. In fact the only person who doesn't write a letter is Estelle. Once upon a time he bullied them - sidenote but I loved how self-aware he was about his past mistakes - but a chance meeting leads to an almost something, the overarching theme to this section is his pride in Estelle discovering their identity, and getting rid of an apparently racist boyfriend.

Our other characters are Gabriel, openly gay and angry at the world, and Joshua, Jules's younger brother who had a connection to Dennis and feels partially responsible. A small cast yet effective in its simplicity.

At 178 pages by GoodReads description this is a short book and I think that would be my main criticism. It is great as it is but I wanted more. More backstory, more connections. I wasn't a fan of the way things were abandoned with Gabriel and I hated how abrupt the ending was. Did our narrator sort his crap out? Who was he?

Stef Out x 

What Happened to Coco by VB Furlong

 

Book Review

What Happened to Coco by VB Furlong

4/5 stars

Ebook with thanks from BookSirens.

Coco has gone missing. Her boyfriend Harrison and friends Ella, Conrad and Bea are worried, this isn't like her, normally her every move is documented for social media.

This book is separated into different parts narrated by Ella, Bea, Conrad and Harrison in order detailing the time leading up to Coco's disappearance and how they each feel about her, such as Ella's jealousy about Coco's ease with boys. For Bea, the newest member of the group, Coco gave her the confidence to come out.

I loved the characters and the plot, everything is delightfully twisty. However I think it could have gone through another round of editing. There were a few clunky sentences, there was one that followed her face being pale and green with her face being waxy. Tense was a little tricky at times, it would be present day and then suddenly it would jump to weeks or months earlier. Also I feel like some of the later plot points could have been introduced earlier, a lot happened in a very short space of time and all in the last quarter of the book.

Bleed More, Bodymore by Ian Kirkpatrick

 

Ebook for review thanks to BookSirens. Thank you.

3/5 stars

This was a very intriguing book, it had some great points and there were a couple of points that fell a little short.

The opening scenes were a little disjointed. We have this character who has been called out to collect a car from a creepy place but we don't know who they are and initially it's a struggle to care enough to continue but the writing style is engaging. We eventually learn that this is Josephine, known as Joey.

Joey is our main character but I struggled with her the most, she has very little developed personality beyond angry, smoker, skateboard and lip ring. She also doesn't have a huge amount of growth.

I was disappointed that we didn't learn the whole truth about what happened to Wayland but maybe that will be covered in the sequel. I really enjoyed the entire concept though and look forward to seeing where it goes.

Stef Out x