The Dragons Are In by Briany Barnes

 

2/5 stars

A story with no build-up.

The fairies are just living their lives, one of our main characters, Azula, visits her dragon foster parents, and then travelling fairy Garnet visits and tells them all about the towns plan to chop down part of the forest to build a new road.

The fairies then decide to crash the town meeting and find out more and maybe influence some good humans into stopping it. Those good humans are some travellers living nearby. They fail on this instance and the trees are gone. The fairies continue communicating with one traveller girl, Melanie, who runs a local gift shop. Their presence improves the shop's prospects.

On the other side the developer in charge of chopping the trees down has his three kids staying with him for the summer holidays, he and his daughter Lucy don't see eye to eye. An argument pushes her away and she makes friends with Melanie and her friends.

The story was pleasant enough but didn't connect very well, and things seemed too easily resolved. There's no stakes. On the technical side speech was very formal, even amongst children and in relationships. There wasn't always a lot of distinction between scenes and characters would be introduced out of nowhere. Definitely could have done with at least another round of beta readers and editing.

Stef Out x

The Colour Purple by Alice Walker

 

2/5 stars

According to the amount of 5 star reviews on Goodreads this is a really popular book and to be honest I'm not totally sure why.

I hated the writing style. The way it was written was very tell rather than show. You can show that someone is poor and ill-educated in ways other than near illiterate writing. It made it hard for me to follow what was going on. Especially with all the references of Mr. — rather than using his actual surname.

The book seemed violent just for the sake of it. That opening chapter felt like trauma porn. You can indicate that she is a young person going through rape a lot less graphically. It wasn't necessary and it didn't add anything to the story. Then there were the beatings. We know that in those days men often hit their wives but did we need so many references to it? Also Sofia's excessive violence didn't make any sense.

I also didn't particularly care much about Nettie's letters, other than the fact that they were easier to read. She was an absent character for half the book and now we're supposed to care about all her ins and outs and missionary work. Sorry but not me.

I did like that Celie grew throughout the book and eventually started her own business and had her happy ending.

Stef Out x

Someone Else's Skin by Sarah Hilary

 

2/5 stars

I liked the characters and the plot was interesting but I felt like there were too many things being juggled and some got dropped. They were originally going to talk to Ayana but then her storyline got all but abandoned. They made a massive thing about Marnie having tattoos and they may have been seen by the wrong person but I didn't understand the relevance of the tattoos and them being seen by this person was forgotten.

Also the writing style itself could use a bit of pruning. Near the beginning a character's only description was "obese girl in a black tracksuit". Are you telling me there was no better way to describe her than that? It feels very dehumanising. Also Marnie was referred to as a child as living in "near-autistic" silences. That just made me cringe. A lot of autistic people are not silent. And then there was the chapter opening where two or three sentences were used to describe thunder. The "then" and "now" chapters could have been clearer. The ending felt very rushed as well.

Stef Out x 

After the End by Clare Mackintosh

 

Read January/February 2022. Book I owned but since donated.

3/5 stars

This was a very strange book. Pip and Max are a married couple whose 3 year old son, Dylan, has cancer. It soon comes to a point that it's time to choose what to do next. Pip and Max sadly disagree on what to do and a court case soon comes.

What follows is a Sliding Doors-esque alternating chapter dual narrative following each outcome after the trial.

The layout change did confuse me for a moment but it was kind of interesting to see the similarities/differences between the two futures.

There was one character who we got to know who was then dropped which was frustrating and then the ending was a bombshell and an unexplained cliffhanger all in one which annoyed me.

I do like the author's writing style though, I didn't twig until I checked GoodReads that I had already read a book by her, the other was Let Me Lie which comes under thriller and this was domestic drama.

Also interestingly I found this at work and then re-donated it back there after I'd read it and then today while looking for a book for a book stack photo on Instagram (@owls_rainbow) I found a copy on my shelf! So that one will go to work as well as it's not one I see myself re-reading.

Stef Out x