Heatwave by Victor Jestin | Book Review

[AD/Gifted: I received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.]

Heatwave by Victor Jestin

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publisher: Scribner UK

Publication date: 28th July 2022

Blurb:

Oscar is dead because I watched him die and did nothing.

Seventeen-year-old Leo is sitting in an empty playground at night, listening to the sound of partying and pop music filtering in from the beach, when he sees another, more popular boy strangle himself with the ropes of the swings. Then, in a panic, Leo drags the other to the beach and buries him.

Over the next 24 hours, Leo wanders around the campsite like a sleepwalker, haunted by guilt and fear, and distracted by his desire for a girl named Luce. Meanwhile, the teenage summer rituals continue all around him—the fighting and flirting, the smell of salt and sunscreen, the tinny announcements from the loudspeaker, and above all, the crushing, relentless heat...

Review:

I love translated fiction and this little novella is really interesting. At just 104 pages long, it is easy to read in one go, it still brings all the emotions and is just as powerful as a novel three times its length. It opens with the line, "Oscar is dead because I watched him die and did nothing." I automatically knew this was going to be a good one. Our main character, 17 year old Leo (Leonard) is on holiday in a campsite in France with his family. After watching Oscar die, he makes some questionable decisions and as we get a feel for him throughout the book, I found him hard to understand. Did he do what he did on purpose? I loved the summer setting, end of August in France, his thoughts and desires as a teenage boy and exploring his psyche as much as we can in a little over 100 pages. The ending made me want more. What happened next?!

A Burning by Megha Majumdar | Book Review

[ad/gifted - I received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.]

A Burning by Megha Majumdar

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publisher: Scribner

Publication date: 17th March 2022

Blurb:

A girl walks through the slums of Kolkata holding an armful of books. She returns home smelling of smoke, and checks her most prized possession: a brand-new smartphone, purchased in instalments. On Facebook, there is only one conversation.

#KolabaganTrainAttack

On the small, glowing screen, she types a dangerous thing…

‘If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean that the government is also a terrorist?’

Set in contemporary India, A Burning is the story of three unforgettable characters, all dreaming of a better future, whose lives are changed for ever when they become caught up in the devastating aftermath of a terrorist attack.  

Jivan – a poor, young, Muslim girl, who dreams of going to college – faces a possible death sentence after being accused of collaborating with the terrorists.

Lovely – an exuberant hijra who longs to be a Bollywood star – holds the alibi that can set Jivan free, but telling the truth will cost her everything she holds dear.

PT Sir – an opportunistic gym teacher who once taught Jivan – becomes involved with Hindu nationalist politics and his own ascent is soon inextricably linked to Jivan’s fall.

Taut, propulsive and electrifying, from its opening lines to its astonishing finale, A Burning confronts issues of class, fate, prejudice and corruption with a Dickensian sense of injustice, and asks us to consider what it means to nurture big ambitions in a country hurtling towards political extremism.

Review: 

This book is pretty heartbreaking and thought provoking.

Jivan witnesses men torching a railway station and the next day, videos are being shared about it on Facebook. Jivan shares her thoughts on how the police behave, the entirety of this book is political. This puts Jivan in a compromising position. She is arrested after it is found that she had Facebook correspondence with a terrorist recruiter. The police believe that she was behind the railway being burned.

The story is told from Jivan's point of view in prison, awaiting trial and from Lovely, an aspiring actress who was learning English from Jivan and PT Sir, one of Jivan's old teachers.

Lovely is determined to be a famous actress and PT Sir befriends a politician and ends up receiving gifts for providing eye witness testimonies against criminals when the courts don't have enough evidence. He believes his life is changing for the better. Both PT Sir and Lovely stand up for Jivan in court, but this may cause them to lose out on their dreams and aspirations. What will they do?

This is a politically heavy book set in India and honestly broke my heart. The corruption of the police and government and how they treat people was tough to read about. 

Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee | Book Review

[ad/gifted - I received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.]

Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publisher: Scribner 

Publication date: 15th April 2021

Blurb:

In the coastal resort of Margate, hotels lie empty and sun-faded ‘For Sale’ signs line the streets. The sea is higher – it’s higher everywhere – and those who can are moving inland. A young girl called Chance, however, is just arriving.

 Chance’s family is one of many offered a cash grant to move out of London - and so she, her mother Jas and brother JD relocate to the seaside, just as the country edges towards vertiginous change. 

In their new home, they find space and wide skies, a world away from the cramped bedsits they’ve lived in up until now. But challenges swiftly mount. JD’s business partner, Kole, has a violent, charismatic energy that whirlpools around him and threatens to draw in the whole family. And when Chance comes across Franky, a girl her age she has never seen before – well-spoken and wearing sunscreen – something catches in the air between them. Their fates are bound: a connection that is immediate, unshakeable, and, in a time when social divides have never cut sharper, dangerous. Set in a future unsettlingly close to home, against a backdrop of soaring inequality and creeping political extremism, Rankin-Gee demonstrates, with cinematic pace and deep humanity, the enduring power of love and hope in a world spinning out of control.

Review:

There is absolutely no doubt that this is a well written book that pushes climate change to the forefront of our minds. This could be a reality.

At the beginning of the book, six year old Chance is moving to Margate with mum and thirteen year old brother JD following a government grant to move out of London.

The seaside town of Margate where funfair Dreamland stands, is destitute. Sea levels are rising, buildings are derelict. There are no services. Most people are leaving but Chance's life there is just beginning.

Her family are doing anything to survive which ends in some heartbreaking consequences. Teenage Chance meets and seemingly falls in love with Franky, a girl who shows up from London working with LifeSave. But can Chance really trust her?

It is very heavily focused on social inequality and political extremism and forces us to both think and feel.

The Problem With My Normal Penis by Obioma Ugoala | Book Review

[ad/gifted - I received a proof copy of this book to take part in a readalong with Tandem Collective. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

The Problem With My Normal Penis by Obioma Ugoala

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publisher: Scribner

Publication date: 31st March 2022

Blurb:

You’re a black man. 

 

Aggressive. Athletic. 

Feared. Fetishised. 

Policed. Politicised.

 

It’s limiting. It’s tiring. And it’s not true. 

Review:

I jotted down so many notes that stood out to me when reading this but I am finding it hard to convey how important this is. This is a book that everyone should read.

The stereotype from the title of the book is just the tip of the iceberg and Obioma Ugoala delves deep into racism, sexism and masculinity.

Ugoala has written this very well with facts and statistics interspersed with his life as a man with Jamaican heritage on his father's side and Irish heritage on his mother's side, things that he came up against as a schoolkid, teenager, actor. The shackles comment on Obi's choral trip genuinely made me gasp.

When George Floyd was killed protests happened, companies posted a black square with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter but then what? I agree that it did feel like a token act. We see racism still happening in so many aspects of life today. People just speaking without realising that what they are saying is offensive. What needs to happen for us to change, as a society?

Two quotes that really stuck out to me were:

"Black people should feel grateful that their cup of wine is only a tenth mixed with cyanide, because previously it was half and half"

"Racism is not your fault but it's going to be your challenge"

Read this book.