Girl by Kenya Hunt | Book Review

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Girl by Kenya Hunt - 5/5

Blurb:

"In the vein of Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist, but wholly its own, Girl is a provocative, heartbreaking and frequently hilarious collection of original essays on what it means to be black, a woman, a mother and a global citizen in today’s ever-changing world.

Black women have never been more visible or more publicly celebrated. But for every new milestone, every magazine cover, every box office record smashed, the reality of everyday life remains a complex, nuanced, contradiction-laden experience.

 

Award-winning journalist and American in London Kenya Hunt threads razor sharp cultural observation through evocative and relatable stories, both illuminating our current cultural moment and transcending it."

Review:

I don't think I could ever rate this lower than a five out of five. It is an important book that everyone should read.

It is made up of essays on different "topics", mainly written by Kenya Hunt but also by a few contributors which I will get to in a moment.

Girl - "the root word in the unique love language between Black women"

This book touches on important subjects such as the rise of Black people being seen on TV, movies and magazine covers and seeing themselves being represented, the impact of Donald Trump being elected President of the United States, pregnant Black women and their maternal care, activism, and many more.

I will be completely honest and say that I feel educated after reading 'Girl'. It had me Googling people like Sally Hemings and Bethann Hardison who I shamefully and ignorantly knew nothing about.

I watch the news, I see on social media the effect that racism has but I still I had genuine shock at some things like how hard it is to book an Airbnb because your profile picture shows that you are Black. Something known as "Booking while Black." Appalling.

As I mentioned before, there are contributors in the form of Ebele Okobi, who writes about raising a Black boy ("Is this the year he is old enough to be a threat?" and the death of her younger brother Chinedu at the hands of police officers in the US), Jessica Horn (her experience visiting Panzi Hospital in Bukavu and becoming an activist), Freddie Harrel (on hair) and Candice Carty-Williams (on writing Queenie and the aftermath).

I encourage everyone to get a copy of this book because it is truly eye-opening.

Shiver by Allie Reynolds | Book Review

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Shiver by Allie Reynolds - 3/5

Blurb:

"When Milla is invited to a reunion in the French Alps resort that saw the peak of her snowboarding career, she drops everything to go. While she would rather forget the events of that winter, the invitation comes from Curtis, the one person she can't seem to let go.

The five friends haven't seen each other for ten years, since the disappearance of the beautiful and enigmatic Saskia. But when an icebreaker game turns menacing, they realise they don't know who has really gathered them there and how far they will go to find the truth.

In a deserted lodge high up a mountain, the secrets of the past are about to come to light."

Review: 

This is quite a good debut!

The story is told by Milla, a snowboarder, in both present day and ten years ago.

In the present day, she has met up with her old group of friends, Heather, Dale, Brent and Curtis, where they used to compete but two of their group aren't there. Odette was injured and Saskia, Curtis's sister, is missing and presumed dead.

This is a 'locked room' novel and is written quite well. Firstly, there is suspicion of who actually set this reunion up. Some people got emails signed off as Milla and some by Curtis. Both of them claim not to have organised it. Then strange things happen. Someone knows who killed Saskia and they want the truth to come out.

I love the setting of Shiver. I've read a couple of books set on ski resorts and really enjoyed them despite never going skiing myself. There is a lot of snowboarding jargon but it was easy to follow. The relationships between the characters in both past and present times are well described and it is obvious that a lot of people would have had a motive to hurt Saskia. She and Milla definitely had a "keep your friends close but enemies closer" type relationship.

I liked that there was a romantic aspect in there too and the fact that Milla was able to reflect back on her competitive nature, realising that she could take it too far sometimes.

The ending did surprise me and it wasn't what I suspected at all. 

Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent | Blog Tour #OurLittleCruelties

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

I am very excited to be taking part in the blog tour for Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent, published by Penguin Ireland/Viking Books UK.

Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent - 5/5

Blurb:

"Three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin.

Will, Brian and Luke grow up competing for their mother's unequal love. As men, the competition continues - for status, money, fame, women ...

They each betray each other, over and over, until one of them is dead.

But which brother killed him?"

Review: 

Is it too early in the year to say that I think this will be one of my top reads of 2021?

This is a very character-driven novel and I was hooked from the get go. It follows the stories of Will, Brian and Luke, three brothers from Dublin, and starts with a funeral. But which of the three of them is in the coffin?

The novel is split into two parts, Brothers and Strangers. In part one, we have three different subsections; Will, Luke and Brian. It fluctuates between years but I still found it easy enough to follow along. It is a fantastic story about a dysfunctional and toxic family.

We hear about the same time periods, same events, but from their different points of view. We get a real in-depth feel of each of the characters and their backgrounds in a Irish family. 

We discover more about their relationships, their work lives (Will, a film producer/director, Brian, a teacher turned agent and Luke, a pop star turned film actor - all in the public eye) and dynamic between the brothers themselves. The highs and lows of their lives are covered in a brilliant way, especially when the rise of social media happens.

I have to add a trigger warning for homophobia, drug use, rape, mental health issues and eating disorders. This book honestly has it all but it doesn't feel like they are throw in for the sake of a story. It is obvious that it is meticulously planned and well-written. All of the characters are very unlikable and it is rare for me to enjoy a book so much when I don't really like any of the characters. Absolutely fantastic and I would thoroughly recommend.

~

The bloggers below are also taking part on the tour so please be sure to give their reviews a read too!

Into The Woods by David Mark | Blog Tour #IntoTheWoods

[AD/Gifted - I was provided with an eBook copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

Into The Woods by David Mark - 4/5

Blurb:

"Thirty years ago, three girls followed a stranger into the woods. Only two returned. The surviving pair have never been able to remember what happened or what the fate of the third girl was. Local rumours talk of hippies and drugs and mystic rituals, but no one has learned the truth.

This story is just what Rowan Blake needs. He's in debt, his journalistic career is in tatters - as well as his damaged body - and he's retreated to the Lake District to write. Yet even Rowan isn't prepared for the evil he is about to unearth, for the secrets that have been buried in that wood for far too long..."

Review: 

This is a wonderfully descriptive slow burner. 

You are drawn in instantly with the description of a girl who seems to be being tortured. Then, we see that a short Tweet from a journalist named Rowan Blake has had a reply from a neo-Nazi telling him that he was "going to burn". Very intriguing.

In present day, we follow Rowan whose life has basically gone to pot. He went from being journalist to author to TV presenter and then right back down again. He had one decent book about a real-life serial killer but despite being told that he has a knack of getting into people's heads, he didn't get many sales and he is desperate to make some money with another. 

We also have flashbacks from the late 1980s to early 1990s at a school called Silver Birch. It is not your typical school, a bit "hippy" and they focus on reiki and shamanic healing. This is a recurrent theme running throughout the book. Here, we follow Violet and Catherine then their new friend Freya. The three of them go missing but only Violet and Catherine return.

Back in present day, Rowan is currently living in his sister's land with injured hands that he has had a skin graft on. With publishers asking for pages for his new book, he needs to find something worth writing about. His pre-teen neice Snowdrop makes a portfolio of all of the articles he's written, in a way to boost his spirits, and he comes across the story of the Three Girls. He then vows to find out what happened to the third one who was never found. Rowan enlists Snowdrop to help with the writing.

Rowan's sister, and Snowdrop's mother, Serendipity is acquaintances with one of the girls who was abducted - Violet. He then uses his journalistic background to dig deeper and get in contact with anyone who may have information, from neighbours to police officers and staff from the school. He is definitely looking at this from a "How much money can it make me?" point of view, rather than actually trying to find justice.

This book is so descriptive. The jumble of the women's memories really makes you as the reader feel confused. It has been a long time since I've read a book that is as descriptive as this. Not only does it put you in the scene but you can imagine smells and tastes too. I genuinely felt queasy at some scenes. It keeps you guessing right up until the very end.

Thank you very much to Aries Fiction for having me on the blog tour. Check out the other book bloggers in the graphic above for their reviews too.

Confessions Of A Forty-Something F##k Up by Alexandra Potter | Book Review

[AD/Gifted - I received a copy of this book in order to take part in the readalong with Tandem Collective. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post also contain affiliate links.]

Confessions Of A Forty-Something F##k Up - 5/5

Blurb:

"Nell Stevens’ life is a mess.

When her business goes bust and her fiancé with it, Nell’s happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she’s been gone. All her single friends are now married with children, sky-high rents force her to rent a room in a stranger’s house and in a world of perfect Instagram lives, she feels like a f**k up. Even worse, a forty-something f**k up.

But when she lands a job writing obituaries, Nell meets the fabulous Cricket, an eighty-something widow with challenges of her own, and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and unexpected joys.

Because Nell is determined. Next year things are going to be very different. It’s time to turn her life around."

Review:

Oh I love everything about this book! It was a joy to read.

Nell Stevens was a book editor living in LA with her fiancé Ethan. They opened up a café-cum-bookshop but everything went downhill, they lost the business and subsequently split up. Now having no visa, she moved back to London. Life as she knew it there has changed. All of her friends are married and busy with their families. 

With nowhere to live, she ends up sharing a house with a man named Edward but it's all good (even if he does have a huge list of rules!) because he is only there three days a week.

Determined to feel less like a f**k up, an old contact gets her a job writing obituaries and she becomes close friends with eighty-something widow Cricket whilst writing Monty (her husband)'s obituary. Cricket is totally eccentric and their friendship is wonderful. They are both suffering losses but in a different way and it is beautiful to read. The dynamic between them is so lovely.

This book has so many laugh out loud and relatable moments. I'm not 40 yet (11 years to go!) but even though I have a family of my own, one of the things that Nell feels like she is missing, I definitely related to a lot throughout this book. 

I did guess how things were going to pan out about halfway through which made me desperate to read on to see how exactly everything worked out. The ending was especially witty and I wouldn't have suspected anything less! 

You can find all of my readalong prompt thoughts and challenges at my dedicated 'ConfessionsRA' Instagram highlight.