Book Review – Page 39 – The Constellation of Moon

Tulip: The Dog that Ate Nightmares Review

Posted on April 29, 2019

Tulip The Dog that Ate Nightmares by Quek Sue Yian, Khairul Azmir Shoib (Illustrator)

The Dog that Ate Nightmares is based on Sue Yian’s pug, the real Tulip, the story has been given a whole new world on paper with the art of Khairul Azmir Shoib aka Meme.

Rating:

This was an Eastercon buy. I was browsing this lovely publisher’s place (it had a lot of Indian and various Asian books) and saw this. It has a brave dog, and it is a pug, so I had to buy it for a friend.

And of course, I ended up reading it, because it is short and an illustrated book. It has a very Tim Burton style of artwork/illustrations, and some look almost like a collage from magazines. It does capture very well the whole “dog that eats nightmares” feel and reminds me a tiny bit of Coraline.

The story talks about how this little dog is always hungry, but Tulip has a secret, she eats nightmares! The book takes you through the characters and why the little girl loves Tulip and what makes her so special (Tulip).

I enjoyed the hopeful idea that dogs eat our nightmares and that their company makes us feel safer. There is a good side to owning a dog and their company is good theraphy so that this book is not just imagination. I don’t know if my own dog eats nightmares (I don’t think so, as I still have nightmares), but I do sleep better when she’s around and I can feel her warmth against myself.

Considering this isn’t your uusal children’s book I found it very intriguing and I am glad I bought it.

Book Review, Books

Emily Eternal Review

Posted on April 25, 2019

Emily Eternal by M.G. Wheaton

Meet Emily – she can solve advanced mathematical problems, unlock the mind’s deepest secrets and even fix your truck’s air con, but unfortunately, she can’t restart the Sun.

She’s an artificial consciousness, designed in a lab to help humans process trauma, which is particularly helpful when the sun begins to die 5 billion years before scientists agreed it was supposed to.

So, her beloved human race is screwed, and so is Emily. That is, until she finds a potential answer buried deep in the human genome. But before her solution can be tested, her lab is brutally attacked, and Emily is forced to go on the run with two human companions – college student Jason and small-town Sheriff, Mayra.

As the sun’s death draws near, Emily and her friends must race against time to save humanity. But before long it becomes clear that it’s not only the species at stake, but also that which makes us most human.

Rating:

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. And this book sounded right up my street, so I said yes.

Emily is quite interesting, she is an Artificial Consciousness developed to help psychological issues in humans, therefore she has to be as “human” as can be, and the focus isn’t in her being “Intelligent” and robotic but rather to be able to develop feelings and empathy.

From the get go, this book reminded me of Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui, which I read eons ago and loved (it is a classic Japanese story, that mixes reality with something else, if you’re not really into Japanese writing style, there’s a good film you can watch). I digress.

Both Paprika and Emily have a lot of similarities, but in Paprika we go slightly into the fantastical and blurring lines between dreams and reality. Emily Eternal, is more of a dystopia, near apocalypse tale.

It doesn’t pose the question of what we do after the end of the world, but rather, what do we do when the end of the world is inevitable? And of course, leave the figuring out to smart humans, government and Emily to figure it out.

This book has a lot of science (which sadly deteriorates as the book progresses, and that was what I struggled the most with in this book, the science being less there and just fitting the narrative, whereas at the beginning the science was making it work SO well). It touches on psychology, biology (lots to do with DNA, which was fascinating), a little on computer science and related, and of course robotics.

Emily as a concept was fascinating to me, and it was very interesting the way the author tried to show how a machine trying to emulate humanity would try to do so. Probably one of my favourite things of the book was the whole “Emily is trying to be human”.

This book has a bit of everything, assassinations, end of the world, space stuff, robots, an artificial consciousness, romance, action, adventure… conspiracy theories even get a little bit and even things like cancer and sickness. And family, and relationships in general.

If you like techie science fiction that isn’t a space opera and has the end of the world in it, I can definitely recommend this one. It left me with a good feeling after finishing.

Book Review, Books

Voices Review

Posted on April 21, 2019

Voices: The Final Hours of Joan Of Arc by David Elliott

Author David Elliott explores how Joan of Arc changed the course of history and remains a figure of fascination centuries after her extraordinary life and death.

Told through medieval poetic forms and in the voices of the people and objects in Joan of Arc’s life, (including her family and even the trees, clothes, cows, and candles of her childhood). Along the way it explores issues such as gender, misogyny, and the peril of speaking truth to power. Before Joan of Arc became a saint, she was a girl inspired. It is that girl we come to know in Voices.

Rating:

I used to love playing Age of Empires II on my Windows 98 computer (yes, I am old, shush!) as a child and teenager. And one of the first campaigns is Joan of Arc. I learnt a lot about her story and France (I am not saying it was perfect, but I learned a lot, and Age of Empires sparked my interest in more history). But the point wasn’t about gaming on a 1990’s computer, rather that it sparked my interest in this book.

As starter things, this book is a poem, it isn’t 100% accurate but more of an “artistic” view as the idea was to focus on the type of poems that would be used during Joan’s time. (This part I found nice, as the poems made a little more sense than modern poetry. Apparently Medieval poems are more similar to general Spanish poems, therefore make more sense poetically speaking than other poems in English do for me). And it isn’t a book about Joan’s whole life, but rather it is meant to be a “I am about to die, my life choices are questioned, this is what led me here” type of book.

I liked the artistic take on the story, and the poems. Some are shaped, and there’s a lot of formatting in it which made the experience of reading it, more of an experience in itself. My absolute favourite is the Fire, but in general, I enjoyed the poems, and I don’t know if I have a sooty mind thanks to hanging out with my friends, but there were some interesting hidden jokes in the poems that made me raise an eyebrow and laugh quietly at it.

It was a nice change of reading, and it was a relatively familiar story, so it was a neat read as I had been suffering from head splitting headaches, and this wasn’t too hard. Which probably made me enjoy it more than I would’ve otherwise. As did my love for Age of Empires…

Book Review, Books

Lord of Secrets Review

Posted on April 19, 2019

20190414_192422

Lord of Secrets by Breanna Teintze

Magic is poison. Secrets are power. Death is . . . complicated.

Outlaw wizard Corcoran Gray has enough problems. He’s friendless, penniless and on the run from the tyrannical Mages’ Guild – and with the search for his imprisoned grandfather looking hopeless, his situation can’t get much worse.

So when a fugitive drops into his lap – literally – and gets them both arrested, it’s the last straw – until Gray realises that runaway slave Brix could be the key to his grandfather’s release. All he has to do is break out of prison, break into an ancient underground temple and avoid killing himself with his own magic in the process.

In theory, it’s simple enough. But as secrets unfold and loyalties shift, Gray discovers something with the power to change the nature of life and death itself.

Now Gray must find a way to protect the people he loves, but it could cost him everything, even his soul . . .

Rating:

Jo Fletcher books kindly accepted my begging for a copy of this and this is a free copy (I will be buying this because yeah it is good and I need more books!)

This has been pitched as a bit of Schwab, Trudie Canavan, Novik and a few others. It feels like a high ask for this book, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I love the books from all three ladies.

However, reading this, neither of those names popped into my mind (say what?!). Instead, what came into mind was Terry Pratchett. I know, I am comparing high. And this is not a Discworld book. But Lord of Secrets has a lot of humour and it is reminescent of Pratchett’s.

It is that dark, gritty, life is hard but let’s make the best/worst of it, nevermind kind of humour. The book had me laughing a lot, and also made me want to read more fantasy books like Canavan’s or Pratchett’s and go into another world.

Gray is an intriguing character, and actually, all the characters are interesting and have a lot of layers. There’s very few “plot” characters (the ones that have names but that only really move plot and have no other purpose), and the plot is mostly carried by the characters and a little by the mystery.

Also, the actual Lord of Secrets and what all that implies was a fun take on necromancy and magic. Oh! Talking of magic! The magic system is wonderful! Write the spells and then say them. Oh but lo and behold, they have a price, they are in a way poisonous and each one has a different effect on you. Makes you consider using magic a little bit more (not that this seems to stop Gray, but then again, he just seems to be frequently in trouble so spells it has to be).

After reading this, I felt refreshed and almost like a “faith restored” feeling for fantasy. This was different to most of what I have recently read, and also in a way familiar enough, which made it cosy read.

Do note that this is not a young adult fantasy book, but properly just Fantasy (saying it is for adults doesn’t mean it is full of erotica, which it isn’t, or that only adults can read it). It deals with topics of family, death, and even slavery and abuse of the self. All with an interesting sense of humour, but still, it touches on topics that are a little bit less in the front of a younger adult/teenager than they would be for an adult. This is hard to explain without revealing important plot points which are good to come to rather than be spoiled.

Book Review, Books

The Bear and the Piano Review

Posted on April 17, 2019

The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield

One day, a young bear stumbles upon something he has never seen before in the forest. As time passes, he teaches himself how to play the strange instrument, and eventually the beautiful sounds are heard by a father and son who are picnicking in the woods. The bear goes with them on an incredible journey to New York, where his piano playing makes him a huge star. He has fame, fortune and all the music in the world, but he misses the friends and family he has left behind. A moving tale of exploration and belonging from an exciting debut author-illustrator.

Rating:

This was another whim buy, because it had a piano in the title (fox, dragon, piano, put those in the title and I’ll probably buy it…) and it looked cute. Not wrong at all.

I read it during the weekend, after months of very intense workload (I love my job so much, but there’s SO much work that my brain has been overwhelmed I have little energy for anything else) and this was a heartwarming little read.

A small bear discovers a piano and starts plonking at it. At first the sound is horrid, but after a lot of plonking, the sounds isn’t displeasing anymore and he gains a crowd of pleased bears to listen. But then the bear gets discovered and becomes famous.

Oh the fame, but then there’s this little thing making Bear want to go back to the forest…

The art is gorgeous, it has a nice palette that is very foresty and then very much glamour. I found the bears cute and it was just simple yet gorgeous.

It’s not a very long review, but if you like bears or pianos, then this is a nice book to buy for when you can’t read a lot and just want to read something and feel that you finished a book!

Book Review, Books

Other Words for Smoke Review

Posted on April 15, 2019

20190410_123048

Other Words For Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin

The house at the end of the lane burned down, and Rita Frost and her teenage ward, Bevan, were never seen again. The townspeople never learned what happened. Only Mae and her brother Rossa know the truth; they spent two summers with Rita and Bevan, two of the strangest summers of their lives… Because nothing in that house was as it seemed: a cat who was more than a cat, and a dark power called Sweet James that lurked behind the wallpaper, enthralling Bevan with whispers of neon magic and escape. And in the summer heat, Mae became equally as enthralled with Bevan. Desperately in the grips of first love, she’d give the other girl anything. A dangerous offer when all that Sweet James desired was a taste of new flesh…

Rating:

I diverge from my usual puzzle background because I had a Bobby and a Sweet James and something more to make this one special.

I read Spare and Found Parts when it came out and it intrigued me. So this was in my radar and I am glad to have read it. It is as weird or more as Sarah’s first book was. And that isn’t a bad thing. However, it may mean this isn’t for everyone and that is perfectly fine.

There’s a lot of “lore” woven into this book, and a lot of history (I think much of it is Irish, but not being Irish, or English, or European, I do not presume). I also loved the focus on humanity and “lack” of humanity.

Sweet James and Bobby are both very interesting characters, as are Bevan and Rita. The twins were to me more of a “meh, visitors to the house, move on” even if they play a relatively important part in the balance of everything. Oh and Audrey.

The small footnotes make for catching you off guard and also for dropping hints to what is to come (or confusion if you loose track of things easily). his is a hard book to review, because it deals with a lot of mysticism, and with a lot of wonder, and part of the charm is to dscover this as you read rather than to know exactly what to expect. There’s a magic to that first read I don’t want to take away.

One of the things I can say is that I forgot to re-read the synopsis and plunged ahead so confusion ensued. But after quickly catching up with the back cover of the book, I went into this book with a better idea and it still surprised me.

The beginning wasn’t the strongest for me, but I loved those last few chapters were everything came together (or didn’t) and fell neatlyninto place. Things made sense and it was such an easy flow of events that it felt like it had been ready for this all time.

All in all, if you are into witchy, mystic, intriguing writes, then this is your book.

Book Review, Books

Spectacle Review

Posted on April 11, 2019

Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok

A YA murder mystery in which a young reporter must use her supernatural visions to help track down a killer targeting the young women of Paris.

Paris, 1887.

Sixteen-year-old Nathalie Baudin writes the daily morgue column for Le Petit Journal. Her job is to summarize each day’s new arrivals, a task she finds both fascinating and routine. That is, until the day she has a vision of the newest body, a young woman, being murdered–from the perspective of the murderer himself.

When the body of another woman is retrieved from the Seine days later, Paris begins to buzz with rumors that this victim may not be the last. Nathalie’s search for answers sends her down a long, twisty road involving her mentally ill aunt, a brilliant but deluded scientist, and eventually into the Parisian Catacombs. As the killer continues to haunt the streets of Paris, it becomes clear that Nathalie’s strange new ability may make her the only one who can discover the killer’s identity–and she’ll have to do it before she becomes a target herself.

Rating:

Paris, a young journalist woman with an interesting “gift”, a morgue, a mystery… all sound good to me!

The very first thing I have to say is that the Paris we are led to is very “period” accurate and I liked that. It was fun to read about references to things yet to come, and things that are already there. All of it made it more immersive.

The second thing is that for a mystery, this one definitely was. It kept me guessing over and over and over and I was never ahead of our heroine’s own discoveries. This is a little unusual, and I have to say it was a good thing. It didn’t leave me frustrated but more like “oh wow, I genuinely have no clue, but I need to know, please, let’s find out more”.

It also made me hungry and I want pain au chocolat in a quaint cafe while I write notes.

Natalie is a heroine with depth, and I don’t know if I would be okay with visiting the morgue to go looking at the corpses to “report” on them. That was interesting, because it gave a view on what could pass as entertainment. (I admit I find cemeteries interesting with the headstones and mausoleums, but I am not so sure about seeing the actual dead bodies).

It starts with one body and an accident that makes Natalie find out she can see what happened before the victim died, but she wonders if she hallucinated it or not. This gift she has, costs something, and it was something I liked. She can’t just plunge headlong and use it willy nilly, but instead has to consider the fact that it costs her something (won’t spoil what) and she can’t control that cost. Makes for a more complex conundrum, help solve this and sacrifice something or stay as I am but let this murderer get away with it? Tricky right?

It was a good book, and I just have to say that the last two pages completely confused me, but other than that, it was superb.

Book Review, Books

There is No Dragon in this Story Review

Posted on April 7, 2019

There Is No Dragon In This Story by Lou Carter and Deborah Allwright

Poor old dragon. Nobody wants him in their story. Not Goldilocks, not Hansel and Gretel – no one. But Dragon will not give up! He shall continue on his course of finding someone who wants him in their story. ANYONE. His boundless enthusiasm surely won’t get him into any trouble. Surely …

A glorious story about dragons, heroes and ice cream with sprinkles. From author Lou Carter, a phenomenal new talent, and Deborah Allwright, illustrator of the bestselling The Night Pirates.

Rating:

Another one of those books I randomly found and chose to buy. You can clearly see a dragon in the cover, but the title is that there is no dragon in this story. My curiosity got the best of me. Of course we had to have a dragon, right?

The book starts saying that this was supposed to be a traditional dragon story. The dragon steals a princess, the prince/knight saves her and slays the dragon. But that’s not the story because the dragon refuses to be the villain and wants to be a hero.

So Mr Dragon goes out to all the other stories in this world and kindly asks if he can help and be the hero. Maybe he can stop the wolf for the three pigs? Or do something for Goldilocks? But every story he goes to, they tell him the same thing, he can’t be the hero because “there is no dragon in this story”. Poor dragon.

He has to try one more time, and well, let’s just say this doesn’t go very well and everything goes wrong, so now every story needs a hero. Will the dragon be the hero? Or will this be another “no dragon” kind of story?

I laughed a lot and felt so much for the dragon while reading this. Throughly enjoyed this one so will recommend that you get it for a rainy day when you need an easy book or to get you out of a slump.

Book Review, Books

Penguin Problems Review

Posted on April 3, 2019

Penguin Problems by Jory John and Lane Smith

A penguin levels with human readers about what penguin life is really like—and it isn’t all fun and games.

Have you ever considered running away to Antarctica? Of course you have! Because it’s a land free of worries and responsibilities! All of your problems will surely be blown away by the icy winds of that lawless paradise! . . . Won’t they?

Think again, my friend. This penguin has come to tell you that his life down there is no more a picnic than yours is here. For starters, it is FREEZING. Also, penguins have a ton of natural predators. Plus, can you imagine trying to find your mom in a big ol’ crowd of identical penguins? No, thank you.

Yes, it seems there is no escaping the drudgery of your daily grind, whatever it might be. Or perhaps we’ve just learned that grumps are everywhere. . . .

Rating:

The cover caught my eye while I was looking for something to read, and I bought it. It is a cute easy read, about how things can go wrong and how penguins have so many problems, but it is also about how wonderful life and the world are too.

The illustrations are “simple” but at the same quite detailed and extremely cute. I kept feeling my heart melt with each new problem the penguin talked about. One of my favourite’s is that penguin can’t fly. Each page made me think a little about penguins and life.

It was also a good balm for my aching head (big headache) as it was easy to read, and relatively short. I think it’d be a fun one to read out loud with a little one. But it is also a nice gift to try to cheer an adult up. I already have someone in mind to receive this lovely book.

There’s not a lot more to say except that a penguin has a lot of problems, but also a lot of good things around. Life is interesting and full of good things if we look for them.

Overall, it is super cute and it is both for a child, or a grumpy, or sad adult.

Book Review, Books

The Place Between Breaths Review

Posted on April 1, 2019

The Place Between Breaths by An Na

From master storyteller and Printz Award–winning author An Na comes a dark, intensely moving story of a girl desperately determined to find a cure for the illness that swept her mother away, and could possibly destroy her own life as well.

Sixteen-year-old Grace is in a race against time—and in a race for her life—even if she doesn’t realize it yet…

She is smart, responsible, and contending with more than what most teens ever should. Her mother struggled with schizophrenia for years until, one day, she simply disappeared—fleeing in fear that she was going to hurt those she cared about most. Ever since, Grace’s father has worked as a recruiter at one of the leading labs dedicated to studying the disease, trying to lure the world’s top scientists to the faculty to find a cure, hoping against hope it can happen in time to help his wife if she is ever found. But this makes him distant. Consumed.

Grace, in turn, does her part, interning at the lab in the gene sequencing department daring to believe that one day they might make a breakthrough…and one day they do. Grace stumbles upon a string of code that could be the key. But something inside of Grace has started to unravel. Could her discovery just be a cruel side effect of the disease that might be taking hold of her? And can she even tell the difference?

Unflinchingly brave, An Na has created a mesmerizing story with twists and turns that reveal jaw-dropping insights into the mind of someone struggling with schizophrenia.

Rating:

This little book packs a punch. However, there’s a few things to consider before you read it. It is a book about mental health and schizophrenia. It is not a fluffy cuddly book. This one bites, and confuses.

The second thing is that the author has South Korean origins. Meaning that the Eastern (because “not Western sounds meh”) influences are heavy in the writing style of the book. Think Murakami, Yoshimoto, etc, who have a particular style of wiriting that isn’t what most Western authors do.

And why do I say both things before I even review the book? Because if you’re expecting a perfectly “coherent” fluffy book, this book is not it and it definitely isn’t a Western view of the world even if it is set in the US.

The author writes this book in seasons, in cycles. The book does its best to show you how schizophrenia entangles you and all the “ripples” it has. Your main character is Grace King who believes in logic and is fighting against her genes, while trying to work and help find a cure or something for schizophrenia. The story shifts between “season” chapters, that show slightly different things but they do make a cohesive whole. (I don’t want to spoil the book too much).

There are a lot of twists and intriguing bits in the story where at first you aren’t sure but as the story progresses you begin to realise how much Grace is fighting and what “enemy” she’s fighting.

In my opinion it was a very clever book with the way it sets thing and how it leaves you guessing. You need to be in the right midnset for it though, and it is worth (only after reading it) to go check Goodreads reviews, the author explains her purpose in writing it the way she did and a little better what is and isn’t in a reply to a reviewer.