Book Review – Page 50 – The Constellation of Moon

The House With The Chicken Legs Review

Posted on May 20, 2018

I have a soft spot for Russian fairytales or folklore inspired books, and specially about Baba Yaga, so this book had been in my list for a while until I decided to get and I am so glad I did.

The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson

All 12-year-old Marinka wants is a friend. A real friend. Not like her house with chicken legs. Sure, the house can play games like tag and hide-and-seek, but Marinka longs for a human companion. Someone she can talk to and share secrets with.
But that’s tough when your grandmother is a Yaga, a guardian who guides the dead into the afterlife. It’s even harder when you live in a house that wanders all over the world . . . carrying you with it. Even worse, Marinka is being trained to be a Yaga. That means no school, no parties–and no playmates that stick around for more than a day.
So when Marinka stumbles across the chance to make a real friend, she breaks all the rules . . . with devastating consequences. Her beloved grandmother mysteriously disappears, and it’s up to Marinka to find her–even if it means making a dangerous journey to the afterlife.
With a mix of whimsy, humor, and adventure, this debut novel will wrap itself around your heart and never let go.

Rating:

Let’s start with the fact that this book is cute, and it has illustrations inside. But it is also a book about death and dying. However, never does it feel too heavy or too difficult, it is actually very very enjoyable.

Marinka is trying to figure why she can’t have friends and she is trying to make a life for her own, fighting her “destiny” of becomings a Yaga, a guardian of the Gate. And you see her trying to make her first “living” friend, just to be soon whisked away by the house.

The House, is one of my favourite characters and definitely it has a life of it’s own (part of me wants a house with chicken legs) and that made it a great delight to read. Each character is “alive”(ok, some are dead, but let’s not go into semantics) and real, and that was lovely to read.

I absolutely loved the end of the book and it left me full of hope for Marinka’s and the other character’s future, which was a nice thing. It is definitely a lovely book, and it a lot about growing up, being yourself, finding your passion, but it is also about life and death and what you do with your life.

Moon recommends

Buy and read The House With Chicken Legs right now! Then go read The Bear and The Nightingale, because it is also inspired by Russia, and then go read The Crown’s Game.

Book Review

Japonisme Review

Posted on May 18, 2018

On one of my visits to Waterstones Piccadilly, I stumbled upon several Japanese themed books, with so many choices it was hard to see which one would be more interesting for me to read (and also which one I would actually be interesting in applying to myself).

I did try the Marie Kondo one and wasn’t wowed by it, so I have been wary to do this crazy trend thing (mostly because I already only keep useful or joyful things, try to keep things to minimal except books, tsundoku).

Thankfully while I was browsing online the options, I stumbled upon this little gem. (I say little because it is a relatively little book).

Japonisme by Erin Niimi Longhurst

A Japanese-inspired guide to living a happier, more fulfilled life.

Japonisme explores the Japanese art of finding contentment and includes practical tips and tricks to live a happier, healthier, more thoughtful life.
What is your ikigai (purpose)? How do you practice mindfulness in the unpredictability and chaos of everyday life?
From shinrinyoku (forest bathing), calligraphy, ikebana (fl ower arranging) to tea ceremonies and their approach to food, the Japanese have found contentment through traditions, philosophies, and the practice of art. This book shows how we can all incorporate aspects of Japonisme into our daily lives.
Enhance your lifestyle and enrich your mind by looking at life through the lens of wabi-sabi (the transient nature of life), kintsugi (repairing broken ceramics with gold) or kaizen (habit-forming techniques), in an accessible, practical way.

Rating:

I preordered this little book hoping it’d give me a good panorama of Japanese ways and traditions, and I have to say I was not wrong. It does so beautifully, to the point that it includes tips, ideas and little prompts on how to do some of the things (for example, it has a few recipes).

It felt like a very good summary of all the possible philosophies and ways of life that are unique to the Japanese, and as such, it was a great read, it also helped me think which ones I would like to explore more and which ones I didn’t have much of an interest in. (Not that I don’t, just priorities, basically).

All in all a good read, it was relatively quick to read and easy to do so, and it has a lot of pictures which make it easier on the eyes and also to see the things that are being referred to.

Moon recommends

Checking this lovely book out. Otherwise, you can try Marie Kondo’s tidying method, or go search for other Japanese traditions.

Book Review

Always Forever Maybe Review

Posted on May 16, 2018

This book was kindly provided to me by Shrina from Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review, and I promise this will be one.

Before I start, however, I need to say two warnings:

TW: abuse, gaslighting, manipulation
This review will contain spoilers, I will strike them but just to make you aware.

Always Forever Maybe by Anica Mrose Rissi

When Betts meets Aiden at the candy store where she works, their connection is like a sugar rush to the heart. Betts already knows the two of them are infinite. Inevitable. Destined to become an us.

Betts has only ever kept one secret from her best friend, Jo, but suddenly there’s a long list of things she won’t tell her, things Jo wouldn’t understand. Because Jo doesn’t see how good Aiden is for Betts. She finds him needy. Possessive. Controlling.

She’s wrong. With a love like this, nothing else matters.

Rating:

This book is an intense read, and it excels at that. It was hard for me, since I have been in a relationship similar to the one Aiden and Betts have in the book.

They meet up at a sweets shop and everything is “sweet” at the beginning, but then it becomes a possessive controlling thing. Aiden wants her to spend time with him, gets jealous if she spends time with her family, or her best friends, or whatever happens, he wants all her free time for him.

And he starts playing games with Betts, making her feel guilty for things he says are wrong (they aren’t) and how he can’t cope with all of this. Jo, her best friend, sees things are not okay and tries to help but somehow fails. I do not blame her, it is hard to see once you’re inside a relationship like this, things become blurry and you aren’t ever sure if it is you that’s the one that’s the problem or not.

It was also awful to read how he is violent to her or possessive, and then read how Betts questions her own mind. Part of her knows it is wrong but she feels in love and she thinks this is it, that this is what it should be. It kept breaking my heart to read this, however, I would recommend others to read it, so you don’t fall for a man like Aiden or let him get away with it!

I was also happy that there was no “romance” in the end of the book (yes, I know the book is about Aiden and Betts but there is no “I just ended one relationship, started a new one 3 seconds later”)

Moon recommends

I don’t actually have a specific recommendation, except that if you experience anything like what Betts does here, to reach out to others. And do read this book, you can find it here.

Book Review

Oliver Twist meets 1984 in this dystopian surveillance adventure

Posted on May 8, 2018

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Outwalkers by Fiona Shaw

In near future England, the Coalition has taken over the rule of the country, and is now implanting small chips into all citizens in order to “keep them safe from cradle to grave”, which also makes them easy to track and, further more, to keep on track.

At the beginning of the book, Jake has almost miraculously managed to escape from the Home Academy where he’s been kept more or less in custody since the dramatic and somewhat mysterious death of his government employed parents. Almost alone in the world, ’cause he’s at least got his childhood companion Jet the Dog by his side, Jake soon finds a new existence and family in the gang of children called Outwalkers that he stumbles upon. Together they begin a dangerous journey towards Scotland, and the possibility of a life in actual freedom.

Rating 🐖 🐖 🐖 🐖 🐖

I received this book via BookBoxClub and to be perfectly honest, I hadn’t heard of it before. So when picking it up I felt both very thrilled because OMG DYSTOPIAN ADVENTURE GOING DOWN but also a bit sceptical. ‘Cause these kind of plot driven, adventurous novels (especially if the main character is a boy) quite often tend to unravel in heroic and macho quests with a lot of attitude but not so much political analysis or relationship focus.

To my utmost happiness, this contained very little of world saving missions, action packed dialogue or black/white visions of what would make a better world. ‘Cause even though Outwalkers is adventurous and plot driven, it’s also all about relationships, survival, living as a refugee, and feelings ranging between those of tearing hunger, paralyzing sorrow and glints of hope of a better world – or just of a bed with clean linen.

At the same time as it does ask those big existential and societal questions, Outwalkers is nothing of a heavy read. It’s fast paced, plot driven, and full of those thrilling cliffhangers that just makes you wanna keep reading. So even if you’re more into underground rail rides than what this world is turning into-scenarios, you will probably enjoy this novel.

Dr. Bea approves

If “big brother is watching”-adventures are right up your alley, I can really recommend Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. And if you like some techy stuff and a bit of virtual reality added to those governmental conspiracies, Layers by Ursula Poznanski might be just your cup of tea.

Book Review

Furyborn Review

Posted on May 2, 2018

This book was provided through a Fairyloot box as an advance copy

Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world…or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed…unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable–until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world–and of each other.

Rating:

There was a lot of hype for this book so I was looking forward to reading it. It has an intense start where you find Rielle so interesting, and then you get Eliana. I struggled a lot to get into Eliana’s chapters, and even when it finally got better (around page 350), I still didn’t care very much for her. The reason I was reading her chapters was because of Simon, or Remy (definitely one of my favourite characters of the book!), or Navi or another character in there. I couldn’t feel for her and I just couldn’t immerse myself properly into her world view. Rielle’s chapters on the contrary where much more interesting, and that never helped poor Eliana’s one as they contrasted too much with hers.

I loved the elements and the strange empirium which made me think of atoms making up everything in the world (except empirium is golden here and I don’t think atoms are exactly a certain colour).

But it bugged me that there is a lot of explanations and reasons missing that just don’t make sense. Who decides who is the Sun or Blood Queen? Why is Rielle so powerful and so special? What does Corien want with her and if he so much needs her, why kill her? Most of it doesn’t make sense, and despite the “joining” of the plots, it still has too many gaps.

The writing itself is immersive and I did enjoy the flow of the writing and I had no problems with it or the style, all good there. So i look forward to reading the next book and to read more books from her, but I just feel an overhype for this sadly.

Moon recommends

Preorder Furyborn if you like stories that have two separate generations (by however many generations in between but you know, a past and a present or a present and a future views) and fantasy that has a dark tinge to it.

Book Review

The Wicked Deep Review

Posted on April 28, 2018

We have had our clubhouse meeting so this review is definitely due now!

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…

Two centuries ago, in the small, isolated town, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town. Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return from the depths, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them down to their watery deaths.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into or the fact that his arrival will change everything…

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.

Rating:

This is a spooky and dreamy read, and I was so glad to read it. You meet Penny just before the Swan seaosn starts, and things are being slowly explained as they happen yet you always feel like you aren’t actually sure.

The setting was lovely, Sparrow was a wonderful spooky, coastal town that just kept me half wanting to be there, and part not wanting to at all because of the sisters.

And Penny is such an interesting character on her own.(This is a hard review without spoilers!!!!! There is so much I’d gush about but can’t really because it’d spoil this story and this is the kind of story you shouldn’t be spoiled before you read).

So, I can say the writing was gorgeous and dreamy and I just kept wanting to keep reading (and I did do that after a few buddy reading sessions, and got told off for that but it was just irresistible).

Moon recommends

I recommend The Wicked Deep, and all previous Book Box Club books with similar styles like The Memory Trees or The Disappearances, which have that kind of dreamy melancholic feel to them that just wraps you and takes to a different world, one slightly tinted with dreaminess, melancholia, old life.

Book Review

The List of Real Things Review

Posted on April 24, 2018

The List of Real Things by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

A poignant and big-hearted story about love, loss and believing in the magic of the imagination. The fourth novel from bestselling Waterstones Children’s Book Prize shortlisted author Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, following BACK TO BLACKBRICK, THE APPLE TART OF HOPE and A VERY GOOD CHANCE.

Grace knows the difference between what’s real and the strange ideas that float around in her little sister’s mind. Their parents died – that’s real. A secret hotel on the cliff-top where their parents are waiting – definitely NOT real. So when grief strikes again, Grace is determined not to let her sister’s outlandish imagination spiral out of control. But the line between truth and fantasy is more complicated than it seems…

Rating:

I won this book on a giveaway by Team BKMRK, and the premise sounded interesting enough. However sadly it didn’t live up much, the story was confusing in trying to “confuse” you yet at the same time leave you wondering.

Gracie seems to love Bee and then she turns on everyone, and it doesn’t make much sense in general, except maybe the fact that everyone is trying to deal with grief in their own particular way and trying to cope with it. That was the bit that saved the book.

It is definitely geared to younger readers rather than older ones which makes it a quick read for me.

(As a note to myself, I am definitely picky with my contemporary reads).

Book Review

Emergency Contact Review

Posted on April 22, 2018

Emergency Contact was a spur of the moment purchase, it sounded interesting, but I hadn’t committed to it and then suddenly I made the decision to preorder it and that was that.

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

Rating:

Warning, I usually avoid spoilers as much as possible in my reviews but this one may include some. I will still try to keep them to a minimum.

I am not the biggest fan of contemporary books, and if I do read them I tend to prefer more “magical realism” or something like that, which this does not have. However, the idea of having an “emergency contact” for panic attacks was a lovely thing (I think it is one of the things that made me preorder this book, not sure but it definitely would’ve since I have had panic attacks).

And both Sam and Penny aren’t perfect, are struggling and are learning to be “adults”, so it was refreshing to read from them, and hey look at that, the parents aren’t conveniently out of the way as such (yes it happens while Penny is in college/university but her mum is definitely a big part in this story).

I was shook when Penny’s “secret” was revealed, not because it was a bad secret but rather because it touched me as I had gone through something similar and I could understand her too well.

All in all, the book left me feeling happy to be alive, wanting to fall in love slowly and just needing an emergency contact.

Moon recommends

Reading Emergency Contact, I literally said to my friends they had to read it because it was so good! Another good book that is contemporary and gave me similar vibes is When My Heart Joins The Thousand, so I recommend reading it if this sounds interesting.

Book Review

The Apprentice Witch Review

Posted on April 20, 2018

This book was lent to me (and recommended) by the lovely Nikki, and I am glad she did.

The Apprentice Witch by James Nicol

Arianwyn has fluffed her witch’s evaluation test.

Awarded the dull bronze disc and continuing as an apprentice – to the glee of her arch-rival, mean girl Gimma – she’s sent to protect the remote, dreary town of Lull.

But her new life is far from boring. Turns out Gimma is the pompous mayor’s favourite niece – and worse, she opens a magical rift in the nearby Great Wood. As Arianwyn struggles with her spells, a mysterious darkness begins to haunt her – and it’s soon clear there’s much more than her pride at stake …

Rating:

This is such a sweet story. It reminded me of Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle (the books), The Little Leftover Witch and a few others, and it was just a cozy fun read.

This doesn’t mean bad things didn’t happen but it just somehow left me with a good feeling inside after reading it. Wyn is a spunky girl with a lot of confusion and lot to prove in a way and then Gimma appears to ruin her already frail position as an Apprentice.

Thankfully Salle is a wonderful friend and I just adored her, as I did all the spirits and creatures and the magic in general that happens in the book. (I do not have a Moon hare as prop but I do have an Easter Bunny).

And one of my favourite things was the twist of the test results. Wonderful indeed.

Moon recommends

Reading The Apprentice Witch and all the books mentioned above, because magic!

Book Review

Flawed Review

Posted on April 18, 2018

I have been trying to cull my “library” of books and also to read through old book box books (This one was part of Owlcrate) so I am reading my way through it.

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Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

You will be punished…

Celestine North lives a perfect life. She’s a model daughter and sister, she’s well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she’s dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan.

But then Celestine encounters a situation where she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule and now faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found flawed.

In her breathtaking young adult debut, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society where perfection is paramount and flaws lead to punishment. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her everything.

Rating:

I admit I like Cecelia’s writing style and as such, this book already had a few stars in it’s pocket. The premise was quite interesting and reading through it, I felt a vibe of a very moral/religious society that dictates what makes you a saint(perfect) and what doesn’t but that also tends to be partial to whomever is the one who has the judgment voice.

However, the perfection of Celestine and everyone’s “perfection” was hard to believe and also, how do others find out you aren’t perfect if no one tells them? Is that possible? Do you get marked as Flawed only if you are a political/ideological enemy or a way to set an example? (Or like Celestine, in a very public setting where it is impossible to avoid having to judge it).

It also seemed like a critic to the fact that as a society we let things happen because we are trying to be “safe” and not cast out even if it goes against compassion and good values.

It was interesting read but it didn’t wow me nor did it hook me much.

Moon recommends

Flawed and Perfect by Cecelia Ahern (I do like her “adult” books more than her Young Adult ones). If you want a different outlook and more political and more “relevant” to today, try Outwalkers by Fiona Shaw.