Review: The Greatest Gift

The Greatest Gift by Rachael Johns
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So chick-lit is really not my genre of choice, but this heartwarming novel blew me away!

The novel is a detailed journey, so begins with the romance between Claire and Jasper while alternating between Harper's first inclination to donate eggs in the present. It's a clever opening that creates immediate investment in the main characters and even though you know what's coming, it's enjoyable to read.

Claire and Jasper are an adorable couple, and I became rather attached to them and their heartbreaking journey. Harper was a strong independent woman who probably mentioned that fact one too many times but was well-balanced by her blossoming maternal instinct. Samuel was a jerk, but then he was nice, but then he was a jerk ... honestly, the guy gave me whiplash with his mood swings.

I can't go into too much detail without spoilers so let me just say this is so much bigger than the ethics of 'test tube' babies. This story really tugged at my cold, crime-fiction-loving heart and kept me hooked the entire time. I was genuinely surprised by how much this book messed with my emotions!

A captivating, thoughtful story of an incredibly real journey. Highly recommend.

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Review: All the Birds, Singing

All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The down side to reading literary fiction is that I almost always finish the book wondering what the heck the ending is supposed to mean. It's like there's an unwritten rule that, in order for a book to be considered literary fiction, it must have as confusing an ending as possible. It must contain no trace of a conclusion, and must be fraught with symbolism that only the cleverest of readers will understand, after a lengthy consideration.

So basically, the ending sucked.

Otherwise, I kind of enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting.

It's a bit of a bland setting - lone woman and her dog on an isolated sheep farm - but the alternating chapters that tell her past backwards make things plenty interesting. Took me a little to get used to the format but once I had I found I rather enjoyed it. It's a slow unravelling of a subtle mystery, contrasted with the unspooling of the present mystery. Clever.

The language is obviously what made this book a prize-winner, as it creates a very real, tangible story. I'm not one for flowery descriptions but this never felt like overkill. It was balanced with just enough story progression to keep the pace steady.

Now, about that ending.

(view spoiler)[Honestly, I have no clue what happened. I mean, obviously the mystery of her scars is solved - she was a sh*t of a kid, and was punished for it - but I'm not sure what the point of it was? Am I supposed to be mad that I've felt sympathy for this woman the whole way through just to discover that she's a proper psycho?
Also, what's the go with whatever was eating the sheep? I HATE that it wasn't resolved. Her and Lloyd holding hands, YIPPEE, she made a friend, good on her, but what about the monster thing? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. Even as a symbol, I have no clue what it means. What was the point? (hide spoiler)]

So in conclusion, a brilliantly written book, nice and short, lyrical, and descriptive, but still with a little mystery to keep you turning pages eagerly. So much symbolism though, so have fun wrapping your head around it because I can honestly say it was too much for my tiny brain.

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Review: The Woman in the Window

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Honestly this is so ridiculously similar to The Girl on the Train but that doesn't stop it from being one heck of a story.

Anna is confined to her house by agoraphobia, so spends her days drinking, overdosing on meds and spying on her neighbours. Then one night she witnesses something in the new neighbours' house and things will never be the same ...

The 'something' Anna witnesses doesn't happen until a good 150-odd pages in, so it seems slow to take off, but once you get there the book becomes hard to put down. A lot of it is predictable if you're familiar with the thriller genre, but it's still a lot of fun to read. Told by Anna, there's plenty of second guessing - how much is real and how much is a side effect of her drug and alcohol abuse? Can we trust her word?

It does get a little frustrating at times with seemingly incompetent cops unwilling to do their jobs thoroughly - I personally believe even crazy ladies deserve the benefit of the doubt - but so much of this book is driven by 'what if?' that it adds to the story.

Some interesting characters but, again, nothing particularly new. There's the unreliable protagonist, the (good-looking) handyman tenant, the good cop and bad cop, the crazy neighbour whom only the unreliable protagonist realises is crazy, the innocent kid caught in the middle ... although I was a bit confused by the way Ethan was written. He was portrayed as a child - ten, twelve - early teens at most - but we're supposed to believe he's seventeen. I had a hard time buying it.

The pace really picks up in the second half of the novel, and it'll have you wishing you paid more attention to begin with. It's addictive, even if you suspect the outcome, because with an unreliable protagonist, all bets are off. I had a hard time putting it down for that last 200 pages.

The writing is sparse, and you're left to fill in a lot of the blanks yourself. I found the style confusing at times but by the second half of the novel I was too far into the story to care. It's a clever style, in that it uses story progression to describe scenes, but at times there wasn't enough information to properly build the picture, which could be quite frustrating.

Overall, a racing thriller that will likely race right up the charts upon its release early next year. Despite its familiarity, this is a well-written thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final pages.

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