Review: The Perfect Family

The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was super addictive and fast-paced but ultimately a little light on with the drama.

The story is about a family who seem perfect on the outside but who are all hiding secrets from one another.

As far as those secrets go, they were pretty bland. Nothing particularly new and original, so nothing particularly captivating. I was curious about them, but they all came out pretty fast so there wasn't a lot of tension in that respect.

I enjoyed how the pranking on the family started small and slowly started to escalate, but it never quite got as intense as I hoped for. It was also a bit bizarre that those responsible were called out early on but it was still somehow drawn out into a mystery? It felt a bit messy to me. I wanted this story to go so much further than it did.

The story was written well enough to draw me in and keep me reading addictively, but there just wasn't quite enough substance to leave me satisfied. A decent read, but not quite as clever as I had hoped for.

With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

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Review: Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent

Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent by Ryan Holiday
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was SUCH a great read, and so easy to digest!

And then Boyd concluded with words that would guide that young man and many of his peers for the rest of their lives. "To be or to do? Which way will you go?"

There are so many brilliant words of wisdom backed by the lives lived by many famous people throughout history and through to today. All of these ideas are so relevant and adaptable to every story.

The notion is simple: The only thing holding you back from being great is your Ego.

I love the way this book talks about greatness and purpose - how you don't have to have great ideas, you don't have to be a genius, you don't have to be inspired to change the world. You just have to find what YOUR purpose is. If your purpose is being an accountant, go for it - but do it to the best of your ability, and embrace everything that comes with it. Do things for the right reasons. At the core of everything, be a good person.

It will be hard to swallow for some - particularly super successful people having trouble getting out of their own way. To be honest, this is another one of those books where the people who don't appreciate what its saying are the people who probably need it most.

This book just sums everything up so intelligently. I want to talk about what the ego is and why its our enemy to give you an idea, but this book does it so well that my paraphrasing would hardly do it justice.

I loved reading this. I loved challenging my own thoughts and actions. I loved thinking about the ways I could overpower my own ego and further grow myself. I loved sharing paragraphs on Instagram (lol).

This was a mind-expanding book. I loved every second of it.

It's relatively short, too, and the chapters are brief, to the point, and use brilliant, interesting anecdotes to highlight some very insightful points.

Highly recommend, and likely to be a 2021 fave.

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Review: Love Is for Losers

Love Is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Is it weird that I relate this much to someone who is selfish, sarcastic and constantly telling people to f**k off??

The plot is this: Phoebe is a 15yr old who just lost her best friend to a boy. Suddenly Phoebe is discovering that love makes people idiots and she is not a fan. To be fair, she kind of has a point.

There's a lot to unpack here, but it's mostly just a glimpse of teenage life that so many of us can relate to. Phoebe is obviously hurt by how happy Polly is with someone who isn't her, and so we can see quite clearly how that manifests in hating love. At the same time, she's making new friends and completely oblivious about her own feelings, which she masks with sarcasm and pettiness.

Because it's written in first person in the form of a diary, we're reading a lot between the lines which I really enjoyed. It was hilarious to see Phoebe protesting about things and insisting how much she doesn't care when her actions clearly suggest otherwise. She can be quite nasty, but at the same time she's very accepting and she's able to admit her faults. She can be rude, but I found her bluntness quite refreshing. I liked that she said what she thought and was all for honest communication. She's actually a pretty decent person under all the self-pity and sarcasm.

I enjoyed getting to know the characters of the charity shop, and seeing them through Phoebe's eyes. They're actually a fun, diverse bunch and I loved how they all interacted. I also really appreciated how much Phoebe and Pat loathed each other. LOL. Those two were a lot of fun in the same room honestly.

There's a fair bit of focus on GCSEs, which I imagine many people will relate to, but I appreciated that it wasn't too full on. I felt really sad about the relationship between Phoebe and her mum so I was glad to read more about their interactions.

Kate is amazing, and I love how much she loves Phoebe. Also super grateful that her 'Scottish-ness' wasn't written out phonetically because that would have been rough.

This was such an easy read and it was fun to get caught up in it. It's got a great blend of sarcasm and sunshine, and even though Phoebe hates love, you'll find yourself rooting for love anyway.

With thanks to Macmillan for a copy

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Review: A Head Full of Ghosts

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not gonna lie, I'm not entirely sure what the hell just happened.

I mean, I appreciate how much it messed with my head but mostly it's just kind of a really sad story? Not really horrific or scary. Just ... sad.

The story is about the Barrett family, with particular emphasis on the 'possession' experienced by 14yr old Marjorie, from the point of view of her 8yr old sister, Merry. Marjorie is showing signs of schizophrenia, and when doctors don't seem to help their religious father turns to a local priest for help in exorcising the demon possessing his daughter. Naturally capitalism sees the incident turned into a hit TV show, and 15 years later Merry is finally opening up about how it all went down.

The angle was definitely unique. It was fascinating to read about the horrors behind the camera vs in front of the camera. Bit of a cheeky dig at reality TV there for sure, and I really enjoyed it.

It was also really cleverly told from Merry's perspective - normally I hate stories told by kids, but because this is adult Merry reflecting on her childish thoughts and feelings, it just works a lot better. Eight-year-old Merry is so innocent and naive, but we don't have to live it with her. There was something about that that made it much more entertaining for me, and also garnered a lot more sympathy. I just felt so sad when things went awry. Everyone was just doing the best they could.

There are a lot of horror cultural references which many will enjoy - I found even if I didn't entirely get the reference, I still enjoyed it. Be warned, though - many of these references come with spoilers.

I never found it particularly creepy but I was fascinated by how disturbingly fast religion sunk its claws into this family. I feel like there was a lot of substance in the themes but it was neglected in favour of allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions.

I guess, overall, it just felt emotionally lacking. Like, all the emotion generated is just sadness over how things went for this family. But I don't know that I ever really knew the characters as well as I wanted to.

It was interesting, curious, and a novel concept, and I enjoyed how much it messed with my mind. But there was something missing that kept it from being a true knockout of a novel for me. I still recommend it, though. It's definitely different, and I don't think a summary of it could possibly do it justice.

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Review: The Haunted Forest Tour

The Haunted Forest Tour by Jeff Strand
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Excuse the pun, but this really kinda went off the rails.

The idea is this: A random forest sprouts in the desert, bringing with it a host of terrifying monsters. Four years later, it's basically Monster Jurassic Park, with tourists coming from all over the world to jump in a tram that travels through the forest, stopping regularly so that all the weird and murderous wonderful creatures can be seen. Naturally, things go horribly wrong.

I really love the premise. I'm a big fan of monsters, carnage, and Jurassic Park so I was really keen to get into this one, and the opening was a lot of fun and had me pretty excited.

Sadly, it was a little too much carnage and mayhem and not enough actual substance. The monsters were coming hard and fast so I never got a clear image of any of them, and all of the characters blended together for the longest time. Even when I finally figured out who was who, I still found it really hard to get a proper image of them. Example: Lee. He began as this snooty, sceptical author in my head but then kinda morphed into an action hero?

It also majorly bothered me how important it was to the author(s) that all of the women were drooled over by the men in the story. Every woman was the object of someone's leery affection, and it just left me with the impression that at least one of these authors is clearly in need of some loving. It would have been okay if it was just one gross, pervy dude and that was his personality but it was EVERY. SINGLE. MAN.

Then of course the overall plot was pretty thin and terrible so there was nothing really driving the story other than chaos and a lot of death. Characters were introduced and killed off in the same paragraph. The explanations followed no logic. The final showdown was absolutely pathetic. Bizarre choices were made. The characters had no growth. Also kind of no personalities. There was just so much of it that left me scratching my head.

I feel like, as an action movie, this would be in the realm of films like Sharknado. Like, it is just pointless and makes absolutely no sense at all but the gratuitous violence makes it hilariously worth it.

As a book, though, it just didn't work.

So many reasons it should have worked, and so many reasons why it didn't.

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Review: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What a ride!

It's a short story about a dude about to be hung from a bridge. That's it.

I enjoyed the picturesque details; the atmosphere is great and you really feel what this dude experiences.

I liked the ending, too. I don't know why. It seemed ... right.

I mean it was pretty short so I don't have a lot to say, but pretty fun for a freebie!

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Review: The Book Collectors of Daraya

The Book Collectors of Daraya by Delphine Minoui
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the story here, but I felt the journalistic approach left it feeling a little distant.

The author writes about the siege of Daraya, and the bond she develops from a distance with the men who resist. They have rescued books from their destroyed city and brought them together into an underground library, where the name of the original owner can be found in the front page of every book.

This book uses the library as a grounding point, but mostly it talks about the reluctant warriors these men have become, and how their situation becomes more and more desperate as bombs continue to rain down on Daraya.

One major issue I had was that there wasn't enough information for me to properly understand what exactly was happening and why. I willingly admit I am rather ignorant of the wars raging overseas (I deliberately avoid depressing news) so I couldn't quite understand who the opposing forces were here, why they were bombing the town, and what the town's inhabitants were protesting. It was hard to get a proper feel for the situation, and what was at stake, and what had caused things to become so dire for these men.

I loved the personal anecdotes and getting to know these men, but I feel first hand accounts would have made the impact greater. Instead, we get their stories through the filter of a journalist who seeks to create mood and atmosphere from a story that would pack more of a punch in its raw form.

Overall, I really enjoyed this glimpse into a world so foreign to my own, but I do feel the journalistic approach meant the story missed the mark in the long run. Instead of tension and high emotion, I felt very distant from these men and what they went through.

Which is a real shame, because their story is incredible.

It's worth a read so that you can see a little more of an insider view of a war zone, but ultimately this won't tug the heartstrings as much as it should.

With thanks to Macmillan for a copy

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