GUEST REVIEW: Amy and Roger's Epic Detour - Morgan Matson

GENRE: Contemporary/Romance
PAGES: 352
PUBLISHER: Simon and Schuster
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 3.5 Stars

SUMMARY

Amy Curry is having a terrible year. Her mother has decided to move all the way across the country and needs Amy to drive their car from California to the East Coast. There's just one problem: since the death of her father, Amy hasn't been able to get behind the wheel of a car. Enter Roger, the son of an old family friend, who turns out to be unexpectedly cute...and dealing with some baggage of his own. Meeting new people and coming to terms with her father's death were not part of Amy's plans for the road trip. But then neither was driving on the Loneliest Road in America, seeing the Colorado Mountains, visiting diners, dingy motels and Graceland. But as they drive, and she grows closer to Roger, Amy finds that the people you least expected are the ones you need the most - - and that sometimes you have to get lost in order to find your way home.

REVIEW

When I went to buy Isla, I saw that it was one buy one get one half price and I just couldn’t pass that up so I decided to finally purchase Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour since everyone raves about it. The original UK cover was just horrendous but they recently re-released the book with the US cover so I finally bought it. So after finishing Isla, I started reading Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour and I really enjoyed it. I finished it yesterday when I just spent the majority of the day sitting in bed reading it.So here I am, attempting to write a review of it. I always find it hard to write reviews of contemporaries, especially romances. So this review will probably be a bit all over the place and will definitely not be my best review but let’s go anyway. 

Let me just start by clarifiying something; this is most definitely not a lighthearted contemporary romance. I went into this book thinking that it would be for some reason but it wasn’t. Even though the synopsis suggests a cute romance story, it really isn’t that and I was disappointed because of that. This book mainly focuses on Amy as she starts learning to live her life again, after her father’s death. And while I found it incredibly interesting and moving, this wasn’t what I was expecting it to be like which contributed to my slight disasppoint in the book.

Amy was quite annoying at that start. I guess I can’t really judge how she acts because I’ve never been through the death of a close family member but I thought that she had been a bit too down in the dumps at the start. It makes sense since she felt like she was to blame but it didn’t make for a good protagonist. However as the book went along and she learned that she needs to start opening herself up and stop kicking herself for something that happened in the past, I really enjoyed her as a character.

Roger himself wasn’t that fabulous. He spent 95% of the book obsessing over an ex girlfriend and I just grew to be sick and tired of him. He also wasn’t impulsive or amazing as the synopsis suggested. I honestly expected someone completely arrogant yet lovable and he wasn’t anything like that. I was slightly disappointed with Roger.

The romance itself wasn’t all that great. There was no suggestion that Roger had any feelings for Amy at all throughout the book but suddenly they were just together. There was no progression to falling in love and recognizing that they like each other. It wasn’t a swoon worthy relationship and it didn’t make me feel any feelings. The book also ended somewhat openly and that irritated me. I’m fine with open endings but not this sort of open ending. How do they figure it all out? It doesn’t always just work out perfectly.

I understand that if you’ve read this whole review, you probably think I hated this book. I didn’t. I enjoyed it. It just wasn’t what I thought it would be and it didn’t make me feel anything. It was a good book to read in between other books but it really didn’t live up to it’s hype. I gave this book 3 stars on goodreads but it is closer to 3.5. I did quite enjoy it and if you go into this book expecting it to be more of a coming of age story, you will like it a lot more.

- Sofia.

REVIEW: Torn - Car Clarke

GENRE: YA/Contemporary/Issues
PAGES: 384

PUBLISHER: Quercus

FORMAT: PB

BUY IT: Waterstones

RATING: 4 Stars

SUMMARY

Four girls. One dead body. A whole lot of guilt. Alice King isn't expecting the holiday of a lifetime when she sets off with her classmates on a trip to the Scottish wilderness, but she's not exactly prepared for an experience beyond her darkest nightmares...Alice and her best friend Cass are stuck in a cabin with Polly, the social outcast, and Rae, the moody emo-girl. Then there's Tara - queen of mean. Powerful, beautiful and cruel, she likes nothing better than putting people down. Cass decides it's time to teach Tara a lesson she'll never forget. And so begins a series of events that will change the lives of these girls forever...A compelling story of guilty secrets, troubled friendship and burgeoning love.

REVIEW

Torn is told from the perspective of Alice, a sweet level-headed girl with a kind heart. She tells us the story of what happens on a school trip, when she and her friends decide to take revenge on Tara, the school bully. Unfortunately it all goes horribly wrong.

Alice is in the middle of the school social scale - she's not one of the most popular kids but she's also not constantly bullied, like Polly is by Tara. When they're on a school trip and Tara is separated from her 'entourage' Cass, Alice's best friend, decides that it's time that Tara is taught a lesson for all the times she's put them all down. None of them thought their plan would go so horribly wrong. When Tara accidentally dies Alice must live with the guilt and fear of being discovered.

Cat Clarke is always completely spot-on in her portrayal of what it feels like to be in a British High School. I personally hated school, and can remember exactly what it's like to not be in the in-crowd. There's a survival instinct that kicks in that makes you just want to get through the day. Not only do you have to deal with the school work, but also the way you look and the things you say. And just hope that you can make the right friends.

The tension in this book is inescapable. You can completely understand and empathise with Alice's situation. The guilt so claustrophobic and so strong it penetrates the narrative to the point where I was almost screaming at her to tell someone. Her mental state manifests in her hallucinations of Tara, which I thought was a brilliant tool in helping Alice deal with the situation. It was really creepy in places and although you question why she does some of the things she does, at the same time you understand how easy it is to lose a grip.

Another thing I love about Clarke's books is the way she manages to weave the narrative into a tangled ball that is impossible to unravel. Everything happens because of everything else and people affect each other in ways you can't imagine. One event sets off a chain reaction that you could argue starts from when Alice was a much younger girl. When she meets Jack, Tara's brother, Alice falls for him. Obviously after what the girls allowed to happen to Tara this is less than ideal. They make such a sweet couple that I desperately wanted them to be together but there is always this penetrating guilt. You want to be able to erase it for her, and it makes you realise that from an outsider's perspective, and when you look at the hard facts, Alice doesn't deserve to have happiness with Jack. And yet I wanted her to.

I've loved every one of Cat Clarke's books. The narratives aren't challenging but they're so interesting and compelling that I always recommend her. I can actually associate with all of her characters and although you do get a certain amount of resolution there are so many possibilities that run through my head of what could happen after the books are finished, and I loved that. They seem so simply written but there is an incredible amount of depth.

- Bex.

REVIEW: Black Heart Blue - Louisa Reid

GENRE: YA Crossover

PAGES: 288

PUBLISHER: Puffin

FORMAT: Paperback

BUY IT: Waterstones

RATING: 4 Stars

This review refers to an uncorrected advance copy.

SUMMARY

"They tried to make me go to my sister's funeral today. In the end I'd had to give in ...I'd been walking in her shadow for sixteen years and I liked its cool darkness. It was a good place to hide". How would you feel if your twin sister died suddenly? Particularly if she was the beautiful one and you were horribly disfigured. And how would it feel to be alone now if you and your sister were the only ones to know the truth about what takes place behind closed doors at home? And what would you do if it was your parents who brought danger and terror into your life? Would you dare reveal how your sister died? And would you be brave enough to find an escape of your own? "Black Heart Blue" is a powerful novel about the domestic horrors that can unfold within a small community - and one girl's quest to stand up for the truth.

REVIEW

Rebecca and Hephzibah are non-identical twins practically imprisoned in the Vicarage. They are both mentally and physically abused by their parents and while they are home schooled have very little contact with the outside world. When they finally convince their parents to let them go to college they both get a taste of the outside world. The story follows the sisters' desperate attempts to find salvation from the horror of their lives. We join them as they are released in to the 'real' world and realise that they are worth so much more than how they have been treated. 

Black Heart Blue is a very moving and compelling read. It will take you to the extremes of child abuse, hinting at events without being too open, making this an eye-opening read for older teens. Hephzibah's voice is perfectly pitched like a teenagers diary, full of self-confidence and daring. She explores her social skills and adapts quickly, trying out make up and trying to attract boys. Her sister, Rebecca is almost her polar opposite. She keeps to the shadows and tries to make life as safe for herself and her sister as possible. I found that I had to keep reminding myself that they were twins, Hephzibah always felt older, even though Rebecca's voice is more defined.

The dynamic between the two sisters is both hard to read and immensely touching. There is no patronising 'we are twins so we can understand each other better than anyone' - they are much more like normal sisters. Reid is very honest in her portrayal of them, especially towards Rebecca's disfigurement, and sometimes it is brutal, but this works to enforce the teenage attitudes of desperately wanting to be normal or fit in.

'Hephzibah' means "my delight is in her" and she is the light in this book, whereas 'Rebecca' can mean "captivating" and "strong". I did find her captivating; though she keeps to herself and tries to hide herself away, emotionally she is older and stronger than Hephzibah knows. She is level-headed and more realistic than her sister. I think the meanings of their names are interesting: I would assume that as they are brought up with the Church as a huge fixture in their lives that their names would have been picked carefully to represent something, but neither of them reflect the hate that "The Father" so obviously has for them. 

I put off reading this book for awhile because I thought it sounded rather depressing, even though it came highly recommended. I'm so glad I did pick it up because I proved myself wrong completely. I loved it. It was so, so sad yes - but it is also brimming with hope. Even though there is evil out there in society, and even though a lot of people prefer to turn away from knowing abuse happens behind closed doors, there are also people that will stand up and fight for those who are vulnerable. I perhaps felt that Rebecca overcame her mental scars a little quickly and abruptly, but it gives the story much more of a resolution.