Death
Written by Shivaun Plozza
Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, #LoveOzYA
310 Pages
Expected Publication February 26th 2018
Thank you to Penguin Teen Australia
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★★★★★
When Marlowe gets a heart transplant and a second chance at life, all she wants is to thank her donor’s family. Maybe then she can move on. Maybe then she’ll discover who she is if she’s no longer The Dying Girl.
But with a little brother who dresses like every day is Halloween, a vegan warrior for a mother and an all out war with the hot butcher’s apprentice next door, Marlowe’s life is already pretty complicated. And her second chance is about to take an unexpected turn…
Seventeen year old Marlowe Jensen was diagnosed with a congenital heart condition, the resilient young woman the recipient of an organ transplant bestowed by a sixteen year old young man. Since the transplant, Marlowe is experiencing a dissociation of identity. Recipients are forbidden to contact donor families but Marlowe is resolved to uncover her anonymous donor, compelled by gratitude and appreciation for the perpetual sixteen year old boy.
Marlowe is an extraordinary young woman. Although the transplant was successful, Marlowe attends monthly hospital appointments to ensure her body remains healthy. Encouraged by her progress, Marlow is returning complete her education. Naturally her peers are curious and Marlowe is feeling overwhelmed by the unwanted attention. Especially the effortlessly stylish and popular Zan Cheung. The tentative friendship between Marlowe and Zan was lovely. Zan is a Chinese Australian young woman who challenges stereotypes, sexuality, racism and advocates for equality.
Marlowe's single mother is a vegan warrior, opening a small business selling vegan products next to a family owned butcher. Her brother Pip's flamboyant costumes and idolisation of David Bowie is infectious, her mother's protests are theatrical and wonderfully confrontational, igniting a rivalry between Marlowe and apprentice butcher Leo. Leo is charismatic and incredibly attractive but beneath the debonair exterior, Leo and Marlowe both share parental constraint. Leo is pressured to abandon his education for the family owned business while Marlowe's mother is affectionately overbearing. The romance was wonderfully tender and delightfully entertaining.
Through the online group established to introduce donor families and transplant recipients, Marlowe believes she may have found her donor. Although morally ambiguous, Marlowe finds her donor's sister Carmen and befriends her under an assumed name, convoluted by Zan's attraction to Carmen's friend Kari. Although I don't condone her deception, I sympathise with Marlowe as unconsciously, she had been preparing for her own passing with only her mother and brother unable to accept her diagnosis.
The transition to recovering survivor is a journey of realisation and acceptance for Marlowe, gradually feeling a sense of control and empowerment of her environment. Marlowe's experience is prevalent throughout Australia. Last year in Australia, over fourteen hundred members of our communities were the recipients of an organ transfer from over fife hundred patients. Marlowe's journey represents the thousands of organ and tissue donors and recipients throughout our communities each year. Those waiting for the opportunity to begin their lives. Organ donation is rarely spoken about until a family is confronted with the death of a loved one and although Marlowe is a fictional character, the narrative encourages discussion.
Shivaun Plozza is an exceptional and revered Australian young adult author. Captivating until the final page.
The transition to recovering survivor is a journey of realisation and acceptance for Marlowe, gradually feeling a sense of control and empowerment of her environment. Marlowe's experience is prevalent throughout Australia. Last year in Australia, over fourteen hundred members of our communities were the recipients of an organ transfer from over fife hundred patients. Marlowe's journey represents the thousands of organ and tissue donors and recipients throughout our communities each year. Those waiting for the opportunity to begin their lives. Organ donation is rarely spoken about until a family is confronted with the death of a loved one and although Marlowe is a fictional character, the narrative encourages discussion.
Shivaun Plozza is an exceptional and revered Australian young adult author. Captivating until the final page.
For more information on organ and tissue donation in Australia, visit the Donate Life website.
Written by Brigid Kemmerer
Contemporary, Death, Romance
Publishing April 6th 2017
400 Pages
Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia Digital
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★★★
Juliet Young has always written letters to her mother, a world traveling photojournalist. Even after her mother’s death, she leaves letters at her grave. It’s the only way Juliet can cope.Juliet enjoys the tranquility of the cemetery as she sits beside her mother's final resting place, writing her thoughts on paper to her mother. Four months have passed since her life was taken, survived by her disconnected husband and seventeen year old Juliet, drowning in grief.
Declan Murphy isn’t the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court ordered community service at the local cemetery, he’s trying to escape the demons of his past.
When Declan reads a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can't resist writing back. Soon, he’s opening up to a perfect stranger, and their connection is immediate.
But neither of them knows that they're not actually strangers. When real life at school interferes with their secret life of letters, Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.
Declan is a young man with a reputation that proceeds him, a violent alcoholic with a criminal record. Underneath the facade Declan too is consumed by grief, the destruction leading to recklessness in which the eighteen year old now is sentenced to community service.
When Declan intrudes on a personal moment by anonymous Juliet, the two teens begin to communicate anonymously with one another. Forming a tentative friendship of support and shared understanding, two strangers seeking solace and comfort in words.
My Thoughts
Juliet was judgmental, abrasive and incredibly entitled. Characters experiencing emotional turmoil aren't often held to account in young adult and as a reader, it's often appreciated when a character is shown tolerance. Juliet's narrative begins with comparing herself to a photograph of a child in the Middle East conflict zone. I wasn't impressed.
Throughout her narrative, Juliet speaks of her mother fondly, a political photographer who has explored significant world events through her camera lens. Her mother was wonderfully accomplished but absent throughout her daughter's life, leaving Juliet's father to raise her. Once her mother passed, her father becomes distant and emotionally absent and Juliet refuses to engage with him. Juliet's emotional support was wonderful although she was passive aggressively describing Rowan's mother as a young mother and negated why Rowan hasn't rebelled. An amateur photographer herself, Juliet hasn't engaged since her mother's passing but negatively critiques the work of her fellow peers. Her interactions with Declan were judgmental and often incredibly cruel.
Declan is completing community service at the cemetery as a result of driving under the influence and endangering lives while behind the wheel. Declan is bravado, his facade ensures he is emotionally abandoned, allowed to be consumed by his loss. With his father imprisoned, Declan's mother has since remarried and he despises his stepfather. Declan's narrative is confrontational and touches on issues of alcoholism, domestic violence, child and juvenile abuse. Declan also engages in antisocial behaviour, he deliberately attempts to intimidate Juliet in an aggressive manner.
The interactions between Juliet and Declan anonymously were wonderful, sharing their lives through the art of the written word. As communication becomes frequent, Juliet begun to spend less hours sitting beside her mother's final resting place. The two teens begin to gravitate towards one another. Although they're attracted to one another, the romance is incredibly subtle.
It was wonderfully written and captivating but Juliet was incredibly entitled and self indulgent. Letters to the Lost was poignant exploration of the many facets of the grieving process. Unfortunately not without it's issues.
It was wonderfully written and captivating but Juliet was incredibly entitled and self indulgent. Letters to the Lost was poignant exploration of the many facets of the grieving process. Unfortunately not without it's issues.
Dangerous Girls
Written by Abigail Haas
Buddy Review with Gina from Behind The Pages
Crime, Thriller
Published July 18th 2013
400 Pages
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It's Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives.
But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. As Anna sets out to find her friend's killer, she discovers hard truths about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.
As she awaits the judge's decree, it becomes clear that everyone around her thinks she is not just guilty, but dangerous. When the truth comes out, it is more shocking than one could ever imagine...
I Was Here
Written By Gayle Forman
Contemporary, Realistic Fiction
Expected Publication January 2015
352 Pages
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Australia
Cody and Meg were inseparable.Two peas in a pod.Until... They weren’t anymore.When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything, so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open, until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.
The Walled City
Written by Ryan Graudin
Survival, Contemporary
Published November 11th 2014
320 Pages
Thank you to Hachette Australia
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Survival, Contemporary
Published November 11th 2014
320 Pages
Thank you to Hachette Australia
Add to Goodreads
Disguised as a boy, Jin Ling searches for her missing sister, Mei Yee, who was sold into the brothels of the Walled City. It's a cut throat world of gangs, drug dealers and warlords and every day is a struggle to survive. Jin Ling relies on her speed and cunning but how long will her luck hold? When a mysterious boy, Dai, requests her help with a dangerous mission Jin Ling's inclined to say no, this is a world where no one can be trusted, but the mission offers her a vital chance to see inside the brothel where her sister may be being held.
Jin Ling and Dai join forces, but will either of them survive the mission? Is Mei Yee still alive? And how will any of them ever escape the stifling city walls?
With a fantasy setting inspired by Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, Ryan's novel has a rich authenticity and an intense atmosphere, and its pace will enthrall the reader from the very first page.
A Sudden Light
Written by Garth Stein
Historical Fiction, Paranormal
Published October 1st 2014
400 Pages
Thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia
In the summer of 1990, fourteen year old Trevor Riddell gets his first glimpse of Riddell House. Built from the spoils of a massive timber fortune, the legendary family mansion is constructed of giant, whole trees, and is set on a huge estate overlooking Puget Sound. Trevor’s bankrupt parents have begun a trial separation, and his father, Jones Riddell, has brought Trevor to Riddell House with a goal: to join forces with his sister, Serena, dispatch Grandpa Samuel, who is flickering in and out of dementia, to a graduated living facility, sell off the house and property for development into 'tract housing for millionaires,' divide up the profits, and live happily ever after.But Trevor soon discovers there’s someone else living in Riddell House: A ghost with an agenda of his own. For while the land holds tremendous value, it is also burdened by the final wishes of the family patriarch, Elijah, who mandated it be allowed to return to untamed forestland as a penance for the millions of trees harvested over the decades by the Riddell Timber company. The ghost will not rest until Elijah’s wish is fulfilled, and Trevor’s willingness to face the past holds the key to his family’s future.
Written by Rebecca James
Contemporary, Thriller, New Adult
Published September 24th 2014
336 Pages
Thank you to Allen and Unwin Australia
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★★★★★
Cooper Bartholomew's body is found at the foot of a cliff.Suicide. That's the official finding, that's what everyone believes. Cooper's girlfriend, Libby, has her doubts. They'd been happy, in love. Why would he take his own life?As Libby searches for answers, and probes more deeply into what really happened the day Cooper died, she and her friends unravel a web of deception and betrayal. Are those friends, and enemies, what they seem?Who is hiding a dangerous secret? And will the truth set them all free?
No one will ever forget the call that came that morning, Cooper's body was found at the bottom of a cliff, the authorities branding his death as a suicide. His long time best friend Sebastian called Cooper's former girlfriend Claire, and Libby's mother is the first to break the tragic news to her daughter, a girl who thought Cooper may have just held her forever. But Cooper's gone and leaves behind a grieving a girlfriend, a former girlfriend whose life has spiraled into a mix of addiction and abuse, and a best friend that has lost the only person who understood his complex and damaged life. Cooper was popular, but most importantly, he was happy. So how did his life end in tragedy?
Libby refuses to believe that Cooper was depressed, he spoke of a future together and wanted more than a small town existence. He wanted, but he didn't want to end his life. It's up to Libby to retrace Cooper's final steps. Cooper's last thoughts were if only he could have told Libby the truth.
Incredible. Phenomenal. Unprecedented. Exceptional. There isn't one particular word to summarise the brilliance that is Cooper Bartholomew is Dead. It lured me in, kept me enthralled and left me with a bittersweet and emotional ending. This is how you create one of the best young adult novels that readers will inhale.Kelly's Thoughts
That's the thing about people like Cooper. They were so noticeable to us. they loomed so large and bright on our social radars. and yet to them we were barely blips. We knew stuff about them, we talked about them and watched them. We dreamed of being invited to their stupid parties. But they knew nothing about us. Not our names, not even our faces. They were indifferent. They made us feel small and boring. They made us feel invisible.
Told from four perspectives, Libby, Sebastian, Claire and from Cooper himself, the story begins with Cooper recalling his own death as he lay crumpled and fighting for life and then alternates between Libby, Sebastian and Claire as they recall their time with Cooper before his death, and the aftermath he has left behind. In a state of profound grief, Libby simply can't accept that Cooper would have taken his own life and begins to retrace what happened the night prior to when his body was found. But Cooper was the link between the three young adults and it seems everyone has a different story to tell.
The tender romance between Cooper and Libby was simply beautiful. Both from different worlds, her character offered a sense of tranquility and an alternative to the fast and furious lifestyle that Sebastian offered. But both Sebastian and Claire resented Libby, believing she was occupying far too much of his time and wanted nothing more than to ruin his relationship. But both cared deeply for Cooper and even when intoxicated or abusing narcotics, neither character could be seen as the reason Cooper is dead. The storyline weaves intrigue traces of secrets and lies, while providing heartwarming and tender moments from Cooper's life leading up to his death. The characters are all ages in their late teens to early twenties, casting Cooper Bartholomew is Dead fall into the category of new adult as it does contain mature content such as drug and alcohol abuse and sexual situations.
Rebecca James is now on my favourite author list, also having recently devoured Sweet Damage. She's an incredible storyteller with a talent for keeping readers on the edge of their seat. This is a must read, you won't be disappointed.
The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner: Book One)
Written by James Dashner
Dystopian, Science Fiction
Movie Edition published September 2014
371 Pages
Thank you to Scholastic Australia
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade, a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.
Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift. Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up, the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.
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