Sister

I'm not normally a fan of crime fiction, but this is a marvelous blend of original literature intertwined with psychological thriller.

Lupton had me dizzy with wonder at times, not even vastly aware of where I was within the story that was unfolding.

So as I close the final pages on the story of Tess and Bee I am left wondering, questioning. Ordinarily an ending like this would have me seething at the author but here, it is magic. It allows the reader complete and utter control over not only the ending, but large portions of the narrative.

It did take me quite some time to arrive at this place however. I was decidedly displeased with close to the first half of the book.

You see Bee has rushed to the other side f the world as her sister has gone missing. between the pages of the novel she is telling the story via letters to her missing sister, These are intertwined with the juxtaposition of past and present tense, of real life encounters and imaginations of the mind.

Often I found myself infuriated at this writing style and what I felt were glaring grammatical errors throughout, now have me wondering if they were absolutely deliberate. Simply part of the beauty and originality that is Lupton's prose. I'm not sure I'll ever know.

Through all the craziness and the frantic searching and seeking of answers in regards to what happened to her sister Bee undergoes a momentous self transformation. Or maybe she simply regains a connection with her true self that she has kept hidden within.

So not only is this a story of loss, morals, ethics and that of a senseless crime and a betrayal of trust. It is the story of love, friendship, personal growth and that of finding true understanding of one self.

For that I am glad that Sister has crossed my path.

Heavens Waiting Room

I was really excited to read this month's book club pick! As I do each month I spend five minutes reading through the reviews over at Goodreads, so I can get a bit of a feel for what I am in for.

I actually tend to scan for the negative reviews as the positive ones all tend to say similar things. I struggled to find much negativity surrounding this book though so figured we were on to a good thing.

I settled in really expecting to fall in love with this story, the premise behind it sounded like something that I would really enjoy exploring. The story of the afterlife, now I was most definitely intrigued.

Let me just say that this review will be decidedly short as I don't really have much of anything to say except, don't bother.

In all seriousness I have tried so hard to find positive things to say about this book, as I truly believe that there is always something good to be found in pretty much any situation, however this just left me so utterly disappointed.

Disappointed in the lack of plot.

Disappointed with the character development.

Disappointed in the complete lack of depth.

The moments when I felt on the edge, where we were about to truly delve into the story and gain something, it quickly switched gears and continued to do this again and again. On so many occasions the story was completely illogical and really very oversimplified

I was also sorely disappointed in the writing, this read was so disjointed and all over the place. It had so much potential, oh so much potential but I'm afraid for me it was so poorly lacking.

I closed the book and uttered the words that one of my dear friends uses, "Well that's 3 hours of my life I will never get back!"

Next book please!

My Heart & Other Black Holes

Book Club pick for March! Clearly, however I am at least twenty years above the target age for this novel.

Now I've never ever been close to feeling suicidal so I can't for a moment begin to even try and fathom what a person experiencing this does actually think and feel but I'm pretty darn confident that lumping together thoughts on what I'm going to eat, or what we are covering in the next physics class with, casually adding in, umm yeah I'd really love to 'off' myself some time soon, isn't quite how it goes.

This is the story of Aysel, an extremely bright, well spoken sixteen year old that's had a pretty rough ride in life. For several reasons she has decided that the world will be a better place without her in it.

Aysel scours obscure websites in search of a suicide partner, until she finds Roman, who also feels the same way about his precious life. Together they make a pact to end their lives together in one months time. This is the story of how that month unfolds.

A topic that is such a difficult one to tackle, a topic that has so many layers and yet for me this story was rather superficial. If you have a spare Sunday afternoon and a couch available you will easily read it in only a couple of hours.

If, as the author intended, this book opens dialogue about depression and suicide then she has done her job and she has done it well. However for me I needed more to fall in love with this story and the characters within the pages.

I simply felt as though I was going through the motions reading this. I wasn't particulaly bored but I was far from enthralled with it. The storyline was very predictable the entire way through but , maybe I completely missed the entire point of it all together. I shall let you make up your own mind on that one.

Reading this did take me back to Jodi Picoult's, The Pact. Now that was a book I enjoyed, even if all of Picoult's books follow quite a predictable pattern. For me it had so much more depth and character development, but that book is not what this post is about.

Thoughts from the Book Club Girls -  the overall vibe was one of lots of potential but didn't really deliver, we were all felt far too old for this story, but overall it wasn't too bad of a read.

Until next time friends.

In simple pleasures you will find life's pleasures
Kylie x

All The Light We Cannot See

This is our book club read for the month of February so not chosen by me, although I always look forward to book club books, as I'm never quite sure what I'm going to get.

I just posted to the book club group that I have finally finished this mammoth read, for a large part of the book I really didn't think I would finish it, it was tough going for a while there and felt drawn out, but I persevered and I have to say, I am so happy that I did. I'm so glad I pushed through the middle, because it such a beautiful story of life, sacrifice, love and everything it means to truly see the light in all that we experience.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is the story of a young blind Marie-Laure who lives with her father in Paris during the Nazi invasion.

It is also the story of Werner, a German orphan, who finds himself deep within the brutal military academy and later goes on to join the army.

Whilst Marie-Laure and Werner are the two main characters of the story this book weaves tales of so many more personality's and I found myself immersed in all of their stories.

I was immediately drawn into the novel, with the stunningly beautiful prose, so full of metaphors and brimming with images that truly brought everything to life.

Seeing the world through the eyes of a young blind girl was so inspiring to me, her will to live and determination to lead a great life regardless of everything that is thrown her way is really quite remarkable.

Doerr was amazingly brilliant at allowing me to see what it is like to be blind, I truly felt as though I was walking that path with Marie-Laure.

The back drop of the horrendous nature of war was at times hard to stomach but the way the characters intertwined and shone their light no matter their circumstance made for brilliant reading.

I must admit, at times I felt it a little drawn out. There was a large portion through the centre of the book where I really felt that I would put it down and not pick it back up. I felt I was trudging, not getting anywhere, but I kept going, to see the beautiful light towards the end of the story.

Is this what makes a great read? That immense frustration at times, only to be rewarded with the sheer beauty that this delivered?

Doerr's ability to have you connect with each and every one of the characters between the pages is quite uncanny really. For most novels we connect with a character or two but here you can't help but fall in love with almost all of them.

The last 50 odd pages, which I believe should've have been titled as the Epilogue were a little disruptive to the connection I had felt with the characters. Given that it is thirty years on from the war, this part of the story really is simply a 'wrap up' of the main characters. For me the actual story ended well before that.

Thoughts from the Book Club Girls -  Beautiful, touching, a little drawn out at times, were main sentiments that came through.

In simple pleasures you will find life's treasures,
Kylie x