I Think I am in Friend-Love With You by Yumi Sakugawa

16 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Graphic Novel Tags: , , ,

Published: 6th December 2013Goodreads badge
Publisher: Adams Media
Pages: 128
Format: Graphic Novel
Genre: Fiction
★   ★   ★   ★ – 4 Stars

I have a confession to make.
I think I am in friend-love with you.

What’s friend-love? It’s that super-awesome bond you share with someone who makes you happy every time you text each other, or meet up for an epic outing. It’s not love-love. You don’t want to swap saliva; you want to swap favourite books. But it’s just as intense and just as amazing.

And it’s this search for that connection that comic-book artist Yumi Sakugawa captures in I Think I Am in Friend-Love with You. It’s perfect if you’ve ever fallen in friend-love and want to show that person how much you love them…in a platonic way, of course.

I really loved this book. It has a super sweet message about how important friendships are and how they can hold as much weight and importance as romantic relationships. The illustrations are both cute and a teeny bit horrifying but I liked the layout and how Sakugawa keeps it simple but profound. Emotions are portrayed sometimes without words and the figures in this book have no real shape or gender so it’s perfect for all friendships.

The narration is first person addressing another and with basic illustrations alongside the words their affections are described. From simple things like sharing a love of books, enjoying movies together, hanging out and sharing small thoughts about their day are all ways they love their friend. It also covers other things like wanting to be near them and have long conversations over tea and stay up late chatting online. What makes me love this is it shows how the smallest things can mean so much. Spending time together, sharing passions and small gestures are all miniature acts of love that make friendships so special.

This was the perfect book until it got to the end. I was disappointed only because I felt it altered the intention of the book and the story that was being expressed and it changed the dynamics slightly. It didn’t ruin the story, it was still conveying the same overall message, but that changed made it slightly less perfect for me.

What made it fabulous was I could see so much of my own friendships in this story and seeing it as a universal experience, as well as one treated with affection, sincerity and a small amount of humour was really wonderful. It’s heart-warming and sweet and I love that this kind of book exists; it put everything I have ever wanted to say to my friends into words and it was so refreshing to see such an honest, loving and genuine book about love and friendship.

You can purchase I Think I am in Friend-Love With You via the following

Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

Long Lost Review: Strange the Dreamer (#1) by Laini Taylor

11 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , ,

Long Lost Reviews is a monthly meme created by Ally over at Ally’s Appraisals which is posted on the second Thursday of every month. The aim is to start tackling your review backlog. Whether it’s an in-depth analysis of how it affected your life, one sentence stating that you only remember the ending, or that you have no recollection of reading the book at all. 

Published: 28th March 2017 Goodreads badge
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 532
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
★   ★  ★  ★ – 4 Stars

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around – and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance to lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries – including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

I picked this up back in 2017 because someone I followed on Twitter was completely obsessed with book and her excitement got me to read it and I will admit it was quite good. It was interesting and I loved this new world I was exploring and how the rules worked. The story is beautifully written, it is eloquent and poetic at times, Taylor creating wonderful and vivid descriptions that bring the story to life in your mind.

Lazlo is a genuinely good person. His simple upbringing means he cherishes what he has got and when more is offered to him he still reveres it as a humble and restrained pleasure. I loved learning about things through his eyes and Taylor does a great job weaving his obsession with the story around him that helps drive the story as well as inform the reader.

It is a generous 500+ page book, but by the time you’ve gotten to that last page, every part of it is as important as the last. There is a sequel which I have yet to read. It’s curious because I was amazed by this world and this story so much, and yet I’ve yet to find the impulse to read the second book and see where it was all heading. Maybe soon when I have a spare moment I can revisit this world with another journey through the beautiful narrative Taylor has created.

You can purchase Strange the Dreamer via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Meet Me at the Intersection ed. Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

27 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Australian Women Writers, LGBTQIA, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Published: 3rd September 2018Goodreads badge
Publisher: Fremantle Press
Pages: 296
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★   ★ – 4 Stars

Meet Me at the Intersection is an anthology of short fiction, memoir and poetry by authors who are First Nations, People of Colour, LGBTIQA+ or living with disability. The focus of the anthology is on Australian life as seen through each author’s unique, and seldom heard, perspective.

With works by Ellen van Neerven, Graham Akhurst, Kyle Lynch, Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Olivia Muscat, Mimi Lee, Jessica Walton, Kelly Gardiner, Rafeif Ismail, Yvette Walker, Amra Pajalic, Melanie Rodriga, Omar Sakr, Wendy Chen, Jordi Kerr, Rebecca Lim, Michelle Aung Thin and Alice Pung, this anthology is designed to challenge the dominant, homogenous story of privilege and power that rarely admits ‘outsider’ voices. 

Meet Me at the Intersection is filled with some brilliant stories and pieces of work by authors who are showing that those marginalised and seldom heard voices can be just as powerful and have just as important stories to tell. It is filled with the voices of Young Adult authors and stories but is an anthology that can and should be read by everyone.

The collection is filled with a range of forms and styles from poetry, memoirs and short stories. Each author brings their own style of writing and it was a nice to see so many different voices through the book. There are little explanations of each author and their background before each piece and it is clear there is diversity across all kinds.

In terms of content, each piece takes place in a different time period and it was refreshing to see not every story was contemporary; and while this makes sense for memoir, some of the other stories were from other time periods as well. I also loved the way these stories have been ordered in the collection. In the introduction it mentions that the oldest culture of storytellers deserves to go first and I loved that that was acknowledged.

What made this anthology stand out to me was it never felt like there was a single message being highlighted, instead it was about representation. The blurb mentions that the focus of the work is to represent the everyday lives of Australians and it has succeeded brilliantly. In doing so you gain an understanding by reading about these fictional, semi fictional, and real lives about the ordinariness and extraordinariness of a diverse group of writers. it is wonderfully eye opening and showcases that these lesser heard and unique voices have some amazing stories to tell. It is an anthology filled with own voices and is beautifully, distinctly Australian. What more could you ask for?

You can purchase Meet Me at the Intersection via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

Harvest (#5) by Nikki Rae

30 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, The Order Tags: , , ,

Published: 29th December 2020 Goodreads badge
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 297
Format: ebook
Genre: Dark Romance
★   ★   ★  ★ – 4 Stars

The Wolf has captured his prey, but that isn’t enough to satiate him. Like chess pieces, he has gathered all the members of House Chimera except one: Elliot.

Fawn, Odette, and Marius are kept prisoner, forced to perform the Wolf’s most trivial tasks in exchange for a basement cell. The butler of Lyon Estate clings to reality while Master Lyon’s wife is a shell of herself. In the New Order, Fawn is key, and she struggles to infiltrate the Wolf’s mind while the Wolf uses her to lure the head of their House to his lair.

This game has been pre-planned, but that doesn’t mean the rules can’t change. Like any other predator, the Wolf has other needs. Fortunately for Elliot and Fawn, they have been trained all their lives for men with needs like his. Everything leaves a scar, but this might kill them. Can they survive not only the New Order Mansion, but the darkest parts of each other?

Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the author

I am super excited to be participating in the blog tour for Nikki Rae’s latest book Harvest. This is the fifth book in The Order series and it was full of the darkness, lust, pain, and power that this series has been synonymous with over the years.

Where in previous books there has been unease and anticipation, not to mention excitement as Fawn works to defy and bring down the system, there is a feeling of constant tension through this story as you never know where it will go and what these characters will do.

There is a greater focus on the dark romance and BDSM aspects of this story and it fills up a lot of the pages but everything has a purpose and Rae uses it well to show not only who is actually controlling who, but also as manipulation and to highlight how there are two agendas and purposes being played at the same time. There are clear warnings at the beginning of the book regarding the content but this is a topic that can be hard to read about even knowing the subject matter going in.

This isn’t a series you can jump into at any point, this one especially offers little in way of explaining the larger plotlines. Rae has built up a world through the past four books that show the depth of the world and these relationships and with this fifth it is a hint at what I hope to be a fantastic world crumbling conclusion it’s been building up to be.

After the shock of the previous book’s conclusion I wasn’t sure what I was going to be met with but this is a nice balance between furthering the story, enhancing the characters and their relationships, and being another small step in the bigger picture. Fawn alters between being strong and defiant, manipulative and able to master her emotions to trick when she needs to, and being weak and fragile. I’ve said before I love Fawn best when she is defiant and prepared to burn the world down so I’m glad I got a few glimpses of that in this book.

Expectations are tested and we see a few different sides to characters in situations we hadn’t previously. It was interesting to see Fawn struggle seeing different sides of these people, given her situation and experiences she should know people to wear different masks depending on circumstance and with such an imbalanced relationship she can’t expect that she knows everything about these people anyway, no matter how close they become.

This was a slow build but one that wasn’t unsatisfying. The tension and uncertainty around the Wolf’s actions and the unknown of how this group of people will act confined to a house, each with their own roles to play, was one that keeps you guessing and on edge. There are negotiations and punishments on both sides and the sudden shifts and the unexpected are what Rae does best. Spending an entire book on edge never knowing what could happen is a feeling that is perfect for the kind of story Rae is trying to tell.

You can purchase Harvest via the following

Amazon | Amazon Aust

An Aussie Day Before Christmas by Kilmeny Niland

18 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Australian Women Writers, The Picture Book Corner Tags: , , , , ,

Published: 1st October 2010Goodreads badge
Publisher: Scholastic
Illustrator: Kilmeny Niland
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★   ★   ★   ★  – 4 Stars

It’s the day before Christmas in Australia and Santa is in a tizz! So much to do — prezzies to wrap, the ute to check and eight ‘roos to choose. But not everything is going to plan. The helpers have gone and the ‘roos can’t be found! What will Santa do now?

I was sceptical when I picked up this book but I was pleasantly surprised and found I really enjoyed it. The narrative is written with the same poetic style as the original Night Before Christmas, but Niland brings an Aussie feeling to the story which worked surprisingly well. This is a sequel of sorts to Yvonne Morrison’s An Aussie Night Before Christmas which Niland illustrated.

One of the things I enjoyed was that the story is Australian without being over the top Australian. Niland uses Aussie language and Aussie slang without the full on cringe that some books cause when the use over the top words and phrases that don’t even sound natural to Australians. Classics like brekkie, dunny and other Aussie slang make an appearance but Niland’s illustrations add an explanation element without distracting from the story for those unaware of the meanings or intentions.

With roos instead of reindeer more Aussie nicknames come forward, and even by now I hadn’t grown tired of the Australianness of the story. You can always tell when an author tries too hard but Niland balances it well between a fun Christmas story while also having it tolerable to read aloud and not be so filled with slang that it becomes incomprehensible.

The illustrations are cute and I loved the design style used for not only Santa and his misses but also the native animals and the Australian environment. Through the rhyme Niland captures other elements of an Australian summer Christmas with the mention of blow flies, cicadas and the Aussie salute. A few Australian places are mentioned which adds some local identifiers and it was great to see Santa get ready for the big night with his summer gear on.

This is a fun and uniquely Aussie story that is also familiar as it lines up with the well-known classic. It’s fun to read aloud as you get caught up in the rhythm and with the use of the Aussie language you get to have a bit of fun with it as well. It’s also a great way to show off how Santa gets ready for his big night.

You can purchase An Aussie Day Before Christmas via the following

Amazon

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