The Lightning Thief (#1) by Rick Riordan

27 Oct 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, Audiobook, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , ,

Published: 1st March 2006 (print)/ 13 January 2010 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books/Penguin Audiobooks
Pages: 375/10 hrs
Narrator: Jesse Bernstein
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★  ★  ★  – 5 Stars

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse – Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy’s mom finds out, she knows it’s time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he’ll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena – Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods. 

From the minute I started this book I was hooked. I have wanted to read this for literal years and I’m so glad when I was finally able to it was as great as I’d always heard it to be. Riordan’s voice is fantastic and Percy is a character that shines on the page. Starting as a twelve year old it was a surprise since I’d always thought him older but it worked well because the naïve and inexperienced but enthusiastic mentality works well, Especially as Percy starts to learn about who he is, what he is capable of and the hidden world in which he lives.

I love the Greek myths as a general rule and the explanations and justifications Riordan uses to explain them in our world is fantastic and makes complete sense. I almost wanted to live in such a world. The modernisation of the ancient figures is incredibly clever and the chance to hear more about the well known gods, but some lesser ones as well is great as Riordan doesn’t focus solely on the big well known names.

I cannot understate how clever this book is. The locations of Olympus, the Underworld and how seamlessly the gods have infiltrated our world is amazing. As Percy learns we learn but the writing connects it to the story so there are never clunky exposition and everything is told through a character naturally in dialogue or through experience by Percy himself. What is clever is how Riordan has used real learning issues like ADHD and dyslexia and made it into an advantage for Percy and those like him. There’s a reason, it has a purpose. I loved the reworking of issues into advantages for a secret life.

There is adventure and danger, plenty of chances for Percy and others to be heroes and we see the start of this new world. I practically dove into book two after finishing this one. It held strong from start to finish and I loved every minute of it.

You can purchase The Lightning Thief via the following

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Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Beverly, Right Here (#3) by Kate DiCamillo

20 Apr 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, Junior Fiction Tags: , , , , ,

Published: 24th September 2019 (print)/24th September 2019 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Candlewick Press/Listening Library
Pages: 241/4 hrs and 8 mins
Narrator: Jorjeana Marie
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Junior Fiction
★   ★   ★ – 3 Stars

Beverly put her foot down on the gas. They went faster still.
This was what Beverly wanted — what she always wanted. To get away. To get away as fast as she could. To stay away.

Beverly Tapinski has run away from home plenty of times, but that was when she was just a kid. By now, she figures, it’s not running away. It’s leaving. Determined to make it on her own, Beverly finds a job and a place to live and tries to forget about her dog, Buddy, now buried underneath the orange trees back home; her friend Raymie, whom she left without a word; and her mom, Rhonda, who has never cared about anyone but herself. Beverly doesn’t want to depend on anyone, and she definitely doesn’t want anyone to depend on her. But despite her best efforts, she can’t help forming connections with the people around her — and gradually, she learns to see herself through their eyes. 

This is the third book in the Three Rancheros series but it isn’t crucial to have read them in any order, each story stands on its own. The main characters in this series all come from imperfect homes: their relatives are missing, have abandoned them, or have neglected them in some way. The central idea of going out and discovering who you are, where your place is in the world and your role within it can be found in each of these stories. This time we get to know Beverly, a girl whose friends are in different parts of the country and she is starting her own adventure. She is fourteen, on her own, and she is trying to work out who she is and what she wants to do.

Elmer and Beverly’s unorthodox friendship is a delight to read about. The runaway who doesn’t want help but still finds a way to accept it and have compassion for others is gorgeous. The way Elmer and Beverly use one another to improve each other’s lives while never quite admitting it to themselves is charming and adds humour to the story. I love the notion of found families and being surrounded by people who aren’t blood related but are family all the same. For Beverly to come to this town, stand on her own two feet and fight for herself is wonderful but DiCamillo never forgets that she is still a child who wants stability and support and is in need of love as well.

Marie does a great job at narrating. Her accents and voices for each character suit them and her voice keeps you in the timeless world of DiCamillo’s writing. Hearing the voices brings each fierce and proud statement from Beverly to life and the inflections and tones she gives to Elmer and other characters brings out their personalities and intentions really well. It is a quick listen, but with a full story packed into the short time.

Despite being set in the late 70s, the magical tone of DiCamillo’s writing makes the story feel timeless and there is a lovely southern charm that DiCamillo infuses this series with. Louisiana had it and now Beverly does too. The slow, profound stories are filled with heart and love and find your place in the wider world. You hear about their old lives but the new discovery they are on is the focus of the story. I’ve yet to read Raymie’s story that started this friendship but if it is anything like the other two I know I’m in for something special.

You can purchase Beverly, Right Here via the following

 Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

 

Eclipse (#3) by Stephanie Meyer

08 Apr 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 2 Stars, Audiobook, Young Adult Tags: , , , , ,

Published: 7th August 2007 (print)/4th May 2009 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company/Bolinda Publishing
Pages: 629/16 hrs and 25 mins
Narrator: Ilyana Kadushin
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★  – 2 Stars

This book should not have been 16 hours long. This story didn’t need 629 pages.

I wanted to claw my eyes out for 95% of this book and for the other 5% I’m furious because there’s actually good story hidden amongst this which we could have had. There is a unique and interesting narrative buried in here but you would never know, you have to break through the hours and hours of nothing before you come across decent parts of the story and by then you’re so apathetic and drained emotionally that these little moments only offer short lived joy.

Because I refuse to entirely dump on this series I will highlight the positives. There is decent foreshadowing that I recognise for events in the next book, but of the very limited details I know it isn’t a deterrent. I can see Meyer trying to build up suspense and history without doing it in an obvious way.

This is the story where we get a lot more backstory about the vampire and werewolf legends. There are long stories about origins and histories, about past events and fights. It’s not uninteresting, but it’s a lot. There’s the usual Bella/Jacob/Edward fiasco, eventually after half the book of the bickering we’ve seen before there is a truce of some kind. I swear the name Bella is said more times than any other word in this book, and doing this as an audio reminded me constantly of The Magic School Bus episode when Wanda lost her bullfrog and 90% of the episode was here yelling Bella all over the place. That was this. Just Bella repeated over and over by Jacob, by Edward and by Jacob again.

Even though I’ve only read three so far, I’ve worked out you could break the Twilight books down in three main sections: Bella having conversations with Edward/Jacob about not dissing the other, Bella doing housework because Charlie is apparently an invalid who can only watch TV or work, heavens knows how he survived without her before now it’s nothing short of a miracle, and the third part is the long talks about either the vampire/werewolf way of life. Sprinkled in there you have school stuff, Bella yearning to be immortal after having her first love that totally will last forever, and let’s not forget the mortal danger she is always in but that never takes up nearly enough time.

The best thing Bella ever does in this entire 600 page endurance is she punches Jacob for kissing her when she doesn’t want it. For those few moments Bella was a great character, and Charlie becomes grosser by congratulating Jacob for kissing her and not taking her side when she explains why she punched him. For a brief moment Bella was a strong character who fought against things she didn’t like, but soon she was reduced once more to her whining self that is veiled thinly into presenting as her being strong and getting her way.

The fight scene that this whole book (and the previous) has probably, poorly been leading up to was actually quite good. It didn’t quite make up for the previous 14 hours but it was interesting, well presented, vivid and full of emotion. Where this writing was when the rest of the book was happening I do not know. This is part of the 5%. These small gems of writing makes me so sad this series isn’t presented better. It could have been a new, unique retelling of the vampire/werewolf myth and seeing what Meyer is actually capable of in some scenes makes me mourn for the other utter nonsense we have to endure.

Kadushin again narrates us and I’m used to her tone and manner in reading these characters. There isn’t a huge range in her voices but you pick it up after a while. As I go into the final book I hope I will be able to sum this story up into a short summary because once you break through the angst and the yearning to the plot underneath it might sound like a decent read.

You can purchase Eclipse via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

New Moon (#2) by Stephanie Meyer

31 Mar 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 2 Stars, Audiobook, Paranormal, Young Adult Tags: , , , , ,

Published: 6th September 2006 (print)/1st June 2010 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company/Random House
Pages: 563/14 hrs and 51 mins
Narrator: Ilyana Kadushin
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal
★   ★  – 2 Stars

I knew we were both in mortal danger. Still, in that instant, I felt well. Whole. I could feel my heart racing in my chest, the blood pulsing hot and fast through my veins again. My lungs filled deep with the sweet scent that came off his skin. It was like there had never been any hole in my chest. I was perfect – not healed, but as if there had never been a wound in the first place.

For Bella Swan, there is one thing more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning… 

First things first, this book could have told the exact same story in 1/3 of the time. Second of all, nothing happens in this book. 14 hours of my life! 563 pages of book for barely no plot whatsoever. The only good parts were when Bella was with Jacob. For the entirety of this novel I was Team Jacob because he was the only normal, sensible person and it is the only normal part of the book that didn’t feel like it was going to implode because of all the angst and self-pity. Honesty I wanted to shake Bella/Meyer to gain some reason why Bella was so ready to jump into being an immortal. This is her first love and OF COURSE she wants to die for him and be with him forever. At least, and I can’t believe I am writing this, but Edward had some sense in this in his refusal and attempt to give Bella a normal life because she jumped right in and even for a guy as old as Edward that would have scared anybody off.

Bella moping around like a sad puppy was infuriating only for the length. I would have welcomed it because it made sense if she was going to fall hard she was going to be heartbroken, but it did not need to take up the first 9 hours of my listening experience on this alone, especially when a lot of it was repeating the same thing over and over again.

In other news, the Cullens in this book felt a bit more eternal than they had previously when they were trying to be the normal family. They behaved a bit more like the ancient eternal beings with the distant care and preoccupation with the human matters. I felt in a few conversations that petty human issues were of no concern to them which was good, it took away their phony pretense of being normal. I know they have adopted Bella as one of the family in their weird way but it felt like a tolerance. She pushed a lot of boundaries and I’m surprised they didn’t seem to mind how pushy and demanding she was.

Again, not a great narrator helping Meyer’s case. Kadushin’s approach this time was to take a pause after she spoke. After. Every. Single. Sentence. A full on pause whether it was the end of a paragraph or not. Every line. It did not matter if I had it running at 1.5x speed. I felt those pauses in my soul and wanted to scream.

Overall I felt nothing happened in this book. It was a few small issues dragged out way longer than it needed to be. I liked we got more of Jacob’s story and his relationship with Bella. I never knew he was meant to only be sixteen but I liked his side of the story and what happens between him and Bella. Meyer misses a few key point in regards to his own story that I had questions about but I was in a forgiving mood because after all the drama and emotion I was happy the story was feeling normal once again, at least for a while.

You can purchase New Moon via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy (#2) by Mackenzi Lee

11 Mar 2020 Leave a comment

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

Published: 2nd October 2018 (print)/2nd October 2018 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 450/11 hrs and 16 mins
Narrator: Moira Quirk
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★  ★ – 4 Stars

A year after an accidentally whirlwind grand tour with her brother Monty, Felicity Montague has returned to England with two goals in mind—avoid the marriage proposal of a lovestruck suitor from Edinburgh and enroll in medical school. However, her intellect and passion will never be enough in the eyes of the administrators, who see men as the sole guardians of science.

But then a window of opportunity opens—a doctor she idolises is marrying an old friend of hers in Germany. Felicity believes if she could meet this man he could change her future, but she has no money of her own to make the trip. Luckily, a mysterious young woman is willing to pay Felicity’s way, so long as she’s allowed to travel with Felicity disguised as her maid.

In spite of her suspicions, Felicity agrees, but once the girl’s true motives are revealed, Felicity becomes part of a perilous quest that leads them from the German countryside to the promenades of Zurich to secrets lurking beneath the Atlantic.

Naturally after finished Gentleman’s Guide I had to pick up book two to see what our favourite sister Felicity was getting up to. Admittedly with a slow start it took me a while to get into the story but once I did it was engaging and full of wonderful surprises. It had so much to live up to compared to Gentleman’s Guide and while it isn’t quite the same story, it is its own story and Felicity needed her own story too. There was a lot more humour in Gentleman’s but I think that comes from Monty, he steals the show in every scene in this book too which is completely on form.

The story takes place a year after the events of the previous book and seeing how they have all fared after those events is delightful. Felicity is the main character this time around with new characters and a new adventure ahead we understand a lot more of her character than what we got to see before.

One thing I missed was that I didn’t see the sarcastic Felicity that I loved from the first book in this. Having said that her interactions with Monty and Percy were as fantastic as before; the three of them together radiate family and sibling relationships. On her own though, Lee shows off a lot more of her insecurities and her determination, which isn’t to say it wasn’t there before, but now we have her own perspective to give us more insight than a few off the hand remarks about the annoyances of her brother and his melodramatics.

Felicity recaps much of the previous book but not in an unnatural way, more like reminders to herself of all she has achieved and what she is capable of. These moments of unfairness where she talks about injustices can come across as repetitive but I chose to look at it as ongoing pep talks Felicity gives herself when faced with challenges or defeat.

Quirk does a wonderful job as narrator for the audio and the inflections and voices for each character suited them so I was never once removed from the story. With each voice it brought out the characters and it was amazing to see how the assigned voice to the characters reflected their personalities.

There’s a lot of adventure and drama as well as great character exploration and growth. While it may not have been as hilarious, there is still humour and a fierceness I enjoyed a lot. Lee doesn’t try and replicate the events or style of the first book, but it still fits in perfectly as a sequel and gives an adventure just as daring and dangerous.

One of the best parts of this is the female camaraderie and the friendships. There’s unity and ferociousness and seeing these women plan to take on the world and the patriarchy and the inequalities of their time is fantastic. It was excellent to see these women band together and fight for the lives that they want and deserve and Lee never makes it preachy, though so much of it can easily be applied today.

There’re some harrowing moments and the realities of exploring Englishman and Europeans on the world ring true but there is a wonderful representation of other cultures and great diversity in characters as well. This is definitely a fabulous adventure to go on and a story that was full of surprises.

You can purchase The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy via the following

Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

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