Young Adult | Lost in a Good Book

Long Lost Review: Cress (#3) by Marissa Meyer

13 Feb 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Fantasy, Long Lost Reviews, Young Adult Tags: #llr, four stars, long lost review, Long Lost Reviews, marissa meyer, the lunar chronicles

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: 4th February 2014
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 552
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

I’ve been trying to get reviews out for this series for years and my stubborn perfectionism needs me to put them out in order. The issue is, if I haven’t taken notes, I am now years past when I read it and I only have a fraction of plot floating around my head.

I loved this series and I love how Meyer gives us different fairy tale retellings in a whole new landscape but creatively ties them together in a way that is true both to their original stories and this beautifully complicate new world she has created.

I liked the shift from a tower to a satellite and it ties beautifully in the technological era that the rest of the series has been working with. It also continues the story we already know from Cinder and Scarlett, the kingdom is still in danger and the Lunar Queen still means trouble. But in between that, we get to meet Cress, a wonderful girl trapped on a satellite and left alone among the stars.

I enjoyed Cress’ character, each of this band of misfits has a different personality and their own strengths which I love. Now that they are coming together to save the world it’s good seeing these unique skills come together.

The continuation of Cinder and Scarlett’s stories is excellent, I love that they play roles in the bigger story and aren’t forgotten entirely once their book has finished. There isn’t a full equal sharing of the story, Cress still gets her own book, but as they’re all working towards their goal Meyer weaves in the others and their storylines prompt action.

There is a strong romance element for everyone to swoon over in each book and Cress is no different. Each of our heroes is matched up to their own true love which gives you some cute moments away from the dire peril. It plays into the fairy tale element so while it can feel predictable, it is a nice one where the tropes of the originals are still in play. Plus Meyer is once again giving us fun play on words with names and circumstances to delight us as Thorne and Cress come together.

I can’t remember much besides vague plot points but I did give it four stars and I remember really loving it. So based off vibes it was a great book and a great next step in the series to the epic conclusion.

You can purchase Cress via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

The Pause by John Larkin

04 Feb 2025 1 Comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, Aussie YA Challenge, Top Five List, Young Adult Tags: #AussieYAChallenge, Aussie YA Challenge, contemporary young adult, five stars, john larkin, loveozya, young adult

Published: 1 April 2015
Publisher: Random House Australia
Pages: 319
Format: Paperback
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Declan seems to have it all: a family that loves him, friends he’s known for years, a beautiful girlfriend he would go to the ends of the earth for.

But there’s something in Declan’s past that just won’t go away, that pokes and scratches at his thoughts when he’s at his most vulnerable. Declan feels as if nothing will take away that pain that he has buried deep inside for so long. So he makes the only decision he thinks he has left: the decision to end it all.

Or does he? As the train approaches and Declan teeters at the edge of the platform, two versions of his life are revealed. In one, Declan watches as his body is destroyed and the lives of those who loved him unravel. In the other, Declan pauses before he jumps. And this makes all the difference.

One moment. One pause. One whole new life.

“Don’t abandon the miracle of your own existence because you don’t know how to ask for help.”

I keep being punished for not reading books when they first come out when I want to, only to realise how fantastic they are later when I eventually do. It’s happened four times now and I don’t seem to be learning my lesson.

First things first, this is a book that deals with suicide and a split timeline between following through and not. In a Sliding Doors meets The Lovely Bones style we see both lives of Declan: what happens if he jumps, what happens if he doesn’t. Not to be morbid, but there is an amazing first person perspective scene about jumping in front of a train. In the brief mention it manages to have a great balance between not being overly graphic and also being real about it. It shows the brain mechanics and impulses a person goes through, it shows the detail of what actually happens to your body, it includes the immediate regrets, not to mention the trauma of those who see it. It’s important to note that that part is brief. It’s a fleeting mention but it is well written and one I think is important to include.

There’s also great descriptions of teenage life and their thoughts and decisions. Larkin’s written a great teenage voice and the tunnel vision teenagers have about what is important and earth shattering in their life comes across. It’s great insight which helps you understand their actions and motivations; how they are hormone driven, and how they’re experiencing everything the first time: from friend issues, to family issues, to first love. Larkin comes in strong early on with the big emotions and it hooks you right in without glorifying or making it grotesque.

The best part is Declan isn’t special. He has mates who are typical teenage boys. Annoying sister, parent issues, and family dynamics. It appears to come from nowhere which is why it’s so great. It was a shock. It is unexpected. It’s great to show how something like this can happen to the most normal looking kid ever. The voice is believable and the relationships Declan has with his family is believable, even the different dynamics he has with each member of his family. You do behave differently around different people and his favourite parent is clear while unintentional.

The sliding doors moment and duel existence is perfect and you become captivated by this life now lived and the reminders it couldn’t have happened at all. There is Larkin’s voice on high with reminders that things will get better and setbacks aren’t the end of the world even if that thing was what was getting you through.

You’re also drawn along by What Happened to Aunt Mary? The mystery is woven throughout and as Larkin drip feeds us information before dumping the entire bucket on us all I can say it was amazing, especially given the emotional ride we’ve gone through with Declan so far.

There are so many things I would love to talk about and how wonderful and mind blowing they are but alas, spoilers. Even the smallest possibly vaguest things I don’t want to risk and ruin the revelations and joys I had reading this book.

When I finished this I basically went and gushed about it for ten minutes. It was amazing. I loved every part of it. It is sad and profound, it has so many lessons about life and humanity and hope. It is incredible how Larkin managed to weave in these important things that need to be hammered into every single person who ever thinks they are the alone or are the only one who feels a certain way. It’s natural but you can tell where The Lesson is but I don’t care. It also comes across through the voice of a boy who has been told this in a professional setting and is remembering it. He is using these lessons to live his life. The life he almost didn’t have.

Again, I kick myself for not picking this book up when I wanted to in 2016. I saw it for months on the shelf and I was drawn to it. But I never dove in. I’m glad I finally did because I loved it. It is only fictional but it’s also the story of so many people, not just teenagers. It’s obviously not perfect, it still has a few slightly non PC approaches to things but that’s really not important. The content is important. It’s about life getting better. About not giving into the impulses. How mental illness sneaks up on you and it’s ok to get help. Which for a 2015 book feels amazing.

Honestly it is a brutal book. It deals with big issues, it describes big issues with quite a lot of detail, and the consequences of both sides smack you in the face with the truth and reality. And that is why it is phenomenal. It never strays from being a YA voice, which is more important because it knows its audience. Larkin knows who is reading this, knows the message needs to get out that your teenage years are not forever. But also lets kids know that people of all ages go through things. You are not alone. I am trying hard not to write an entire essay about this book (and failing I know), but I cannot stress enough how amazing it is. If you can handle the brutality of it all – not only the few descriptions, but the emotional brutality, and the reality of life – please read it.

You can purchase The Pause via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

#AussieYAChallenge 2025

07 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in Aussie YA Challenge, Young Adult Tags: #AussieYAChallenge, aussie books, Aussie YA Challenge, loveozya, young adult

The Aussie YA Challenge is a challenge created by Amy at Lost in a Good Book as an attempt to read more Australian young adult novels.

As part of my goals I am putting some determination (and public guilt and accountability) into my challenge and I am hoping to be a little better this year. Based on my previous challenges I expect each year I will be a bit better at planning and reading and organising so this year will be an improvement on my first I’m sure.

Despite the chaos of last year and scraping through my goal of a measly 12 books out of my 80+ read being Aussie YA, I am diving right back in and selecting the Nix level again. Whoo! 12 months 12 books.

I am hoping to hit the ground running because the usual dip mid to late year will get in the way, the other option is to try and stick to the one a month plan which could go either way in terms of success.

I am excited to explore more YA books, especially some of the older ones on my shelf I have gazed lovingly at for years and yet to pick up. Hopefully even find some new authors to fall in love with. One can only hope!

If you are interested in participating head to the #AussieYAChallenge page and join up.

#AussieYAChallenge 2024 Wrap Up

31 Dec 2024 2 Comments

by Amy in Aussie YA Challenge, Young Adult Tags: #AussieYAChallenge, Aussie YA Challenge, book challenges, loveozya

Well.

I don’t know who lets me have these grand ideas but as we tick down the final hours or 2024 I managed to pull off some kind of miracle. The past few days I frantically tried to meet my (personally chosen and completely voluntary) goal of reading 12 #LoveOzYA books this year and I have snuck in before the final strike of midnight. Yay!

Like most of my grand plans, I started off well, dipped in the middle, got angry at myself for my inability to maintain my plans despite the want and desire still being there, and then managing to stress out and make sure I met these (again, arbitrary, completely voluntary, self-inflicted, no consequence) goals.

It feels like an ongoing cop out, but I putting some blame on the fact there are so few Aussie YA books made into audiobooks. Even with the brief consideration of signing up for audible I couldn’t find any on there worth my time that I couldn’t get through the free library apps. The second blame lays entirely on the fact at somehow, in an entire year, I couldn’t make time to sit and read a single book and do nothing else? I felt like time was being wasted if I only read, I couldn’t read and do laundry, read and drive, read and walk the dog. That I think is one thing I will seriously have to work on next year because that doesn’t sound healthy if we study that too closely.

But enough lamenting, we’re here to celebrate the first annual Lost in a Good Book award for outstanding achievement in the field of reading challenges! I know readers like thebookmuse and jess64au on StoryGraph met their achievements which is amazing, especially considering I thought this was going to be a solo venture. I know a couple other people dropped off but I am still eternally grateful they were keen enough to give it a shot in the first place. I was a bit slack on the promotional aspect and I know I didn’t keep up with my tagging and reviewing but for a first year I am quietly pleased I pulled it off. Onto greater success next year!

I read some great Aussie YA this year. Two of which were set at university, and two were at the lower end with a 14 year old character and a 13 year old character. It was refreshing to see a different side of young life that wasn’t the mid teens which is often so prevalent. Some of the books I read have even made it onto my Top Five of 2024 list.

I read a lot of authors I hadn’t heard of, some that had been on my TBR list ages, and some lesser known books that were quietly waiting my discovery. The full list of what I read is below but I love that doing this challenge made me track down these books. Of course there are lists every year about new and upcoming books, the fantastic #LoveOzYA team promote new releases, themed books, and old favourites all the time. But having to discover Aussie YA on various library apps and diving right in because I have a goal to meet and it was available in a format I could handle honestly hasn’t been the worst way to read.

I also managed to complete a small related side quest and finished the Read 24 YA stories in 2024 Challenge on StoryGraph. Depressingly a lot easier without the Australian restriction in terms of audiobooks and in the end I exceeded that too (reading a couple series definitely helped I think), and I am most certainly going to challenge myself to that one again as well.

I plan to review these books if I haven’t posted them already, so look for those through the next few months. I am also keen to dive right back in 1^st January and get a head start on next year’s challenge. I cannot wait to see what amazing stories I discover. I will be putting up a whole new 2025 Aussie YA Challenge post so keep an eye out for that if you’re keen to join but for now these are the books that I read for my Aussie YA Challenge this year!

Aussie YA Challenge – Garth Nix level

Hamlet is Not Ok by R. A. Spratt

Points of Departure by Emily O’Beirne

Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood

My Family and Other Suspects by Kate Emery

The Quiet and the Loud by Helena Fox

It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood

The Pause by John Larkin

Untidy Towns by Kate O’Donnell

My Lovely Frankie by Judith Clarke

As Happy As Here by Jane Godwin

Josie Robs and Bank and Other Stories by Gabrielle Reid

Can’t Say it Went to Plan by Gabrielle Tozer

The Way I Used to Be (#1) by Amber Smith

29 Oct 2024 Leave a comment

by Amy in 2 Stars, Audiobook, Young Adult Tags: amber smith, Audiobook, the way I used to be, two stars, young adult

Published: 22 March 2016 (print)/23 May 2023 (audio)
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books/Spotify Books
Pages: 385/9 hrs and 36 mins
Narrator: Rebekkah Ross
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ – 2.5 Stars

Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year—this provocative debut reveals the deep cuts of trauma. But it also demonstrates one young woman’s strength as she navigates the disappointment and unbearable pains of adolescence, of first love and first heartbreak, of friendships broken and rebuilt, all while learning to embrace the power of survival she never knew she had hidden within her heart.

I know this is supposed to be about the emotional impact of trauma and it is. But as much as I tried to appreciate the story it was telling me I couldn’t get into it. It has been compared to Speak, and I think Speak was more impactful, but at the same time there is no one way to experience trauma and react to trauma so it’s also not a fair comparison.

Smith captures characters well with little effort. We understand exactly who Eden’s mother is early on, as well as her father. But living inside Eden’s head we see how trapped she is, and how the want to be asked or seen is like a burning flame no one is paying attention to. Starting at a young age it’s easy to see why she is voiceless, unable to even begin to process what has happened to her. The reveals through the novel are aptly timed and it’s interesting to see the changes made as each new year passes.

With such a sensitive topic it feels wrong somehow to say I got bored reading this. Smith jumps through four years remarkably well, we don’t have to read about every passing day and the jumps are a great way to see how time has changed Eden and those around her. It also helps you avoid having to fill in the blanks around conversations and answer questions that may come up. I had a lot of questions and how some things were feasible, but it is never addressed and time jumps miss a lot so it’s easy not to think about.

One thing I found, and it’s my own fault for continuing to read American YA, they are obsessed with always deeply setting them in a school to the small details. It’s 2024, and while this book was published in 2016, have schools in the States still not grown out of the class system at school of jocks and nerds, the weird kids and the ostracised? Everyone regulated to their own table, never shall they cross, and we will pick on you in the cafeteria for being different? Maybe if you didn’t all eat in one room you could sit away from the tormenting kids. Get some Vitamin D and maybe you’ll calm down. It’s sad in a way if the experiences are still like what the 80s movies always depicted. They wouldn’t keep putting it in books if it was relatable to someone’s life, right? It kicks off key plot points but it’s a tired trope but one I’m starting to think is still incredibly realistic.

What annoyed me most about this book is at the very end, the very final few chapters Smith managed to get me intrigued about the sequel. After putting up with the story, I now have to decide if I want to see what happens next. It isn’t that that we shouldn’t hear stories like Eden’s, far from it. It’s how such an emotional and empowering story managed to feel boring and unengaging. I persevered because you want to see where Eden’s going to end up, how she is going to tackle this through her developmental years and the impact it will have on those around her. I read enough into things myself to add insights. You can implant how she has denied her trauma because she was too young to understand, how she has embraced her rumours, or how she reacts to her trauma without even knowing about it. I only wish I had loved the story more because I think it is important.

The ending gave it the extra half star and I think the half star might get me to read the sequel.

You can purchase The Way I Used to Be via the following

QBD | Booktopia

Wordery | Angus and Robinson | Blackwell’s

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible