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Internment by Samira Ahmed

24/05/2019Amber 1 Comment

Internment by Samira Ahmed Internment by Samira Ahmed
Genre: Contemporary
Release Date: 19th March 2019
Publisher: Atom
Source: Publisher
Add it: Goodreads
Rating: four-stars

Rebellions are built on hope.

Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.

With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp's Director and his guards.

Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.

I went into Internment knowing that it was going to break me, and in some ways it definitely did. Samira Ahmed poured so much into this book and it made me feel a lot of feelings. I think the main thing that got to me was that it felt so real. The things that happen in Internment could definitely happen in the USA, especially since they’re already happening in other countries around the world today, namely China. It wouldn’t be too much of a leap for US citizens to be treated this way.

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The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed

21/12/2017Amber 1 Comment

The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed
Genre: Contemporary
Release Date: 5th October 2017
Publisher: Atom
Source: Bought
Add it: Goodreads
Rating: five-stars

Who are the Nowhere Girls? They're every girl. But they start with just three: Grace, the preacher's daughter who unwittingly moved into the old house of a victim whose pain adorns the walls. Bold Rosina, whose heart has become hardened by all of the straight girls who broke it. And misunderstood Erin, the girl who finds more solace in science and order than she does in people.

They are brought together by the idea of changing the narrative of a girl they had never met, Lucy Moynihan, the victim of a sexual assault who was victimised further by people who found it easier to believe she had cried wolf than to confront what had really happened to her. A girl who, through the course of one evening, went from an excited teenager who felt wanted by a boy for the first time, to someone else entirely, with 'a voice in the darkness, giving her a new name: Slut'. Together, they form the Nowhere Girls, and decide to avenge the rape of a girl none of them knew.

The Nowhere Girls is one of those outstanding and powerful books that left me in awe. So much awe that I don’t know how to review it without keyboard smashing all over the place. But I feel like that would be cheating the story somehow so here we are, with a fangirly review that took forever to put together because I suck at telling you guys why I love things.

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Mini Review: Adorkable by Sarra Manning

15/01/2016Amber 1 Comment

Adorkable by Sarra Manning
Genre: Contemporary
Release Date: May 24, 2012
Publisher: Atom
Source: Bought
Add it: Goodreads
Rating:

Jeane Smith's a blogger, a dreamer, a dare-to-dreamer, a jumble sale queen, CEO of her own lifestyle brand and has half a million followers on twitter.

Michael Lee's a star of school, stage and playing field. A golden boy in a Jack Wills hoodie.

They have nothing in common but a pair of cheating exes. So why can't they stop snogging?

This book is bloody terrible. My experience was completely ruined by the awful main character, who is so far up her own arse that she thinks the world revolves around her. She’s arrogant and spoilt, and she thinks she’s queen of the universe. I can sometimes deal with that, but it was the whole “I’m better than other girls” attitude that really got to me. I was not a fan.

Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton

22/01/2015Amber 2 Comments

Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton
Release Date: 5th February, 2015
Publisher: Atom
Source: Publisher
Add it: Goodreads
Rating: three-stars

Megan doesn't speak. She hasn't spoken in months.

Pushing away the people she cares about is just a small price to pay. Because there are things locked inside Megan's head - things that are screaming to be heard - that she cannot, must not, let out.

Then Jasmine starts at school: bubbly, beautiful, talkative Jasmine. And for reasons Megan can't quite understand, life starts to look a bit brighter.

Megan would love to speak again, and it seems like Jasmine might be the answer. But if she finds her voice, will she lose everything else?

So a few months ago Amber, and later on Lauren, read Far From You by Tess Sharpe and both loved that book so much it was pretty much all I heard about from them for at least a week. An LGBT mystery/thriller featuring two female main characters and a compelling, heartbreaking love story, Far From You quickly became one of my favourite reads of the year. I’m mentioning it because almost straight away Unspeakable is a very similar story – there are LGBT characters, a relationship between two teenage girls, and a murder mystery.

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The Diviners by Libba Bray

11/12/2013Amber 12 Comments

The Diviners by Libba Bray
Series: The Diviners #1
Genre: Historical, Paranormal
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Atom
Source: Gift
Add it: Goodreads
Rating: three-stars

It's 1920s New York City. It's flappers and Follies, jazz and gin. It's after the war but before the depression. And for certain group of bright young things it's the opportunity to party like never before.

For Evie O'Neill, it's escape. She's never fit in in small town Ohio and when she causes yet another scandal, she's shipped off to stay with an uncle in the big city. But far from being exile, this is exactly what she's always wanted: the chance to show how thoroughly modern and incredibly daring she can be.

But New York City isn't about just jazz babies and follies girls. It has a darker side. Young women are being murdered across the city. And these aren't crimes of passion. They're gruesome. They're planned. They bear a strange resemblance to an obscure group of tarot cards. And the New York City police can't solve them alone.

Evie wasn't just escaping the stifling life of Ohio, she was running from the knowledge of what she could do. She has a secret. A mysterious power that could help catch the killer - if he doesn't catch her first.

In a town house at a fashionable address on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, every lamp blazes.
—

I was very hesitant to read anything by Libba Bray after the shitfest that was Beauty Queens, which is one of the worst books I have ever read. I wasn’t a fan of the weird satire, or the overwhelming amount of annoying characters. But while The Diviners had some trace of the same writing style, which is expected since it’s by the same author, I ended up really enjoying it, and now I really want to read the Gemma Doyle series as well.

My favourite thing about The Diviners is the setting and the way Bray describes it. She puts a lot of work into it, and really makes you feel as though you’re really there in the Roaring Twenties. You get a great feel for all the glitz and glam, and you can tell everything is well researched.

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