Review: The Devil's Poetry by Louise Cole

Overall Rating: ★★★ ☆☆         Difficulty Rating: ★★★★☆

   Nothing was abnormal about Callie's love for books. However, the fact that reading from one particular powerful book was to determine the fate of the world certainly rang peculiar...

Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★         Difficulty Rating: ★★★☆☆

   Young Lou Clark - with her quirky personality, eccentric dress sense and untrammelled love for cups of tea - enjoys her job at The Buttered Bun cafe. Descending into her late twenties, she seems content to go from job to job to help her family make ends meet. She seems content to carry on with her boyfriend despite being acutely aware that she is not in love with him. She seems content to never leave the confines of the cosy, traditional and small-town Pembroke. 

   That is until she becomes a carer for Will Traynor, whose desire to live was snatched from him following his horrific motorcycle accident. Little do they know that they will each change the other's outlook on life forever.

Review: What Remains of Me by A.L Gaylin

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆          Difficulty Rating: ★★★☆☆

Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany and J.K. Rowling

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆          Difficulty Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

   Just when you thought the wizarding world of Harry Potter could expand no further, J.K. Rowling - who brought us Pottermore and Fantastic Beasts - worked her magic yet again and presented us with a play!

Review: My True Love Gave To Me edited by Stephanie Perkins

   Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆          Difficulty Rating: ★★☆☆☆

   If you want some easy going stories of romance to curl up with during this chilly season then this book is perfect for you. My True Love Gave To Me comprises a collection of twelve short tales of love that will make you feel all warm inside even with the numbing cold outside.

   Whether you celebrate the Winter Solstice, New Year, Christmas or Hannukah; whether you are a believer or non-believer of magic, there is something here for everyone. This book features stories from twelve young adult writers - including Ally Carter, Gayle Forman and Myra McEntire - that have been edited by international best-selling author, Stephanie Perkins.
   The best thing about this short story collection is the exploration of contrasting writing styles. Each author is wonderfully unique and has a different take on the subject of wintry romances. You can really see how their minds tick.

Review: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆           Difficulty Rating: ★★★☆☆

In what can only be described as one of the biggest plot twists of all time, Karen Joy Fowler’s ‘We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves’ explores the traumatic life of Rosemary Cooke, whose childhood was transformed into an extraordinary experiment by her psychologist father.

Throughout the novel, we are thrust back in time to 1970s Indiana when Rosemary was but a little girl, who could talk the hind legs off a donkey and was inseparable from her sister, Fern. She also adored her older brother, Lowell, who always looked out for her at school. One day, Rosemary’s world was turned upside down when she was mysteriously sent away to stay with her Grandparents. Convinced she was abandoned by her parents for her motormouth, she blamed herself but, in a sudden turn of events, she was returned home only to find that her beloved Fern was gone.

Rosemary has since condemned herself for her sister’s disappearance and her family’s ensuing breakdown when her brother, Lowell, ran away from home to pursue the criminal lifestyle of an animal rights activist in protest to his father’s work on animals.

We hear the story from the perspective of twenty-two year old Rosemary, who is now ploughing through her fifth year at the University of California. There, she befriends the loose cannon and ‘Fern substitute’, Harlow. Rosemary is determined to be deemed normal and not “the monkey girl” as she was often referred to at school and so she puts aside her advanced vocabulary and refrains from telling her story, which would be guaranteed to silence any room. However, her normality is once again interrupted when someone from her past gets in touch. Was she really to blame for Fern being sent away?

Fowler’s impressive non chronological narrative will keep you on your toes as you, along with Rosemary, attempt to piece together her past to determine what truly happened when Fern vanished from her family’s lives. You will laugh, you will smile and you may even shed a tear as you embark on Rosemary’s journey to self discovery and wake up to the cruel realities of animal experimentation.

Overall, Fowler’s novel was a gripping and heartrending read, which touches on the long effects of parenting on a child and other issues that are still all too relevant today.