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UKYA

REVIEW: Undone by Cat Clarke




Summary from Goodreads:


Jem Halliday is in love with her gay best friend. Not exactly ideal, but she’s learning to live with it.

Then the unspeakable happens. Kai is outed online … and he kills himself.

Jem knows nothing she can say or do will bring him back. But she wants to know who was responsible. And she wants to take them down.






Jem Halliday has been in love with her best friend, Kai, since she can remember. There’s just one problem: Kai is gay. When a tape of Kai gets spread around the school, he can’t take it any more and takes his own life, despite always having been a happy and cheerful person.

One month on and Jem decides that she can’t live without Kai. But then an envelope turns up. Containing twelve envelopes, one to open each month, Jem decides to hang on for a little while and find out who caused Kai to commit suicide.

Having not read any of Clarke’s novels before, I was looking forward to delving into the author’s novels after hearing amazing things about them; I was not disappointed.

The protagonist, Jem, was clearly in a bad state. Who wouldn’t be if they were in her situation? I’ve seen a few reviews where people have said that they didn’t like her very much but I must disagree. Some people might say that some of the things she did were stupid but I think they were totally right. Her reactions to certain situations were completely right and I really think you need to insert your brain into the head of a grieving and sad person before picking this book up.

Having recently suffered a loss, I was blown away by how Clarke managed to write about the feelings that I had bottled up for so long. It was as if she had somehow gotten inside my head and I was a little overwhelmed at times. The pure emotion underlying the words is both magical and sometimes a little scary- how is it that one person can make you feel so many things at once? I was only a few pages in when I started to feel emotional.

I loved the way in which Undone was written. The thing that I love the most about UKYA is that I can understand it a lot better than US fiction. This book doesn’t proclaim to be written in a fancy way nor does it try and write things simply. Clarke has played with those feelings of darkness and despair in us all and shown us that it isn’t wrong to grieve.

I loved Undone so much and will definitely be reading more by the author. Words cannot describe just how I felt about this book and I have already gone about recommending it to people.

UKYA

REVIEW: Geek Girl by Holly Smale

Summary from Goodreads:

Harriet Manners knows a lot of things. 


She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a “jiffy” lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. 
What she isn’t quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she’s spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. 
Even if it means stealing her Best Friend’s dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves.
As Harriet veers from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, she begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn’t seem to like her any more than the real world did. 

And as her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?

I read Geek Girl back in November and really enjoyed it. Being my first ever review book, I was really excited about starting it.
Harriet Manners is a geek. There’s no other way to put it. When Harriet is spotted by a modelling agency, her life promises to change in many different ways. But will Harriet embrace the changes or go running back to her normal life?
I must first of all mention the gorgeous cover. I love how geeky it is but also incorporates a cool air that will have anyone running towards it. I have the proof copy but will be buying the finished version as soon as possible. The designers really have created a masterpiece here. I can’t wait to finally spot it in shops; I’m sure it will catch everyone’s eyes!
The cover may be amazing but it’s nothing compared to the writing. Holly Smale has been able to write a realistic and humorous from the point of view of funny and completely adorable Harriet. The inclusion of the lists was something I liked and I also liked the facts dropped in at regular intervals. This was actually a very educational and informative read.
Harriet was a character that I just wanted to hug. The novel is written from her point of view which really made it so many times better. Harriet’s character was instantly recognisable because we all have a smart side to us; Harriet’s was just more pronounced. There were a lot of occasions when I felt sorry for her, particularly the scenes including Alexa and her awful attitude. Would it be okay to jump into the world and just slap her? Okay, maybe not…
Even in his snotty form, I loved Toby. Who wouldn’t want a stalker like him?! Toby and Harriet were so alike, yet she didn’t like him very much, which led to it being very funny. 
Metamorphosis plays a big part in this novel and we see Harriet transform from a normal caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Smale has created a world that people can read about where they can be themselves and not be afraid of being unique. Harriet is an inspirational character and one that I think people will look up to.

I must now add that Holly Smale is a genius. To be able to think up and write a novel like this is amazing and I am really looking forward to reading more of her novels. She is also such a funny and generally nice person so it’s easy to see why this novel is as good as it is.

I’m really looking forward to reading more about these characters and already we are beginning to see where future novels may lead. I must now add: is it normal to want to jump into a literary world and want to hug all of the characters?!

RATING: 4.5/5
UKYA

REVIEW: Stolen: A Letter to my Captor by Lucy Christopher

Summary from Goodreads

It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him.

This is my story.

A letter from nowhere.

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back?

The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don’t exist – almost.


Stolen: A Letter to My Captor is a thrilling read and one that I greatly enjoyed.
In an airport one day in August, Gemma is kidnapped. Held captive in the middle of nowhere, she has two options: survive until she can find a way to escape or give up and face an endless life of torture.
Stolen deals with such a controversial topic so I really did wonder about how it would be dealt with. There were so many ways in which this could have been written and I think it was just right.
Being written in second person, something that is completely new to me, I was strangely pleased to find that I really enjoyed it. It worked so well and I can’t imagine it being written in any other way. I think a lot of novels could take a leaf out of this novels book and I’d like to read something similar in the future. 
Gemma, the protagonist, is hard to put into words. She was just herself and it was easy to put yourself into her shoes. Because of the way it was written, it seemed as if she was a lot closer than some protagonists that I’ve read about. I did feel sorry for her because being held captive in a foreign country would be a very traumatic experience.
Even though Ty is supposed to be the bad guy, I actually really liked him. Christopher has taken all of peoples assumptions and flipped them on the head to create a sad and captivating tale. It was easy to tell that something was wrong with Ty. After all, who takes a girl against her will and flees to the Australian Outback? Behind the facade he was actually incredibly sweet and caring and a character that I really liked. 
Lucy Christopher has managed to write a believable setting that immediately interested me. I wanted to know more and was very impressed by the writing’s descriptive nature.
One of the things that I really loved about this book was that I could feel it. It was so easy to put yourself into Gemma’s shoes and this was a tell tale sign that I really liked it.
This was an emotional (yes, I was close to tears at a number of times) and profound read that I loved immensely. I’m looking forward to reading more by the author.
RATING: 5/5

**Looking back over this review, I realise how rubbish it is. I’m so sorry!**
Book Review UKYA Uncategorized

Review- Tapas and Tears by Chris Higgins

I really enjoyed this book. I had started to read this a few months ago but, having a few books on the go at the same time, never really got past the first chapter. This time though, I was determined to finish it and went in with an open mind. Once you get in to it, you really start to enjoy it, as I found. I couldn’t put it down!
The characters in it are well thought out, and the book is written in Jaime’s point of view. You see her go from, as her mother calls her, Wilma Worryguts, to bold and brash Tira, which actually means ‘Shoot’ in Spanish. I really love it when you see a character develop, and this is certainly what we see.
The plot is really good. It has a bit of everything: drama, arguments and, also, romance. The romance in this book, however, is not the typical one you see in most books. The character of Pablo is planned carefully. Chris Higgins allows you to fall in love with him, but also allows you to feel what Jaime and Concha feel for him as well.
I really love the cover on this book. It’s quite simple but I think I like it more than the other, much older, covers on Chris Higgins’ books. The others were quite girly, having sparkles on them, and I think this takes interest away from boys, who might also enjoy these books.
On the whole I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone interested. It is quite an easy read and doesn’t need a lot of thought.