The Sunday Post #7

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer in which book bloggers recap their week and look at what’s to come.

My Weekly Recap

So this week I’ve hit just over 100 followers when you combine my WordPress, e-mail and Bloglovin followers, so thanks so much for following! I’ve only been around in the blogosphere for a few months but I’m really enjoying it!

Posts this week:

• Let’s Wrap: June
• Book Recommendations: If You Liked That, You’ll Love This #3
• Waiting On Wednesday: Goldenhand by Garth Nix
• Stacking the Shelves | Fantasy and Sci-Fi | YA & Adult
• Review: The Girls by Emma Cline

Coming Up

I’ve just finished The Girls by Emma Cline so next up in my TBR is The Next Together by Lauren James. I’ve just started this morning and, at only 44 pages in, I’m already loving it. What’s really intriguing is the little snippets of HTML text (or whatever it’s called) laced throughout that provide a real sense that something is not quite right. I’m very excited to see what that’s all about.

There will of course be the usual ‘Waiting on Wednesday’ post as I love doing those and seeing what everyone else is waiting for; it’s a great way to learn of some upcoming releases you might have missed.

My graduation is next week so my blog might be a little sparse whilst I celebrate, but I’ll try and keep posts flowing!

And Finally

This week I’m really liking the song for the new Star Trek film. My excitement for the movie has been dampened a little after Anton Yelchin’s death – he was an actor I really admired and I would regularly check his IMDb page to see what new films he was starring in – but I’m still looking forward to it.

I’m not a massive Rihanna fan but this is quite an original pop song.

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Book Recommendations: If You Liked That, You’ll Love This #3

Now that I’ve moved home from uni, I’ve been clearing out a bunch of childhood stuff from my room. I hate tidying, but it has one perk: finding things you’d forgotten about, and that includes books.

Whilst I hate giving books away, I’ve been sorting out piles of books for charity, mainly books I didn’t like too much, or books that are now too young for me. But I’ve also stumbled across lots of books I know that I’ll struggle to ever part with.

This leads onto another ‘If you liked that, you’ll love this’ recommendation. This week, it’s not an apocalyptic/dystopia theme like the last two posts, but YA historical fiction instead, specifically World War Two. I’ve always had a keen interest in the World Wars and there are so many books out there that capture the horror, but also the hope. Many of this fiction tends to be adult because of the often harrowing, and gruesome, nature of the wars. However, there are a few YA gems out there that do the genre justice. So…

If you liked Code Name Verity, you’ll love Tamar

It’s been quite a few years since I read both of these books, but I can still remember the impact they had on me. I actually read Tamar before Code Name Verity but, whilst I’ve seen Code Name Verity talked about a fair bit on YA blogs, I’ve never seen any mention of Tamar. Granted, Tamar has been out for longer (it came out just under a decade ago), but I think Tamar is just that little bit better than Code Name Verity. After all, it did win the prestigious Carnegie Medal.

I’m not too sure about the new cover for Tamar – I think my copy captures the sense of isolation better with it’s dark blue cover and lonely parachutist’s in the distance. However, I think the new cover for Code Name Verity is an improvement on my copy.

Tamar I think is a little darker than Code Name Verity. It’s fraught with fear, loneliness and confusion as the plot flits between the present day and the Second World War, culminating in an extremely well-executed plot twist and climax. Just writing this post makes me want to re-read Tamar! 

The characters are extremely likeable, but also flawed, and I could still describe to you right now, all these years after reading the novel, exactly what the protagonists are like. It’s a truly brilliant novel and I can’t stress enough that if you haven’t read it you should go out and pick up a copy now! Even though it’s classed as a Young Adult novel, I would say that this novel will easily appeal to adults. Brilliant prose, excellent characterisation, and a plot that doesn’t shy away from the darkest parts of humanity. Even if you’re not really a fan of historical fiction, this is too good a story to miss.

Synopsis for Tamar: 

When her grandfather dies, Tamar inherits a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. Out of the past, another Tamar emerges, a man involved in the terrifying world of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Holland half a century earlier. His story is one of passionate love, jealousy and tragedy set against the daily fear and casual horror of the Second World War. Unravelling it will transform the younger Tamar’s life.

Have you read Code Name Verity and/or Tamar? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments below!

Book Recommendations: If You Liked That, You’ll Love This #2

I just wanna start this post by quickly saying that I am over the moon to find out I’m gonna be graduating from Royal Holloway with a 2:1 in BA Hons English! So that’s all my stressing over and done with and I have to say it is a huge relief. Now just to become the next JK Rowling and earn my millions…

Anyway, this post is another ‘If you liked that, you’ll love this’. In the same vein as the last post, my recommendation is Sci-Fi/Apocalyptic. So, without further ado:

If you liked Never Let Me Go or Our Endless Numbered Days, you’ll love The Ship

It’s probably about a year and a half since I read The Ship by Antonia Honeywell. There are bits of the plot I’ve forgotten, but other parts have stayed with me. It’s a bleak and mysterious novel, characterised by the innocence and curiosity of a young girl growing up in a harrowing world, much like Peggy in the forest with her father, and Kathy, Tommy and Ruth in their dystopian boarding school. The protagonists in all three novels are forced to make their own way in life, carving a path for themselves in a treacherous landscape.

Lalla in The Ship draws comparisons especially with Peggy in Our Endless Numbered Days. We meet them as children and watch them attempt to traverse adolescence themselves; both inhabit a harsh, dying world; and both have overbearing father’s with a God complex. You can also find my review for Our Endless Numbered Days right here on my blog.

I loved The Ship when I read it and struggled to put it down. The same can be said for Never Let Me Go and Our Endless Numbered Days. And, like both those novels, The Ship has an excellent twist. It’s stark, lyrical and chilling. There’s also romance, but it’s not cheesy and it doesn’t overpower the plot.

So, here’s the synopsis of The Ship:

WELCOME TO LONDON
BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Oxford Street burned for three weeks. The British Museum is occupied by ragtag survivors. The Regent’s Park camps have been bombed. The Nazareth Act has come into force. If you can’t produce your identity card, you don’t exist.

Lalla, sixteen, has grown up sheltered from the new reality by her visionary father, Michael Paul. But now the chaos has reached their doorstep. Michael has promised to save them. His escape route is a ship big enough to save five hundred people. But only the worthy will be chosen.

Once on board, as day follows identical day, Lalla’s unease grows. Where are they going? What does her father really want?

WHAT IS THE PRICE OF SALVATION?

If you liked Never Let Me Go or Our Endless Numbered Days, I really can’t recommend The Ship enough to fill the hole those books may have left in your life (I know Never Let Me Go definitely left a hole in mine).

Do you agree with my recommendation? Have you read The Ship? Let me know in the comments below!

Book Recommendations: If You Liked That, You’ll Love This | Apocalyptic/Sci-Fi

I’ve been thinking for a while about recommending more books but I’d covered my favourite themes in my ‘A Novel Round-Ups’ such as horror, zombies, and lesser-known classics. So I got to thinking and realised whenever I’ve finished a really good book, I quite often crave to read another one with similarities. This led me to ‘If You Liked That, You’ll Love This’. One obvious example would be ‘if you liked Harry Potter, you’ll love Percy Jackson’. Male teenage protagonists, a type of magic, sidekicks in the form of a funny boy and an intelligent girl; the comparisons are obvious. So, without further ado, this week’s ‘If You Liked That, You’ll Love This’ is…

If you liked The Passage Trilogy or the Silo Saga, you’ll love The Southern Reach Trilogy

I read the whole of The Southern Reach Trilogy in a week last December. I couldn’t put it down. It was the bright pink cover of the first novel, Annihilation, that had caught my eye in Waterstones, and the blurb only heightened my need to dive into this series:

For thirty years, Area X, monitored by the secret agency known as the Southern Reach, has remained mysterious and remote behind its intangible border– an environmental disaster zone, though to all appearances an abundant wilderness. Eleven expeditions have been sent in to investigate; even for those that have made it out alive, there have been terrible consequences.

‘Annihilation’ is the story of the twelfth expedition and is told by its nameless biologist. Introverted but highly intelligent, the biologist brings her own secrets with her. She is accompanied by a psychologist, an anthropologist and a surveyor, their stated mission: to chart the land, take samples and expand the Southern Reach’s understanding of Area X.

But they soon find out that they are being manipulated by forces both strange and all too familiar. An unmapped tunnel is not as it first appears. An inexplicable moaning calls in the distance at dusk. And while each member of the expedition has surrendered to the authority of the Southern Reach, the power of Area X is far more difficult to resist.

You get the gist of the series. A section of wilderness characterised by strange happenings that the government has been unable to comprehend. Numerous expeditions that have ended in death and disaster. And an anonymous, headstrong, captivating narrator known only as ‘the biologist’.

This series is unsettling, weird (in a good way) and beautifully written. I don’t want to ruin the plot too much, but it has the creepiness and the horror of The Passage Trilogy, and the science and sense of isolationism that can be found in the Silo Saga. I loved every minute of this series and a part of me wishes I hadn’t read it so fast, but it’s a truly unique trilogy, despite the comparisons I’ve made! VanderMeer is an excellent writer and I loved his characters, especially the biologist and John Rodriguez, the latter appearing in the second novel. The twists and turns of Area X aren’t easily guessed and there’s a sense that Area X itself doesn’t want us to know just what it is. This isn’t a series for the fainthearted.

Have you read The Southern Reach Trilogy? Do you agree with my comparisons? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments below!