The Sunday Post #3

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

Posts this week:

• Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown
• Review: All The Birds In The Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
• Waiting On Wednesday: The Fireman by Joe Hill
• Review: Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

I’ve had a pretty good week for books! But I’m also kinda sad about that because I packed up all my books, including some I haven’t read yet, and sent them back home so moving out from my student house later this month will be a little easier, leaving myself with only five books in my TBR. I’d expected I’d be super busy and five books would last me until the end of June. God was I wrong. I’m on book 4/5 of that pile currently. I suppose I’m gonna have to buy new books with all the money I don’t have…

In terms of my personal life, I went to my university’s Summer Ball!

Can you tell I was cold?

Best part of the night was eating a really amazing hot dog, hands down. It’s sad to think that my uni days are over. I’ve really enjoyed my time at Royal Holloway, but I’m glad that my years of education are over! No more essays ever again.

Coming Up

A review of Half Way Home by Hugh Howey. I’m already over a 100 pages in and enjoying it, although I think it’s going a little too quickly for my liking. More explanations and characterisation please! I loved Howey’s Silo Saga so hopefully this book will improve as I keep going.

Also, a review of The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, who is one of my favourite authors.

And last but not least, a review of X-Men: Apocalypse, which I saw a couple of days ago. I really enjoyed it, but I don’t think it was as good as some of the previous X-Men films.

And Finally

As seems to be tradition now, here’s a link to some music I’m enjoying on Spotify. Raleigh Ritchie (real name Jacob Anderson, who plays Greyworm on Game of Thrones) has a Spotify playlist he regularly updates which is great for finding new music, and Raleigh Ritchie’s music is really good too! My favourite song of his is ‘Stronger Than Ever’. Check it out.

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Review: Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Penguin

My Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis: Peggy is eight years old when her father takes her to live in a cabin in a remote European forest. There, he tells her that her mother and the rest of the world are gone.

Now the two of them must scratch a living from the earth: trapping squirrels, foraging for berries, surviving a winter as best they can.

But it is easy to lose your way in the forest, to lose yourself. How long will Peggy believe her father’s story? How long can you stay sane when the world is lost? And what happens when you stop believing in everything?

My Review

This book is breath-taking and harrowing. Lyrical prose combines with the strong yet confused heroine of Peggy, and a web of lies weaved by her survivalist father. It’s hard to believe this is Fuller’s first novel; the voice and style she has crafted for Peggy is excellent, both whimsical and desolate. I struggled to put this book down, even when it got to slightly slower parts.

This isn’t really a story of physical action, but one of psychological threats. Peggy is kidnapped by her father and the two live in a ramshackle cabin in a forest far from civilization. We see Peggy grow from an eight-year-old who adores her father, despite his wrongs, to a wild seventeen-year-old, discovering her sexuality and independence as her father’s state deteriorates.

I felt so sorry for Peggy. Even though she adapts to life in the forest, it is not enough for a growing girl. A soundless piano is her only friend as she struggles to come to terms with periods and sexual desire. I’m really glad Fuller didn’t gloss over the harsh realities of a girl entering puberty whilst living in the wilderness, with no real authority figure to explain these changes to her. Peggy’s confusion and embarrassment only adds to the harrowing atmosphere of the novel, another obstacle she is forced to overcome on her own.

The novel flits between ‘Punzel’ (short for Rapunzel), as Peggy chooses to be called in the forest, to Peggy in 1985 in the aftermath of the kidnapping. 1985 Peggy drops hints to the reader of what is to come, such as the fate of her father and the existence of a strange man named Reuben.

However, I don’t want to give too much away as there is a big twist at the end of the novel. I confess it was a little predictable for this genre, but still a relative shock. Yet, for me, it just didn’t quite fit. It was one of those twists that should have clicked in your mind, where suddenly you think back to all the hints that were dropped, and where any ambiguities become clear. But, in actuality, I didn’t have any of those realisations. It was a shock, sure, but I couldn’t think back and see it coming within the narrative. It was the last puzzle piece that didn’t slot in quite right. That’s why I’ve given this novel 4.5/5 instead of the full 5/5.

Despite this slight let down, I did still really enjoy the novel. It was bleak, but tinged with hope, and Peggy was an extremely sympathetic character. Fuller is definitely an author whose writing I’m excited to read more of, regardless of genre or story-line. Whilst the twist didn’t quite work for me, I might have missed something, so don’t pass over this book just because of that! It’s an extremely well-written novel and I urge you to pick up a copy if you haven’t already.

Have you read Our Endless Numbered Days? What did you think? Did you like the twist? Let me know in the comments below!

The Sunday Post #1

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

I only posted once this week, which was a little list I compiled of my favourite things to do in New York. I didn’t even find time to do any reading while I was across the pond, I was so busy (let alone any of my essays).

At the moment, I’m halfway through Dark Tides by Chris Ewan. It’s an interesting crime thriller, but maybe not as gripping as I’d have hoped. However, it got good reviews overall, so I’m persevering.

I’m also writing one of my final third year essays and it’s allowed me to revisit one of my favourite novels of the past year, Carson McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding.  If you’re looking for a new classic to read, I really recommend this novel. Witty and a little unsettling, it tells the story of a twelve-year old girl named Frankie Addams, who’s having a bit of an identity crisis. Yet when she learns of her brother’s upcoming wedding, she becomes infatuated with joining them, and over a few days McCullers lets us into the life of this complex, fragile tomboy.

Coming Up

I’m hoping to get started on another YA book, but I’m torn between Throne of Glass, Rot and Ruin, and Our Endless Numbered Days.

Have a suggestion about which I should read first? Let me know in the comments!

And Finally

If you need some music to help you focus on creative writing or essays, this playlist has been a big help to me:

Happy Sunday and enjoy!

Stacking the Shelves | TBR April

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme from Tynga’s Reviews where you showcase the books you’ve received or purchased.

This month, I’ve taken advantage of a birthday Amazon voucher and the £10 deals to purchase these bad boys (although Bone Clocks I got for Christmas).

The list is:

• The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
• Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
• Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
• All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
• Half Way Home by Hugh Howey
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
• The Silence by Tim Lebbon
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown

The Lie Tree, Rebel of the Sands and All the Birds in the Sky are the most recent releases and I’ve seen a lot of hype about the first two especially from other bloggers, so I’m excited to get into them. I was also a big fan of Hugh Howey’s Wool series so I can’t wait to read something else by him. And, obviously, the Red Rising series has garnered a lot of attention too. There are also two more books on the way to me:

I know, I know, I’m pretty late to both series, but I’m finally giving them a chance. I’d originally heard hit and miss things about both books upon their original release so I gave them both a miss. But I’ve had a severe lack of zombies in my life recently and the Rot and Ruin series has seemingly picked up so I’m looking forward to being entirely freaked out. As for Throne of Glass, if you’ve read my review of Starborn by Lucy Hounsom, you’ll know I can be a bit critical of the fantasy genre. I find it often slips into cliches and is just too cheesy sometimes, so I really need something fresh and well thought out to capture me in this genre. Saying that, though, I’ve put my initial hesitation aside about the Throne of Glass series after seeing how much the book blogosphere adores it. So, fingers crossed I like it.

And in terms of zombies, look out for my upcoming ‘A Novel Round-Up’ of my favourite zombie novels.

Read any of these books? Let me know what you thought in the comments below. Happy reading this April!