Review: We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan

We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**Disclaimer: eARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

First off, One was one of my favourite books of last year and so when a new Sarah Crossan book came across the horizon, I pounced on it. If you haven’t read One yet, just know that it’s a beautiful and quick read, and well worth the hype.

We Come Apart is a new book from Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan, told from dual perspectives. Nicu is a Romanian immigrant, who has come to the UK with his mum and dad to earn some extra cash for his upcoming arranged marriage. Jess is a British girl who has fallen in with the wrong crowd, and who is experiencing domestic violence at home. They meet at a youth reparation scheme, picking up litter, and become friends.

I love reading novels in verse since I picked up One – it’s a really powerful medium, but also really quick and accessible to read. The writing here is also really clever – Nicu’s broken English was difficult to get used to at first but really brought life to a character struggling with his English language skills.

This book was especially poignant regarding racism in the wake of Brexit, and the bullying Nicu faces is worsened by taunts of ‘I though we’d voted you out of this country’.

Due to the topics discussed in this book, I imagine some readers might find it difficult to read and please do keep that in mind before picking this one up.

I only had two issues with the book – one is that I wanted more from the conclusion, and the other that I felt Jess’s storyline coming from a working class household blighted with domestic violence was a little cliché and perhaps dangerous (but this is a symptom of fiction in general I think).

If you enjoyed One, We Come Apart is another great novel from Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan and well worth the read. I’m looking forward to more books from these two authors!

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#WaitingOnWednesday – Nothing Tastes As Good by Claire Hennessy

This week’s Waiting On Wednesday book is Nothing Tastes As Good by Claire Hennessy!

UK Publisher: Hot Key Books

UK Release Date: 14th July 2016

Nothing Tastes As Good is the story of Annabel, a recently deceased teen who suffered from anorexia in life, who is assigned to help another teenager with a difficult relationship with food, Annabel.

I’ve been absolutely loving Irish YA at the moment (and so is everyone else, if they deluge of awards for the likes of Sarah Crossan and Louise O’Neill is anything to go by) and I’m SO excited for this July release.

There’s a pandemic in YA of important issues that affect teenagers which tend to go ignored because they’re difficult to write. I’m talking things like body image and body dysphoria, discovering your sexuality or coming to terms with a disability or illness.

Finally, we have a book that tackles anorexia, obesity and eating disorders, and it has some brilliant reviews (GoodReads average 4.5 at time of writing), and I can’t wait to read and review. If you know of any books which tackles similar issues, please let me know!

Annalise x

YALC Reading List: Part 2!

If you missed Part 1 – find it here.

I’ve actually bought my tickets for YALC – I’ll (hopefully) be there for all FOUR days. On Friday, there was a HUGE announcement of authors, and I am so excited – again, the only problem is bring all the books!

Some updates this week: I’ll be posting each section of the YALC reading list every Sunday evening, and I’ve added a #YALC section to my blog – it contains these posts as well as my reviews of YALC books.

Let’s get started, shall we?

10. Ben Aaronivitch

Book to read: Rivers of London series

I’ve only read the first book in this series, Rivers of London (review here) but I really enjoyed it – I love London-set books, especially when they’re mixed with magic. This series is really original and interesting, with the main character a black policeman assigned to the supernatural division of the Metropolitan Police. I had my copy of Rivers of London signed last year at YALC, but if I pick up Moon Over Soho before July, I’ll be sure to bring it with me.

11. Holly Bourne

Book to read: Am I Normal Yet?

If you haven’t picked up this book yet, what are you doing? The first in the Spinster Club Trilogy, Am I Normal Yet? (review here) has been shortlisted for the YA book prize, given out as part of World Book Night, and has to be one of the most acclaimed books on Twitter. Each of the books focus on a different Spinster Club member, with How Hard Can Love Be? out February 2016, and What’s A Girl Gotta Do? out August 1st, 2016. I had my copy of How Hard Can Love Be? (review here) signed at Oxford Literary Festival, but I may indulge in a copy of Holly’s debut, Soulmates, before YALC. (I’m also hoping that there will be copies of What’s A Girl Gotta Do? at YALC!)

12. Sarah Crossan

Book to read: One

One is a really interesting book: it’s written entirely in free verse, and it’s about two girls who are conjoined, and what happens when their medical debt forces them to go to a regular high school. Also nominated for the YA Book Prize 2016, and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, definitely check this one out – it’s deceptively short, but powerful. My copy was signed by Sarah at the Oxford Literary festival, so I won’t be hauling this one around at YALC, but I’m sure plenty of fans will. Read my review here.

13. Jenny Downham

Book to read: Unbecoming

I’m pretty sure I’ve read Jenny’s debut, Before I Die, which became the film Now Is Good, starring Jeremy Irvine and Dakota Fanning. Unbecoming is her latest novel, nominated for the YA Book Prize 2016. I’m not sure if i’ll have time for this one before YALC, but it looks to be a tale of family life which is ‘funny, sad, honest and wise’.

14. Michael Grant

Book to read: Front Lines

I’ve heard of Michael Grant before, as the author of the bestselling Gone series. Researching this blog post, I can’t believe I haven’t picked up Front Lines yet – I love World War II alternate history stories (I’m currently reading Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin) but for some reason, I though this was a WWI story, and wasn’t going to be my cup of tea. This is the story of if girls had been called up to fight with the boys in WWII, and it has amazing reviews – I think I’m going to have to pick this one up! I’m sure there will be plenty of fans of the Gone series at YALC.

15. Rosalind Jana

Book to read: Notes On Being Teenage

Rosalind Jana is a blogger, writer and feminist, and Notes On Being Teenage is her first book, covering all things teenage, with advice and guidance on navigating those teenage years. Filled with real interviews with teenagers, as well as Louise O’Neill, Juno Dawson and Rosianne Halse-Rojas, this looks really interesting – I haven’t read it yet but imagine it to be similar to Mind Your Head by Juno Dawson (review here) and think this could be a quick read to pick up before July. Out June 9th, 2016.

16. Dr Christian Jessen

Book to read: Dr Christian’s Guide To You

I think most people know Dr Christian from Embarrassing Bodies, and this guide is a practical, medical guide to being a teenager, including puberty, physical and mental heath, and body confidence. I’m a huge supporter of more transparent discussion of a lot of these issues, especially from a medical perspective (what is expected, what you should go to the doctors for, etc.) but I’ll probably give this one a miss, seeing as I’m a bit older than the target audience.

17. Sophie Kinsella

Book to read: Finding Audrey/Confessions of a Shopaholic

Finding Audrey is Sophie Kinsella’s first YA novel, a sweet romance about Audrey, a 14-year-old with anxiety. I’ll be bringing the first book in her most popular adult series, Confessions of a Shopaholic, which I really do love – I’ve read the first six, as well as a few of Sophie’s standalone novels, which are really fun, too.

18. Tanya Landman

Book to read: Buffalo Soldier

I haven’t read any Tanya Landman before, to be honest – but Buffalo Soldier, the story of a girl who pretends to be a man and runs off to join the army, won the Carnegie Medal 2015. Her most recent novel, Hell and High Water, came out last September. Both of these novels are historical, and so fans of historical children’s fiction surely can’t go wrong with Tanya’s novels.

Which authors are you dying to see? Which authors do you wish will be announced for YALC?

Comment below or tweet me at @annalisebooks

Til’ next Sunday (for part 3),

Annalise x

Review: One by Sarah Crossan

One by Sarah Crossan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was recommended to read this book by #SundayYA, during a twitter conversation about disability in YA. I’m planning on reading more books which feature disability, so if you’ve got any recommendations, send them my way!

Tippi and Grace are conjoined twins, and at sixteen years old, are much older than they were expected to live. As the medical bills money worries pile up, their parents can’t afford to home school them anymore, and they must adjust to starting high school (and the real world).

The book is written in free verse, which is unlike any other book I’ve read before. With only a few words on each page, I sped through this book in about two hours. While I did really enjoy the book, the format has both good and bad sides. The book is easy and quick to read, and I felt the emotional parts of the book were emphasised through the format. However, speeding through the book meant it felt like it lacked some depth for me. Tippi and Grace’s day-to-day lives aren’t really explored in too much detail, which is something I would have liked to see.

The book is also written from the perspective of Grace, which I liked, although maybe a dual POV would have felt more natural.

I loved the family, if only because they were dysfunctional, with their own problems and lives. The characters felt fleshed out and realistic, and I enjoyed the side stories following the other characters. I felt the problems facing conjoined twins were explored in a satisfying, although predictable way.

The reason I can’t give this book 5 stars is simply because there’s no real resolution. Like a lot of YA books I’ve read recently, it comes to this great crescendo, and then the last few pages are just confusion. More epilogues please! That being said, the ending was really well done (except for the confirmation of what actually happened).

I’m really looking forward to reading more books that tackle disability in an interesting way, and this book certainly does that.

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Have you read this book or another about disability? What did you think? Tweet me at @AnnaliseBooks or comment below!

 

Annalise x