…And so welcomes the second installment of mini reviews for 2012!
After starting them last year in an exercise of brevity (as I’m known to be quite the rambler!) (and, let’s be honest, to help me out time-wise!) I’ve decided to bring them back! Hooray!
You can refer to them for tiny bite-sized morsels of good reading:)
Today’s theme of bite-sized reviews are books that seem to be jumping on a popular topic band-wagon…
Bunheads by Sophie Flack
I love a good dancing novel and this one is no exception. Flack, being a professional dancer herself, clearly knows ballet and this shines through in this excellent book. All Hannah has done for the last few years is dance, dance, dance: in the hopes of becoming a soloist with her company. She doesn’t have any sort of a life outside ballet – barely knows the meaning of the word ‘life’ or ‘recreation’ – so when she slowly begins to start having a life, she wonders if it’s all been worth it – giving up her youth in favour of chasing her ballet dreams. As the chance of a promotion becomes closer, she is more conflicted than ever as that would mean more hours training. I think Flack spent so much time crafting and making Hannah a really great character that the other characters fell short. Despite that, it was a really enjoyable novel and definitely an insight into the ballet world – fascinating.
For more information,
Hachette
Sophie Flack’s website
The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
Dead girl novels are becoming somewhat of a novelty, aren’t they? There seem to be more and more of them about lately – not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just an observation. Queue entry into Brie’s after-life, which I always find fascinating. When Brie is having dinner with her boyfriend, he utters the four magic words no girl wants to hear: “I don’t love you”. Just like that, Brie dies of a broken heart, and now must complete the stages of grief. I can’t even imagine going through what Brie did, watching her friends and family deal with her death. The book was touching, sad, life-affirming. Brie was such a relatable character (if a little mean at times!) and the journey she and Patrick (a Lost Soul she meets in the after-life, who helps her on her journey) go on is just lovely. It was supernatural enough, but not enough to loose me. Although I didn’t really like some parts of it, over all it was a really good book – I’m definitely looking forward to any more Rothenberg books. Also, music plays a part in this book, and as well as the chapters being song lyrics there’s a huge music list at the end of the book. And anyone who likes Billy Joel is okay with me!
For more information,
Penguin Australia
Jess Rothenberg’s website
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Green
Finally, our book which has a main character that is mentally disabled. Think The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I immediately loved the premise of this book – a book written from the point of view of an imaginary friend? Excellent. Budo is the imaginary friend of Max, whom one day gets abducted – and Budo knows who did it. Problem is, Budo can’t tell anyone as he can only communicate with Max, so he enlists the help of fellow imaginary friends to save Max. It was so fascinating seeing the world through Budo’s – Max’s - eyes, and seeing the magic world of imaginary friends, who can only exist as long as the children believe. Although I was slightly disappointed with the ending – I guess I was after more – it was still a magical read.
For more information,
Matthew Green’s website (confusion help: Matthew Green is the pseudonym of Matthew Dicks)
Hachette Australia