Book Review: Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Love, love, loved it!!! I read Hush Hush in less than a day; I could not put it down. Infact I was up at 2am this morning with my eye-sockets sagging half way down my cheeks ‘cos I just had to keep reading the damn thing!

The story starts in France in 1565, when a fallen angel appears to a boy in a remote field and tells him that he has a job for him to do and an oath to swear. Flashforward several hundred years and Nora Grey is a sixteen year old student in Maine, with little interest in boys until Patch turns up in her Biology class, as a lab partner, seemingly hell-bent on making her life a misery with his arrogant, uncommunicative ways. Everywhere she turns, there he is, and trouble seems to follow him around. Nora soon finds herself in the middle of something that she can’t explain but she doesn’t know who to trust.

The book has a great setting: eery fog, desolate roads and rainswept coastal towns. It’s dark yet vibrant and pacy at the same time. The characters were great; I especially loved Nora’s best friend, Vee. Her humour alone could have sold the book to me.

I really enjoyed this book; I almost turned into a prune in the bath when reading it because I couldn’t bear to put it down to even climb out. The second in the series, Crescendo, will be out later in 2010. Highly recommended!

Book Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

In Shiver Grace was attacked by a pack of wolves when she was eleven years old. She was dragged from her back garden which back onto Boundry Woods. But she didn’t struggle or cry even though she could see her own blood in the snow: instead what she remembers about that day is the wolf who saved her. The wolf with the yellow eyes who looked right at her and dragged the other wolves off her.

Over the next six years, Grace becomes obssessed with the wolves in Mercy Falls, where she lives. But it’s the one with the yellow eyes who she seeks out. On the occasions when he’s appeared at the edge of her garden they watch each other, waiting. One day, a local boy from her school is attacked by wolves and dies and the town is in uproar and a party of men go hunting the wolves in the woods. When Grace returns home she finds a naked boy about her age on her porch who has been shot. She takes him inside and recognises him instantly – the yellow eyes, Sam.


What follows is a love story between two people who have “known” each other for years. It’s simple, tender and subtle. They are drawn together and can’t be apart, but there is something in their way – whenever it gets cold, Sam changes back into a wolf and this year there is a race against time to stop him changing as Sam thinks it may be his last year as a human.


I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I can absolutely see how it would appeal to teenagers but I think it’s a good one for adults too. It’s touching and tender. I am looking forward to reading Linger, the next in the series when it’s out (July 2010).


Stiefvater has also written another series which I will be reviewing shortly - the first two books in the series are Lament and Ballad.

Book Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I had seen this in book shops for months and had picked it up and put it down again so many times that I finally decided to give it ago based on so many positive reviews I had seen. I’m so glad I did. For the 3 days it took me to read it I was immersed in the life of a young German girl during World War 2 and although the book prepares the reader almost from the beginning for what is going to happen I wasn’t prepared for the ending to pack such an emotional punch.

The book itself is narrated by Death (not the Grim Reaper image that most of us have, but a figure who roams the world collecting the souls of the newly departed and gently taking them away with him.) Death tells the story of Liesel, a young girl who has been placed with foster parents in a poor part of Munich and we follow her story throughout the war. We are told from the start that most of the characters we meet will die but because we spend so long with them and become so involved in their lives, it doesn’t make it any less shocking by the end of the book.

This book is brilliant in the way that it manages to avoid the gory detials of war but involves us in the day to day lives of some of those who lived through it. It is so important that we never forget what happened during that time and that there were so many wonderful, selfless people out there that were prepared to help others.

I highly recommend this book and I’m sure it is one that will stay with me for a long time.

Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This book is amazing! It was so difficult to put it down that I cursed every time I had to. Such a brilliant idea for a plot and coupled with being so well executed has made it one of my favourite books, possibly of all time.

The book is set in Panem (formerly the USA) where there are districts known as the Capitol (who rule everything else) and Districts 1-12. Seventy-five years ago, the people of the Districts (who are fenced in and not allowed to communicate with other districts) staged a rebellion so in order to make sure that it never happens again, the Capitol invented THE HUNGER GAMES. Every year, two children (one girl and one boy, aged 12-18) are picked randomly from each district and are put into an arena which can be anything from swamps to lakes or forrests or deserts and the victor is the last one standing once all the others are dead. The Hunger Games are mandatory TV viewing for all Districts who have to watch their loved ones be killed on live TV. The only ones who relish this are the people of the Capitol where the cheer their favourite tributes on and place bets about who will survive and who will die.


Katniss Everdeen is sixteen years old and when her 12 year old sister’s name is read out at the reaping (the televised event where the names are called) she steps up and volunteers to go in her place. Katniss’s district partner is Peeta, a boy from school who has always liked her. The book follows their journey from District 12 to the Capitol where they are put into the arena to fend for themselves.


I read that the author got her idea for the book when she was flicking between channesl on the TV and on one side was a reality TV show and on the other was footage of the horrors of the war in Iraq and she wondered what it would be like to put these two together. The synopsys for this book may seem farfetched but to be honest I’m not so sure that we’re all that far away from these games anyway. You only need to watch Jerry Springer or Big Brother (the UK version) to realise that so much of it is set up or instigated to get the best arguments and subsequently ratings possible. It’s not that far away from the Gladiators in Rome killing each other for the publics viewing pleasure.


Having said that, this book is aimed at young adults and although the theme of the book is one that really makes you think, it isn’t gory or gruesome and is appropriate for its intended audience. I may be well past my teenage years but I can honestly say that this book is one of the best I have read for pure excitement and that “un-put-downable” factor.


I highly, highly recommend this book!


The second in the trilogy, Catching Fire is just as fantastic and I cannot wait for the final book to come out in August 2010!