Happy Australia Day! (contest?)

Long time, no post, eh? I’m so sorry about that. You’d think that I’d have nothing but spare time in the summer, but I’ve been busy. I’m working on some reviews now. So you’ll be hearing more from me soon.

Anyway, I’m here to wish everyone, in and out of Australia a Happy Australia Day! Adele, from the awesome Persnickety Snark has a wonderful post, with links to Aussie authors and YA blogs, so I thought that I’d do something similar. You should defiantly check out hers though, it’s great.

To celebrate Australia Day I think that we should all have a look at some fantastic YA authors from Aus, like:

*Melina Marchetta (Review --Finnikin, review --Saving Francesca, interview).
*Julia Lawrinson (Review -- The Push)
*J.C Burke (Expect a review for The Story of Tom Brennan soon).
*Scot Gardner.
*Debrah Lisson.

*Simmone Howell (Review)
*Maureen McCarthy (reading Somebody’s Crying, review soon)
*Kate McCaffrey (Review)

Keep an eye out for these authors around the traps, there are some really great novels out by them, read the reviews. I believe that I gave them all a very good wrap.

Now, to celebrate I have one copy of The Push by Julia Lawrinson to give to the 15th person to post. Yes it's international, all the contests here are, no deadline, just the 15th person. Good luck and once again, happy Australia Day!

EDIT: It's taking longer than I thought to get to 26 posts, so how about the 15th person to post? Also, you can post more than once but not twice in row.

--Allie.

Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell.

“I don’t believe in life after death or diuretics or happy endings. I don’t believe anything good can come from this.”

Riley Rose doesn’t want to be at Spirit Ranch Holiday Camp. Riley wants to be partying with her best friend Chloe at the beautiful Ben Sebatini’s house. She has a plan to get away from the jumpsuit-wearing counsellors, the feel-good mantras, do-gooder campers and the monotonous schedule of team-building exercises and outdoor activities.
But Spirit Ranch is not what it appears. Secrets abound — a missing shroud, an abandoned house, a boy called Bird, and why the hell doesn’t anyone want to talk about the accident that landed the mysterious Dylan in a wheelchair last year?

When I think of words to describe this novel, two leap out at me. The first is weird and the second is touching.
I hadn't heard of Simmone Howell before I got this novel, so I obviously hadn't read any of her books. But, I am very interested after reading Everything Beautiful in reading her first novel Notes from the Teenage Underground.
I think that Everything Beautiful takes a little getting into, but when you are sucked into the story you really feel like you need to get a blanket, curl up into a ball and read this novel. It’s a cute read, not too heavy but the story isn’t meaningless.
Riley Rose is the rebellious main character, a little bigger then the socially acceptable weight is thses days and full of personality. I found her a great MC and wonderful person to hear the story from. Even if she was a little odd.

"Mum used to say that anyone who used your appearence as ammo was the worst kind of bully -- weak and unimaginative."

I think that this story had a lot to say about looks being deceiving, especially in sex god Craig’s case. Who you think will be the love interest of the novel -- buff, perfect smile -- does he not suit the stereotype? But you find that the love interest is instead Dylan, the sad looking boy in the wheelchair. Dylan is beautifully wounded and he was the kind of hurt person this book needed to make it not only interesting and memorable.
Everything Beautiful is written very well and set up into intelligently planned sections. The novel revolves around Riley being sent to a Christian camp for seven days and is broken into seven day sections -- get it? I understand that the main character being sent to a Christian camp may turn someone who’s not into novels about religion off this book. However, Howell does a wonderful job of slipping religion into the novel, but not letting it take over the whole thing. The way other minor characters act and feel about religion at the camp is very well put into the novel as well as realistic.

"Sometimes -- usually first thing when I wake up -- I forget. I go to get out of bed and it's like a blind down or a slap around the head."

Riley is very influenced by her best friend Chloe, a total and utter party girl. Throughout the novel we hear Riley speak and think of her best friend in a realistic way that you would a person you admire. How Riley grows without her wildly confident and experienced best friend makes me smile and gives me this odd sense of closure. Riley grows a lot through this novel and I love that, because it was time for her to do so.
Riley and Dylan’s relationship is the kind of cute that makes you smile warmly. I love the way they acted around one another, how completely random and comfortable they were.
Howell does a great job of writing a story that makes you laugh and think, it’s a novel that I would recommend to any teenager looking for a novel that is thought provoking, but gives you room to laugh.

I’m giving this novel four out of five (I’ve given a lot of novels this score recently haven’t I?) it was a good and quick read that was fun and thoughtful.

--Allie.

*Don't forget to email me your thoughts on the novel Just Listen, ASAP.

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta.

And then the dark forces of the curse entombed the kingdom, separating a people in two. This is the story, as told to those of us who were born to see such days, recorded here in the Book of Lumatere so we will never forget.

Rating: 5/5

Summary: (From melinamarchetta.com.au)At the age of nine, Finnikin is warned by the gods that he must sacrifice a pound of flesh in order to save the royal house of his homeland, Lumatere.

And so he stands on the rock of three wonders with his childhood friend Prince Balthazar and the prince's cousin, Lucian, and together they mix their blood. And Lumatere is safe.

Until the 'five days of the unspeakable', when the King and Queen and their children are slaughtered in the palace. And an imposter king takes the throne.
And a curse is put on Lumatere, which traps those caught inside and forces thousands of others to roam the land as exiles, dying of fever and persecution in foreign camps.

But ten years later Finnikin is led to another rock to meet the young novice, Evanjalin. A girl plagued by dark dreams, who holds the key to their return to the Land of light...

Review: This is a story written in third person and is about dwindling and fiery hope, about redemption and guilt, regret and love, about finding those who you love and going back for those who you left behind. Six long months I waited for this novel and I was not disappointed. Melina Marchetta, my favourite author in the world managed to once again weave another original and amazing tale.

The first thing I will say is: how does Marchetta write such original stories? When you think about the basics of her stories they sound very genial, but whenever she writes it screams originality. This was her first fantasy story and I must say that she pulled this one off.

Her story was a little complicated, she created a whole new world and learning the names of every country, every town was a little difficult at the beginning but as the novel went on you learned a lot about each and I commend Marchetta highly on being able to give so much detail to every town she created that little bit of history we were given made the story that much more realistic and moving.

Finnikin was the main character and was...well awesome. I loved how he was so determined and good natured, I read a Q&A about FOTR on her website and Marchetta said that she had trouble writing Finnikin because he kept appearing too weak or too arrogant, but I think that she crafted him wonderfully. Evanjalin was a great character and was a kick ass female heroin, Finnikin and Evanjalin's relationship was fantastic, complicated and once again, realistic, especially considering the time era. My favourite character though had to be Perri the Savage, he was delightfully miss understood and I loved that Finnikin's father Trevanion trusted him whole heartedly and gave him a chance, despite the rumors that circulated around him, when I explain it that way it sounds corny doesn't it? Well, it isn't.

But Trevanion was staring at Perri. “You,” he said. “If anything happens to me, protect my boy.”

I loved that towards the end of the book we got a look from the misunderstood Froi's point of view, he was perceived as such an awful character at the start of the novel, but he was so...sweet, after my initial hate for him I felt a little bit of sympathy towards him and when I read his perspective it made my feelings of sympathy stronger and caused me to really like him.

The others pretended that deep down he wasn't bad. That he didn't come from evil. But she knew. She saw the badness. She saw it now and shivered. Page: 244.

Melina's wonderful style shone through in this novel, her flashbacks, dream sequences and just writing was beyond enjoyable to read.

A lot of brutal things happen in this story and Marchetta is never too frank about them, which I liked, she implies a lot of what happened to the women and the reaction of her characters say more then the harsh sentence ever would.

Marchetta threw in so many twists and turns it made this almost 400 page novel one I powered through, one twist had me gaping because it was popped in at the most random time and I didn't know whether it was a dream or wishful thinking. One of the biggest twist of the novels I'm glad to say I guessed (yes, I guessed it, whooo) and it was a great twist indeed.

So, overall: the plot? Engaging, amazing, awesome, fantastic, wonderful and amusing. The characters? Gah, amazing. I loved each and every one of them for every flaw and everything that made them glorious. The twists? Amazing, fun, beyond interesting. The writing? Don't get me started on how fantastic it was, how the story was intricately weaved and just so beautiful that I can't believe someone has that much writing talent.

I want you read this book, I love it. I want you to read each and every novel of Marchetta's because each is so wonderful I want you to be able to experience it.

Are you in the U.S? Are you going insane and really want this novel? Well, you can get your hands on it Spring 2010, a little while away, but you can always try and find it on the net.

Five out of five, I think that my review says enough, please, read it when you get the chance.

--Allie

Losing it by Lizzie Wilcock

Gabbie Martyn has the perfect family, perfect grades, perfect everything. She's fourteen and is loving it. Things couldn't get any better. But then things change and things get worse

Her uncle Daryl moves in with them for some mysterious reason. Her best friend Zoe is more cryptic then usual, she's rebelling and even getting arrested. And then Gabbie's falling in love with Zak, the gorgeous new boy from New Zealand.

Gabbie has to fight, because if she doesn't, she may just lose it.

I think that my expectations were too high. I was told by friends that it was “the best book ever”. I disagree. Straight after I read the novel I found that it was written too simply, the MC is made out to be quite intelligent as far as fourteen year old girls go, but I felt as if her intelligence in the writing style was understated. When I look back on the novel now though, I think that innocence in the style is important to the plot.

Each character was somewhat complex, I really loved Zoe's character, she was delightfully dark and in some ways I could relate to how Gabbie felt about her friend, slowly slipping away. I also loved Zak, he was sweet and made me smile. Gabbie was great as far as MC's go. She was sweetly innocent and I loved going through her story and watching her experience new things.

This story is fun and sweet, but has a terrible theme lurking in the background, that gives the book a dark twist. It's always there, on the edge of your tongue and makes the book one that you have to finish. I'm not going to spoil this novel for anyone who hasn't read it, but I think that as you get into it, you will know what I am talking about.

I thought that this novel was pretty good, like I've mentioned, a tiny bit too juvenile for my liking, but still, really liked it, defiantly not a terrible novel. It was a wonderful coming of age story, though, like I said, there's a dark element to it.

If you know me well, you will know how I feel about happy endings. This novel had a dramatic ending, that people who like things to be all cleared up at the end would hate. It left a lot of stuff up in the air and gave only a fraction of closure. I was glad that I didn't have to go through the end bit filled with closure and happy endings, instead the ending is somewhat happy and it leaves a lot up to the readers imagination as to what happens next.

All in all, I'd give this novel three stars, very sweet, fun and had a creepy element that I didn't so much as enjoy, but made the novel a lot more interesting.

--Allie

Losing It by Lizzie Wilcock

Gabbie Martyn has the perfect family, perfect grades, perfect everything. She's fourteen and is loving it. Things, they couldn't get any better. But then things change.

Her uncle Daryl moves in with them. Her best friend Zoe is more cryptic then usual, she's rebelling and even getting arrested. And then Gabbie's falling in love with Zak, the gorgeous new boy from New Zealand.

Gabbie has to fight, because if she doesn't, she may just lose it.

I think that my expectations were too high. I was told by friends that it was “the best book ever”. I disagree. Straight after I read the novel I found that it was written too simply, the MC is made out to be quite intelligent as far as fourteen year old girls go, but I felt as if her intelligence in the writing style was understated. When I look back on the novel now though, I think that innocence in the style is important to the plot.

Each character was somewhat complex, I really loved Zoe's character, she was delightfully dark in a sense and in some ways I could relate to how Gabbie felt about her friend, slowly slipping away. I also loved Zak, he was sweet and made me smile. Gabbie was great as far as MC's go. She was sweetly innocent and I loved going through her story and watching her experience new things.

This story is fun and sweet, but has a terrible theme lurking in the background, that gives the book a dark twist. It's always there, on the edge of your tongue and makes the book one that you have to finish. I'm not going to spoil this novel for anyone who hasn't read it, as someone spoiled the novel for me, but I think that as you get into it you will know what I am talking about.

Okay, so all and all, I thought that this novel was pretty good, like a said, a tiny bit too juvenile for my liking, but still, really liked it, defiantly not a terrible novel. It was a wonderful coming of age story, though, like I said, there's a dark element to it.

If you know me well, you will know how I feel about happy endings. This novel had a dramatic ending, that people who like things to be all cleared up at the end would hate. It left a lot of stuff up in the air and gave only a fraction of closure. I was glad that I didn't have to go through the end bit filled with closure and happy endings, instead the ending is somewhat happy and it leaves a lot up to the readers imagination as to what happens next.

All in all, I'd give this novel three stars, very sweet, fun and had a creepy element that I didn't so much as enjoy, but made the novel a lot more interesting.

Allie.