The Crossing, BM Radburn

This is a great debut novel. The characters are believable, the cliches are absent and to some extent inverted and the location is eerie enough to host a missing young girl and a small sliver of hope.

Meet Taylor Bridges, a park ranger whose 8 year old daughter goes missing. As a consequence his otherwise happy marriage, begins to crack and chip prompting him to take a break and move an island away to Tasmania, to the small town of Glory's Crossing.

Being under the attentions of a mining group is never fun, being the recipient of a local government dam project is even less so. Glory's Crossing is literally, slowly sinking as the local river is flooded and the dam being built. To this town of old friends and foes arrives Taylor.

Here he is on the outskirts of a community tragedy until another little girl goes missing. This little girl had enchanted Taylor with her cheeky behaviour one day prior. A chronic sleepwalker since the disappearance of his daughter, Taylor begins to worry he is the cause of these disappearances.

Needlessly, might I add. The group of characters gathered to tell this story are the novel's forte. Believable, funny at times and with the potential to be someone you know, these characters allowed me to acknowledge the many ways in which humans, as a species are really quite fragile.

It's a great mystery with enough elements of surprise to make for a engaging read. I'm looking forward to reading more from this new author.

3stars

You can find out more or download the first chapter here!

She's So Dead to Us, K. Scott

Ally had it all. The rich and loving father, the beautiful and charismatic social mother, the perfect friends, the perfect school and the perfect life.

Then she lost it all because a mistake her father made. The family was forced to leave their idyllic lifestyle and move far away to escape the hatred in her friends eyes and the coldness of their words.



The cover that I own.



If it sounds like Mean Girls in a literary form, perhaps it is. There are other things which speak for this book. In large part the kind of characters you know you've met somewhere - in high school, at the job after school or during a holiday in a country not your own.

The cruel girls, the boys who see all but do little. The mothers with concerns stemming from makeup and ending on latest fashions. It's heart breakingly true, isn't it?



A cover that is perhaps more apt for the story.



I loved the attitude Ally had, she was sad that her friends had forgotten her, were treating her like an infectious disease yet she held out hope that eventually they would see past her financial status and remember the good times they had shared.

Unfortunately, at 16 no one has that kind of mind set. But with a cute (albeit annoying) boy thrown in, some familial drama of the patriarchal order, this book has a lot to recommend itself with.

I vote, we all read it and then have a pyjama party!

4stars.

NB: part 1 of a trilogy, I only realized this when I got to the end, mighty annoying but good for people who like a little more depth to their stories without the bulky brick sized one book tales.

The Emerald Atlas, J.Stephens

Four-year old Kate, one year-old Michael and baby Emma are taken from their beds and left at an orphanage in the care of an alcoholic nun. We leap some years and meet the children when Emma is 11 years-old and a brat, Michael is 12 and most concerned with dwarfs and their ways and 15 year-old Kate is holding onto the promise she made to her mother as she was being taken, she would always look after her siblings, she would hold on until the family could be reunited.

It's a story worthy of being considered in the ranks of Harry Potter and His Dark Materials by Rowling and Pullman, respectively. There is more realist elements than perhaps in Harry Potter, the children and readers are not shielded from the harm, they thrown in and expected to deal with it.

Perhaps fans of the popular series' may not appreciate the diversion from mystery found in The Emerald Atlas, but it's a welcome change for anyone looking for something fantastical with a twist.

There are witches and dwarfs, riddle-telling wizards (no, not like Dumbledore) and evil characters who make your skin crawl. The true heroes are the children themselves and although the trilogy has been / is being written with a book for each child (Emerald Atlas is Kate's book) the other siblings get ample footage and growing room. The book introduces not just the obvious heroes but some who will surprise by the end.

Good reading for anyone aged 12 and above, or younger readers who enjoy devouring books.

5stars

Check out the official website (excerpt, trailet etc) here.
Footnote: The author was one of the writers' on popular tv show, Gossip Girl, although you wouldn't be able to tell from reading this book.

The Unwelcome Guests

I've been neglecting you, blog. Apologies.

An inexplicable thing had happened, I've fallen ill three times this year. First, over the Christmas long weekend, the usual culprits of nose blockage, coughing were joined by headaches, lethargy and severe vomiting. This last guest was particularly unwelcome, I must say. The others were somewhat more tolerable, though lethargy was pushing it a little with it's persistence.

Second, approximately two weeks past, I was visited by all the above bar the coughing; he chose to arrive post the others departure.

Third, currently, I'm entertaining all my earlier guests, minus vomit who has thankfully stayed away. I really do appreciate it, love. All other ailments please follow suit and leave.

Particularly headache, you dear, have overstayed your welcome by far.

I've been doing a lot of bus reading these past few weeks. Funnily enough, I have this feeling I haven't been updating what I've read at the speed in which they are read. Sigh. Must correct this.

Binks and I are going away, well we hope to, at the end of the year. Money is an issue. Probably The Issue, we face currently. In my hours of plotting, I've been thinking a joint blog might be a good idea, if we can get this joint blog hosted by someone like, oh, say the folks at Lonely Planet, that would be gold. Or someone who would pay us something.

If not, we revert back to Plan C, selling pieces of our kidneys.