Bodies of Light – Jennifer Down
From Storygraph: So by the grace of a photograph that had inexplicably gone viral, Tony had found me. Or: he’d found Maggie.
I had no way of knowing whether he was nuts or not; whether he might go to the cops. Maybe that sounds paranoid, but I don’t think it’s so ridiculous. People have gone to prison for much lesser things than accusations of child-killing.
A quiet, small-town existence. An unexpected Facebook message, jolting her back to the past. A history she’s reluctant to revisit: dark memories and unspoken trauma, warning knocks on bedroom walls, unfathomable loss.
She became a new person a long time ago. What happens when buried stories are dragged into the light?
My Thoughts: OK, I’m not going to hold back—I loved this. Maggie grows up in the foster system in Victoria and each chapter of the book is headed by the address she’s living at and the dates, so some chapters are really short and others are longer. There is child abuse in this book so if that is a trigger for you, you probably want to avoid it. I liked the way the author handled this part though, it was tackled obliquely and at, I imagine, the level of understanding of Maggie at the time of the abuse. So you know something is happening, but without a full understanding of what. It was well done and not gratuitous which I appreciated. The book left me with a similar feeling to I Who Have Never Known Men, with the main character having a resilience despite the bleak circumstances. This is a Miles Franklin Award Winner. 5-stars of course.
Orbital – Samantha Harvey
From Storygraph: Life on our planet as you’ve never seen it before: in this spellbinding and uplifting novel six astronauts rotate in the International Space Station. They are there to do vital work, but slowly they begin to wonder: what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?
Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents, and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.
My Thoughts: Storygraph has a question to answer when you’re reviewing books—plot or character driven and for this I would have to say neither. The writing is beautiful but it felt self-indulgent to me. I guess I just prefer my lyrical wonder and insight in the for of a Mary Oliver poem not a 200 pg novel. Booker Prize Winner (I usually enjoy these, but nope) 2-stars.
The Tainted Cup – Robert Jackson Bennett
From Storygraph: A peculiar crime. A brilliant investigator. A mystery of epic proportions.
In an opulent mansion at the borders of the Empire, an Imperial officer lies dead – killed when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even here, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.
Called in to solve the crime is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricity. At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, an engraver,magically altered to possess a perfect memory.
Soon, the mystery leads to a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself. For Ana, all this makes for a deliciously thorny puzzle – at last, something to truly hold her attention. And Din? He’ll just have to hold on for the ride.
My Thoughts: A take on the Sherlock and Watson theme set in a fantasy world. This was great fun, the twists in the investigation were clever and the world building was original. I also liked the way the world was revealed slowly as part of the story instead of being laid out in advance. This was a winner of the Hugo Award. Would have normally been the read of the month, but was trumped by Bodies of Light. 5-stars.
Powerless – Lauren Roberts
From Storygraph: Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites. The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward.
Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished in order to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and a thief by necessity. Surviving in the slums as an Ordinary is no simple task, and Paedyn knows this better than most.
Having been trained by her father to be overly observant since she was a child, Paedyn poses as a Psychic in the crowded city, blending in with the Elites as best she can in order to stay alive and out of trouble. Easier said than done. When Paeydn unsuspectingly saves one of Ilyas princes, she finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials.
The brutal competition exists to showcase the Elites’ powers—the very thing Paedyn lacks. If the Trials and the opponents within them don’t kill her, the prince she’s fighting feelings for certainly will if he discovers what she is—completely Ordinary.
My Thoughts: My daughter lent me this ages ago and I had a break when I had no library books so I picked it up. It was some good, light, escapist fun and pretty standard fare for the romantasy genre. The story moved along at a good pace and the plot had some interesting twists and turns. I’ll probably read the next book. 3.5 stars.
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