October 2012 – Page 2 – Aussie Reviews

My Hundred Lovers, by Susan Johnson

Half a century has passed since I entered the world through that now-perished body.
A human lifespan is less than a thousand months long.
I find myself gripped by an urge to tidy up, to sort through my body’s memories, a curator arranging artifacts in a museum. I have lived my way into a time in which my body has its own archaeology.
I am in a fever to outrun myself, to be first to reach the ribbon, before my body forgets what it means to run.

With an evocative, even provocative, title like My Hundred Lovers, it is hard not to come to a book with some preconceptions. But, whilst sex is definitely a part of this offering, this much more. Tracing one woman’s story so far (she is about to turn 50), the book offers one hundred vignettes, each representing one of her ‘lovers’, drawn from every stage of her life.

The lovers are as varied as they are numerous – from buttery croissants, to pets, to human lovers. Sometimes we meet the lover in a tale spanning several pages, but others cover just a couple of lines. Each could be read alone, but together they tell a story of the narrator’s life and particularly of her sensual journey from conception through childhood and youth, into adulthood and reaching her middle years. Whilst not always chronological, the arrangement of the individual parts builds beautifully to show both where the protagonist has been and where she is now.

The novelty of the form, the beauty of the writing and the range of experiences – from the mundane to the exotic – combine to create a satisfying whole.

My Hundred Lovers, by Susan Johnson
Allen & Unwin 2012
ISBN 9781741756357

Available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Winter's Light, by MJ Hearle

Her thoughts struggled to accept what had happened. Somehow the power of the stone had transported her into the body of a stranger. She was seeing through another’s eyes. The scene in front of her lurched again, making Winter feel like a passenger trapped in a speeding car, and she was suddenly standing over a pool of dark water. The light of the candles shimmered along the surface, softly illuminating the pale reflection she saw there. If she had a mouth it would have fallen open in silent shock.
The reflection in the water belonged to Blake.

Blake is gone. He died in order to protect Winter, and now she is alone, haunted by dreams of everything that happened. But the lodestone around her neck, her token of Blake, is acting strangely, and she is being taunted with visions of Blake, alive, but imprisoned. Is it possible? She saw him die – yet these visions are frighteningly real. If Blake is alive, Winter will stop at nothing to find and save him

Winter’s Light is the excellent sequel to Winter’s Shadow, though stands enough alone for new readers to engage with. Set in a unique paranormal world inhabited by beings unique to this series – the Skivers, the Demori and the Bane making a refreshing, though frightening, change to the werewolves and vampires so popular in recent paranormal offerings. At the same time though, the quest, the strong female protagonist, the modern world meets alternate reality, are all familiar elements teen paranormal fans will enjoy.

In places dark and frightening, this is an absorbing read suitable for teen readers.

Winter’s Light, by M.J. Hearle
Pan Macmillan, 2012
ISBN 9781742611037

Available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Brumby's Run, by Jennifer Scoullar

The most important meeting of her life, and she was running late. Faith had offered to come along, but Sam had sensed her reluctance. In the end she’d gone off in a cab by herself, under a gloomy sky. It was probably for the best. This was something she needed to do, alone. The car swished through the rainy streets. Sam stared out the window, stomach knotted tight in anticipation. She was about to meet a sister she’d known about for less than twenty-four hours.

Samantha Carmichael is enjoying a carefree summer before she starts a university degree. But, over lunch, her mother delivers two stunning pieces of news – firstly that Samantha is adopted, and secondly, that she has an identical twin sister, Charlie. It seems the truth has come out now because Charlie is critically ill, and only Sam can save her.

Sam and Charlie have grown up in different worlds, but their connection is instant, and soon Sam finds herself offering to look after her sister’s home at Brumby’s Run, a propety high in the Victorian Alps, while Charlie recovers in the city. Sam knows horses, but she has never lived in the country, and now her days are filled with looking after cattle, breaking brumbies, and getting the run-down property back on track. Fortunately she has a helping hand from the handsome Drew Chandler, the son of the neighbouring property owner and Charlie’s former boyfriend.

As the time for Charlie’s return draws closer, Sam finds herself faced with an unwelcome possibility – has she stolen her sister’s life, and will Charlie want it back?

Brumby’s Run is a moving tale of family secrets and relationships, rural life, and the brumby – the wild mountain dwelling horses of the Australian alps. Whilst this is a romance, the issues dealt with are important too, and dealt with well. the exploration of the many issues surrounding brumbys is especially well handed, leaving the reader well informed.

Issues aside, the key here is that this is an accessible read, with romance at its heart.

Brumby’s Run, by Jennifer Scoullar
Penguin 2012
ISBN

Available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Cold Grave, by Kathryn Fox

‘What is the exact time?’ The doctor demanded. He was about to stop resuscitation and record time of death. Anya did not want to give up. The girl was young. She deserved every chance. So did her family. Especially on a cruise sip. Death was the last thing anyone expected on a family holiday.

Anya Crichton is excited at the opportunity to take a much-needed break with her six year old son.A trip on a luxury cruise ship will give them plenty of time together, with nothing to disturb them. Or so she thinks. But on their first morning, Anya’s ex-husband Martin discovers the body of a teenage girl shoved in a cupboard. There are no police out at sea, and limited expertise, so Anya finds herself offering to help n the investigation. What she finds, though, is much more than just a single death. A pattern soon emerges of sexual assaults, drug use and disappearances. While she seeks to uncover the truth, she must also face facts that she and her family could now be squarely in the sights of the killer, or killers.

Cold Grave continues the adventures of forensic physician Anya Crichton. As with previous offerings the book is a pleasing blend of pace, intrigue and character development. The novelty of the shipboard location adds interest, though providing an uncomfortable glimpse into the darker side of the cruise experience – drunkenness, crime and lack of accountability among them, along with the poor conditions for some staff and the problems of ecological accountability and the quest for profits.
These issues are dealt with in a way which informs whilst still providing a thrilling read.

Gripping.

Cold Grave, by Kathryn Fox
Macmillan, 2012
ISBN 9781742610344

Available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond.

Moonlight & Ashes, by Sophie Masson

Inside my cupboard was a tree – a miniature hazel tree no higher than the length of my hand from wrist to fingertips, but still a tree, perfect in every way…And as I stared, I saw a slight movement amongst the leaves, a rustle carried by a wind I couldn’t feel, a wind that came from – I knew not where.

Once Selena was the must loved and pampered daughter of a wealthy noble and his cherished wife. Now, though, her mother is dead and Selena is Ashes, the lowest servant in the house, ignored by her father and mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters. All that keeps her from running away is the death bed promise she gave her mother – to stay strong and not abandon her father.

When her sixteenth birthday arrives, Selena is at her lowest ebb. Her father, it seems, has forgotten her birthday, and she is in trouble with her stepmother. When her father does remember his gift is simple – a twig from a hazel tree growing near her mother’s grave. It seems impossible, but this twig is the beginning of change for Selena. Its enchantments allow her to attend an elaborate ball, where she meets the Crown Prince.

Moonlight and Ashes is a brilliant retelling of the Cinderella story, though it is as unexpected as it is beautiful. There is not a fairy godmother or a pumpkin in sight. Instead, Selena is a strong young woman who draws on her own resourcefulness, and the strength of her new friends, together with her newly discovered gifts, to grasp her destiny.

There is magic in this book – it captivates and keeps the pages turning.

Moonlight and Ashes, by Sophie Masson
Random House, 2012
ISBN 978174275379

This book is available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Violet Mackerel’s Personal Space by Anna Branford ill Sarah Davis

Violet Mackerel is on a summer holiday at the beach with her sister, Nicola, her brother, Dylan, her mum and her mum’s boyfriend, Vincent. It is nearly the end of the holiday and Violet is wishing it was still the beginning.

At the beach house where they are staying there are bunk beds. Violet has been sleeping on the bottom bunk. She has tucked a sheet under the mattress of the top bunk and dangled it down, so it is a small personal space of her own.

Violet has had a lovely time with her family at the beach, but now it’s time to go home. As she packs up she discovers a left-behind shell, and develops a new theory. This one is about leaving something of yourself behind when you leave. But thoughts of leaving little things behind are forgotten when Mum and Vincent make an announcement. It’s a double-barrelled announcement, and although Violet is happy about the first part, the moving-house second part is going to take some time to get used to. Violet thinks things through at her own pace as the world around her begins to swirl with change.

Violet Mackerel’s Personal Space is a new instalment in a series about Violet. As with previous offerings, it’s a beautiful hardcover book, with Sarah Davis’s gentle illustrations. Each opening includes black & white illustrations designed to intersperse the text and give the reader the opportunity to pause. Endpapers feature shells set in th same orange as the spine. Young Violet is surrounded by a supportive family, but she is determined to work her own way through things. In this case, it’s the notion of personal space and that it’s a different notion for everyone. ‘Violet Mackerel’s Personal Space’ uses Violet’s perspective to examine the responses of all the family members to the changes they are encountering. Delightful. Recommended for mid-primary readers.

Violet Mackerel’s Personal Spaceby Anna Branford ill Sarah Davis
Walker Books 2012
ISBN: 9781921529207

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

This book is available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Raven Lucas 2: Dead Wrong by Christine Harris

Raven felt her mum’s hand quivering in hers.

‘I can’t do it,’ whispered Mum. ‘I just … can’t.’ She had lost weight recently and it made her eyes look huge.

‘It’s okay,’ said Raven. ‘I don’t mind going. It’s doing something for Dad.’

Actually, she did mind. Not because she was standing in for Mum, but because Gerald Rooney, her dad’s business partner, had pressured them. Her stomach knotted at the idea of having to smile and talk to people she didn’t know.

As though nothing was wrong.

It was becoming harder to pretend that Dad was only running late. That he’d turn up any minute with a laughing apology. Since he had disappeared there was a huge silence in their lives. The music had gone. The colour. The breath.

Raven felt her mum’s hand quivering in hers.

‘I can’t do it,’ whispered Mum. ‘I just … can’t.’ She had lost weight recently and it made her eyes look huge.

‘It’s okay,’ said Raven. ‘I don’t mind going. It’s doing something for Dad.’

Actually, she did mind. Not because she was standing in for Mum, but because Gerald Rooney, her dad’s business partner, had pressured them. Her stomach knotted at the idea of having to smile and talk to people she didn’t know.

As though nothing was wrong.

Raven’s dad went missing in Raven Lucas 1. It was the worst thing to happen in Raven’s world. But things are getting worse. Many people are trying to find him, besides the police who think he is responsible for several crimes. And many of those people think Raven knows where he is. Raven’s mum is still unstable, her brother is too young to help and her father’s business partner seems to have taken it upon himself to act in loco parentis. Raven is running. Running to stay ahead of the game, running to stay ahead of people prepared to do almost anything to find out where her dad is. And if she’s going to beat them to it, she’s going to have to up her pace.

Dead Wrong continues the twisting and turning of the first novel in this series. Raven is wealthy and smart, sassy and inventive. Time alone will tell if this is going to be enough to find out what’s going on. But she refuses to believe the worst about her father, just because others say so. She firmly believes in her father, just as she slips into the role of protector of her remaining family. But it’s not always easy to be sure who to trust. She has supportive friends but she’s reluctant to bring them into her troubled world. In many ways, she is on her own. A riveting mystery thriller for mid- to upper secondary-readers. Watch out for the third and perhaps final instalment in the Raven Lucas series.

Dead Wrong (Raven Lucas), Christine Harris
Omnibus Books 2012
ISBN: 9781862919280

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Avaialble online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Eddie Pipper by Janeen Brian ill Emma Stuart

‘Eddie Pipper! Here, now!’

Oh, oh. In his bedroom, Eddie wiped his gleey hands down the sides of his grey school shorts. Glue dried clear. Mum would never know. He stood too quickly and his foot knowced the jar of glue. It tilted – and toppeled! Oh, no! He scooped some of the gooey mixture off the bare wooden floor and plopped it back into the container.

‘Eddie!’

He’d get the rest later. With any luck, it might soak into the floorboards and he wouldn’t have to clean it up.

‘Back soon, Might Penguin,’ he told the sloppy mess of paper strips glued to a couple of balloons.

‘Eddie Pipper! Here, now!’

Oh, oh. In his bedroom, Eddie wiped his gluey hands down the sides of his grey school shorts. Glue dried clear. Mum would never know. He stood too quickly and his foot knocked the jar of glue. It tilted – and toppleed! Oh, no! He scooped some of the gooey mixture off the bare wooden floor and plopped it back into the container.

‘Eddie!’

He’d get the rest later. With any luck, it might soak into the floorboards and he wouldn’t have to clean it up.

‘Back soon, Might Penguin,’ he told the sloppy mess of paper strips glued to a couple of balloons.

Nearly-nine-year-old Eddie Pipper is passionate about penguins. He’d desperately love a penguin as a pet. And he does have a birthday coming up. But there are more than a few hurdles. First he has to remember to be responsible. Leaving your sister in a pool of ice and forgetting about her, isn’t responsible. No matter how much penguins like it, little sisters don’t. And then there’s the forgetting. His head is so full of penguins and how to get one of his own that there’s not much room for anything else. Like bus money. And Pet Parade.

Many parents will recognise the obsession that can overtake children and consume them to the exclusion of almost everything else. Many children will recognise that longing for something that seems to remain tantalisingly out of reach. And the seeming lack of empathy from those around them. Eddie is a dreamy, yet focussed child (very focussed!) and readers will cheer him on. Eddie Pipper is a new title in New Frontier’s Little Rockets series, targeted at lower- to mid-primary readers. Text is wide-spaced and colour illustrations are dispersed throughout. Stories are fully realised but not over-long, with achievable length chapters. Recommended for lower- to mid-primary readers. And anyone who longs for a pet of their own.

Eddie Pipper by Janeen Brian ill Emma Stuart
New Frontier Publishing 2012
ISBN: 9781921928215

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Available online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Change the Locks by Simon French

Like clockwork, I kept waking.

There was a noise next to me that made me blink my eyes open for moments at a time and stare into the blackness. I knew what it was.

Whenever the baby’s breathing got out of time or the sheets in the cot next to my bed rustled too much, it woke me. Most times, I could dart out of bed and reach into the cot and pat his back until he calmed; rearrange his quilt before the restless breathing became a squealy cry. I knew that if I didn’t move myself quickly enough, there’d be a sudden glare of hallway lights and lots of trouble.

I held my breath and waited. The sheets rustled again

Like clockwork, I kept waking.

There was a noise next to me that made me blink my eyes open for moments at a time and stare into the blackness. I knew what it was.

I held my breath and waited. The sheets rustled again.

Don’t cry.

Steven, his mum and his baby brother, Dylan, live in a cottage some distance from a country town where he goes to school. He doesn’t know how they got there, or why the past is so foggy, but it is. It comes to him in incomprehensible snatches that seem to make no sense. In the present, his mum is struggling to cope and Steven is doing his best to make things right. Add to this the fear that things are going to get worse now the car has been stolen, and Steven is travelling with a lot of baggage. And he has the normal stuff of life to deal with. He is sure it would all be easier if he could just unlock the memories of before.

Steven has had to cope with much more than most kids. Occasionally he wishes things were different, that he had a different family, but mostly he just puts his head down and does what needs to be done to get by. Change the Locks was originally published in 1991 and now is republished by Walker Books. It has lost none of its relevance in that time. It paints a realistic and sympathetic portrait of a child, a family, who are all too often invisible. Steven tells his story in first person, and the reader can often see what he can not. Change the Locksis a moving story of survival from the perspective of nearly twelve-year-old boy. Simon French has a light touch with heavy material and ‘Change the Locks’ is compellingly readable. Recommended for upper-primary, early-secondary readers.

Change the Locks, Simon French
Walker Books 2012
ISBN: 9781921720758

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Boggle Hunters: Game On by Sophie Masson

Eleven thousand metres up in the night sky, Sam Fetch sat slumped in an aeroplane seat, feeling very sorry for himself. How could his parents have been so cruel as to send him off like an unwanted package to some English relatives he hardly knew? Frankly, he didn’t care if he never got to know them. It was so long since he’d last seen them – more than six years, when he’d been only five. They may as well be total strangers. Why did he have to go there? Sam thought crossly.

He was certain it would rain every day, and it would be weird spending every minute indoors with people he hardly knew.

Sam’s parents are bird-watching in the Arctic for the summer, and because he complained so much last time, that they’ve found somewhere else for him to be. Only that’s promising to be even more dull and boring than bird-watching. He remembers only little about his English cousin, but what he remembers he doesn’t like. Not that Jenny’s much more thrilled when she discovers that she has to look after Sam. Her parents have been called away on an important mission and she’d much rather have gone with them. After all, she’s a Boggle Hunter too. Boggles are nasty pests, a ‘by-product of the cold war that has always existed between the rival faery tribes known as the Fays and the Grays. Boggles are created by Grays to cause havoc in our human world, while Fays must constantly work at detecting and destroying boggles before they cause that havoc. When Sam and Jenny re-meet, they are no keener to spend time together than previously. Both have plans and are happy to agree to go their separate ways. And those ways are as far from each other as possible.

Boggle Hunters: Game On is the first title in a new series for young readers. Fay and Gray folk are warring faeries with very differing views on the importance of Earth and humans. Boggles are responsible for all sorts of earthly disruption from computer glitches to crop failures. There are secrets everywhere and the reader must be constantly alert for clues as to who is on the side of good and who supports evil. Sam and Jenny find their own way and make their own decisions, but the ways they choose do not always lead where they expect. Computer gamers will enjoy Grim’s Castle which captivates Sam. Fantasy readers will track Jenny’s adventures and race to the conclusions with her. Recommended for mid- to upper-primary readers.

Boggle Hunters: Game On, Sophie Masson
Scholastic Press 2012 ISBN: 9781741698510

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

This book is avaialable online from Fishpond. Buying though this link supports Aussiereviews.