Review Catch-Up: Titan Books

All books discussed in this post were gifted to me by Titan Books in exchange for an honest review.

I am so far behind in my reviews at the moment that I’ve decided to do a few publisher round-ups to try and catch up. This is the first, covering some of the books the very lovely people at Titan Books have sent me. I’m hoping that if I can clear the decks a bit, I’ll be able to actually post reviews at a point that approximates to the book’s release date. We’ll see how this goes.

 

Cursed ed. by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane

Cursed is an anthology of stories based on fairytales, edited by the same people who did the Wonderland anthology of Alice-inspired stories (see my review here). I’d really enjoyed Wonderland and was hoping for more of the same from Cursed, but unfortunately, this time the stories had a much stronger horror bent, and they weren’t really for me. I could see they were well-written, and I’m sure if you’re a fan of horror they were great, but my sensibilities are just a bit too delicate to have properly enjoyed the collection. Because of that, I found it a bit of a slog to get through but I still chose to rate it 3/5 because it wasn’t a bad book.

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

I read Dread Nation last year and absolutely loved it. Zombies are not usually my thing (in much the same way as horror isn’t), but the whole idea of the dead rising at Gettysburg and then over-running the US is fascinating. The duology presents such a likely alternative history for those circumstances that, even though it’s horrific, you can’t help getting caught up in it. But more than that, I love Jane and Katherine and their reluctant journey to friendship (and maybe something more?). I think I loved Deathless Divide more than I loved Dread Nation, and that’s saying something. It’s up there as one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I rated it 5/5.

The Library of the Unwritten by A J Hackwith

I wasn’t sure what this book would actually be like when I read the synopsis but I did like the idea of it being set in Hell’s library, where every book never written is stored. But what happens when a character escapes? Well, the head librarian gives chase of course! There’s more to it than that but to give any more details would be to spoil the twists and turns, and I wouldn’t want to do that. I really enjoyed this book – it maybe dragged a little bit in the middle, but I liked the way we were given bits of the library’s history and the stories of those who came before Claire, our main character, and the main plot was good without losing character development – and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel! I rated it 4/5.

Skein Island by Aliya Whiteley

Well, this was a very interesting book! It kind of defies categorisation to be honest. It’s the story of Marianne, who is sent an invitaton to Skein Island, a private refuge for women. Normally, a woman applies for her place, and Marianne has no idea why she’s been sent an invitation – but she knows about the island because seventeen years earlier her mother visited it and never came home. The way Whiteley layers the story with flashbacks and interludes which slowly tie together is excellent, and it’s a genuinely fascinating book which looks at the roles we all play. It did take me a while to read it, because it’s quite a slow book, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I rated it 4/5.

The Bone Garden by Heather Kassner

I must admit, when I first requested this book, I was not expecting it to be a middle grade book. I didn’t even know Titan published middle grade! Fortunately, I love a good children’s book, and this was indeed a good children’s book. It was definitely creepy (in a good way), and I really liked the character development. I think if you were actually giving it to a child to read, you’d have to be pretty sure they could deal with the themes though – the main antagonist is essentially a Dr Frankenstein, creating children from bone dust, and there are some very creepy moments. I was a bit wary of reading it at bedtime, and I’m a fully grown adult! I rated it 4/5.

I quite like this short review format, so I might do this more often in the future, and not just as a way to get through more reviews! Let me know what you think of this review post format – yay or nay?

Book Review: The Rules

A copy of this book was gifted to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I’ve been promising this review since April, and as The Rules by Tracy Darnton finally came out last week, I thought it was about time I actually wrote the post! I really loved this book, so many thanks to Charlie at Stripes for sending it to me.

Amber’s an expert when it comes to staying hidden – she’s been trained her whole life for it. But what happens when the person you’re hiding from taught you everything you know?

When a letter from her dad arrives, Amber knows she’s got to move – and fast. He’s managed to find her and she knows he’ll stop at nothing to draw her back into the extreme survivalist way of life he believes in.

All of a sudden the Rules she’s spent so long trying to escape are the ones keeping her safe. But for how long?

If you’ve read Stripes’ short story collection, I’ll Be Home For Christmas (and if you haven’t, you should), you’ve already met Amber, the lead character in The Rules. Tracy Darnton won a competition to have her story featured in the anthology, and that story was Amber receiving a letter from her dad via her social worker. I loved the story, so I was excited to read The Rules and see what happened next.

It’s not an exaggeration to say what happened next was nailbiting and I was genuinely surprised at how much I loved it. Amber is terrified of her dad catching up with her. It took a long time for her and her mum to escape him in the first place, and now she’s on her own and she knows he’s getting closer. Darnton dripfeeds us the background in flashbacks throughout the book so we don’t learn everything at once, but we can feel Amber’s fear and desperation and the suspense is sky high. There is a sense throughout that Amber is hiding something, and I really liked this aspect, which really paid off at the end. Amber is not a particularly likeable character, but as the extent of the abuse she suffered becomes clear, you understand her. At the same time, she’s not defined by that abuse, which I think is important.

I also really liked her relatonship with Josh, even if she did make some obvious mistakes which wound the tension even more because of it. Having someone there who knew and liked her, and occasionally reined her in helped Amber grow as a character too, and it was nice that it was more of a friendship than anything else.

I highly recommend The Rules. I can’t remember the last book I read that left me actually breathless with the tension when reading, and if that’s your sort of book, it’s definitely worth picking up. Just be aware that there are a number of content warnings listed in the book (well done to Stripes and Tracy for including them – there are so many publishers and authors that don’t) and take care of yourself.

4.5/5