Isabella's Reading Corner: Everless

Everless

Author: Sara Holland

Publication Date: January 2nd 2018

Publisher: HarperTeen

Everless, a debut fantasy novel by Sara Holland, is set in the kingdom of Sempera where time has been bound to blood and iron and its inhabitants must sell it to survive. Jules Ember and her father have been expelled from Everless, the estate owned by the powerful Gerling family and now live in poverty in the village of Crofton. When Jules suspects her father is dying, she must do whatever she can to buy him more time, even if it means returning to the home of the Gerlings whom she holds intense hatred for. 

Jules is fiercely loyal and brave. She loves her father and is concerned for him as she soon discovers he is selling his blood iron to support them. She is willing to take enormous risks to save him and anyone else she cares about. Danger and intrigue await her at every turn, as not everyone she meets is who they appear or claim to be. 

The story has a unique and unusual premise – a world where time is taken away or added to through the blood. There is a description of villagers waiting in line to have their time extracted from them which made me shudder, as being bled brings them closer to death. The rich live for centuries in opulence, while the poor, having to sell their time to survive, live in squalor and fear.

Everless is a compulsively readable, beautifully written novel with gorgeous imagery, lush settings and strong characters that kept me mesmerised. The details revealed of the history of the Semperans and their Queen are fascinating. I highly recommend this book and am anxiously awaiting the sequel!

Thank you to Harper Collins Canada for the ARC provided to review.

From the publisher:

In the kingdom of Sempera, time is currency—extracted from blood, bound to iron, and consumed to add time to one’s own lifespan. The rich aristocracy, like the Gerlings, tax the poor to the hilt, extending their own lives by centuries.

No one resents the Gerlings more than Jules Ember. A decade ago, she and her father were servants at Everless, the Gerlings’ palatial estate, until a fateful accident forced them to flee in the dead of night. When Jules discovers that her father is dying, she knows that she must return to Everless to earn more time for him before she loses him forever.

But going back to Everless brings more danger—and temptation—than Jules could have ever imagined. Soon she’s caught in a tangle of violent secrets and finds her heart torn between two people she thought she’d never see again. Her decisions have the power to change her fate—and the fate of time itself.

Fans of Victoria Aveyard, Kendare Blake, and Stephanie Garber will devour this lush novel's breathtaking action, incredible romance, and dangerous secrets.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Everless here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: Bonfire

Bonfire

Author: Krysten Ritter

Publication Date: November 7th 2017

Publisher: Crown Archetype

Abby Williams is an environmental lawyer living in Chicago. She returns to her hometown of Barrens to investigate concerns of unsafe water with potential ties to a large company called Optimal. Deep into her investigation, Abby becomes obsessed with finding the truth behind the complaints. Memories slowly resurface and buried feelings reignite as she makes her way through the town, interacting with old classmates and the other residents of Barrens. 

Abby is complex and sympathetic. She has unresolved issues with her past and is slightly elusive with her memories. When she moved to Chicago she transformed into a new persona by reinventing herself and washing away any remnants of her small town life. While growing up in Barrens, she was viciously bullied by a group of girls – led by the popular Kaycee Mitchell, bringing Abby to the verge of suicide. Kaycee had once been her best friend. In their senior year of high school, her tormenters showed signs of strange ailments. Accusations were made against Optimal, but a civil suit was quickly dropped when the girls admitted it was a hoax. Abby, however, never stopped believing it was true. She had seen the look of terror on Kaycee’s face during one of her spells and was convinced she couldn’t be feigning her sickness. 

Leading a research team investigating the rash of current complaints, Abby finds reports of old grievances and issues linked to the town’s water supply and Optimal. She is desperate to find a connection between the latest sickness claims and what had happened to Kaycee in high school, refusing to believe her allegations were false.

Ritter's storytelling is rich in detail. Its dark and brooding suspense had me eagerly turning the pages to unravel layers of the mystery. The threat of danger, whether real or imagined, was exciting and I was anxious to find out what would happen. Above all, this is a character-driven novel. The development of Abby and her relationships, with past events affecting the present, is what made this such a compelling read for me. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers with flawed, intense female protagonists, I would definitely recommend Bonfire.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the copy provided to review.

From the publisher:

Can you ever outrun your past?

From actress, producer, and writer Krysten Ritter, a gripping, tightly wound suspense novel about a woman forced to confront her past in the wake of small-town corruption

It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small-town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.

But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town’s most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’s biggest scandal from more than a decade ago, involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends—just before Kaycee disappeared for good.

Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in the weak spots, the unanswered questions. But as she tries desperately to find out what really happened to Kaycee, troubling memories begin to resurface and she begins to doubt her own observations. And when she unearths an even more disturbing secret—a ritual called “The Game”—it will threaten reputations, and lives, in the community and risk exposing a darkness that may consume her.

With tantalizing twists, slow-burning suspense, and a remote rural town of just five claustrophobic square miles, Bonfire is a dark exploration of what happens when your past and present collide.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on Bonfire here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: The Nowhere Girls

The Nowhere Girls

Author: Amy Reed

Publication Date: October 10th 2017

Publisher: Simon Pulse

The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed is about three young women who decide to fight the rape culture that exists within their small town. 

Grace Salter moves with her parents to Prescott, Oregon from Kentucky. On her first day at her new high school, she makes what becomes a significant decision to sit with Erin DeLillo and Rosina Suarez in the school cafeteria at lunch time and quickly bonds with them. Erin DeLillo is an outsider who is sensitive, has trouble understanding human behaviour and hates unpredictability. Rosina Suarez comes from a large extended family and looks after her grandmother and younger cousins. She holds down a job at her uncle's Mexican restaurant to help make ends meet, but would much rather spend her time performing and playing in a band.

Grace hears about Lucy Moynihan, the former tenant of her new home, who was raped by boys from her school and then ostracized by most of the town. The boys who raped Lucy got away with it, while their friends, family, teammates, school and authorities all looked the other way. It was easier to ignore Lucy's claims than give her justice. Grace is horrified that no one defended Lucy and is concerned because it could have been any of them this could have happened to. After a discussion with Erin and Rosina, the three decide to form an anonymous group called the Nowhere Girls. They organise a meeting and send emails to all the girls at school offering a safe place to share their own experiences, not just in regards to Lucy, but how they feel they are treated as women. 

Grace, Erin and Rosina are surprised, but pleased when a variety of their classmates turn up at the first meeting. Initially the hurdle they must overcome is a lack of understanding from the new Nowhere Girls to each other's situations and feelings. Some girls come out of curiosity. One girl felt she didn't have anyone to support her after approaching the school principal and being told it was her own fault for being groped – that she had put herself in a 'compromising position'. All the girls have a different reason for being there. 

The author gets inside the minds of all the girls, each with their own set of circumstances and pressures to look and behave a certain way, as well as to expect and accept the behaviour that follows. They show overwhelming concern for others’ opinions, to be noticed or not noticed. The boys proudly compare how many girls they slept with as a form of competition. The ones who don't participate say nothing. The enabling from parents, teachers, coach and principal allows the boys to feel braver. Many in the town felt guilty for their treatment of Lucy, but refused to acknowledge what really happened or accept their complicity. I found it fascinating to see how the community dealt with the Nowhere Girls, their thoughts and reactions. Even more interesting to me was how the girls themselves address and adjust to their own relationships in the aftermath. 

The story is not solely about the main protagonists – Grace, Erin and Rosina, or even what happened to Lucy. The Nowhere Girls are every girl and the book features widely diverse, realistic characters.  It is about all the girls who have their own stories and voices waiting to be heard. The victim shaming, blaming and sexism represented is authentic and plausible. This is an intensely powerful and timely novel that I recommend.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC provided for review.

From the publisher:

Three misfits come together to avenge the rape of a fellow classmate and in the process trigger a change in the misogynist culture at their high school transforming the lives of everyone around them in this searing and timely story.

Who are the Nowhere Girls?

They’re everygirl. But they start with just three:

Grace Salter is the new girl in town, whose family was run out of their former community after her southern Baptist preacher mom turned into a radical liberal after falling off a horse and bumping her head.

Rosina Suarez is the queer punk girl in a conservative Mexican immigrant family, who dreams of a life playing music instead of babysitting her gaggle of cousins and waitressing at her uncle’s restaurant.

Erin Delillo is obsessed with two things: marine biology and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but they aren’t enough to distract her from her suspicion that she may in fact be an android.

When Grace learns that Lucy Moynihan, the former occupant of her new home, was run out of town for having accused the popular guys at school of gang rape, she’s incensed that Lucy never had justice. For their own personal reasons, Rosina and Erin feel equally deeply about Lucy’s tragedy, so they form an anonymous group of girls at Prescott High to resist the sexist culture at their school, which includes boycotting sex of any kind with the male students.

Told in alternating perspectives, this groundbreaking novel is an indictment of rape culture and explores with bold honesty the deepest questions about teen girls and sexuality.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on The Nowhere Girls here.