Review: How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox

How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox

Published: 7th May 2019 | Publisher: Dial Books | Cover Designer: Kristie Radwilowicz | Cover Illustrator: Karolis Strautiekas | Source: Bought
Helena Fox's Website

Biz knows how to float. She has her people, her posse, her mom and the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who tells her about the little kid she was, who loves her so hard, and who shouldn't be here but is. So Biz doesn't tell anyone anything. Not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And she doesn't tell anyone about her dad. Because her dad died when she was seven. And Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface--normal okay regular fine.

But after what happens on the beach--first in the ocean, and then in the sand--the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Dad disappears, and with him, all comfort. It might be easier, better, sweeter to float all the way away? Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, bring him back to her. Or maybe--maybe maybe maybe--there's a third way Biz just can't see yet. From Goodreads.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features sex shaming, hallucinations, disassociation, anxiety and panic attacks, depression, suicide ideation, and discussion of suicide.

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Once Upon a Retelling: Cassandra by Kathryn Gossow

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Welcome to Once Upon a Retelling! I'm a huge fan of retellings, and I'm really interested in hearing about authors' own love of the original stories, and what inspired them to retell those stories. And so Once Upon a Retelling was born, a feature in which I interview authors about their versions of well-loved tales.

Today, YA author Kathryn Gossow is stopping by to discuss her Greek myth retelling, Cassandra.

Can you tell us a little about Cassandra? What kind of a retelling of Greek myth of Cassandra is it?

Cassandra is inspired by the Greek myth of Cassandra, the princess of Troy who is given the gift of prophecy but is cursed to never be believed. She had a reputation for being quite mad but she saw every calamity that would fall on the Trojans, and her own violent death. It would be difficult to maintain your mental health under these circumstances.

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Review: A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews

A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews (eProof) - An emotionally charged story of music, abuse and, ultimately, hope.

Beck hates his life. He hates his violent mother. He hates his home. Most of all, he hates the piano that his mother forces him to play hour after hour, day after day. He will never play as she did before illness ended her career and left her bitter and broken. But Beck is too scared to stand up to his mother, and tell her his true passion, which is composing his own music - because the least suggestion of rebellion on his part ends in violence.

When Beck meets August, a girl full of life, energy and laughter, love begins to awaken within him and he glimpses a way to escape his painful existence. But dare he reach for it? From Goodreads.

I received this eProof for free from Orchard Books via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger Warning: This book features child abuse - violence and emotional abuse.

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A Novel Cover Up: Sophie Burdess on the Cover for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are designed.

Thanks to Orchard Books, I have been fortunate enough to interview Book Designer Sophie Burdess about how she designed the cover for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews for my stop of the Blog Tour for this YA #LoveOzYA debut novel. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Sophie Burdess and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

Can you tell us about the cover for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

The book is emotionally hard-hitting: it’s both a story of violence and abuse but also of hope and coming to life, so I wanted to find a way to try to convey both to the reader. I hope the image gives a kind of visual punch - something violent and in your face, but also beautiful and fragile, to play with that tension in the story. With any luck the reader will also feel a contrast of the imperfect type and the ‘perfect’ in the title and get the sense that something is amiss.

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Review: The Beast's Heart Leife Shallcross

The Beast's Heart Leife Shallcross (eProof) - A sumptuously magical, brand new take on a tale as old as time—read the Beast's side of the story at long last.

I am neither monster nor man—yet I am both.

I am the Beast.

The day I was cursed to this wretched existence was the day I was saved—although it did not feel so at the time.

My redemption sprung from contemptible roots; I am not proud of what I did the day her father happened upon my crumbling, isolated chateau. But if loneliness breeds desperation then I was desperate indeed, and I did what I felt I must. My shameful behaviour was unjustly rewarded.

My Isabeau. She opened my eyes, my mind and my heart; she taught me how to be human again.

And now I might lose her forever.

Lose yourself in this gorgeously rich and magical retelling of The Beauty and the Beast that finally lays bare the beast's heart From Goodreads.

I received this eProof for free from Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Trigger Warning: This book features a suicide attempt.

Warning: This review contains minor spoilers, but as this is a retelling of The Beauty and the Beast, it only spoils the aspects of the story we already know about from the original fairy tale.

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Review: The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah (#Ad)

The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah

I was sent this review copy by Scholastic for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Michael is drawn to his new classmate Mina, but they're on opposite sides of an issue that's tearing their town apart. His parents are part of an anti-immigration group, while her family have fled their besieged home in Afghanistan. As tensions rise, lines are drawn and both must decide what they want their world to look like, no matter the cost. From Goodreads.

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Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (bought) - HERE IS A SMALL FACT:
YOU ARE GOING TO DIE.
1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.

Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with her foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

SOME MORE IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH.

It's a small story, about:
a girl
an accordionist
some fanatical Germans
a Jewish fist fighter
and quite a lot of thievery.

ANOTHER THING YOU SHOULD KNOW:
DEATH WILL VISIT THE BOOK THIEF THREE TIMES. From Goodreads.

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Review: Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland

Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland (proof) - Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him - at least not yet.

Instead, he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything's about to change.

Grace isn't who Henry pictured as his dream girl; she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys' clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It's obvious there's something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn't your average story of boy meets girl. From Goodreads.

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