Once Upon a Bookcase: blind in one eye

Monday, 15 October 2018

2018 YA debut, blind in one eye, disability, rachel burge, review, the twisted tree, ukya, urban fantasy, YA

Review: The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge (#Ad)

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

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

Part ghost story, part Nordic thriller - this is a twisty, tense and spooky YA debut, perfect for fans of CORALINE and Michelle Paver.

Martha can tell things about a person just by touching their clothes, as if their emotions and memories have been absorbed into the material. It started the day she fell from the tree at her grandma's cabin and became blind in one eye.

Determined to understand her strange ability, Martha sets off to visit her grandmother, Mormor - only to discover Mormor is dead, a peculiar boy is in her cabin and a terrifying creature is on the loose.

Then the spinning wheel starts creaking, books move around and terror creeps in . . .

Set in the remote snows of contemporary Norway, THE TWISTED TREE is a ghost story that twists and turns - and never takes you quite where you'd expect. From Goodreads.

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

Trigger Warning: This book features possible ableism, gory violence, and animal cruelty.

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

blind, blind in one eye, contemporary, david arnold, disability, mosquitoland, review, YA

Review: Mosquitoland by David Arnold (#Ad)

07:00 Jo 1 comment

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

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

When her parents unexpectedly divorce, Mim Malone is dragged from her beloved home in Ohio to the 'wastelands' of Mississippi, where she lives in a haze of medication with her dad and new (almost certainly evil) stepmom.

But when Mim learns her real mother is ill back home, she escapes her new life and embarks on a rescue mission aboard a Greyhound bus, meeting an assortment of quirky characters along the way. And when her thousand-mile journey takes a few turns she could never see coming, Mim must confront her own demons, redefining her notions of love, loyalty, and what it means to be sane. From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features sexual assault, suicide, forced treatment by father of a mental illness the main character doesn't seem to have, very negative stereotype of a person with what I believe to be Schizophrenia, an intersex slur, and likening a person with Down's Syndrome with a pet.