Review: The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor (#Ad)

I was sent this review copy for free by GMC Distribution on behalf of Astra Young Readers for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

Published: 8th August 2022 (UK release date) | Publisher: Astra Young Readers | Source: Publisher
Maya MacGregor’s Website

In this queer contemporary YA mystery, a nonbinary teen with autism realizes they must not only solve a 30-year-old mystery but also face the demons lurking in their past in order to live a satisfying life.

Sam Sylvester's not overly optimistic about their recent move to the small town of Astoria, Oregon after a traumatic experience in their last home in the rural Midwest.

Yet Sam's life seems to be on the upswing after meeting several new friends and a potential love interest in Shep, the pretty neighbor. However, Sam can't seem to let go of what might have been, and is drawn to investigate the death of a teenage boy in 1980s Astoria. Sam's convinced he was murdered--especially since Sam's investigation seems to resurrect some ghosts in the town.

Threatening notes and figures hidden in shadows begin to disrupt Sam's life. Yet Sam continues to search for the truth. When Sam discovers that they may be closer to a killer than previously known, Sam has a difficult decision to make. Would they risk their new life for a half-lived one? From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, bullying, anxiety and a panic attack, self-harm stimming, misgendering, homophobia, biphobia, bi-erasure, and a physical homophobic and transphobic attack against a non-binary person.

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Review: Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain (#Ad)

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

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Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain

Published: 2nd September 2021 | Publisher: Electric Monkey | Source: NetGalley
Ginny Myers Sain’s Website

La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide.

This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World--and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey's best friend, disappeared six months earlier.

Grey can't believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something--her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave.

When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou--a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town's bloody history--Grey realizes that La Cachette's past is far more present and dangerous than she'd ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn't know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent--and La Cachette's dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart. From Goodreads.

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features vomit, blood, self-harm, suicide ideation, domestic abuse, gun violence, arson, almost drowning, and infanticide.

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Review: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

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Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Published: 16th January 2018 | Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books | Source: Bought
Maureen Johnson’s Website

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. "A place," he said, "where learning is a game."

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym "Truly, Devious." It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester.

But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three. From The StoryGraph.

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features anxiety and panic attacks, and a dead body.

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Review: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Published: 3rd September 2020 | Publisher: Penguin | Source: Bought
Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Website

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why - or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.

To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch - and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions.

Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive. From The StoryGraph.

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, poverty, absent and dead parents, guns, gun violence, domestic abuse, and an attempt to run off the road.

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Quick Fire Review: House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

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House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Published: 6th April 2021 | Publisher: Hot Key Books | Source: Bought
Krystal Sutherland's Website

A dark, twisty modern fairytale where three sisters discover they are not exactly all that they seem and evil things really do go bump in the night.

Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. And they're changing. First, their dark hair turned white. Then, their blue eyes slowly turned black. They have insatiable appetites yet never gain weight. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous.

But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time--something her two famously glamourous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, Iris and Vivi are left to trace her last few days. They aren't the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they've been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home. From The StoryGraph

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Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features vomit, blood, alcoholism, suicide, missing children, and body horror.

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Review: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Published: 5th September 2019 | Publisher: Orion | Source: Bought
Diane Setterfield's Website

Everybody has a story...

Angelfield was once home to the March family: fascinating, manipulative Isabelle; brutal, dangerous Charlie; and the wild, untamed twins, Emmeline and Adeline. But the house hides a chilling secret which strikes at the very heart of each of them, tearing their lives apart...

Now Margaret Lea is investigating Angelfield's past, and its mysterious connection to the enigmatic writer Vida Winter. Vida's history is mesmering - a tale of ghosts, governesses, and gothic strangeness. But as Margaret succumbs to the power of her storytelling, two parallel stories begin to unfold...

What has Angelfield been hiding? What is the secret that strikes at the heart of Margaret's own, troubled life? And can both women ever confront the ghosts that haunt them...?

The Thirteenth Tale is a spellbinding mystery, a love letter to storytelling, and a modern classic. From The StoryGraph

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features dementia, self-harm, abandoned children, child neglect, violence against women, rape, incest, violence, murder, and arson.

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Review: The Golden Key by Marian Womack (#Ad)

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

The Golden Key by Marian Womack

Published: 18th February 2020 | Publisher: Titan Books | Cover Designer: Julia Lloyd | Source: Publisher
Marian Womack's Website

An extraordinary, page-turning Gothic mystery set in the wilds of the Norfolk Fens from the BSFA-shortlisted author.

London, 1901. After the death of Queen Victoria the city heaves with the uncanny and the eerie. Séances are held and the dead are called upon from darker realms.

Samuel Moncrieff, recovering from a recent tragedy of his own, meets Helena Walton-Cisneros, one of London’s most reputed mediums. But Helena is not what she seems and she’s enlisted by the elusive Lady Matthews to solve a twenty-year-old mystery: the disappearance of her three stepdaughters who vanished without a trace on the Norfolk Fens.

But the Fens are a liminal land, where folk tales and dark magic still linger. With locals that speak of devilmen and catatonic children found on the Broads, Helena finds the answer to the mystery leads back to where it started: Samuel Moncrieff. From Goodreads.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features the word g*psy, and prejudice against the traveller community, misogyny of the time, animal cruelty, animal death, people in a catatonic state, child death, mention of abusive marriages, child abuse, mention of death by suicide, and problematic language around suicide.

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Review: Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus (#Ad)

I was sent this proof for free by Penguin for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Published: 10th January 2019 | Publisher: Penguin | Cover Designer: | Source: Publisher
Karen M. McManus' Website

Ellery's never been to Echo Ridge, but she's heard all about it. It's where her aunt went missing at age sixteen, never to return. Where a Homecoming Queen's murder five years ago made national news. And where Ellery now has to live with a grandmother she barely knows, after her failed-actress mother lands in rehab. No one knows what happened to either girl, and Ellery's family is still haunted by their loss.

Malcolm grew up in the shadow of the Homecoming Queen's death. His older brother was the prime suspect and left Echo Ridge in disgrace. His mother's remarriage vaulted her and Malcolm into Echo Ridge's upper crust, but their new status grows shaky when mysterious threats around town hint that a killer plans to strike again. No one has forgotten Malcolm's brother-and nobody trusts him when he suddenly returns to town.

Ellery and Malcolm both know it's hard to let go when you don't have closure. Then another girl disappears, and Ellery and Malcolm were the last people to see her alive. As they race to unravel what happened, they realize every secret has layers in Echo Ridge. The truth might be closer to home than either of them want to believe.

And somebody would kill to keep it hidden. From Goodreads

Rep: This book features a biracial (half white, half Latina) protagonist, a gay (though no label), biracial (half white, half Latino) secondary character, and a queer, Korean American secondary character.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features violence; anonymous, public threats of murder; a hit and run leading to death; a dead body; gun threats; attempted murder; murder; discussion of human remains; and paedophilia.

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Review: Impossible Causes by Julie Mayhew (#Ad)

I was sent this proof for free as a giveaway prize by the Bloomsbury Raven for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Impossible Causes by Julie Mayhew

Published: 17th October 2019 | Publisher: Raven Books | Source: Won in a giveaway.
Julie Mayhew's Website

For readers of All the Missing Girls and You Will Know Me, Impossible Causes is a gripping thriller about isolation, power, and the lies that fester when witnesses stay silent.

For six months every year, Lark Island is fogged in, its occupants cut off completely from the mainland. The community is small, tight-knit, and deeply religious. Lark seems like a good place for 16-year-old Viola Kendrick and her mother to be alone as they mourn Viola’s father and brother, both killed in a tragic accident.

But the islanders are hiding dark secrets. As the winter fog sets in, Viola gets to know the Eldest Girls—the only three teenagers on Lark—and begins to learn about the island’s twisted history, including an old story of a young girl, whose death the islanders insist was accidental. When a man’s body is found at the end of Viola’s first winter on Lark, Viola finds herself at the center of a murder mystery: one that asks whether the man’s death was a righteous act of revenge, or a cold-blooded killing.

Eerie and menacing, timely and moving, Impossible Causes is an unputdownable thriller that examines the consequences of secrets kept at young women’s expense. From Goodreads.

Rep: Two lesbian side characters.

Trigger Warnings: This book features sex, death, a funeral, animal sacrifice, photos of naked people being taken without their consent, murder, and rape.

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Review: This Lie Will Kill You by Chelsea Pitcher (#Ad)

I received this eProof for free from Simon & Schuster Children's Books via NetGalley for the puposes of providing an honest review.

This Lie Will Kill You by Chelsea Pitcher (eProof)

Published: 27th December 2018 | Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books  | Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Chelsea Pitcher's Website

Tell the truth. Or face the consequences.

Clue meets Riverdale in this page-turning thriller that exposes the lies five teens tell about a deadly night one year ago.

One year ago, there was a party.
At the party, someone died.
Five teens each played a part and up until now, no one has told the truth.

But tonight, the five survivors arrive at an isolated mansion in the hills, expecting to compete in a contest with a $50,000 grand prize. Of course…some things are too good to be true. They were each so desperate for the prize, they didn’t question the odd, rather exclusive invitation until it was too late.

Now, they realize they’ve been lured together by a person bent on revenge, a person who will stop at nothing to uncover what actually happened on that deadly night, one year ago.

Five arrived, but not all can leave. Will the truth set them free?
Or will their lies destroy them all? From Goodreads.

Goodreads

Trigger Warning: This book features child abuse: domestic violence; an abusive relationship: controlling, manipulating, gaslighting and stalking; bullying, violence, discussion of suicide, and suicide ideation.

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Review: Sadie by Courtney Summers

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Published: 4th September 2018 | Publisher: Wednesday Books | Source: Bought Courtney Summers' Website

A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page. From Goodreads.

Trigger Warning: This book features child murder, child abuse/paedophilia, child neglect, attempted sexual assault, alcoholism and drug addiction.

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Review: The Book of Blood & Shadow by Robin Wasserman

The Book of Blood & Shadow by Robin Wasserman (review copy) - It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.

When the night began, Nora had two best friends and a boyfriend she adored. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands. Chris was dead. Adriane couldn’t speak. And Max, Nora’s sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora’s determined to follow the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. But Chris’s murder is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life. From Goodreads.

I was sent this ARC for free by Atom for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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Review: A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry

A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry (eProof) - Everyone knows the legends about the cursed girl--Isabel, the one the señoras whisper about. They say she has green skin and grass for hair, and she feeds on the poisonous plants that fill her family’s Caribbean island garden. Some say she can grant wishes; some say her touch can kill.

Seventeen-year-old Lucas lives on the mainland most of the year but spends summers with his hotel-developer father in Puerto Rico. He’s grown up hearing stories about the cursed girl, and he wants to believe in Isabel and her magic. When letters from Isabel begin mysteriously appearing in his room the same day his new girlfriend disappears, Lucas turns to Isabel for answers--and finds himself lured into her strange and enchanted world. But time is running out for the girl filled with poison, and the more entangled Lucas becomes with Isabel, the less certain he is of escaping with his own life. From Goodreads.

I received this eProof for free from Algonquin Young Readers via NetGalley for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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Review: Follow Me Back by Nicci Cloke

Follow Me Back by Nicci Cloke (eProof) - There was no sign of a struggle, they whisper to each other. She took her phone but left her laptop behind.
Apparently, she'd met someone online, they write to each other in class, phones buzzing.
She ran away. She was taken.

The first time Aiden Kendrick hears about Lizzie Summersall's disappearance is when the police appear at his front door. He and Lizzie used to be friends; they aren't anymore. And when Aiden finds out that Lizzie had been talking to strangers on Facebook; that the police think she went to meet one of them, he begins to wonder how well he ever really knew her, and Aiden doesn't know it yet, but with Lizzie's disappearance his life is about to take a twisted and desperate turn. From Goodreads.

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Review: One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus (#Ad)

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

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

Yale hopeful Bronwyn has never publicly broken a rule.

Sports star Cooper only knows what he's doing in the baseball diamond.

Bad body Nate is one misstep away from a life of crime.

Prom queen Addy is holding together the cracks in her perfect life.

And outsider Simon, creator of the notorious gossip app at Bayview High, won't ever talk about any of them again.

He dies 24 hours before he could post their deepest secrets online. Investigators conclude it's no accident. All of them are suspects.

Everyone has secrets, right?

What really matters is how far you'll go to protect them. From Goodreads.

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Review: The Next Together by Lauren James

The Next Together by Lauren James (reading copy) - How many times can you lose the person you love?

Katherine and Matthew are destined to be born again and again, century after century. Each time, their presence changes history for the better, and each time, they fall hopelessly in love, only to be tragically separated.

Spanning the Crimean War, the Siege of Carlisle and the near-future of 2019 and 2039 they find themselves sacrificing their lives to save the world. But why do they keep coming back? What else must they achieve before they can be left to live and love in peace?

Maybe the next together will be different... From Goodreads.

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Review: Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia - Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. This is a compelling and provoking literary debut that will appeal to fans of Wes Anderson, Silver Linings Playbook, and Liar.

Alex fights a daily battle to figure out the difference between reality and delusion. Armed with a take-no-prisoners attitude, her camera, a Magic 8-Ball, and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college. She’s pretty optimistic about her chances until classes begin, and she runs into Miles. Didn't she imagine him? Before she knows it, Alex is making friends, going to parties, falling in love, and experiencing all the usual rites of passage for teenagers. But Alex is used to being crazy. She’s not prepared for normal.

Funny, provoking, and ultimately moving, this debut novel featuring the quintessential unreliable narrator will have readers turning the pages and trying to figure out what is real and what is made up. From Goodreads.

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Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (#Ad)

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

I was sent this review copy for free by Simon & Schuster Children's Books for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Kami Glass is in love with someone she's never met - a boy the rest of the world is convinced is imaginary. This has made her an outsider in the sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she doesn't complain. She runs the school newspaper and keeps to herself for the most part - until disturbing events begin to happen. There has been screaming in the woods and the dark, abandoned manor on the hill overlooking the town has lit up for the first time in 10 years. The Lynburn family, who ruled the town a generation ago and who all left without warning, have returned. As Kami starts to investigate for the paper, she finds out that the town she has loved all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets- and a murderer- and the key to it all just might be the boy in her head. The boy who everyone thought was imaginary may be real...and he may be dangerous. From Amazon UK

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Review: By Midnight by Mia James

By Midnight by Mia James (review copy) - April Dunne is not impressed. She's had to move from Edinburgh to Highgate, London, with her parents. She's left her friends - and her entire life - behind. She has to start at a new school and, worst of all, now she's stuck in a creepy old dump of a house which doesn't even have proper mobile phone reception. Ravenwood, her new school, is a prestigious academy for gifted (financially or academically) students - and the only place her parents could find her a place, in the middle of term, in the middle of London, on incredibly short notice. So she's stuck with the super-rich, and the super-smart ...and trying to fit in is when the rest of the students seem to be more glamorous, smarter, or more talented than she is, is more than tough. It's intimidating and isolating, even when she finds a friend in the conspiracy-theorist Caro Jackson - and perhaps finds something more than friendship in the gorgeous, mysterious Gabriel Swift.

But there's more going on at Ravenwood than meets the eye. Practical jokes on new students are normal, but when Gabriel saves her from...something...in the Highgate Cemetery, and then she discovers that a murder took place, just yards away from where she had been standing, April has to wonder if something more sinister is going on.

...and whether or not she's going to live through it... From Amazon UK

I love me some vampires, yes I do! So for the simply fact that By Midnight had vampires in it was a definite plus in it's favour for me reading it. However, I am not a fan of books where people are popular and rich and focus all their attention on either how they look or putting others down. From the blurb above, I assumed that's what I would find, among other things, in this book, and it did put me off for a while - hence the fact that I've only just read it. But I picked it up recently when trying to decide what to read next, and vampires and murders and cememtries... well, my interest was piqued enough to know now was the time to give it a go.

By Midnight is a really good stry, but it's not what I expected. I know it's a mystery, but the fact that it's about vampires, I expected a bit more of the supernatural element. You know, maybe April stumbling across some vampires being vampish and drinking blood or being extra strong or something, but there isn't much of anything along those lines in the book until much later on. It really is a mystery. April doesn't find out the existance of vampires by accident, but through trying to work out who's behind various murders. Through clues, and books, and talking to people, and going about things the old fashioned way.

I have to say, the research part of the book was just awesome! This book is loosely based on actual real life legends of the Highgate Vamire, people actually believed there was one in Highgate Cemetary, which features hugely in this book. Real places with real "supernatural" history are the settings for this story, which just add credibility to this story which is just wonderful. I actually want to go visit Highgate Cemetary now because it sounds wonderful. But I also love the research April does herself into vampires; the old victorian books she reads that are just full of brilliant myths and folklore, and, oooh, I want those books! It was just fascinating!

The mythology James has created for her story is just wonderful, but highly intriguing. There is still a big mystery, and the mechanics of the vampire society, if you will - or what we know of it so far - is just so interesting. There's a lot of conspiracies going on, and because of this I can't tell you much more, but I can't wait to find out more about vampires as a whole, and the specifics that April is interested in in the later books.

Thankfully, there wasn't too much queen bee bitching going on to wind me up, but there were elements of By Midnight that did annoy me. April is 16 and starting her A-Levels. I remember being that age, and the people around me. April was sometimes too immature and shallow for her age, and I just wanted to shake her and yell at her to grow up. She could be so fickle, swayed too easily by good looks. And when she had an inkling as to what was going on, she would jump back and forth over whether she was right or wrong, without actually listning to what would give her the answers she would need to know either way. She really wound me up, and I have to say, I'm not her biggest fan.

But still, the story was really, really intriguing, and I'm really looking forward to reading the sequel Darkness Falls. A pretty good book!

Thank you to Gollancz for sending me a review copy.



Published: 22nd July 2010
Publisher: Gollancz YA
Buy from Amazon US
The Ravenwood Mysteries Website

Continue reading Review: By Midnight by Mia James