Quickfire Reviews: Beach Edition

It’s time for a little bookish catch up, mostly because I want to talk about the books I read when I was away last weekend because that is what I do when I am placed on a beach for 4 days with nothing to worry about and no place to be: I read. I didn’t read as much as I thought I was going too actually, because it was hot, man. The kind of hot that leaves you unable to do little more than lie with your eyes closed and dip in and out of the sea. What I did read, though, was pretty good, which – well that’s excellent isn’t it, because nobody wants to read something shit on holiday (or ever).

So, quickfire reviews. Here we go.

Review: We Come Apart

I read three books over Easter weekend. Three. I cannot remember the last time I read three books in one weekend and actually I’m not entirely sure how I managed it this particular weekend because man, I did a lot of things over Easter. So many of the things, roadtrips and walks and food and drink and family visits and fun on the park and somehow in amongst all of that I still squeezed in three whole books.

Clearly reading is my superpower and WHY DO I NOT HAVE THAT ON A TSHIRT ALREADY? Next stop: Redbubble.

Soooooooooo. This post was going to be a bookish catch up post because that seemed to make the most sense to me right now except that when I sat down and started talking about We Come Apart I realised I had quite a bit to say and that if I had the same amount to say about the other two than this post would be wordy. So I’m not going to talk about them all right now other than to say that all three of these books were good books and I have things to say about them all.

Review: One

I was totally drawn in to Sarah Crossan’s One by the buzz. I’m not going to lie: I was hearing about this book everywhere: on twitter, on instagram, on booktube, in the blogosphere, and I’m a bit like that really: I kind of like to know what all the fuss is about. I don’t stay away from books that get a lot of hype because I have this need to break free from the crowd and ‘those books are never any good anyway’ – I go after them with grabby hands because what if they are that good and I am missing out. I don’t like to miss out.

So, One, the story of teenaged conjoined twins Tippi and Grace was everywhere and there were whispers of a Wonder like magic and I loved Wonder so freaking hard and I wanted in. I WANTED IN. & soooooo I read it (thanks Netgalley, for that) and here I am SO MUCH LATER BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW I HAVE SUCKED THIS SUMMER and I am ready to talk at you about it.

S’a good book.

Don’t worry, that’s not the end (hello, have you met me? Of course that’s not the end.)

That’s the starting point though: it’s a good book.

The ending is predictable (and I feel like such a little rebel starting at the end) and possibly a little bit too much, probably the only time actually when I felt that emotions were being shoved in may face: this is how you should be feeling Josephine so go ahead and feel it, but Wonder was the same at the end and I suspect that might have more to do with my not being the target demographic than anything else you know? & honestly? I did feel that way, all of those things that I think Crossan wanted me to feel. I totally felt them.

Really, the whole thing could totally have been overly sentimental and teeth-rottingly sweet and just too much but it wasn’t. This is actually a pretty beautiful book.

It’s very cleverly written which as always gives me all the love/hate feelings (how do you words I love you. how do you words I hate you) and it’s poignant and powerful and lovely. It’s written in verse which is awesome and unusual and I love and so sometimes there’s only a handful of words on the page so you know, no overly flowery descriptions here, but that’s what makes it so clever: every word feels like it counts for something, like it holds a message, like it matters.

It’s such a refreshing change too, to read something that’s different to most other things. You don’t get that many books written in free verse, unless you’re hanging out in the poetry section obvs (and perhaps I ought to do that more. Jen, send me some recs please *heads over to Jen’sbooktube*) I mean, what is this book? Poetry collection? Novel? Both? 

Whatever it is, I bloody loved it. It’s what made it for me I think. I mean the story is excellent and the characters are gorgeous and it’s a book about issues – not just Tippi and Grace and what their lives look like, but anorexia and HIV and alcoholism all feature – and it’s a book about life and it’s a book that makes you think and question and feel; it’s relevant and it’s important but more than that it’s so beautiful. SEDUCE ME WITH PRETTY WORDS. I’m not going to lie: I’m a bit of a smitten kitten and I want some more Sarah Crossan in my life please.

You should read it peeps: this has been a recommendation.