There There – Tommy Orange

There There by Tommy Orange

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Received: PRH Canada
Published: 2018
Publisher: Knopf
Recommended Age: 14+
Genres & Themes: Adult, Literary Fiction, Family, Generations, Native Peoples, Modern Life, Substance Abuse, Violence

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REVIEW:

No one is lying. This truly is a necessary read. I thought it would read like a boring History textbook because the book literally starts by telling us some history so I immediately put it down. But I decided to give it a second chance, because how dare I abandon a story after a couple of pages only? I made the decision to push through that info-dumping part, but actually I didn’t have to force through anything because I really got into the author’s writing and wit quickly after and the reading began to feel actually natural.

A Ladder to the Sky – John Boyne

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: PRH Canada
Published: 2018
Publisher: Hogarth Press
Recommended Age: 14+
Genres & Themes: Adult, Literary Fiction, LGBTQIA+, Historical Fiction, Books about Books, Writing, Family, Success

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REVIEW:

I have never before genuinely despised an antihero. Antiheroes are hella fun. By that I mean that I love to root for them because they’re often unpredictable, unconventional and unusual and they don’t care to play the role of the good guy. They live by their own rules and that can be really entertaining to witness.

A Place for Us – Fatima Farheen Mirza

A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Received: Penguin Random House Canada
Published: 2018
Publisher: SJP for Hogarth
Recommended Age: 14+
Genres & Themes: Adult, Literary Fiction, Tradition, Contemporary, Family Relationships

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REVIEW:

Fatima Farheen Mirza writes like she has something to prove. Like she wants to impress, to show her skill. Her writing style is so dense it literally took me three whole hours to read a meagre eighty pages. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in the story. Actually, the day I received it, I almost jumped, that’s how excited I was to hold it. And I was really curious about the family drama that the premise promised.

Normal People – Sally Rooney

Normal People by Sally Rooney

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: Penguin Random House Canada
Published: April 16th, 2019
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Recommended Age: 14+
Genres & Themes: Adult, Literary Fiction, Romance, College, Coming of Age, Bullying, Popularity

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REVIEW:

This book did not affect me in the same way it seems to have affected other people. It did not make me angry, or sad, and did not move me, really. That is because I never cared for Marianne or Connell. Sometimes I even hated them. Usually, I do. Usually, I care about the protagonists I read about, especially when they show their vulnerabilities to me. And I did enjoy reading about this on-and-off (almost) couple. Because they are so, so humanly flawed. But they are not exactly likeable.

Tin Man – Sarah Winman

Tin Man by Sarah Winman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Received: Publisher
Published: May 15th, 2018
Publisher: Viking
Recommended Age: 16+
Pacing: Normal
Genres & Themes: Adult, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, LGBT, First Love, Grief, Friendship

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BLURB:

This is almost a love story. But it’s not as simple as that. Ellis and Michael are twelve when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of overbearing fathers. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more. But then we fast-forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question, what happened in the years between?