I Love You Too Much by Alicia Drake

review by Maryom

Thirteen year old Paul lives a protected life in the upmarket sixth arrondissement of Paris. His divorced parents have little time for him; his father busy with work and his obsessive fitness regime; his mother with her young wannabe rock star lover. Appearances and social achievement are what matter to the exclusion of all else. Paul is deemed by them to be a failure (not passing appropriate school entrance exams) and so he's left searching for affection elsewhere.
At school there's a new girl, Scarlett, challenging opinion and style in typical manic pixie way, and of course all the boys fancy her, including Paul. At first she only dates cool kids, but gradually a friendship builds between her and Paul. Will he find the unconditional love he craves with her?

This coming-of-age story brilliantly captures the chic but heartless and empty world in which Paul lives; success, or at least the appearance of it, matters more than happiness. I loved the writing style and found that in mood there was much to remind the reader of Francoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse. I was really enjoying it ... BUT ... and it was a big 'but' that alienated me ...  as the story progressed I became unsettled by seeming-homophobia on behalf of many of the characters. Some of it I could forgive as the violent reaction of a young teenager, especially considering the way in which he stumbles on the relationship, but no one took time out (ok, we've already established the heartless lack of care of his parents) to explain that there was nothing wrong with this relationship - that it was a valid expression of sexuality, rather than the immoral, degenerate behaviour Paul sees it as - and it left a sour taste which diminished an otherwise wonderful novel.

Publisher - Picador

Genre - adult/teen coming of age story 

Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale

review by Maryom

Eustace has reached the sort of age where he feels there's little left in life to surprise him. Now in his fifties, he's survived AIDS, and settled to an uneventful single life shared with his dog, Joyce, and close friend, Naomi.Then his comfortable world is rocked. First by falling in love again, rather ridiculously with a man he hasn't even met. Then by fearing he might die.
Through long solitary hours of treatment in hospital, he listens to a mix-tape of cello music prepared by Naomi, and reflects on his life, the anxiety and fumbling sexual misadventures of his teen years, and the escape from his dull, repressive home life discovered through music, and his charismatic cello-teacher Carla.


In many ways you could claim this is much like any other coming of age story -  discovering music, sex, and the fallibility of parents, making friends who will last a lifetime, and finding love - but at the same time the story-telling and Eustace himself make it unique.
Gale's writing is engrossing, intelligent, compelling, warm and welcoming like wrapping oneself in a snugly blanket. As I read, I wanted to both hold every moment, slow right down and immerse myself in each unfolding scene, and dash through to find out how gauche, troubled teenage Eustace became the contented, sophisticated mid-life man we met at the beginning of the story. As a boy, he's so naive and vulnerable that it's impossible to not care about him, and to dread that his innocence will be harshly taken away, with suffering to come before he achieves happiness.

As events unfold, you begin to see how cleverly put together the story is. Told from Eustace's perspective, it only hints at events outside his immediate knowledge and understanding, but there's enough for the reader to put the clues together, and realise the motivations of the other players in his life.

A tiny part of me was worried when I realised music played a huge part in this book - despite my mother's attempts to turn me into a pianist, I'm not musically inclined, and frequently books referencing it too much can leave me cold. Fortunately, I found that didn't matter here. Gale captures Eustace's enthusiasm so well that I could understand it without having to had shared it. Maybe if you know and love the pieces Eustace plays, you'll have an extra attachment to the book, but I loved it anyway, and didn't feel excluded.

I'm not sure I've really caught how much I loved this book, so to end on here's a little aside (no plot spoilers) to show how well Gale immerses the reader in a moment and brings it to life.  I found myself one day recently wondering about a new recipe I'd heard of for cooking pasta sauce, and after pondering over cook books and websites, I realised - it was here! A simple tomato sauce cooked by one of Carla's friends, lovingly described by the author, that's stayed in my mind.

Ostensibly an adult read (and that's how I've labelled it), but see if you can encourage your teens to read it too. It make help them make sense of the turmoil of adolescence.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher -  Tinder Press
Genre - Adult fiction, coming of age, LGBT

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti

review by Maryom 

Loo Hawley can't remember her mother - she died in a swimming accident while Loo was just a baby. Since then Loo and her father have moved almost constantly from place to place, ready to pack up and go at a minute's notice, leaving behind everything but the necessities never settling in a place for more than a few months.  Now Loo's twelve and her father has decided that they should settle down, try to build a 'normal' life for themselves in the coastal Massachusetts town her mother grew up in. It isn't easy to get the locals to accept them though - Loo can't find a way to fit in with her new schoolmates, and Hawley himself carries an aura of violence about him which keeps his new neighbours at bay. The past too continues to haunt them - from hints dropped by her grandmother and old newspaper clippings, Loo starts to build an account of her mother's death which doesn't match the tale told by her father, and the violent past Hawley is trying to outrun is still reaching out for him.
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is an odd mix of a book, blending a coming of age novel with a violent crime thriller. As the story moves forwards, following Loo's (often disastrous) attempts to fit in at school and the beginnings of her first romance, it looks backwards too, exploring Hawley's life via the bullet scars that still serve as a reminder. Hawley slipped gradually into a life of crime and now wants to reinvent himself as a caring parent - but, as you might expect, his former associates and enemies aren't willing to let him.
I sometimes find I need to understand the 'shape' of a story before it really grabs me, and that happened here. Once I'd got to grips with the way the two story-lines were evolving, and the rather prickly characters of Loo and Hawley, I really enjoyed my read. It's cleverly plotted, giving hints about what may happen (or have happened) but never giving too much away in advance. 
Although there's undoubtedly a lot of violence, I didn't find it gratuitous or glorifying. Tinti dwells more on Hawley's optimism that everything will go smoothly without the need for fire-power, and the pain inflicted on him when he's proved wrong, yet again. As his story was revealed, I found my sympathy for Hawley increasing, beginning to see him as caught in a vicious circle; he desperately wants to free himself from his past, but sometimes violence is the only way to fight off violence from others. Loo sees things differently - that guns represent power, and are a symbol of adulthood. Maybe it's learning that she's wrong that is her first step towards growing up. Hawley, though, is definitely the more intersting character.
I think the mix of themes may stop this from being a book for everyone, but I came to enjoy, and would definitely re-read, it.


Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher -  Tinder Press
Genre - Adult fiction, literary, crime thriller, coming  of age

The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

review by Maryom

Following an operation to remove a tumour when she was younger Flora Banks has been unable to make new memories. She's now seventeen, and, although she can remember events before the operation, and basic everyday things like making tea or how to work the TV, anything else slips away after a few hours - until now.
After a going-away party for her best friend's boyfriend Drake, Flora kisses a boy on the beach - and it's the most wonderful thing ever! Maybe it's the totally new experience, maybe it's the heightened emotions of the moment, but, for what ever reason, Flora can remember it the next day.
There's a snag though - the boy on the beach was Drake, and now he's gone away to study in the Arctic, and her life-long best friend Paige will no longer speak to Flora. So when her parents are called away on an emergency, instead of Paige staying over, Flora is left alone. With only her post-it note reminders and her one clear memory of kissing on the beach, Flora becomes increasingly obsessed by Drake and convinced that he is the key to unlocking her memory, so decides to set off on a journey to find him ...

Whatever you care to label this book as - teen romance, psychological drama, travel adventure - I loved it!
It's hard, and terrifying, to put yourself in Flora's shoes, to imagine what it must be like to have no memory of what happened to you yesterday, last week, or a year ago. It would be so easy for her to just drift along doing as her parents say, always treated a child and never achieving independence, but given the opportunity Flora isn't going to sit back and let that happen to her. She's filled with indomitable spirit and tremendous courage. On her hand she has a tattoo saying "Flora be brave". It's intended to get her through her 'normal' everyday confusion of waking up and believing she's still a ten-year old, but she's now adopted it as a motto to live her life by. With the aid of reminders written on her hands, in notebooks and on her phone, she heads off to the Arctic in search of Drake and some answers. I think she's amazing!
I loved the sense of place within the story - from comfortable, sunny Penzance to Flora's amazing journey to Spitsbergen and her adventures there, brought to life by the author's evocative descriptions of snow in summer and midnight sun (so much so that I ended up on Google maps trying to trace her steps!)

It's the sort of book that has you sitting up late, needing to know how things work out. Is Flora's one and only memory reliable? Is she right in suspecting her parents are keeping something from her? - after all, she can't remember what happened yesterday, so it would be so easy to do!

Although this is billed as YA, and could be seen as a coming of age novel, the story is gripping enough for all. It's a story of the mistakes we might make for love, of breaking free and finding one's own way in the world.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Penguin
Genre - teen/YA romance/adventure/drama/coming of age

In A Land Of Paper Gods by Rebecca Mackenzie

review by Maryom

At the age of six, Henrietta S. Robertson left behind her home in Pingxia village, her Chinese name, Ming-Mei, by which she'd so far been called, and her missionary parents, to go to boarding school  while her parents continued their work.  The story picks up in 1941, when "Etta" is ten, and the Japanese are advancing through China, and even Lushan school on top of its remote mountain is beginning to feel threatened. Despite being surrounded every day by the other pupils and teachers, Etta comes across as lonely and confused. Her search for love and attention draws her into over-dramatising events and claiming she has the gift of prophesy. With the other girls from her dormitory, she sets up the Prophetess Club to look for signs from God - but their actions seem to be heading them straight towards trouble .....


Told mainly in the first person from Etta's point of view, In A Land of Paper Gods is the story of a girl who realises something is missing from her life - but isn't sure what; it may be the love and stability offered by a 'normal' family, the purpose in life that the missionaries and teachers seem to have, or simply her uncomplicated childhood playing with the Chinese children in her home village. To be honest, I didn't find Etta very likeable. Although I could see that at times she was acting out of loneliness, she had too much of a need to be the focus of attention for me to feel really sympathetic. It's only when events take a drastic turn that she begins to shed this self-centred-ness and realise that others have as much right to life and love as she has.


With the multitude of threads running through, this is bound to make an excellent book club choice with lots of topics to discuss - from cultural clashes to personal motivation.
Is Etta deliberately troublesome, attention seeking or does she act out of loneliness, and a need of someone, anyone, to love? are these problems that will always be faced in boarding schools, or were Etta's teachers just totally unaware of the emotional needs of the children they'd taken charge of?
The whole role of missionaries in non-Christian countries like China is again something worthy of discussion - were they really following God's will or was it just another form of imperial expansion? and is it ever right to impose your own religion and culture on others in this way?
A book I think to really polarise people and get them talking and thinking.



 Maryom's review -  4 stars
Publisher -  Tinder Press
Genre - Adult fiction,

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon

review by Maryom


In the summer of 1976, while England suffers under an unnatural heatwave, Mrs Creasy goes missing from her home, Number 8, The Avenue.  Did she just wander off of her own accord? was she abducted? murdered, even? or had she stumbled on the secrets her friends and neighbours keep so carefully hidden? The residents of The Avenue can only agree on two things - the heat makes people do funny things, and the weird guy at number 11 is probably involved somehow... As the rumours spread, ten year old Grace overhears the adults gossiping, picks up on the fear in their voices without really understanding, listens to the vicar talk about goats and sheep, and becomes convinced that if she and her best friend Tilly can only find God, Mrs Creasy is bound to return.

 After a longer than expected Christmas break, this is my first review of the New Year - and what a stunning book to start with! I'm fully expecting this is going to be up there in eleven months among my picks of 2016.

A story of 'Us' and 'Them', The Trouble With Goats and Sheep is an adult story told mainly from a child's perspective, and it was Grace's 'voice' that hooked and held me. The style feels simple and natural, with Grace displaying that curious mix of naivety and insight that children sometimes seem to have. Listening in to the world of adults, Grace hears, often repeats, but doesn't always understand what she's heard, leading to a lot of deadpan-delivery humour. On the other hand, at times her observations can be sharp and cutting, seeing through the evasions that children are fobbed of with and going straight for the truth.
Her child's-eye view of the world is charming, and beautifully captured - but what's happening in that world is unsettling to say the least! For at the heart of this story is a long-hidden secret brought bubbling back to the surface by the disappearance of Mrs Creasy. As summer progresses, and Mrs Creasy shows no signs of returning, the heat and tension rise, and the reader begins to see that behind the respectable lace-curtains something rather nasty has been going on - for this small community has banded together to victimise and ostracise the one person in their street who doesn't quite fit in. Although not necessarily close friends, the residents of The Avenue all get along, share the same set of values and general outlook - except for Walter Bishop at number 11. He's something of a square peg in a round hole, the weird goat among a herd of docile sheep, and a convenient person to blame whenever anything untoward occurs. The author shows how a stray comment can become believed in without a scrap of evidence, how people band together to protect their own but how that soon turns to bullying and intimidation. For a debut novel, this is something rather special, and I'm longing to read whatever Jo Cannon comes up with next!

 I'm not sure if the author personally remembers that long hot summer of 1976 (it's not really polite to ask, is it?) but I can, and can vouch for many of the little details; the half-forgotten food and tv programmes and presenters of the time, the fanatical saving of every drop of water, the parched cracked gardens, the suspiciously green one, often surreptitiously watered after dark, sparking gossip and back-biting among the neighbours but mainly I remember the long glorious sunny days. For me, every summer since then has proved to be rather a disappointment!



If I've enticed you into reading, you don't need to just take my word - there's a free sampler available from the publishers here


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Harper Collins (The Borough Press)
Genre - Adult fiction

Love Notes For Freddie by Eva Rice

"The long hot summer of 1969.

The Shredded Wheat factory - and the boy who dances there.

First love, last love and all the complicated stuff in between."



 review by Maryom

Marnie Fitzpatrick is young and privileged. Her mother was a celebrity hairdresser.Her step-father's a famous actor. She attends the exclusive St Libby's girls' school just outside Welwyn Garden City and has a flair for maths. But ....on one fateful afternoon her life is about to be turned upside down...
Freddie Friday is a young man who wants to dance, but with grandparents to care for sees no way he can realise his dreams. All he has to look forward to is a life of monotonous work at the city's Shredded Wheat plant/
Meanwhile Julie Crewe, Marnie's maths teacher, feels her life is behind her. for six weeks when she was young, she danced barefoot in the park with a young man and fell in love. The relationship and her dancing career crumbled at the same time...and nothing since has ever lived up to those few precious weeks.

Love Notes for Freddie is at heart a bitter-sweet teen-romance/coming of age story in which Eva Rice re-visits that time in life when it seems anything and everything could happen. Too old to be classed as children, too young to be set in adult ways, Freddie and Marnie are at a time of their lives when the possibilities opening for them seem endless. Julie Crewe, on the other hand, just moving into her forties, represents what happens when those possibilities DON'T materialise. The message behind the story is definitely one of 'cease the day'; if a chance offers itself, grab it!


I was a little disappointed that the story of Marnie's school-rebel friend Rachel wasn't explored more. Marnie seems to just take life as it comes, accepting both good and bad as they're thrown at her; Rachel is very much one who takes life and shapes it round her, and I think she had a more interesting story to tell.


Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Quercus
Genre - teen/ YA

The Summer of Secrets by Sarah Jasmon

review by Maryom


Living an almost solitary life with her uncommunicative, heavy drinking father, Helen's life is quiet and lonely. With O level exams, and the stresses and unpleasantness of school behind, summer seems to stretch limitlessly before her; at first an appealing prospect, but soon boredom starts to creep in. Then the Dover family move in down the road - an unconventional, seemingly-carefree family with no fixed roots, they fill the canal-side house with music, children and laughter - and Helen falls under their spell. There are similarities in their circumstances - their father is absent - perhaps having just 'left' in the way Helen's mother has, perhaps having disappeared in more suspicious circumstances - and their mother keeps mainly to her own bedroom and is as silent and neglectful as Helen's father, leaving teenagers Seth and Victoria, and the younger twins, Pippa and Will, very much to their own devices, but whereas Helen's home is dull and empty, theirs seems over-flowing with life. Attracted  to them, both individually and collectively, Helen is soon a regular visitor, her day not complete without them, but as the endless hot days unwind something sinister works itself into the mix. Long hot summers can never last forever - but this one is heading for a disastrous ending

There's a certain sort of mid-teenage point in life when summer seems like it could last forever - a few years earlier you don't appreciate the spread of six weeks freedom ahead; a few years older, and autumn seems already visible at the end of July - and this is what Sarah Jasmon has captured so well - long, lazy, hot days of a summer that feels like it could never end. Atmosphere alone isn't enough to make a story and mixed in with it is a darker thread of hidden secrets. The author intersperses the events of 1983 with a first person narrative from the adult Helen's point of view, so the reader is aware that the summer came to a climatic end, but, as Helen has no memory of the events, how and why remains a mystery. Enough is revealed to tempt the reader, and keep them hooked, without giving the game away.
The friendship between Helen and Victoria is the hub around which events revolve - a slightly one-sided affair as Helen in her loneliness is more in need of Victoria than vice versa, it's intense in the way that only teenage friendships can be - but all the characterisation is superb; from the slightly prim and proper Helen, to the free and easy Dover family, fly-in-the-ointment Moira with her stroppy activism, and Helen's father with his despair and mood swings, they all feel like real people with lives of their own outside the pages of the book.

The whole bohemian atmosphere instantly brought to mind two of my favourite novels of recent years - Emylia Hall's The Book of Summers  and Diamond Star Halo by Tiffany Murray. All three share that nostalgia for an idealised time in the past - a time which has its unacknowledged dark undercurrents just waiting to surface - and slightly off-beat larger-than-life families. If you've read one of these and loved it, I definitely recommend the others.

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Black Swan (Transworld)

Genre - adult fiction, coming of age

Almost Grace by Rosie Rowell

review by Maryom

In the gap between school and university, Cape Town teenagers head off for a taste of freedom - a week's holiday on their own. Grace and her friends, Brett and Louisa, are no exception but instead of heading for the wild parties of Plettenberg Bay they've picked a quiet seaside village on the west coast with miles of beach and great surfing.
Brett and Louisa are confident about what the future holds for them, have their plans all laid out for travelling or university. Grace, though, is less sure of herself - adulthood seems a daunting proposition and she feels out of control of her life. 
When she meets Spook, a drifter, seemingly living life just to surf, Grace is instantly attracted to him, despite him being much older than her. In comparison to the lives of others, his seems relaxed and carefree, but is he really as charming as he appears to be on the surface?
The area of Baboon Point isn't as sleepy and quiet as they'd expected either, but a centre for the illegal trade in abalone shells. Could Spook really be associated with the poachers who make a living this way? It seems so out of keeping with his laid-back hippy vibe ....but how well does Grace really know him?


Almost Grace is a mix of coming of age story and thriller set on the rocky west coast of South Africa. It's unusual because of its setting and occasional use of Afrikaans words, but the everyday problems faced by Grace and her friends are the same as those faced by teenagers anywhere. They soon realise though they've got mixed up in something really dangerous as their carefree holiday rapidly turns into a nightmare filled with guns and poachers.
Grace is a heroine that you quickly come to care about. She's made some bad decisions in the past; with things changing around her so quickly, she's desperately latched on to the one thing she alone can control - what she eats. I found myself desperately willing her to take just another few bites of cake or fruit or to stop caring about the potential calories in everything.




 Maryom's Review - 3.5 stars
Publisher - Hot Key Books
Genre - teen, coming of age, thriller,

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice

 review by Maryom

When Penelope decides to share a cab ride with a complete stranger she's taking a leap in the dark, one that will change her life. For the two girls bond instantly over a shared adoration of singer heart-throb Johnny Ray, and as her new friend Charlotte whisks Penelope away for tea with her Aunt Clare and cousin Harry, it's like the opening up of a whole new world for Penelope. Both girls share the same upper class world of stately homes and empty bank accounts but Charlotte is vivacious, impulsive, and confident - all things that Penelope feels she isn't - and more embracing of the new post-war world where a girl doesn't merely need to find a husband but can make a career of her own. Penelope's view of the world is tinted by the romance of her parents' love affair, tragically cut short when her father was killed during the war. One day Penelope hopes such love will come her way, but meanwhile there's Johnny Ray to sigh over, parties to attend, new American rock'n'roll to discover and the puzzle of Charlotte's cousin Harry to work out. A little against her will, Penelope is dragged into a charade with him, pretending to be his new girlfriend, with the aim of Harry winning back the girl who dumped him. Playing at being in love is dangerous though .... and maybe soon it moves on to being less of a pretence...

 Set in the 1950s post-war world where crumbling ancestral homes and penniless aristocrats rub up against Teddy boys and rock'n'roll, The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is a delightful coming of age story, filled with the romance of first love, the glamour of champagne parties and all the excitement of being 18.
Written in the first person, it has an engaging gossipy style that makes you feel as if Penelope were your best friend sharing confidences with you. I loved it when I first read it and having just re-read it, love it still.

 First published ten years ago, I discovered The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets sometime between then and now, but it's coming out in a special anniversary edition with a new cover and an extra short story telling the tale of how Penelope's parents met. I'm now torn, do I stick with my old original copy or abandon it in favour of the new? I'm actually hoping that the short story on its own will become available as an e-book, so I don't have to choose.

 Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Headline Review
Genre - coming of age, adult/teen crossover

The Truth According To Us by Annie Barrows

review by Maryom

1938 was an important year for Willa Romeyn; her hometown of Macedonia, West Virginia celebrated its sesquicentennial, Miss Layla Beck came to stay while she wrote a history of the town, and Willa herself turned twelve and began to wonder about the secrets that adults kept to themselves.
Willa and her sister Bird live in the old family home with their eccentric extended family - their frequently-absent divorced father Felix, his unmarried sister Jottie who acts as housekeeper and substitute mother to the girls, and his twin sisters, Mae and Minerva who, despite both being married, can't bear to be apart so live during the week at 'home', visiting their husbands at weekend. The only family member to leave home (and town) is younger brother Emmett; more dependable and trustworthy, he's always overshadowed by flamboyant and charming Felix.  The Romeyns were once an important family in town but now they've come down in the world, living in faded splendour and having to take in a lodger in the shape of Layla Beck.
Layla has come to Macedonia unwillingly. As the privileged daughter of a senator, her life in Washington DC has been one of parties, social engagements and generally having fun. Now, having refused to go along with her father's plans to marry her off, she's effectively been thrown out of the family home and told to fend for herself. Pulling a few strings, her father arranges to have her taken on by the Federal Writer's Project and so she finds herself heading for West Virginia to write a history of Macedonia. She's expecting a dull, dreary town filled with dull, dreary people, and the Romeyns are not at all what she's expecting - they're witty, charming and attractive, particularly Felix, for whom she quickly falls.
Set in the era of the Great Depression, Prohibition and boot-legging, The Truth According to Us is a wonderful absorbing coming of age tale of family and their secrets. Willa is just reaching an age when she starts to question things she's so far taken for granted - why has Aunt Jottie never married? how exactly does her father earn his money? and just how did Vause Hamilton die in a fire at their family's mill?  She's sure that the answers are all linked, and with a child's enthusiasm sets about playing detective and finding out, never thinking of the possible consequences.  Layla too, in her capacity as town historian, is bent on finding out secrets - the gossipy, scandalous kind of history that the town council would rather was forgotten but which she feels would make a far more interesting book.
There are just so many things to love about this book - the writing style, the characters, the setting.
The story is told in a variety of ways - Willa's first person reminiscences, third person narrative following Jottie and Layla, letters to, from and about Layla, Jottie's dream-like flashbacks to her youth - and they all add up to make something rather special - a book that I could read again and again, without tiring of it.
The Romeyns with their quirky charm easily captivated me; unusual enough to be interesting, 'normal' enough to be believable, they all display Macedonia's virtues of ferocity and devotion in various degrees.
As for the setting, it captures a point in time between a gracious past and a world about to be changed by war. Macedonia has a mix of old time elegance - the sweltering heat of daytime giving way to cooler evenings spent on the front porch with friends and neighbours dropping by - and down at heel present, with the necessity to take in lodgers, the rise of tension in the town with high unemployment, uncaring owners at the factory and union agitation on the rise.
I'd say this was a gem of a book but at 500 plus pages, it's a large show-stopping gem! It's certainly one of those special books in which you can immerse yourself completely; the characters and setting feel as real as those around you, and when (if) you take a break you'll be shocked to find yourself back in real life.

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Doubleday

Genre- adult, coming of age, family secrets

An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel

review by Maryom

It's 1970 and Carmel McBain is off to start a new life for herself, leaving behind her northern mill-town home and heading for London and university. Free from the constraints of the family home and filled with a wonderful sense of opportunity, Carmel embraces her new life with enthusiasm but her childhood isn't that easily abandoned as two of her school friends end up in the same hall-of-residence; Julianne with her string of boyfriends and Karina with her down to earth practicality and enormous appetite. They and the other students at Tonbridge Hall soon find that life isn't as easy as they'd expected and as with so many coming of age stories, there's heartache, disappointment and a brush with tragedy to be encountered along the way.

Mention Hilary Mantel and most people will immediately think of her long historical novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies ,so it might come as a surprise to know she's also written shorter, more contemporary novels. I first discovered them a couple of years ago with Fludd and An Experiment In Love has been sitting waiting on my TBR pile for frankly too long. What all these books share is the slipping inside another mind-set, the sharing of another person's outlook on life, whether that be an important historical figure like Thomas Cromwell or a fictitious 18 year old such as Carmel.

Instead of the intrigues of the Tudor court, here the reader is introduced to the behind the scenes secrets of a university hall of residence; with just as many hidden agendas and deceptions - from stretching the meagre grant and all-night studying, to boyfriends, unwanted pregnancies, eating disorders and quick-burn resentments.

In style and length it's reminiscent of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse; a bitter-sweet, first person narrative of the lives of young women on the cusp between child and adult, at a time of life so full of possibilities, but which could easily tip into tragedy.

If you've loved Wolf Hall, or been daunted by its sheer scale, don't miss this. At a personal level I found this to be an unexpected trip down memory lane; although I'm several years younger than the character of Carmel, her childhood echoed mine and brought back things I'd long forgotten from the strange headgear of boys in the early '60s to comics with stories that gripped me.

Is it an adult novel or young adult? Well, in the time it's set, back before YA existed, I'd have read it as a teenager - and Carmel probably would have done too! One for all ages over 16.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Fourth Estate
Genre - YA/adult fiction

If I Knew You Were Going to Be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel

review by Maryom

Katie has had a long-term crush on Luke McCallister, ever since 10th grade. Now she's 18, just finishing school; he, three years older, is back from Vietnam. With the long summer ahead, it's time for Katie to make her move. Meanwhile, for one last summer before 'real life' begins, she hangs out with her friends in their beach-side home-town ....

If I Knew You Were Going To Be This Beautiful is an evocation of one early 70s summer in the fictional, run-down Long Island resort of Elephant Beach - a place where, for Katie and her friends at least, life revolves around the beach and the main street - from Eddy's candy store at one end to The Starlight hotel at the other.
Set in the gap between high school and college, there's a lot of similarities with other coming of age novels - the drugs and drink, sex and teen pregnancies, the assumption that this group of friends is special and won't make the mistakes their parents did, the belief that they are on the brink of something exciting while realising that this moment in time won't come again, and in the background the horrors of the Vietnam war. What makes it stand out is the beautiful way it is written, nostalgic for a time that probably was never quite as good as the memory of it, that moment just before naive youth tips over into worldly adulthood.

I received my proof copy of this months ago, couldn't wait, and so read it far too early to actually write the review. Last week, as I was writing up my notes, I picked it up again to remind me of its feel and mood, and was completely hooked again, so much so that I had to tear myself away to get this finished!

 First time through, I'd been a little wrong-footed as I'd expected a love story solely about Katie and Luke, but Katie is as much an observer and recorder of the lives of others as she is of her own. The whole capturing of one last carefree summer is broken down into a series of vignettes focussing on the individuals within the group - each getting their little bit of fame before dropping back to the chorus.
On paper it didn't ought to be a cheery book - so many of the kids in it are messing up their lives, while thinking they're being 'adult', and the Vietnam veterans among them are scarred by their experiences in ways that no one understands - but there was something in it that spoke to me, and which I loved; maybe just for capturing that feeling of invincibility and entitlement that we have as teens, when all the world lies before us - and all of it will be good.



Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher -  Tinder Press
Genre - Adult/YA crossover, fiction, literary, coming of age, 

The Blue Room by Hanne Ørstavik

 review by Maryom

 One morning Johanne wakes up to discover that she's locked in her bedroom. While she waits for someone to come and release her, her thoughts wander backwards and forwards, over recent events, her plans for the future, her relationships with her mother and boyfriends. This should have been the day she was going to America with her boyfriend to start a new life. Instead she's stuck in her room, unable to get to the airport...but doesn't really seem that concerned...

This second book in Peirene's Coming of Age series is again a story of someone who doesn't. The Dead Lake  told the tale of a boy who didn't grow up physically; The Blue Room brings us a twenty-year old psychology student who hasn't grown up emotionally, who hasn't freed herself from her dominating mother's apron strings - and who doesn't really want to.

I found this a rather troubling read - Johanne was a difficult main character for me; manipulated and controlled by her mother, she was too meek and mild, too seeking of approval, and too accepting of, even craving, punishment for my liking. Her relationship with her mother, Unni, is extraordinarily close, possibly forced by the lack of privacy in their lives. Unni doesn't appear openly dominating, which may have been easier to rebel against, but bends Johanne to her will through carefully doled out praise and disapproval. This relationship has soured all others - friends, particularly boyfriends, have to gain her mother's approval. Johanne going to Church is ok - it reinforces the concept of obedience; going to parties with friends isn't - it might give her a taste for freedom. Johanne in turn seems to dream of swapping one subservient relationship for another - with her new boyfriend, of whom her mother doesn't approve. Her dreams open a disturbing view of her personality - pleasant, enjoyable scenes shift and change into abuse to which she meekly submits.

I felt there was a certain level of ambiguity to the telling of this story. It isn't really clear whether the door lock is broken or whether Unni has locked Johanne in. Even trapped in her room, Johanne is extremely passive - she doesn't shout for help from the neighbours or passers-by but sits and waits till her mother returns. Is this symbolic that she can't free herself from her relationship with her mother and is waiting for someone to do it for her? Is she even really locked in or just incapacitated by fear?

Did I enjoy it? A difficult question to answer; it's certainly a page-turner, one where I was egging the heroine on to stand up for herself and break free but Johanne is too meek and accepting of her fate for me to sympathise much.

translated by Deborah Dawkin

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Peirene Press
Genre - Adult Literary Fiction

American Sycamore by Karen Fielding

review by Maryom

Growing up by the Susquehanna river in rural Pennsylvania, Billy Sycamore was always drawn to it; canoeing, trading tales with the Native Americans he met on its banks but above all - fishing. It seems like an idyllic world - and it mainly is till one day, when he's 12, out fishing alone, he encounters a stranger and something dreadful happens to him which ultimately changes his life. Although he won't share the details with them, his family all too easily spot its impact and the change in Billy as he descends into increasing mental instability.

To be honest, I wasn't very attracted by this book when it arrived for review. Probably due to having watched too many 'river' based movies, I sort of imagined it to be a teenage mash-up of Deliverance, The River of No Return and The River Wild with too much fishing! - fortunately it was nothing of that kind! When I eventually picked it up, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.
American Sycamore is a quirky coming of age tale set in a wild landscape of forests and river.  Set in a small town peopled by the eccentric, weird and downright crazies, it's moving and funny by turns, and twisting and turning like a whodunnit. The story is narrated by Billy's younger sister Alice, in an off-beat, chatty style as she struggles to understand what has happened to her brother but nonetheless loving him through all his 'treatments' and hospitalisations.
I'm not sure whether to label this as teen, YA or adult but it would probably be enjoyed by all.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Seren Books
Genre - coming of age, YA/adult crossover

Buy American Sycamore from Amazon