Review: Thyla by Kate Gordon

Tessa is brave, strong and never cries. That is all she knows about herself after waking up in the bush near Hobart, Tasmania. Taken to hospital by a policewoman named Connolly, whose own daughter went missing in the bush, Tessa begins to slowly piece together who (or what) she is. The truth further unravels after she's sent to the elite boarding school Connolly's daughter disappeared from, and she begins to realise how interconnected the events are.

Thyla had the potential to be a great mystery, but I was disappointed that a major plot point seemed to be given away in the dedication. The title is also a big fat hint, if you know what it means (I didn't before reading it). Having an idea of what Tessa was meant that the big chunk of the book it took for her to figure it out was pretty damn frustrating. Still, I remained intrigued by the other mysteries: how Tessa ended up in the bush with no memory, how the memories she did have seemed to come from another time, and what happened to Cat. Unfortunately - without giving away any spoilers - the payoff was kinda anti-climatic for me.

I did appreciate the unique, very Australian take on the paranormal that Gordon creates in Thyla. However, the extensive dialogue explaining the world and mythology - at times when you wouldn't exactly expect characters to just stand there talking - felt forced. Plus, some things just didn't add up (more on that in the spoilery section below). The second person narration could also be jarring at times, as it wasn't consistently sustained throughout the novel.

What I loved about Thyla was the setting. There's something about Tasmania that is definitely spooky. It's so old, cold and isolated. The historical buildings and surrounding mountains and bush are the perfect breeding ground for the paranormal. Gordon effectively evokes these surroundings, creating a claustrophic atmosphere that heightens the tension between the characters who are stuck at the boarding school together.

I also liked that the inevitable love story took a backseat to the central mystery. While Tessa got all starry-eyed and distracted every time a certain guy was around, I liked the fact that at least he wasn't all she thought about. Tessa herself was likable enough, although I did get a bit over being told she was brave without her actually acting so. Thankfully, she eventually came through.

Overall, Thyla is a solid Aussie take on the paranormal genre, and I'm keen to see how the story develops in the sequel, Vulpi.

Rating 3.5/5

Spoilery Talking Points

• When Tessa follows Rin and her friends as they head out for a night bush walk, they handily pause from their apparently urgent activity to dicuss a bit of history at length. At this point, we're not supposed to know what they - or Tessa - are. Rin mentions something about the thylacines being smart when they let humans think they had all died out. Combined with the reference in the dedication to "Tessa the tiger", I figured that Tessa was a thylacine - a were-tiger (of the Tasmanian variety). Well, of course, she is - but apparently they don't transform into actual Tasmanian tigers - they're half-human, half-tiger hybrids. So they couldn't let humans think they've died out, when humans don't know they exist in the first place... right? OK, it's a minor point and I'm probably being nit-picky, but it bothered me.
• As I mentioned, I was glad to see the romance take a backseat. Which is why I was kinda disappointed that it totally took the wheel at the end. Probably because it had been a subplot, I wasn't majorly invested in it, so the way it was all of a sudden brought to the forefront - raising more questions than conclusions - was slightly frustrating.
• I really didn't like Cat. I know she's the focus of the next book, so I'm hoping seeing things from her perspective will help. Coz as it stands I think she's a selfish biatch.

Eye Candy
Publishers seem to love putting pretty blonde girls on the cover of books, so I was surprised that, when the main character is actually blonde, they put a very obviously dark-haired girl on the cover. I'm assuming it's meant to be Rin - either that, or they didn't care what Tessa actually looked like. Anyway, I pictured Cariba Heine as Tessa, and James Sorenson as Perrin.

Related
It's Aussie Author Month! April is all about promoting Aussie authors as well as supporting the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Check out the links for more info.

Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

I grew up on a steady diet of The Wizard of Oz movie, but, embarrassingly, never read the book. Until now. Sadly, I didn't love it. It was quirky but it lacked the whimsical sense of fun that I was expecting. I know it's not fair to compare it to the movie, but with the story so ingrained in my brain, it was hard not to. I was amazed at just how different the two versions were. I knew that in the book, the famous slippers were silver, not ruby, but I didn't expect so many other things to have been changed.

The same basic plot is there, of course. Dorothy and her dog Toto get whisked up in their house in a tornado, travelling from Kansas to the land of Oz. She immediately wants to go back home, and has to travel to the Emerald City along the Yellow Brick Road to request the help of the great wizard Oz. Along the way, she picks up friends in a Scarecrow who wants brains, a Tin Man who wants a heart, and a Lion who wants courage.

But while the movie intertwines the worlds of Kansas and Oz, as the latter is a manifestation of Dorothy's subconcious, the book presents all the events as real within the world of the story. Dorothy really does travel to the land of Oz. While there, her adventures are a series of disconnected incidents with no cohesive thread - other than the fact that Dorothy wants to get home, of course. The Wicked Witch of the West does not hound Dorothy out of revenge or a desire to claim the silver slippers as her own. In fact, she doesn't even appear until the second part of the story. She attacks Dorothy and her friends purely because she's wicked.

Given the fact that L. Frank Baum states in the introduction that he wanted to create a modern-day fairy tale without the violence and horror of traditional stories, there was a suprising amount of gore and death. All of the characters, Dorothy included, attack others in gruesome ways with few qualms. Granted, it's often in self-defence, but it's still pretty disturbing. This didn't help me connect or sympathise with the characters. On top of that, they all repeat themselves so often (the Scarecrow on his lack of brains, the Tin Man on his lack of heart and so on) that it gets quite tedious. I know it's a children's story, but I got tired of reading the same things in every bit of dialogue.

There were some wonderful parts to the story, of course. A highlight for me was the charming china village. The prose is lovely. Perhaps I would have adored the book if I had read it as a child. As an adult, I wanted it to be half the length and twice as enchanting.

Rating: 3/5

Reading Icons: Jennifer Lawrence

I could only find one photo of Jennifer Lawrence reading, but I love it so much I had to post it anyway.

"I have a huge responsibility to the fans of this incredible book and I don't take it lightly. I will give everything I have to these movies and to this role to make it worthy of Suzanne Collins' masterpiece." - Jennifer Lawrence, on playing Katniss.

Review: Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

I've been putting off writing this review for so long because, goddamn, I hated this book. I don't have many nice things to say about it. And you know what they say...

I was really surprised at just how intensely I disliked Pretty Little Liars. I'm completely obsessed with the TV show, and I was expecting the book to have a similar appeal: four pretty friends are tormented by the mysterious 'A', who somehow knows all their secrets and manipulates events to create juicy twists at every turn. But while the basic plot is the same, the book just fell totally flat for me.

Perhaps I would've liked it better if I hadn't seen the TV show first and had nothing to compare it to. But somehow I don't think so. There were so many problems. The pacing felt unbearably slow, and while a lot of stuff happened, it actually felt like not much did. The threats from 'A' were few and way too far between, and the four main characters barely spoke to each other for the majority of the book, creating a sense of disconnection that extended to me as a reader.

This was reinforced by the fact that the girls are all so freaking unlikable. In the show, they're nice girls who sometimes do questionable things, but you root for them because, hey, they're pretty cool. But in the book I just wanted to punch them all in the face. And I'm not generally a violent person.

The access to each of their inner selves through the third person narration does them zero favours. They all come across as superficial, selfish and downright mean. Hanna and Aria were particularly infuriating. If you played a drinking game and took a sip for every time they admired their own looks, you'd get drunk pretty damn fast. This was not only annoying, it was also extremely unrealistic - especially in Hanna's case, since she's supposedly recovering from an eating disorder.

I also didn't like any of the girls' parents. They were shallow, nasty and/or bigotted. There pretty much wasn't a likable character in the whole book. This might have been OK had the plot been more interesting. It's only a short book, but it took me forever to get through because I just wasn't interested.

I'll give the next book a go, as I've been told it gets better. And I still really, really want to know who A is. But I don't know that I can sit through 10 more books of this.

Rating: 2/5

Bookish Buys: Gone Reading

Gone Reading is an online store that sells cool bookish merchandise, which is enough for me to feature them here. But there's a bonus - all their profits go to literacy-related charities! I love it. Here are some of my fave products:

Jane Austen scented candles (do you think it would smell like Darcy?! teehee)

Eat. Sleep. Read. Bookmark

Macaroon bookmark

Books to Check Out journal

Little Book Holder

My Book Boyfriend: Jonah Griggs

Jonah Mother Effing Griggs. What can I say? He's arguably Melina Marchetta's most popular hero. A teenage army cadet and leader of one "gang" in On the Jellicoe Road, he's tough and at times brutal, but he's also incredibly brave, caring and passionate. I pictured him as Liam Hemsworth.

Swoon-worthy Quotes

“How does Jonah Griggs get to be a ten? He sits on a train with me when we’re fourteen and he weeps, tearing at his hair, bashing his head with the palm of his hand, self-hatred pouring from him like blood from a gut wound in a war movie, and for the first time in my whole life I have a purpose.I am the holder of the grief and pain and guilt and passion of Jonah Griggs and as we sit huddled on the floor of the carriage, he allows me to hold him, to say ‘Shh, Jonah, it wasn’t your fault.’ While his body still shakes from the convulsions, he takes hold of my hand and links my fingers with his and I feel someone else’s pain for the first time I can remember.”

“When I turn around, he cups my face in his hands and he kisses me so deeply that I don’t know who is breathing for who, but his mouth and tongue taste like warm honey. I don’t know how long it lasts, but when I let go of him, I miss it already."

“'If you weren’t driving, I’d kiss you senseless.' I tell him
He swerves to the side of the road and stops the car abruptly.
'Not driving anymore.'”

“I don't want to let go, because tonight I'm not looking for anything more than being part of him. Because being part of him isn't just anything. It's kind of everything.”

My Book Boyfriend is hosted by Missie at The Unread Reader.

Pash, Pick or Pass: Marchetta's Men

That's right, Pash, Pick or Pass is back! And it's a doozy...


The contenders

-Jonah Griggs from On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, a fiercesome army cadet with a damaged past and a tender heart (le sigh). Played in my head by Liam Hemsworth.

-Tom Mackee from Saving Francesca and The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta. He's a blokey boy who can proudly burp the alphabet, but he also has a sensitive side (hello, muso). Played in my head by Benedict Samuel.

-Jacob Coote from Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta. Another rough-around-the-edges-but-deep-down-really-sweet guy (they seem to be a MM speciality!), he's a walking contradiction. A totally swoon-worthy one. Played by Kick Gurry in the movie.

My choices

Pash: Jonah. I love his passion. And his hotness. But he's one of those characters that is so obviously meant for another (Taylor) I just couldn't interfere. Much.


Pick: Tom. Maybe it was being in his head for half of The Piper's Son, but I feel more connected to him than the others. Once he gets his shit together I reckon he'd make a pretty decent pick.


Pass: Sorry, Jacob, you were my first MM love, and I'll always have a special place in my heart for you but... you've been eclipsed.

Come on MM fans, you know you want to play! Who would you pash, pick and pass?

Reading Icons: Lucille Ball

"In life, all good things come hard, but wisdom is the hardest to come by." - Lucille Ball

April TV Addict Reading Challenge

Leave your 2012 TV Addict Reading Challenge links for April here!

March in Review

March was another slow month on the blog for me. I feel like I've lost my mojo lately. I guess I've just been busy. And tired. And slightly freaking out that my wedding is in six weeks and I still have to order rings and cake and flowers and jewellery and ohmygod...

Anyhoo. About the blog.

I reviewed...

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (fave of the month).
• Wonder by R.J. Palacio.
• The Double Shadow by Sally Gardner.
• The Hunger Games movie.

I also read Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard and The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, but due to aforementioned lack of time and mojo, haven't gotten around to reviewing them yet. Hopefully that will be sorted this week.

Other fun stuff: I celebrated my first blogoversary; admired Johnny Depp and the cast of Pretty Little Liars reading; had fun with Bitches in Bookshops; wanted to buy The Hunger Games merch and Babylit; and discussed books I was forced to read for school.

Here's to a more productive April!