Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not sure how to begin this one.
I was gripped by the story – using Cathy’s voice as the storytelling medium was perfect because had it been mixed between the children, or included a voice from outside the room, I don’t think it would have worked.
I couldn’t put it down, and sort of felt a little ripped off that the ending wasn’t more in-depth. I wanted revenge for the children and I wanted to see their mother suffer.
I liked the irony that the incredibly pious parents created such a vain, selfish and heartless daughter. That the version of purity in this book was so far removed from what was right, you couldn’t help but feel this was a stab at religion as well as at the corruption of capitalism and it’s systems.
The incestuous story was handled with care, and was handled well – although I feel that the scene in the attic could have been used more. I feel this because the fallout didn’t really become imagined in the way I believe it was intended to. There were some musings of Cory being a repercussion, but really that falls flat with the complete betrayal of the mother. It has certainly become iconic, and is definitely a talking point as I knew about this scene despite never having read the book until now.
I certainly question why the children wouldn’t run away much earlier, especially as Chris was of an age entering the room that he would know the life he was missing, and understand that his chances of a good education dimmed with every year.
I think this would make an excellent book club book – a lot to agree and disagree with, and many meaty topics to be unpacked!
It didn’t get a full five stars from me only because I felt it went a little too long, there could have been some parts edited out that wouldn’t have been missed. I also feel that the ending was rushed after such a long time coming. I know this is a series, but the lead-in to the next instalment could have been better.

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Exploded View by Carrie Tiffany
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought the darkness of this story would stop me from reading, but if anything it kept me hooked as I hoped it ended with something bright.
I couldn’t put it down, and despite some issues I had with the language, I thought it was a brilliant way of telling this young girl’s story, as she was unable to.
The language – this is a personal problem that I have with a lot of Australian literature, and it really puts me off reading Australian books. The vocabulary range in Australian literature is often made to be as dry, brittle and brutal as some of Australia’s landscape – and I hate it. I hate everything being likened to shit, I hate the cracking ground, I hate the flies in mouths, I hate the sticky heat. I’m so sick of reading about it as a defining part of a story. I hate the pissing, and the bony knees – Australian literature could have so much richness that doesn’t have to revolve around sparse, harsh language. This book had a lot of that.
What it also had was a Holden Manual, and a beautiful prose that once you were in, managed to merge parts of a car with parts of a female body. Human experience against the running of a machine and its parts. It was amazingly well done.
The girl who is mute for most of the book creates us a world that tells us of her trauma through the pages of a car manual and her sabotaging of cars, particularly one. And it works so well.
There is barely any dialogue, yet I didn’t feel like there was too much describing – in fact, there could have been more. But the pared back writing style was a credit to the author, and sets this apart from ‘Mateship with Birds’.
I would recommend this story to anyone that enjoys well-written Australian literature.

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Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Set in Ireland, a view of a fracturing family told from the young son’s point of view – it sounds done before. There are many books attempting to ride through adult fiction by placing us into the minds of children. This one is one of the better offerings, riding a good line between realistic children’s thought patterns, while also making insightful commentary.
The part that threw me off was the odd semi-sexual awkwardness between the mother and child. Our young male protagonist is twelve, so on the cusp of many developmental jumps. There is a lot of talk about his size and being mistaken for being much older – however, there doesn’t seem to be a purpose to this at all. The other half of that is that if he read as a fourteen year old more than a twelve year old, it would make more sense. So, there are instances between him and his mother that feel off, her responses are off, and his feelings are off. They don’t gel for me, and that made it uncomfortable sometimes. Which may have been the point, but if it was then I missed why it was important.
I liked being on the edge of his mind – was he always going to end up making the decision he did with his mother, or were there moments where we went along with him not realising the crazy there?
It was enjoyable, and it was interesting, and the gender roles of the time were explored well. I felt the boy had a pretty rough time, but I also felt that what he chose to do came out of nowhere, and it didn’t feel real to me compared to the rest of the story. Due to this, whatever poignant point this story was trying to make, I didn’t quite put it together.
The blurb told me this book was a ‘psycological thriller’, I found it lacking that entire element. If it was meant to be a snapshot of a family going through a rough time at that period from the eyes of a boy coming of age – I’m all in, it was great. The other part didn’t fit for me, mainly because I don’t think a twelve year old outcast wanting to believe he has amazing powers is strange. A fourteen year old, yes – but twelve, not really.
I liked it, but wouldn’t read it again.

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On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It took a few chapters to feel part of this story, which I believe was intentional – the characters would want you to be on the outside looking in for a little bit. I couldn’t put it down after those first few chapters though, I was part of the Jellicoe Road war games.
The idea that a bunch of teenagers would wage a war around the town for the holidays was fun and gave the whole book a purpose that was always there.
I loved the idea of this story, and I thought the author did an amazing job of describing the area – the school, town and cadet camp. I could see all the boundaries, and I could feel the summer air. I loved that this story was set in a country town of Australia, but it didn’t have the usual dry Australian language to describe it – that was almost my favourite part.
The characters, wow. Every character had depth, a story, a part to play. Marchetta captured everything about being seventeen and having seen/lived trauma, and it was brilliant.

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this book (after the first few jarring chapters).

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Final Betrayal by Patricia Gibney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I want to say that my review is going to be slightly harsher because I felt betrayed by the title.

I had this book sitting on my Kindle for about six months, saving what I believed to be the final instalment into this series for a time when I could focus and enjoy it.

And I did enjoy it, it was everything I remembered from the rest of the series – not a wasted chapter or sentence. It’s a good ride with good character perspectives and interesting motives. The characters are there for good reason, there’s good dialogue, although I am starting to tire of their captain and his intense dislike of Lottie.

I was a little annoyed that once again, Lottie’s family is kidnapped, but I went with it because I thought as the last book in the series we needed that emotional edge to the story. Who had them, what were they going to do, would they live? (I knew who it was going to be from about halfway through, although it was a good ride to see if I was right)

Only to get to the end of the book and have a bit of a cliffhanger! What? But this was the FINAL betrayal – the final one, final meaning last. Why play me like this?

Anyway, I then saw that there are two new instalments released and have since bought them because I still like Lottie, Boyd and Kirby enough that I want to read the next one. I just felt like an editor should have thought more about the title of a series – I could have been reading them as they came out, but didn’t bother looking because I thought the series was done.

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Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found this an interesting read, I’d never read a story based in Leningrad and it was a nice change from other war settings.

The main characters of the story, the two sisters, were fairly cliche. One sister out being a lone adventurer, the other feeling the weight of the family as she stayed for the family business. It followed the same tropes that come with that type of character set up.

Their mother’s fairytales were the basis of the story being told, and we are from the start trying to work out why they mean so much to their mother and why she continues to tell them. Why does she sit out in her garden, why is she so angry and distant?

It starts well and familiar. However, I feel like the fairytale could have stayed a fairytale for much longer that it did. Also, ironically it’s a bit of a fairytale that the daughters could suddenly take time out of their lives with a days notice to travel – which was the most unrealistic part of the story.

I wasn’t impressed with the pacing, or with the ending. I really, really disliked the ending. I thought it was unnecessary and bizarre out of all the places that the story could have gone.

The meat of the mothers story was great, I found her story interesting and gripping. It kept me reading the whole time, and it was an easy read.

I’m not a fan of the family structure cliche used, I also have difficulty with stories set in war times due to the lazy nature of storytelling. Having said this, it was an enjoyable read and I found the setting and time interesting.

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