Review: Wherever You Go by Heather Davis

     

Wherever You Go by Heather Davis
______________________________

Pages: 320
Publisher: Harcourt Children's
Published: November 14th, 2011
IBSN: 9780547501512

Seventeen-year-old Holly Mullen has felt lost and lonely ever since her boyfriend, Rob, died in a tragic accident. The fact that she has to spend most of her free time caring for her little sister and Alzheimer’s-stricken grandfather doesn’t help. But Holly has no idea that as she goes about her days, Rob’s ghost is watching over her. He isn’t happy when he sees his best friend, Jason, reach out to help Holly with her grandfather—but as a ghost, he can do nothing to stop it. Is his best friend really falling for his girlfriend?

As Holly wonders whether to open her heart to Jason, the past comes back to haunt her. Her grandfather claims to be communicating with the ghost of Rob. Could the messages he has for Holly be real? And if so, how can the loved ones Rob left behind help his tortured soul make it to the other side?

After the death of Holly's boyfriend, Rob, she's despondent. But there isn't time to mourn alone with her mother working two crappy jobs to support their crappy lifestyle leaving her to care for her younger sister and now her senile grandfather. Rob's best friend, Jacob, falls for her, and hopes they can both move on and be together.

I'd heard of Heather Davis before, from her novel Never Cry Werewolf that I read an extended excerpt of a few years ago. It was, like you'd guess from the title, a light paranormal romance, so the premise of this confused me a little. And intrigued me. Could a writer of paranormal romance pull this off?

My answer is no. I found Wherever You Go, in a word, boring. It was about grieving and moving on, with a surprisingly large portion reminiscent of The Bucket List, but without the depth of emotion that would have made it interesting. The best way I can think to describe the story is by comparing it to the plot soap opera but without extremes that give it the can't-look-away kind of badness.

Plus, I can't for the life of me figure out why Rob's perspective was necessary. The revelation about his death felt like it was there simply there for shock value, when it wasn't in the slightest characteristic and it added nothing.

Heather Davis' writing style was smooth enough, and expressive, but even with three perspectives -- one in first person, one in second, and one in third -- no distinct character voices were created, and none sympathetic. The tone would sway from its natural slight sadness to sappiness often, giving spiels about love that could has easily been implicit instead and saved the gagging. Most notable was the line "Holly shut the door, rattling the birdhouse wreath and his heart." And his heart.

The romance between Jacob and Holly, which I guess was the main feature, felt completely devoid of chemistry, and Jacob's advances irritated more than they wooed me. He tried much, much too hard, and his almost obsession with her apparent in his perspective was -- did he talk about anything else? Even conversations with his friends and parents all came back to her -- strange.

Overall, Wherever You Go is something I'd recommend to those much more romantic than myself. Still, the story dragged, the emotions were not well-portrayed, and the sticky smarminess of some parts had me rethinking my decision to read this.

I give Wherever You Go a 2 out of 5.

Review: Only Ever Always by Penni Russon

     

Only Ever Always by Penni Russon
______________________________

Pages: 180
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: August 2011
IBSN: 9781741750447

Claire lives in an ordinary world where she is broken with grief. The silvery notes of her music box allow her to escape into the dream-world of Clara. In Clara’s world, powerful people are pulling the strings. She finds broken things to swap at the markets and walks treacherous routes. Claire’s and Clara’s paths are set to collide but which world is real?
 

Claire and Clara are one and the same, but of two very different worlds. Dire circumstances and eerie parallel music boxes will lead them to the other, but there's no balance to be found with them where they don't belong. Eventually, the question becomes, which is the dream and which is the dreamer? How much is real?

A lesser question: how little justice will I do this magical book?

Only Ever Always has the atmosphere of a fairy tale -- not the Disney kind, but of the original you find out years later to be vastly different. It was eerie and vivid and oddly hypnotic, the setting reminiscent of that of This Is Shyness. Clara's world is just a decayed parallel of Claire's, but it has this intoxicating otherworldly vibe to it that feels separate.

The prose was effortlessly descriptive and gave a vivid picture of the unique world Russon built. She has a definite talent for writing, invoking so much emotion and weaving spare phrases that resonated. Her partial second person narration was pulled off brilliantly and helped us to feel deeply involved.

It would have been difficult to not become invested in the characters of Only Ever Always. Clara and Claire had this connection before they even met, united by their oddly poignant music box and like wistful voices. The relationships they held with others defined them as well. The story opens with Clara and Andrew talking of adventures, before we knew anything about them, and as their dynamic shifted, I was always thinking back to that initial place.

Penni Russon did so much in so little pages. Reading the author's note afterwards in which she tells about what led her to write Only Ever Always gave us insight into how much the initial idea developed since conception. By the end I was just holding the tiny book amazed at how much I was affected by it. Russon is a master storyteller.

Reading Only Ever Always felt like an effort, in a best way. It isn't a smooth, soft read, but rather dark and difficult, and beautifully touching.

I give Only Ever Always a 6 out of 5.

Review: Shift by Em Bailey

Shift by Em Bailey

Pages: 320
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Published: September 1st, 2011
IBSN: 9781921564390 

Olive Corbett is definitely NOT crazy.

Not anymore. These days she takes her meds like a good girl, hangs out with her best friend Ami, and stays the hell away from the toxic girls she used to be friends with.

She doesn’t need a boyfriend. Especially not a lifesaver-type with a nice smile. And she doesn’t need the drama of that creepy new girl Miranda, who has somehow latched on to Olive's ex-best friend.

Yet from a distance, Olive can see there's something sinister about the new friendship. Something almost... parasitic. Maybe the wild rumours ARE true. Maybe Miranda is a killer.

But who would believe Olive? She does have a habit of letting her imagination run away with her…

Shift was a surprisingly intense psychological thriller from a new voice in Aussie YA.

Olive starts out feeling just like your average teenager. She's not exactly popular, she's not exactly beautiful; but it's revealed slowly that she's not exactly normal either. She had a mental breakdown that resulted in her hospitalisation, but she seems well enough on her meds, until a bombshell is dropped mid-way. Despite her odd circumstances, she was always easily relatable and usually likeable.

The plot was very smooth. There were no 'info-dumps' or the like to interrupt the flow. Hints were dropped sparingly and events unfolding in a teasingly slow manner. We had to figure things out slowly, at times even when the main character couldn't.



Written in a clear and frank fashion that still maintained a foreshadowing tone, the plot turns that had the potential to be confusing or awkward weren't, but turned out feeling realistic. This book is the antidote to all those paranormal stories with completely unrealistic reactions to supernatural elements. In real life, if you encountered someone strange, you wouldn't automatically suspect something preternatural, and you'd need a lot of convincing to believe in it. This book reflects that.

The foreshadowing tone built the suspense to the point where there was almost tangible anticipation for what I hoped was an epic conclusion, and I wasn't wrong. The climax was dramatic and tense and the wind-down addressed our concerns for the main characters while still leaving some parts open-ended to maintain the eerie mystique to the novel.

Complete with a gradual romance and a believable, despicable and slightly sympathetic villain, Shift was a compelling from so many different angles. Once you've traversed the slow beginning, Shift is impossible to put down.

I give Shift a 4 out of 5.

Review: Angel Creek by Sally Rippin

Angel Creek by Sally Rippin

Pages: 152
Publisher: Text Publishing
Published: February 28th, 2011
IBSN: 9781921758058

In her new falling-down home, in her new street, in her new suburb, Jelly waits for high school to begin. She can only feel happy up in the branches of the old apricot tree and by the creek at the back of the house. One night, Jelly and her cousins spot something in the creek’s dark waters. At first they think it’s a bird, but it isn’t…it’s a baby angel with a broken wing. And they decide to keep it.

But soon things start to go wrong, and Jelly discovers that you can’t just take something from where it belongs and expect that it won’t be missed.

Sally Rippin’s Angel Creek is a book about growing up: being brave and selfish and tough and scared. It’s a book about an angel. But not the sweet variety. It’s a book about the things that change and the things that always stay the same.

Angel Creek was a short, sweet, middle-grade novel about the consequences of taking things from where they belong that perfectly encapsulates the innocence of childhood.

The spare prose easily evoked the young voice of our main character, Jelly. The  setting was vividly described and atmospheric -- completely realistic. Our characters weren't all fleshed out and didn't have too much depth, but their motivations were easily understood.

Beyond that, I don't have much to say about this book. This is my usual issue with middle-grade books -- as interesting as other parts of the story may be, the young narrator that I couldn't relate to stopped me from fully appreciating them.

So while Angel Creek was a definitely sweet novel, younger readers (or just readers with 'younger' tastes) than I would probably enjoy it more. I had trouble connecting with such young characters.

I give Angel Creek a 3 out of 5.