Stories focusing on time travel, or repetitive time travel, have always been spaces to explore the same experience in new ways. Like a choose-your-own-adventure novel, time loop narratives afford the characters, trapped for whatever reason, to try out new choices, new dialogue, and new interactions all in service of unraveling the loop and returning to the timestream they left.
Tag: young adult
A review of Your Lonely Nights Are Over by Adam Sass
A review of The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers by Adam Sass
The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers is not exactly a story begging you to unravel it (the happily ever after is apparent early on) but it does make one thing clear – Adam Sass is just as capable a builder of romance as he is of mystery. And Micah Summers’ story benefits from Sass’s adept management of both genres.
A review of Fireworks by Oliver Smuhar
The book is beautifully presented, with hand drawn illustrations, photographs, quotations, and facts about the different animals in the book and the events that inspired them, particularly the 2019/20 Australian bushfires, which were particularly devastating in Smuhar’s Blue Mountains hometown and which had some an intense impact on Australian flora and fauna (for example, some 60,000 koalas were negatively impacted by the fires). Smuhar’s goal with this book is not only to raise funds, but to entertain and educate.
A review of Life of a Firefly by Sandra Brown Lindstedt
Life of a Firefly is funny, uplifting, and, according to the author, ninety-eight per cent true. A graduate in English and Theatre from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, Ms Brown Lindstedt lives with her husband, Christer Lindstedt, in Goteburg Sweden where she is drama director for Smyrna International Church. Life of a Firefly is a book that parents and librarians should put in the hands of young readers.
A review of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Characterisation, themes and messages conveyed are executed beautifully in this novel. With Starr, being the voice of this book, sharing her insight on the life-altering events which occur throughout this journey. Our main character’s relationships with others are demonstrated beautifully, with rapid-fire dialogue and pop-culture references, all of which I adored. Yet again, the characters are easy to love and their development and arcs throughout is done so brilliantly.
A review of Five Feet Apart by Rachel Lippincott
Calling all romantic-comedy and tear-jerker lovers! Five Feet Apart is for you! With a very ‘When Harry met Sally’ style romance and filled with beautiful, albeit, sad moments. Five Feet Apart is a gorgeous YA novel, with similar aspects to John Greens’ The Fault in Our Stars.
A review of The Definition of Us by Sarah Harris
The book is also a great introductory read to other novels about mental health and has the perfect blend of enjoyment and laughs as well as thought-provoking ideas and questions often raised in society today. This is an element I adore in fiction, and The Definition of Us did this flawlessly.
A review of A Man Called Ove By Fredrick Backman
An incredibly moving novel, I am glad I read this book as a ‘gateway’ book to other adult books. I would suggest this is a book for young adults (15-18) and adults, as some themes can be quite intense for younger readers. Overall, a beautiful story with strong messages and an emotional ending – you’ll need the tissue box for this one!
A review of Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare
These stories, focus on Simon although other characters from varying plots are also introduced, discussed and mentioned. We discover more about the Blackthorn children, James Herondale and his family, the secrets of faerie and the journey for Simon as he tries to find who he was, is as a newfound Shadowhunter in the realm of angels and demons.