What I've Been Reading:'World Enough and Time' by Emma C. Williams

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.

'To His Coy Mistress' ~ Andrew Marvell







'World Enough and Time' by Emma C. Williams was 'recommended' to me by Goodreads.com based on some books I'd read previously. The premise fascinated me and, seeing that I had it on my 'to-read' shelf, the author contacted me asking if I would like a copy to review. Of course, I accepted, and here we are...

Anna Jones is your typical 15 year old. Intelligent, sensitive and feisty she's got a lot going on. Firstly, there's Michael, a close friend who she'd like to be closer to, then there's the fiasco she's gotten herself into with her RE teacher and a badly phrased opinion. But the biggest thing going on in Anna's life right now is the build-up to an operation she's been waiting a lifetime for. An operation that could change her life completely.

You see, Anna has Goldenhar Syndrome, a genetic condition that prevented one side of her face developing at the same rate as the other. As a result, her face is severely asymmetric,  one half of her jaw is underdeveloped causing complex structural problems. Anna is also almost completely blind in one eye and has less than perfect hearing in one ear. She also has scoliosis of the spine as a result of her condition. And yet Anna does not let any of this get her down.

At fifteen, she's already gone through a lifetime of medical procedures, examinations and orthodontic devices but finally it is time for the operation of all operations. An eight hour procedure to transplant bone from one of her ribs into her jaw and hopefully make her face more symmetrical. Anna hopes that the procedure will allow her to live life in the same bubble of uncertainty that others do. There won't be any more over-friendly shop-keepers trying to show that they don't care how she looks, there won't be any more kids pointing and asking their parents what is wrong with her, and maybe, just maybe, Michael might find her attractive enough to date.

'World Enough and Time' is a beautiful novel. Told from Anna's point of view we get an exquisitely crafted and insightful look into the mind of a fifteen year old who just wants to live her life without prejudice. Unusually for a novel told from the point of view of a teenager, I really did feel like Anna was talking to me directly, as though the author had channelled Anna and was relaying her thoughts on to the page. Anna did not feel fictional. She felt thoroughly 3D, a fully developed character who I could really care about and wanted to spend time with. In fact, I didn't want the novel to end as I wanted to spend more time with Anna and her friends and I'd be happy to read an entire series of books devoted to Anna Jones. (Thankfully, I've discovered that Anna has her own blog! I'll definitely be checking that out.)

This novel taught me a lot. Not just about Goldenhar Syndrome, which I'd heard of before but didn't really know a lot about, but also about life in general. It taught me that no matter what we think of ourselves, no matter how hard it can be for us to believe that other people will ever find us beautiful, there will always be those who hold us up when we're down and see the beauty that hides within us. It made me pause for a moment in my own navel gazing and contemplate how different and more complicated my own life could be.

This is one of the best Young Adult novels I've read in the last couple of years and I want to urge any YA fans out there to get their hands on a copy and everybody else to buy a copy for any teenage girl in their life. 

5/5 - a firm new favourite.

What I've Been Reading:'Mandatory Release' by Jess Riley

I was kindly provided with a free copy of this novel for review purposes by the publishers.

I'm going to admit straight away that what drew me to this novel was the comparison that has been made to the US prison drama 'Oz', which happens to be one of the most addictive and compelling TV shows I have ever watched. The idea of a novel set in a prison, following the lives of two prison workers really appealed to me and I was excited to give it a go. I love to try something new and this was something I'd never come across in a book before.

30-something teacher Drew Daniels is frantically trying to escape her life and finds the solution she's looking for in moving back in with her parents and starting a new job at the local prison teaching Special Ed classes. It's as far from her usual life of teaching at an expensive private school as she can manage and she thinks it could be the medicine she needs to help her forget her troubles. Drew has just re-entered the world of the singleton after living the cosy, settled life with long-term partner Ben. We don't really know what happened with the relationship but we do know it ended badly. Badly enough that she would want to return to the scene of her adolescent years.

On her first day at Lakeside Correctional, Drew meets Joe, a Corrections Officer ten years her junior but just attractive enough that it stops her from caring about the age gap. She also bumps into Graham, an old friend from High School who is now a Social Worker at Lakeside and has found himself wheelchair-bound after an RTA left him paralysed from the waist down.

What follows is your typical girl meets guy, girl falls for guy while another guy falls for her story arc. Now, I don't usually read these kind of novels, and there was a point about half way in to the novel where I was tempted to put it aside and stop reading - not because the novel itself was bad but because it just wasn't turning out to be my kind of thing. However, the mystery of how Drew's relationship with Ben ended kept me reading. Hints had been dropped and I was anticipating some dirty secret was about to come out in the wash. And I wasn't disappointed. And I'm really glad that I kept reading because at about the 3/4 way mark, I started to really enjoy this novel. The characters began to come into their own, the plot spun off in a few thought-provoking angles and I wanted to keep reading.

The format of the novel took a little getting used to. It was told in chapters that alternated from Graham's first person narration and a third person perspective of Drew's experience. While I would usually find myself wanting to read more of the female character's point of view, I actually found myself enjoying Graham's chapters more than Drew's. I loved Graham's voice, his sarcasm and pessimistic world view. I really felt as though I was getting inside his head, that I could identify with his experiences, while I felt as though I was watching Drew from a distance which made it hard to connect with her. 

The subject matter of the novel was quite dark, which is a personal favourite of mine when it comes to choosing reading material, and yet it had an uplifting angle to it. Graham, especially brought humour to the darkness and stopped the novel becoming merely a diatribe against the American penal system. I enjoyed the way Jess Riley brought attention to the flaws of the Prison system - the overcrowding, the chaos, the risk for the prison workers. And the way she did it without preaching. We got to see the flaws and the problems with our own eyes rather than simply be told about them.

This was a thought-provoking read that I'm glad I stuck with. At some point in the future, I will probably return to it and read it again with fresh eyes, knowing that it is a book I am going to enjoy. I found the pop culture references quirky and kind of fun - when a fictional character compares their situation to one of your favourite films (Freedom Writers) it's bound to make you smile.

I'd recommend this book for anybody who likes quirky humour, a bit of darkness and a story firmly rooted in reality. I'll definitely be checking out some of Jess Riley's earlier novels.

4/5

What I've Been Reading:'Queen's Gambit' by Elizabeth Fremantle

The US cover art for 'Queen's Gambit' by Elizabeth Fremantle

I was kindly given a free copy of this book by Simon and Schuster for review purposes.

It isn't often that I read historical novels (although between the ages of 15 and 18 I became slightly obsessed with novels set in and around King Arthur's Camelot) but there was something about Elizabeth Fremantle's novel that really attracted me. I have vague memories of studying the Tudors in both Primary School and Secondary School and the time period always captured my imagination, especially the reign of King Henry VIII. There were certain things about him that fascinated me such as the amount of wives he managed to work his way through, the fact that he refused to acknowledge his daughters as legitimate, and perhaps most importantly, his role in the Reformation and as head of the Church of England. So of course, I couldn't miss an opportunity to read a novel set in the time of his reign.

Elizabeth Fremantle's debut novel, 'Queen's Gambit' is the tale of Katherine Parr, King Henry VIII's sixth and final wife. Widowed for the second time at the age of 31, Katherine dreams of marrying again, for love this time rather than the match-making that is rife in the court of King Henry. When she meets Thomas Seymour, brother-in-law to the King and close friend of her brother, Will, she thinks she's found herself the perfect match. She has begun to feel things she never felt for her previous husbands, is enjoying life and love. But the King has other plans.

On the lookout for his next potential wife, Henry Tudor finds himself drawn to Katherine's intelligence, wit and kindness. And so he begins an attempt to seduce her, showering her with lavish gifts and attention. When he eventually requests her hand in marriage, Katherine can do nothing but say yes. To refuse would be impossible and could cost her her life. And so she must once again marry a man she can not and does not love and cast the handsome and charming Thomas Seymour aside. And so begins Katherine Parr's tumultuous marriage to one of the most hot-headed monarchs in England's history. 

'Queen's Gambit' covers a span of five years and follows Katherine from the deathbed of her second husband Latymer to her own deathbed several years later. And what a crazy, action-packed five years those were for Katherine. Being wife to Henry Tudor isn't all that glamorous. He's a flabby, ageing grump with ulcerous legs who leaves the stench of decay in a room long after he's gone. Katherine must be both nurse-maid and bed-mate to Henry as well as the gem on his arm to be paraded in front of his court. She must be mother to his three children (all of whom lost their own mothers to Henry's short temper) and Meg, the stepdaughter she raised with Latymer, as well as trying to give Henry another son. But most of all she must be careful. She must not let Henry see her secret desire for Thomas Seymour, but most of all she must keep her Reformative notions private.

Katherine is a staunch Reformationist. She doesn't believe in Transubstantiation, she wants the bible to be printed in English, no longer only accessible to those of the highest education. She reads the banned texts of Luther and other Reformationist thinkers and meets secretly with Anne Askew, who would later be burnt at the stake for her opinions.

Katherine is a brave woman, a strong woman who manages to stay true to her beliefs and succeeds in outliving her tyrannical husband. And despite everything she goes through, she manages to never give up on love, on her love for Thomas Seymour.

Elizabeth Fremantle's depiction of the chaos, intrigue and romance of the court of Henry VIII is exquisite. Reading her novel, I felt as though I had truly been transported back in time, was getting a sneak peak into the lives of  public figures who have always felt so distant, so faded when presented to me in non-fiction format. I can't imagine just how much research must have gone into this novel. It felt flawless, seamless. There wasn't a single point where I paused in my reading to wonder if something was factually accurate. I simply suspended my belief and went with the flow, which is something only the best novels can get me to do.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, even found myself staying up late into the night to finish it, which is something I haven't done in a long while and is a good marker of how much a book manages to grip me. I would recommend this novel to anybody with even the slightest interest in the history of the Tudors. And I think it's a great gateway into the genre for anybody who doesn't usually read Historical fiction.

5/5