Unnatural Law

Unnatural Law by Natasha Larry

Genre: Fantasy, Young-Adult, Romance

Series: Darwin’s Children #2

Published: October 26th 2011 by Penumbra Publishing

Seventeen-year-old Jaycie Lerner’s psycho-kinetic power surge is over, and her astounding powers are under control for the time being – sort of. As she struggles to maintain her humanity in the face of the awesome terror and responsibility of her abilities, she also yearns for the chance at a normal life – and a relationship with Matt Carter, the best friend she had to leave behind. But Matt’s got a few tricks up his sleeve, and he’s not about to give up on his feelings for Jaycie.
As Jaycie and her family grapple with the day-to-day routine of trying to keep their world together, Jaycie’s mother figure, Allison Young, endures a personal crisis of her own. The superhuman blonde possesses the physical equivalent of Jaycie’s awesome psychic power.

So evolved, at ninety-two she still looks twenty. But what good is extended life when everyone else around her is so fragile? With no one to share her unusual life, she’s a uniquely lonely woman yearning for the romantic love she sees all around her. But in a dream she gets her wish – and it quickly turns to a nightmare for everyone else in her life. The memory of a rose is all she can hold onto in the storm of obsession that nearly sweeps her away.
Things quickly turn deadly for the vampires, but the Dey-Vah Guard fairies refuse to acknowledge there’s an imbalance in the nature they protect. As the danger gets ever closer to Jaycie and her family, the race is on to find answers before a secret plot can destroy them all.

My Review:

Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as the first. That wasn’t to say it’s a bad novel because there are lots of good aspects, particularly the plot. I just found the character foundations dissolved and the characters themselves became more childish and verged into the unbelievable whilst they were meant to be maturing. At first I really enjoyed the impact of the opening of the novel and I thought we were really going to get a dark, exciting story.

“If no one got there fast enough, the being created to protect her was going to snap her neck.”

From here things changed direction. The dark direction wasn’t really taken and I guess my disappointment seeped into my enjoyment of the novel.

We followed on largely where the last book left off with a little bit of a time skip and some new revelations. However, it wasn’t hard to fit back into this book. The prologue is a jump ahead of time, but it doesn’t really seem to fit with the rest of the story really. It misguides you in all honesty and whilst it makes for an interesting read, I didn’t quite like the delusion at the start to the different ending. The plot is rather good and there are lots of different paranormal elements with fairies, ghosts and vampires, so for all those paranormal fans out there, it certainly has lots to offer. It did fall into my predictability trap with what I assumed was happening. I don’t know whether I’m just getting good with my guesses or the story was actually predictable, but I felt like there could have been a bit more of a surprise for us by the end.

The plot focuses on Jaycie struggling to deal with her powers and imminent threat of the Dey-Vah Guard who are supposed to protect her family. The balancing act of power between the two and the development of their relationship and power roles by the end certainly lead for an intruiging premise and really helped to pace the novel to draw you in as a reader. I never thought the novel was dull nor was it boring, I just felt a little out of tune with events at time to the realism which was of a greater problem. Jaycie may be the protagonist, but we particularly focus on her mother figure Alison and her loneliness, but I think her character was rather underdeveloped to take such a huge role. I felt in the first novel she was much more fleshed out and that Alison became a little weak in the second novel.

Like I stated the characters were not at all how they’d been in the first novel. The only character I really liked was Jaycie’s friend Hayley. Jaycie didn’t grow on me again and as the female protagonist this lack of connection and dislike for the main character really hindered my enjoyment off the story. I think my particular problem is that Jaycie never really gets just her story, in the first book she is overshadowed by Hayley and in the second Alison takes the central role and Jaycie is just the background protagonist almost, there is never a particular storyline that focuses on her, it’s others that have to be endangered for her to be used almost as the figure to revolve around rather than an independent protagonist. Her overuse of the phrase…

“Christ on a cracker!”

…really grated on my nerves. She must have used it a dozen times in one chapter. Personally, I just hate overused phrases.

Her character seemed to dissolve a little bit more after that and she became really childish and just ploughed ahead and did all these stupid things. Some of it is laid down to elements of her power, but it didn’t seem plausible enough to me and maybe I held onto rational mind with this one, but I think you really have to transcend reality if you want to understand Jaycie and maybe be a little younger. Not only that, she just didn’t feel and act like a 17 year old girl to me and this distanced me from liking her. Particularly her reactions and actions around her boyfriend.

“Hmmm. Coming over to hang out with you?”

Jayice smiled hugely. “Yay!”

Matt’s deep laugh vibrated in her ear. “Okay, babe. I’ll be right over.”

Having said that I didn’t particularly like their relationship they did have some cute moments and romance fans will appreciate their relationship. Matt was particularly overprotective, but he did work to save her in an intellectual way rather than run around trying to be Mr. Muscle and I like Larry’s take on the alternative method of a hero who doesn’t have to be all brawn. He was an intellectual character who seemed more central and down to earth, rather like Hayley. I think those two characters had greater substance to anybody else who surrounded Jaycie or Jaycie herself who all seemed less thought out and more ungrounded.

Matt sighed and opened his eyes.

“Alright, get out before I tie you up in my closet!”

I particularly liked the ghost element of this story and the character who connected with the ghosts. He forms a friendship with Jaycie which was the only reason I found to like her in the fact that she connected and learned to understand him. The ghosts don’t have an huge role in the novel, but their presence is important and I enjoy the little details Larry goes to.

The secondary characters of the story are lacking a little and I think after reading several books that have strong secondary characters, it makes for a less exciting read. Matt and Hayley are without a doubt the strongest characters in the book for me, but I don’t really feel like enough about them is known. There still seems to be something missing and whilst Larry has such a good plot and premise, her characters seemed to be the real issue I have with her novels.

Overall I didn’t enjoy ‘Unnatural Law’ as much as ‘Darwin’s Children’, and my review for that can be found here but I can equally say Larry has continued with a strong novel that sets a nice addition to the paranormal and fantasy world.

To fulfil the inner Nerd, you can find out more here:

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Crashing Eden

Crashing Eden by Michael Sussman

Genre: Young-Adult, Fantasy

Publication: May 1st 2012 by Solstice Publishing

For one boy and his friends, the path to Paradise comes at a cost—one they may not be prepared to pay.

When a biking accident leaves 17-year-old Joss Kazdan with the ability to hear things others can’t, reality as he knows it begins to unravel.

A world of legends exists beyond the ordinary life he’s always known, and he is transported to the same Paradise he’s studying in World Mythology. But the strange gets even stranger when his new friends build a device that delivers people through the gates of the Garden of Eden.

Now Samael, the Creator God, is furious. As Samael rains down his apocalyptic devastation on the ecstasy-seeking teens, Joss and his companions must find a way to appease Samael—or the world will be destroyed forever.

My Review:

For Michael Sussman’s debut into young adult, I’d call this a solid start. I felt that we had some really strong moments where his writing was taking off, with strong elements of fantasy, but then ultimately there were some big flops. Still his work was readable and enjoyable and I found it easy to read. One of the biggest problems was I felt like we had a few too many plot loops, like at one moment Joss was doing something and the next it was completely different. Also, I felt like the fantasy element as a more modern fantasy wasn’t as strong as it could be.

From the first moment I started reading, I knew that this book was going to be different because we followed a male protagonist, Joss. I feel like the young-adult genre is lacking in stories from a male perspective, so this was a nice addition! Joss was a little impulsive and seemed to change the foundations of his character quickly, which was annoying. He certainly had a wild history that made for an interesting reading and enabled you to really see a change in his character that was nice. I tend to find the male protagonist stories follow a disturbed youth who is falling of the rails and has issues. Joss is struggling with his younger brother’s suicide, his distant mother and general trouble to be good, so I enjoyed this aspect of his character. I found that he could make me chuckle.

And anyhow, who the hell was that dickwad Heckle to sentence me to a lifetime of misery? He could kiss my deluded ass.”

He would have been a stronger character if he’d become more structured in his change from the rebel to a new “person”, and he needed more to the dynamics of his relationships with some of the other characters like his friends, but other than that I found him entertaining and easy to connect with.

He has two “love interests” almost of the story, but one can’t be anything but a young boy’s crush. Shakti is the crush and to be truthful, she was a little boring and I didn’t think she had much substance to her character. She came along looking to be some mystical woman and then she seemed to defer lots to her boyfriend and whilst Joss professed her as beautiful, I didn’t really feel like there was a lot about her character.

Either way, I’d betrayed Alessa. But what was I supposed to do when I had such strong feelings for both girls?”

On the other hand, we had Alessa, Joss’s main love interest and she seems to flesh out as the story goes along. Although there were still a lot of unanswered questions in their relationship. At first she seems a little bitchy, but then she becomes a little more understanding and a relationship quickly forms with Joss. It would have been nice to watch a more steady development, but I guess it represents how young people jump into love.

One character I despised was Joss’s mother. She was an utter cow! She was horrible to him and literally hated him. The fact that she even told him she didn’t like him, didn’t sit well with me. No wonder the boy had problems when his mother behaved so despicably. Her enlightenment by the end of the novel wasn’t enough to redeem her and I felt like her actions couldn’t be excused throughout the novel.

Whilst I felt like the characters were a little lacking, Sussman seems to have really got a lot of research about heaven, hell and the cultural beliefs of different religions and I really found them interesting to read. I found at times all the talk of God and religion got a little too much for me, but that’s just my own opinion. Still, I felt like the novel was thoroughly researched and shows Sussman to have some real potential for more in future.

“I believe long ago, all humans could hear the sound. In mythological terms, that was the Golden Age. Paradise ended with the Fall, and that’s when adult humans lost touch with this cosmic vibrations.”

The plot was strong for the first part and then we reached about 40% and it tailed off until about 75% since in between Joss was handing out PVDs to hear the OM that is part of the connection to Eden and this is discussed within the first 40% which makes up for a strong set up to the story. During the middle of this novel, I truthfully got a little bored. However the last 25% I devoured eagerly. If the whole of this novel had been as exciting as the last 25% I would have easily given this story 4 stars.

Overall I felt like Sussman has made a strong entrance to the YA genre and that he’s showing a lot of potential for future novels! I wouldn’t dismiss this one as rubbish because it really has some great moments. Check it out if you have the time!

My Rating:

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Thanks to Miss Gonzalez for inviting me to join Michael’s tour.

Down

Down by Mark Adam Kaplan

Genre: Young-Adult, Urban

Published: March 25th 2012 by Bewrite Books

DOWN chronicles Leon Mendoza as he struggles to get his life back together before his upcoming court date. With his father in prison, and his mother in deep depression, Leon is on his own to handle the fallout from his arrest. His homeboys worry that he’ll testify against them, his teachers have little or no pity for his situation, and his mother buries herself in her room all day, or watches novellas, completely closing him out.

But there is hope. A caring teacher, a proactive Probation Officer, a part-time job at a Chinese restaurant, and the attention of a beautiful girl fight to balance out the hand that Heaven dealt Leon.

Would it be enough to help him avoid his father’s fate? It all comes down to one terrible night, when all of Leon’s worlds collide in an explosion that threatens to take him DOWN.

My Review:

Well, I didn’t know what to expect when I first started reading this. It was much shorter than I’d expected actually—but I probably should have actually looked to see. Nevertheless it was an interesting read and one that kept me absorbed for much of the read. However, the ending stunned me. I though it was very realistic and gritty and whilst I tend to be a sucker for a happily ever after and for everything unrealistic, this book is pure realism that I thought was brilliant!

Another aspect of this book that I really loved was that it was told from the perspective of a young teenage boy. I find that young-adult fiction tends to be dominated by female protagonists with a love interest and this was refreshing. It was a male telling his story about the trouble of the streets with the main focus of the plot being on his struggle to be do the right thing by himself and his family or his gang. However you can imagine that being in a teenage boys mind things did tend to focus on the female anatomy a little.

“Before I knew it, I traced the outline of her ass, the stool, the long tangles of her hair …”

Personally I thought at 15 this boy was a little young, but I suppose that is the male mind!Another point being that since the story is in first perspective, the language and linguistics of the boy are very much from the “urban” world and he’s not grammatically correct and his use of calling people a “foo’” really seemed to grate on my nerves. However, it created the realistic setting of the novel. We really delve into society on a lower level and I found it interesting while irritating to my inner grammar freak.

Not only that, but Kaplan recreated the real world and the sufferings of problems in society and my heart was really out there for Leon. I just wanted to drag him away from it all and when he was so thrilled over little things like toothpaste and food it was so heart breaking.

“It had been so long since I had been to school, I forgot about the food. But I didn’t forget the taste. First time I ate it was like I never stopped.”

This really brought out the urban-ness of the genre out for me. Kaplan sure didn’t shy away from the truth of society, the full out gang presence and the threats, the beatings, weapons and violence. We had a full blown gang war with blood splattered, brains blown, knives stabbed into bodies and if you’re squeamish, this probably isn’t a book for you.

A family on the edge of poverty with the young protagonist Leon falling into a world of prisons, trouble and a never ending problems. This is the worlds realistic problems at the heart of fiction! Leon struggles the whole way through the novel with sticking to the morals of other people and finding himself. This certainly is a fiction that follows the path of growing up and all the trials and tribulations a teen can face. I liked that he eventually seemed to find himself with the help of Old Chong and stood for who he was and not what other people wanted because that could be a problem. However by the end of the novel I wanted to scream too and beat at Leon with a bat for his decisions in life.

Leon happens to have a love interest too. She’s named Yvonne and there seems to be quite a lot of hype about her and to be truthful, I didn’t really like her. Especially when she said this.

“Well, even thought I am perfect, sometimes I don’t get everything done. But I think that just makes me a little more perfect.”

Really? Who says that! Otherwise I really liked Leon as a character, but I didn’t ever connect with Yvonne. Whilst I thought her intentions for Leon being good were good and noble, she just grated on my nerves. She never really did anything and told us she had “problems” but we never learnt more. It would have been nice to see more from Yvonne as a strong character and rather less of her being a weakling.

Old Chong was pretty brilliant as a character. He was the wise, old Chinese man and had a strong will and never allowed Leon to push him over like he seemed on the verge of many times. Old Chong I could definitely imagine being a real person and he had a rather sad tale. It was a shame his story was never really concluded.

Overall I enjoyed reading this, found it short and gripping. Kaplan delved into the world and workings of gang culture with all their loyalty. Leon was a troubled and gritty male protagonist who you really become immersed in as a character. I felt like we ended too soon and not with quite enough resolve of all the questions that floated in my head. Otherwise, I’d take a look at this because it’s certainly different.

My Rating:

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Wanted: Dead or Undead

Wanted: Dead or Undead by Angela Scott Genre: Young-Adult, Zombies, Horror Series: The Zombie West Series #1 Published: March 30th 2012 by Evolved Publishing Trace Monroe doesn’t believe in luck. He never has. But when a fiery-headed cowgirl saunters through the saloon doors, wielding shotguns and a know-how for killing the living dead, he believes he just may be the luckiest man alive. Trace wants to join “Red’s” posse, but she prefers to work alone—less messy that way. In order to become her traveling companion, Trace has to agree to her terms: no names, no questions, and if he gets bit, he can’t beg for mercy when she severs his brain stem. He agrees, knowing only that Red is the sharpest shooter he’s ever encountered. The fact she’s stunning hasn’t escaped his attention either. What he doesn’t know, is that Red has a very good reason to be on top of her game. She not only has the answer for how they can all outlive the plague taking over the wild, wild west, she is the answer.

Review:

I was asked by Angela Scott to review this book and I gladly accepted. It sounds interesting and different and boy am I happy I accepted. This book was fantastic! The wild west is not really my scene and whilst I like reading/watching things on zombies I’m not a huge fanatic. However this meshed together perfectly to make a wonderful young-adult novel.

I’ll start of with the plot. We’re thrown straight into a situation unfamiliar to us with no introductions. We get a brief background on a girl and we learn about her family and the impact of zombies. It’s rather touching for a preface of the novel and made an instant connection for me to the character and brought a real energy to the story on such a pacey start.  Just as we fall into a sense of knowing we are thrown into a different situation where we meet Trace. The story is fast paced and ever flowing onwards.

Since the scene is constantly changing to keep up a new setting and action packed moment, we are never in the same place twice and it makes an exciting read. The different location changes serve to really immerse you as a reader into the world of the wild west and get the western feel. I wouldn’t say that the western tilt to this novel was overly strong, which allowed me to keep reading, but it was there to remind us of the time and setting. I generally refrain from everything western, but I liked the concept of this novel.

We had the horses and the guns, the poker and bars along with little family houses. It was quaint and I felt like Scott really set up a descriptive style to the story that wasn’t overly detailed to take away from the fast action of the plot. If you like Western novels you’ll love this and even if you don’t I think you shouldn’t let that deter you from reading!

Red. She is an amazing kick ass character who we witness going on a phenomenal journey. The emotional aspects to her character were really profound because she witness some really traumatic experiences in her life and as the story unfolded we found many revelations to come. I thought there was always a new aspect of Red that we were waiting to uncover and that she wasn’t predictable in the slightest. She was a very strong female protagonist for the story and I appreciate that about strong female characters. She could hold her own and fight and then there were times where we witnessed real vulnerability and struggle but this only reminded us of her humanity. I felt that whilst she seemed cold and harsh, she had human faults and true reasons and values to her character.

Trace was an interesting man. I found I hated him for the first half of the novel until he developed his own sense of morals and loyalty. Then he grew more and more upon me. He was certainly a stubborn man, and he worked well for the love interest for Red. I also have to admit that a little bit he grew on my heart and I was rooting for him by the end of the story. You’ll be pleased to know we have no other love interests to this story.

The zombies remind me of those from ‘Walking Dead’ if any of you have watched the TV show. They are blood hungry and savage and are only killed with a shot to the head. There are lots of questions surrounding the zombies and relating to Red and members of the population that are totally eluded in this novel, so I hope because this book is a series Scott will go on to cover the root of the outbreak and the more scientific aspects of the zombies. However, they are really fantastic horror zombies with no qualms about killing and gnawing away at somebody. Scott is not about to shy away from her horror even writing for the young-adult audience.

The only thing I could say was just over half-way through we reached a point where the novel and characters seemed to repeat themselves and that Red may have fallen into a kind of pattern that annoyed me. However Scott seemed to recuperate quickly from a little writing funk and finished with a respectable ending that left you wanting more and asking lots of questions.

As a young-adult novel, I’d suggest this more for the older teens because there is lots of blood and horror. We also brush across some intimate subjects whilst they aren’t covered in details the implications are perfectly clear and not something for young children.

Nevertheless I believe all audiences young-adult upwards can appreciate the well-written and developed plot and characters that Scott provides us with. It’s a short read at just over 200 pages and certainly makes for an enjoyable read. I’ll be looking out for the next book in the series out Autumn 2012, whilst I suggest you go stock your shelves or e-reader with a copy of this zombie-rrific book!

My rating:

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Darwin’s Children

Title: Darwin’s Children

Author: Natasha Larry

Series: Darwin’s Children #1

Genre: Young-Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Publication: June 8th 2011 by Penumbra Publishing

Plot:

Life can get pretty complicated for any seventeen-year-old girl, but for a home-schooled telepathic black girl trying to survive in a prestigious private school in small-town Jonesborough, Tennessee, it can be maddening; especially when her telepathic father keeps eavesdropping on her thoughts!
Jaycie Lerner’s family isn’t the usual mom-dad-kid setup. Jaycie’s mom is MIA, but Allison, her personal live-in trainer, is more than a mom, with her own special abilities, like being able to lift cars and run incredibly fast. And Jaycie’s godfather John is more than persuasive; he can literally convince anyone to do anything.
As far as the rest of the world’s concerned, Jaycie’s on the outside looking in. The townsfolk love Jaycie’s paediatrician father, but she doesn’t fit in with “normal” kids, and she doesn’t really want to. Most of her free time is spent training to keep her telekinetic and telepathic powers under control. But there’s one thing she can’t control; and that’s her feelings, especially when her best friend Matt is nearby. If only he knew what she was truly capable of…
Everything seems to be status quo for Jaycie until she receives a cryptic message from a stranger and meets a very unusual girl new to Jonesborough. Then all hell breaks loose!

Review:

We’ll start with the cover, to me it looks and feels old, which is a little bit a reflection of the novel for me personal. I felt like the whole novel was set back in the 90’s with the setting and the characters and the way they acted. It felt like a very dated novel for a recently published young-adult novel. I think the cover reflects the novel itself well, it captures the essence of magic and oldness that the story has a lot of. The main character is not how I’d imagined her, she seems to feisty for me and wild. Jaycie seemed more childish and vulnerable in the story. However I have seen alternate covers that seem to fall a little more into the modern genre and I know covers aren’t down to authors, I still think it’s something to consider when reflecting upon the novel.

Overall, I thought the book was okay. It definitely has an intriguing premise, so when I was asked by the author to review this book, I was immediately excited to start reading. I think the story pace was smooth, but nothing that sparked a burning desire in me to keep turning the pages. I felt the story lacked the take-off that I was expecting. Whilst it had a good plot and a sturdy base, I felt like Larry could have expanded so much further and she just didn’t. For me, there were quite a few failed opportunities in here.

The main character Jaycie annoyed me an awful lot. She was meant to be a 17 year old girl and she behaved like a five year old for most of the story. Admittedly she was aware of this petulant trait, but there were other instances where her father of trainer Allison would put her to bed. I’m sorry, but for me a 16/17 year old girl would never easily acquiesce to being put to bed by her father even if she was asleep. It just didn’t fit with modern society for me. She also seemed a little bit weak and vulnerable. She pretended to be all out front and unbothered by people, but it seemed to be a front. She ignored her boyfriend for weeks, fell into depression over her only friend yet she was stereotyped as the pretty cheerleader material. It may be stereotyping, but her character seemed to have a lot of faults because whilst she tried to be a kick-ass heroine at times, her father was always there stepping in or Allison and it ruined it for me. I like to see a protagonist take control of her story, not be pushed around by her senior figures. I didn’t see enough of her trying to break out of restraining parental hold or even pushing towards spending time with her boyfriend.

The romance isn’t an insta-love because the two characters Jaycie and Matt have had a friendship for a long time, but suddenly they just start becoming a thing and there is very little discussion about this or talk about a relationship status. Matt also seems to accept that Jaycie won’t see or speak to him for weeks at a time and I found it a little bit odd for a teenage couple playing love interests. Whilst it might have been refreshing from the insta-love and sickly love triangles we are getting more and more often in contemporary young-adult novels, I just lacked the spark between the couple. It seemed to fizzle out for me.

However, despite my negatives, I really loved Haylee’s character and her story. Jaycie despite her problems played a great friend for Haylee and brought her from her shell. I found the way in which the friendship developed to be an interesting one because it wasn’t a friendship of norm. The way in which Jaycie’s family unit worked was also endearing.

The plot overall is good and I found there was always a new moment to engage you. I think with the plot you can certainly target a wide audience in the young-adult genre because we touch on vampires, angels who are divided into two sub-sections Larry explains about and many more different creatures we are yet to find out about. These all fit in with Jaycie and her family and the paranormal world. We certainly have lots of paranormal and magical elements to Darwin’s Children that makes the story.

The title has no explicit link to the story in general, but the subtlety of the evolution and survival of the fittest becomes more apparent throughout the story. I certainly learned to appreciate the story title. The chapter titles in general provide sufficient coverage of the chapter without becoming too obvious and giving away the plot which is always helpful.

I have to admit, my favourite part about the story was the ending, despite it being a seemingly random finish, it eluded to more depth to the paranormal aspect and Jaycie’s family which I’ll be excited to read about. I’ll definitely be continuing with the next book in the series because I think Larry has a lot of offer us and lots of places to take us. Whilst I don’t think the book was perfect and the characters had a lot of faults for me, Larry does a great job of setting up a new and different young-adult novel that is certainly different from most of the contemporary young-adult novels out there.

If you’re looking for something different, I suggest picking up Darwin’s children because it’s a pleasant read at about 280 pages.

*This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for a honest, free review*

My Rating:

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One Hundred Years of Vicissitude

Title: One Hundred Years of Vicissitude

Author: Andrez Bergen

Genre: Mystery, Historical-fiction

Expected Publication: Late 2012 by Perfect Edge Books

Plot:

“First up, a disclaimer. I suspect I am a dead man. I have meagre proof, no framed‐ up certification, nothing to toss in a court of law as evidence of a rapid departure from the mortal coil. I recall a gun was involved, pressed up against my skull, and a loud explosion followed.”

Thus begins our narrator in a purgatorial tour through twentieth-century Japanese history, with a ghostly geisha who has seen it all as a guide and a corrupt millionaire as her reluctant companion.

Review:

This book is unique. I think that’s where I need to start, it’s like nothing I have ever read before. I originally agreed to review this book per author request and I felt a little apprehensive about what would come because my knowledge of Japanese history is limited. However I found the book thrilling, exciting, tear jerking at moments and really bizarre! Bergen has a very unique style of writing and he adds a touch of humour into his work that I thoroughly appreciated. It was a rather dry, sarcastic tone which worked well with the tone of the book.

There is little to discern from the actual plot, but the story follows the footsteps of a man who meets a very strange Japanese woman, who crept into my heart along with him and I found myself flipping through the pages to find out where their journey would end. Ultimately this story has a sense of surrealism because it ventures into the realm beyond death and trips into ‘memories’ that is rather confounding at time and you may at times struggle to keep up. However we seem to develop into a full cycle and end on a rather poignant note and I’m glad to say it wasn’t the ending of pointlessness I almost expected from this type of book, but thoroughly rounded.

Bergen seems to enjoy discombobulating us by thrusting us into a new situation at every turn. The fact that he does this adds to the thrill of the story and is certainly enough to pique my interest.

The style of writing is unique, but it certainly adept and stretches my knowledge of vocabulary to its limits. To be truthful, I’d never heard of the word “vicissitude” before reading and the first thing I did was look through a dictionary before reading the book. For those of you who are unawares of the term like me, it means change or variation in the course of something or just change. It fits perfectly to the tale of the story and I find that this is ultimately one of those reads where the title actually integrates with the storyline.

Covers are certainly attractive to the eye and I think this one is interesting enough to make you stop and take a look. I don’t think until you begin to read do you understand the ultimate significance and along with the title, I loved the enlightenment I gained from that experience.

The narration is from the perspective of the man we meet with the most effective introduction of “First up, a disclaimer. I suspect I am a dead man.” after the prologue. The first person narrative is not a reason to avoid this story because it’s the core strength of the story with the idea of ‘memories’ and falling into them, we wouldn’t quite gain the confusion and upheaval if we were to view the tale from a third person narrative.

The characters are realistic people with secrets and problems that uncover across the tale of the story. I found myself falling just a little bit in love with Wolram and his nature. He seemed to gain a redemption throughout the story from his troubled life that was inferred and I enjoyed that experience. Kohana was a deceptive character until the very end. She was not somebody you could judge to act in a particular way and was rather a strange woman, although by the end of the story I came to feel rather sad for her.

Throughout reading I came across some interesting references to other pieces of literature and film which Bergen placed in, but my personal favourites had to be from Lewis Carroll. They did particularly make me smile along with The Wizard of Oz references as two children’s classics.

At times this story did confuse me with certain directions and I struggled to find my way, but I don’t think this took too much away from the overall experience of the book. It was largely in the set-up in the beginning and some of the constant changes in Kohana’s life which were rather fast that led to confusion. Along with that, the books doesn’t seem to fall solidly into one particular genre because it covers a large range of things, from a tad science-fiction style to romance along with the history and mystery aspects. I enjoyed that aspect of the book whilst struggling to place an exact label on the genre, so definitely pick up this book for a little of everything!

Overall I feel like this book is a fantastic addition to the fiction genre and you’d be stupid to overlook it on the fact that it covers Japanese history. The real undercurrent of the story is the developing relation between Kohana and Wolram and the direction of their past life. Pick up this book when it comes out later this year because otherwise you’ll be missing out!

*I received this from the author Andrez Bergen in exchange for a review, prior to its release.*

My Rating:

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