Monthly Archives: October 2023
The Midnight Switch by Samuel J Halpin – Blog Tour Extract and Giveaway
About the Book
A spooky, quirky adventure of curses and magic, perfect for fans of Malamander and A Place Called Perfect.
When Lewis’s family moves to a faraway town called Barrow, he can’t quite put his finger on what feels so strange about his new home. Everyone is obsessed with superstition, and an old story about floods and witches and a curse, while a mysterious bird watches his every move.
Then his family friend Moira arrives to stay. Only, there’s something peculiar about Moira too. She doesn’t know where she’s from, or even when she’s from, and strange things happen around her. Lewis and Moira are determined to figure out what’s going on in Barrow, but as they unravel secret symbols, riddles and stories of a midnight curse, they find that there might be some truth in the old town tales.
Time is running out, before magic switches up everything they know…
About the Author
Born in Tasmania with Irish roots, Samuel J. Halpin writes daily. Having studied journalism at the University of New South Wales, Samuel went on to take cinematography at AFTRS, the national Australian film school in Sydney before moving to London and working in comedy TV production. His children’s books are his answer to a childhood raised on a hodgepodge of fairy tales, crowded bookshelves and cups of hot chocolate.
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/samueljhalpin
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/samueljhalpin
Giveaway
Can you break the riddle and stop the curse:
My first sounds like a body of water.
My second is in STORIES but not TALES or FICTION.
My third is LORE but not LEGEND nor REALITY.
My last is what starts it flying.
Post your answer on my The Midnight Switch Instagram story which will be pinned on my profile until the giveaway closes on Friday 3rd November.
Extract
In the meantime read chapter one here!
Huge thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours and the Publisher Usborne for the gifted copy. I will be adding my review to this post when I have read. Follow along with the rest of the tour too.
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The Spirit Snatcher by Cat Gray – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
Welcome to Elbow Alley, home of the most monstrous mystery…
Pip was not expecting his new neighbours to be vampires, banshees and ghosts. Worst of all is the mysterious spirit snatcher, which appears out of nowhere and sucks away people’s personalities. When it attacks Pip’s parents, the only way to save them is to find and destroy it. But no one knows who it is…
Along with his new friend Fliss and her dog Splodge, Pip sets out to investigate, facing murderous ghouls, werewolf attacks and a dangerously mouldy cheese. Because if he and Fliss can’t stop the creature by their thirteenth birthdays, they’ll be spirit-snatched too.
About the Author
Cat Gray is an author and journalist, based in London and Ireland. She started her journalism career at the age of 19, interviewing musicians and celebrities in between attending classes, then went on to be an editor at a series of glossy magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country.
Since she was very young, she’s always believed that there’s an adventure just around the corner, and this is reflected in her magical fantasy stories.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/_catgray
Instagram: http://instagram.com/cat.gray
What I Thought
Another wonderful magical tale by Cat Gray and this one is perfect for Spooky Season. I really enjoyed following Pip, and his new friend Fliss, along on their adventure. But the whole of Elbow Alley was full of interesting ghouls, vampires, banshees, werewolves and much more. We are presented a smorgasbord of unique characters. Even Pip’s very human parents are flamboyant – until they are not.
A spirit snatcher has targeted the new kid on the block but he isn’t eligible for spirit snatching until he turns 13 on Halloween. But a monster has to eat in the meantime – and what better way to get parents out of the way of an adventure than to make them the reason for the adventure to occur.
The mystery was fun, spooky and sometimes a bit scary but when you have a dog called Splodge on your side what can’t you face?
Really hoping that we get to hear more from Pip, Fliss and all the other residents of Elbow Alley – and if you spy any secret streets in London beware there may be magical folks living there that don’t take too kindly to outsiders.
Huge thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours and the publisher Usborne for the gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. As ever pop along to everyone else’s blog to see what they thought too.
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The Nameless by Stuart White – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
For dystopian fans of THE LAST OF US, THE MAZE RUNNER, and THE HUNGER GAMES.
The YA debut from award-winning author, Stuart White.
IN A NAMELESS WORLD, ONE HERO RISES BY DISCOVERING THEIR IDENTITY.
In a dystopian world dominated by genetic perfection and numbered gene pools, sixteen-year-old E820927, known as Seven, yearns for an identity beyond his assigned number.
To escape a life as a Nameless Exile, and become a citizen of the Realm, he must pass a loyalty test to prove his allegiance to the totalitarian Autokratōr.
With the world’s fate hanging in the balance, Seven’s journey sparks rebellion, hope, and the reclamation of individuality.
But as the truth unfolds, Seven faces a difficult choice between revenge and love.
About the Author
Stuart is an award-winning author and secondary school teacher. He has a Masters Degree in Creative Writing and founded, and now runs, WriteMentor. In 2020 and 2022 he was placed on the SCWBI Undiscovered Voices longlist and named as an Hononary Mention for his novels ‘Ghosts of Mars’ and ‘Astra FireStar and the Ripples of Time’. In 2023, he won the WriteBlend award for his middle grade debut, Ghosts of Mars.
Stuart was included in The Bookseller’s 2021 list of Rising Stars in the publishing industry.
What I Thought
The Nameless brings another meaning to the phrase “Making a name for yourself”. Children in this society have to follow the rules of the Realm and enter Realm camps as numbers. This ends with them taking the Caste Test. Success leads to being named and entering into Academics or Military recruitment. Failure leads to Exile or Reevaluation!!
Our protagonist Seven grew up under the care of Cherish, but she was not his biological family and he has always felt that innate need to find his roots, where he came from. He also realises that all is not right in a society that worships perfection. Especially when they are willing to do anything to achieve it in animals and humans, and disregard those who don’t meet that ideal.
This dystopian thriller follows in the footsteps of Divergent and The Hunger Games with a young protagonist’s personal struggle leading them to their place in a wider rebellion against a whole society. What was intriguing here was who Seven turned out to be. It did take a while for us to find out his origins and personally I think I’d have liked this information earlier because it sheds a whole new light on events.
This is quite brutal at times with plenty of death and Seven even makes a commentary on the lives of those dying just being seen as a number to both sides. This hits a bit close to what is currently going on in the world. The major inciting incident threw me and did continue to have reverberations through the story.
Seven is quite naive at times – especially when it comes to girls. And here he is pretty led by his emotions. I don’t think I fully bought into the love triangle that was introduced but I guess that’s what happens when who you think should be endgame for them is introduced early on. Whether she ends up as endgame I will leave you to read and see – although the series looks like it will continue so plenty of time for everything to change.
With a theme so vast as Namelessness there is a lot of focus on identity. There seems to be something very odd about being handed a name at the age of sixteen, when this is an age where teens are trying to claim themselves (not that being given a name at birth is any less strange I guess). During the book Seven actually experiences being known by different names but does he claim any for himself?
I’m intrigued to see what happens next and how the main theme continues to develop – because I don’t think identity is a static thing at all. I also hope we get much more of the side characters in future books as there are some really interesting ones I really want to know more about.
If you are a fan of the genre I think you will enjoy playing spot the influence because I think there’s quite a few nods to other stories and I do enjoy this intertextuality.
Please note trigger warnings for violence, torture and cannibalism.
Huge thanks to The Write Reads and the author for the gifted e copy provided for the purposes of an honest review. Do follow along with the rest of the tour to see what others thought too.
kirstyes 