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Somehow, Somehow by Nyanda Foday – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
During lockdown Nyanda was at university. She chose to stay in her student accommodation rather than going home to her family. She spent 79 days alone, with deteriorating mental health, trying to study for her degree.
This visceral, astonishing collection from one of the country’s most exciting emerging performance poets explores this unprecedented moment in global history – from a personal and fascinating point of view.
About the Author
Nyanda Foday was Birmingham’s Young Poet Laureate 2016-2018, and is inspired by the impact that words can have to create, unite, explain and enjoy. She strives to connect with others where she can by sharing and listening to others’ work. Her parents moved from Sierra Leone to London before having Nyanda.
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nyandafoday
X: https://x.com/nyandaisapoet
What I Thought
Be warned because this book discusses the COVID-19 pandemic. This is one woman’s experience of our collective struggle. Future history in 62 pages of poetry.
This is the type of poetry I enjoy, conversational and accessible. And what could be more accessible than reading about our collective experience. But of course within that broad event everyone had their own individual story. I hope more people write and share their individual insights too.
The opening poem Conversation Topic ends with:
“It should be fine,
So long as we remember to wash our hands.”
And boy does it frustrate me to still see this initial advice on government sites not superseded by talk of Covid’s airborne nature.
Other poems talk of loneliness, daily walks, hoarding toilet paper, clapping for the NHS and so many zoom calls. About the fear of re-entering a society where everyone around us became unsafe.
Two other future historic events occurred during the pandemic and each gets their own parallel poem in this collection.
The murder of Sarah Everard and the subsequent police brutality at the vigil. Foday perfectly expresses the fears that this struck at the core of every woman.
The murder of George Floyd and the resulting Black Lives Matter marches. The incredulity that it took a period of closing capitalism for white people like me to wake up to the reality of racism and the frustration of everything going back to normal. Disabled people can very much speak to this too.
The poem Poppy spoke to me personally because I too share Nyanda’s gratitude to four legged saviours.
And as an Occupational Therapist the poem Creating and most importantly the lines:
“I let myself drift in and out of things.
I let myself be bad at it”
There is so much pressure to be good at everything that we often forgot to enjoy the process, the mistakes and the simple joy of doing.
Nyanda’s poems do not speak to the loss of loved ones or her own health. Those are stories for others to write and I hope they do. I want to read them, to understand how others lived these strange years.
I particularly appreciated that Nyanda’s final poem Post-Pandemic actually reflects back the fact that for many people it’s not all over, not something we can just put in the past. But I think reading things like this and feeling that connection to others can help us all move on. I think this will be a collection I will return to and maybe even write alongside.
I would urge people to pick up this book when they feel able. You will find more truth in one of these poems than in the upcoming former PM’s entire book.
Huge thank you to the publisher Anderson Press and Bee At Kaleidoscopic Tours for arranging a gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. Do check out what the rest of the reviewers thought too.
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The Light Thieves and the Terrifying Dawn – Blog Tour Book Series Review
I was brand new to this series and so just as the final book in the trilogy releases I read and reviewed all three. Please feel free to only read up to where you are in the series to avoid potential spoilers when the later books are discussed. I’m going to colour coordinate the synopsis and reviews. Green for book 1, Amber for book 2, Red for book 3.
About the Books
The Light Thieves
The Earth has shifted on its axis and a dark mark has appeared on the sun – the whole world is in peril! But billionaire tech genius Howard Hansom has a plan…
When Grain’s sister goes missing he’s convinced she has run off to Hansom’s new city to help save the world. But where Grain and his friends Jeffrey and Shelli track her there, they find nothing is quite as it seems. Why is everything so secret? Where is the mysterious Area 13? What does Howard Hansom want with all the people he has enticed to live in his city?
And what’s really happening to the sun?
The Light Thieves and the Search for the Black Mirror
The sun’s light is being stolen. It’s a catastrophe for the planet and every living thing on it!
Friends Grian, Jeffrey and Shelli are desperately trying to work out what’s happening. They know tech genius Howard Hansom is behind the theft and they’re determined to stop him. But they can’t use any of Hansom’s smart technology in their quest as it will track them wherever they go.
The three young heroes need to find a strange black mirror to help them save the sun.
Time is running out. Can kids really save the world?
The Light Thieves and the Terrifying Dawn
The third and final action-packed eco-techno-adventure in The Light Thieves series from Helena Duggan, bestselling author of A Place Called Perfect.
People know that the sun is being stolen by tech-billionaire Howard Hansom, who’s been spinning everyone a massive lie.
The only person who can stop him from plunging the world into darkness is the mysterious White Rose. She must keep her identity a secret, so she’s been sending out coded letters hoping good people will find them and work out what’s going on. Young heroes, Grian, Shelli and Jeffrey have been deciphering her letters and are close to solving all the puzzles. But they need one more set of clues to help them in their quest.
Can they find the White Rose before it’s too late?
About the Author
Helena Duggan is a children’s author, graphic designer and illustrator from Kilkenny, a medieval town in Ireland, which was the inspiration for A Place Called Perfect. She writes in a treehouse built by her husband Robbie and his brother in the bottom of their garden. She lives in a small house with Robbie, their daughters Jo and Bobbie and dog Tinker.
Instagram: https://instagram.com/helenadugganwrites
What I Thought
The Light Thieves
Wow. This really was a rip roaring introduction to this adventure. From the world tilting prologue – literally- to the “what comes next” ending The Light Thieves was such an exciting read.
The tag line is – Who would you trust to save the world, a boy or a billionaire? – I think most of us know the answer to this is the boy. Otherwise most of the world’s problems would already be solved if it was the one who actually already has access to resources!
Our main protagonist Grian gets catapulted into adventure when his sister Solas decides to volunteer to enter The Tipping Point (a new city trying to create a critical mass of people to tip the world back onto its axis) and when his grandad subsequently also goes missing trying to locate her. With their parents away Grian has no choice other than to try and discover what has happened – whilst avoiding the creepy hovering and cloaked Proctors who try to invade his home.
Grian starts the story friendless and at times somewhat embarrassed by his family. His sister doesn’t want to be seen near him, he doesn’t want people to know his granddad is a tilt denier and – how is his dad still a postman in this age of technological advancement? He does have a constant companion though. His Hansom smart watch he calls Bob.
Thrust into his neighbour’s backyard it turns out Jeffrey, as well as being very geeky, is also very handy to have around when technology hacking is needed. Both of them get chased out to the Wilde where eco warriors live and again – despite initial misjudgments against her – Shelli and her fox friend Nach balances out their trio with her connection with nature. Grian realises his grandad has taught him a skill that will come in super handy – how to solve complex puzzles and riddles.
Infiltrating The Tipping Point is not easy, especially when its creator Howard Hansom is perhaps not what he seems. If Utopia is promised is it ever likely to be real?
Here they uncover a number of nefarious plots by using the advanced technologies designed by the very evil billionaire they are trying to escape. Shelli’s animal whispering skills are also essential for finding Grian’s sister and Grandad?
The Light Thieves and the search for the Black Mirror
Just as good as book one. We delve much more into the Wilde and with our trio being public enemies nos 1-3 technology – which has tracking capabilities – is a big no no. Shelli’s skills come to the fore in this book but I really enjoyed how each of the three characters has their own way of contributing that makes the combination of them working together so much more powerful.
There’s a couple of new characters introduced and I was a big fan of Mushka (who reminded me of a fave character in Gemina). With Mushka’s help we get an awesome heist sequence. We also get introduced to the Council of Colour, The Postal Service and the Riders of the Apocalypse motorcycle gang and there is a desperate search for letters that each contain a riddle that will lead them to knowing how to save the sun.
Evil billionaire Howard has made the world think he died but where would the peril be if that were true?
I love how all the plot pieces are coming together just as more power is leeched from the sun, we very much have a time restriction driving the action forward.
A gold star goes to the postal service scenes for giving me Terry Pratchett Going Postal vibes.
The Light Thieves and the Terrifying Dawn
Things I wanted to see in book 3:
To find out what happened with Shelli’s mum.
For the three sisters to come together.
For Grian to save his grandad.
To have some sort of resolution with Jeffrey’s family – poor lamb.
For Howard Hansom to be overcome by the power of nature (that can be in a good or a tragic way).
I’m not actually going to tell you if any of that happened but I will say this is an excellent conclusion to the series. The tension increases because the trio are trapped under a dome in Quantum searching for the author of the riddles The White Rose. But once the sun extinguishes under the dome will be the only habitable place on earth. Where are the rest of their families? Can they find the White Rose, solve the riddles and save everyone.
Howard Hansom is a super baddie, some of the scenes with the volunteers are very eerie and of course he only values the lives of the rich and famous.
Although this series very much provides a social commentary – because the messages are so tied up in the plot it doesn’t feel like it’s done in a heavy handed way. Themes of climate change/technology/love and family make this conclusion both thrilling and emotional.
I have had the first book from the author’s first MG series on my TBR for too long and reading this has definitely pushed it up because I know I will be in safe hands.
But is the earth saved by Grian, Shelli, Jeffrey and Mushka. Should children have to deal with the mess that adults make at all? Personally I’d love to gift this series to quite a few adult readers!!
A huge thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic tours and the publisher Usborne for the gifted copies. This wasn’t a series that was on my radar but I hope my honest review means that it is now on yours.
Do check out the rest of the tour – book 3 is out soon, on 12th September.
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The Beanstalk Murder by P. G. Bell – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
THE BFG meets MURDER MOST UNLADYLIKE in this giant-sized whodunnit with a witchy twist, from the author of the bestselling The Train to Impossible Places.
Trainee meadow witch Anwen is having a bad day – which gets much worse when a dead giant falls from the sky and destroys her village. But when she examines the body she discovers something interesting. This giant was murdered, which means a killer is on the loose!
Tasked with sending a message to the giant kingdom via beanstalk, Anwen and her nemesis, trainee sorceress Cerys, accidentally find themselves whipped up into the sky and deposited in the giants’ royal palace – where the king is missing. Using their perfect spy-size and witchy skills, the girls must track down his killer. But how can you investigate a murder mystery when you risk being stepped on by your suspects?
About the Author
P.G. Bell is a native of South Wales, where he was raised on a diet of Greek mythology, ghost stories and Doctor Who. He’s had all sorts of jobs over the years, from lifeguard to roller-coaster operator, but has always wanted to write stories. He lives in Wales with his wife Anna and their two children.
The Train to Impossible Places, P.G.’s debut series, has enjoyed widespread success, including shortlistings for the Branford Boase Award, the Crimefest Awards and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
Instagram: https://instagram.com/pgbellwriter
X: https://twitter.com/petergbell
What I Thought
The comp titles are perfect descriptors for this fun adventure mystery.
Trainee meadow witch and budding investigator Anwen is a fabulous heroine. Plucky, go getting, able to talk to animals. But she can’t do high magic, so she is forced to work with her nemesis Cerys. A magic bean and an unplanned beanstalk ride later and the two of them are stuck in the Sky Kingdom, desperate to get home. But they may as well use their time wisely to find out who killed the Giant King who flattened their land and in doing so help to prevent war restarting between their two lands.
Full of twists and nefarious plots this one might keep your young sleuths guessing. There were definitely a few times I got caught out, and a few subtle hints I picked up on early evening though I didn’t match them up with their whys until the very end.
The sniping between Anwen and Cerys was a lot of fun and they balanced each other out well in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the book there’s suggestion of another tale but with different characters. I’d be more than happy to read more about the adventures of these two though.
Help from seagulls, pigeons, mice and bees as well as their Giant hosts keeps the adventure racing along. Older readers (i.e. parents might enjoy this as a bookish flashback to Honey I Shrunk the Kids).
All of the characters are larger than life, even when they are tiny, but there two stands outs (other than the girls of course) for me. The art critic pigeon and the kind and caring Captain of the Guard. I did enjoy how he valued and respected Anwen’s contribution to solving the mystery.
This would make a perfect bed time story now the darker nights are drawing in because despite it being a murder mystery it’s not too scary – until cats are involved!
Thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours and Usborne for the gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. Do follow along with the tour for extracts and reviews.
kirstyes 