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Feast of Ashes by Victoria Williamson – The Write Reads Blog Tour – Book Review
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About the Book
The Earth’s ecosystems have collapsed and only ashes remain. Is one girl’s courage enough to keep hope alive in the wastelands?
It’s the year 2123, and sixteen-year-old Adina has just accidentally killed fourteen thousand seven hundred and fifty-six people. Raised in the eco-bubble of Eden Five, Adina has always believed that the Amonston Corporation’s giant greenhouse would keep her safe forever. But when her own careless mistake leads to an explosion that incinerates Eden Five, she and a small group of survivors must brave the barren wastelands outside the ruined Dome to reach the Sanctuary before their biofilters give out and their DNA threatens to mutate in the toxic air.
They soon discover that the outside isn’t as deserted as they were made to believe, and the truth is unearthed on their dangerous expedition. As time runs out, Adina must tackle her guilty conscience and find the courage to get everyone to safety. Will she make it alive, or will the Nomalies get to her first?
About the Author
Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author who grew up in Scotland surrounded by hills, books, and an historical farm estate which inspired many of her early adventure stories and spooky tales. After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.
Victoria’s previous novels include The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Hag Storm, and War of the Wind. She has won the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2020/2021, The YA-aldi Glasgow Secondary School Libraries Book Award 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023, The Leeds Book Awards 2023, the Red Book Award 2023, the James Reckitt Hull Book Awards 2021, The Trinity School Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for the ABA South Coast Book Awards 2023, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020, and the Branford Boase Award 2019. Her latest novel, The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, is a middle grade fantasy inspired by classic folklore.
Twenty percent of the author royalties for this book are donated to CharChar Literacy, an organisation working to improve children’s literacy levels in Malawi.
You can find out more about Victoria’s books, school visits and free resources for schools on her website: http://www.strangelymagical.com
What I Thought
As a huge fan of Victoria Williamson’s middle grade books and the dystopia genre in general I was excited to read her YA debut.
This is actually a really dark novel and quite horrifying in places. Think the harshest, creepiest parts of Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner and another underrated fave of mine – Under the Never Sky – rolled into one.
The darkness was suitable for the themes the book explores such as food poverty, ecosystem collapse, genetic modification, death, and exploitation of the African people and lands. I’m intrigued to find out more about Victoria’s research for this book.
What we do have in our protagonist Adina is very much a stroppy teenager who doesn’t take life all that seriously, and she isn’t the most likeable at the start – particularly in how she acts toward one character. This does seems in stark contrast to how she acts toward others such as the Dome’s resident confused man of visions, and her younger sister Tash, so it does have us holding out – deserved – hope for her character development.
The story is told from Adina’s point of view from a future point in time and she does provide a commentary that gives us a heads up for some of the action that I might like to have been a little more surprised by, although thinking about it maybe my heart wouldn’t have coped.
I believe this is the first of a trilogy and although the ending certainly wrapped up the first part of the journey there are so many questions still to explore. If possible it would be good to see some slightly lighter points in future books just to balance the devastation.
Huge thanks to The Write Reads and the publisher Neem Tree Press for the gifted copy (and goodies) for the purposes of an honest review.
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Channel Fear by Lisa Richardson – Book Review
About the Book
A Heart-in-mouth YA Horror-Thriller, perfect for teen fans of The Haunting of Hill House.
Iris is obsessed with star YouTube ghost hunting duo, Zach and Lucas, who disappeared at an undisclosed location several months ago. Iris- who heads up her own unsuccessful channel with co-hosts Byron and his girlfriend Molly – has been searching for the location ever since.
When they stumble across Long-abandoned Thornhanger House, the trio set aside their toxic love triangle to explore, and find Zach and Lucas’s abandoned equipment inside… complete with their last day of filming.
As they watch the footage? A horrifying truth emerges: whatever came for Zach and Lucas is coming for them too…
Lisa Richardson bursts onto the YA scene with a spine-chilling horror-thriller, bringing a terrifying fresh new angle, haunted with breathtaking twists.
About the Author
Lisa Richardson has a first-class honours degree in Creative and Professional Writing and works as a production editor. When not writing, Lisa can be found reading, binge-watching Netflix with her sons, or running and taking photographs along the Kent coast.
Follow her on Instagram: @lisarichardson_21
What I Thought
This book was a wild and thrilling ride. So much so that I needed a break half way through, even though I desperately wanted to keep reading to find out what happened.
This leans heavily into lots of horror tropes and does it so well. Creepy dolls – check. Rocking chair – check. It’s The Blair Witch Project meets The Ring meets The Haunting of Hill House all wrapped up in one.
As a YA Horror there is nothing too gruesome featured but the suspense barely lets up. My poor racing heart.
We have 3 sets of characters. The original missing ghost hunting duo of Zach and Lucas who we meet through their found footage. Iris, Molly and Byron who we follow on their hunt for the duo, and finally the house, it’s grounds and its inhabitants. It’s up to you to determine whether those inhabitants are former or current!
Despite making some very questionable choices I did like all the characters and didn’t want to see any of them harmed. And as if all the ghost hunting wasn’t angsty enough we also have a love quadrangle but which pairing survives the night? (It’s described as a love triangle in the synopsis but in a haunted house tale who is to say the missing supposed deceased Zach is out of the picture!). Finally whichof our trio lives to reap the fame that having a viral ghost hunting video brings you. And is that worth the horror to get there?
For the reader I say yes it is well worth picking this one up. Not everything is 100% explained at the end but that leads to the unease, a call for a re-read, and maybe even opens up the chance for a sequel?
For the characters – hmmmmmm. I think I’ll leave the seances and EMF machines to them.
I’m off to read a rom com stat.
Mini-Review in page numbers:
Page 339 – Final page. I’d like to say this was when I sighed in relief – but I’d be lying!
Page 219 When our intrepid trio actually decide to leave the house!!!
Page 170 Where I literally noped out of reading because my adrenaline was spiking and it was dark.
Page 57 When any sensible person – who would be willing to visit a haunted building in the first place – would have left.
Page 8 Where I would have noped out of this adventure. That is – I would never have entertained the thought of going.
Thanks to Chicken House who reached out and provided a gifted copy. The level of fear expressed in this review is all mine!
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The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
In this queer YA psychological thriller, the sole surviving counsellors of a summer camp massacre search to uncover the truth of what happened that fateful night, but what they find out might just get them killed.
Sloan and Cherry. Cherry and Sloan. They met only a few days before masked men with machetes attacked the summer camp where they worked, a massacre that left the rest of their fellow counselors dead. Now, months later, the two are inseparable, their traumatic experience bonding them in ways no one else can understand.
But as new evidence comes to light and Sloan learns more about the motives behind the ritual killing that brought them together, she begins to suspect that her girlfriend may be more than just a survivor – she may actually have been a part of it. Cherry tries to reassure her, but Sloan becomes more distraught. Is this gaslighting or reality? Is Cherry a victim or a perpetrator? Is Sloan confused, or is she seeing things clearly for the very first time? Against all odds, Sloan survived that hot summer night. But will she survive what comes next.
About the Author
Jennifer Dugan is a writer, a geek, and a romantic who writes the kinds of stories she wishes she’d had growing up. She’s the author of the graphic novel Coven, as well as the young adult novels Melt With You, Some Girls Do, Verona Comics, and Hot Dog Girl, which was called “a great, fizzy rom-com” by Entertainment Weekly and “one of the best reads of the year, hands down” by Paste magazine. She lives in upstate New York with her family, their dog, a strange kitten who enjoys wearing sweaters, and an evil cat who is no doubt planning to take over the world.
What I Thought
The idea of the last girls or final girls standing after a slasher event appears to be in the zeitgeist right now with a slew of books written around this topic. The Last Girls Standing is a Young Adult thriller and it is very much focused on the aftermath of an horrific event and how people come to terms with it – or don’t.
Our two main characters and survivors Sloan and Cherry form a very co-dependent relationship as the two surviving counselors and as queer girls who were crushing on each other before the massacre.
Sloan is our point of view character and this works really well because she has a mind blank on what happened that night so the audience follows along with her as she tries to unpick flashes from her therapy and bring forth memories of that night. We are taken for a very scary ride with her. Cherry meanwhile remembers more and this leads to Sloan’s concern with finding her own version of events and not just what she has been told.
I wasn’t entirely sure of the ending which came a little out of left field and I do agree with some of the criticisms I’ve seen that how trauma/PTSD/hypnotherapy is portrayed in this book maybe needed further sensitivity reads. That being said, as a thriller this worked extremely well. I thought the pacing was spot on and I wanted to know the who, what, why along with Sloan. I think the search for meaning after events like these can be futile and I do think this is portrayed though what happens.
I would determine this as more of a psychological thriller than an horror so do go into the book bearing that in mind as I do think the cover leads us to think we will spend more time in the event than it’s aftermath.
Huge thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic tours and Putnum books for the #gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. This tour has lots of stops so do check out what everyone else is saying too.
kirstyes 