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The Last Thing You’ll Ever Hear by Jan Dunning – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
Have you ever been so obsessed with someone that you start to lose yourself?
Wren and Lark are rivals first and sisters second, so when mysterious music producer, Adam, and his DJ prodigy, Spinner, come to their small town, the game is on to impress.
Lark is soon taken under Adam’s wing, but as she’s pulled deeper into his web, distancing herself from friends and family, Wren starts to suspect that there’s a more sinister side to Adam. And when the sisters get a chance to perform at Enrapture the most talked-about festival of the summer, suddenly there is a lot to lose…
Can Wren put her own ambitions aside to save her sisters life?
One thing’s for sure: after this summer, nothing will ever be the same again.
About the Author
Jan Dunning’s debut Mirror Me, a YA thriller that reimagined the tale of Snow White, set in the high-fashion world was crowned winner of the Oxfordshire Children’s Book Award 2024.
A former fashion model, Jan lives in Bath with her family, and in addition to her writing and photography, works as an art teacher.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jandunningbooks/
What I Thought
Over the past couple of days I’ve been totally enraptured by this thrilling book.
The Mackenzie family are a small English town’s equivalent of the Von Trapp Family. Parents Mac and Paloma were once in a band, and their one hit is suddenly used by a TV programme which propels them to popularity again. Off they go on a reunion tour of Norway which turns them into classic Point Horror parents – out of the picture for havoc to ensue.
Sisters Wren and Lark appear to have inherited their musical prowess but there is no love lost between them. Younger sister Wren feels very much shoved into the shadows by her sister’s effortless talent.
When they both get spotted by an up and coming DJ and are invited to audition for the mysterious Enrapture festival their rivalry gets kicked up a few octaves.
Wren was an excellent YA protagonist with an amazing character arc, from annoying younger sister to I’m going to save the day – and my sister.
Lark is initially presented as an ethereal supernatural talent and leans ever more into this as the book progresses. It’s also quite horrifying to see her carefree nature crumble as she begins to believe the messages she is given about herself.
Wren’s best friend and unrequited love Danny is both the bridge and the snapped string between the sisters. A talented musician who has acquired deafness, this is a nuanced and intimate portrayal. I was intrigued to read the author’s notes about this in the acknowledgments and don’t know how I missed the fairytale reference. When you read this see if you spot it.
Then there are the villains – the enigmatic music producer Adam and his protege, who morphs into him as the book progresses. Do they both get what they deserve by the end of the book – I think we could have a great debate about this.
The sense of danger in this book kicks off with a bang. With missing and dead girls and a friend literally falling into a coma. Then it backs off to be replaced with excitement which turns into feverous nightmare. I was quite a few steps ahead of our main character, and that is very much the point. We side with Danny, immune to the music.
The ending is claustrophobic and pacy. The threat is all too real and ominous.
This tale of sibling rivalry and incel entitlement mixes in brainwashing music and cults. It builds to a crescendo and has your heart hammering for the sisters at the heart of the story. With the summer music festival vibes this is a perfect read for sunny days and red skies at night.
Huge thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours and Scholastic for the gifted copy. Opinions are my own. I haven’t been listening to tainted music!
Check out the other stops on the tour 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.
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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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