Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

Publisher: Headline

Format: ARC

Published: 10^th May 2012

Number of Pages: 336

Book: For Review*

Genre: Contemporary, Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Romance, Realistic-Fiction, Thriller, Suspense,  Crime Fiction, Action-Adventure, YA, YA-Adult Crossover

Recommended Age: 13+

Contains: Swearing, Violence, Smoking, Alcohol References

No Drug References

Author's Blog: Tanya Byrne

“Yes, I’m Emily Koll. 

“Daughter of the infamous Harry Koll. 

“You got it in one”.

They say I'm evil. The police. The newspapers. The girls from school who shake their heads on the six o’clock news and say they always knew there was something not quite right about me. And everyone believes it. Including you. But you don't know. You don't know who I used to be.

Who I could have been.

Awaiting trial at Archway Young Offenders Institution, Emily Koll is going to tell her side of the story for the first time.

Heart-Shaped Bruise is a compulsive and moving novel about infamy, identity and how far a person might go to seek revenge.

                                                                   Review:

"Don't believe everything you read."

Everyone thinks they know Emily, daughter of the infamous gangster Harry Koll, the girl who went to any length to get back at the one who got her dad sent to prison. 

People say she's evil.  They judge her even though they don't know her. 

Now Emily’s an inmate at Archway Young Offenders Institution, awaiting her trial. 

But she's telling her story for the first time, in this notebook.  Letting us know who she was, who she might have been, what she lost...

And why she did what she did...

You know when you read a book, and it just kinda strikes a chord?  Plays all the right notes?  Makes you feel warm one moment and raw and utterly alone in the very next?  For me, Heart-Shaped Bruise was That Book.  I devoured it, read it in a single sitting, unable to put it down.  It was beautiful.  It was horrible.  It was painful.  It tugged at every single heart string I possess.  It made me love so much, lose so much, miss so much, feel so much.  Just so much, so much ‘til I thought I'd explode...  Seriously, Tanya: whatever your next book is, I cannot wait.  And thank you so much for writing this!  It is one of my 2012 favourites – one of my favourites full stop. 

Emily Koll was an amazingly complex character, snarky and strong, but also vulnerable and broken.  She was so real, so miserable, so alone.  Maybe I should have hated her for everything she did, but I just couldn't.  Not for a second. Smart, funny, vulnerable, tough, broken Emily, who took revenge but who I loved whole heatedly none-the-less.  I bow down to Tanya Byrne: You created an amazing lead I loved no matter what she did. 

I have to comment on the relationship between Emily and Juliet, because it was intriguing.  Juliet, AKA "Dad Stabber" (to Emily), was the target of Emily’s anger and hatred.  This part made sense, but it was like Emily admired and liked Juliet too – which added more depth to Emily – and this was odd, breath-taking, strange, genius. 

All of the characters were so amazingly real and alive and unique.  I loved them all, no matter how small their part was.  There was Sid King, the boy who stole the infamous Emily Koll's heart.  He was arty and cute and clever and so, so good.  I adored Grace Humm, Emily’s personal tutor at college.  Grace was wacky, bonkers, hilarious – I loved her, even though she was only in one chapter!

The relationship between the girls at the institution was quite intriguing.  There was lots of banter, which made me laugh, and so many broken girls it crushed my heart in two.  I especially loved Naomi "(17, schizophrenic)" and Lily "(16, anorexic)".  Both girls felt so real, and even though they were broken they really managed to make me laugh!

The writing was beautiful, dreadful, breath-taking.  As I read, I could feel Emily, feel everything she felt, saw everything she saw.  It was utterly addictive and just heart breaking.  And I loved how it was written - a notebook-journal-style tangle of Emily’s life now and before.  The plot was equally incredible and utterly addictive.  I was desperate to know everything about Emily, why she did what she did.  What she did – we knew she'd done something really, really bad to be in the Institute, but we didn't know exactly what.  I was totally, completely hooked to every single word, trying to figure Emily out.  In a strange way, even though I zoomed through it at the speed of light, I never ever wanted the book to end. 

The emotions were just non-stop, overwhelming.  To borrow a phrase from Emily: "my heart"!  God, Ms Byrne sure knew how to tear a girl up inside!   It was raw, so raw it hurt. And I felt how alone Emily was.  God, it was dreadful.  No one should be alone like that.  No one.  Not even the daughter of a gangster who did SOMETHING bad, who is just fictional anyway.  Again let me simply say: "my heart"...

There was crushing despair and overwhelming loneliness and heart-breaking hope.  Even if I mildly wanted to stop, God knows I wouldn't have been able to.  I adored this book - every second.  I never wanted to stop.  Not ever.  It was beautiful, so much so it hurt.  I adored it.  An amazing, breath-taking, heart-breaking, beautiful debut, one that left me reeling, one I could not put down.  One I can't get out of my head.  If you read just one contemp ever, read Heart-Shaped Bruise.  Seriously.  You won't regret it.  

Star Rating:
5 Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Entangled by Cat Clarke

Saving Daisy by Phil Earle

Kill All Enemies by Melvin Burgess

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2012 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

2012 Debut Author Challenge (Hosted by The Story Siren)

YA Contemporary Challenge 2012 (Hosted by Reading Angel & Katie's Book Blog)

British Books Challenge 2012 (Hosted by The Overflowing Library)

Happy Reading

Megan

* This book was received from Headline in exchange for an honest review

Trapped by Michael Northrop

Publisher: Atom

Format: Paperback

Published: 15^th December 2011

Number of Pages: 240

Book: For Review*

Genre: Realistic-Fiction, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Action-Adventure, YA

Recommended Age: 12+

Contains: Mild Violence, Death, Swearing

No Alcohol, Drug References

Author's Site: Michael Northrop

The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it was going to keep snowing for a week.

Scott and his friends are among the last seven kids at their school waiting to get picked up that day and they soon realize that no one is coming for them.  Still, it doesn’t seem so bad to spend the night there, especially when Krista and Julie are sleeping just down the hall.

Then the power goes out.  Then the heat.  The pipes freeze.  The roof shudders.  As the days add up, the snow piles higher, the empty halls grow colder and darker and the mounting pressure forces a devastating decision…

Review:

When it starts to snow, the biggest worry Scotty Weems has is that his basketball match will be cancelled.  School is shut early, but Scott and his friends stay behind, knowing they have a ride coming.  But as the storm turns into a blizzard, they realise no one will come for them.  Spending the night at school isn’t a dream-come-true, but at least it’s safe and warm.  Only the power fails.  And still the snow falls.  It gets colder, darker…  The seven students remaining are trapped, and the choices they will be forced to make could destroy them all forever…

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Trapped.  All I knew was that the cover made me cold and the blurb made me want to read the book now now now!  And, boy, was I not let down!  The book was able to make me as freezing as the cover, and the story itself was totally gripping.  I sat down to read the first chapter and I was hooked.  It made me need to read on!  It grabbed my attention straight away and the rest of the book held it.  I had to find out what the terrible thing that Scotty hinted at was – I ended up reading half the book in a single sitting!

I liked Scotty Weems’ voice straight away: it was simple but descriptive, and was just really likable.  He was brilliantly snarky and witty, as well as being funny and ironic.  He really felt like a teenager: hormone ridden!  And he also had loads of random facts, but believable random knowledge, which somehow made him more believable.  He was also smart, practical, sort of a worrier, and really, really brave.

Scotty’s two long-time best friends, Pete Dubois and Jason Gillispie, were both great.  The three of them really stuck together, and their relationship felt really natural; though I liked how it also got strained during the trapped period (it made it more believable).  Pete was the “normal kid”: very much average in everything.  He was really nice: he didn’t do fake playing cool.  Jason was kinda twisted; he was fascinated by wars and weapons.  He was (sometimes) logical, a scary-good liar, and was always there for Scotty when he needed him.  Plus, he was really funny!

The other four “trapped” kids were all really unique and different.  Krista O’Rea was the “beautiful” one, the one who had all the guys drooling over her; she was also sweet and funny.  Her best friend, Julie, was always with her: they stuck together all the way through the book.  Elijah, the “weird” one, was sort of a loner; he was also clever, funny, and a realist.  My personal favourite was Less Goddard.  He was “bad news”; Scotty thought he was a psychopath.  Apparently he “radiated danger”.  But, he could be nice, and he was really clever.  I liked how he changed and evolved from being a total jerk in my eyes to me actually liking and admiring him.

The characters all felt so real to me, the relationships.  And the situation felt the most real of all.  It was a terrifying thought, but a believable one: it’s so easy to get trapped by natural forces.  And scariest of all: Kids in charge of a school!

I really liked the writing in this book: I totally believed Scott’s voice.  And the way he wasn’t sure about some things and some names made it so believable.  But: after a while I found there were too many “likes” and “you knows” for me.  It started to get annoying once I’d noticed it.  Nonetheless, the writing was still just so vivid.  I felt the cold, the claustrophobia, the panic.  I just loved how we were given snippets of information, little by little, until they slotted together so we could get a glimpse of what was happening… It made me desperate to read on.  I’ve really got to hand it to Michael Northrop: he’s a really vivid writer.  And, seriously: the worst ending ever!  I want a sequel; I want to know what happens next!  It all just felt too abrupt; it left me dangling without all of the answers!

About fear, death, being trapped and the willingness to do anything for survival, Trapped had me on the edge of my seat: I loved it.  It was full of suspense, fear, real-life-horror and huge national disasters, with a little bit of romance thrown in, and the occasional forced teen slang didn’t take away from all that.  What made Trapped really hit home for me was the realness of it all.  A little too much snow, wrong place, wrong time, and anyone could end up trapped.  Very, very scary.  I can’t wait for my next book by Northrop.

Star Rating:
4 Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Gone by Michael Grant

Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie

Envy by Gregg Olsen

Fracture by Megan Miranda

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

Happy Reading

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

Megan

* This book was received from Atom in exchange for an honest review

Candor by Pam Bachorz

Publisher: Egmont Books

Format: Paperback

Published: 2^nd August 2010

Number of Pages: 304

Book: Borrowed From The Library

Genre: Dystopia, Psychological Thriller, Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction, Adventure, YA

Recommended Age: 12+

Contains: Nothing Really Unsuitable

No Alcohol, Drug References

My name is Oscar and I am the perfect teenager. My girlfriend is the hottest girl in school. I get straight As. I am class president. But there is a terrible reason I am so perfect: the Messages. Oscar Banks lives in the pristine town of Candor. Son of the mayor, he is good-looking, smart and popular. And he knows something he's not supposed to - he knows about the brainwashing Messages embedded in the music that plays all over the town. But Oscar has found a way to burn counter-Messages that keep him real. Up to now, it's all worked perfectly. There's just one problem: Nia Silva, the newest Candor arrival. What will Oscar risk to keep the Nia he loves rather than watch her become a Candor automaton? Deeply chilling, "Candor" is a psychological thriller that will haunt readers with its vision of a world controlled by something worse than Big Brother.

Review:

I picked up Candor, meaning to just read a chapter or two: it was about one in the morning, and I was tired.  The problem: I simply could not put it down!  It was almost as if the messages were inside my own head, saying, ‘Don’t stop.  Keep reading.  Great readers never stop.’  Candor was just so addictive.  I was up until three, and finished the book in just a matter of sittings.

Candor, the town, was really creepy.  It’s the place where rich parents take their problem children to become ‘fixed’.  What the children aren’t told is that the music that plays all around town contains hidden messages that mould them into perfect little sons or daughters.  All day long, all around ‘respectful space in every place’, ‘always strive to make your parents proud’, ‘studying is your top priority’, ‘the great are never late’.  Without their knowledge, in a week or two, they have lost all their free will.  It’s inevitable, “Nobody escapes the messages”.  Oscar’s different.  And not just because he’s the founder’s son.  He’s different because he knows.  He knows about the messages – he can even hear them in his head, rather than them being sent straight to his subconscious.  And, he can fight them, he can make his own.  He gets kids out.  It’s risky, yes, but he’s always careful.  He never gets caught. 

Until Nia skateboards into his life with spray-paint in her hand.  Suddenly, his world’s different, and instead of wanting to get her out, he wants to keep her the same.  But just how far will Oscar go to keep the Nia he knows and loves?

Oscar was a great male lead, probably because he wasn’t perfect.  I liked that he fought back and that he found a way to make his brain belong to him.  Yes, he was reckless and occasionally a jerk, but when he spoke of everything he’d lost in his life, and everything his own father had done to him, it killed me a little inside.  Oscar was just one of those characters I genuinely came to care for.

Nia was brilliant too: one of those classic literary rich-girls-lashing-out.  She did literally everything imaginable that her parents didn’t want her to do.  But underneath, she was a sweet girl, with a great sense of humour and I came to really like her too.

Candor was one of those books that gripped me from the word go, and had me smiling, laughing, in shock and screaming at it.  I struggled to put it down.  I’m crossing all my fingers, hoping for a sequel, because I did not like how it ended.  Hence the screaming.

Overall, a story with amazing characters and a beautiful lovestory, with a chilling psychological thriller hidden underneath.  Big Brother truly has nothing on Candor.

Star Rating:
4½ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Gone by Michael Grant

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

Happy Reading

Megan

Tyme's End by B. R. Collins

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Format: ARC

Published: January 2011

Number of Pages: 336

Book: Proof From Bloomsbury*

Genre: Ghost Story, Ghost, Supernatural, Thriller, Romance, Psychological Thriller, YA

Bibi feels out of place wherever she goes – everywhere, that is, except for Tyme’s End, the deserted house she breaks into whenever she thinks nobody is nearby.  There she meets Oliver, the owner, who has returned after ten years away.  Bibi’s and Oliver’s lives become inextricably linked as they are both pulled towards Tyme’s End.  For Tyme’s End is more than just a house.  It is a house that can be by turns romantic, beguiling, sinister and malevolent.  It is a house that once had an evil and manipulative owner.  And anybody who enters Tyme’s End must prepare themselves for terror...

Part supernatural tale, part psychological thriller.  Spans three generations with narrative ease, twisting the tension tighter and tighter with each protagonist’s voice.  A consuming and compulsive read that will have readers on the edge of their seats...

Review:

Bibi feels alone in the world, having been adopted by family friends after her parents died.  And although they love her and she loves them, she’s not theirs, and they’re not hers, not really.  She doesn’t feel at home anywhere, longing for her birthplace in the Middle East. Nowhere, that is, apart from Tyme’s End, the old house in the village where she lives.  There she feels safe, she feels as if she belongs.  And so, when the mysterious owner, Oliver, appears and claims he is going to sell that house, she just has to change his mind.

But why?  What enchantment does Tyme’s End have over her and what possibly could have happened there for Oliver to be so desperate to get rid of it?  And what scared him enough to stay away for ten years?  As the first part of the story goes on, Bibi’s and Oliver’s lives become entwined, as they experience the beauty of first love.  But all the while, through all the magic, there’s Tyme’s End, hanging over the story remotely, hinting at the darkness to come...  For Tyme’s End has a sinister past that involves death, betrayal, and an evil, manipulative owner, H. J. Martin...  (See why it had me hooked?) 

Tyme’s End is made up of three parts, that start in 2006 and end up in 1936, the year of the events leading up to the murder of H. J. Martin.  Each of the three narrators feels real; each has their own unique voice, and I found it incredible that the tale slipped so smoothly between the generations.  I must admit, the first part of the tale is a little slower than the rest of it, but it’s so beautiful you really don’t care.  And, besides, from the first page, even if you don’t really notice at first, B. R. Collins winds up the suspense, tempting you with snippets that make it impossible to stop until you know the reason of the house’s evil: this book is absolutely addictive!  I also love the way the story started at the end and slowly went backwards to the core of the tale; the reason the house is malevolent and evil, the death of the owner.  Beautifully written, Tyme’s End had me hooked from the first page, and haunting and scary, I knew that B. R. Collins could make me believe anything after the first few paragraphs.  A psychological thriller, with a side of ghosts; it builds suspense from the first page, tightening its grip on you with every chapter.  Managing to both shock me by the twists and causing me to be riveted by the evil of the house, I needed to get to the end, to find out who killed H. J. Martin.  An absolute page turner that promises to both chill and absorb you, this book is a must read for all readers who want to be on the edge of their seats for an entire story.  With a killer ending – literally! – this book is absolutely sensational!

Star Rating:

5 Out of 5

Read This Book if You Liked:

What I Was by Meg Rosoff

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley


Challenges It's Taking Part In:
100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)
British Books Challenge (Hosted by The Bookette)
Horror and Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)
Off The Shelf Challenge (Hosted by BA Reading Challenges)

Happy Reading

Megan

*This book was recieved from Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review