UEL English PEN Society Book Reviews

Another major book of my childhood, Jo March was definitely part of the reason that I realised I could actually pursue my passion for writing.
Have another image, this is from the 1994 film of "Little Women", the prequel to "Good Wives".

The book follows the exploits of four sisters; Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. It is said that the four girls represent some of the basic traits a woman should have; Meg=doting and obedient, Jo=passionate and determined, Beth=kind and compassionate, Amy=talented and elegant.
Meg is married to Jo's best friend's tutor, and they have twins together; Demi and Daisy. She is blissfully happy being John's wife, although sometimes feels selfish in wishing he earned slightly more.
Jo is my favourite by miles. After realising her best friend is in love with her, she flees to New York to help him gain some closure and her some experience. She is a writer and has no time for gossip and nonsense.
Beth was sickly with scarlet-fever in the last book and is still quite weak, but she has no goals to leave home, being perfectly happy to remain with Marmee and Father.
Amy has serious ideas above her station, and is delighted when their Aunt March chooses to take her to Paris. She enjoys art and thinks she will marry rich one day.
This is the second in the series, and I would honestly recommend reading all of them.

Until next time,
Emerald Elizabeth.

I've just stumbled upon this gem of book a few days ago after being a huge fan of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in my teenage years - I read it in a few hours after receiving it. This book makes me love and at the same time hate Ann Brashers so much.
The writing style  has matured an awful lot and fits into the story as the four friends that we know as Bridget, Lena, Carmen and Tibby are also now mature 30 year olds, who have drifted apart from each other. When they were teenagers, they shared 'magic' pants (mysteriously the pants fit all of them despite their different size) which they sent among them during their summer adventures. They believed the pants kept on bringing them back together, but once they were lost, the sisterhood drifted apart.

I like the way Brashers stayed true to the characters and presented their personalities in a way even an adult could relate to them - personality wise she hasn't changed them and you could predict how a character would react if you've read previous books.

I'm not gonna lie though - this is one of the few books that made me bawl my eyes out in the first half - I'd never expected in a million years for Ann Brashers to take on such a challenge and delivering such a plot twist - as I was reading the book I had to google some facts to make sure this was actually happening. The first half of the book is quite dark and expresses some raw emotions which will surely make you cry or at least leave you feeling a bit shocked. As the story progresses, it delivers more explanation and therefore somewhat lifts the mood of the book.

I will probably reread the entire series now, to see if there were any hints given about this in previous books, but Sisterhood Everlasting has truly left me speechless. If you're a fan of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, you won't regret it!

xoxo Mandy

THIS IS THE LAST ONE THAT'S OUT SO FAR. PLEASE WRITE MORE BOOKS ROSS CAMPBELL.
This is Trilby, she's definitely one of my favourites.

If I didn't already love these books enough, Ross Campbell helpfully put a map of Wet Moon (the town) in the front of this book. I love being able to orientate myself within a novel.
This book starts off with Fern's birthday sleepover, she's turning 21 and never had a beer before. Penny decides she's going to keep the baby, and nobody knows where Trilby is.
When she's eventually found by a passerby, the doctors have to perform immediate surgery, and then she slips into a coma. OH GOD I HATE MYRTLE SO MUCH URGH.
Audrey decides to tell her parents that she's gay after Slicer threatens to out her to them. They react exactly as she thought they would.
The doctors decide to bring Trilby out of her coma, she's okay but weak.
ROSS CAMPBELL, WRITE MORE PLEASE.

Trigger warnings; coma, homophobia, violence

Until next time,
Emerald Elizabeth.

This is Natalie, still totally a babe even with a huge scar.

Natalie's not exactly in a great position, but she is lucky that Unknown showed up before Myrtle could actually kill her (I'm assuming this was her intention, she's pretty violent). The others are all watching the softball game so have no idea what's going on.
Fern is planning a sleepover for her birthday as she's never had one before, and everyone keeps seeing weird things in the swamp (Malady sees a giant alligator, Glen a giant boar).
Turns out Beth isn't as nice to Audrey as she seems, they argue and she pushes her to the floor. Fortunately Audrey tells her to leave straight after and she does, leaving Audrey confused as to whether she still like her, or whether she should pursue Kinzoku. Natalie works with Mara for her project, photographing her. The two talk as they work on the shoot, making small talk, which is actually kind of nice.
AND THEN, OH GOD I HATED READING THIS BIT URGHHHHH, Trilby gets attacked. Like. Really serious. Myrtle is now on my black-list.

Trigger warnings; violence, domestic abuse

Until next time,
Emerald Elizabeth.

This is Audrey! Bit of background; she lives with a guy called Splicer (who steals her food) and babysits for extra money. She's also adorable.

Some of the girls play baseball (I think it's baseball, I'm pretty atrocious at any sport related knowledge), and the book opens with some of them practising (Audrey and Beth are a little bit cute). Trilby and Cleo are preparing to go to comic-con (mass nerd gathering, it's rad), Glen made their outfits. Not sure if I've mentioned Glen, he's kinda on the outskirts of the group. And his boyfriend's adorable.
Natalie and Mara are hanging out more; Mara learns about Natalie's sisters, who are conjoined twins (joined at the heads). Mara also agrees to go to comic-con with Trilby and Cleo, Myrtle can't go because she's working. Audrey loses one of the girls she's meant to be baby-sitting, but finds her...in bed with her house-mate, eiwww. Mara and Cleo kiss, which is kinda super-awkward but they both sort of like it.
And Cleo gets a job! Yaaaaaay! Her first day is kind of shitty, but hey, whose isn't? She and her colleague (Zia) almost get mugged on the way home, but a masked vigilante who refers to themself as "Unknown" shows up out of nowhere and knocks the guy out. Cleo then goes to surprise her sister, only to arrive just as Vincent (ex-vomit-inducing-boyfriend) leaves. Penny had no idea she dated him due to Cleo trying to keep it a major secret.
It's not baseball, it's softball. My bad.
The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger orgy; Natalie gets her face slashed open by Myrtle (she doesn't know it's her), everyone's warming up for a softball game, and Martin's getting ready to meet Trilby's parents.

Trigger warnings; violence, drug-use, underage sex.

Until next time,
Emerald Elizabeth.

Kinzoku is rad, okay?

Cleo and Trilby head to the tattoo parlour together (Cleo gets a design that Myrtle drew, whilst Trilby gets something subtly Star Trek) and Trilby tries to persuade Cleo to hook up with Myrtle.
Proof that Martin and Trilby are adorable; he totally knows what her tattoo is, but promises not to tell anyone. He also lets her put eyeliner on him when they go out to a club (squeeee), unfortunately the night is somewhat clouded by Cleo pretty much knocking a guy out for bumping into her whilst moshing.
Poor Audrey doesn't seem to know what to do, when Kinzoku sees her with Beth, she punches Beth straight in the face (while she's eating a sandwich and everything, I mean, come on, there are limits). Audrey tries to break it up, and ends up going home with Beth and sleeping over at hers.
Cleo and Myrtle later get officially "together" and Myrtle meets Cleo's family.
Cleo's sister Penny is pregnant and not so sure on who the father is, but it transpires she's (unknowingly) sleeping with Cleo's ex-boyfriend.

Trigger warnings; self-harm, violence, cats going missing.

Until next time,
Emerald Elizabeth.

I'ma just give you some art with each review. YOU'RE WELCOME, YOU UNCULTURED SWINE. This is Malady, one of Cleo's flat-mates.

The book begins with a flashback to highschool, showing us how eager Mara was to please, and how abrasive Cleo was. Rather a role-reversal given that now Mara is violent and unrelenting, whereas Cleo is far more meek.
Audrey has a new neighbour, Kinzoku, would she instantly hits it off with, despite the fact she's been pining after Beth, a girl who took weeks to call her back. Cleo has a black eye from running into another girl (Myrtle) outside of class, and decides to bleach her hair blonde, a decision she toys with regretting for the rest of the novel. Trilby's getting closer and closer to Martin (one of Audrey's friends she insisted she wouldn't like), and Mara narrowly escapes beating the shit out of her ex-love's new lady by being distracted by a "Cleo eats it" sign. Keeping up?
Cleo and Myrtle get progressively closer as the novel goes on, so much so that Cleo tells Myrtle the tragic tale of how her and mystery vomit-causing boy parted ways (man, it was brutal).
Cleo and Trilby go round to the house (more like a mansion, damn) of Fern, Penny's employer, by her invitation, in order to sniff out anything dodgy. They find nothing, but actually get on pretty well with Fern.

AND RIGHT AT THE END, MYRTLE KISSES CLEO. DAAAAAAMN. Cleo isn't 100% sure who/what she likes.

Trigger warnings; self-harm, being dumped

Until next time,
Emerald Elizabeth.

Before I start, let me just say how highly I recommend you go and check out Ross Campbell's artwork right now. No? I'll post a little sample here then so you're not missing out. This is the main character.

Wet Moon follows Cleo Lovedrop, an American teenager who's not really sure of anything except that she really wishes she wouldn't vomit whenever she sees a certain young man. Feeble Wanderings starts off with Cleo moving into a new house in order to start at a college (she studies English and Literature). She moves in with the mysterious Natalie and the semi-friendly Malady, both of whom have already been living at the house for some time.
We meet Cleo's close friends; Trilby (secret Star Trek fan, shh, don't tell anyone), Audrey (adorable and either vegan or vegetarian) and Mara (kinda super abrasive and angry a lot after discovering the boy she was dating is now with a girl she has pretty low opinions of). Cleo keeps a diary, and this is shown in the book in handwriting passages, a clever way of tying it in. The gang also keep discovering little signs around the town reading "Cleo eats it", which nobody seems to be able to explain. Cleo and her half-sister Penny get on about as well as you'd expect, but Penny's employer Fern has taken an almost unhealthy interest in Cleo, which worries Penny a little.

Trigger warnings; feelings of isolation, medication, self-harm

Until next time,
Emerald Elizabeth.

By the third part of the famous Hunger Games trilogy, the story really starts dragging on. With this book, I had extremely hard time imagining all that was happening and the places the characters were in. The main character, Katniss Everdeen, seemed like she wasn't really present in the story, even though it was written in first person.

I have to say I do feel like Collins wrote this book extremely quickly and could have definitely made it longer. This book made me so angry and I'll try not to include spoilers. I didn't like how the whole love triangle ended. I didn't like the lack of emotion in Katniss, although again, that's what probably happens to Hunger Games victors. I didn't like how Katniss didn't show any of the traits she was originally presented with in the books - she was quite monotone and emotionless. Before, she was presented as strong and witty, but by the third book she definitely didn't seem like a strong heroine. She is quite reckless throughout the book and I was expecting a lot more.

What I did like were the new characters that were introduced. Including more appearances of the grumpy cat, who managed to entertain everyone when they were kept in a safe place during the bombings.

I can see the movie being a lot better than the book in this case, as there were so many things happening I wasn't quite sure what's taking place.

That is all for now and may the odds be ever in your favor,
Mandy xoxo

In order to avoid being monotonous, I figured I should be reading something other than graphic/novels written/drawn by British and American authors/illustrators.

So, allow me to introduce you to Hans Koppel, Scandinavian and not afraid to be brutal.
I'm not sure what it is about them, but they can really write atrociously close-to-home sexual assault scenes (see also "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo").

"She's Never Coming Back" centres around a woman who peaked in high school and treats her husbands pretty shittily. She goes missing (much to his anguish), apparently having abandoned him and their seven year old daughter. Little do they know, Ylva is being kept closer to home than they think, and in more a bizarre situation that they could have imagined.

A novel that proves what you do in high school can very much come back and bite you in the arse, "She's Never Coming Back" is gritty and has twists that make you put the book down and do a little scream to yourself.

TRIGGER WARNINGS; violence, degrading language, rape, adultery.

I'd definitely recommend this one, read it in a day because I didn't want to put it down at all!

Until next time (probably soon, getting back into my reading groove),
Emerald Elizabeth.

Hardened ex-policeman, jaded and recovering smoker, seeks ticket to America to avoid personal issues and escape memories of his past.
If main character Jack Taylor had written a lonely hearts ad, it would probably read something like this.
Except, it wouldn't. Because of the wonderfully blunt narrative voice used in this novel, you're bullshit-free, pretty refreshing given the normal emotional spiel that comes along with crime/horror.

The devil is toying with him, and Jack knows it. SO, he comes up with an excellent plan of smoking lots, drinking more and trying to figure out how to escape Satan.

A clever mix of English and Irish language, this novel is pretty funny in places.

Trigger warnings; violence, death, mutilation.

Would recommend.

Until next time,
Emerald Elizabeth.

This inspirational, easy-to-read masterpiece is a collection of traditional Chinese sayings, lessons and stories, all with a moral meaning and all from the rich cultural history of Chinese existence.

It explores such subjects as kindness, wisdom, logic, intelligence, humility, principles and growth – and due to its immersive graphic style, which throughout the text is all at once simple but hilariously funny, it shows us how the most important lessons in life are the simplest using metaphors and employing the use of a wise-man narrator at the end of each panel to summarise the moral of the story.

Each story – all one to two pages long only – has a title; more often than not an amusing one such as; ‘Selling One’s Mother Humanely,’ ‘Blind Men Trying to Size Up an Elephant,’ ‘The Proverbial Donkey,’ or ‘’Plug Ones Ears while Stealing a Bell.’ All at once they manage to teach the reader important values whilst simultaneously exposing the idiocy of the world around us, encouraging us by default to change what is within, in order to change what is without. It achieves this by careful selection of the most historically impactive and meaningful tales, coupled with Hengyu’s hilariously and vibrantly detailed illustrations.

It is split up into nine main chapters, with a part for reflection and exercises at the end of each one. These encourage the reader to fill out lists of aims, objectives, and beliefs about the self – based on the section they’ve just read – and then pursue these things.

“Look at yourself before attempting to emulate others.”
“Those who learn from mistakes can be trusted.”
“Greed blinds logic.”
“When misunderstood by others, be aware that you could be the reason.”

A must-read for anyone seeking a refreshing and inspiring change from the standard novel, and a clarity on life that is at once informative and humorous.

Peace and love (and keep those pledges coming in – only six more days left on our Crowdfunder page!)

Sam