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inkandplasma
Full blog post available, 2nd September: https://inkandplasma.com/2021/09/02/lies-like-wildfire/
Thanks to Penguin and The Write Reads for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Content Warnings: animal attack, animal death (pet and wildlife), death, fire, wildfire.
LIES LIKE WILDFIRE is a powerful thriller with a strong narrative voice that pulls you in from the very first page. It builds fast, with a flash-forward prologue followed by our group of main characters – a group of friends that call themselves ‘the monsters’ – drinking at a lake in the forest and accidentally starting the titular wildfire. And then their lives crumble into ash as they try and keep their involvement a secret as their mistake turns into felony reckless arson – and people start to die.
I really loved the way that this showed a tight-knit friendship group crumbling under the weight of their secrets. The monsters have been best friends for a long, long time. They have complicated pacts and promises to each other and they pride themselves on their loyalty. At the very start of LIES LIKE WILDFIRE we see them make one stupid mistake that rips them all apart, testing all of their loyalties. I, personally, did not feel loyal to any of these awful people! I would have reported all of them. Immediately. Possibly framed them for further crimes, to make them stop doing stupid things in front of my eyeballs.
That isn’t remotely a comment on the writing of the characters. They were raw and messy and real, they felt like authentic teenagers faced with the prospect of their lives being ruined. I just also wanted to smack all of them a little bit. Their friendships and relationships are the heart of the book, even as they are rather brutally tested, and I loved that you could feel the history behind their every interaction. Their panic was so real and well characterised, and I could feel the desperation in their every conversation as the wildfire, and their lies, spiralled further and further out of their control. That desperation and fear absolutely bled through to me, as the reader, and I stayed up until one in the morning so that I could finish this book in one sitting because I just had to know what was going to happen next.
I was a little bit frustrated to have a moment of sudden shift from ‘unreliable narrator doesn’t know what’s happening’ to ‘narrator intentionally hiding things from the reader’ because it happened quite late and didn’t fit the voice of the rest of the novel, but overall Hannah’s narrative voice was excellent and I loved trying to piece together what happened from everyone’s panicked texts and mysterious reveals. This book is a complete page-turner, and I think everyone’s going to struggle to put it down once they start. It’s a fantastic YA thriller and I can’t wait to read more from this author, because there’s nothing I love more than messy characters doing awful things and trying to dig themselves out of it again.
Thanks to Penguin and The Write Reads for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Content Warnings: animal attack, animal death (pet and wildlife), death, fire, wildfire.
LIES LIKE WILDFIRE is a powerful thriller with a strong narrative voice that pulls you in from the very first page. It builds fast, with a flash-forward prologue followed by our group of main characters – a group of friends that call themselves ‘the monsters’ – drinking at a lake in the forest and accidentally starting the titular wildfire. And then their lives crumble into ash as they try and keep their involvement a secret as their mistake turns into felony reckless arson – and people start to die.
I really loved the way that this showed a tight-knit friendship group crumbling under the weight of their secrets. The monsters have been best friends for a long, long time. They have complicated pacts and promises to each other and they pride themselves on their loyalty. At the very start of LIES LIKE WILDFIRE we see them make one stupid mistake that rips them all apart, testing all of their loyalties. I, personally, did not feel loyal to any of these awful people! I would have reported all of them. Immediately. Possibly framed them for further crimes, to make them stop doing stupid things in front of my eyeballs.
That isn’t remotely a comment on the writing of the characters. They were raw and messy and real, they felt like authentic teenagers faced with the prospect of their lives being ruined. I just also wanted to smack all of them a little bit. Their friendships and relationships are the heart of the book, even as they are rather brutally tested, and I loved that you could feel the history behind their every interaction. Their panic was so real and well characterised, and I could feel the desperation in their every conversation as the wildfire, and their lies, spiralled further and further out of their control. That desperation and fear absolutely bled through to me, as the reader, and I stayed up until one in the morning so that I could finish this book in one sitting because I just had to know what was going to happen next.
I was a little bit frustrated to have a moment of sudden shift from ‘unreliable narrator doesn’t know what’s happening’ to ‘narrator intentionally hiding things from the reader’ because it happened quite late and didn’t fit the voice of the rest of the novel, but overall Hannah’s narrative voice was excellent and I loved trying to piece together what happened from everyone’s panicked texts and mysterious reveals. This book is a complete page-turner, and I think everyone’s going to struggle to put it down once they start. It’s a fantastic YA thriller and I can’t wait to read more from this author, because there’s nothing I love more than messy characters doing awful things and trying to dig themselves out of it again.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5. This was a strong 5 up until the end when, tbh, it all happened a bit too fast. That's all that lost it a half star
Full review live on my blog, 6th September 2021: https://inkandplasma.com/2021/09/06/the-left-hand-of-dog/
Thanks to SI Clarke for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
This was such a strange book. I'd recommend it for fans of SJ Whitby and Becky Chambers, and I'm so glad I read this delightful story. It's a quick read, not least because once you get started it's too much fun to put down. Honestly, once you hit the part where Spock (who is the best dog in the world ever) starts talking to Lem, her owner (companion? master? spouse?), I challenge anyone to put it down again before you've finished.
I'm a sucker for first contact books, and while this isn't quite that, we certainly get a lot of that energy. Lem is abducted by adorable intergalactic bounty hunters, and they are completely out of their depth. What a way to find out aliens are real. One of my absolute favourite things about this book was the translation software. A universe that is used to different species colliding would have to have a solution for the language problem, and in The Left Hand of Dog we have this incredible system that translates into not only a language each individual will understand, but words that they will understand. I loved the miscommunications this caused, but also the way that this allowed me to suspend my disbelief without complicated sci-fi bullshit.
It also let SI Clarke fill this book with pop culture references galore, as Lem tried to compare the universe around them with the world they know from TV and books. The pop culture references were so fun and handled in a way that made them fun to spot without ruining the narrative when I occasionally didn't get one or two. There's an art form to that which SI Clarke pulled off really well, making them fun without being overwhelming or annoying. Each alien culture was so different and varied, and I adored them all. Particularly one planet, where the native species didn't have the concept of questions in their society, and how this repeatedly tripped up our main cast.
The main cast itself was perfect. I absolutely adored them all. Each member of this rag-tag escape team had their own quirks and strange habits, and they gave me such strong found family vibes that I fell completely in love with them all. I can't wait for the next book in the Starship Teapot series.
Thanks to SI Clarke for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
This was such a strange book. I'd recommend it for fans of SJ Whitby and Becky Chambers, and I'm so glad I read this delightful story. It's a quick read, not least because once you get started it's too much fun to put down. Honestly, once you hit the part where Spock (who is the best dog in the world ever) starts talking to Lem, her owner (companion? master? spouse?), I challenge anyone to put it down again before you've finished.
I'm a sucker for first contact books, and while this isn't quite that, we certainly get a lot of that energy. Lem is abducted by adorable intergalactic bounty hunters, and they are completely out of their depth. What a way to find out aliens are real. One of my absolute favourite things about this book was the translation software. A universe that is used to different species colliding would have to have a solution for the language problem, and in The Left Hand of Dog we have this incredible system that translates into not only a language each individual will understand, but words that they will understand. I loved the miscommunications this caused, but also the way that this allowed me to suspend my disbelief without complicated sci-fi bullshit.
It also let SI Clarke fill this book with pop culture references galore, as Lem tried to compare the universe around them with the world they know from TV and books. The pop culture references were so fun and handled in a way that made them fun to spot without ruining the narrative when I occasionally didn't get one or two. There's an art form to that which SI Clarke pulled off really well, making them fun without being overwhelming or annoying. Each alien culture was so different and varied, and I adored them all. Particularly one planet, where the native species didn't have the concept of questions in their society, and how this repeatedly tripped up our main cast.
The main cast itself was perfect. I absolutely adored them all. Each member of this rag-tag escape team had their own quirks and strange habits, and they gave me such strong found family vibes that I fell completely in love with them all. I can't wait for the next book in the Starship Teapot series.
Full review on my blog 20th September 2021: https://inkandplasma.com/2021/09/20/the-last-graduate/
Thanks to Del Rey for the review copy of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Content Warnings: gore, violence, one mild sex scene.
I sang Naomi Novik's praises in A Deadly Education, and so when The Last Graduate showed up on my doorstep, I threw out my entire TBR to jump into it as soon as possible. I wasn't disappointed in the slightest, though I think it's possible that waiting for the third book might kill me. The Last Graduate picks up exactly where A Deadly Education left off, with barely seconds passing, so I highly recommend rereading as the back-to-back experience is excellent.
I think, much like in the first book, the narrative voice will either be a big draw or a big negative for readers. I still loved the stream of consciousness style writing, feeling like El was chattering away to me with each passing chapter. I can’t wait to get my hands on the audiobook for this book so I can experience it the way I feel like it should be experienced. The way that this series is written does focus entirely on El in an introspective way, and I would love to see what some of the other characters are thinking during this book especially. An Orion POV would have been amazing, because he’s definitely going through some kind of thing in this book, and I would just love to see what’s going on with him (and if my suspicions are correct), but I’m hoping that all will be revealed in the third book and this secretiveness will suddenly make sense.
And to be fair, El is the star of this book. Her development in The Last Graduate versus in A Deadly Education is incredible. We still have the things that made her so loveable, the snark and spiky defensiveness as well as her uncertainty around other people in the school, but we get to see her growing into more than that too. As her power grows (and oh my god, does her power grow) her circle grows too. We’ve gone from this individual and insular character to someone who has been dragged out of her comfort zone to find allies and shock maybe even friends. And her relationship with Orion. Oh my god. I hate how much I love their trope-y arses. Orion is conspicuously absent for a while, but when he comes back it’s straight back into their strange and complicated dynamic. I love them so much, honestly.
The first half of this book was a lot slower than I expected after the cliffhanger of the first book. And if you’re expecting THAT little doozy to get answered? Well. I have a lot more questions now than I did when I started. And the cliffhanger at the end of The Last Graduate is even worse! I actually can’t believe that I’m back to waiting for the next Scholomance book already. I had expectations for The Last Graduate, and all of them were wrong. I’m glad they were, though, I like the book we got much more than the book I was expecting. In this one, the Scholomance itself is a character in its own right, and I really liked the way we saw it behaving. I can’t be more specific without spoiling it, but the way this book turns out is amazing. I can’t wait to see what surprises are in store in the third book.
Thanks to Del Rey for the review copy of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Content Warnings: gore, violence, one mild sex scene.
I sang Naomi Novik's praises in A Deadly Education, and so when The Last Graduate showed up on my doorstep, I threw out my entire TBR to jump into it as soon as possible. I wasn't disappointed in the slightest, though I think it's possible that waiting for the third book might kill me. The Last Graduate picks up exactly where A Deadly Education left off, with barely seconds passing, so I highly recommend rereading as the back-to-back experience is excellent.
I think, much like in the first book, the narrative voice will either be a big draw or a big negative for readers. I still loved the stream of consciousness style writing, feeling like El was chattering away to me with each passing chapter. I can’t wait to get my hands on the audiobook for this book so I can experience it the way I feel like it should be experienced. The way that this series is written does focus entirely on El in an introspective way, and I would love to see what some of the other characters are thinking during this book especially. An Orion POV would have been amazing, because he’s definitely going through some kind of thing in this book, and I would just love to see what’s going on with him (and if my suspicions are correct), but I’m hoping that all will be revealed in the third book and this secretiveness will suddenly make sense.
And to be fair, El is the star of this book. Her development in The Last Graduate versus in A Deadly Education is incredible. We still have the things that made her so loveable, the snark and spiky defensiveness as well as her uncertainty around other people in the school, but we get to see her growing into more than that too. As her power grows (and oh my god, does her power grow) her circle grows too. We’ve gone from this individual and insular character to someone who has been dragged out of her comfort zone to find allies and shock maybe even friends. And her relationship with Orion. Oh my god. I hate how much I love their trope-y arses. Orion is conspicuously absent for a while, but when he comes back it’s straight back into their strange and complicated dynamic. I love them so much, honestly.
The first half of this book was a lot slower than I expected after the cliffhanger of the first book. And if you’re expecting THAT little doozy to get answered? Well. I have a lot more questions now than I did when I started. And the cliffhanger at the end of The Last Graduate is even worse! I actually can’t believe that I’m back to waiting for the next Scholomance book already. I had expectations for The Last Graduate, and all of them were wrong. I’m glad they were, though, I like the book we got much more than the book I was expecting. In this one, the Scholomance itself is a character in its own right, and I really liked the way we saw it behaving. I can’t be more specific without spoiling it, but the way this book turns out is amazing. I can’t wait to see what surprises are in store in the third book.