...it's like Outlander for teens (17+ I should say) who have a penchant for magic and enjoy a crass feminist fight against being trapped in a women-hating societal system so patriarchal they smell oestrogen and call it witchcraft...the pages burn with hormones and angst...

The story was adventurous, fast, simple entertainment. The two main characters were clichés peeled from a contrasting Puritan England and 21st CE NY/LA, then mashed into a no-pretext romance. The setting was apparently 17th CE France, though the dialogue was all modern American white-bread High School. Somehow, it all worked together to build action-packed scenes that unfolded a plot of treason, intrigue, deception, and forbidden love.

I’m making it sound far more interesting than it was.

The writing was basic, the dialogue immature at times, though it sure made a grandiose effort at playing off as more mature than appropriate for the target age. Void of literary or poetic quality in the delivery, the novel races through the story, because the focus is the story, not style, and this is a story that’s going around like a snotty virus among the YA genre. They’re all starting to blend together, I can barely remember a single author’s name.

A unique writing style that puts you in mind of Saramago and the Beatniks all at the once. Extremely readable; easy to take in small chunks; it's one you'll put down and pick up again after a cuppa because: why not? just one more paragraph, just one more page, won't take but a few minutes.

The story was based on an extremely awkward and morally criminal theme that no one condones and everyone, even herself in the book, is thoroughly appalled at and rightfully so...but... the redemption that comes through unexpected friendship with those living on the outskirts of even the fringe of acceptable society is the key to healing and forgiveness.

And that, after all, is the point of the story.

Melody speaks to us in snippets of memories and chunks from the here-and-now and they blend together as one collage of pictures revealing charred relationships and cracked social structures pasted and holding fast by the last hair hope of better. She is unlikeable in nearly every way, a conniving woman, unfaithful and bitter, but there is something in the way she falls into her own story that draws more than our pity, more than our sympathy--it compels our love. And why not? We see how she was unloved, and we walk with her as she learns to love, selflessly, despite all her selfish flaws that have broken so much in the past.

The vernacular (I suppose that is what you call it for anyone outside Ireland) places us right in the estate, brings us right to the foot of the Traveller's caravans at the edge of Limerick and gives strong voice to each of these gnarled, brittle, thorny, life-battered characters.

Even if the story is hard to take, the writing makes it all the easier to digest.

I look forward to reading more of Donal Ryan in future.

OMG I LOVE THIS SERIES!!

All the cheeky sauce a group of aging mischief makers can contrive, characters that are loveable down to their fatal flaws, so full of unexpected twists in an adventure that extracts public giggles and gasps while reading—this is a series I look forward to gobbling up with every new edition!

Bloody brilliant. Detailed. I love combing through the nitty gritty and fine hair detail of a crime procedural. This is all that AND the inner whirling of several psychological playgrounds and cesspools of a diverse cast of fascinating characters.

By this time, if you’re reading these novels, you know Corm and Robin in all their many loveable and contrarily unlikeable attributes. This unrequited banter of deepening affection weaves through these pages, a trove of satisfying and frustrating and hopeful interactions.

An unconventional break from the traditional novel style—you feel almost as if this is rather an interactive online experience. The chat rooms controlled by narcissist cowards, the wrath, biting banter, and vile commentary people feel bold enough to post behind their cowardly (safe) computer screen is all exposed and uncovered. And herein lies the truth, the mystery, of the layers of pseudonyms and online persona can be peeled back to find the culprit(s).

So well executed. I love getting caught up in the mystery of this series.

This one starts off like: An ape, a donkey, and a scraggly lion walk into a…

No, actually, it’s all dark caves and evil schemers, and the donkey is actually dressed up as a lion—but honestly, this deception can’t last forever.

***Some general spoilers ahead…***

An infiltrator impersonates a messenger of Aslan, but it’s obvious to those who know the great lion—untamed as he is—that this imposter cannot be a messenger of the noble king. Jill and Eustace return to Narnia to help the few who have not been blinded to fight back the intruder and reinstate the freedoms and peace once enjoyed under Aslan.

The deceiver tells lies to all—and even some fearful Narnians believe him—but a faithful few continue to remind everyone that Aslan is kind, to remind them who he truly is, and that he is nothing like this vile deceiver. The ensuing battle is fierce and bloody and many are lost in the fray, but peace and truth win and all are made free as the imposter is eventually defeated.

I’m glad it was Eustace and Jill again for the most part in this story. Diggory, Aunt Polly, Edmund and Peter get cameos, and all the old animal friends are there at the end. Finally, when Lucy reaches the beautiful expansive gardens of Narnia, and is reunited with Aslan, she sees Narnia and her home beneath the clouds blend into one….and it is a bittersweet ending. In fact, this whole novel is laced with bittersweet…

This is a timeless fantasy adventure, though written over half a century ago that still vibrates with terror and confusion and bittersweet victory. Bittersweet as we remember the gentle strength of Susan at the very start of these adventures, and see now how she’s been lost to so-called ‘adult’ things, losing her faith—losing the innocence and joy of her childhood altogether.

But even the enemies in this final battle are given the chance to see the imposter for what he is and turn away—and enjoy the splendour and peace of Narnia together with the Narnians they’d previously fought and killed. And they turn to peace and leave their struggle behind, choosing love and freedom.

The White Witch could never do that—she was truly the most vile of all Lewis’ evil characters; her heart was incapable of changing, so hardened it was against truth and love, so seized by her own grasp at power. Man, my students used to say I look like her… what a compliment … o.O … XD

**As it was written so long ago, the series uses dated language and terms that have since had their meaning altered by social structures and globalisation, but nothing that can’t be understood by a ten year old with a guiding adult, a decent grasp of common sense, and a general knowledge of history.

I love this world.

Here we go back in time, back before Fable, before Bryn Roth… to the beginning, to the story we had hints of in Fable’s hidden history, glimpses of a broken Saint; here we see how it all came together before it all fell apart.

This is adventurous, mysterious, social, and sparking with good clean YA-worthy romance. Yes. We get to know Isolde, Fable’s ubiquitously remembered, but forever absent mother. This is really her story as much as Saint’s.

The Narrows have yet to carve out their right to a corner in this world, a place dominated by the Salt bloods of that gilded city of Bastian.

I hope Ms Young has planned many more tales to come based in this irresistible world. I’ll read them all. 

Highly recommend it for all who like a sea-faring, gem-diving, underdog quest.

Eustace. That Narnia experience sure changed him for the better. Glad he gets to return in this one—and Jill is a good egg, the perfect sidekick/leading lady. You don’t even miss Lucy. 

I liked this one a lot better than the last—it had a more complex plot and greater depth to characters new and old. The idea of a mission was lacking in the previous one as they just sort of sailed along running into stuff (was there a mission? Sure there was, but I missed it…). This one was all about the mission and the adventure getting there—and some furious ruckus along the way (I know I’ve seen these giant rock fellas up at Giant’s Causeway, the very same characters lurching from the side of the pathway, inching their way out of the slanted earth). Jill and Eustace and their Wiggle-thing friend took it all very serious and made an entertaining team.

A little weird about all the licking and breathing—anyone own a dog? Ridiculous animals, always needing to lick you and breathe on you—but this big cat (lion) for sure has the aloof personality of a cat with all the additional behaviour traits of your pet Labrador.

One of the better instalments in the series.

4-stars for premise, potential, and the unique concept of the conspiracy!

2-stars for the execution….

It grieves me to say so, because these three intertwined stories are so worth telling, and there are unpolished gems buried here.

I am inclined to blame the poor choices of an editor…

Chock full of flat stereotypes, an implausibly naive main character, and awkwardly predictable from the get-go, this mystery reads in places like juvenile YA romance and more often like rushed historical fiction with a light brushing of modern thriller—even though we’ve already sussed the outcome from the start. Relationships are forged on shallow declarations such as ‘you’re a good person’ and ’you’re not a bad kid’ but for the most part, this poor man is treated abominably by 99.99% of the people he meets. And at times we rage and curse the people of this evil world for him, because he sure never does.

There are two (maybe three) people in his life that actually show some love for him—and one isn’t his mother (you might think that would be a guarantee in a boy’s life). But this mother treats her son like a work-dog, and how he doesn’t hate her I don’t know, she gives him ample reason. Actually, it’s a miracle that this boy has avoided becoming a quietly raging sociopath woman-hater having been treated this way all his life. But he takes it all as though it’s normal, and when his aunt tells him his mom is a ‘good person’ —despite ALL evidence against that—he just accepts it as maybe he’s not seeing things in the right light. Ho hum. She might be great to anyone and everyone else, not that we see even a mere glimmer of this suggested pleasantry, but to her own boy, she is vile and toxic. And we’re given no reason as to why she might default to this ugliness of character—though I can think of several plausible causes—making it difficult to be as gracious to her as her son is, or to bring any kind of perspective to her situation.

The Author’s note was far better written, of superior interest, and more emotionally engaging  than the whole novel. I’d like to read this author’s memoir—and he should narrate it himself for the audiobook—he has a smooth intonation, a lovely reading voice. HIS is the story this one should have been. 5-stars for the author’s note. I’m awaiting that biography…

Don’t get me wrong. I liked it. But for all the potential, it should have been a 5-star review I was writing here, and I just couldn’t.

Meh. 

The best part of this play is the speech at the end about baby Elizabeth who later becomes Elizabeth I. It’s prophetic, in hindsight of course; a nice sentiment by the archbishop and a beautiful tribute by Shakespeare and Fletcher to their Queen. I have my doubts that Henry the Narcissistic Womaniser ever had a noble thought about the virtue and character of a woman, infant or not.

The rest of the play is rather uneventful being that it covers the shocking events of Cardinal Wolsey’s death, Henry’s defiance of The Church for the sake of his pursuit of Anne Boleyn, and the demise of Catherine of Aragon as a result. These things seem as though they should be a lot more dramatic than portrayed here. I know Oor Billy was a wee bit busy and ideas were hard to come by amid bubonic plague outbreaks and the raunchy competition, but this one falls flat. In light of the flammable fuses the multilayered real-life drama set to blaze, and the changes all these events brought to the course of history, I feel like this should have left me flabbergasted by the audacity and wreckage.

Speaking of fires, if I’d been in the theatre when they shot canon at the roof and burned The Globe down, I can’t say I’d have been disappointed to miss the second half… 

Tellement triste…c'est triste quand l'amour qu'un père peut avoir pour son fils se perd dans l'égoïsme, se perd dans le souci de sa propre pauvreté d'âme et des exigences de sa masculinité culturelle…vraiment une révélation, bien écrite, vulnérable, ouverte et pleine de émotion ... difficile à lire, mais ça vaut vraiment le coup.

La culture crie dans un silence individuel angoissé pour un amour familial sain. Chaque fois que j'écoute une histoire - ou que je lis un mémoire comme celui-ci - j'entends ce cri pour le véritable amour, englouti dans tant de haine silencieuse et enfermée, enveloppé dans le paquet de luxure et de romance - la façade vide et lointaine du véritable amour ...

Mais a une bonne fin. Papa apprend à l’aimer. Ils ont passé toutes ces 15 années ensemble après le départ de sa mère - et ils ne se connaissaient pas - tel était le rôle d'une femme dans la conviction de son père qu'il ne pouvait pas montrer son amour à son fils. En écrivant ceci, l'auteur cherchait à en savoir un peu plus sur son père, qui n'avait aucune instruction, qui n'avait jamais voyagé et qui était fermé aux nouveaux changements qui s'abattaient sur sa culture. À la fin, même si son père a changé, il était toujours coincé dans son cœur, mais il a lu le livre de son fils et a essayé de montrer son amour du mieux qu'il pouvait. Ils ne parlent toujours pas la même langue - tout chez le père devient agressif et violent là où son fils est doux et féminin - et ils ne peuvent pas se comprendre. L'orgueil de son père l'isolait ; il ne peut pas vaincre son orgueil ; il ne dit jamais "je t'aime".

Ces écrits sur une relation tendue étaient probablement thérapeutiques à écrire, mais servent aussi de brise-glace pour beaucoup d'autres pris dans le même piège : ce type de littérature a le potentiel de libérer les gens.