Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

The novel tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.

I read this with my pal Kath as our buddy read in May. I’ve not read any Ishiguro before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, I also went into this blind and didn’t read the blurb. 

This was such a lovely story of friendship and love. I kept forgetting that Klara was an AF, she seemed so real at times, and she cared about Josie so much. I loved how she watched and made mental notes about people, and she didn’t forget a thing. I loved Rick too, the boy from across the field, Josie’s best friend. There was one part I felt so sorry for him, but things worked out, and I liked that. Josie was such a lovely character. She was going through so much and my heart broke for her. But she had Klara, and Klara was hell bent on doing whatever she could to help Josie get better.

The mother was a bit strange, but you kind of get why when you get further into the story. The whole ‘lifted kids’ thing went over my head a bit, I still don’t think I know why it was done to be honest.

This was a lovely story. I’ll definitely read another of Ishiguro’s books.

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Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang

 Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies...

When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour...

But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences…

What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.

We all know the cover of this book by now, we all know its all over the BookTok, Bookstagram, and BookTwitter, not to mention all emails ive received recently from book related companies. So I obviously was dying to know what it was all about! 

I went into this with high hopes, everyone is raving about it. I didn’t love it. I liked it, and gave it 4 stars, but I thought with all the hype surrounding it, I was going to really love it. The scene of Athena’s death was quite traumatic, and I felt so bad for her, and June. I liked Athena, we didn’t really see much of her in the book but I kind of liked her character. I did quite like June too, a bit snarky at times etc, but she was alright. 

The story was a good telling of what I can only assume probably does go on in the writing industry, some not so great stuff, I just hope it doesn’t go on a lot.

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The Clearing by Simon Toyne

 

Women are going missing

Something deadly lurks in the forest around Cinderfield. Locals put the unusually high number of disappearances down to transients or runaways; some even blame the Cinderman, a figure of local legend rumoured to haunt the woods looking for unsuspecting victims.

Vanishing without a trace

Forensic specialist Laughton Rees doesn't believe in monsters. Already investigating the area's history of missing women, news of the latest 'runaway' Maddie Friar brings her to Cinderfield to find out the truth.

No one's talking

But, from the gruff leader of an off-grid commune to the mysterious Earl who presides over the crumbling abbey in the heart of the forest, everyone in Cinderfield has something to hide

But what lies in the shadows?

As Laughton searches for answers, with the help of DCI Tannahil Khan back in London, someone is watching - cataloguing her every move, prepared to do anything to keep their dark secrets from coming to light

I’ve never read any of Simon Toynes books before, my husband (who isn’t a reader) got halfway through Solomon Creed and loved it. So when I saw InstaBookTours doing a tour for this one I jumped at the chance. And I’m sso glad I did!

The prologue is only 3 pages long but boy did it have me hooked from the get go! Honestly, if you’re unsure on this one, get a sample and read those first 3 pages, you will want to read the rest! This book was creepy as hell, the chapters were short which helped as I kept wanting to read ‘just one more’, and ended up devouring the book over roughly 2 days. 

I loved the characters, Adele and Laughton being my favourites. The creepy side characters were interesting, and ‘the guy with no face’ weirded me out more than once! There were twists I didn’t see coming, some I did see, and some I thought I had figured out but turned out to be wrong! I will definitely go back and read the first book in the Laughton series, and I’d totally recommend this one to any thriller fan.

Thanks so much to InstaBookToursfor letting me join the tour, Harper Collins for my #gifted copy, and Simon Toyne for creeping me the hell out!