Unsettled Ground By Clare Fuller

What if the life you have always known is taken away fro you In an instant?What would you do to get it back?

Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different from other people. At 51 years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. Their rented cottage is simultaneously their armour against the world and their sanctuary. Inside its walls they make music, in its garden they grow (and sometimes kill) everything they need for sustenance.

But when Dot dies suddenly, threats to their livelihood start raining down. At risk of losing everything, Jeanie and her brother must fight to survive in an increasingly dangerous world as their mother's secrets unfold, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake. 

This is a thrilling novel of resilience and hope, of love and survival, that explores with dazzling emotional power how the truths closest to us are often hardest to see.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher Fig Tree and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

This book was so different to what I expected. The characters are lovely and so different in the way they live. Jeanie and her twin Julius have been brought up by their mother Dot so different to the way others around them have been. Jeanie has a Heart condition from having Rheumatic Fever when she was a child and her mother Dot is very careful over what she can and can’t, or should and shouldn’t do. They are 51 years old now and still live at home with Dot, Jeanie still has no job, never had a boyfriend, and doesn’t do things like heavy lifting because of her heart, but instead helps Dot in the garden with vegetables they sell in the village. Julius works and bring the money in for the household. Their father passed away when they were kids. 

But Dot suddenly dies and life is so difficult for the twins, especially Jeanie who really has no clue how the world works properly. I liked the innocence of Jeanie, but the bravery she has about it. She knows she will struggle but gets on with it. Julius seemed lost, and I think he needed to understand why their mother kept them at home them the way she did, before he could let any of it fade away.

It was a good book, slightly strange in places, but had a strong undertone of basic love between a brother and sister.

thank you again to Fig Tree, Netgalley, and always, the author Clare Fuller. 

An Unusual Boy by Fiona Higgins

 Julia Curtis is a busy mother of three, with a husband often away for work, an ever-present mother-in-law, a career, and a house that needs doing up. Her fourteen-year-old daughter, Milla, has fallen in love for the first time, and her youngest, Ruby, is a nine-year-old fashionista who can out-negotiate anyone. 

But Julia’s eleven-year-old son, Jackson, is different. Different to his sisters. Different to his classmates. In fact, Jackson is different from everyone. And bringing up a child who is different isn’t always easy.

Then, one Monday morning, Jackson follows his new friend Digby into the school toilets. What happens inside changes everything; not only for Jackson, but for every member of his family. Julia faces the fight of her life to save her unusual boy from a world set up for ‘normal’

I received a copy of this book from the publisher Boldwood Books and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I picked this book as stories with neurotypical characters interest me, especially as I have 2 children with autism. But I don’t think I was ready for how dark this story got. Jackson has an undiagnosed condition, he is different to other kids his age, he gets unsettled easily, and remembers everything from his life - he calls himself a memory magnet.

This story shows just how easily manipulated children be, especially if they are easily impressionable like children with special needs. The story delves into the life of Jackson, his mum Julia, dad Andy, and 2 sisters 9 year old Ruby and 14 year old Milla. Jackson befriends a boy from soccer who is also in his class at school, but things aren’t as they seem and it gets a bit scary. Especially when the ‘toilet incident’ happens and the police come calling. 

My heart broke for the family and poor Jackson going through this awful ordeal. And Julia, I can’t even imagine, going through something like this as a mother must be horrendous, especially when your child doesn’t understand fully what’s even happening. The shoe phone was a lovely touch and made me feel like Jackson had somewhere he could escape and talk about things. There were a few times I gasped, and other times I sat with my hand across my mouth as I read. And the ending was a shocker!

I rated this book 5 stars as I just could not put it down, but be warned there are trigger warnings in this story before you read.

Thanks again to Boldwood Books, Netgalley and as always, the author Fiona Higgins.

The Ends of the Earth by Abbie Greaves

Mary O’Connor has been keeping a vigil for her first love for the past seven years.

Every evening without fail, Mary arrives at Ealing Broadway station and sets herself up among the commuters. In her hands Mary holds a sign which bears the words: ‘Come Home Jim.’ 

Call her mad, call her a nuisance, call her a drain on society – Mary isn’t going anywhere. 

That is, until an unexpected call turns her world on its head. In spite of all her efforts, Mary can no longer find the strength to hold herself together. She must finally face what happened all those years ago, and answer the question – where on earth is Jim?

I received a copy of this book from the publisher Random House UK and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from his one but I don’t think it was along the lines of the what the story told! It was a nice book though, with a strong undertone of love and grief, just not in the way I thought it was going to be. 

Jim disappeared 7 years ago, and ever since, Mary has sat in the same place at Ealing train station with a sign reading ‘Come Home Jim’. I was drawn in from the start wanting to know were Jim was and why had he left? Mary is a lovely girl, she met Jim and fell in love, after only 4 days they moved in together. She left her family back in Wales and moved to London to Jims flat where they were extremely happy. 

The story goes from the present to the past, and in the present Mary is working in a supermarket during the day and for a crisis helpline through the night. She meets someone one night at the train station who also joins the crisis helpline and befriends Mary, and keeps digging for more information on Jim, but is there an ulterior motive? The other characters in the story were well written, and I really liked them. kit who works at the crisis helpline was a favourite of mine through the second half of the story.

This book had me guessing until the end and we find out wha happened and why. There are triggers of depression, alcoholism and grief in the book, which were handled very well.

Thanks again to Random House and Netgalley, and of course Abbie Greaves 

 

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

Two young people meet at a pub in South East London. Both are black British, both won scholarships to private school where they struggled to belong, both are now artists - he a photographer, she a dancer - trying to make their mark in a city that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence. 

At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be a person in. A world that sees you only as you are respected for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson as written the most essential debut of recent years. 

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher Penguin/Fig Tree/Viking, in return for a honest review. 

Now this book was so different to anything I’ve read before. It’s all told from a second person POV, and you never know his or her name, which I thought was a great touch. But what got me with that, was because you never know their names, you do hear one name, and that gives that person the stand out and importance they need in this book, and that name is Daniel

You’re drawing a line towards her. No, the line was there, is always there, will always be there, but you’re trying to reinforce, to strengthen.

The story hits hard. It makes you feel so many different things, and they all grab you quite deep. The story is one of love and friendship, a real closeness. Caleb has delivered this so well, that you feel it deep down, and you just know these two people just fit together. But there is a background of sadness too, and a deep rooted problem which is all too real in todays world, racism. 

It’s written so beautifully it’s hard to actually put it into words. Read it, and see what you think.

 

Half a World Away by Mike Gayle

 

Strangers living worlds apart,

Strangers with nothing in common.

But it wasn’t always that way...

Kerry Hayes is a single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never hope to afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot ever forget her past.

Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose Hill. Adopted as a child, Noah always looks forward, never back.

When Kerry reaches out to the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will have life changing consequences for them both.

Half a World Away by Mike Gayle

I read this as part of the Perfect Strangers Read Along on Instagram and the book was Picked by Becky over at Beckys_book_reviews.

The book centres around the 2 main characters Kerry and Noah, and the chapters move from each persons point of view, from the present to the past. Kerry has been writing letters to the Adoption agency for Noah for along time, so when he goes looking for her he will get them. This doesn’t happen though, and he doesn’t know she exists until she finds him a long time after. 

Noah is grown, a barrister and has a family of his own, going through their own troubles, so will a long lost sister make things better or worse? How should he tell his family, his wife, his parents? Kerry is also facing her own hardships, raising a son alone, his father a deadbeat who drops in and out of his life as and when he sees fit. She works as a cleaner for rich people who live in big houses, and even though she isn’t embarrassed of her home, which is very clean and beautifully decorated, she doesn’t want Noah finding where she lives. 

The story is so nice, a lovely easy read, which honestly had me in tears by the end (I swear I had to hide in the kitchen as I was sobbing), so grab your tissues for the final quarter of the book. To be honest I kind of knew what was coming, but that didn’t take anything away from the story at all. It grips your heart, pulls it around a little, then puts it back full of warmth.

And as for Mikes other books, as Hamilton said ‘it’s not a question of if, but which one’