Trin In The Wind

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. 
It’s been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He’s finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies. 
But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that’s growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart. 
In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship. 

4.5 stars
Frexing awesome

You guys I realised something while reading this book, space scares the dickens out of me. And I love it.

Like its predecessor A Million Suns sucked me into its claustrophobic world and didn’t let me go. At times I felt that I was the one running to the walls of Godspeed and trying to claw my way out. I felt tapped, uncomfortable, I needed more air, I needed the sky, I needed to run, oh wait that was Amy.

This book rips it as a sequel. Revis is so at home in her world and in her prose, I felt like I could just see her having a mighty good strut around in her creation. I love her writing, I wanted to stretch out in it and let it shine over me like, like a million damn suns! :D

Revis managed to achieve something which is rare for me, supporting cast investment. Normally I can’t wait for the b characters to move away and get back to the main ones. Not so in this book. I cared. She made me care. The first shippers, Victria, Bartie, I cared you guys.

Another thing which is rare, I got my political hat out. I felt very challenged by what was happening on the ship. Where would I put my vote?

Where this book let me down a bit was firstly the main mystery. It felt unnecessary, I thought maybe the clues were a journey for Amy, and maybe they were but I think she still would’ve journeyed a great deal if it was just all spat out at the start. Also the chemistry between Amy and Elder still isn’t there yet. They share a few nice moments but I’m not on the edge of my seat for them yet. I have a feeling though that this was intentional. Amy struggles with her love for Elder being her choice and not just her only option and I think the lack of chemistry makes us question that as well. Also it is a bit far fetched to be asleep for a couple hundred years wake up and find your soul mate. No?

All in all this is a strong follow up and I am completely excited for the next book! Gimme! Can we just take a moment and reward Revis for the prettiest gosh darn titles ever. Serioulsy.
Across the Universe
A Million Suns
Shades of Earth
I’d read these books for the titles and pretty covers alone.  

Bonus Pic

Here is my visual aid for Elder and Amy as portrayed by the swoonworthy Freddie and Amy Pond.

I am over at the lovely Maree’s Musings today talking about what ANZAC day means to me. I found this question quite challenging as I tend to let the day pass most years without much of a thought. So it was a really good opportunity to mark the day this year.

I wasn’t however, as committed as my husband who got up at 4.30am for the dawn service. 

Everything I write is rubbish, my novel will never be finished, no one will ever get to read it and I will grow sad and fat.

That is my brain right now. You guys writing is hard. It is like a yo-yo or some kind of theme park ride. There are massive everything is going right highs and then down down lows. Actually in most theme park rides I’m scared for my very existence. Yep I’m gonna say that feeling applies to my writing as well. 

I’ve started to get depressed over how long this stupid first draft has taken me. Someone asked me how long I’d been writing it for and I said a year and they were like oh. But then I realised that’s not entirely true, see I’m a time rounder-upper. It’s April right now and in my head it may as well be July and then the year is pretty much over. I think I’ve been saying my daughter is 18mths for the past 2mths and she won’t be for another 3mths! Anyway. So really I’ve only been writing this since the end of October last year…that’s not exactly a year. But still it’s a while. 

A lot of the love I had for my MS when I first started has begun to wane. Truthfully it’s started to feel more like homework and you know what you do with homework, avoid it. How has this happened? I used to bounce out of bed in the morning anxious to start writing, unable to type fast enough to keep up with my flow of words. Ok I never really bounce out of bed, it’s more a zombie shuffle to the coffee pot.  But still. The honeymoon seems to be over, my MS has stopped shaving its legs.

So I guess this is where it starts to get real. Where it starts to get hard and from what I’ve heard it’s gonna get harder again. Now I’m back on that roller coaster fearing for my existence! Can I do this? Can I really? I’m not good at finishing things. I still have one subject left of my uni degree, one pant leg hemmed, one glove knitted. I am a serial non finisher, if that’s a thing. I have 10k left, 10! I can see the tiny speck of light on the horizon, I just need to wade through this swamp to get there.

Eeeep.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Imagine there is someone you like so much that just thinking about them leaves you desperate and reckless. You crave them in a way that’s not rational, not right, and you’re becoming somebody you don’t recognise, and certainly don’t respect, but you don’t even care. 

And this person you like is unattainable. Except for one thing… 

He lives downstairs. 

Abbie has three obsessions. Art. The ocean. And Kane. 

But since Kane’s been back, he’s changed. There’s a darkness shadowing him that only Abbie can see. And it wants her in its world. 

A gothic story about the very dark things that feed the creative process.

5/5 Stars.

“Between the desire 
And the spasm 
Between the potency 
And the existence 
Between the essence 
And the descent 
Falls the Shadow” - The Hollow Men, T.S Eliot

Oh. My. God. 

Instructions for reading this book: 

1. Read at night 
2. Read at night while it’s raining 
3. Read at night while it’s raining and you’re home alone 
4. Let yourself go. 

I have no idea what to do with this book. I feel like I’ve been burned alive. 

There’s a certain way that artist’s see the world, with their heads tilted and their eyes half closed, staring at the thing just above your head. Looking not at the window but at the light captured and then bounced off the window. Seeing the thing and then seeing all around the thing. That’s the way Abbie sees the world. She gets caught up in the colour that hovers between day and night. She won’t show you her, she’ll photograph her reflection and show you that. 

There’s a beauty in that. 

It’s where art comes from. The beauty of the idea, of the impression of the thing. It stirs something in people. If you can capture it right they’ll look at what you’ve done and not be able to explain it. 

This book is about that and this book is that. 

Once again Eager has succeeded in creating a world that completely sucks you in and takes you over. She writes the raw and ugly into her characters and yet they’re still beautiful. She writes the thoughts that you’re ashamed get stuck in your head and it makes you relieved. The intense longing for someone, that sick obsession that sticks in your stomach. So much so that even if you got the person it wouldn’t be enough. The obsession that fuels you, heightens everything, makes your head spin and your tongue thick. She writes that. 

I’m hesitant to shelve this book under paranormal because while it does deal with supernatural themes that shelf still feels a little wrong. I think it rides the cusp of the genre beautifully in a similar way to Imaginary Girls. Don’t come expecting something you’ll be able to explain, this book is something that is felt. 

Thank you so much Penguin & Netgalley for giving me a chance to read this.

5/5 Stars

I first read The Bell Jar when I was at Uni. To be honest I mostly picked it up to score scene points. Heck I was at Uni doing an arts degree, look how cool I am. To say the story caught me off guard was an understatement. I don’t think I was ready for The Bell Jar. I knew what I had read was amazing but I struggled to tell you why and honestly some parts of the book I found disorientating and confusing. 

This isn’t a book that introduces itself right off the bat. It doesn’t pour its story out on a silver platter for all to eat and enjoy. It’s a guarded book, much like its protagonist. I don’t think we even learn the MC’s name until the 3rd chapter. In fact she gives a fake name before we learn hers. This greatly troubled me on my first reading, who are you? I asked. But I guess that says a lot about this book. 

My lovely friend Jo once said (and correct me if I get this wrong) 
“Don’t read The Bell Jar for a boy, read it for your own soul.” 
I thought then, and I still think, that was one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever read. 

What I gained from the 2nd reading was palatable. Being already aware of the story freed me to just devour the words. There is nothing wasted in this book. 

Here is my favourite quote. 
“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow, the million moving shapes and cul-de-sacs of shadow. There was shadow in bureau drawers and closets and suitcases, and shadow under houses and trees and stones, and shadow at the back of people’s eyes and smiles, and shadow, miles and miles and miles of it, on the night side of the earth.” 

Sigh. 

Now I’m not going to touch on the feminist themes or even depression and suicide I just merely want to communicate what this book means to me. 

As a creative person I sometimes worried of my over identifying with the MC. Yes, I thought time again, I think that. Closely followed by an internal check, am I OK? I think my most favourite part is when Esther decides she’ll write a novel. Then she stares at her paragraph and gets all proud and then her anxieties take over and she can’t write another word. 

“I sat like that for about an hour, trying to think what would come next, and in my mind, the barefoot doll in her mother’s old yellow nightgown sat and stared into space as well.” 
That can sum up so many dead spots in my writing. 

Bonus Knowledge 
While I was reading this I asked my husband what the deal was with electroshock therapy. He suggested a Stuff you Should Know podcast on lobotomies. I listened to it and holy crap. Seriously. It broke my heart for all those people. I couldn’t honestly believe some of the stories. But the interesting this about electroshock is they didn’t really know why it worked but it did and now it’s similar to antidepressant meds. (that’s a really rough explanation, don’t yell at me in the comments if I’m wrong.) 

There is a chill you get from reading this book that undoubtably comes from the knowledge of Plath’s death. It’s there under all the words. You can’t shake it. It’s terrifying. 

Bonus Feature 
Book Cover Design. 
I designed this cover as part of an exhibition in my 3rd year at Uni. The idea behind the exhibition was to take books that had meant a great deal and redesign the covers. Saying these books helped to shape me and now I’m shaping them. (haha art crap) 
So I though I’d share some of my thinking behind my cover design for any who are interested. 
 
Main idea: I wanted to take an already beautifully designed book and give it a look that would appeal to a lot of readers today. In a sense, update it a bit. 

Colour story: I chose pink as the highlight colour for a number of reasons. Firstly I liked that it is a colour that whether we like it or not defines the female gender. It’s something that we can try to escape but it is still there much like how Esther tries to shake off the gender stereotypes in the novel. Secondly I like how it lets the cover breathe, it takes some of the weight off the image on the front cover. I had thought for a while about using red but I felt it would be almost too grotesque. Yes this book deals with heavy things but I think it does it in a beautiful way. 

Typography: Oh man I love fonts. Just wanted to say that. I used a typewriter font for the main title and a hand written font for the author’s name. I liked how this combined the need to be precise and yet be incredibly raw and personal. 

Front cover: Haha if you could see this up close you would cringe with me at the pixelated photograph, what was I thinking? Mostly that I was poor and was spending all my money on printing not stock photographs. So lets take this on face value. Ultimately the image depicts a person with slit wrists which drip down to create a bell jar. Now you can see why I shied away from using red, yikes. 
 

Back cover: I mostly want to talk about the type work on the back cover. This remains one of my most favourite things I’ve ever done. I purposefully created errors within the synopsis which I then went back over and edited. I did this to show first Esther’s inability to write, something that once came so easy to her and also the way she would say yes I am going to do this and this and then go back to not doing anything. My lecturer had an old copywriting book that I poured through to get all those gorgeous editing symbols. 

And there you have it. If you have any questions feel free to drop me a comment and I’ll do my best to answer :)