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The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

Published August 17th 2016 by Harper Collins

336 Pages

Everyone has heard of Amy Schumer, and whether you are a fan of her or not, there is no denying she is a talented woman. Personally, I love Amy Schumer. I find it refreshing to see someone who is beautiful and smart and funny without feeling as though I would need an entire team of stylists to achieve her look. 

If we take away her celebrity when looking at this book, you still feel the humour in the pages. I never used to be one to enjoy celebrity life-stories, but Amy Schumer has done something slightly different. It is not so much discussing her fame, as discussing who she is, and what she thinks about the world. 

The pages are chock full of hilarious stories as expected, but she writes them with a real flair for words and insight that is often missing from traditional actress memoirs. Schumer is honest, raw and unashamed. She speaks of her family and friends with a deep love that translates to the reader.

I knew very little about Schumer before reading this book, and although she doesn't exactly lay out every moment of her childhood, she really gives a sense of the people around her, and so to an extent reflects herself in the depiction of her loved ones. 

Overall, I adored this book, especially the audible edition. I would hate to spoil all the stories within it's pages because part of the charm is that you have no ideas what she could possibly say next. But there is only one way to find out...



You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads and Facebook. Until then...Happy Reading.

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Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth
Published May 20th 2014 by Harper Collins
256 Pages

Laura is trapped between two worlds. She's engaged to classcal musician Jim, planning a wedding and trying to act like a grown-up. On the other hand, Best Friend Tyler is a trainwreck. Together they tiptoe the line of alcohol dependency and generally cause hilarious mayhem. 

Laura is struggling with how an adult should act, and wanting to escape the seriousness with Tyler. Admittedly, Tyler is a shitbrick. She steals from a drug dealer, has little empathy for Laura's problems and shows no respect for her relationship with Jim. That being said, I have to admit, as a young woman I have found myself in similar situations - although far less extreme. 

The North of England is a far different place than the south, adn Unsworthr epresentes it perfectly. The drinking culture is more aggressive, and sloppier - far sloppier. Laura's reluncatance to take on an adult life but also her desire for a "normal" life completely resonates with me, and I imagine, a huge amount of other young women. 

Laura and Tyler play with what is expected of women and what the reality is. They are vulgar, gross, dark, comical and sexual. I adore every moment of their relationship...eventhe inevitable downfall. Life desires movement, and when Tyler refuses to grow up and take responsability for her actions - Laura must let her go or risk being dragged into drug abuse and acoholism with her. 

Jim, portrays himself as the perfect man. He's talented and handsome as far as we are concerned. He is an upstanding member of the community who takes care of Laura even when she comes in drunk. I mean, what a hero right? He lays the guilt on thick, and is critical and shitty to Laura. All the way through I keep asking: 'What the fuck is this guy's problem?' Well, he tried to fuck one of his work colleagues. 

Prick. 

The beautiful climax of the story is when Laura finds out, and Jim reports that he could not infact cheat on her, because he was too drunk to get hard. Nothing is romanticised, everything is down and dirty and I love it. Nothing is off limits, Unsworth doesn't seem to care about your delicate sensibilites and to be honest, neither to do many writer. 

The ending, is quiet. It's the only way I can describe it. Laura finds some kind of resolve, a decision about moving into the future without both Jim and Tyler and it feels triumphant. She does not need them, she never did. It may be quiet, but it is hella powerful. 

September 7th 2017 by Bloomsbury Childrens

400 Pages

Sarah Crossan is a professional on the quick read. The lyrical poetry of her fiction is unlike any other author I have read, and these books are perfect for getting out a book hangover. Unlike her usual novels, which are centrally focused in her home country of England, Crossan takes us over to the colonies this time - to take on the American Justice System.

As an English-woman, I have very little knowledge of the American Justice System other than what I've read on Buzzfeed or Sky News stories on Donald Trump. Crossan takes me into the world of the American small town - an idea romanticised in film and television. In Moonrise, it's a much more depressing place, in fact, everywhere is because Joseph Moon is preparing to watch his brother die.

Edward Moon was coerced into signing a confession of homicide of a police officer at the age of seventeen.  Our story follows years after, when the legally bound Edward is to be executed in Kirkland, Texas. Joseph Moon, his younger brother has taken the long journey across the Atlantic to be at his brother's side, and to make one final push for his brother's life.

Joseph is a talented young man, with a future ahead of him, yet he finds himself lingering in Kirkland - unable to face visiting his brother and fixing cars for food. Despite the distance that grew between the brother's after his conviction, they share (with their sister Angela) a shared traumatic childhood. Their mother was an abusive alcoholic, and once she disappeared when Edward was convicted, and abusive aunt took her place.

The death penalty has been a hot topic for years. In Britain, we do not have it. As far as we are concerned as a society - the death penalty appears like an eye for an eye sort of deal. I struggle to understand what it must be like on death row, deserved or not. Edward's hope that something will save him is tragic, whether he is guilty or not. 

Joseph is so young too. He's barely out of school and having to take on such a huge responsibility. He fills out the narrative with memories and flashback that give such a sense of all the characters it is hard to imagine that they aren't all living, breathing people. The entire book is exquisite, poignant and it reads like breathing. 

Crossan has hit it out of the park again, I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. 

Reading the Riot Act

There's someone inside your house by Stephanie Perkins
289 Pages

We all remember Stephanie Perkins of Anna and the French Kiss. It feels as though it has been a million years since we last heard from her but finally, just in time for Halloween, she released a new horror novel for us to enjoy.

Now, I am not a horror fan. I have an overactive imagination and deep, deep paranoia that really just does not suit well to fans of the horror genre. Thankfully, this book serves as almost a precursor to the horror genre. I mean there are murders, and gore like any self=respecting horror book. But this is entry level horror for the wimps out there like me.

We follow Makani, who in horror tradition has just moved to town. There is all this secrecy in regards to her past. Why did she move suddenly? Why won't she talk about what happened there? Then, enter the murders. Students are slaughtered left right and centre. Perkins has set up a hell mystery.

The murderer seems to be coming only for Makani, they are after her for some reason. At this point, I thought I had the book figured. I was expecting a Johnny Depp, The Secret Garden sort of plot line. TWIST MAKANI IS THE MURDERER! But that didn't happen.

We get side-tracked by this love story. And I'm into it, the guy is hot and I'm rooting for my Hawaiian babe to get a bit of action. Then, out of nowhere, they figure out who the murderer is, and I can't even tell you - because he's such a small character. Here is where everything begins to fall apart.

It's not so much a shock, as a....who? Who the hell is that guy? Oh, that's right he was in the peripheral at the beginning and seems to have no actual motive. The murders and Makani's shady past have no connection whatsoever. The plot begins to reek of broken promises.

Let me make this clear...there is nothing wrong with subverting expectation. But this book didn't seem to be doing it for any reason. It read more like Perkins realised the murderer was easy to guess - so bullsh**ted. I can see her now, furiously typing on a keyboard yelling 'FUCK IT!' at the top of her lungs.

Girl. I feel you - but there is such a  thing as reader expectations.
Follow the genre tropes or subvert it, but don't do both.

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The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
257 Pages

Guess who discovered Audible?
Guess who very much enjoys Audible?

I swear I'm not trying to sell you Amazon. I am just sort of in shock that listening to a book can be even more evocative than reading at times. Not with fantasy, not for a moment can I enjoy a fictitious story voiced by anyone other than my own consciousness. Non-fiction, however, that I love to have read to me.

In the times of Jane Austen people would read aloud to each other all the time. I think audiobooks are trying to do the same thing and having the author reading their work - emphasis where intended and stories known like the scars on the back of your hand. It's pretty amazing really, I found myself totally absorbed by Fisher - and only now have I discovered what an amazing person we lost last year.

I will make this very plain. I have never felt as though I am "like everyone else." I'm too vulgar and harsh for the girly girls and too girly for the tomboys. So where the hell we're my people? The people who had to say what was on their mind because if not, that thought will rot and burn inside me until I falter like a lunatic. I've really never felt so understood than I did listening to Fisher's words.

She had brilliant comic timing, an exciting life that I can only dream of and was truly, truly honest about things I don't think many people are. She remembers what she thought as a teenager, the way her young mind logically led her places. It is so detailed I almost begin to wonder if anything she says is real, but that's half the fun.

 I think I might be mourning. I was never a huge Star Wars fan and even now I cannot fully enjoy the films without scoffing and laughing at its expense...but something happened with this book. I think became a Carrie Fisher fan. A woman who was sexual and vulgar and eloquent and educated (even though she refused to accept that.) A woman who was funny, and knew that was her weapon.

It is a brutally revealing story - brutal to herself and to people around her. (Sorry Harrison!) But it's also beautiful and it feels fitting that this, the ultimate telling of her life. A book so concerned with its author I can almost feel her breath on the pages. It's fitting that this was her last book and terribly tragic at the same time.

If only I had got on the Leia Bandwagon all those years ago when my father tried to drag me onto it.