Reading The Riot Act: sarah Crossan

Showing posts with label sarah Crossan. Show all posts

Monday, 19 February 2018

sarah Crossan

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan

Louise Wilkes 03:04:00 0

I was sent this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

'They think I hurt someone.

But I didn't. You hear?

Coz people are gonna be telling you

all kinds of lies.

I need you to know the truth.'

From one-time winner and two-time Carnegie Medal shortlisted author Sarah Crossan, this poignant, stirring, huge-hearted novel asks big questions. What value do you place on life? What can you forgive? And just how do you say goodbye?.

Image Courtesy of Readaraptor

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan

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.

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

Wednesday, 16 August 2017

We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan

Louise Wilkes 07:24:00 0

Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

Nicu has emigrated from Romania and is struggling to find his place in his new home. Meanwhile, Jess's home life is overshadowed by violence. When Nicu and Jess meet, what starts out as friendship grows into romance as the two bond over their painful pasts and hopeful futures. But will they be able to save each other, let alone themselves?
For fans of Una LaMarche’s Like No Other, this illuminating story told in dual points of view through vibrant verse will stay with readers long after they've turned the last page.

Image from Most Ardently Alice

We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan
Published February 9th 2017 by Bloomsbury
Hardback 320 Pages

There are those books, the ones that leave you hungover - and you have no idea what story will ever get you out of it. You pray for a cure...well, pray no more. We Come Apart is the perfect hangover book. First off, it's written in verse, so you fly through this thing. When you are hung up on another book it can feel like the pages won't pass. You are trying so hard to push through but are achieving nothing. That's why this is so perfect, every page has like thirty words and it just soars. It likely also helps that this story...is beautiful.

Nicu is a Romanian teen living in England. It's safe to say he hates it, with his basic knowledge of English and an uncertain future in which his family will buy him a wife - he is not in a good place. Neither is Jess, she's got done for shoplifting, again and her family are not supportive. Jess's step-dad is beating her mother and her brother is gone, run away and she is left defenseless. Inevitably, both mixed up kids end up in a young offenders group. They meet once a week to pick up rubbish and pay their debt to society. Whilst most are roughens and mock Nicu - Jess finds he's the only person she can speak to. He is the only person who knows about her family and she is the only one who knows about him.

At school, Nicu and Jess don't talk. Jess just can't deal, it's like Nicu is a target for trouble and all her friends attack him. Literally, everything he does they take as a sign of aggression. It angers them, his existence. And Jess keeps quiet - until she can't. Things go too far and her "best friend" accuses him of touching her. She leaps to his defense and then they are inseparable. I was waiting for this moment, craving it, when Jess would finally discover that being a good person is better than being popular.

Afterwards, it feels like everything is going to be okay - but of course, hate runs deep and after showing them up at school - Jess's EX friends want revenge. Jess's step-dad is coming fro her, she needs to run and Nicu wants to run too. He refuses to marry the wife bought for him, and he's going back to Romania. He flees, with Jess. Then, it all goes to shit. There's a fight, we get caught in it. And someone is stabbed. Jess and Nicu are going to prison. They run. Nicu is covered in blood, someone else's blood. He won't get away, not with this, not when he isn't British. He tells her to meet him on the train...and like a ding-bat, she believes him.

The police arrive...and Jess watches Nicu disappear into the distance.

They come apart.

It is lovely and tragic and even though I slowly started to think something like this might happen, it still broke my heart.. Nicu and Jess are too cute together, both of them just trying to make their way in a world where the odds are stacked against them. Honestly, they we're not doing that bad. They were lost. Yes. They were angry. Yes. But, they were kind to each other. They managed to be empathetic and kind when the world around them cannot offer the same.

We Come Apart was wonderful, and I would expect nothing from Sarah Crossan, her books are always consistently well-written and enjoyable. I gave this book 4 stars! I wish there was more, but also really enjoyed the fleeting tale of Nicu and Jess.

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

Sunday, 7 August 2016

One by Sarah Crossan

Louise Wilkes 04:04:00 0

Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

Grace and Tippi. Tippi and Grace. Two sisters. Two hearts. Two dreams. Two lives. But one body.

Grace and Tippi are conjoined twins, joined at the waist, defying the odds of survival for sixteen years. They share everything, and they are everything to each other. They would never imagine being apart. For them, that would be the real tragedy.

But something is happening to them. Something they hoped would never happen. And Grace doesn’t want to admit it. Not even to Tippi.

How long can they hide from the truth—how long before they must face the most impossible choice of their lives.

Image from Girl Reading

Sarah Crossan outdoes herself with yet another book written in verse. Through the eclectic use of poetry we follow the inner working of Grace, one half of a conjoined twin. Grace and Tippi have been connected since birth and now, for the first time ever - have to go to a real school. This is shudder-inducing even without being a conjoined twin.

Tippi is louder, she is often the conversation starter and she is also the rock that Grace leans on. It becomes hard to imagine Grace without Tippi. There is this really striking moment when a classmate says that being a conjoined twin has to be the worst thing ever! and then we have this stunning poem about all the things that are worse, that having someone with you all the time, who knows you better than anyone else is not the worst thing ever and that really struck me. This book becomes more focused on the fact that these girls are people, just girls. They discuss other famous conjoined twins and note how after a lifetime of doing things, on their gravestone it still read conjoined twins - as if this is all they could ever be.

This story is full of these beautiful observations, I think because the form allows it. Grace's words flow in a way that resonates solely with her emotions, that partly the action doesn't even matter because between the lines she is saying something far better. Some of these poems you could frame they are so beautiful, just as a freestanding work.

Soon due to health complications with Grace's heart, being surgically separated is no longer just an option for an easier life. Now it is life or death. The lovely thing about this book, is that the separation is a small part of the story - the little 50 pages at the end, because it isn't what this book is about. The book is about Grace becoming more than just Tippi's sidekick. She becomes louder, braver even daring to fall in love when Tippi tells her outright this isn't something they can have. She stops worrying about the idea that when one of them dies they both die and starts enjoying her life, making friends, going away on trips and finding a way to provide for their crumbling family. She really is this thoughtful, quiet heroine who's battle against evil is fought within herself.

Grace and Tippi are surrounded by a broken supporting cast, each of them as tragically flawed as the next. Their sister has an eating disorder, their father is an alcoholic and there best friend has HIV. Everyone has there damage, every character has there issues but they are fortunate enough to not show it physically. There are points when you forget all the broken cast, when you forget Grace and Tippi are conjoined, when you forget Dragon is starving herself in the name of ballet beauty - you forget that these people are broken and then it hits you, hard - because not one of these characters gets away without any baggage, and that's kind of beautiful.

If you want something unputdownable, or want a book that will give you something thoughtful and lovely to think about and make you grateful that you live in a world where books like this exist - then this is the book for you. You'll forget it's written in verse and the words will just flow. It really is as good as that. I'm always giving Crossan 5 Stars, and today is no different!