Tag: fiction

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Top 5 Books of 2024

With the year about to tick over into 2025, I thought I would take a moment to list my favourite five books of 2024 – in no particular order…

The Legendary Mo Seto by AY Chan was an absolute blast to read – I loved it, and so did all of my family.

The Legendary Mo Seto by A.Y. Chan – Write Reads Blog Tour

Abraxus Elijah Honey by Ella Ruby Self is probably my number one book of 2024. I haven’t actually got around to writing up a full review of it on here, but if you’re interested in my thoughts, check out my Storygraph…

Rory and the Snack Dragons by Louisa MacDougall was a book my family had been waiting for since The Kelpies Prize 2022 when it was shortlisted. It absolutely didn’t disappoint, and despite both being older than the target demographic, both children absolutely loved this fantastically quirky, fun read.

Rory and the Snack Dragons by Louisa MacDougall

Skyfleet by Victoria Williamson was a super fun story which took me back to my favourite childhood cartoons in the best possible way.

Skyfleet: March of the Mutabugs by Victoria Williamson – Write Reads Blog Tour

Chris Mould’s War of the Worlds Graphic Novel obviously had to feature. Again, I didn’t get a chance to write a dedicated review here yet, but what an absolute treat of a book. You can check out my thoughts on my Storygraph page.

Books that I really enjoyed that weren’t necessarily released in 2024, but that I read this year include:

Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir by Pedro Martín
The Secret Sunshine Project by Benjamin Dean
Pumpkin Heads A Graphic Novel by Rainbow Rowell
You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty, and Other Things by Fiona Smyth & Cory Silverberg
Story of Now: Let’s Talk about the British Empire by Shelina Janmohamed

What are some of your favourite books from the last 12 months? What should I add to my (admittedly already vast) TBR pile for 2025?

Before signing off for 2024, I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has sent me a book to review, or shared a link, or liked one of my posts. I really, really appreciate it.

2025 kicks off with some really exciting news for me, and I can’t wait to share it with you all.

I hope that whatever you’re doing this New Year, that it goes as well as it can for you.

See you on the other side.

xx

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of the books mentioned above this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.

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Skyfleet: March of the Mutabugs by Victoria Williamson – Write Reads Blog Tour

I’ve reviewed a few of Victoria Williamson’s books in the past; The Haunting Scent of Poppies, Feast of Ashes, Whistlers in the Dark, and Norah’s Ark to date. I think what I admire most about her work is the range of settings she uses, and Skyfleet is no exception.

Here seems like the perfect place for the book’s blurb…

When the skies turn deadly, a young heroine must rise from the ashes…

Twelve-year-old Amberley Jain has faced incredible challenges since the crash that took her parents and paralysed her legs. Now, with her best friend Ricardo Lopez about to be sent away and a swarm of mutated insects closing in on the Skyfleet base, the stakes have never been higher. Something monstrous is driving the mutabugs north from the contaminated meteor site known as the Cauldron, and the only plane capable of stopping it – the Firehawk – lies in pieces in the hangar.

Determined to honour her parents’ legacy, Amberley hatches a daring plan. With Ricardo’s help, they stow away on a supply train, trading his most treasured possession for the parts needed to repair the Firehawk. After secret test flights, the legendary jet is ready for action. Now, Amberley and Ricardo must confront the deadly swarm and save their home, discovering their inner strength and the true meaning of friendship along the way.

Skyfleet: March of the Mutabugs is a thrilling tale of adventure and resilience, perfect for middle-grade readers.

Firstly, I wish I could go back in time and give this book to 12-year-old me. At that point, I was desperate to be Han Solo, and the idea of a child my age, getting to pilot something as cool as the Firehawk would have guaranteed obsession over this book from me. Actually, the whole thing feels reminiscent of my own childhood – there are Han Solo Star Wars elements in there, but there are also shades of Starship Troopers,* Disney’s Rescue Rangers, and Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds. There are fact files about the individual aircraft – something pretty much guaranteed to appeal to any Pokemon fans out there. Case in point; as youngest was reading, much page-flicking occurred in an effort to decide which craft would be best-suited to deal with which incoming Mutabug species.

I have to admit – I stayed up way past my bedtime reading this and have absolutely no regrets. It was so much fun to lose myself in brightly-coloured escapist adventure again, in a way I haven’t for years. Certainly not since the first time I watched Pacific Rim.

My singular qualm about this book was the layout – it took a bit of coaxing to get the aforementioned youngest kiddo to dive in because of the tiny page margins. I think the blocks of text seemed slightly intimidating. Admittedly, said kiddo is 9, and perhaps a little younger than the main target audience, but it’s worth mentioning in case other small folk out there also find packed pages slightly off-putting. That being the case, it might be a book to read together, rather than to send a young reader off with.

On top of that, I found the change in font for the dialogue when characters were talking over the radio slightly distracting, but as my reading sped up as the book went on, I got used to it, and can definitely see why the decision to differentiate was made.

Otherwise, this was a stonkingly good romp that felt nostalgic without being old-hat. I really hope it’s the start of a series. I’ll definitely be passing out a few copies this Christmas.

Huge thanks to The Write Reads for this book, and to the author for the incredibly fun ARC pack – and massive thanks to Sabrina at Booktails for the photo.**

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*Don’t judge my parents too harshly – they didn’t know I was watching this. Or if they did, they turned a blind eye to my sneaky video-mislabelling antics.

**So, little known fact about me; I use a Nokia flip phone rather than a smart phone. It’s something I started doing in 2016 as a way to stay sane. For the most part, it’s excellent, but for photos… less so. I do have an old DSLR which I use when I’m out and about, but as its currently got its macro lens on for a uni project, it’s of less use for photographing Mutabugs… They’re much too big!

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Skyfleet this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.

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The Legendary Mo Seto by A.Y. Chan – Write Reads Blog Tour

To date, I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed the same book twice, but since Youngest wanted to review The Legendary Mo Seto the first time round, I jumped at the chance to add my own thoughts about the book to this second blog tour.

I’ve said already that everyone in my family – even my non-reading husband! – loved this book. Whilst we all enjoyed the plot, for me, the characters were what really made this story a special one. I loved the dynamic between Mo’s parents, and the way that each of her parents had a very different type of relationship with her – it’s one of those rare books where the family felt real rather than a cast of actors performing the set roles of mother and father. I loved that the adults in the books all had pasts – pasts which included hopes and regrets which impacted the way they dealt with the events of the plot.

And Gramps! I loved Gramps so much – I’ve been searching for such a long time for fictional older male characters who show love and sorrow in ways other than shutting their loved-ones out of their lives. For anyone (like me) who got wildly frustrated at Carl in Disney’s Up! for pushing Russell away, Gramps is the perfect antidote.

I loved the detail in the character building – that every film with Cody Kwan in was Mo’s favourite. I loved that Nacho drew a tattoo on his hand in Sharpie (who didn’t, as a teenager?!). I loved the complexity of Dax – Mo’s rival – and the way in which the author managed to tell so much of his story in a few pages, without it feeling like exposition. The dialogue there was *chef’s kiss*. I loved the way that Nacho’s family and Mo’s sort of bled into one another – the way that families do when children have known one another since the age of five.

The entire thing left me hoping for a sequel – I want to be able to go back and revisit these characters which feel real enough to come across as old friends.

And it has been a LONG time since any book made me feel that way.

Have you had the chance to read The Legendary Mo Seto yet? Do you know of any other books about martial arts movies that I can pass to the rest of my family who are absolutely hooked?

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of The Legendary Mo Seto this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.

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Terra Electrica by Antonia Maxwell – The Write Reads Blog Tour

Terra Electrica: The Guardians of the North by Antonia Maxwell is the first book in a series, and I can’t wait to see where the others take us.

The story follows Mani in the wake of her father’s disappearance. Choosing to disobey his instructions to ‘stay put’ when her food supply runs out, Mani meets Leo – a scientist – who makes a remarkable discovery. Mani is immune from the disease that killed her mother and a large portion of the population.

The book is set in a post-apocalyptic world. As the icecaps melted, they left behind a disease which impacts the way human bodies interact with electricity. There’s an element of The Last of Us to this – a man and a girl journeying across a landscape devoid of hope in an attempt to deliver a cure.

But it’s also more than that. Mani has inherited a wooden mask – an artefact that lets her escape to another world where she can communicate with animals. I thought that this was a really unique touch – I’ve come across a lot of dystopian books, but few which incorporate fantasy elements into the end of the Anthropocene.

This is definitely a book for the older end of the MG spectrum, pushing into YA. I know that my youngest (9) wouldn’t be able to cope with the ingenious use of seal bodies for raft building, for example, or the bodies of people that are found in the cottage along Mani and Leo’s journey to the Ark.

I’ve spoken before about how I feel about dystopian books in general – specifically in regards to Feast of Ashes and The Remembering. Whilst Maxwell very much hits similar notes to Williamson, this book doesn’t feel anywhere near as bleak. The way in which Mani makes use of the plastic bottles left behind by our generation, or the way Tilde uses an old truck as a look-out post feels so much more… human. No, it’s not as hopeful as Orrom’s work, but it does show a way forward in which people make the best of a situation, and I think that’s fundamentally human nature. People are wonderful – our systems are not.

There’s a lot more I could say about this book, but as a story that’s heavily plot-driven, I don’t want to give too much away. I would definitely urge you to pick up a copy, and I’ll be waiting for the next instalment.

About the Book:

Book 1 in an action-packed dystopian adventure series set in the near-future post-melt Arctic.

The last ice cap has melted, and the world is on the brink of collapse. A deadly force—Terra Electrica—has been unleashed. It feeds on electricity. It is infecting civilization.

In this chaotic, rapidly changing reality, 12-year-old Mani has lost her family and community to the Terra Electrica. Armed only with some ancestral wisdom and a powerful, ancient wooden mask she was never meant to inherit so soon, she suddenly finds herself responsible for the fate of the world.

Can Mani piece everything together and harness her newfound powers in time to save humanity?

About the Author:

Antonia Maxwell is a writer and editor based in North Essex and Cambridge, UK. With a  degree in Modern Languages and a long-standing career as a book editor, she has a lifelong curiosity for language and words, and a growing fascination in the power of story – the way it shapes our lives and frames our experience.

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Terra Electrica this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.

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Miss Cat and The Case of the Curious Canary by Jean-Luc Fromental & Joëlle Jolivet – Blog Tour

This book though! What an absolute joy to read! Thanks to Random Things Tours for sending this my way.

Miss Cat and The Case of the Curious Canary by Jean-Luc Fromental & Joëlle Jolivet is a graphic novel that feels like a cross between the artwork of Disney’s 1960s ‘101 Dalmatians’ and the prose of a French detective noir.

When an old man’s canary is kidnapped, he hires Miss Cat to investigate. Following a series of clues from a cast of fun characters, Miss Cat manages to get to the bottom of things – and nothing is as straightforward as it would first appear!

First off, I’d like to talk about the gorgeous artwork! I mean, look at this!!!

An image from Miss Cat.

But also… look at this!

A piece of concept art for a 101 Dalmatians street that I found on Pinterest (don’t judge me – this isn’t academia!)

There’s just something really scrummy and retro about the art. And there’s an amazing amount of humour in it too, especially if you’re an adult:

This panel obviously draws heavily from Nighthawks by Edward Hopper and I love it!

I love the ending of the story – the self-acceptance and the pathway left open for a sequel. I also really liked the character of Miss Cat, who seemed to be neither part of the animal kingdom, nor the human world. As someone who considered themselves something of an oddball growing up, this really resonated with me, and I imagine it would for many people with a similar history.

I also think that this spans a huge potential audience in terms of age – I loved it as an adult because of the quirky humour and artistic references, but my teenage self would have loved it for the randomness – i.e. a cat-girl at an octopus bar – and my youngest child seemed to absorb the story at face value. There is something for everyone in here.

In short, this is a really great graphic novel. The brief prose sections at the beginnings of each chapter might even be a good compromise for any nay-saying teachers who think ‘comics aren’t real books’ (those people are wrong, by the way – comics are wonderful books).

What are your favourite graphic novels? Have you read Miss Cat? If so, what did you think? I’d love to hear your views ❤

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I’ve set up a ‘bookshop‘ of sorts, over on Bookshop.org, so that I can point you to somewhere to buy that isn’t Amazon. I get a small commission for any sales made there. This helps to support me running this blog. If you’d like to get your copy of Miss Cat this way, please just click here. Thank you for your support.