A Flicker in the Clarity by Amy McNamara

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Title: A Flicker in the Clarity
Author: Amy McNamara
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Release date: June 12th, 2018

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Description:

For as long as Evie can remember, she and Emma have been best friends. They’ve gone through everything together—only Evie understood what it was like for Emma to lose her older brother in a car accident. And though they couldn’t be more different—Emma is the life of the party while Evie is shy—the dynamic has always worked for them.

But then Evie makes a careless mistake that ends up having serious consequences for Emma. They’ve had their squabbles before, but this is different. When Evie tries to apologize, Emma ignores her texts, gets a new best friend, and completely freezes her out. Evie didn’t mean to betray Emma in the way that she did, and she’s desperate to get back in Emma’s good graces. Who is Evie without Emma?

Then Evie meets Theo, a kindred spirit unlike any boy she’s ever encountered. With him, she can at least pretend like her life is normal. But just as she’s about to let go and fully fall into whatever is happening with him, Emma resurfaces, miraculously letting Evie back in—though it’s not without consequence. Erratic behavior, drunken incidents, and panicked late-night calls are only some of the hoops Emma makes Evie jump through. All Evie has wanted is to get her best friend back—but Emma seems hell-bent on self-destruction. Evie is used to swooping in to pull Emma out of her troubles, but how do you help someone who doesn’t want to be saved?

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A Flicker in the Clarity aims towards representing reality with all its imperfections: unresolved issues, toxic relationships, unexpected events, and the pain of heartbreak. For this, the novel gets its stars. However, I wish the novel had gone deeper. I was left wanting to know a lot more than what I got.

Review: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Dark Matter
Author: Blake Crouch
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller
Release date: July 26th, 2016

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Description:

“Are you happy with your life?”

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

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I know I’m really late to the party, but I’m finally reviewing this one!

Dark Matter is a page-turner that offers a new perspective on the multiverse hypothesis. Through an action-packed plot and a strong main character, it highlights how each choice we make matters and all that a man is willing to risk to find his family and continue his path in life. It’s one of those books you don’t want to put down and that makes you wonder what you’d do if you found yourself in the same situation.

Book Traveling Thursdays: A book from one of my favorite genres

Every week, Danielle (from Danielle’s Book Blog) and Cátia (from TheGirlWhoReadTooMuch) host a feature called Book Traveling Thursdays on Goodreads. They give you a topic each Thursday and you choose a book that you think fits. Then comes the fun part: a cover showdown! You post the original cover, the cover from your country (which I won’t be doing because the books aren’t published here), and then your favorite and least favorite cover from any edition around the world.

This week’s topic is a book from one of my favorite genres. I went with classics, even though I haven’t read as many as I would like to. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is one that I remember enjoying a bunch of years ago and that I keep thinking about. So,  let’s check out the covers!

Mini Review: Alien Love Story by A.K. Dawson (DNF)

– SPOILER FREE MINI REVIEW –

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Alien Love Story
Author: A.K. Dawson
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance
Release date: June 21st, 2016

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Description:

Love at first sighting.

Life is a headache for 15-year-old Dan. This isn’t some kind of metaphor. Dan suffers from migraines that make just about everything he does unbearable. Added to that he’s lost almost everyone he cares about. So he feels lonelier than the last puppy in a pet shop.  But one day he sees a mysterious girl digging in the rubbish bins behind his house. Just by being near her, he finds that all his pain goes away. So he wants to see her again, of course. And get to know her. But she’s a bit strange. And her big eyes make her look, well, like an alien.  Does she really exist? Or is she just a figment of an overactive, under-loved imagination?

Close encounters of the romantic kind.

From Northern England to outer space, and from Dan’s bedroom to the sandwich shop over the road, ALIEN LOVE STORY is about a close encounter of the romantic variety. But there’s more to it than that.  This book is about discovering parts of yourself you never knew existed. It’s about coping with grief and somehow moving on. And it’s about how Dan breaks into a mad scientist’s lab to perform a daring rescue – but that bit comes much later.

For now it’s enough to know there will be excitement, adventure and kissing. Lots of kissing. We did say it was a love story, didn’t we? So fasten your safety belt, put on some background music and enjoy the book.

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Sadly, I couldn’t finish this book and left it at 32%. Up until that point it was easy to read, silly and filled with humor, a quirky read. My issues with this novel came from all the tropes that were thrown at me instantly and the characters themselves. Maybe at another point in my life I would have read it, but right now there are some of the tropes I avoid at all costs. 

Book Traveling Thursdays: A book I chose for its cover

Every week, Danielle (from Danielle’s Book Blog) and Cátia (from TheGirlWhoReadTooMuch) host a feature called Book Traveling Thursdays on Goodreads. They give you a topic each Thursday and you choose a book that you think fits. Then comes the fun part: a cover showdown! You post the original cover, the cover from your country (which I won’t be doing because the books aren’t published here), and then your favorite and least favorite cover from any edition around the world.

This week’s topic is a book with an eye candy cover, that is, a book that I read or bought because of its cover.  For this I have to go with The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway, although I also picked it for the plot. I mean, time travel! An entity that controls it! I was sold instantly. In the middle of reading it, I realized it was the first of a series (it’s not known if it’s a duology, trilogy or what). The second has not come out yet and I am becoming impatient. But let’s forget about that for the moment and check some covers out!

Review: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

– SPOILER FREE REVIEW –

Title: The Bone Clocks
Author: David Mitchell
Genre: Literary Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Release date: September 2nd, 2014

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Description:

Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as “the radio people,” Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.

For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics—and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly’s life, affecting all the people Holly loves—even the ones who are not yet born.

A Cambridge scholarship boy grooming himself for wealth and influence, a conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting from occupied Iraq, a middle-aged writer mourning his exile from the bestseller list—all have a part to play in this surreal, invisible war on the margins of our world. From the medieval Swiss Alps to the nineteenth-century Australian bush, from a hotel in Shanghai to a Manhattan townhouse in the near future, their stories come together in moments of everyday grace and extraordinary wonder.

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The Bone Clocks is a journey spanning 60 decades all across the world. It is composed of several different stories that in the end come together as one. There are touches of fantasy and science fiction, but these aren’t the main focus of the novel – the characters and the theme of connection are. It was a very complex read and you have to pay attention to details, but it ultimately rewards you with a well crafted and bittersweet tale that stays with you.