Lucy

A poignant and slightly surreal story of a mother and daughter and dementia and swimming.

An interesting premise bogged down by too many characters and too many plot lines. 2.5 rounded down.

An enchanting and beguiling and heart rending read. Beautiful.

Pretty much perfect. Stephen as I love him, small town Maine, a little horror, great characters. Really interesting idea.

A little long winded for me, but well written and intriguing. 3.5 stars rounded down.

I forget how perfect Patrick Ness is. Loved the ironic humour of this book too.

A beautiful poetic read with rough edges. A stunning portrayal of a family at the edge of the world and a country in turmoil.

4.5 stars boosted to 5 for sheer uniqueness and enjoyability.

Eldritch horror with demonic possession and druidic Grandmothers. And birds.

A scarring but interesting read. I would love to know where Yonatan ends up.

A slow first half led to a cracking 2nd. I really like Aldo and Strocchi. The plethora of Florentine flunkies got a little overwhelming but the plot was tight and interesting. Will read the sequel.

Hard to believe that NO adult in this book cottoned on to what her Mother was up to. Not the nurse or the tutors. Not once in 18 yrs did social services check up. And if she had this insanely dangerous disease, why was she not under the care of dozens of doctors. NO ONE thought this was weird.

AND now shes 18 her mother is effectively holding her prisoner as an adult in her own house. Dumb.

And what was the point of Ollys family story? Literally nothing came from it. We didn't even find out if he and his Mum and sister escaped.

2 stars because I liked Maddy and Olly and their romance was sweet.

Loved the multilayered twisting storylines, the characters of Jonathan and Vincent especially, the slightly super natural feel to the story. 4.5 stars

A clever and taughtly composed thriller with great characters.

Not as enjoyable as previous books, the plot was a bit confused. Still enjoy the characters though.

One of those books I think I need to be smarter to understand. It needs a character list, although I loved the ending.

Beautiful nature writing mixed with grumpy old man bemoaning that people don't live exactly the way he thinks they should.

If I could give this book 10 stars I would. Even better than the first.

Boring coke heads do stupid things and regret it. Not a bad book, but too boring to make an interesting read.

A stunningly good book with an charming and thoughtful young boy at its centre. Issues of classism, racism, PTSD, homophobia, spousal, child and elder abuse, identity and belonging. An impacting and important book.

I wanted to love this book, and I did love large parts of it, but ultimately it left me feeling a little let down. I wanted MORE of everything. And I felt it wrapped up just a little too nicely.

I really wanted to love this book but found I got bogged down in the details. 2.5 rounded up.

Gorgeous, inspiring, staunch cool Kiwi wahine toa.

Poetic and Shakespearean. Avenging women abound.

One of the best Reachers in a long while. Perhaps second only to Killing Floor. Loved it!