Tag: Review Crew Farrah

The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig Reviewed by Farrah

The Thirteen Child is a spellbinding, enchanting stand-alone fairy tale retelling that follows Hazel Trépas, a young healer with an inextricable connection to the gods.

Before Hazel is born, her parents promise her to one of the gods – the Dreaded End, god of Death. However, it is over a decade before her godfather comes to collect her, and Hazel spends the first years of her life as a neglected and disregarded thirteenth child.

When the Dreaded End finally does come to collect her, he has planned out Hazel’s entire, long life. She will become a celebrated healer, known kingdom wide for her skill and success rate. To aid her, her godfather has blessed her with the gift of seeing precisely the cure for every person whose sick bed she attends, but also saddled her with the curse of knowing when death has laid claim on a patient, and saving their life is not an option.

The path her godfather has pushed her onto sends Hazel across the kingdom, towards the capital and the palace itself, for she is the only one who can save the life of the king.

There, she is caught in the crossfire of oncoming war, politics, entitled royals and moral dilemmas.

Hazel must grapple with the weight of her gift and responsibility, beginning by deciding whether or not she goes against all she has been taught and saves the king marked to die.

The Thirteenth Child is a wonderful, enchanting novel, that captures you from its very first pages. Despite it being around 500 pages long, I couldn’t put it down and devoured it in only two days.

The reader follows Hazel as she grows up, learning alongside her, and sharing in her joys and miseries. She is a character who will stay with you after you close the book, inspired by her courage, fierce integrity and real, tangible humanness.

Hazel is a character who will stay with you after you close the book, inspired by her courage, fierce integrity and real, tangible humanness.

Farrah

The world Craig has created is vast and fantastical but also easily digestible, and one so vivid that you will feel fully immersed in it. In particular, the royal court that Hazel is plunged into is as vibrant and exciting as it is unnerving. Overall, if you enjoy fantasy stories, with an eclectic, striking cast of characters, a pantheon of gods with clashing agendas and questionable regard for human life, moral complexities and a delicious love story, this is the book for you.

Where the Light Goes by Sara Barnard, reviewed by Farrah (17)

Where the Light Goes is a devastating, raw and nuanced depiction of grief, familial relationships and the human psyche after a beloved family member takes her own life. It is a complex and realistic dissection of life in the limelight, media scrutiny and its real-world implications, that is thoroughly necessary in today’s society where life is so deeply influenced and dictated by the internet and the media. 

Sixteen-year-old Emmy Beckwith is the younger sister of Beth Beckwith, who is known to the wider world by her stage name of Lizzie Beck. The book begins with Emmy finding out that her sister has taken her own life. From there, Sara Barnard expertly manipulates the writing style and plot structure, using first person perspective, messages, transcribed voice notes, flashbacks and newspaper articles in order for the reader to attempt to understand Emmy’s lived experience and stream of consciousness; we are inside her mind and immersed in her awareness. The book carries on over an extended span of time and excels at emphasising that grief is non-linear, and does not abide by time periods or schedules. 

“A lingering and devastating portrayal of grief, but equally one that tells of loves longevity.”

Farrah (17)

The characters in Where the Light Goes are complicated and realistically-driven, as are the events that take place. Lizzie Beck rose to stardom at a young age, and its subsequent consequences are explored. Emmy has to grapple with the separate, distinct identities of her sister and ultimately recognise them as one amalgamated person, while reflecting on their loss of privacy, and the exploitation of Beth that continues on long her death, with the media capitalising on the real, tangible grief of those who really knew her, and falsifying their sympathies when they were so cruel to her while she was alive. 

Where the Light Goes reflects on grief and its tangible, visceral effects, while simultaneously considering how it impacts relationships and the trajectory of people’s lives. It urges you to evaluate how you behave online, and to remember that behind every screen, there is a real, human individual who is receiving the comments, backlash and media scrutiny.

This is not a book that you should enter lightly; please check the trigger warnings and consider whether these are topics you are comfortable with reading at the moment. If you do decide to pick up this book, you will find a lingering and devastating portrayal of grief, but equally one that tells of loves longevity, and characters and a story that will remain with you long after you turn the last page. 

Under A Dancing Star by Laura Wood, reviewed by  Farrah (17)

Set in a beautiful summer in the 1930s, Bea, who has grown up rallying against patriarchal conventions of the time, has been sent to stay with her uncle in Italy, in an attempt from her parents to make her more ‘respectable’ and ‘ladylike’, and thus prepared for marriage. Little do they know that they have instead sent Bea into the heart of a bohemian household, where she will be exposed to, and encouraged to interact with art, romance and self-expression.

“A Much Ado About Nothing retelling, this book will have you glued to your seat as you read it in one sitting. . .I hope you read this book and fall in love with it too.” 

Farrah (17)

However, Bea’s idyllic bubble is not immune from the influences of fascism and patriotism that were especially prevalent, and gaining traction in the social and political climate of the 1930s. 

Bea’s epic summer allows her to further explore her love for science, and provides her with a forum to exist with autonomy, outside of the confines of the patriarchal society she is normally subjected to. She is afforded breathing space, and as the reader, we watch Bea come into her own, and affirm who she is as an individual, rather than what society, and her parents, wish her to be. She experiences a joyful and lively summer romance, which only adds to plot of this wonderful novel, but above all, this book centres around Beatrice’s growth as the hero of her own story, as she learns more about herself and the world she lives in. 

A Much Ado About Nothing retelling, this book will have you glued to your seat as you read it in one sitting. Impossible to put down, Under a Dancing Star contained all of my favourite ingredients, from the marvellous character development and strong friendships, to the delicious feasts, vibrant setting, adventurous escapades and even more. Wood vividly describes all of the places Beatrice encounters, making the experience feel tangible, as though you were there alongside her. Having read several of Laura Wood’s novels, this one certainly affirms her place as one of my favourite authors. I hope you read this book and fall in love with it too.