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Review: After: The Graphic Novel Volume Two by Anna Todd

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After: The Graphic Novel was such a hit that volume two (based on the second part of the original novel) is now on the shelves. And what is it? Well, broadly speaking, it is a lively graphic adaption of the second half a novel about a very toxic relationship. Volume Two sees innocent Tessa break up with her high school boyfriend to pursue an often sexual and very confusing relationship with Hardin, a rough, tough and emotionally damaged student from college. Tessa has found a job at a local publishing house, cut ties with her controlling mother and she and Hardin are moving in together. The whole thing is ludicrous--the job is too good to be true, her relationship with Hardin has barely began and their already moving in together and her mother is reduced to a role that would seem almost comical if it weren't for the fact that she is every bit as emotionally abusive of Tessa as Hardin is.  Despite the many flaws, I found myself keen to keep reading and wanting to know what would ha
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Review: The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

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Let's face it. Anyone would have had to have been living under a rock (and consequently not listening to rock,) to have not heard of Dave Grohl. The frontman for the Foo Fighters, occasional member of Queens of the Stone Age and former drummer of Nirvana has a huge part in rock and roll history from the last thirty-five years. In The Storyteller Dave Grohl tells his unusual life story in his own words. (And yes, there is plenty of swearing.) The memoir is an intimate and amazing glimpse of a life well lived. From recollecting his childhood in a single parent working class household to being a kid who didn't fit in at high school and eventually dropped out to pursue a dream (being temporarily disowned by his father in the process,) to the parts that the public already know this is a compelling story. As is the behind the scenes look at Nirvana and its inner workings, the tragic and deeply personal impact of Kurt Cobain's suicide and how Grohl achieved the impossible with th
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Review: Kristy and the Walking Disaster (BSC Graphix 16) by Ellen T Crenshaw and Ann M Martin

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Kristy and the Walking Disaster is now my favourite of all of the Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel adaptions. The original captured an important part of the series--Kristy has now settled into her new life and stepfamily. And now she is up for a new challenge. When she discovers that her younger brother David Michael desperately wants to play on a baseball team but isn't quite good enough to make it, she gathers around some neighbourhood kids and some of their baby-sitting charges and they form their own neighbourhood team--Kristy's Krushers. The kids aren't exactly stars, especially Jamie Radowski (the series beloved clumsy kid,) but what they lack in talent they make up in determination and team spirit. But what happens when the other neighbourhood softball team challenges them to a game. The kids from Bart's Bashers are slightly older, tougher and mean. And to make matters worse, Kristy finds herself with a crush on their coach. This was such a fun read. The idea of
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Review: The Temperature by Katerina Gibson

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What do six very different people have in common? One tweet, concerns of climate change, the fractured nature of modern life and the fact that each are living in their own, very seperate bubble that others cannot understand. In The Temperature Katrina Gibson takes the reader through the lives of six very different people, whose lives intersect in a surprising way. There is Fi, a young woman who unpopular, angry and surrounded by people who don't have her best interests at heart. She's also the author of one tweet that gets her fired, and another that gets her former employer Lexi fired. Then there is Sidney, Lexi's much younger ex, Tomas, Sidney's former housemate. Gotivia, Sidney's best friend and Henry a Vietnam veteran living in isolation round out the six characters.   Very few authors can claim to be award winning writers before the release of their debut novel, but Katerina Gibson has the rare distinction of being just that. With that kind of honour which, in
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Review: Choosing Sides (Sweet Valley Twins Graphic Novel 3) by Nicole Andelfinger and Claudia Aguirre

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The Sweet Valley Twins graphic novel adaptions have been so popular with fans--new and old--that the series is back for a third instalment. This time around Choosing Sides, the fourth novel in the original series, is up for adaption. Old fans will be familiar with the plot. Tryouts are being held for the school's cheer squad, and Amy Sutton desperately wants to join. The only problem is that the cheer squad auditions are being run by the school's cliquey mean girl group the unicorns. They don't want any non unicorns on their squad, regardless of how talented they may be. And they especially don't want Amy. (Sweet Valley devotees may notice something here. The plot is eerily similar to that of Power Play, the fourth novel in the Sweet Valley High series.) In a concurrent plot, Ken Matthews is keen to join the school basketball team but some of the other boys don't want him. Anyway, with the help of Elizabeth, Amy and Ken join forces to encourage one another--and t
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Review: Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

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Following the breakdown of her marriage, a middle-aged woman returns to the town where she grew up on the Monaro Plains. She stays in a guest house run by nuns, eventually opting to become a permanent resident there (in spite of being an atheist). Three events will eventually force her to confront her past, a mouse plague, the discovery of the body of a sister who left the monastery many years previously and a visitor to the monastery who is none other than a girl that she bullied at the local high school many years before.  Stone Yard Devotional is haunting and disturbing. It doesn't really go anywhere, though that hardly seems to be the point. Instead it is a look at how we are bound by our pasts and how, no matter hard we try, we can never truly escape it. That said, I did find this book underwhelming at times and that characters and situations never felt truly fleshed out to their full potential. Or maybe I missed the point.  Other readers may have different feelings--as of Aug
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Review: The Thompson Gunner by Nick Earls

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Set in the very early part of the 21st century The Thompson Gunner tells the story of a comedian whose life starts to unravel when she begins to have recurring nightmares of a masked gunman. Meg is in her late thirties. She moved from Northern Ireland to Australia as a child and as an adult, she has forged a successful career in comedy and is often schmoozed by the media--or at least, often put in embracing situations that promise to raise her profile. It is on a work trip to Perth that things begin to unravel, first a broken tooth, then the recurring nightmare. We also learn that other things in Meg's life are going wrong, in particular her relationship with Murray. Through flashbacks we start to get the impression that all was not as it seemed in her life in Northern Ireland until eventually Meg is forced to confront a grim and unsavoury truth. This was an interesting and challenging novel. Meg's dilemma and past make for confronting reading, particularly in terms of how eas
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