Monster by C.J. Skuse - Book Review

Good Morning folks! (It's probably not morning in the UK but bear with I'm in Florida ok?). Today I am MASSIVELY excited to say that I have a BOOK REVIEW for y'all! This is probably the first review I've done on here since Seraphina in 2012 so yea... it's kinda a big deal for me anyway. I've been sitting on this review since APRIL because the book as you may already know from the post title is only now coming out this week! So at last I can share some of my feels with you.

Title: Monster
Author: C.J. Skuse
Release Date: 24th September 2015
Source: ARC borrowed from JessHeartsBooks who had received it for review from MIRAInk
Synopsis: At sixteen Nash thought that the fight to become Head Girl of prestigious boarding school Bathory would be the biggest battle she’d face. Until her brother’s disappearance leads to Nash being trapped at the school over Christmas with Bathory’s assorted misfits. As a blizzard rages outside, strange things are afoot in the school’s hallways, and legends of the mysterious Beast of Bathory – a big cat rumoured to room the moors outside the school – run wild. Yet when the girls’ Matron goes missing it’s clear that something altogether darker is to blame – and that they’ll have to stick together if they hope to survive. (Taken from Goodreads)

My Review

 Advisory – This review contains a good dollop of swearing. The book itself also contains a fair amount of swearing and violence so if that’s not your thing then consider yourself warned.

I was able to read this months ahead of it's release date thanks to my dear Twinnie Jess but it's kinda been killing me that I couldn't really talk about Monster until now - spoilers dontcha know? Frankly this is one of those books where it’s best for sheer enjoyment of the story if you don’t know much beyond the fact that there are a group of girls who are the last students to leave the Bathory School for Girls before Christmas when a massive snowstorm rolls in and then well... shit gets fucked up from there.

One of the many things I love about CJ’s books is that every single one is completely different from the last. Some authors keep to a similar genre for all of their work but with CJ it’s a delightful lottery every time I get my grubby mitts on a new book. Her debut Pretty Bad Things (my review) was a riotous candy crime-spree through Vegas; Rockaholic was full of hilarious hijinks following an accidental rockstar kidnapping; Dead Romantic was a macabre FrankenRomance whereas Monster is an adrenaline-drenched thriller with a good dose of Baskervillian terror to keep you up at night.

Our main girl Nash has quite a lot on her plate at the start of the book; she’s working her raspberry socks off trying to impress the headmistress enough to win the Head Girl badge, trying to juggle all the pre-Christmas insanity on top of her newest worries for her big brother Seb who’s gone missing in Colombia. Oh yeah and then there’s that troubling incident where she might have seen the legendary Beast of Bathory. Not that she believes in it. ‘Course not because that would be fucking ludicrous.

I read this waaay back at the start of April (For reasons that people who have seen my review of Pretty Bad Things will understand) and I devoured the whole thing in one sitting. I love a good boarding school story and when you mix the isolation brought on by the blizzard, the group of girls from different cliques with their own secrets causing mischief, plus the menace of a wild beast roaming the snow, you have the perfect recipe for knuckle-biting tension and no sleep.

Even in the midst of heightening drama and the increasing terror that something awful will happen to someone you’re very much attached to, CJ still managed to stop me in my tracks with a line that cut to the core of why I read her books around April 7^th and that really encapsulates a lot of the book. That being the idea that the monsters you can’t fight are the worst monsters of all.

Suffice it to say, I was utterly clueless about how this book would end and HOO BOY was I left mind-blown and suitably awed. This is without a doubt C.J.’s best book so far and one that I plan to get my greedy hands on and re-read nearer to Halloween for all the creep-tastic chills and spine-tingling shudders.

You want a hair-raising boarding school thriller to keep you flipping pages well into the night? Go wrangle yourself a copy of Monster. Trust me, you’ll be sorry that you didn’t. 

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Whew! Thank god I've finally got all that off my chest! In all seriousness I can't overstate my appreciation for C.J.'s books in all their blunt, snarky, awesomeness. Even 4 years after my grandad's death I'm still finding comfort and distraction in her words. It might be a little weird to associate a reading experience with such a devastating event but as J.K Rowling wrote "words are our greatest source of magic" and it just so happened that C.J.'s were the words that helped me deal with a very difficult time. I am so grateful for her books for that reason.

A slight side-note that made me even happier about reading Monster - in the arc version (will have to see with the finished book) on the inside of the FRONT cover is a quote from ME! My review of Pretty Bad Things is quoted!! It is as In the Library of LadyViolet but it's me all the same! The same quote was in the back of Dead Romantic as well so now that's two books that I've been quoted in! Considering how I've never been a really "big" blogger it is something I find really exciting.

Anyway before the day runs away from me I shall be off.

What did you think to the review?

Ray x

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YALC Write-up - Saturday

As a few of you might know I went to YALC last weekend with Jess and in short it was awesome. Like, seriously FUCKING AWESOME. Never has a weekend been so utterly devoted to books and the people who both create and read them and this was such an amazing thing to be able to attend. The whole weekend has already taken on a surreal quality in my mind and it's so strange to think that something that was 3 months in the planning (for Jess & me) was done and dusted in 48 hours.

We begin our epic tale on Friday when Jess & I got the train down to London in an attempt to avoid an horrendously early start on Saturday. Lugging our trolley full of books down several flights of stairs at Euston station was an exercise in strength and fortitude we could have done without, however when we finally arrived at our hotel we discovered it was all of a 400 metre walk from the gates of Earls Court, which was pretty handy.

At this point we felt rather tired; or what we previously knew as tired - our definitions got slightly skewed a day later - so we opted to spend our Friday evening chillaxing on my room's balcony with strawberries and sparkling rose like classy gals, enjoying the view of all the cosplayers leaving the LFCC preview evening and schlepping their way down the street. Then came the obligatory early night before the Morning of Mayhem that was destined to be DAY ONE AT YALC!

Saturday was fucking hot. I mean seriously hot. Like hotter than hell's muggy balls - hot. Ask anyone in Earls Court what they thought of the Con on Saturday and "hot as fuck" would have been their first answer. We got pre-baked outside in the immense queues for standard entry that snaked around a good length of the conference centre with only oohing and aahing over cosplayers to entertain us. When we finally made it inside after narrowly avoiding sunburn and getting into a minor argy-bargy with some snotty queue-cutters *ptuey*, we had to batter our way across the merch zone with our trolley in tow in order to get to the Book Zone. Obviously this was in the furthest corner away from the main doors so it took us a good 10 minutes or so to break free of the crush.

By the time we made it to the Book Zone information point we found that all of the Superfans Panel tickets had gone and that the places for C.J. Skuse's writing workshop had already been drawn - much to our dismay. So to commiserate we flung ourselves at the lovely Waterstones staff and swapped them handfuls of money for armfuls of books - so it worked out quite wonderfully. Then we plonked ourselves down in the awesome beanbags next to the even awesomer Book Wall in order to kill a bit of time before the signings started.

At this point we started chatting to Lily from The Whispering of the Pages  and had the first of several fab booky conversations with her over the weekend (I'm still rather jealous that Lily had C.J. Skuse as a lecturer at Uni). Then we made the slightly deranged decision to venture out of the relative quiet of the Book Zone and plunge back in to the smorgasbord of people in the LFCC merch area. Lots of shuffling, one Batman bobblehead and a growing sense of panic later we retreated to safety and joined an already impressive queue for Rainbow Rowell.

Jess, Charlotte & Lucy Queue Buddies !

This became the queue of legends; that defied all queuing logic and decorum, snaking hither and thither with the end of the line being an elusive pot of gold that no one could seem to find. We landed a spot about one and a half snakes from the start and were standing with a fabulous few ladies who became the Ultimate Queue Buddies as we chatted for the hour and god knows how much extra we waited for the signing to start. Charlotte & Lucy thanks for making the time pass so enjoyably!

During this time there were two awesome occurrences. Firstly I was able to dash over to C.J. Skuse's signing table and get my copy of Dead Romantic signed. There followed a lot of gushy fangirling about how much I loved Rockaholic and Pretty Bad Things and how much they helped me deal with some of the crazy shit I was dealing with back in 2011. Plus my glee about the fact my review of Pretty Bad Things is actually *quoted* in the back of Dead Romantic! C.J. was so lovely and wrote me such a nice message in my book and she even posed for a pic!

The second awesome occurrence during the Rainbow queue was due to the random happenstance of the Celebrity Wrangling Area (or the Green Room in common parlance) being tucked behind the Book Zone. We all got a rather gob-smacking surprise when Lena Headey (Queen Boss Cersei herself) came breezing through the queue right behind Jess! Needless to say there was quite a good deal of flailing amongst the Queue Buddies after that! Eventually Rainbow did appear and we slowly shuffled our way alond to get our books signed. I can't now remember what I said to Rainbow but I'm sure it was fangirly :P

Sashaying sideways from Rainbow's table I stopped at Lucy Saxon's and got her to sign my copy of Take Back the Skies. She was looking amazing in her Captain America Cosplay and I loved seeing the suitcase full of books that she brought to get signed - it's great to know that authors get just as fangirly as the rest of us :P

After all that we needed a bit of a break so Jess went to acquire more drinks while I stood pressed against a wall keeping me and the trolley out of the way of passer-bys. Then Jess dashed to her Blogger Workshop while I nabbed a seat at the Bring me My Dragon Fantasy panel. Alas I don't recall much of it as I was spacing out massively with the heat, dehydration and hunger plus I had to dash off partway through so I could sort myself out before I got in line for the Patrick Ness signing .

Another pleasant queue chatting experience whilst waiting for Patrick - and as we wound our way round the Book zone in the queue I managed to dive over to Amy McCulloch's table and get my copies of The Oathbreaker's Shadow and the Shadow's Curse signed. Amy was really nice and I'm really looking forward to reading and hopefully reviewing this duology in the next couple of months. (Pray to the reviewing gods for me so they send me some mojo).

While Patrick Ness was signing my copy of A Monster Calls, which I read very recently, I told how it made me cry while I was at work - he replied with "You're Welcome." Proof of what I had already suspected; that authors revel in the tears of their readers. :P Something I'm sure Jess would be quick to accuse me of as well *looks innocent*

We were onto the home straight now and at some point around this time (everything got real fuzzy towards the end of the day) I stumbled across Laure Eve on the Books With Bite stand and asked if she would sign my copy of The Illusionists. I didn't manage to read Fearsome Dreamer before I bought the second book but I've got faith that I'm going to really like this series so no worries.

The last two authors we met were Holly Bourne (who Jess was super-excited for since she got to exclusively reveal Holly's new book and she is quoted in the back of it :D) and Natasha Ngan. I got a pic of Holly as she was signing our copies of The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting
in her perfectly colour-matched dress. She told us how hard it had been to find a dress in the same colour as the vibrant page edges of the book but she succeeded magnificently!

Natasha was wonderfully chatty and really nice and I'm going to have to look into getting her first book The Elites after I've read the Memory Keepers as I mentioned to her how glorious I thought the cover was. I don't know how coherent I was by this point so I may just have drivelled at her most of the time we were talking.

So we had reached the end of everything we wanted to get done on Saturday and we had to get ourselves freshened up for the Fringe Blogger & Author Event at a nearby pub. So very wearily we trundled our way back across the now-slightly less crowded Earls Court (Managing to get this pic of the most awesome Castiel cosplay I saw all weekend on the way), so we could drop off most of our stuff at the hotel.

For me Saturday was generally a successful day, I did gripe and bitch about the heat, my crappy knees and the need for proper queuing lanes, but I really enjoyed myself and all the conversations I had with authors and bloggers especially since I've not felt like a proper book blogger for a few years as the last actual book review I did was in 2012. It was a really great opportunity to reconnect with the community and I do now have some of that blogging fervour back that I lost along with my confidence in reviewing. Maybe over the next few months when I'm not working full-time and in a strange limbo space of studying and whatever else I fill my time with I can start to ease myself back into writing reviews and articulating my thoughts and feelings about books like I once did.

Now if you have gotten this far you are to be commended as it's been a post of epic proportions and I'm only a third of the way through. There is still to come my write-up on The Fringe & Blogger Brunch events and Sunday at YALC itself. So stay tuned for those later this week.

Alas it is late and I must sleep because work tomorrow and grumpy Ray is not all that good at her job.

ALSO GO CHECK OUT JESS'S SATURDAY WRITE-UP!!

Hope you like this post folks!
Ray x

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YALC Readathon - Day 4

Well oops. I kind of forgot to any reading for the last couple of days. No, that's a lie because I have knowingly not done any reading because I have been playing copious amounts of Pokemon like a bloody idjit. It was mainly a procrastination from my space OU work but it ended up distracting me very thoroughly from everything else as well. I have got a little bit of reading done but for someone who managed to binge read 4 Alex Rider books last weekend it's rather a pathetic amount.

What I'm Reading
Still going with Dead Romantic I'm now 110 pages in and shit is getting rather Franken-freaky which is in no way a bad thing. Camille and Zoe are getting stuck into their DIY Boyf shenanigans with aplomb and it sure as hell ain't for the faint-hearted!
I've also been reading some more of Revived by Cat Patrick. Now I know it's the wrong Cat for YALC but still it's been something to read! I had a really long spell of not reading this since I kind of just put it down halfway through but I may actually finish it this week. So yay for that.

Posts y'all should check out
Since I've been kinda MIA for the last few days there are a couple of posts from our Lovely Hostesses to share with you.
Jess has a Guest post from Holly Bourne (Author of Soulmates) about authors meeting other more famous authors. With YALC getting ever nearer it's got some excellent advice for meeting your fav writers.
Carly has had two posts. One from Lucy Saxon (Author of Take back the Skies) about some of her top Movie/Music/Book/Youtube picks. Also a fab Dream Cast of Dead Romantic from C.J. Skuse herself.
Michelle has a post from Bryony Pearce (author of Weight of Souls) talking about the book she wished she had wrote. And another post from Phil Earle (author of Bubble Wrap Boy) about finding inspiration to write.

Also do make sure to check out the YALC Readathon Twitter chat tonight at 7pm GMT! Remember to use the hashtag #YALCreadathon and enjoy all the bookish awesomeness.

Right I am going to get some of my science work done now so I can join in the chat later with no guilt :P
Keep Reading!
Ray

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YALC Readathon Day 1!

Afternoon my lovelies! Tis the start of the YALC Readathon!! Hope everyone has enjoyed diving into their stack of YALC books so far! Alas for those of us who have been working most of the day this evening may be when the real reading begins.

What I'm Reading
I've decided to start my readathon with the hilariously macabre Dead Romantic by C.J. Skuse. During my lunch break earlier I managed to get 50 pages into it and so far I'm finding Camille's bizarre fascination with dead things and sudden girl crush on Zoe rather chucklesome. One of the librarians at work said she couldn't get more than 50 pgs into it because she thought it was a bit gruesome; clearly my brain is wired more along the lines of Camille because I find the resurrection of hamsters vair intriguing and I'm interested to see where this is going to lead. Some totes awesies Camille/Zoe Shenanigans in my future methinks :P.

Posts to check out
The four hosts of this readathon, Jess, Vicky, Carly & Michelle will be posting things from some of the fabulous authors due to attend YALC over the next week so keep an eye on their blogs for new posts. Today's posts:
Jess has a guest post from Katherine Woodfine - one of the organisers of YALC
Carly has a guest post from Beth Reekles - author of The Kissing Booth
Vicky has a guest post from Marcus Sedgwick - author of She is Not Invisible & various other books
Michelle has a post giving some recommendations of her favourite YALC authors.

Hopefully I'll have an update with whatever else I get read today later on but for now tis goodbye.

Happy Readathon!
Ray

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Book Review - Pretty Bad Things

Evening all, I did start this back on Wednesday or something but when I watch TV while on my computer I never get anything bloggish done cos my brain can't concentrate on US crime shows and think up a coherent review at the same time, Grissom, Gibbs & Co. invariably take precedence :P

Title: Pretty Bad Things
Author: C.J. Skuse
Date: 11/4/2011 PM
Source: Borrowed from the Library
Description: Sixteen-year old twins in Candy-Store crime spree. Twins, Paisley and Beau Argent are in the headlines again. Last time, they were the 'wonder twins', when as six-year-olds they were found alive in woods after three days missing following their mother's death -three days spent looking for their dad. Now at sixteen, life's not so wonderful. Out-cast and exploited by their money-grabbing grandmother, they're still clueless about their dad's whereabouts. Until they discover an old letter from him. That's when they decide to hit the road - and make headlines again. Holding up fast-food joints might seem extreme but if they can get on the news, and tell their dad they need him, they might get the dream reunion they thought could happen. (Description taken from Goodreads)


My Review
I took this book out the library after reading the rave review of Rockoholic over on Jess Hearts Books. This is C.J. Skuse's debut novel and boy is it one heck of a joy-ride! Full of sass and sweet-toothed criminality!


Paisley and Beau were all over the news when they were just six years old after their mother killed herself and they went missing in the forest behind their house. Now ten years later Paisley is a somewhat maladjusted teen with a whole lotta "couldn't give a shit" attitude that has invariably led her to be expelled from numerous schools over the years. Her bitch of a Grandmother keeps her as far away from her brother as possible by sending her to the East Coast but after Paisley gets expelled from the posh boarding school she attends in Philadelphia she has to go back West to Skankmother's house in LA.


Now after reading pretty much the first chapter, I wanted Paisley to be my new psycho BFF. She is so dang cool and quick-witted that she can turn almost any situation to her advantage even if that means she has to deck someone or pull a gun on them. Her behaviour is so outrageous that I was literally laughing out loud and totally rooting for the Grandmother's downfall cos dude if that woman ain't a world-class bitch!


Beau was adorkable as the more straight-laced twin who was always a tad sceptic about the whole Vegas crime-spree idea but I gotta give props to the guy for being hard-core enough to still go along with it all while maintaining some sense of morality (I worry that Paisley's got lost a *looong* time ago). I also loved how clueless Beau was about his own good looks, oh if I were 5 years younger... :P


C.J. Skuse has created a fantastically bonkers story that has a really good message at the heart of it - Paisley and Beau are so determined to find their father after being estranged from him for so many years (partly through Buddy being in prison but also cos the Skankmother's maid hid his letters to the Twins), that they're willing to do almost anything to reunite with him- in this occasion that means getting onto the news by holding up a series of Candy Stores. Family is so important to Paisley that she would literally kill to keep her father and brother close to her, although obviously she's not gonna shed any tears if she has to off her Grandmother to achieve this.


The writing is crackling with humour and wit and you feel so endeared to Paisley and Beau that you don't bat an eye at how angry and insane Paisley is at times. I ended up reading this at a time when I myself was seriously angry and pissed at the world and its unfairness so I really empathised with the Twins and all the crap they got dealt in life. 


Between this book and C.J's sophomore novel Rockoholic (which I read two days later) I found a way to laugh during a time when I thought I would never want to laugh again and the world seemed so unfair for taking away my grandfather so suddenly. I was able to at least function and keep a sense of perspective while still being whisked away to a different reality where my situation didn't feel so devastating.


So a massive thank you to C.J. Skuse for writing two fabulous books which really helped me to hold onto my sanity during a truly hellish week that I would give anything to have it so it never happened. But as life is shit like that sometimes I've had to accept it and just try to keep moving forward with my good memories to comfort me when I think about that day one month ago.


C.J. you rock. Your book rocks. Your other book rocks (I'll be reviewing it as well soon). And damn I can't wait to read your third book in 2012 cos I'm sure that'll rock too.


My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars




I know this review has veered into slightly personal territory but I'm sure y'all can understand that at the time of reading I was in a severely emotional state and that affected my reading and interpretation of the book so obviously that inter-relation is going to come across in my review. 


LadyV

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