Review | Lumberjanes, Vol.1 by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Brooke Allen

Lumberjanes, Vol.1

by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Brooke Allen

My Rating: 

At Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's camp for hard-core lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together... And they're not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way! The mystery keeps getting bigger, and it all begins here. 

Maybe it's just me, but lately I haven't really been wowed by anything I've read. As soon as I learned about Lumberjanes I wanted to get my hands on a copy of it; the idea of a summer camp in which a group of teenage girls fight monsters sounded right up my street, so I preordered it, and after I fell in love with Rat Queens and Ms. Marvel earlier this year I was eager to pick up another graphic novel full of ladies!

Sadly, I was a little disappointed with this one. That doesn't mean I didn't like it, because I did. More than anything I thought this was very cute; the art was cute, the characters were cute, and the sense of humour was very cute. It didn't make me laugh in the way Rat Queens does, but I'd be a big fat liar if I said it didn't coax the odd grin out of me. Plus, if I'm being honest, it was quite nice to sit back with a graphic novel where the whole world wasn't in danger.

In fact Lumberjanes, for me, felt very reminiscent of some of the fun animes I watched during my teens, such as School Rumble and Ouran High School Host Club; entertaining, lively stories that bordered on silly but managed not to go overboard by adding in dashes of tragic backstory or issues that brought the characters tumbling into our reality. Lumberjanes is no different. Yes, the humour is gloriously cheesy and there are monsters, but it's also another wonderfully diverse series including POC and LGBT* characters, and that always makes me happy.

I was just expecting something more from it. I wanted it to completely surprise me like Rat Queens did, which might well be why it didn't. I didn't find the characters as memorable as the ladies in Rat Queens; despite all of them looking completely different, I struggled to distinguish them from one another and still probably couldn't tell you even one of their names. I think a lot of this has to do with all of them sharing the same sense of humour, which was a very fun sense of humour, but it didn't make it any easier to tell them apart. I felt very much like these were characters rather than living, breathing people.

However, this is only the first volume and there's certainly a lot of potential for some great character development. Perhaps I'm just being a little hard on it!

So Lumberjanes didn't blow me away, but I did enjoy it and I will be carrying on with the series, and if you prefer your stories to be more playful than end-of-the-world epic then this is a series for you!

Mini Reviews | Misfits, Foxes + Witches

I'm back today with some mini reviews of some recent reads. You can find my last lot of mini reviews here!

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Lolly Willowes is essentially about a spinster who, after years of being used as a babysitter for her various nieces and nephews, makes a pact with Satan and becomes a witch. Y'know, just your classic modern classic storyline. For the most part I did enjoy this book; I thought Laura was a charming protagonist, and while some parts of the story were quite sad other parts were fantastically funny, but I didn't like it as much as I'd hoped I would. The book just got a little too weird for me near the end, which is saying something; I quite like weird books, but this one took such a turn that it suddenly felt like I was reading a different book.

My rating: 

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Unfortunately I didn't like this one very much. I found my copy of Stargirl in a local charity shop a few years ago for only 99p, and I decided to pick it up because it had been one of those books I'd seen everywhere as a pre-teen. Stargirl basically tells the story of Stargirl, the new girl at school, and how the rest of the school reacts to her... herness. The main character (whose name I've already forgotten) ends up falling for her, and I'm not going to bother explaining the rest because I'm already bored thinking about it.

I can totally see why this is often read in school, and I got what it was saying, but Stargirl was such a Manic Pixie Dream Girl and I'm really not a fan of that trope. If I'd read it when I was younger I think I might have liked it more, but I just feel like Spinelli went a bit too far trying to make Stargirl 'quirky' and 'unique'.

My rating: 

Jane, the Fox & Me by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault

I was dying to get my hands on this graphic novel as soon as I saw it, and eventually decided to treat myself. I thought it was a beautiful little story, and parts of it, for me, were very emotional because it hit so close to home. Essentially this is a story about a young girl, Hélène, who is being bullied by girls who used to be her friends; in particular they make fun of her appearance and she has terrible body confidence and self-esteem issues. She starts reading Jane Eyre, and Jane helps her. I thought the art style was lovely, and I particularly loved how the sections in the real world were very muted but the sections in which Hélène was reading Jane Eyre were brightly coloured. The only reason this missed out on five stars was because it didn't blow me away, but I think that might be my own fault as I was expecting rather a lot from it!

My rating: 

Have you read any of these? What have you been reading recently?

TBR | Modern Classics

I've come to terms with the fact that my TBR's never going to be small, but it's certainly much larger than I'd like it to be; no matter how much I read it never seems to be enough!

When it comes to classics I always felt most at home in the Victorian period. When I was at university I loved learning about 19th century literature most - Victorian Gothic is so much fun, plus it's during the 19th century that we first got children's literature and detective fiction! - but in recent years I've begun to appreciate modern classics much more, and I've become particularly fond of fiction written during the early 20th century and the '50s.

Anyway, here are some modern classics I'd like to cross off my TBR this year!

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She has only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

The Sundial

by Shirley Jackson

When the Halloran clan gathers at the family home for a funeral, no one is surprised when the somewhat peculiar Aunt Fanny wanders off into the secret garden. But then she returns to report an astonishing vision of an apocalypse from which only the Hallorans and their hangers-on will be spared, and the family finds itself engulfed in growing madness, fear, and violence as they prepare for a terrible new world.

Jamaica Inn

by Daphne du Maurier

Her mother's dying request takes Mary Yellan on a sad journey across the bleak moorland of Cornwall to reach Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience. With the coachman's warning echoing in her memory, Mary arrives at a dismal place to find Patience a changed woman, cowering from her overbearing husband, Joss Merlyn. 

Affected by the Inn's brooding power, Mary is thwarted in her attention to reform her aunt, and unwillingly drawn into the dark deeds of Joss and his accomplices. And, as she struggles with events beyond her control, Mary is further thrown by her feelings for a man she dare not trust...

The Chrysalids

by John Wyndham

David Storm's father doesn't approve of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that his own son, and his son's cousin Rosalind and their friends, have their own secret aberration which would label them as mutants. But as David and Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery, or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands....

Top Ten Tuesday | Summer TBR!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

I'm travelling from South Wales to North England with work today, so I won't get around to leaving my own comments and replies until tomorrow - I promise I'm not just being rude!

I'm not a fan of setting myself TBRs, but I do love seasonal TBRs! This is the first time... ever, really, where I haven't had a free summer. I'm working now, I'm not in school or university anymore, so I don't know if I'll have plenty of time to read, but I'm hoping I will because I've actually found myself reading more since finishing uni.

Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan: With a title like that, how could I not put this book on my summer TBR? Colgan's books are so much fun, and I love a bit of light reading during the hot summer months.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier: If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know I fell in love with Daphne du Maurier last year when I read both Frenchman's Creek (reviewed here!) and Rebecca. I've been meaning to read Jamaica Inn for a while, and a story centered around smuggling on the Cornish coast sounds like a really fun summer read.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: This book is set during the post-WWII summer in a decaying Georgian mansion. It sounds gloriously atmospheric, and I'm looking forward to crossing it off my TBR this summer.

Past Perfect by Leila Sales: As a history nut, I'm totally up for reading a story about a girl spending her summer working at a village dedicated to Colonial Reenactment.

Lumberjanes, Vol.1 by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Brooke Allen: A group of girls fighting monsters at summer camp? Yes please!

Ms. Marvel, Vol.3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa, Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos: Due to be released in a week, I've already pre-ordered my copy of this. I can't wait to see what Kamala gets up to next!

Rebel Heart by Moira Young: I really, really need to continue with the Dust Lands trilogy, and with a post-apocalyptic desert for a setting I think this'll make for a pretty good read during the summer months. 

Raging Star by Moira Young: I'd like to finish this trilogy over the summer - it's been long enough since I started it!

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan: It's time to confess: I still haven't read this series. Much like Lumberjanes, though, Percy gets sent to summer camp, which sounds like an ideal setting for a summer read! I love Greek mythology, too, so it's about time I read this series.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray: I have another confession: I have yet to read anything by Libba Bray. I'm dying to read her Gemma Doyle trilogy and her Diviners series, but this book sounds like so much fun, too, and definitely a good read for summer!

Which books made your list?

Review | How To Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis

How To Be a Heroine

by Samantha Ellis

My Rating: 

While debating literature’s greatest heroines with her best friend, thirtysomething playwright Samantha Ellis has a revelation—her whole life, she's been trying to be Cathy Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights when she should have been trying to be Jane Eyre.

With this discovery, she embarks on a retrospective look at the literary ladies—the characters and the writers—whom she has loved since childhood. From early obsessions with the March sisters to her later idolization of Sylvia Plath, Ellis evaluates how her heroines stack up today. And, just as she excavates the stories of her favorite characters, Ellis also shares a frank, often humorous account of her own life growing up in a tight-knit Iraqi Jewish community in London. Here a life-long reader explores how heroines shape all our lives.

I don't usually read nonfiction, and even when I do I usually lean towards books about history, but lately I've been on a real nonfiction kick ever since I read Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story by Jody Gentian Bower. I'd had my copy of How To Be a Heroine for a while after being told about it by one of my friends, and as I was thirsting for more nonfiction I decided to pick it up. I devoured it.

This was my very first memoir, and if I'm being honest memoirs don't usually interest me, but I loved that Samantha Ellis created a timeline with the books she'd read and the heroines that had most shaped her, for better or for worse. This is both a memoir and literary criticism, and as someone who is eternally fascinated by heroines I was hooked. Ellis's style is so readable and conversational; so much so that while I was reading it I felt as though she was sitting opposite me and chatting to me over a cup of coffee. I closed this book feeling like I'd just caught up with an old friend, which was a lovely feeling.

While exploring these heroines, of all ages and nationalities, she made me want to reread some of my old favourites, too, to see if I thought differently about them now that I'm a little older. After all, our heroines never really stop teaching us new lessons, we just have to be open to learning them.

The only reason this book missed out on a full five stars was because I was a little disappointed that there was no mention of Anne Bronte in the Jane Eyre chapter, but I have learned that Ellis is currently writing a book about Anne Bronte that I definitely want to read!

Whether you feel comfortable with nonfiction or not, if you're a lover of literature, and a lover of heroines in particular, I highly, highly recommend checking this one out!

Stories & Songs #6

I'm back with another installment of Stories & Songs. As always, you can find all the songs mentioned in this playlist!

Where She Went

by Gayle Forman

"Polaroid"

Imagine Dragons

I am a head case
I am the colour of boom
That's never arriving
At you are the opera
Always on time and in tune
And I am the colour of boom

Signal to Noise

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

"Miss Missing You"

Fall Out Boy

Baby, you were my picket fence
I miss missing you now and then
Chlorine kissed summer skin
I miss missing you now and then
Sometimes before it gets better
The darkness gets bigger
The person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger
Oh
We’re fading fast
I miss missing you now and then

The Raven Boys

by Maggie Stiefvater

"Don't Carry it All"

The Decemberists

There a wreath of trillium and ivy

Laid upon the body of a boy

Lazy will the loam come from its hiding

Return this quiet searcher to soil

So raise a glass to turnings of the season

And watch it as it arcs towards the sun

And you must bear your neighbour's burden within reason

And your labours will be born when all is done

And nobody, nobody knows

Let the yoke fall from our shoulders

Don't carry it all, don't carry it all

We are all our hands and holders

Beneath this bold and brilliant sun

And this I swear to all, and this I swear to all

Past Perfect

by Leila Sales

"Last Year's Troubles"

Suzanne Vega

Last year's troubles are so old fashioned
The robber on the highway, the pirate on the seas
Maybe it's the clothing that's so entertaining
The earrings and swashbuckling blouses that please

Here we have heroes of times that have passed now
but nobody these days has that kind of chin
Over there the petticoats of ladies of virtue
You can hardly tell them from the petticoats of sin 

American Gods

by Neil Gaiman

"Take Me to Church"

Hozier

If I'm a pagan of the good times
My lover's the sunlight
To keep the Goddess on my side
She demands a sacrifice

Drain the whole sea
Get something shiny
Something meaty for the main course
That's a fine-looking high horse
What you got in the stable?
We've a lot of starving faithful

That looks tasty
That looks plenty
This is hungry work

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife
Offer me my deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

Top Ten Tuesday | Even More Anticipated 2015 Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week we're talking about the remaining upcoming 2015 releases we're looking forward to!

Winter by Marissa Meyer: I need it. I need it now.

Ms. Marvel, Vol.3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa, Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos: This one's actually due to be released later this month - hooray! - and I'm looking forward to continuing with the series. Kamala Khan's adorable.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness: I'm rather ashamed to admit that I still haven't read anything by Patrick Ness, but I love the premise of this story and as someone who isn't a big fan of the common tropes in YA I think this will be very tongue-in-cheek and a lot of fun!

The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán: This has dinosaurs in it. That's all I need to know to make me want to read it.

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente: I also have yet to read any Valente despite the fact that I've heard nothing but wonderful things about her prose. I love the alternate history/sci-fi/golden age of Hollywood feel to this one, and I think it'll be a really interesting read.

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy: I'm all for reading more books about body positivity, and this one sounds fabulous.

Chimera by Mira Grant: First of all, how great is that cover? Second of all, I think we all know by now how much I love Mira Grant. This is the third and final book in her Parasitology trilogy; I recently bought myself the first two books in the series so I can read it this year.

Song of the Sea Maid by Rebecca Mascull: I love historical fiction starring heroines who want to make a name for themselves in the field of science, and I don't think I've read any historical fiction with Portugal as a setting yet.

The Curse of Jacob Tracy by Holly Messinger: I love books involving ghosts and mediums and spiritualists, especially when those books are set during the 19th century, so I'm looking forward to this debut!

The Sparrow Sisters by Ellen Hendrick: I have a weakness for witches.

Which books made your list?