Reviews
RE: The Hunger Games
OMG!!!!!1
MOST AMAZING BOOK!!!!! READ IT 50 TIMES, YOU MUST READ IT!!!!!! 10/10!!!!!
RE: Ads R Us
Ads R us is a really good book. It is quite strange but also fascinating. I have never read anything like it. It goes into depth on reality and what its like from two different peoples views. I have really enjoyed reading it, and i feel as though I cannot put it down.
RE: James and the giant peach
James lives with his cruel aunts. One day, something strange happens in his garden which changes his life forever!! As the story progresses, we find out about his new friends...giant bugs!
I cannot think of a bad RD book - but James and the Giant Peach is one of my favourites. Recommended to any kid with an imagination up to the age of 12.
Ignore this book at your peril!
RE: Living Dead Girl
This book shocked me - not because I don't know that this sort of abuse happens. It was the complete ability for the author to make the reader see the world through Alice's eyes, so, horrified by her situation and her actions, they still feels sympathy and wants to see her survive. It's a bleak message, but the writing is so mesmerising I couldn't put the book down.
Written in simple language, it isn't gratuitous in its description of violence, but it is extremely confronting. The cumulative effect of years of systematic abuse has an almost physical impact on the reader, and I would recommend it for older teens only.
Living Dead Girl deals with similar content to Emma Donoghue's Room. Seen through the eyes of a small boy whose mother was kidnapped as a teenager and sexually assaulted for a number of years, Room is marketed as a book for adults. In comparing the two books, it's interesting to notice the increasingly blurry lines between YA and adult fiction.
RE: You Against Me
Firstly, I have to be honest and admit that I did not know about this book until I saw it in an op shop for three dollars and thought, 'Why not?'
I'm so glad I found it there.
You Against Me is first and foremost a story of a rape, told from the perspective of the sister (Ellie) of the accused and the brother (Mikey) of the victim, but it is also a story about finding love in the middle of all the collateral damage.
I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and I thought that it was going to be super depressing, being about a rape and the suffering associated with it, and while the subject certainly is depressing, Downham has been able to craft this story in a unique, fascinating and truthful way that kept me holding on until the very last page.
The premise is original and fresh, and even though the subject is very unfamiliar to me, I could feel the anxiety, feel the nervousness, the shame of the whole ordeal, from both Ellie and Mikey's perspectives.
And that's the unusual thing about this novel; you would expect that it would be written from the point of view of the victim (Karyn) and perhaps even from Tom (the accused), however it is Mikey and Ellie, the respective siblings that do the story telling. But their suffering is in no way small, or insignificant. Downham makes that clear throughout the novel, that the suffering that occurs when something horrific like this happens is in no way limited to the victim. It affects all those on the outskirts, whether that be in a small or profound way.
That being said, I found it a little difficult to connect with and understand the characters at certain points. At times, Ellie seems a little too soft, particularly when her father (ugh, I'll get to him later), reprimanded her cruelly and inconsiderately. And I realise that Ellie was highly stressed and perhaps didn't want to argue with her father if that meant more stress (and feelings of betrayal), but I just thought that perhaps she could have stood up to her father a little more assertively. Maybe.
Mikey is a wonderful character. Always trying to do what is best for his mother and two sisters, trying to hold things together while his mother spirals into depression and alcoholism and while his sister, Karyn, sits on the couch, damaged and fragile. But he often get things wrong and in this way, he is skilfully flawed.
Ellie's father is repulsively inconsiderate and sexist, particularly so towards the end of the novel. And yes, I understand he was trying to protect both his children, but by goodness, he is horrid.
In regards to the romance, I found it a little too stretched. It just doesn't seem realistic that Ellie and Mikey could fall in love so quickly and so deeply. I'm not even sure if what they had was love, but it was certainly growing. I just found the initial attraction too rushed; there would have been a lot of anger there between them, and so it doesn't follow logically that they would have fallen for each other so quickly. But I guess love isn't always logical.
The plot: fantastically unique and tense--I genuinely didn't want to put the book down.
Minor problems aside, this book deserves much, much applause.
All in all, a brave, wonderful and beautifully written novel that skilfully and tactfully deals with some extremely intense and horrible issues.
I love this:
'It was strange how words meant something when they came out of your mouth. Inside your head they were safe and silent, but once they were outside, people grabbed hold of them.'
RE: Dairy of a Wimpy Kid - Cabin Fever
If you love Diary of a wimpy kid, then this book is for YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RE: Tomorrow When the War Began
this the best book i have ever read its all about the war and its just sooooo good not that i like war or anything its just that the way the but the book together just made me smiley i sware to you its the best book everrrrrr.
you should read it no jokes
RE: One Direction: Dare to Dream
This book is amazing, because it has Louis Tomlinson in it. i love this book so much! great work whoever the author is.
RE: Marley and Me
marley and me is a very sad book. if you like sad books or a little bit silly book this is a book for you.
i love marley and me it is one of my fav books and movie
at the end the dog dies and the familey go all sad and the kids in the book and movie goes all like sad and the olderst kid crys for weeks
the book is really different from the movie so if i was you i would read the book frist to get a idear of how its really meant to be :D
RE: Only Ever Always
Claire is an ordinary girl whose world is about to be ripped to shreds. Her uncle Charlie has been in an accident, and no amount of promising from Claire’s mum will guarantee his health. While Claire waits to hear news from the hospital, she thinks about Charlie’s wife, Pia, and the baby on the way – Claire’s little cousin to-be.
In another time and place, Clara is on the wrong side of the river – a slum girl in a desolate world where zones have kings and Clara is torn between her own Andrew, and the brown-water eyed Groom, who begs her to cross the river with him.
Both girls dream of music boxes and keys, and eventually their worlds cross and interlace – Clara imprisoned in Miss Boedica’s palace cage and Claire on the verge of heartache in her bed.
But who is the dreamer and who is the dream?
‘Only Ever Always’ is the new young adult novel from Australian author, Penni Russon.
I’ll be honest and say that ‘Only Ever Always’ is not your typical YA novel, nor will it tickle the fancy of every young reader. But the toughness is part of the charm, as Russon explores complicated literary illusions and offers up a very different form of storytelling. ‘Only Ever Always’ will be a rewarding read for the intrepid young bibliophile who dares to try – but it’s also a novel to captivate and challenge older readers, as I found.
Normally I wouldn’t be overly interested in a novel like ‘Only Ever Always’ (much as it shames me to admit). But I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt, thanks to a film trailer I watched recently. The 2011 indie film ‘Another Earth’ from director Mike Cahill is the story of a duplicate earth – a replica planet where doppelganger’s mirror earth’s residents. Since watching the trailer for this film I have found myself fascinated with the idea of parallel worlds and parallel-selves – so much so that I thought the release of Russon’s novel happily fortuitous, since she explores similar themes in ‘Only Ever Always’.
There is Claire – living in a world much like our own, with a mother and a father and an uncle and aunt coming to visit. But when tragedy strikes she retreats into herself, awaiting news of her uncle from the comfort of her bed. She weaves in and out of fretful sleep.
Intersecting with Claire is Clara – a girl from a strange and dirty place. She is a guttersnipe, trading goods at the market and desperately searching for medicine for her sickly saviour, Andrew. Clara is pursued by gutter king, Groom, who desperately wants her as his own and wishes she would cross the river with him . . . and Clara is terrified at how badly she starts to want Groom too.
Readers will bring different understandings to Claire and Clara – you make think that one is a dream and the other the dreamer. Perhaps you wait for their real-time lives to catch up and for them to meet face to face. And that is the precise, distilled brilliance of ‘Only Ever Always’. It’s illusive and open-ended, altered by the impressions of the reader.
I am a dreamer too, and I must wake into a world of dreamers. You can feel it – can’t you? – the peeling off of me, another small loss you have to bear. We all bear it, as best we can, this infinite chain of miniature losses, a hundred thousand stories, a hundred thousand endings. A rehearsal you could call it, for the last ending that’s bound to come, eventually, somewhere in the white space between here and dreaming.
Claire and Clara’s alternate universes floating between dream and dreamer reminded me of an infamous quote from Chinese philosopher, Master Zhuang:
As I said before, ‘Only Ever Always’ is not an ‘easy’ young adult novel. If you read the author’s note at the end of the book, you’ll see that Russon conjured the idea for the novel during a conversation with her young daughter around about the time she was writing a master degree thesis about melancholy in narrative structure. Like I said; not exactly an ‘easy’ concept to grapple with – especially in young adult fiction.
But Russon strings readers along in her melancholic narrative by writing a very fascinating Clara-story. This world is very strange, at once harking back to a grimy past, but with hints of modernity. It almost reads like a steampunk mash-up of dueling atmosphere. And making Clara’s story even more interesting is her altering feelings for Groom – the boy who wants to cage her, and who she just might like being captured by.
‘Only Ever Always’ is not an easy novel, but Russon’s story is beautifully strange and lyrically intricate. It’s a different sort of YA read, and all the more fulfilling for its oddity.
RE: This is Shyness
RE: All I Ever Wanted
Anywhere but here. That’s what Mim thinks – that she’d rather be anywhere but these suburbs that are haunted by a missing girl. Anywhere but down the road from the Tarrant house, where a dog called Gargoyle patrols the perimeter. Anywhere but in this family, with a mother addicted to home shopping and two brothers stuck in prison. Where childcare workers take her brothers’ *** kids away the second Mim’s mum starts loving them.
So Mim has made rules to live by, rules to get out of this dump. No tattoos. Virginity intact. No drugs. No drugs. No drugs.
But all it takes is her perfect-boy crush, Jordan Mullen, smiling at her to send everything spiralling out of control.
‘All I Ever Wanted’ is the debut Australian Young Adult novel from Vikki Wakefield.
‘All I Ever Wanted’ came out in June this year, and was heralded as a landmark YA Australian novel. I put off reading it, for God knows what reason … and now that I have been inducted into the Vikki Wakefield fan-club, all I can think is that I took too long to get here.
This book is a lesson in duality. On the one hand, Wakefield’s novel is dealing with raw and gritty circumstances, as told from the perspective of a sixteen-going-on-seventeen-year-old girl dreamer. Mim’s family is reminiscent of the Cody clan in David Michôd’s ‘Animal Kingdom’ – and Mim’s circumstances are close to that of Ree in ‘Winter’s Bone’, the Debra Granik film. Her family have a reputation – they are a criminal element with a parole record to prove it. But Mim doesn’t want that for herself; she has a sagging bookshelf of Lonely Planet guides and a stuck globe reminding her that what she really wants is just over the horizon. But when her mother asks her to collect some ‘gear’, Mim doesn’t refuse. She pedals her bike into a world of trouble, bought on by beautiful boy Jordan Mullen.
What follows is Mim’s fallout from a pick-up gone wrong; and how she tries to backtrack on a mistake that could end in a territorial clash.
With this subject matter, Wakefield could have gone over-the-top and written something bordering on ‘Underbelly’ for the teen set. But instead she goes the other way – she writes Mim’s criminal family with heart and depth, gives them personality and camaraderie. The residents of Mim’s neighbourhood are a collection of odd souls and kind hearts – Lola, the phone-sex worker next door. Benny and his call of ‘Bloke!’ in underpants with beer in hand. Mim’s best friend, Tahnee, who has broken one of their golden rules. And Mrs Tkautz’s, who calls Mim a ‘godless child’. These are rough people living in an undesirable neighbourhood – and even though we’re reading about them through Mim’s disdainful eyes, readers can see the hodge-podge family knocked together in this suburban wasteland.
Mim, on the other hand, hates everything about this place. The people, her family, the unwritten law that says you avoid walking past the Tarrant house. All of it is getting on Mim’s nerves, and she’s just about at breaking point;
I can see how a perfectly sane, ordinary person might one day shoot strangers in a mall, or hold up a service station, or drive into a reservoir with three kids in the back seat. You hear about them, the quiet people, the ones nobody notices until they snap. They keep to themselves. I reckon it’s not when things are white-hot that they do stuff you read about in the papers. It’s in the flat feeling, the afterburn, when it can seem almost normal doing the extreme. When part of you gives up and gives in. The numb spot.
Mim thinks Jordan Mullen is her ticket out. He’s the beautiful boy from the posh neighbourhood – the boy all the public school girls drop their knickers for, and who is taking a gap year from his Uni course. Jordan is an idle fantasy that takes Mim out of this hellhole – dreaming about him has been a little slice of salvation for many years. But when Jordan double-crosses Mim, and his sister Kate crosses her path, Mim’s view of her ‘people’ and her daydreams go on a collision course.
Mim is a new favourite YA character. She’s a skinny wanderer full of bad blood and big dreams. I loved her. She’s a little bit blind to her own reality, and sometimes too harsh on those who love her. But her faults are her armour – and when she has come from so much muck, you can’t help but admire her.
‘All I Ever Wanted’ is a wonderful novel from new Aussie YA author, Vikki Wakefield. It’s a novel of dualities – our protagonist is a dreamer from a family of brutes. The setting is suburban wasteland, occupied by kind-hearted residents. The story is criminal, with a hidden agenda. And the boy crush is beauty, with a bad streak. Fantastic.
RE: Six Impossible Things
Dan Cereill (pronounced ‘surreal’, not ‘cereal’) has undergone a rude awakening. At the same time that his mother inherited a heritage-listed house from her dead great-aunt Adelaide, she discovered that her husband was both gay and bankrupt and they would have to move into said heritage-listed abode because the bank was repossessing everything else.
And so, Dan finds himself living in a ***-smelling, run-down relic, not talking to his ‘out’ dad, about to start on the bottom rung at a new high school.
The only thing getting him through this teenage mid-life crisis is the girl next door, Estelle, a hidden doorway leading into her attic, and a list of six impossible things;
The List:1. Kiss Estelle. I know. I haven’t met her yet. Technically. But it gets top spot regardless.
2. Get a job. We’re in a complete mess financially. It’s down to me to tide us over money-wise if my mother’s new business crashes.
3. Cheer my mother up. Better chance of business not crashing if she’s half okay.
4. It’s not like I expect to be cool or popular at the new school, but I’m going to try not to be a complete nerd/loser.
5. Should talk to my father when he calls. But how, when the only thing I want to ask is something I can’t bear to hear the answer to: How could you leave us like this?
6. The existential one. Figure out how to be good. I don’t want to end up the sort of person who up and leaves his family out of the blue.
‘Six Impossible Things’ is a stand-alone YA novel from Australian author, Fiona Wood.
I loved this book for its simplicity. On the surface there’s a lot of things happening in Dan’s life – his gay dad, bankrupt family, new school and first real crush. The book could have buckled under the weight of so many issues – but Wood handles them with a deft hand and earnest male perspective.
Dan is our narrator, and it’s lovely to get a male perspective in Aussie YA, for a change. He’s starting year nine when all his familial issues implode – he’s a sensitive soul who has spent the holidays crying under his doona and avoiding his dad’s phone calls. Perhaps to distract himself from the things he can’t change – no money, divorced parents, gay dad – he becomes a teensy bit consumed with his crush on the girl next door, Estelle.
This was a great and realistic way For Wood to explore such catastrophic issues. His mum’s coping mechanisms creep into the story, as does his avoidance of his dad’s olive branches and monetary decline. But for Dan, Estelle is centre stage in his new life.
I loved Dan. He’s a smart and sensitive young man, with a cracking wit that especially shines through when he observes the social structure of his new public school. Like his nick-naming of the transposable bracket girls (omigod).
‘Six Impossible Things’ was a wonderful Australian young adult novel exploring cutting-edge issues through a voice of lovable innocence.
RE: Chasing Charlie Duskin
Rose Butler and Charlie Duskin couldn’t be more different.
Charlie lives in the city, with her dad. Her mum died when she was nine, and her dad has been mourning her ever since … and ignoring Charlie in the process. At school, Charlie is a gutless wonder. She’s always a step out of beat, uncoordinated and all too willing to let people walk all over her. Her best friend, Dahlia, is just starting to figure this out – and, as a result, her and Charlie’s friendship is crashing and burning over the summer holidays.
Every Christmas Charlie and her dad return to his childhood town where he and Charlie’s mother fell in love. This time of year should be full of pine trees and celebration. Except this is the first year since Charlie’s grandmother passed away. The last person in the world to think Charlie was truly special, and now she has gone too. Her grandfather isn’t coping, and now Charlie is stuck with two men who can’t seem to come to grips with the absence of the women they loved.
Rose Butler lives next door to Charlie’s grandparent’s house. Her little hometown is a toilet stop – someplace you pass through, but never want to stay. For years now, Rose has been watching Charlie ‘Dorkin’ breeze through her town – always to end up on the freeway, going back to the city and a better life. And this year, Rose might just go with her … because Rose has a scholarship burning a hole in her back pocket. A scholarship to a city school, and out of this dustbowl town.
But Rose will miss her best friend, Dave, and boyfriend, Luke. She’ll miss the river and the falls, and the safety of shared history.
Charlie would give anything to hang out with Rose, Luke and especially Dave. She’d love to feel like she belongs, just for a bit. And to feel wanted. She’d like to be part of a choir, instead of always singing solo.
Rose will get out of this town. Even if it means using Charlie Dorkin to do it.
‘Chasing Charlie Duskin’ is the beloved 2005 YA novel from Cath Crowley.
I came to the Cath Crowley fan club a little late. I read ‘Graffiti Moon’ this year, and loved it. Now I’m back-tracking through Crowley’s previous books … and I really shouldn’t be surprised that ‘Chasing Charlie Duskin’ is as brilliant as I thought it would be.
Charlie Duskin is a frustratingly beautiful character. She is walking wounded – having lost her mother at a young age, which also led to the disappearance of her father as he retreated into grief. Now Charlie is living with more heartache since the recent passing of her grandmother, which lumps her with another male who is not coping well with the death of his beloved wife. As a result of so much tragedy, Charlie is disarmingly negative about herself. She thinks she’s broken – clutzy and embarrassing, unable to talk to boys and utterly invisible. She thinks her best friend, Dahlia, lucked out in the friendship stakes, and is unsurprised when it appears their camaraderie is starting to dissolve. Charlie sings and plays guitar, but all her songs are about wanting to fit in but knowing she never will.
Rose Butler, on the other hand, is a firecracker. She has lived in one place her whole life – with two boys who know her better than anyone else in the world. Her car-mad friend, Dave, and her boyfriend Luke. Rose loves these two - but she hates her town. She feels frustrated by her complacent parents, and their suffocating love. So when Rose is told that she has been awarded a city school scholarship, she keeps it a secret. She doesn’t want to be told she can’t go, and she doesn’t want to see the look on Luke’s face when she tells him she’s leaving.
Rose and Charlie are heading for disaster when both of them (unknowingly and unwittingly) present the other with what they most want in the world. For Charlie, Rose represents everything she can’t be – confident, carefree and cool. For Rose, Charlie is her ticket out – and she intends to be sitting in the car with Dorkin when she and her dad breeze out of town and head into the city.
Disaster is bound to ensue.
Cath Crowley’s books are reading confectionery. Her lyrical words are gooey caramel that get stuck to the roof of your mouth so you can tongue them and savour the sweetness. She looks at the world through dizzying heights and candy-coloured spectacles – and I can’t get enough of her writing or her characters.
Charlie Duskin was sublime. I just wanted to wrap her in a bear hug and whisper words of encouragement in her ear. She’s that kind of character – one you want to bundle off the page and bring home to make hot chocolate for. She’s beautiful and doesn’t know it, and that made her superb.
Rose was equally charming and disarming. The book is told from both points of view – Charlie and Rose’s – and in the beginning, through Charlie’s eyes, I did frown down at Rose and her seemingly perfect life. But Crowley loves shades of grey, and Rose is just a gorgeously lost and nervous as Charlie is (even if she hides it better).
The book is ultimately about the fragility of people, and giving a little kindness to watch them grow. The finale is a chest-swelling crescendo, and a fitting ‘Aha!’ moment for dear Charlie Duskin.
We watch her walk into the spotlight she’s been hiding from most of her life. Sure, friendship is all about believing in someone so hard they believe it, too. Sure, it’s about trust. But if anyone hurts her tonight, it’s about ripping them apart with my bare hands and really enjoying it.
Cath Crowley is certainly an Aussie YA treasure. Her books take you down to the lowest lows (so that you find yourself crying on the train while reading) but then she makes it up to you when her characters soar (so that you do a little fist-pump on the same train ride home). I think that whenever Crowley puts fingers to keyboard, a little bit of magic happens … I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
RE: Everything Beautiful
Sixteen-year-old Riley Rose doesn’t believe in much. Since her mother’s death Riley has been on a ‘downward spiral’, she has become ‘rebellious’ and her behaviour warrants ‘concern’ from her father and his new ‘girlfriend’, Norma. So they’re sending Riley to Spirit Ranch, a Christian camp. Riley will have to leave behind her best friend, Chloe, and any designs she has on cute boy crush, Ben. She has to sleep in a cabin with a prissy Christian *** called Fleur and a quiet God-fearing doormat called Sarita.
But Spirit Ranch has its up-side, like zealot camp leader Craig of the Adonis good looks. Then there are camp regulars, siblings Olive and Bird, who blossom under Riley’s protective wing.
But best of all is Dylan, the only other person who doesn’t want to be here as bad as Riley. Because Dylan used to be a regular Christ-loving, bible-thumping Spirit Rancher . . . until he lost the use of his legs. Now he lives in a wheelchair, and hates the world. Riley can relate.
‘Everything Beautiful’ was the 2008 young adult novel from award-winning Australian writer, Simmone Howell.
This novel is sublime. It’s a camp/pilgrimage/road-trip novel about a girl who starts out with no questions, but winds up with infinite curiosity.
When we meet her, Riley Rose has a self-diagnosed ‘Mum-shaped hole’ in her life. Ever since her mother’s death Riley has become a little bit wild. She befriended her school’s resident ***, Chloe, and started flouting authority and rules. Riley’s demise into rebelliousness is in direct contrast to her father’s re-discovery of God. Once a lapsed Catholic, her father now attends church on a regular basis and is dating a fellow devout. Their solution to Riley’s hurt and acting out is Spirit Ranch, their church’s yearly camp for all good Christian children . . . Riley goes, begrudgingly, and with a list of unchanging truths in her life;
I believe in Chloe and chocolate.
I believe the best part is always before.
I believe that most girls are shifty and most guys are dumb.
I believe the more you pill, the less you are.
I don’t believe in life after death or diuretics or happy endings.
I don’t believe anything good can come from this.
But Spirit Ranch isn’t exactly accepting. Riley is an instant target, a walking blasphemy whose weight issues (she’s fat, deal with it) make her easy prey and her atheism turns her into a plague amongst the campers. The only people who actually like Riley are Olive and Bird, bullied siblings who find solace in Riley’s easy acceptance and defence. Craig, the hunky camp leader who just wants to get into Riley’s double-D’s . . . and Dylan, the paraplegic boy whose sadness calls to Riley’s own.
I loved this book. Riley is a fast and frenetic teen whose deep sadness is masked by false bravado. She’s a fantastic leading lady, not least because Howell has written a taboo in making her F-A-T. Today Tonight obesity-watch reports remind us every day that Australia is climbing up the tubby ladder, yet so few teens in contemporary YA reflect this physicality.
The Christian camp setting was hilariously sublime. Reminiscent of one of my all-time favourite movies, ‘Saved!’ (2004). Howell reveals that not all Christians are good, but not all atheists are without hope either. Howell isn’t bashing religion in this book; she’s just showing its myriad sides. Sure, the Christian teens in this book aren’t exactly keeping up their ‘love thy neighbour’ teachings, but this is more reflective of a William Golding exploration into pack behaviour than commentary on the decay of worship.
But the real Hail Mary of ‘Everything Beautiful’ is Dylan. Dylan is trapped in a wheelchair after an undisclosed accident that everyone at Spirit Ranch is speculating about. Rumour has it he jumped 16 storeys. Another tale tells of a surfing accident. But only Dylan knows the truth, and he’s not telling. Riley is intrigued . . . both by Dylan’s silence about the accident, and his clear affinity for her and their Spirit Ranch plight. Dylan is one of my new favourite characters – I loved his contrasts and inherent enigma. I loved that he was full of snark and spirit, that he felt cheated in life but still wore a cross around his neck;
I’m glad it was Dylan who laughed first. Once he did I felt myself unravel. I giggled and he giggled. We were the experiment. And then there came a time when we weren’t laughing. When we locked eyes and breathed each other’s breath. Ohmystars! The firmament shakes and then everything settles. In the end everything settles.
‘Everything Beautiful’ is more proof that there’s something in the water for Australian YA. A quirky contemporary that introduces us to a feisty and furious girl called Riley, who is unbelieving and full of hurt. I loved this book, and from now on I will be worshipping at the word altar of Simmone Howell – anything she writes, I do so solemnly swear to devour.
