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The Tangled Leaves of Anniseed

The Tangled Leaves of Anniseed

Tag Archives: Love

Breakdown by Katherine Amt Hanna

24 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by Anniseed in Book Review

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Apocalyptic Fiction, Dystopia, Love, Relationships, Thriller

I simply cannot resist an apocalypse story. Especially one grounded in real life, rather than fantasy / horror tropes. So Breakdown was a must!

It’s very different from the usual premise. A virus wipes out a critical portion of the world’s population, meaning that the survivors have to painstakingly reconstruct society (oh, how I loved the 70s TV series, Survivors!). But Hanna’s tale takes a slightly offbeat perspective.

Former rock star Chris is in America with his wife and child when the plague starts, and it takes him years to get back to England to see if his family have survived. Terrified that he will discover that they perished, he postpones the last lap of his journey, instead falling in with a family in Portsmouth, helping to run their smallholding. Chris is traumatised by his experiences, but through his new found friend Pauline, who was a therapist before the plague hit, he starts to process his memories and feelings and begin to feel like a human being again. But is their relationship just one of therapist and patient? And when it comes to the crunch, who will Chris choose?

Breakdown is a love story, albeit one in an extreme situation. What I enjoyed was that Hanna told the tale from Chris’s point of view in retrospect; we learn of the terrible things that he has endured, but we don’t experience them directly, so the horror of the situation remains containable. The breakdown of society is mirrored by Chris’s personal breakdown, and the novel charts the reconstruction of both community and self. For readers who enjoy psychology, this is fascinating, although it may disappoint those who want a brutal, survivalist narrative. Ultimately this story is about normal people, and the healing power of relationships, rather than dystopian gloom; I found that I cared about Chris and Pauline, and the final section where their happiness is thrown into doubt was very tense for me. It made me think about what really matters in life, and how the choices we make at every stage of our own journey impact on others. Breakdown is a thoughtful, poignant novel, and an intriguing one to add to my collection of apocalypse narratives.

Rating: ***

47North, 2012, ISBN 9781612184111

Stolen Years by Kazia Myers

16 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by Anniseed in Book Review

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Tags

Eastern Europe, Love, Second World War, Slavery, War

Stolen Years is a self-published title, and the only negative thing I can say about it is the dull cover, which gives no indication of what type of story the novel tells. It’s a common fault of self-published books and is driving me slightly mad, as I confess to shamelessly choosing books by their covers. But despite this, Stolen Years had me riveted, and I would highly recommend it – in fact I’m giving my copy to my Mum, so I can’t give higher praise than that really!

Stolen Years is told by Anna, a seventeen year-old girl who along with other teenagers, is taken from her family in Poland and transported to Austria, with the promise of well-paid work. But it’s a lie – and Anna and her friends are to be used as slave labour on Austrian farms, watched over by the dictatorial farmers and the ever-suspicious eyes of the Gestapo. The conditions are harsh and the punishments for the slightest transgression are brutal. Anna and her friends struggle to survive, but their friendships are the one thing they can count on, and Anna starts to fall in love with the gentle Michal. But war is no friend of love, and they are forcibly separated. Will they ever find each other, and is there any hope of one day returning to Poland, in freedom?

This story is beautifully told, and I felt a deep empathy with Anna, who is spirited character. The plight of Polish slaves was not an aspect of the war that I really knew about, so events in this story deepened my understanding of the impact of war on Eastern Europe. There are moments of utter horror – the Gestapo’s punishment of Stefan and Lilli made me feel faint; and anger – the British soldier’s treatment of Anna is shocking. But there’s also compassion and balance, as we see a different side to the Austrian authorities in bitter but sad Umtraut, and honourable Dieter. The ending, quite simply, made me cry.

Stolen Years is a compelling story, which adds to the understanding and remembrance of the Second World War with its sensitive and thought-provoking narrative. This is an excellent novel, and proves absolutely that self-published writing can be of very high quality.

Pen Press, 2009, ISBN 9781907172427

 

Hidden by Marianne Curley

19 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Anniseed in Young Adult Fiction Review

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Angels, Love, Paranormal Romance, Romance, Supernatural

Reproduced with kind permission of Bloomsbury

Reproduced with kind permission of Bloomsbury

It sometimes seems that the trend for paranormal romance will never reach its end… In fact it’s quite easy to get cynical about the narrow range of fiction pushed at a young adult audience. So I was surprised that I enjoyed this new offering to the genre, and now feel that perhaps there’s life in it yet!

This is the story of Ebony, who’s never been beyond the valley in which she lives with her parents. And Jordan, who’s life she is about to save. The concept of guardian angels is given a new twist, as beings from another dimension do battle over Ebony’s soul, and Jordan must compete with an angel called Thane for her heart. The characters are well-depicted and I especially liked Jordan, who is very sympathetic and as the human love interest, ably counterbalances his all-too-perfect angelic rivals. The action-packed plot is constructed with enough surprises to make it stand above the glut of predictable paranormal romances, and leaves the door open for an interesting sequel. It’s refreshing to delve into angel lore as opposed to vampire mythology, and Curley has created a believable universe for her characters to inhabit. Even if you’ve become tired of the genre, this is an enjoyable novel and well worth a read. 13+, rating:***

Bloomsbury, 2013, ISBN 9781408822623

Copy provided by the publisher for review

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