“The Beekeeper of Aleppo” by Christy Lefteri

Started reading: 3rd October 2020
Finished: 10th October 2020
My thoughts: 9/10. 

Beautifully written, obviously heart breaking in many places as it is a story following the journey of a couple fleeing Syria and attempting to travel to the UK as asylum seekers. Wish some of the politicians making rules about detaining asylum seekers in off shore detention centres would read this and absorb some humanity from it.

"Ghost Species" by James Bradley

Started reading as part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2020, although, let's face it, it's about ancient DNA and de-extinction so of course it is right up my alley and even without a reading 'challenge' to motivate me I would read this book. I have been impatiently waiting for it to come out for a few months since I saw Lucy Treloar tweet about reading a pre-release copy of it!

Compared to "Fauna" which is another novel that came out recently on a very similar topic, I much preferred "Ghost Species". The science was believable (as a molecular biologist with a PhD in ancient DNA), I liked a lot of the story, but felt a bit dissatisfied with the ending I guess. Sorry my review is not more detailed, the COVID pandemic was taking up a bit of my headspace.

Started reading: 9th May 2020
Finished: May 2020
My score: 7.5/10
Aussie author stats: Male author, Contemporary Fiction, Speculative Fiction.

"I Came to Say Goodbye" by Caroline Overington

When I was doing the Aussie Author Challenge and Australian Literature Month last year I discovered Caroline Overington's books. The first one I read, "Sisters of Mercy" still haunts me at times. While "I Came to Say Goodbye" was also a page-turner, I think "Sisters of Mercy" is a more complex and chilling story.

I'm beginning to notice a bit of a theme running through Caroline Overington's books though...she is very good at depicting realistic characters on the fringe of society; often mentally ill or intellectually challenged, living pretty sad lives, possibly failed to be cared for adequately by society, who are caught up in horrific crimes (as victims or perpetrators or both). I think part of the chilling aspect often comes from the fact that the person who commits the crime often seems to be without remorse or even without the ability to see what they have done is wrong, and sometimes even think they are in the right. Lots of small pieces come together to tragic effect, sometimes making the reader consider the systems in place in society and whether they could have been effective at preventing the crime if different action was taken earlier. Caroline often tells her stories from an interesting angle or side character rather than from the character in the centre of the novel, in this case, most of the story is told from the perspective of the grandfather of a missing child, who is writing down a statement for a court hearing of events leading up to the crime.
"I Came to Say Goodbye" starts with a situation caught on CCTV footage which appears to involve a woman brazenly walking into a hospital and placing a young baby from the maternity ward in a green Woolies shopping bag and simply walking back out of the hospital and driving away with the baby.  Then the story jumps forward in time to the grandfather of the kidnapped child, who provides all the background story, revealing what could have happened to someone in order for them to do such a thing. Unlike "Sisters of Mercy" which was criticised by some reviewers for having an ambiguous ending, "I came to say goodbye" has a clear ending, even if it is pretty heart-breaking.

Started reading on my kindle: 21st March 2014
Finished: 22nd March 2014
My score: 7/10
Aussie Author Challenge Stats: Female author; Genre: crime

"Barracuda" by Christos Tsiolkas

This is the second book I have read as part of the Aussie Author Challenge in 2014. Unfortunately I found it to be a really disappointing read. The story is about a young Australian teenager, Dan/Danny/Daniel from an immigrant family in Melbourne who is an athlete swimmer. He wins a scholarship through his swimming achievements and attends an elite boys school (referred to as C**t's College throughout the book), continuing to train in the hope of Olympic Gold. I thought this would be a really interesting book to read, to learn a bit more about the focus and drive and dedication required to become an elite swimmer especially at such a young age. However I found the main character extremely unlikeable....very selfish/arrogant, self-destructive, stirring trouble, and also uncaring or antagonistic towards any family member or friend who was trying to help him. His young life seems to be a collection of immature failings which he then seems to blame on anything other than himself. Apart from being unable to sympathise with the main character (or any of the supporting characters really), I also found the structure of the book hard to follow (it seems to jump back and forth erratically in time from when Dan was a young teenager, to being in prison, to the aftermath in his twenties. While I am all for Gay rights, this book also has elements of Fifty Shades of Grey, homosexual style which may be confronting if you are not expecting it when you pick up a novel about a teenage swimming athlete.

Started reading on my kindle: 15th January 2014
Finished: 25th January 2014.
My score 4/10

Aussie Author Challenge 2014 Stats: Male author, who is new to me, book published in 2013, Genre is probably considered 'contemporary fiction'.