Posts Tagged ‘ aww challenge ’

Review: Ruby Coral Carnelian by Mary Borsellino (AWW Challenge #8)

rccYou may have read on this blog before how very much I love the work of Mary Borsellino. Well, here’s some more of that love heading your way.

Borsellino’s latest is a shortish YA fantasy called Ruby Coral Carnelian. The title is a reference to this world’s wizards, the kind of magic they use and their willingness (and success) in using blood magic.

The story sees Del, assistant to the Ruby Warlock, discovering the wizard intends to sell him on to another wizard and realizing that this isn’t going to end well. As Del plans to run, he discovers that one of the Ruby Warlock’s twin step-children, away at boarding school, is in trouble and that the other plans to rescue him. Del ends up helping, and he, Nicholas and Kelsie end up on the run, escaping from powerful people who mean them harm.

So far, so straightforward, and it gets difficult to provide details without also providing spoilers. As always with Borsellino’s work, there is more going on than a simple plot explanation can reveal. The characters are flawed yet sympathetic, the story taking some unexpected turns as they learn about themselves and each other.

Ruby Coral Carnelian initially reminded me of my old favourite Diana Wynne Jones. Like many of Jones’s books, here’s a tale that partly explores what happens when kids learn that the adults in their life aren’t necessarily dependable, and are possibly even dangerous, and must fend for themselves and grow up at the same time.

Adding texture to this are themes relating to gender identity, concepts of privilege, the assumptions we make, and even notions of disability and wholeness.

In trying to capture the flavour of this book, I told a friend ‘imagine Diana Wynne Jones pencilled the art, but then it was inked by a Vertigo artist’.

So that’s sort of it. The core of a story that feels as traditional and as sound as a book by the late great Jones, but with its own freshness (and darkness) that explores new territory and reaches different conclusions.

There are many reasons why I think Mary Borsellino is one of the great underappreciated genre writers this country has to offer. The way she combines horror and compassion. Her capacity to create detailed, believable worlds full of cruelty and beauty. Her splendid characterisation. Her queer sensibilities and sure sense of creating people with real flaws and imperfections that are somehow both very real and simply perfect.

Frankly, I know the hyperbole is a lot for a writer to live up to, but also frankly, I have never yet been disappointed by one of her books. I struggle more to tame my praise than to find enough adjectives to add.

If you’re not sure you want to tackle Borsellino’s longer works like The Wolf House or The Devil’s Mixtape, give Ruby Coral Carnelian a try to see if what makes me pretty much get a literary boner speaks to you too.

Read my reviews of The Wolf House and the Devil’s Mixtape

Read my review of Mary Borsellino’s latest erotica story, A Brighter Spark.

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, smartphone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2013
05/17
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Review: Bread and Circuses by Felicity Dowker (AWW Challenge 2013 #7)

bread and circusesFelicity Dowker is the writer who made me see the potential of the zombie story. Previously, zombies had just been hulking, mindless brain-eaters, good as a metaphor for mindless mass threat (an analogy for overconsumption or the way humanity self-anaesthetises, or even the fear of Alzheimer’s) but not much more.

Then I read her short zombie love story, Bread and Circuses, and the whole genre changed for me.

I’ve read a lot of excellent zombie fiction since then, and tried my hand at a zombie story myself, but Bread and Circuses remains one of my favourites.

How good was it, then, that Ticonderoga Press scooped up this fabulous writer of horror (and winner of awards) to produce a collection – Bread and Circuses: stories by Felicity Dowker?

SO GOOD is the answer you are looking for.

This collection is replete, from start to finish, with tales full of rage, creeping horror and, almost surprisingly, the notion of love both as a destructive and a redemptive force. The eponymous Bread and Circuses and Jesse’s Gift most readily exemplify that particular theme, but elements of it arise in Red Delicious, To Wish on a Clockwork Heart and Us, After the House Came Back.

The settings for Dowker’s horror are often urban, revolving very much around the home, around children and relationships. Domestic violence features strongly as a theme, as does love and revenge. The whole is imbued with a sense of female power, as well as the consequences not only of abusing others but of willingly surrendering your autonomy (and therefore safety) to another.

Each story has its own voice too. While some names or notions may recur, there is great variety in the types of story being told. Some are drawn from fairy tales, others from mythology; yet others are very contemporary in their conception. Zombies and vampires are represented, as is the horror circus trope, but there are touches of steampunk, of traditional fantasy (dragons and wizards!) as well as urban myth and the great tradition of revenge tragedies.

Felicity Dowker is one of Australia’s best new voices in horror fiction, her powerful feminist approach giving the genre a good deal of…well, fresh blood. Be creeped out, disturbed, challenged and thoroughly (if sometimes unwillingly) captivated!

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, smartphone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2013
05/01
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Review: Cyanide and Poppies by Carolyn Morwood (AWW Challenge 2013 #6)

cyanide-and-poppies-an-eleanor-jones-mysteryI read Carolyn Morwood’s Death and the Spanish Lady last year (and Gary the vampire and his librarian friend Lissa reviewed it), being a sucker for books set in my hometown, especially historical crime novels. That book was set in 1919, just after the Great War and during the devastating period of the Spanish flu epidemic. This story, set five years later, occurs on the eve of the police strike of 1923, which saw rioting in the Melbourne’s main streets.

The maxim that you should start in the midst of the action is taken to heart in Cyanide and Poppies, with the heroine, former nurse Eleanor Jones, kneeling by the body of a dead man in the offices of The Argus newspaper, where she is now a journalist, while waiting for the police to arrive. It’s perhaps a mite too abrupt as a beginning, but it certainly throws the reader into the midst of the business, both with Edward Bain’s murder and the difficulties of a police investigation while a strike is in place.

It also catches us up with Eleanor very quickly, including her change of profession and the ways in which her experiences in the war still haunt her. Her shell-shocked brother Andrew is still struggling with the return to life and Eleanor herself is still determined to deny and kill off her feelings for her unfortunately married friend Nicholas.

Much of the plot unfolds in a strangely muted fashion, reflecting Eleanor’s (and Andrew’s) own disconnectedness from things. The rest of the world intrudes on them, of course – sometimes in immediate and violent ways – but there is a sense of them both viewing the event around them at arm’s length.

But the mystery gathers momentum, including Andrew’s relationship with the vivacious but scandalous medium, Nadine Carrides, and Eleanor’s concerns and doubts about Carrides as well as her colleagues at The Argus. As it does so, there is a sense that the siblings’ lives are also gaining in momentum and purpose, and light begins to break on both the crime and their own relationships and engagement with their post-war world.

The book is elegantly written, with well-crafted characters and a wonderful capacity to evoke the Melbourne of the era. It’s always a pleasure to recognise parts of my town in a book, and even moreso to get a feel for those places in other times and atmospheres.

Cyanide and Poppies has a slow build to a satisfying finale that cracks open light and air on lives as well as mysteries, and that’s a pretty fine thing.

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, smartphone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2013
04/15
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Review: A Brighter Spark by Mary Borsellino (AWW Challenge 2013 #4)

brighter sparkReaders of this blog will know how much I adore Mary Borsellino’s horror fiction. The Wolf House and The Devil’s Mixtape remain two of my very favourite works.

Have I mentioned how versatile that writer is, though? Have I? Because she is. Not only does she write amazing horror, she also writes fun and sexy erotica with wit and intelligence.

While her latest, A Brighter Spark, hasn’t the complexity of her longer genre work, the deceptively simple story addresses a very modern human issue: how do you know when you’re a proper, fully functioning adult? And why would you want that, instead of the freewheeling excitement of being young?

Suzy is a single mum of kids in their awkward teens, and feels like life is slipping away from her. She doesn’t feel like a proper grown up, but the mad joys of her youth are obviously well behind her. Feeling at a dead end, Suzy meets the gorgeous and possibly perfect Daniel, and a one night stand blooms into the potential for something more. But Suzy fears she can’t possibly live up to him, just as she fears that being a proper adult means leaving behind all the fun stuff forever.

Suzy is likeable and you can readily identify with her as she stumbles through the difficulties of learning what responsible adulthood really means. Daniel is indeed a picture of perfection, but with just enough charm and a little geekiness to make him very appealing. As always, Borsellino does a pitch-perfect job of creating the teenaged characters and their relationships with the respective parents.

A Brighter Spark is a light, fun read, populated with appealing characters, good humour and some distractingly passionate scenes.

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, smartphone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2013
03/11
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Review: The Shattered City by Tansy Rayner Roberts (AWW Challenge 2013 #3)

shattered cityLast year, I read and absolutely adored the first of Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Creature Court series, Power and Majesty.

At last I’ve had the time to read the second in the trilogy, The Shattered City, and once more I have been blown away by the brilliance of the storytelling. Character, plot, pace, theme: everything is pitch perfect.

The Shattered City manages to recreate everything that is so compelling about Power and Majesty and then bloom like fireworks from that starting point. And yes, I am aware of the hyperbole, but seriously? SERIOUSLY? Hyperbole is necessary.

In this second part of the Creature Court series, the dressmaker Velody has come belatedly into her powers and managed to make a place for herself in the court – she is their Power and Majesty, presuming she can keep this not entirely trustworthy band together, defeat the sky in its nightly battle to devour the city of Aufleur, and not get herself or her friends killed in the process.

That may be much harder than the already very difficult task seems. The sky seems to be growing in destructive capacity and intent, and something is loose in Aufleur, attacking the Court and sewing distrust. Well, more distrust. What it is, where it’s from and what it portends are all very worrying indeed.

Velody looks like she might be holding it all together; she might be changing the Court to a better alliance after all – if she survives. That is a very long way from guaranteed.

In the meantime, Velody’s friend Delphine pauses in her merry dance of self-destruction to deny deny deny that she has any role with the Court or its sentinels, and Rhian, who survived such a terrible ordeal, has to learn how to deal with people again. There are roles laid out for everyone, path they should be treading – if only the wretches would do as they’re told. But they don’t. They won’t play fate’s games, let alone the court’s, and the resulting conflicts and clashes send the story hurtling with cracking pace, humour, drama and some really deadly frocks.

Power and Majesty flew along at a brilliant pace, yet provided time for character and back story to grow. It was never predictable and always surprised me without once doing anything that didn’t fit the story or the people in it. It was a lot for a sequel to live up to. That The Shattered City surpasses it is a hell of a feat.

A lot of the time as I read a book, events unfold and I start to see the shape of how the story will be told. Without knowing exactly how something will come to pass, I can start to see the shade and shape of an ending. As the book progresses, doors close on possibilities and you feel yourself guided towards a particular outcome. Of course, surprises can still occur, but generally there’s a feeling of knowing what the path ahead is paved with, at least, if not the final destination.

The Shattered City laughs in the face of such notions, in the best way. While you can see some dangers before the characters do (in the best tradition of Hitchcockian suspense), the full consequences are always just beyond sight. Events occur, some possibilities close off, but instead of narrowing down the future, each new event seems to blast off a cavalcade of new futures.

It’s like being a Seer, the way that Hel has visions of all the futures, and each change in the present only sets off a new cascade of possibility.

It’s an incredible bit of writing and plotting, to pull that off – to put the reader in the place of the seer, with all kinds of futures unfolding before you, and all you can do is read on, pulled through events with the frantic desire to find out oh dear god what now? what next? and wonder how it’s all going to end, and who is going to survive any ending we can currently see.

So. Yes. I wax lyrical. I leap about and paint this blog with colourful prose and hyperbole and wave my hands at you in a frantic, inarticulate way while saying: read it read it oh for the love of god, any god, for the love of chocolate, if you have to, but read these books!!!

Because Power and Majesty and The Shattered City are unexpected and textured and deep and wonderful and funny and horrific and created by a writer with such depth, intelligence, wit and  mastery of language, plot, theme and character that I can only sit here and wish I was half as good.

I need a little lie down for a while, but after that – Reign of Beasts, here I come!

Power and Majesty:

The Shattered City:

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, smartphone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2013
03/04
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Review: Drink, Smoke, Pass Out by Judith Lucy (AWW Challenge 2013 #2)

drinksmokepassoutI’ve loved Judith Lucy’s stand-up comedy for years – her earthy, dry, self-deprecating wit rarely fails to hit the mark with me. Recently, in her Australian ABC documentary series, Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey, Lucy (a lapsed Catholic) explored her own search for spiritual meaning in a way that I (an atheist interested in philosophy) found both engaging and entertaining.

Drink, Smoke, Pass Out is a companion to the TV series, giving Lucy’s whole background from goody-two-shoes Catholic girl (so hard to imagine!) through to her adult avoidance of being troubled mainly by staying drunk and high, through to her realisation that maybe she needs to tackle her relationship with the universe rather than trying to stay numb to it. The book steps lightly through the events of the TV series (after all, you can watch that for more detail) and concludes that although she’s still looking for answers, it’s a good thing to at least be asking the questions.

The title is a riff on the popular Eat, Pray, Love, and the book is firmly planted in traditional Judith Lucy territory: sardonic, self-deprecating, earthy and mocking of pretentions, most often her own. This book could so easily have been an indulgent, self-righteous ‘I have seen the light’ affair. Alternatively, it could have been a terrible, cynical excuse to laugh at the many (and, to be fair, sometimes quite strange) ways people seek for meaning.

Instead, what you get is a thoughtful, passionate exploration of Judith Lucy’s personal demons and her practical methods of finding a better way of dealing with them than by being drunk most of the time. She’s not gone all wowser on us – she still likes a drink, she still smokes (though she seem to have given up passing out) – but she is genuine in her curiosity about people’s search for wisdom, and still approaches things with a sense of humour.

Most of the time this works well, especially given her stated aim of wanting to talk about spirituality and the search for meaning in a way that ‘doesn’t want to make people puke’. Sometimes, it’s a little jarring – a few paragraphs of thoughtful analysis and even insight often ends in a neat, sardonic little joke, and it feels like Lucy is backing off from her own opinions. Still, she is a comedian, and while she takes the notion of spirituality seriously, she remains keenly aware of human absurdity. She’s not cynical, but she has a healthy scepticism about practices and approaches that seem more about making a buck than about enlightenment.

In many ways, Drink, Smoke, Pass Out is the sceptics’ guide to the search for meaning. Grounded in reality, Lucy’s journey admits to the many ways in which people try to find harmony with the world they live in and with their own fears, lacks and disappointments. Her conclusion that the search for meaning is as important (or even more important) than claiming to have found it resonated with me. I may be an atheist, but that doesn’t mean I go through the world devoid of a moral framework or a need for meaning. Everyone needs to work out what their relationship is with the universe: with their environment, the land and their fellow creatures. My search has let me to philosophy rather than religion, but that is just one way to engage with the world.

If you are wary of treatises that wax too lyrical about angels, crystals, healing energies or other mystical gateways to happiness, but you remain interested in the human search for balance within themselves and with their world, Judith Lucy’s unsentimental but open-hearted exploration is worth reading.

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, smartphone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2013
01/23
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Review: The Barrumbi Kids by Leonie Norrington (AWW Challenge 2013 #1)

the-barrumbi-kidsI picked up The Burrumbi Kids ages ago (at the superb Embiggen Books in Melbourne) but didn’t get to it in time for last year’s Australian Women Writers Challenge. Naturally, I took it with me on my wee New Year break in the Dandenongs and promptly read it in a day!

The Barrumbi Kids is the story of best friends, Dale and Tomias, who live in the little outback town of Barrumbi in the Northern Territory. Their days are filled with negotiating school, teachers, family, enemies and the two cultures from which they come. They both love the land, even though it can be a dangerous place: fire, snakes, crocodiles and drought all present moments of excitement and challenge.

Norrington, who lived in an outback community herself, paints a vivid picture of the land and the bush community. There are lively, believable relationships and interactions between not only indigenous and white cultures but the clashing cultures of a rural community and big-city folks who struggle to fit in (and cope with all the red dust).

Dale and Tomias are fabulous characters with a strong, believable friendship. They make mistakes and fight sometimes, but they come across as very real, and with a very real connection. They start off by wagging school which leads to the boys being caught in a grass fire and an immediate cross-cultural dilemma, because Dale has compromised his friend. He does what good friends do, though, to make up for his mistake.

Another terrific character is Lizzie, Dale’s smart and resourceful little sister, who gets her own rivetting scene when confronted with a crocodile and has to stare it down, as Auntie Mavis, a local elder, has taught her to.

Norrington does an excellent job of creating and exploring cross-cultural issues with both white/indigenous, bush/city divides. The dilemmas she poses are plausible and nuanced, without being heavy handed, stereotypical or predictable in her approach. The language she uses flows beautifully, but is also vivid and distinctive. Indigenous words are part of her linguistic palette, as they should be in this setting.

The excellence of The Barrumbi Kids was recgonised with shortlistings for the 2003 NSW Premier’s Literary Award Patricia Wrightson Prize and Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards, and more books in the same setting have followed. They’re now on my wish list!

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, smartphone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2013
01/21
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Review: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina (AWW Challenge #11)

I found out about this book when someone I follow on Twitter was asking for specfic books by Indigenous Australian writers. I retweeted the request, hoping for some tips myself, and the several replies came back about The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf. Despite the teetering pile of books in my library already waiting to be read, I went right out and picked this one up. (Sorry books-still-waiting. Your turn will come, I promise.)

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf is set 300 years in the future, in a world reshaped by devastating environmental disaster. It’s not only the world that’s changed, though: some human beings have, too. Some have strange and occasionally destructive powers. These people, referred to as Illegals, are seen as a threat to The Balance, and The Balance is everything. It’s the vision and philosophy of the world, and how the survivors hope to keep harmony with the planet and avoid another round with the apocalypse.

But the Illegals don’t think they are a threat to The Balance. Maybe, despite their powers, they are part of it too. At least, The Tribe, runaways with powers who live in the protection of the Firstwood, don’t think they are destined to destroy The Balance.

The story opens on Day One of Ashala Wolf’s incarceration at Detention Centre #3. Ashala, an Illegal, has recovered sufficiently from injuries sustained during her capture to be subjected to interrogation by Chief Administrator Neville Rose. The Chief Administrator aims to find out all about Ashala, her powers and the group of children she lives in hiding with in the Firstwood. Everyone is in danger, from Ashala to the people who trust her to keep them safe.  And right there in the interrogation chamber is the person who betrayed her: Justin Connor.

I read this in just a couple of sittings. (I do enjoy me a post-apocalyptic adventure with superpowers!) I certainly had a sense in the first few days of Ashala’s interrogation that something wasn’t quite right, so the ante was upped when the whole story began to unfold. Amberlin Kwaymullina’s style is light and energetic, so the story zips along at a good pace.

Ashara is a terrific character: fierce and nurturing, loving but angry. Georgie, Ember, Jaz and other kids from the Firstwood are all vivid, though Connor struck me as a little bland. Some of the other denizens of this world, like the saurs and the Serpent, were an imaginative addition.

Some of the world-building seems a little thin at times, especially when it comes to the origins of the saurs, but this is only the first of an expected series. I’m looking forward to learning more about the world as it survives now, the concept of The Balance and whether the Serpent will make another appearance.

Otherwise, the themes of living in harmony with the world, treating people with honesty, fairness and respect and the destructive power of hatred and fear are the strong underpinnnings of a fast-paced, exciting adventure. Bring on the second book, Ms Kwaymullin!

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, smartphone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2012
11/29
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Review: Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts (AWW Challenge #10)

Power and Majesty coverSometimes I’m such a numpty. I see a book in my stash that’s 500 pages long and I think “I want to read that but it will take aaaaaages. It’s so biiiiiiiiiiiig.” So I put it off and off and off, until finally I think: “Damnit. I will MAKE time.”

And then I read it over two weekends, in two massive gulps, devouring it like a starving thing, reluctant to put it down because OMG WHAT HAPPENS NEXT??!! Apparently, it’s not the size that counts, it’s the writing.

Power and Majesty is the first in a trilogy about the Creature Court – a group of people with extraordinary powers, who secretly fight a war in the night sky of the city of Aufleur. The daylight folk have no idea what’s going on each night (or ‘nox’), or the price they’ll pay if the Court loses.

At the start of the book, Velody is a 14 year old girl, come to Aufleur to seek a position as an apprentice dressmaker. On her first night in the city, she can’t sleep. Slipping away from her chaperone to the balcony of her accommodation, she witnesses a young man fall from the sky. Garnet finds her, recognises her innate magic – and with her uninformed permission, takes away her magic.

Years later, Velody is an adult, an accomplished dressmaker living and working with her two best friends, still ignorant of the Creature Court and its nightly war.  That’s when a sky battle goes badly wrong and Velody’s power is suddenly restored. She and her friends are drawn into the mad, dangerous and deadly games of the Creature Court and the war that’s killing them one by one.

That’s the basic premise of a book that is rich in detail. The world Roberts creates is an imaginative, delightful mix of an alternative Italy which could be a hundred years old or closer to our own times. But don’t rely on any idea of historical fantasy or modern alternative reality – Roberts had done something much more difficult and exciting. She’s taken bolts and cuttings of a world we know and stitched an entire, fresh new world out of them. Innovative use of language and a respect for the complexities of different cultures and times make the worlds of Aufleur and the Creature Court distinct and complete, where they are separate as well as where they overlap.

The characters are wonderfully complex and so very messed up. There’s darkness and light, betrayal and redemption, loss and triumph. Often simultaneously. No matter how strange the powers they have, or the lives they lead, every human, every sentinel and every mad bastard from the Court is a multi-faceted, very real person.

A big surprise for me was how much I enjoyed the frocks. Fiction in which the female protagonist is excited about shoes and dresses rarely does much for me. I care not a whit for shoes and dresses, generally. But Velody and her friends Rhian and Delphine aren’t just clothes horses. Dress and appearance are a powerful representation of power and status as well as creativity, not to mention the fact that these skills are the livelihoods of these wonderful characters. The mindset of creation, of stitching parts together to make a more wonderful whole, is an important underlying theme, too.

Velody being a dressmaker is an integral part of who she is – and more to the point, this part of Velody is an integral part of how she deals with the challenges and horrors of the Creature Court. Others who have come to the Court as children and have known nothing but the fight against the sky and vying for power with each other seem to know nothing but destruction. Velody, protected from that world by Garnet’s theft of her magic, grew to adulthood as a carer and creator. She works with her friends to create wearable art. The difference is vital and may be what will save both the Creature Court and the city they battle to protect.

While Power and Majesty is certainly not a vampire novel – I’ve seen it described as a combination of urban fantasy and court fantasy with elements of manga and goth (and none of that does it justice) – Roberts also makes innovative use of vampire tropes. There’s a lot of sharing of vital fluids: ingestion of blood from mortals to members of the Court and vice versa not only aids healing but has other effects which are important to the plot. In the Court, Poet’s ability to become hundreds of rats echoes the same ability Dracula has in some versions of the old story, but of course this ability to become an abundance of one’s power animal is a characteristic shared by the whole Court. It’s where the name comes from, after all. Some Court members become birds, cats or wolves.

So, here we have incredibly intelligent, creative, complex and colourful world-building married to fabulous, layered characterisation and engaging, tense powerplays, social interactions and politics in all levels of society. Add to that the fact that from one chapter to the next, I just couldn’t guess where we might be going. In a lot of stories, you can get the broad gist of what is coming next. Reading Power and Majesty, I honestly never had a clue. Who can be trusted? How will Velody react to this latest challenge? What’s going to happen to Delphine? Oh my giddy lord, what have you done to the sentinels??!!

It’s delicious, it’s exquisite, it’s exhilarating, it’s pain of the purest, most pleasurable kind to have no idea how it’s all going to work out, or what’s going to happen next, or who to trust, and sometimes even who to like – and to wanted to grab the writer’s hand and run headlong down that unknown path to find out!! No wonder I read it in those two big gulps. I couldn’t bear to slow down, and the grace of the writing led me down that magnificent path at a gallop.

So, after leaving Power and Majesty unread for a year, stupidly daunted by the size of it (because, as mentioned, I’m a numpty) I immediately upon finishing downloaded the next book, The Shattered City, to start right away. And that night sat next to a complete stranger in a Melbourne theatre and told her she should read it. Because she should. You all should. It’s terrific!

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, smartphone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2012
10/16
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Review: Sharp Shooter by Marianne Delacourt (AWW Challenge #9)

I do enjoy a bit of a crime romp, with a sassy but imperfect heroine and a supporting case of intriguing and maybe disreputable characters. Marianne Delacourt’s Sharp Shooter delivers on both counts, with the bonus of being set in an Australian city. Delacourt’s Perth is a step to the left of the real Perth, but there’s plenty that’s recognisable about my old stomping grounds.

Tara Sharp, former basketballer and aura-reader, seems to be failing spectacularly at life, but getting a little guidance from one Mr Hara sets her on a new path. Trying to use her aura-reading skills to establish herself as a professional body-language interpreter, Tara ends up on the wrong side of a notorious criminal, his notoriously dangerous lawyer and a number of notorious-to-demented people, one or more of whom seem to want her dead.

At the same time, Tara is negotiating her attraction to a man she’s meant to be spying on, the demands of her friends and parents and, well, trying to be a proper grown up. The way to keep out of trouble is to keep her head down and her mouth shut. That gets a bit hard when, first up, you’re not a woman who knows how to shut up and, secondly, when someone, as a favour, has painted your Monaro burnt orange with racing flame insignia.

It’s all as hectic and occasionally ludicrous as you can imagine from that premise. It’s also immense fun. There’s action, awkward situations, unresolved sexual tension, unlikely friends, running like the clappers and a general sense of whirlwind adventure, with just a whisper of the paranormal. A rollicking good read!

Buy Sharp Shooter for Kindle

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2012
08/18
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