Category: Book Review

Rosie | Little Bird Book Blog3 Comments

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Publisher: Titan Books
Publication Date: 16/06/2019
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Fantasy | Young Adult

CW: n/a

Blackwells.co.uk

Tyrants cut out hearts. Rulers sacrifice their own.

Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina does something desperate: she engages the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death… because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago.

Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

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Rosie | Little Bird Book Blog1 Comment

Go by Kazuki Kaneshiro

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Publisher: AmazonCrossing
Publication Date: 01/03/2018
Length: 167 pages
Genre: Translated Fiction | Japanese Fiction | Young Adult

CW: n/a

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For two teens, falling in love is going to make a world of difference in this beautifully translated, bold, and endearing novel about love, loss, and the pain of racial discrimination.

As a Korean student in a Japanese high school, Sugihara has had to defend himself against all kinds of bullies. But nothing could have prepared him for the heartache he feels when he falls hopelessly in love with a Japanese girl named Sakurai. Immersed in their shared love for classical music and foreign movies, the two gradually grow closer and closer.

One night, after being hit by personal tragedy, Sugihara reveals to Sakurai that he is not Japanese—as his name might indicate.

Torn between a chance at self-discovery that he’s ready to seize and the prejudices of others that he can’t control, Sugihara must decide who he wants to be and where he wants to go next. Will Sakurai be able to confront her own bias and accompany him on his journey?

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Rosie | Little Bird Book Blog4 Comments

The Existence of Amy by Lana Grace Riva

Firstly, I just want to say a huge thank you to Lana Grace Riva for reaching out and providing me a copy of this book for an honest review.

Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: 02/08/2019
Length: 247 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

CW: n/a

Blackwells.co.uk

Amy has a normal life. That is, if you were to go by a definition of ‘no immediate obvious indicators of peculiarity’, and you didn’t know her very well. She has good friends, a good job, a nice enough home. This normality, however, is precariously plastered on top of a different life. A life that is Amy’s real life. The only one her brain will let her lead. 

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The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley

Publisher: Atlantic Books
Publication Date: 04/06/2020
Length: 291 pages
Genre: Short Stories | Literary Fiction | Contemporary Fiction

CW: n/a

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In Tokyo—, one of the world’s largest megacities, —a stray cat is wending her way through the back alleys. With each detour, she brushes up against the seemingly disparate lives of the city-dwellers, connecting them in unexpected ways. But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers—, from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo’s denizens, drawing them ever closer. In a series of spellbinding, interlocking narratives—, with styles ranging from manga to footnotes—, Nick Bradley has hewn a novel of interplay and estrangement; of survival and self-destruction; of the desire to belong and the need to escape. Formally inventive and slyly political, The Cat and The City is a lithe thrill-ride through the less-glimpsed streets of Tokyo.

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Rosie | Little Bird Book Blog5 Comments

Unbound by Dina Gu Brumfield

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Publication Date: 04/08/2020
Length: 416 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction | Asian Fiction

CW: n/a

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Mini Pao lives with her sister and parents in a pre-war Shanghai divided among foreign occupiers and Chinese citizens, a city known as the “Paris of the East” with its contrast of  vibrant night life and repressive social mores. Already considered an old maid at twenty-three, Mini boldly rejects the path set out for her as she struggles to provide for her family and reckons with her desire for romance and autonomy. Mini’s story of love, betrayal, and determination unfolds in the Western-style cafes, open-air markets, and jazz-soaked nightclubs of Shanghai—the same city where, decades later, her granddaughter Ting embarks on her own journey toward independence.

Ting Lee has grown up behind an iron curtain in a time of scarcity, humility, and forced-sameness in accordance with the strictures of Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution. As a result, Ting’s imagination burns with curiosity about fashion, America, and most of all, her long-lost grandmother Mini’s glamorous past and mysterious present. As her thirst for knowledge about the world beyond 1970s Shanghai grows, Ting is driven to uncover her family’s tragic past and face the difficult truth of what the future holds for her if she remains in China.

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Hope Island by Tim Major

Publisher: Titan Books
Publication Date: 08/06/2020
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Sci-Fi | Horror

CW: n/a

Blackwells.co.uk

Workaholic TV news producer Nina Scaife is determined to fight for her daughter, Laurie, after her partner Rob walks out on her. She takes Laurie to visit Rob’s parents on the beautiful but remote Hope Island, to prove to her that they are still a family. But Rob’s parents are wary of Nina, and the islanders are acting strangely. And as Nina struggles to reconnect with Laurie, the silent island children begin to lure her daughter away.Meanwhile, Nina tries to resist the scoop as she is drawn to a local artists’ commune, the recently unearthed archaeological site on their land, and the dead body on the beach… 

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