Book Review: NEON PILGRIM by Lisa Dempster

Title: Neon Pilgrim

Author: Lisa Dempster
Publisher: Ventura Press
Read: August 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description (Goodreads):

During a culture-shocked exchange year in Japan, fifteen-year-old Lisa Dempster’s imagination is ignited by the story of the henro michi, an arduous 1200 kilometre Buddhist pilgrimage through the mountains of Japan.

Perfectly suiting the romantic view of herself as a dusty, travel-worn explorer (well, one day), she promises to return to Japan and walk the henro michi, one way or another, as soon as humanely possible.

Fast-forward thirteen years, and Lisa’s life is vastly different to what she pictured it would be. Severely depressed, socially withdrawn, overweight, on the dole and living with her mum, she is 28 and miserable.

And then, completely by chance, the henro michi comes back into her life, through a book at her local library. It’s a sign. She decides then and there to go back to Japan almost immediately: to walk the henro michi, and walk herself back to health.

Brushing aside the barriers that other people might find daunting – the 1200km of mountainous terrain, the sweltering Japanese summer, the fact she has no money and has never done a multi-day hike before – Lisa is determined to walk the pilgrimage, or die trying.

My musings:

I love hiking nearly as much as I love books, so when I received an offer to review Neon Pilgrim by Lisa Dempster it was a no-brainer to put my hands up – yes please!  Neon Pilgrim is Lisa’s account of her pilgrimage on the Henro Michi trail in Shikoku, Japan – walking 1200 km of mountainous terrain in the gruelling summer heat. I admire people who have the courage to step outside their comfort zone to experience truly life-changing events. My own hikes, whilst having taken me to some beautiful locations, have been tame in comparison, always holding the promise of company, a good meal, a hot shower (sometimes) and a bed to sleep in at the end of the day – even if the bed was in a remote mountain hut. Lisa, on the other hand, hiked in true pilgrim style – navigating completely alien territory on her own, with both her meals and her shelter often only received at the hands of generous strangers. What a lot of courage it takes to travel like that!

Writing with total honesty and an irresistible sense of Aussie humour that was both refreshing as well as laugh-out-loud funny at times, Lisa recalls her experiences on her pilgrimage, giving the reader an insight into both the gruelling as well as the rewarding aspects of her journey. Setting off without any experience or prior training, and fighting an ongoing battle with depression, she navigated the pain and pitfalls of her first few days (and weeks) on the trail with amazing stamina, not holding anything back when recalling her pain and doubts on setting off on her hike. 

"Are you sad?" Shunya asked in English.
"No," I replied. "Maybe. I don't know. Just tired."
He nodded.
"It's hard," he said gently.

What wonderful armchair travel – I have never been to Japan, but could vividly picture both its beautiful countryside as well as its graceful people. Lisa’s inner journey was also an interesting one, as she slowly became more comfortable in her own body and managed to still her ever-chatty Western mind to reflect on her life choices.

With a voice that is as honest as it is heartfelt, the tale never comes across as whiny or preachy, as some similar life-journey books tend to do – and it was always entertaining to read about Lisa’s encounters with the many colourful characters she met along the way. I think the one thing I loved most about Neon Pilgrim (and which made the book stand out from many similar travel tales) was Lisa’s uninhibited honesty, the way she never censors her thoughts in order to make herself appear braver or tougher in the eyes of the reader. It takes a lot of guts to leave yourself so exposed and vulnerable and own up to your own weaknesses!

  

Summary:

If you like hiking, or armchair travel, or just a tale about someone who was gutsy enough to step out of her comfort zone, Neon Pilgrim may be just the book for you. Brimming with interesting characters and written with warmth, honesty and an irresistible Aussie humour, this memoir was both interesting as well as entertaining. I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever yearned for adventure but has found many excuses why they can’t do it – Lisa’s honest account of her pilgrimage proves that where there is a will, there is a way! 

Thank you to Ventura Press for the free copy of this memoir and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

About the Author:

Lisa Dempster is the Artistic director and CEO of the Melbourne Writers Festival. Previous roles have included Asialink fellow at Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Director of the Emerging Writers' Festival, Founding Director of EWFdigital (now Digital Writers' Festival) and publisher at Vignette Press. Lisa has travelled widely in search of literary and other adventures.

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Book Review: BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman

Title: Bird Box

Author: Josh Malerman
Read: August 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

“How can she expect her children to dream as big as the stars if they can't lift their heads to gaze upon them?” 

Book Description (Goodreads):

Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.

Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat--blindfolded--with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?

My musings:

Wow – what an utterly compelling and at the same time terrifying read! After shouting out on social media for recommendations from readers for a good “creepy” book, Bird Box by Josh Malerman kept popping up everywhere, and I can see why. I am so glad that I read it, and a big thank you to everyone who recommended it to me.

Told in a dual timeframe, Bird Box tells the story of Malorie and her two young children, who are prisoners in their own home to stay safe from a terrifying presence outside which sends you crazy and kills you if you as much as lay eyes on it. To protect themselves, they must wear a blindfold at all times, navigating the hostile world they live in totally blind, knowing that there is an evil presence out there wishing them harm. As Malorie reflects on the time leading up to her present predicament, the reader slowly finds out how the world ended up being such a dangerous, hostile place for humans. With a constant thread of tension and danger lurking in the background, the book held many absolutely bone chilling moments that made my heart pound and my hair stand on end.

Bird Box is one of the most original stories I have read in a long time, and whilst I am normally not a huge fan of dystopian horror, this one had me captivated from page 1. I couldn’t put it down, and read it in one massive four hour read-a-thon, despite getting in trouble with my family for being totally unsociable. The thought of living in a dangerous world without the benefit of sight to navigate me whilst carrying out chores to ensure my daily survival was so terrifying that a sense of dread prevailed long after I had turned the final page. Rarely does a book leave such a lasting impression on me – I even dreamt about it that night!

Seeing that I don’t want to give any spoilers, I will just leave it at: if you want an original and creepy book, Bird Box is a must-read! Whilst I find many dystopian books either too depressing or too unbelievable, Bird Box struck exactly the right balance to sneak its way into my psyche and haunt me with its utterly terrifying premise. I also loved the way the author did not have to resort to blood, guts and gore to get the heart pounding – the power of the book really lies in the reader’s own imagination. Two days after reading it I still marvel at the miracle of sight – the blue skies, the green grass – knowing that I couldn’t survive without it. A brilliant book, very highly recommended!

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Book Review: THE MOUNTAIN by Luca D'Andrea

Title: The Mountain

Author: Luca D'Andrea
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Read: August 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 1/2

"That's how it always is. In the ice, first you hear the voice of the Beast, then you die."

Book Description:

Jeremiah Salinger blames himself.

The crash was his fault. He was the only survivor. Now only his daughter Clara can put a smile on his face. The depression and the nightmares are closing in.

But when he takes Clara to the Bletterbach - a canyon in the Dolomites rich in fossil remains - he overhears by chance a conversation that gives his life renewed focus. In 1985, three students were murdered there, their bodies savaged, limbs severed and strewn by a killer who was never found.

Salinger, a New Yorker, is far from home, and these Italian mountains, where his wife was born, harbour a close-knit, tight-lipped community whose mistrust of outsiders can turn ugly. All the same, solving this mystery might be the only thing that can keep him sane.

My musings:

A wild and dangerous place.  A gruesome 30-year old murder that has never been solved. A small town with lots of secrets and many different allegiances. A stranger, who becomes obsessed with solving the mystery. What more can you want from a book? D’Andrea skilfully incorporates each of those subjects into his intriguing novel The Mountain, set in the rugged and beautiful region of the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy. I used to climb those peaks as a child with my father, so how could I resist a book that would feature both a murder / mystery as well as armchair travel into one of my favourite childhood places! And like our main protagonist, Jeremiah Salinger, I was soon completely obsessed with finding out the answers to the murder mystery, which contained that slight undercurrent of menace and hint of mystique that added an irresistibly creepy air to the story. D’Andrea is obviously very familiar with the setting of his book, and really brought the mountain to life for me. Even if you have never seen those rugged peaks, the book will take you there.

I admit that I picked up the book several times and put it down again, because I found the lead-up to the story quite slow and long-winded, and felt it could have done with some editing. The same goes for some middle passages of the book, which digress into background information that slowed the story down and was not all that relevant to me. However, once I got to the crux of the mystery, I was completely hooked, and D’Andrea surely packed in a few unexpected surprises! 

I loved the way the author describes the slow unravelling of the main character Salinger, whose obsession with the old mystery soon threatens to destroy his marriage and alienate him from his friends and family. The deeper he delves into the past, the more the mountain seems to fight him, which makes for a wonderfully tense atmosphere. As most characters are tight-lipped and somewhat unreliable narrators, I was never quite sure who I could trust, and all my theories were soon debunked as the story progressed. Personally, I loved the inclusion of the mystical element into the story, as I have found that wild places like the Dolomites have inspired local legends as long as there have been humans inhabiting them. D’Andrea has achieved the perfect balance between reality and legend, always pulling the story back to cold hard facts just at the right time, so I never once had to suspend disbelief. Small town dynamics are astutely portrayed, forming an invaluable part of the mystery, which added depth and credulity. 

Summary:

All in all, whilst a bit bogged down with too much detail at times, The Mountain was an utterly intriguing and compelling mystery which soon captured my interest and kept me reading on avidly, wanting to find out what really happened on that stormy night thirty years ago. And there were quite a few surprises in store along the way! With its irresistible armchair travel component, this was a must-read book for me that I would recommend to anyone looking for a multi-faceted mystery set in a wild and unusual place.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

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Blog Tour / Book Extract: DEAD GIRLS CAN'T LIE by Carys Jones

Title: Dead Girls Can't Lie

Author: Carys Jones
Publisher: Aria
Publication Date: 15 August 2017

Book Description:

Best friends tell each other the truth – don't they?

When North Stone's best friend Kelly Orton is found hanging lifeless in a tree, North knows for certain it wasn't suicide. Kelly had everything to live for – a loving boyfriend, a happy life, and most importantly of all, Kelly would never leave North all by herself.

The girls have been friends since childhood, devoted to each other, soul sisters, or at least that's what North has always believed. But did Kelly feel the same way, or was she keeping secrets from her 'best friend' – deadly secrets...

When the police refuse to take North's suspicions seriously, she sets out to investigate for herself. But her search soon takes her to a glamorous world with a seedy underbelly, and before long North is out of her depth and getting ever closer to danger. Determined to find the truth, she soon wishes that dead girls could lie, because the truth is too painful to believe...

I am really excited to be taking part in my first ever blog tour! On this maiden voyage, I am sharing a little taste of Carys Jones' new crime novel, Dead Girls Can't Lie, courtesy of Aria. 

Please also make sure to check out the post of my co-host, The Purple Book Stand, and the rest of the great blogs that are participating:

Excerpt: 

Kelly didn’t kill herself.

It came again. Her phone had beeped in acknowledgement. The message had been there. North had read it, twice. But now it was gone, her inbox suspiciously devoid of it. Even the message she’d previously taken care to save was gone, it was like a slate had been wiped clean within the device. As she stared at her phone, North dared to wonder if exhaustion was playing its usual tricks on her, or worse, if she’d deleted the message herself in some half-asleep state. But surely she wasn’t capable of that kind of self-sabotage? Someone was trying to connect with her, trying to get through and tell her that they believed in the same truth that she did.

Sleep.

The word was almost a mantra. North just needed to sleep and then everything would start making more sense, things would stop disappearing.

Kelly didn’t have a cure for insomnia. But on the nights when North couldn’t sleep they’d sit up together and watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Despite Kelly’s best efforts, she’d usually drift off before the end of the first movie, leaving North to sit and watch the drama unfold across Middle Earth on her own. But listening to her friend’s steady breathing just a few feet away comforted North.

Insomnia was a lonely affliction. It had first visited North when her parents failed to come home. As the police searched and her grandparents fretted, she lay wide-eyed on the single bed in her bedroom. When everyone else was overpowered by exhaustion, she sat at her window and watched the stars. Kelly couldn’t sneak over back then, not during the night, not as teenagers. The next day at school she was always wrought with guilt over her friend’s nightly plight.

‘I’d have stayed up with you,’ Kelly would insist. ‘You shouldn’t have to be alone, North.’

Back then there was only her namesake, her star, to keep her company. North would look up at it outshining the rest of its peers and wonder why her parents chose to name her after something so commanding when she herself was more darkness than light. A bringer of death, according to her grandmother.

On the television the gathered fellowship were daring to journey through dwarven mines which tunnelled deep into the ground. Too deep. North stirred on her sofa. She’d bought the duvet from her bedroom and snuggled beneath it but still sleep wouldn’t come. Candlelight flickered around her but she wasn’t even sure if it was night. The curtains were drawn. She’d banished any lingering daylight when she returned from Dean’s flat. She couldn’t return to work. Her grandparents’ home had been sold several months ago. There was nowhere for her to go except to the hollowness of her flat. She was just drifting like an unsettled spirit. The DVD boxsets were stacked up beside the television, where they always were in case of such an occasion. Something to occupy the dead hours when everyone else was sleeping. North pulled her duvet up to her shoulders, wishing she could hear the soft breathing of her friend over the epic soundtrack.

Banging.

North twisted upon the sofa and blinked at the television. The characters looked afraid, backed into the corner of a stone room as a terrible sound echoed out from the depths.

More banging.

‘What?’ North rubbed at her eyes. Had she fallen asleep? Perhaps she’d slipped into a doze. The banging was coming from the television, wasn’t it? She stared at the screen as the banging continued. It seemed to be coming from everywhere. ‘Urgh,’ she pressed the heel of her hands against her temples. First insomnia came for her sleep and then her sanity. Once, she spent an entire week believing that Leonardo DiCaprio had emailed her. She’d imagined the whole thing. Or even dreamt it. It was hard to know what was real and what wasn’t when sleep failed to visit her. Of course Kelly had believed her. She’d kindly sat at North’s side as she frantically trawled through her inbox trying to find the evidence and then, when it failed to materialise, agreed that it must be a malfunction within the computer.

North moved from rubbing her eyes. The banging didn’t stop even though the scene on the television had moved on. With a groan, North reached for the remote and paused the action, freezing all of the characters mid-motion. The banging bounced around her little flat. Someone was at her front door and they were hammering on it with great force.

‘I’m coming!’ North shouted over the ruckus as she shed the duvet. She shivered away from its warm embrace. Hugging her arms around herself she scurried across her flat towards her door. She pulled it open without pausing to look through the peephole. ‘Dean?’

He was standing in the corridor, one fist still held in the air ready to pound on her door again. His muscles twitched as though he was consumed with restless energy. His eyes were bloodshot and there was a wildness to him. A wildness which concerned North. She took a tentative step back and he immediately advanced towards her.

‘Did you know?’

About the Author:

Carys Jones loves nothing more than to write and create stories which ignite the reader's imagination. Based in Shropshire, England, Carys lives with her husband, two guinea pigs and her adored canine companion Rollo.

Connect with Carys on:

Website 

Twitter: @tiny_dancer85

Facebook: @CarysJonesWriter

Instagram: tiny_dancer_8

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Audiobook Review: THE TRUTH ABOUT MELODY BROWNE by Lisa Jewell

Title: The Truth About Melody Browne

Author: Lisa Jewell
Read: August 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description (Goodreads):

Melody Browne can remember nothing before her ninth birthday. Now in her early thirties, Melody lives in the middle of London with her seventeen-year-old son. She hasn’t seen her parents since she left home at fifteen, but Melody doesn't mind. She’s better off on her own.

And then fragments of her past start to come back. At first her memories mean nothing to her but slowly, day by day, she begins to piece together the real story of her childhood.

But with every mystery she solves another one materialises, with every question she answers another appears. And Melody begins to wonder if she'll ever know the truth about her past...

My musings:

What a beautiful, touching story! As usual, Lisa Jewell has created characters that seem to leap out of the pages of her book, and became so real to me as the story progressed that I felt I had known them all my life. Even more so, since we slowly get to discover the truth about Melody’s past, feel her joy and her pain, which at times broke my heart – expect to cry! There is a rich cast of supporting characters which defy any stereotype and add a depth to the story lacking in many other books. It shows what a skilled, accomplished writer Jewell is, and why she is firmly embedded on my list of favourite authors.

Written in a dual time format, the story starts with Melody Brown’s life in the present, and it may seem a bit slow and run-of-the-mill for the first few pages – but don’t be fooled! The rest of the story jumps back and forth between Melody’s past (starting with her earliest memories) and the present, as she slowly uncovers the truth about her childhood. Whilst this is a format that can feel disjointed  in some books, Jewell marries the two stories together so cleverly that it worked perfectly for me. a) I never got bored with one of the stories, wishing to jump back to the other; and b) I never got confused as to what period she was relating to, even with the audio version. And whilst I am talking about the audio version, I must give credit to Julie Maisey, who lent her voice to the characters and made them come to life for me. I loved Maisey’s ability to give each character their unique voice, especially the small Melody Brown, whose voice I loved!

I could say a lot more about this book, but it is best delved into without spoilers, so I will leave it at: read it, you won’t be sorry. A touching, thought provoking and emotional read by a writer on top of her game. I loved it!