Bust out your London maps! Needless to say, the city’s most central to London Belongs to Us. Anyone who lives in or has ever been to London is bound to appreciate the landmarks that the characters pass through in this book. I’ve never set foot onto the capital of the UK, so I might’ve derived greater joy if it had been set in Geneva, Paris, Rome, Berlin or another big city I have been to. Nonetheless, I appreciated the sentiment behind the heavy focus on the locale.
TONIGHT THE STREETS ARE OURS by Leila Sales
Tonight the Streets Are Ours was such a fun read! I enjoyed it tremendously, even though the characters were far from perfect. They each had their flaws and made questionable decisions. I liked that because that’s precisely what made them so relatable. The realism in the book mirrored the craziness of real life and for that I adored it.
THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER by Harriet Reuter Hapgood
The Square Root of Summer is such a quirky book. It contains little illustrations and while it starts off like a contemporary read, it plunges into science fiction through time travel. Time travel in this case doesn’t pertain to fantastical notions of visiting another era. Here things are grounded a bit more in physics, incorporating discussions of the space-time continuum, the speed of light and the effect of gravity on one’s ageing process. If there’s one thing to be said, the main character is exceedingly smart and prides herself in her intelligence.
THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE by Heidi Heilig
Time travel in books is my weakness. I used to actively seek them out as a kid. Nowadays reading about such stories feels like visiting old friends. Sadly, The Girl from Everywhere didn’t quite have enough of it. The setting of The Girl from Everywhere was predominantly Honolulu 1884. There were glimpses of India, New York and China from various eras but not a lot happened in these places. Being stuck in Hawaii for so long gave rise to a slower moving plot than I had anticipated.
BEAUTIFUL BROKEN THINGS by Sara Barnard
Reading Beautiful Broken Things struck me on many levels. There were a lot of things I related to her having gone through these myself. I’ve been in Caddy’s shoes. I’ve been in Rosie’s shoes. I’ve had a number of Suzanne’s in my life. I’ve learnt that groups of threes aren’t always the most stable of friend groups. Beautiful Broken Things reminded me of toxic relationships I’ve had, the naïve wishes to be there as a friend unravelled and being pushed aside as I wasn’t included in the plans of two when we should have been three.
