Recently I collected two books from my holds, looked at them, and wondered why I had reserved them. I took another look, the covers and blurbs piqued my interest. Luckily for me I took that second look.
The cover of Salvage has a young man with the word hope tattooed on the back of his neck turned away from the world. Quite a confronting cover I thought, and this was the hook that got me reading. Salvage is the story of broken apart families told through the eyes of Cass and Aidan, a sister and brother who were separated from each other when Cass is four. Cass is adopted by a loving middle class family whilst Aidan contends with children's homes and foster care. Two very different lives and the brother and sister lose contact with each other. Salvage begins with Cass, now a teenager, dealing with a family crisis and she begins to think about her memories of Aidan. She wants to know him again, find out what happened in his life as she has many unanswered questions. Aidan has always wondered about Cass and now may be the right time to get in contact. When is the right time? I found this story a gritty, engaging, and at times, emotional read.
I was drawn to the cover of We were liars by the large fuzzy font extending over a background of hazy figures swimming in a bright sea. Who are the liars and what did they do? At the top John Green describes this book as “utterly unforgettable”. Mmm, a pretty good recommendation, maybe a bit over the top? I read the first few pages where I was introduced to the perfect Sinclair family and their perfect summery island life. I was not convinced. I kept thinking, so what is this story about and what is really going on here?. The questions remained during the entire reading and these were the hooks that held me to the end. I was definitely surprised and certainly not disappointed by this clever plot which is full of twists and turns throughout. I don’t want to give anymore away. We were liars lived up to the hype.
Two real page-turners.
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