Skylarks
Author: Karen Gregory
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release date: July 2018
Pages: 320 pages
R.R.P: $16.99
We watch the bird as it flies high above us, singing the only thing in the world that matters.
And I feel it- that life can be beautiful that there are possibilities.
Keep your head down and don't cause trouble is the motto Joni lives by, and so far it's seen her family through some tough times. It's not as if she has the power to change anything important anyway. Like dad's bad back, or the threat of losing their house.
So when Annabel breezes into her life, Joni's sure they're destined to clash. Pretty, poised, privileged- the daughter of the richest family in town must have it easy.
But sometimes you find a matching spirit where you least expect it. Sometimes love can defy difference. And sometimes life asks you to be bigger and braver...
My Review
Thoughts on the book: Skylarks is second novel from ya novel from Karen Gregory, author of Countless. Skylarks is a story of the underprivileged versus the privallged and breaking out of the mould that we are placed in and challenging it. Joni comes from an underprivileged household where everyone has to pitch in their money so they can afford the rent and to put food on the table, especially since her father can't work because of his back being hurt. Of course when you have a job that you like it makes things easier and Joni's job at the library helps her a lot more than just the money side. But this all comes crashing down when Annabel starts working at the library. You can tell just by looking at her that she is made of money and Joni expects that she won't be lifting any fingers to help with anything. But as they get to know each other they discover that maybe opposites do attract. But just as things start heating up between the two a startling revelation could mean the end for this new attraction and could mean the difference between Joni and her family losing everything.
A massive thank you to Sonia from Bloomsbury Australia for sending me this gorgeous copy of Karen Gregory's new book Skylarks to read and review. I loved Karen's first book Countless and when I saw that she was brining out a second book I knew I had to read it. Karen seems to seamlessly takle some very hard hitting topics that I believe teens want to read about and get different perspectives on and Karen delivers these. Both of her books have kind of an open-ended ending where the main problem in the story is tackled and then I believe the ending is deliberately left open so that you can choose where you think it will go next which is a fantastic way to end and I love it. But also in saying that in Skylarks I wanted it to go that bit further and tell me what happened, whether they ended up together or not?
Now on to my feelings for Skylarks I guess I'll start with the ending which I partly talked about above. To me if felt a little rushed and that's what dropped the rating from a 5 to a 4. We have this huge big lead up to the main event of the residents of Joni's neighbourhood being evicted out of their houses because the rent is going up too much for them all to afford and they all have to find somewhere else to live in a already struggling rental market and then boom it's all fixed in a few pages and everythings right in the world. For me I just wanted more ending then a few simple pages and being left guessing if it all worked out or not. But as always that's just my opinion and how I wanted the story to go. The storyline itself was solid and one that may have been takled before but not in the unique way that Karen Gregory does. I adored out main character Joni and that she never gave up on what she believed was right and fought hard for her family and her home. Her relationships with the people surrounding her felt like any normal relationship would and brought a sense of relatability to the novel. Overall Skylarks is another fantastic solid novel from Karen Gregory and I can't wait to read more from her in the future.
Rating: 4/5
Comments
Post a Comment