Palmerston North Boys' High School

93,130 pages read and 7,014 team points

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JessP

11,289 pts

(8,888 pages read)

The Hop

By Diana Clarke

5 stars

An exciting, compelling read about a New Zealand girl wh discovers her mother was a prostitute after she dies. Having nothing and no one, she follows in her mother’s footsteps, taking advantage of her beauty and natural love of people by joining a brothel in America. The story is told interview style from the perspectives of the main character, Kate, her best friend, reporters and other hookers she works alongside. It’s fast paced, fascinating and I truly couldn’t put it down.
Seed

By Elisabeth Easther

4 stars

Won’t finish this book in time so logging the pages I’ve read! So far I’ve met all four of the characters and started to see how they’re connected. Am predicting this will be a great book!
Spark Hunter

By Sonya Wilson

4 stars

This has been the kids bedtime read for the summer. It’s kept them engaged and interested, often asking for another chapter. It has some fairly sophisticated/old school vocab which I sometimes sub out or pause to explain. Set in Fiordland which has been a good geo op.
Arms & Legs

By Chloe Lane

4 stars

A honest account of marriage and motherhood, in all its glory and hardship. It tells the story of Georgie, a New Zealander living in Florida, who is struggling to navigate her stagnant marriage to Dan. It follows her day to day life looking after her toddler, Finn and her affair with the local librarian who runs the kids Music and Movement classes. Lane’s writing is fresh and intimate - in no way is this novel predictable or cliche.
Happy Place

By Emily Henry

3 stars

I wanted a light read, so I shouldn’t complain that that is exactly what I got. Emily Henry’s books seem to be highly popular and I was lured in by the bright cover and the fact I enjoyed watching ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ recently. Once I stopped resisting the cheesy Americanness of the audio narrator (I can’t when they do the male voices), I did end up getting involved in the story. Guys, I’ll admit I even choked up once or twice (but no tears!). I think these books are loved because they appeal to the wholesome romantics we all are at heart. However, I’m fairly confident this will be my only Henry read. I couldn’t quite buy the best friends forever, money is no problem, everything always works out vibes. Guess I prefer to have my heart ripped out over and over by exposing myself to the darker corners of society!
The Bell Jar

By Sylvia Plath

4 stars

I can’t believe it’s taken me till now, but alas, I have finally read this “modern classic”. I’m sitting here, having only finished the book moments ago, and struggle to make sense of my thoughts on it. A quote on the back states the book is “a near-perfect work of art” and if we are referring to the writing itself, then I tend to agree. It encapsulated the madness and enduring nature of mental illness. At times, I was unsure if what Esther was describing was real or imagined. I was disturbed by her endless suicidal ideations and her blank emotionless way of contemplating her own death. On the flip side, her careless racism and negative commentary of those around her infuriated me. I found her to be a deeply unlikeable character, which is perhaps unfair. I had to continue reminding myself that the book is a product of its time in order to keep reading. Probably time I now go and read some Plath poetry!
Falling into Rarohenga

By Steph Matuku

5 stars
The Last Living Cannibal

By Airana Ngarewa

4 stars

This story was wholesome and funny. I was expecting a historical story purely centred on men resisting the call to fight in the Māori battalion. Instead this serves as the backdrop to a novel that focuses on a rift between Taranaki and Waikato, which comes to light when one tribe shows up seeking muru (balance). Ngarewa has written the story mainly from the perspective of Koko, a loving, witty and respected old man. His little quips and commentary of the action as it unfolds often had me laughing out loud. The novel took on a Tarantino quality towards the end which took me quite by surprise!
Night Crawling

By Leila Mottley

5 stars
The Completely Chaotic Christmas of Lottie Brooks

By Katie Kirby

5 stars
The Catastrophic Friendship Fails of Lottie Brooks

By Katie Kirby

5 stars
The Mega-Complicated Crushes of Lottie Brooks

By Katie Kirby

5 stars
Culpability

By Bruce Holsinger

4 stars

A family drama about a car crash and the fall out as the five individuals struggle to process what happened and who was at fault. A lot of events and side plots unravel from the core narrative as the book goes on. The story kept me interested, but at times it did feel like merely a vessel to make a larger commentary on the fast procession of AI and how it’s impacting society. Don’t get me wrong - I love a novel that makes the reader think about modern society. However, it felt a touch obvious at times. The story was told from the first person perspective of Noah, the husband. While this was necessary to keep the reader in the dark about certain aspects, I found myself wanting to see the story from his wife’s point of view. Lorelei is a quirky and highly intelligent character and I felt her nuances weren’t fully unpacked. Overall, an engaging read.
Mine

By James Russell

5 stars

I absolutely frothed this read - pun intended! While I’m not a surfer or even a wannabe surfer, this book was epic. James Russell tells the story of Jimmy, a 26 year-old Aussie bloke who jumps on a plane to Bali after his girlfriend cheats and his mum dies. He gets way more than he signs up for and ends up on the forbidden and untouched island of North Sentinel (remember that missionary that got murdered on the beach??). A completely imagined scenario, but one that feels entirely believable. Jimmy’s travel journal style of writing, complete with Aussie-Kiwi slang and f-bombs, made his character relatable and real. I found myself laughing at multiple points, despite the seriousness of the plot and themes. And now I’ve been exposed to a whole bunch of surfer jargon I’d never encountered before! Stoked I picked this up off the shelf in a bookstore in Foxton.
The Book of Guilt

By Catherine Chidgey

5 stars

An unhinged and unputdownable read. Set in the 1970s in an alternate world where nobody won WW2, this novel is about triplet boys who are part of the governments ‘Sycamore Scheme’. The book is told from the perspective of one of the boys named Vincent, the Minister of Loneliness who becomes involved with the scheme and a mysterious girl named Nancy. Because of the limited first and third person perspectives, the reader is kept in the dark and has to slowly piece together what the scheme is and who the characters really are. A fascinating, unnerving and feverish read.
The Girls Who Grew Big

By Leila Mottley

5 stars

A beautiful and painful story about a group of teenage mothers who form a community together on Padua Beach, Florida in response to being judged and shunned by society. I found I got completely lost in the honeyed voices of the three narrators - Erin, Khaya and AhDream. Leila Mottley’s description of motherhood was emotional, graphic and raw. For me, it brought back both good and difficult memories of those early days, months and years where you must evolve to accommodate for the lives you have grown and birthed. It touched on themes of friendship, family, abandonment and deception. Of the walls we can put up to protect ourselves and the beauty that can come when they come down, willingly or not.
Hum

By Helen Phillips

5 stars

This book was short and intense and I absolutely devoured it. The final page had me jumping straight to reddit to try and make sense of the ending. It left me reeling. I haven’t experienced this unmoored feeling in years, since I finished “The Lazy Boys” by Carl Shuker. Hum is a dystopian text told from the perspective of an anxious and loving mother, trying to raise two small children in a world ravaged by climate change and overrun by tech, including “Hum” robots that fill many public servant roles. As a mother to young children myself - navigating AI, gaming, screen time and my own phone use - I found this story deeply unsettling.
Amma

By Saraid de Silva

5 stars

This novel covers the stories of three generations of women - Josephina, a girl born in Singapore in the 50s, her daughter, Sithara, who is moved to New Zealand from Sri Lanka with her parents and brother, and then her daughter, Annie, who is born and raised in New Zealand with an abusive Pakeha father. It deals with childhood trauma, culture shocks, family secrets, and the search for love and connection. The book does jump across continents and back and forth in time which can be slightly jarring. However, de Silva dedicates her book to her Gran as a way to move through her grief when she passes. It is her story to tell and I felt she told it perfectly.
Gravity Let Me Go

By Trent Dalton

4 stars

While this book was slow to hook me in, it made up for it with a tense and gripping final third. As a big fan of Dalton’s work, this novel wasn’t a Boy Swallows Universe or Lola in the Mirror, but it was still a gripping yarn filled with complex characters and a mystical charm. It felt like it may have autobiographical hints as it follows the story of a journalist turned author held in the grip of a big scoop. Underlying the twists and turns of the plot is a family fighting to stay connected in the midst of a man working too hard.
Wild Dark Shore

By Charlotte McConaghy

5 stars
Margo’s Got Money Troubles

By Rufi Thorpe

5 stars
The Elements

By John Boyne

5 stars

Each of these four stories gripped my heart and soul; I don’t even care how dramatic that sounds. I described them to a friend as “disturbing, but in a gripping way.” If you have had any experience with sexual trauma then I strongly suggest searching for content warnings. I cannot fathom how Boyne managed to create four stories with characters and plot lines I was glued to instantly in only around 120 pages each. I don’t know how, but he has somehow left me sitting here feeling both hollow and utterly complete. Pure genius.
I Who Have Never Known Men

By Jacqueline Harpman

5 stars

A fascinating dystopian text (written in French in 1995), yet without the love interest, the hero or even really the bad guy. Our main character has no name and is merely referred to as “the child” by the 39 women she lives in a bunker with, overseen by silent male guards. They never interact with the women apart from to crack a whip near them if they get to close or try to harm themselves as an escape from their monotonous life of basic survival. Don’t read this book expecting a happy ending, a plot twist or even rising action. Despite the novel being honest from the outset (the protagonist is writing her life story in first person) that no answers were ever discovered as to where they were and why, I couldn’t stop myself from hoping and anticipating a different outcome. As a romantic, I’ll admit I did finish the novel feeling rather devoid of hope and wishing for an alternate ending.
Vera, or Faith

By Gary Shteyngart

4 stars

Many have described the 10-year-old protagonist and narrator as precocious, but I disagree. I found her to be a highly intelligent, lonely and sweet girl desperate to find her place in the piece of the world she inhabits. This novel is set in a dystopian near-future America with political divides, disinformation, intrusive AI tech and, in some states, menstrual cycle tracking. A lot of the story centres around the conflict of the “five-three amendment” and I did get frustrated at the start trying to understand what it entailed. Once I surrender to only knowing as much as the child narrator, I found the novel much more enjoyable. At its core, it’s about a young girl and her aching need to understand herself and be loved in a confusing and fraught political climate.
In Love with Love

By Ella Risbridger

4 stars

I found it easy and comforting listening to Ella read her musings on the act of both reading and writing about love. She manages to encapsulate a serious yet lighthearted tone so that I felt I was being educated, but in a way where I didn’t want to stare out the window and daydream of something else. The book did highlight that in actual fact my reading of the romance genre is rather limited as I hadn’t read probably 80% of the books referred to. However, the tropes she mentions, the recurrent narratives and characters and the overall desire readers feel to escape reality and get lost in a love story, were all accessible regardless.
Mad Mabel

By Sally Hepworth

4 stars

My first Sally Hepworth novel and definitely won’t be my last! From reading the back cover I was anticipating a dark and scary read, but was pleasantly surprised by what I can only describe as a heartwarming twister? I was sold on Mabel’s character from the first page - an endearing and grumpy old woman who just wanted to be left alone while (not so) secretly desperate for love and company. I didn’t find the novel gruesome or disturbing in the slightest and the twist caught me off guard! Overall, an easy and warm read
The Names

By Florence Knapp

5 stars

In this book, Florence unpacks the idea that a rose by any other name may not in fact smell so sweet. It places three narratives side by side of the same family and how their life plays out depending on what name a mother chooses for her son. Each story line has its horrors and its beauties. While the lives of Bear, Julian and Gordon shook me, it is the supporting roles of his mother, grandmother and sister that will stay with me.
Love, Sex & Frankenstein

By Caroline Lea

4 stars

An imagined narrative of Mary Shelley’s writing of her famous gothic novel, Frankenstein. Fairly slow to begin. Picks up pace midway. I don’t know how based on history it is, but it was an entertaining read nonetheless! An interesting look into how the monster reflects the authors inner turmoil.

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Palmerston North Boys' High School

93,130 pages read and 7,014 team points

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