LEGO book review: Blood to Poison

Seventeen-year-old Savannah is angry, its an anger that has travelled through her family as a curse – a curse she is determined to lift. But blood curses are nearly impossible to break, and in her quest to discover the answers, Savannah finds herself in the middle of a war between rival factions of witches. Blood to Poison is Mary Watson’s third magical young adult novel (YA) with Bloomsbury, and it’s just as immersive and wonderful, with just a lick of darkness to set it apart.

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LEGO Book Review: Confessions of a Ginger Pudding

Any South African reader will tell you that Zelda Bezuidenhout is a huge deal in the local young adult scene. Her books are extremely popular and she has a huge following. So naturally, I was ecstatic when she was chosen to translate my novel Sharp Edges into Afrikaans. Skerwe was released earlier this year and I get a thrill every time I see both our names on the cover.

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Lockdown LEGO Book Reviews

One thing that’s become apparent to me on social media is that lockdown has affected us all differently, especially our sleeping and reading habits.  I’ve been home for more than half a year now and I’ve only just started enjoying reading books again. In the first few months, all I wanted to do was watch Netflix and read graphic novels. I must have read hundreds of them (my poor credit card will vouch for that.) I think it was the nagging anxiety caused by the spreading virus – I didn’t want my attention drawn away for too long.

I have finally found my reading groove again, which I’m sure my new friends on Instagram were partly responsible for.

So here is a roundup of some of my lockdown reads so far.

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LEGO book review: The Wicked Deep

I’ve always wanted to write a book about the ocean. Not the blue sky and sunshine kind, but a gloomy one that evokes that timeless, haunted feel only the sea can conjure – of countless wrecks and lost souls, of buried secrets and quiet, solemn knowledge.

So naturally, when I find a book that ticks all these boxes, I’m one very happy reader.

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LEGO book review: The Deathless Girls

I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula when I was in grade ten. It was a difficult novel to read, one of those books where you start reading a paragraph and end up daydreaming about something else for ten minutes. It took me a long time to finish. But it was a point of pride. I was on a mission to read all the great works of classic literature I could get my hands on (which were also incidentally free to take out from the library.) To me, Dracula was the classic that defined gothic literature. 

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LEGO book review: Becoming Dinah

This year, Hachette Children’s Group launched Bellatrix – a series of feminist retellings of classic literature for young adults. If you’re anything like me, your first reaction would be ‘Where can I get them?’

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LEGO book review: The Choice Between Us

Edyth Bulbring’s The Choice Between Us (Tafelberg, 2019) is a clever little book.  (You may remember it as one of my top YA picks for winter.)

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LEGO book review: The Dragon Lady

I first encountered Louisa Treger’s writing in 2015 when I was asked by The Sunday Times to not only review her novel, The Lodger, but to also interview the author, who has roots in South Africa.

The Lodger was a captivating and enchanting work of historical fiction that detailed the doomed love affair between HG Wells and the lesser-known but equally brilliant writer Dorothy Richardson.

I must have talked about that book for months after, and recommended it to absolutely everyone.

You can read the full review and interview here.

I was excited to hear that Bloomsbury had picked up her second novel, The Dragon Lady, the idea for which was born during the author’s time in Franschhoek (or so I’ve heard). What I wasn’t expecting, was an advance copy of the book itself, which arrived on my desk completely by surprise last week.

Naturally, it found itself right on top of the reading pile.

The Dragon Lady follows another intriguing woman lost to the front pages of history, Lady Virginia Courtauld. Ginie, as she was known, was quite the scandalous figure in London society.  She was a divorcee, didn’t really care what people thought and was rumoured to have a snake tattoo stretching all the way up her leg.

The novel follows Ginie and her husband Stephen’s time in 1950’s Rhodesia, then still under British rule, where instead of finding peace from their enemies, the couple only succeeded in making more.

Written in Treger’s signature captivating style, the book catapults the reader ever forward as Ginie struggles to win over her racist settler neighbours. Ginie and Stephen were outspoken against the wrongs they witnessed and worked tirelessly to change their new country for the better – even going as far as to have secret political meetings in their home. Needless to say, it won them few friends.

Treger has captured the last days of colonial Rhodesia perfectly. It is not just Lady Courtauld’s story, but also the people fighting for the country’s future. And while the book may only focus on a small piece of Zimbabwe’s long complicated history, it does so with emotion and fire.

I love learning about history’s forgotten heroines and The Dragon Lady succeeds in shining a light on a truly remarkable woman. Ginie was a fascinating character, never without her pet lemur Jongy (pictured above, regrettably, as a skunk, which was the closest thing I could find) Her home, La Rochelle, remains standing to this day and is maintained by the National Trust of Zimbabwe.

It’s a marvellous novel best enjoyed in a garden setting, with a large gin and tonic.

According to Amazon, The Dragon Lady will be available in June 2019.

The Dragon Lady

LEGO book review: Return to Fear Street

When it comes to my favourite things from childhood, R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps and Fear Street novels are right up there with Monster Munch, Gatti Jelly Jolly and Rainbow Brite.

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