janienejulia's reviews
98 reviews

Under The Blue is Oana Aristide’s debut novel, published in 2021. It chronicles the experience of a reclusive artist, Harry, in the midst of a plague-like pandemic that leaves Europe a deserted, soon-to-be-inhabitable wasteland littered with corpses in the year 2020. At the same time, researchers Lisa and Paul are ‘educating their baby’ Talos, an advanced AI program, out in the Arctic Circle. As time goes on, and Harry traverses a deeply unfamiliar and unsettling European landscape, these two threads begin to converge in a fascinating way.

The similarities between our recent history and the premise of this book is an unfortunate coincidence; Aristide began writing Under The Blue back in 2017 and so I was keen to see her take on a pandemic in Europe.

A contemporary eco-thriller, Under the Blue is a terrific piece of work. Largely through Lisa and Talos’ debates, Aristide forces us to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Although we very recently saw the outbreak of a pandemic play out in a much different way, the events of this novel are not impossible. Had COVID been more devastating (well over half of the English population dies in Aristides’ world) and we had AI as far along as Talos, it could be all too realistic. And though I didn’t love the ending, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

You can my full review here: https://readbyjaniene.com/2022/04/09/under-the-blue-a-pandemic-in-europe-sound-familiar/

And check out my bookstagram: @readbyjaniene

Born in 1938 to impoverished Cuban parents in Hell’s Kitchen as Evelyn Herrera, Evelyn Hugo later becomes the star of the century. Now, in 2017, Evelyn is willing to give a much sought-after interview about her extravagant life but only to one person: a little-known journalist named Monique Grant.

Beyond the eyebrow-raising seven husbands, there was so much more to this novel than I was initially anticipating. I thought it would be all about sordid affairs, complicated love stories, and ostentatious wealth – and it is, but it’s also much, much more than that. There’s a lot in here about identity, about navigating a world that wasn’t really made with you in mind. It’s difficult not to give it all away, especially as casual spoilers are readily available online, though I surprisingly managed to avoid them, or forget them by the time it took me to read the book. I love complicated, even ruthless, female leads, and that is exactly what Evelyn is. She’s done some ugly things, but remains a woman beautifully dedicated to what she loves most: her family. love her or hate her, it’s still an obsession. On the other hand, while I found myself starting to understand and even appreciate Evelyn more and more, I didn’t particularly care for Monique. That said, I found Evelyn’s obvious influence on her – and thus her growth – quite charming and a little riveting. she became more willing to say what she wanted and mean it, more willing to go after it.

At first I wanted to give this just four stars but I think I enjoyed it a little too much for that. As well as firmly putting us in Evelyn’s shoes, there’s also a grand, stupidly dramatic, and intense love affair at the heart of Evelyn’s life story that was incredibly captivating.

You can read a full review here: https://readbyjaniene.com/2022/05/21/the-seven-husbands-of-evelyn-hugo-all-that-glitters-isnt-gold-in-this-old-hollywood-tale/

And check out my bookstagram: @readbyjaniene

Migrations may very well be one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read.

I came across Migrarions on #BookTok via @baker_reads and bought it immediately. In the world of Migrations, all wild animals have had to pay the ultimate price for our mistreatment of the world and its resources: total extinction. Bears, owls, wolves, lions, almost all birds, and many more have ceased to exist or are rapidly dwindling.

Franny Stone, with her murky and questionable past, is determined to follow the final migration of the Arctic Terns, all 20,000+ miles from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic Circle. Soon, it becomes clear that Franny is on a migration of her own.

Franny and the terns make their migrations separately, but also together, unified by distinct but indescribable desperations, both hopeful in their attempts to triumph circumstances over which they have had little control. Migrations is heart-wrenching and exquisite, and a novel I can’t recommend enough. For a debut novel, Migrations is a breathtaking piece of work.

You can read my full review here: https://readbyjaniene.com/2022/05/07/charlotte-mcconaghys-debut-migrations-depicts-one-womans-devastatingly-beautiful-journey/

And check out my bookstagram: @readbyjaniene

Love Orange chronicles the lives of the Tinkley family: a traditional suburban family living in a stereotypical cul-de-sac. Parents Jenny and Hank relocate from the city with their two young sons: Jesse and Luke in 2014 into an Arts and Crafts home. A year later, Hank has converted their home into a smart home, which starts to feel like a strange tool of surveillance. The house, simply called ‘Home’, sometimes feels like a peculiar fifth member of the family – always there and aware, much to Jenny’s dismay, but never a full participant in the family’s affairs.

Jenny, feeling trapped in in the constructions that are motherhood and marriage, and with her new smart home watching her every move, enters a prisoner pen-pal programme and strikes up a correspondence with John, who is serving time for manslaughter. Eventually Jenny becomes the middleman between John and his wife Shona and starts to develop a curious infatuation with the orange glue that seals his letters. This growing obsession starts to consume Jenny, and proves to be much more dangerous than she could have imagined.

I immediately took to Luke, the youngest son, and felt the opposite about his father Hank. Both Jenny and Hank regard him as a little peculiar, and find his behaviour somewhat concerning, though Hank more does so more openly, with Jenny often defending him. And simply put Hank, clearly a representation of where white hegemonic masculinity meets the New Age, rubbed me the wrong way.

Love Orange is a delicate and simply read, but I was a little underwhelmed. It didn’t resonate with, and hasn’t stuck with me in the ways I initially I expected it to. The Tinkley’s are such a middle-class, white suburban family that I found them painfully unrelatable and perhaps a little uninteresting as a result, except Luke.

That said, the ending isn’t wholesome and that’s something I can really appreciate – it’s a little different, and not what anyone would want in their hearts, but it makes for an interesting, semi-thought-provoking read.

You can reads my full review here: https://readbyjaniene.com/2022/04/23/love-orange-suburban-mediocrity-meets-opioids-and-smart-homes/

And check out my bookstagram: @readbyjaniene