I'm Still Here - Clélie Avit

Title: I'm Still Here
Author: Clélie Avit
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 262 pages
Date read: April, 2017

Elsa is spending her thirtieth birthday in the hospital bed where she's lain for months after a devastating mountain accident. Unable to speak, see, or move, she appears to be in an irreversible coma, but her friends and family don't know that she's regained the power of hearing.

That day, a stranger named Thibault enters the hospital to visit his brother, who's just been injured in an accident that killed two young girls. He instead seeks refuge in the room where Elsa lies, and quickly becomes intrigued by the young woman, returning day after day to sit beside her, convinced that his words are being heard.

As their connection grows, the doctors deliver a devastating blow to her family. Is it possible that Thibault knows something no one else does, and can he reach her before it's too late?


A quick and easy read. It didn't strike me until long after that it's obviously a retelling of the Cinderella story, because of course it is. I did find the love-story slightly more believable though -- at least from Elsa's POV.

But this is one book where different POVs really work! I liked that every second chapter was told by Elsa and every second by Thibault. It helped us get inside the minds of both, and I grew to care for both of them. Probably especially Thibault actually. I loved seeing how he interacted with his friends and goddaughter - very cute!

I did think the book ended just slightly too abruptly, which brought it down to 4 stars, but all in all I found it a very enjoyable story.

Hul i hovedet - Nicole Boyle Rødtnes

Title: Hul i hovedet
Author: Nicole Boyle Rødtnes
Genre: YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 212
Date read: April, 2017

"Du skulle have set Susan!" Ida himler med øjnene. "Festens tema var gangsters og ludere, men alligevel...!" "Hvor kort var hendes kjole?" spørger jeg. Eller det troede jeg. Men en rynke i Idas pande fortæller mig, at det ikke var det, der kom ud. "Hvad kost var festen?" gentager jeg, og nu kan jeg godt høre, at noget er galt. "Nå, hvad det kostede at komme ind?" spørger Ida. "40 kroner – det var ingenting." Jeg ryster på hovedet. Ida tænker igen. "Hvor mange, der kom? "Jeg ryster på hovedet igen. "Lige meget," siger jeg så. Jeg kan se på hende, at det slår hende lidt ud, at jeg klokker i det. Det må også være nederen at være den, der altid skal lege gæt og grimasser med spasseren.

Til en fest slår Vega hovedet og får en hjerneblødning. Da hun vågner på hospitalet, har hun mistet sit sprog, og det føles, som hele hendes liv er forsvundet sammen med ordene. Men en dag møder hun Theo, der ligesom hende har svært ved at tale. Men kan man elske uden ord? Og hvad skete der egentlig den aften, hvor Vega kom til skade?


Meget samme stil som "XY", men afgjort bedre! Jeg havde ikke de samme problemer med troværdigheden denne gang, og var væsentlig mere tilfreds med slutningen.

Men fælles for begge bøger er at Nicole Rødtnes tager fat i seriøse emner, som man ikke umiddelbart ser i ungdomsbøger. Afgjort en bog jeg ville anbefale til alle i målgruppen, og som jeg også selv nød, selvom jeg nok er lidt over den. Jeg kunne godt lide at følge Vegas og Theos venskab, og se hvordan de fandt ud af at kommunikere selv uden ord.

En rigtig good teenage-roman.

The Pearl Thief - Elizabeth Wein

Title: The Pearl Thief (Code Name Verity #0)
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Genre: Historical, YA
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 336
Date read: April, 2017

When fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she'd imagined won't be exactly like she anticipated. And once she returns to her grandfather's estate, a bit banged up but alive, she begins to realize that her injury might not have been an accident. One of her family's employees is missing, and he disappeared on the very same day she landed in the hospital.

Desperate to figure out what happened, she befriends Euan McEwen, the Scots Traveller boy who found her when she was injured, and his standoffish sister Ellen. As Julie grows closer to this family, she experiences some of the prejudices they've grown used to firsthand, a stark contrast to her own upbringing, and finds herself exploring thrilling new experiences that have nothing to do with a missing-person investigation.

Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travellers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime.


While I never found it quite as engaging as neither Code Name Verity nor Rose Under Fire, I was still very pleased to get to read it.

It took me awhile to get into the story. Partly because I didn't care too much about Julie at first, partly because I really couldn't figure out what genre the book was trying to be! However, I was still intrigued enough to keep reading, and once the book decided for sure that it was going to be a mystery, I enjoyed it a lot more.

I was really, really frustrated by how people treated the tinkers, but guess that's pretty true for the time, and that describing it any other way would be "whitewashing" (for want of better word) history.

It didn't break my heart the way Elizabeth Wein's two other books did, but it's a cute story to tide people over, who want to know more about Julie/Verity.