Udvalgt - Nick Clausen

Title: Udvalgt (Den sidste vindrytter, 1)
Author: Nick Clausen
Genre: YA fantasy
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 194
Date read: April, 2018

16-year-old Kian is a fairly average teenager with a boring life. But one day a mysterious man pops up and tells him of a strange world where the people are threatened by the carnivorous valkryper.

Only Kian has the ability to stop them - he is the last survivor of an ancient family...


A fun YA fantasy novel. It's nothing earth-shattering, but kept me nicely entertained for all almost 200 pages. It is not a stand-alone novel though, but a setup for book 2 in the trilogy. So while it doesn't end on a cliffhanger (fortunately) it ends up with pretty much nothing being resolved.

I liked both the writing style and the characters though, so fully expect to continue with the next in the series before too long.

The Loose Ends List - Carrie Firestone

Title: The Loose Ends List
Author: Carrie Firestone
Genre: YA
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 400
Date read: April, 2018

Seventeen-year-old Maddie O'Neill Levine's grandmother is a young-at-heart socialite who has always been Maddie's go-to confidante. Although Maddie and the rest of her family have learned to expect the unexpected from their matriarch, Gram still manages to shock them all when she announces that she has booked the O'Neill clan on a secret death-with-dignity ship called the Wishwell; Gram has terminal cancer and is determined to leave the world in her own way--and give her family an unforgettable summer of dreams-come-true in the process.

Soon, Maddie is on the trip of a lifetime with her wacky family. Aboard the ship, Maddie bonds with other Wishwellians and falls for Enzo, the son of the ship's owner, as they travel the globe. But despite the copious laugher, headiness of first love, and wonder of the glamorous destinations, Maddie knows she is on the brink of losing Gram, and she struggles to find the strength to let go in a whirlwind summer shaped by love, grief, and the power of forgiveness.


One of the best YA novels I've read in years. From the back blurb I expected "fluff with a substance" and that was definitely also what I got. It was funny, it was heartbreaking, it was life-affirming, it was poignant, it was beautiful, it made me sob my way through most of the last 100 pages (but in a good way).

I loved the relationship between Maggie and her Gram, and though the idea of a "death with dignity" cruise seemed more than a little morbid, once I accepted that premise I liked reading about the other passengers on the ship, and how they all ended up interacting in one way or another, and because an automatic support group. I've always been fascinated with cruises, and loved reading about both life on the ship and at the different ports they got off at.

I can easily see this book as not being for everybody, but it totally worked for me.

Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov

Title: Death and the Penguin
Author: Andrey Kurkov
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 228
Date read: April, 2018

In today's Ukraine, all that stands between one man and murder by the Mafia is a penguin.

Viktor is an aspiring writer with only Misha, his pet penguin, for company. Although he would prefer to write short stories, he earns a living composing obituaries for a newspaper. He longs to see his work published, yet the subjects of his obituaries continue to cling to life. But when he opens the newspaper to find his work in printfor the first time, his pride swiftly turns to terror. He and Misha have been drawn into a trap form which there appears to be no escape.


Very strange and quirky little book. Slow-moving, but in no way boring. Written by a Ukranian so quite different in style from what I'm used to. I neither liked it nor disliked it, but found it interesting to consider how differently the plot would have been handled if written by an author of another nationality.

It held my interest, but though left with an open ending, I'm in no rush to continue on with the next one.