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Emily’s Picks

Emily’s Picks is a regular series of reviews for older teenagers and young adults.  We hope you find something to inspire you.

Emily’s Pick of the Month

March 2022

Star rating: 3/5

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The One Memory of Flora Banks, Emily Barr.

“I look at my hands. One of them says FLORA be brave”

 

Flora Banks, the title character, is an unreliable narrator. Through no fault of her own Flora suffers from amnesia and “can’t remember anything day-to-day” except for everything before she turned 10. Perceived as different, the book shares the mental health and emotional strength of a character navigating a world she cannot recall, with faces she doesn’t know.


“Then she kisses someone she shouldn’t - and the next day she
remembers it.”

 

“But the boy is gone”

 

The book follows Flora on a metaphorical journey of discovery as she learns and begins to try to understand her life now that she is 17. However, on this note and the reason the book is 3 stars is because it is simply written information-dumping of Flora’s thoughts and actions, making it somewhat confusing and hard to follow at times - possibly written this way so the reader understands the struggle Flora faces on a daily basis with its repetitive structure and a consistent reminder not only to Flora but the reader also.

 

“I am really here. Yet I know I am not. I am inside something that must be buried in my head. I am layers deep in my own brain.”

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Emily’s Pick of the Month

February 2022

Star rating: 5/5

(This book is for 18+)

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Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood, Book 1 by Sarah J. Maas.

 

“Bound by blood. Tempted by desire. Unleashed by destiny.”

Bryce Quinlan, is the light of the book in many ways - partying all night in clubs where the different classes: angels, shifters, human and Fae merge.

 

Until a demon murdered her closest friends.

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The book is set two years on from the incident, with flashbacks as the crimes start up again. Bryce is set to investigate and assigned an enslaved fallen angel to her side as she fights to uncover the truth whilst shadowed and consistently followed by her own dark past.

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Sarah J. Maas world building has always been the greatest thing about her books, from Throne of Glass to A Court of Thorns and Roses she has never lost a chance to build a whole world cleverly exploring the nooks and crannies of them. But as the first in the series, this book contains more than that of her usual first book information - with its captivating characters, twists and turns and character driven plot - all 800 pages means the book is on the large side, but all the more worth it by the end.

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‘Think Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a

drizzle of E.L. James’ - Telegraph

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