Mini-reviews: Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery; Incurable by John Marsden; and Black Heart by Holly Black

Title: Anne of the Island
Author: L.M. Montgomery
Genre: Historical fiction
Publisher: Puffin Classics
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Susan O’Malley
Audiobook length: 7 hours, 49 minutes
First line: “Harvest is ended and summer is gone,” quoted Anne Shirley, gazing across the shorn fields dreamily.

This third book in the “Anne-with-an-e” series is very close to as good as the first. Anne is away at college, and struggling to understand her feelings for Gilbert. I loved the friendship between Anne and the girls she shares a home with, and I was rooting for Gilbert the whole time. I’m not even minding that I have listened to three of the books in the series all narrated by different people. Each narrator has done a decent job, and they’ve blended together in my head.

Title: Incurable
Author: John Marsden
Genre: YA dystopian fiction
Publisher: Scholastic
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: When the cockies spread their wings and float from one branch to another they hang for a moment, like they’re caught in an eddy of air.

After the way I adored Marsden’s Tomorrow, When the War Began series, this second book in the Ellie Chronicles was a disappointment. I’ll know more after I finish the third, and final, book, but I’m beginning to think that these three books would have made more sense as a single, longer volume. Even though I like the character of young Gavin, I wanted more of Ellie and her trying to get on with things – and that’s not what Marsden wrote.

Title: Black Heart
Author: Holly Black
Genre: YA speculative fiction
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Jesse Eisenberg
Audiobook length: 6 hours, 33 minutes
First line: My brother Barron sits next to me, sucking the last dregs of milk tea slush noisily through a wide yellow straw.

I loved this third book in Black’s Curse Workers trilogy – it ended the series on just the right note. This series is part magic, part mafia, and I love the world she has created. I hope there will be further books set in the world, even if they don’t follow Cassel and his family. Jesse Eisenberg was a wonderful narrator, bringing Cassel’s first-person narration to life, and was very consistent throughout the entire series. This is definitely a YA series that you won’t want to miss, and if you do audio, that’s the way to go.