Review: The Captive by Deborah O'Connor

 

Wow - this was so good! Honestly could not put it down!

Restorative justice has become the major type of criminal reform, with cells being installed in victims' houses and victims being responsible for the prisoner's care. Hannah becomes the caretaker of Jem, the man who murdered her husband six months earlier. But Jem is insistent that he's innocent - and when Hannah begins to doubt the evidence presented to her, she realises that John's death was not as straight-forward as she thought...

The restorative justice conversation that happens in this book was so interesting, and definitely deserves a mention outside of the story. The story itself was so good too - it was pacey and kept moving forward, with plenty of twists and turns thrown in. I couldn't figure out who was responsible for John's murder until it was revealed, so I consider that to be a well-written plot. This was just so good, I can't say enough good things about it. Highly recommend!

Review: The Word Trove by Elias Vorpahl

This book was beautiful! Beautifully written and crafted.

We are following a word trying to find it's meaning after being spoken and forgetting who it is. 

This book was completely different from anything that I have ever read before but I really enjoyed it. The story was really original and beautifully written (or translated, since it was written in German). I loved the little details to make it seem more realistic - "The little letter on its right syllable had gone completely numb." This made the story just realistic enough to follow, but still abstract enough to make a really interesting story that you can't help but want to finish. I like that it's short and sweet too - you can easily read this in one sitting and enjoy all the little details that are hidden in there. Little references to Alice in Wonderland also helped to keep this story from going off track, and I would highly recommend this book.