What did you read this summer?

 Do you think books can still be gripping if you know the central plot in advance? This is what I decided to find out when I read these two books this summer!

 

They both die at the end by Adam Silvera 

What a rollercoaster of a story! I can totally see why this has remained number one in the young adult charts for so many months. This has a very unusual concept in that the title gives away the ending and you would think that this would spoil the plot but it so doesn’t. Rufus and Mateo meet on their ‘last day’ in a world where you receive a phone call to tell you that you are going to die in the next 24 hours. You spend the whole book trying to decide whether you would like to live in this world or not! What these two characters get up to and the way they mature and discover new things is really gripping. You are left with the very real question…….what would you do if you knew today was your last day? Brilliant! 

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell 

This is the second novel I have read where from the start you know what is going to happen to the characters. Shakespeare leaves his home for London after marrying his wife. Hamnet, his son, dies when he is a child. Shakespeare writes a play called Hamlet 4 years later. We know these facts, but this is the story of the people in this tale, of their love and anguish and how they deal with it. I loved the way it started, with alternating chapters between two timelines - one from when Shakespeare first met Agnes, his wife, and the second from the day of Hamnet ‘s death. The fact you know this death is coming doesn’t make it less scary or less emotional. This novel is beautifully written and tugs at the heartstrings. A brilliant historical fiction which I didn’t want to end! 

Mrs Godden