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Book Review: Remix, by Non Pratt

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I can’t overstate how much I was looking forward to reading Remix. I really enjoyed Non Pratt’s debut, Trouble, but it was about teenage pregnancy, so it was never going to make it to my best books of all time, just because it’s not one of my favourite subjects. However, if I was to pick a favourite theme for fictional stories, the one theme to rule them all, it would be friendship. So I was thinking – if Non could make me enjoy a book about (ew) teenage pregnancy, she would be able to work wonders when writing about friendship.

I was not disappointed.

Ruby and Kaz love being best friends. They want to tell each other everything, to rely on each other and support each other. And they want to be exclusive. They’re possessive, and jealous, and they worry that they’ll do something wrong and the friendship will dissolve. Their relationship is wonderfully realistic – at the beginning of the novel their relationship is going strong, but they both have secrets that they are afraid to share with the other. Kaz doesn’t want to confess that her ex-boyfriend is coming to Remix, the titular music festival, because she knows that Ruby will judge her for still being into him. Ruby, on the other hand, isn’t expecting to see her ex all weekend. He cheated on her, so she hates him, or so everyone, including Kaz, believes. Ruby is too proud to admit to anyone that things aren’t that simple.

Another issue simmering under the surface, as they pack (Kaz) or neglect to pack (Ruby) is that of their impending separation. Ruby has not done well in her exams and won’t be joining Kaz in the next year of school. Both of them worry about how they and their friendship will survive this.

The music festival provides the perfect setting for all the anticipated drama to play out. Old friends cause trouble, new friends get in the way, secrets are shared and mistakes are made as they weave and out of stalls, sing around campfires, and see bands they love.

Music plays a really important role in Remix – Kaz and Ruby have differing tastes but are united by their love of one particular band, like many friends are. Kaz is a musician herself, while Ruby loves to listen or throw herself around a mosh pit. Reading Remix made me feel completely desperate to go to a festival again, or a gig – unfortunately I had to settle for finding some new bands to listen to on Spotify!

If you love contemporary YA, I think you will really enjoy Remix. I thought it was fantastic and I can’t wait to see what Non Pratt writes about next!

Many thanks to Walker Books for sending me a proof copy of Remix.

Book Reviews: A Month with April-May, and 100 Days of April-May, by Edyth Bulbring

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Note: A Month with April May is actually the first one…but to get the similar picture I’d have to show you the backs!

I decided to review these books together because that’s how I think they’re best enjoyed – and besides, they look so gorgeous side-by-side! A Month with April-May introduces April-May February and her dad Fluffy, aka July, who live together in South Africa and want to stay together. But in order to do this, April-May must keep her mother happy by doing well at the school she has just joined as a bursary student.

The spanner in the works is Mrs Ho, a fearsomely prolific teacher determined to keep an eye on April-May, who just wants to be left alone to read Twilight, wear stripy socks, and hang out with her own Edward, trouble-making Sebastian. So April-May comes up with a plan or three to get rid of Mrs Ho, but she’s not easily removed, and she’s also got Fluffy’s finances and her mouth-breathing new friend Melly to worry about…

I generally prefer reading books aimed at older teens to those aimed at younger teens, which is why I think it took me a while to warm to A Month with April-May. Also, I think that, in comedy, the better we know the characters, the more we laugh at and with them. I liked the setup in the first book – there’s a diverse and interesting range of characters introduced, but by the time I’d gotten to know all of them properly the book was over! Both books are very short for modern YA, which is one of those things that appeals to some people and not to others – I would definitely have preferred them to be longer and for the story to be more fleshed-out, but other readers will love how quick they are to read.

April-May has a strong voice as a narrator – she is opinionated, nosy, greedy, and self-assured. It’s always refreshing to read about a young girl who knows that she is smarter than most of those around her. April-May February is no Frankie Landau-Banks, she is much too nice, even though she tries not to be, and her schemes don’t always work out the way she hopes, but she has a similar level of confidence and respect for her own values.

April-May’s family and friends are a gently quirky bunch of people who are alternately her allies and enemies, and I found that I wanted to know more about every single one.

I laughed a lot more at the second book, 100 Days of April-May, and would probably find a third even funnier. I hope there is a third, because it’s really great to see more YA books from outside the UK and the US being published here and I think April-May and her friends have many more schemes to attempt!