Walker Books

I have a fondness for epistolary books and was super excited to dive into Yours From The Tower by Sally Nicholls!!

It’s the story of three girls who have just finished school and are off to pursue their futures (some they’ve chosen and some they feel obligated to do). They’re such close friends and dreaded giving each other up as distance separated them, so they started writing letters where all three would receive the same letters and keep posting them back and forth to each other. I love friendship books. 🥺 (And this is such a reminder of how easy it is to stay in contact with people these days and to keep up long-distance friendships.) The girls are truly so close and have dynamic personalities which was interesting to see them come through the letters. Sometimes, with books with multiple narrators, the voices can blur, but each girl felt so distinct to me as they wrote.

Louisa is from an upperclass family and is off to find a husband (preferably a rich one ahem), so she’s set to do the Season and go to lots of balls and meet all the eligible bachelors and be wooed, not by love, but by status. Except that’s not working out so well for her when a youngest-son of a not-financially-stable family falls for her and she is struggling hard not to be enamoured back.
Tirzah has been stuffed back into her ailing grandmother’s house to act as companion and basically live the most boring life ever as a sour, nasty old woman bosses her around. Tirzah is super outgoing and vibrant and dynamic, so being stuffed inside a house to read to an old woman is NOT suiting her personality. Her letters are full of drama and raging and then eventually she starts digging into the past and what happened to her mother.
Polly is off to work in an orphanage. She has such a soft, kind heart and she gets so invested i the lives of the children, but particular a family of three small boys who claim their evil stepmother abandoned them in the orphanage but their father is still alive, just overseas serving in the army. Polly is shocked that someone could do something like this to them and starts investigating, all the while trying not to fall for the orphanage manager.

It was a quick read and easy to devour. There are letters from a few other POVs sprinkled throughout (some were really funny from some of the boys lol) but mostly it’s just Tirzah, Louisa and Polly. I did feel Polly probably have as much page time as the others, but I was invested in Tirzah character growth arc and wondering if Lousia was going to go for that charming himbo of a boy. 😂 Sebastian was so dramatic. I also appreciated that it’s like a slice-of-life story and there wasn’t really friendship drama or backstabbing between the girls. They genuinely were such good friends.

And I laughed when they occasionally wrote privately to each other outside of the letters they all three shared. The 1800s equivalent of the group chat spawning new group chats.

Read it for:
♡ whole book told in letters
♡ 1800s lifestyle
♡ variety of different goals/lives women could lead back then
♡ some humour and drama
♡ strong friendship vibes
♡ intriguing subplots with little bites of mystery

Thank you to Walker Books for the copy!

1896. Tirzah, Louisa and Polly are best friends who’ve left boarding school and gone back to very different lives. Polly is teaching in an orphanage. Louisa is looking for a rich husband at the London Season. And Tirzah is stuck acting as an unpaid companion to her grandmother. In a series of letters, they share their hopes, their frustrations, their dramas … and their romances. Can these three very different young women find happiness?

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published November 1st, 2023

When I say I am obsessed with The Skull by Jon Klassen, I am. Can we say cosy gothic?! Because it is.

This is a beautifully illustrated, dark and yet cosy, folktale about a girl who runs away and finds a mysterious abandoned mansion inhabited only by a skull. There is just such spooky whimsy on the pages, and it delivers the store in such a factual and endearing way. It’s retold from the original Tyrolean tale (I had to look this up, and it’s Austrian!) and I love how, at the end, the author talked about how this is how folktales should be passed down: each time they’re told and shared and spoken, they change a little. Stories truly do have a life of their own and every time we speak them, they grow that little bit more.

The story is perfect for younger readers with large, easy-to-read font. It’s also a quick read and not at all intimidating. On the spookier side? A little. I would’ve lapped this up as a kid too, because please yes talk to me about skeletons and abandoned mansions and bottomless holes in the ground under the house. And I found it equally enjoyable as an adult.

Jon Klassen’s art style is also absolutely incredible and I adore it. Macabre whimsy and soft tones; you just want to live in amongst the pages.

Do you need this book? Absolutely. It will live rent free in my head and I would like infinite books with this aesthetic. Gothic, cosy, and memorable.

Thank you to Walker Books Australia for the review copy!

Caldecott Medalist and #1 New York Times best-selling author-illustrator Jon Klassen delivers a deliciously macabre treat for folktale fans.
In a big abandoned house, on a barren hill, lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla has escaped from terrible danger and run away, and when she finds herself lost in the dark forest, the lonely house beckons. Her host, the skull, is afraid of something too, something that comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both? Steeped in shadows and threaded with subtle wit – with rich, monochromatic artwork and an illuminating author’s note – The Skull is as empowering as it is mysterious and foreboding.

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published July 7th, 2023