Book Review: The Taste of Apple by James Laidler

Review: The Taste of Apple
Author: James Laidler
No of Pages: 312
Release Date: 1 September 2010

UNDERNEATH THE APPLE SKIN THERE IS KNOWLEDGE AND HIDDEN DEEP WITHIN THE SEEDS OF CHANGE.

Pedro Jones is lost. Abandoned by his father and forced into commission housing with his Filipino immigrant mother, the future seems bleak.

But when Pedro meets the ‘mad’ street busker, Johnny Lazzaro, and gets involved with the East Timor freedom movement, life takes an unexpected detour through the uncharted backblocks of the human heart.

My Thoughts:

The Taste of Apple was not only better than I was expecting, it was exceptional.

Pedro is a half-caste living in Australia with his Filipino mother and Australian father. Life is as ok as it gets when your parents have a strained relationship and you’re going to a school where everyone hates you because of your intelligence and your background. But everything changes when Pedro’s father leaves one day and never comes back, leaving nothing but a note for his wife saying that it is time to move on.

Pedro and his mum move to Richmond, Victoria which isn’t the greatest of places, especially for migrants. There he meets Johnny a street busker who lives in his building. It’s Johnny that helps Pedro figure out what he wants from life and Johnny who helps him see what he has to be thankful for.


The Taste of Apple was an addictive read but also so incredibly powerful that it wasn’t a need to read just to get to the end but sheer want to continuously delve into the setting Laidler created with his prose. It wasn’t about the finish but about the journey Pedro went on to find himself, and his place in this life.

Laidler writes solely in freelance poetry, and while I would usually cringe at the thought of this, as I have in the past, he created a new appreciation in me for the style. Laidler uses his poetry for hard-hitting scenes and to create feelings I can’t imagine being created any other way. My stomach physically clenched and I actually had a head whip during some of the things Laidler showed us.

On top of Laidler's exquisite writing he also offers up a soundtrack to go with his novel. I was hesitant about this concept at first myself but once I settled into the occasional poem being read out to me with the accompaniment of music and sounds to go with it, a new level of understanding was reached a new depth to the story added and I began reading The Taste of Apple truly with Pedro in my head and the sounds of Richmond surrounding me.

The Taste of Apple was a superb read one I don’t feel I can do justice with this review. The Taste of Apple will make you smile, make you laugh and bring you close to tears with a few simple verses. I can’t fault it in any way. One would think that there would be a lack of character development and sure I don’t know what Pedro really looks like, because I never watched him in this story, but I know how he thinks, how he feels and what he wants because I was looking out through his eyes, and I think The Taste of Apple is the finest experience of looking out a characters eyes that I have ever read or will read for a long time to come.

The Taste of Apple is an experience I encourage anyone and everyone to at least try, because once you start, it will be difficult to stop.

Book Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Book Review: If I Stay
Series: If I Stay – Book 1
Author: Gayle Forman
No of Pages: 234
Release Date: 9 April 2009

On a day that started like any other...

Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. Then, in an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left – the most important decision she’ll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

My Thoughts:

If I Stay was powerful and sad. Probably the only girl in YA history who is both well adjusted and mature and she had to have everything taken away from her.

On a family drive during the winter Mia’s family car is t-boned by a semi that couldn’t stop in time. Her parents are instantly killed and Mia and her brother Teddy are the only ones to survive. Teddy is rushed to the local hospital but Mia has to go to Portland hospital because her injuries are so severe.

Mia is probably the nicest, most respectful, most mature girl in the history of YA. She loves her parents, her grandparents, and her little brother to pieces. She is in a normal stable relationship with a fellow musician who is in a rock band. Mia is strong, smart and just so normal. It broke my heart to know that she lost her family. Before the crash Mia’s only dilemma in life was deciding on whether to go to New York to study music or to stay in her small home town with her family and her boyfriend.

After the crash Mia had to decide whether to pass on or to continue living. The 24 hours that she took to decide this is the twenty four hours that we spend in her head. Mia is having an out of body experience, being able to walk around the hospital she is in and see what the people she loves are going through.

Mia’s boyfriend Adam is also probably one of the most normal male interests we have ever seen in YA, he wasn’t moody or irrational he was just a musician like Mia who happened to have the mental capacity to love. Adam supported everything Mia did and Mia supported Adam in everything he did. Adam and her best friend Kim broke into her hospital room just to see her and it was Adam who thought to bring her beloved cello music for her to listen to.

Whilst being in Mia’s head we also have a lot of flashbacks, how she met her friends, her memories of her grandparents growing up, her memories of her parents and brother. They once again ground in the fact of how normal Mia and her life had been. But they never got boring or repetitive like some flashbacks become. They were just bits and pieces of her life as she had known it and they were so masterfully done that they created a clear picture of what Mia and the people she knew had been like.

Her parents were probably the nicest parents ever portrayed in a YA novel. They were rockers who turned into loving parents who didn’t overlook what they knew their kids would be doing anyway but didn’t give them free reign either and truly sunk in the message that your parents can be your friends.

If I Stay was so powerful in the many messages that it put across. From living every day to the fullest, to loving your family and being thankful for what you have, and to cherish the people you love because you never know when they might be taken away.

I also loved the sheer irony of the situation. Leave the family and go to New York became stay in the world of the living or go with your family.

If I Stay was extremely emotional for me and I would be surprised if anyone didn’t come away with something from this novel. The simplicity of a normal person losing their family in a horrible way became a rollercoaster ride of emotions. If I Stay was masterfully written and will stay with you for a long time after the final page has been turned.

Also in this Series:
Where She Went

Something to make us feel better...

The world doesn't seem as happy anymore. Sometimes we need something to cheer us up. This song always does it for me.




I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands
I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you
I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality
I believe that trust is more important than monogamy
I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul
I believe that family is worth more than money or gold
I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair
I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

 I believe forgiveness is the key to your own happiness
I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed
I believe that God does not endorse tv evangelists
I believe in love surviving death into eternity

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can't appreciate real love 'til you've been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye(Repeat 2)
Until you say goodbye
Oh no no no no no ( Repeats itself many times fading)

Secret by The Pierces - Music Video

After reviewing Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella, I thought of this song, and I think it is a perfect theme for the book (and I just love this song). This is the music video used in Gossip Girl because this is my favourite version.