My pal Charlotte, at Wonderfully Bookish persuaded me a long time ago to pick up Lisa Heathfield’s books. I started with Flight Of A Starling, and she kept encouraging me to pick more and more books up by Lisa. I didn’t need a whole bunch of persuading after my first book by her, but i do want to talk a little bit about how i think she’s incredibly underappreciated.
I’ve always found Lisa’s books to be incredibly interesting, with topics that are not regularly associted with YA. When people dislike them, i honestly seem to have absolutely no idea why. I find them captivating and it always takes me maximum of two days to read one of her books, because i cannot seem to put them down.
However, out there in the bookish community i feel like her books are rarely talked about, and if they are, they are not given the credit they deserve as honestly, absolute masterpieces of storytelling for a younger audience. I don’t say that lightly about many YA books, the likes of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas get this level of appreciation from me, but i cannot help but add every Lisa Heathfield book in to that list too.
They’re incredibly memorable stories, with topics that stay with you for a long time. Her novel I Am Not A Number i still think about regularly. In fact i recommended recently because i think it’s incredibly important as a book.
All Lisa’s books have dark tones, and topics that don’t fit with the norm. There’s rarely any true romance, and the characters are always flawed in some ways, but they promote bravery, and i love the way not everything works out in the end in any of her novels. They’re all striking and completely different and complex in their own ways.
I decided to talk about Lisa’s books because i’ve just finished reading Seed, admittedly, i have not yet read Paper Butterflies, and that is my last book to be read from her, but i already know i’ll love it. In honesty, a book review didn’t feel enough for Seed. I got through most of it in a day, and adored the writing style, the characters and the story-line. There’s something about her writing that completely hooks you around fifty pages in and i cannot stop reading after that.
I’m not trying to claim these are the best written books, or even my favourites of all time, but Lisa has become one of my auto-buy authors, especially for the way she represents the UK and regular people in the country. Seed specifically hit a nerve with me of absolute adoration for characters, and hatred at the same time. It made me feel things towards a book i haven’t felt in a long time, honestly, probably since i read I Am Not A Number.
I have always feared with auto-buy authors that you will get the same story done over and over again after a while. Which happens a lot, and i feel the need to keep buying their books but i know i’ll be a little disappointed each time. I’ve never had that with Lisa’s books, and i cannot wait to see what each story is about.
Most of her books have adult themes and certain issues that i would not present to a younger teen, however i think they can be enjoyed by everyone. To me they definitely read as older YA or even adult. Keep that in mind when recommending them. But i would HIGHLY recommend picking one of these books up.
The Little Contemporary Corner 