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A review by realalexmartin
Leap by Myfanwy Jones
3.0
I read this for the Booktubeathon of 2015.
I received this book as an ARC for free from the publisher, Allen & Unwin, through Goodreads First reads. The review below is completely my opinion and has not been altered by any outside force.
I had some troubles with this book.
I will start off by saying that overall, this book was a solid contemporary novel, but it was unfortunately not for me, as I did have to temporarily DNF this book about half way through, but I did pick it back up again about 2 moths later and finish it.
Leap by Myfanwy Jones tells the tale of two different people who are seemingly not connected at all. Joe, a 20-something guy working two jobs and living with two other friends finds comfort in the French body training routine of Parkour, after a tragic incident involving his ex-girlfriend a few years before the story takes place. Elise, a mid-30s freelance graphic designer who is currently going through a rough patch in her marriage begins to intensely and almost obsessively observe and paint a small group of Tigers at the Melbourne Zoo.
Through theses two points of view, we see how both try to move on with their lives as the ripples of this tragic accident is still felt by both of them.
Personally, I preferred reading from Joe's point of view. I found Elise's point of views to be quite lonely and needing someone else there for the reader to escape to and discover that character, but we just never got that many supporting characters in her point of views. Joe's POVs, however, had a vibrancy or social aspect that I really enjoyed that allowed the reader to breath and escape this quite depressed state of mind that Joe, and Elise, are in; a mindset we couldn't escape in Elise's POV.
I can definitely say that both characters have the weirdest hobbies. Parkour and seeing some tigers on a weekly basis. I liked the metaphors that both these hobbies produced that made each characters' ambitions and personality come forward, but I felt that they were a bit too farfetched to be relatable.
World building in contemporary books can be quite hard, as you are having the story set in a real place (most of the time), so the author must capture the town/city/setting to perfection and must make the reader feel like they know the city like they've been there forever. Myfanwy Jones does this in Leap quite brilliantly and thoughtfully. But, I noticed that there was some physical description lacking when Elise would describe the tigers. As someone who would paint them and observe every little thing about them, there wasn't much description. I just imagined ordinary tigers that didn't feel somewhat connected with Elise at all.
When I received this book from Allen & Unwin (thank you, again), I had no idea what it was about, I actually thought it was a middle-grade book. Then I started reading, and there was some swearing, so I thought Oh, this is a YA. Then there was a very graphically described sex scene with the nurse which made me realise that this was in fact, a New Adult, making Leap my very first New Adult novel. So, just a warning, if you don't like sex, drug use, and mature language in your books, it's probably best not to read this.
But, if you like a well thought out contemporary, with a solid plot, but cliché characters, I would definitely recommend Leap by Myfanwy Jones
I received this book as an ARC for free from the publisher, Allen & Unwin, through Goodreads First reads. The review below is completely my opinion and has not been altered by any outside force.
I had some troubles with this book.
I will start off by saying that overall, this book was a solid contemporary novel, but it was unfortunately not for me, as I did have to temporarily DNF this book about half way through, but I did pick it back up again about 2 moths later and finish it.
Leap by Myfanwy Jones tells the tale of two different people who are seemingly not connected at all. Joe, a 20-something guy working two jobs and living with two other friends finds comfort in the French body training routine of Parkour, after a tragic incident involving his ex-girlfriend a few years before the story takes place. Elise, a mid-30s freelance graphic designer who is currently going through a rough patch in her marriage begins to intensely and almost obsessively observe and paint a small group of Tigers at the Melbourne Zoo.
Through theses two points of view, we see how both try to move on with their lives as the ripples of this tragic accident is still felt by both of them.
Personally, I preferred reading from Joe's point of view. I found Elise's point of views to be quite lonely and needing someone else there for the reader to escape to and discover that character, but we just never got that many supporting characters in her point of views. Joe's POVs, however, had a vibrancy or social aspect that I really enjoyed that allowed the reader to breath and escape this quite depressed state of mind that Joe, and Elise, are in; a mindset we couldn't escape in Elise's POV.
I can definitely say that both characters have the weirdest hobbies. Parkour and seeing some tigers on a weekly basis. I liked the metaphors that both these hobbies produced that made each characters' ambitions and personality come forward, but I felt that they were a bit too farfetched to be relatable.
World building in contemporary books can be quite hard, as you are having the story set in a real place (most of the time), so the author must capture the town/city/setting to perfection and must make the reader feel like they know the city like they've been there forever. Myfanwy Jones does this in Leap quite brilliantly and thoughtfully. But, I noticed that there was some physical description lacking when Elise would describe the tigers. As someone who would paint them and observe every little thing about them, there wasn't much description. I just imagined ordinary tigers that didn't feel somewhat connected with Elise at all.
When I received this book from Allen & Unwin (thank you, again), I had no idea what it was about, I actually thought it was a middle-grade book. Then I started reading, and there was some swearing, so I thought Oh, this is a YA. Then there was a very graphically described sex scene with the nurse which made me realise that this was in fact, a New Adult, making Leap my very first New Adult novel. So, just a warning, if you don't like sex, drug use, and mature language in your books, it's probably best not to read this.
But, if you like a well thought out contemporary, with a solid plot, but cliché characters, I would definitely recommend Leap by Myfanwy Jones