Pamela Rushby

Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Military violence and war themes, murder, gun violence, animal death and death of a friend, racist slur, grief and loss depiction, World War One
Score: Seven points out of ten.
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It's been a while since I've read from Pamela Rushby, but here's a brief recap: more than a year ago I read two books from her, Lizzie and Margaret Rose and Interned. I thought the former was a hit until I picked out the flaws, and the latter--a massive disappointment. I didn't have high hopes for The Horses Didn't Come Home. However, the author pleasantly surprised me when I found it to be enjoyable.

It starts with the first characters I see, Laura and Harry, initially living together in Australia before the latter joined the Australian Army to fight in World War One. The narrative can sometimes get disjointed with the multiple POVs, and I don't get why the author had to unnecessarily capitalise some words. The pacing is swift and enjoyable with chapters that only last a few pages. The middle of the narrative can sometimes get monotonous and repetitive, especially when I see Harry recounting his uneventful life and Laura receiving letters he wrote. The conclusion is more action-packed, as Harry and other soldiers fight in the Battle of Beersheba, claiming that their horses carried them to victory (it was the soldiers though.) Harry returns home in one piece but not before he realises that the horses stayed there at Beersheba, never to return to Australia. That is a low note.… (meer)

Trigger warnings: Near-death experience, military violence and war themes, World War II, displacement

6.5/10, this was an interesting read and the first book I've read from Pamela Rushby and she wrote an ok story about World War II but nothing remarkable and I've read other war books better than this one since then. An interesting aspect about this novel is that the main characters were named after historical figures notably members of the royal family like Princess Margaret Rose and the then Princess Elizabeth but the latter figure was living up until a few months ago and she was the Queen of the United Kingdom for 70 years and now her son Charles is on the throne so it felt very surreal to be reading a book mentioning her when she passed on. That being said the story was fine and reflected the time period well enough but I could've used some more immersion into the setting but to compensate the character dynamic between Lizzie and Margaret Rose, hence the title, was rather interesting to look at. At the beginning of the story Margaret lived in London during the Blitz in 1940 when her house was bombed and she had to move to Australia and I liked the fact that she took a ship and it stopped at multiple locations like Cape Town, South Africa and Ceylon which is now Sri Lanka and I got a glimpse of the setting but it was only a few pages long and she arrived at Queensland where she met her cousin Lizzie for the first time. The story wasn't that cohesive at the beginning due to it being split between two main characters and it only got together towards the latter half of the book but Lizzie was frustrating to read at first due to her mistreating her cousin and shouting when things didn't go her way but she experienced character development and got along eventually and Margaret even wanted to stay in Queensland until the war was over but the story ended before it did which was a strange choice but I think the author did this to keep it short and not drag on for too long. If you like war stories set in the United Kingdom and Australia pick this one but there are better stories than this such as the ones Alan Gratz wrote like Refugee and Allies.… (meer)

Trigger warnings: Death of a friend from the Spanish Flu, grief and loss, mention of a pandemic, hatred of ethnicities
6/10, after I read Lizzie and Margaret Rose made by the same author I was hoping that I would enjoy this one as well; sadly she disappointed me with her latest book but I'm still waiting for any new books she might write I might enjoy in the future, where do I begin with this. It begins with one main character called Gretta who is German living in Singapore but then it cuts to another main character named Tilly who lived in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and their lives appear normal at first until World War One starts and Australia declares war on Germany. Suddenly Germans experience hatred including Gretta and Tilly and so they have to move from their respective places to a new place in New South Wales, Australia but honestly while I appreciate the inclusion of certain people being hated I simply couldn't relate or connect to either main character because they weren't fleshed out or developed enough. Gretta and Tilda were distant from each other at first however they grew closer to one another and this spanned most of the war in the book and one character hoped that Germany would win the war but she found out that this wasn't the case and soon they had to depart from each other. To add insult to injury Tilda discovers that Gretta died from the Spanish Flu and that wraps up the book on a low note.… (meer)

I am sure that I have read this book before perhaps with another title? It reads very similar to the My Story series. Roddy lies about his age so that he can sign up as a newspaper boy after school during world war 2. It is 1942 Brisbane and he learns the hard way that each newspaper boy has their own "turf" for selling papers and that you can't stand on someone else's patch or you get beaten up. But then he discovers an Italian restaurant full of US soldiers on leave who want to read about the war. Short book suitable for upper primary and lower secondary.… (meer)