This book is raw and real and really deals with the issues marginalised young people face today. The characters as always with Patrice, are her strongest point and the interaction between the characters is briliantly done.

Efffortlessly inclusive and tightly plotted I really enjoyed this.

A modern and touching story, relating to family dynamics, grief, loss, and relationships. I found myself losing interest halfway through, but really enjoyed it as everything came together at the end. It felt very realistic, and I loved and hated characters, which is always a good thing when I read a book, I want to FEEL the relationships.

This is the first YA novel by Patrice Lawrence I have read. It is about a mixed race, extended family. There are people in prison, a Mother’s death, step mother, father and sisters, lesbians, growing apart from best friends and a missing person. So many issues. This could so easily have been overdone but it was not.

The plot is told by the two step-sisters. Silva was supposed to be supervising Becks while their parents were away on their honeymoon. Becks followed the clues to find Silva. Becks learnt a great deal about herself through the book.

I think this will be a winner for Patrice Lawrence.

I have read all of Patrice Lawrence's previous books and she is an author I'll continue to follow and make a point of reading, and an author who truly knows her audience.

That said, the extent to which I enjoy her books varies each time; I loved her last book Rose, Interrupted and thought it was her best yet, so I had very high hopes for this one and unfortunately it didn't quite live up to them.

Becks mum and new stepdad have set off on their honeymoon. She and stepsister Silva have been left in the family home, except Silva is missing. Becks sets out to find her and figure out what is going wrong.

The characters were really well-written. Becks especially, as our main narrator and central character, was very likeable and believable. The style it was written in, and the character's interests and dialogue felt like it really reflected the book's young readers too.

And I really liked the way the book featured both BAME and LGBTQ+ characters with neither of those things being the theme or subject of the book.

I was really drawn into the mystery of Silva's disappearance and I enjoyed seeing Becks put the pieces together, through this reflecting on the recent changes in her family and close friendships and on the relationship she and Silva have.

I also thought the way the novel uses this to explore different responses to grief and big life changes was very good - sensitively examining the effects these things can have on us.

Following on from this, I also really liked the way we begin unsure of Silva but get to see that the things said about her are true. It makes us question how quickly we judge others without really considering motive or mental health.

However, I didn't really get the whole significance of the 'eight pieces of Silva' - I get that there were in theory 8 clues for Becks to follow, but I don't feel this was a big part of the story. I certainly couldn't have told you there were 8 and it didn't feel important to the plot at all.

I also felt the mystery went from slowly unravelling (a little too slowly at times) to bring rather suddenly and tidily solved and sorted out. The ending jarred with me a bit.

However, it was an enjoyable read and there's no question Patrice Lawrence has done exactly what she does best - written a book addressing family, friendship and relationship issues so central to young people's lives, that feels hugely credible and reflective of its intended readers.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Patrice Lawrence is one of the best and strongest voices in UK YA, and Eight Pieces of Silva is characteristically excellent. Sharp, vivid and true. A must for all readers of YA and beyond.

OMG! I could barely put this down.... A proper YA thriller from Patrice Lawrence. Silva has disappeared, and with her parents away, it is down to Becks to find out where her sister has got to. Unraveling piece by piece, with occasional chapters from Silva's POV - this book had me on tenterhooks. Although occasionally a little far-fetched, this didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. It was Beck's character, lively and confident jumping off the page which most got to me. I wanted to read more of her words. I would keep this as a definite recommend to fans of Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Truly Devious... It was brilliant.

I have just finished 'Eight Pieces of Silva' by Patrice Lawrence and needed to share it with you. It is hot off the press and it is thanks to NetGalley I was able to get access to it and what a superb YA mystery it is! Becks is meant to be home alone with her sister Silva while their parents go on their honeymoon. But after she drops them at the airport, Silva doesn't come home. And she is ignoring Becks calls. Through a series of minute bits of contact and items Becks finds, she puts together where Silva might be.....Absolutely compulsive reading, with characters you care about and a cleverly revealed plot line makes this a superb read for older teens if you want to recommend something new and fresh to yours! Recommend 13+.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

Sadly, I did not get on with this book. At first I was enjoying it but then as the plot was slowly revealed I just couldn’t wrap my head around why anyone would lose their minds over a boy like that.

Not for me I’m afraid.

Wow. Please read this book. I really really enjoyed it, I loved how layered this book ended up being. It explored so many different levels of being human from anxiety to death of a parent to just exploring different types of relationships in general. But also because it represented living as a teenager so well. I hadn’t actually read a Patrice Lawrence book before but after reading this I really want to go back and read all of them!

In Short

In Short: Anxiety + Exploration of Relationships + Sapphic + A Mystery that is so much more than a Mystery

In More Depth

Silva has gone missing. She was meant to meet her sister at home after saying goodbye to their parents at the airport for their honeymoon. She never turned up though. What happened to her, why didn’t she come home? Well, thats for you to find out when you read this absolute stunner of a book.

After the first few chapters I fell in love with Patrice Lawrence’s writing and oh my gosh. Just the way she writes is absolutely incredible. It was like she went back in time and peered into teenage Ben and captured exactly how I felt about life and just the overwhelming feeling of just being a teenager.

I won’t spoil too much of the plot here because it feels like a book you need to experience for yourself. But I will 100% assure you that although this book explores so many different themes and is such a layered but a must read, never strays far away from the core story of what’s happened to Silva. You’ll be at the edge of your seat not only wanting to find out more of what’s going on with Silva but also just wanting more of everything. It’s genuinely such a stunning read and a really hope you give it a read because honestly? You won’t regret it!

In Conclusion

All in all though. There are way too many reasons to list why you should read this book I will try to sum up in one short word. K-POP! The one thing that Becks & Silva bonded over when they first met was K-POP! (I know right!). But also there is so much talk at the moment about lifting up Black voices and Black authors, but I don’t know why I haven’t heard about this book on my timeline at all recently. If you really want to read kick-ass books by kick-ass Black authors then here’s a little hint. START HERE. THIS IS SO GOOD AND I DON’T KNOW HOW ELSE I CAN GET THIS ACROSS!! (Can you tell I loved this book?)

Don’t Go Just Yet!

I’m on a fabulous blog tour with some absolutely amazing people! Thank you so much to Hachette for sending me an ARC for me to review and join the Blog Tour for this brilliant book! But i’m not the only one on this tour, if you haven’t yet please check out the fabulous Joel from Fictional Fates who came before me and keep an eye out for FCGB for their tour stop soon!

The stand out aspect of Eight Pieces of Silva was definetely the characters for me. Becks is an engaging main character with a refreshing and real voice that came alive on the page and was distinctly young but not too immature. Becks is immediately likeable and relatable with her fangirl-ish love for Black Panther and Kpop, her casual and curious voice. She is bold and brave and her character development was natural and well-done.

I loved how Becks being sapphic wasn’t a main point of the book. It was like, here is our main character, she’s a lesbian by the way, and there’s this whole mystery she has to solve, which was something I really appreciate. Sapphics deserve coming of age and discovering our sexuality stories but we also deserve all kinds of others stories where our sexuality isn’t the focal point, like straight people get!

Becks romance and dynamic with China was wonderful – they were already friends and it’s immediately clear how much they care for each other. What I loved most about this two was how undeniably and stoically they were there for each other and supported each other. They were loving, kind and truthful to each other throughout and I really shipped them.

Their romance also stood as an opposite of the toxic relationship discussed in this book, which I can’t give too many details about. I thought this relationship was discussed with care and compassion but still showing how it was unhealthy.

Silva was also a nuanced and interesting character, she was compassionate and fiercely loving, perhaps too much so. I loved the sisterly relationship of Becks and Silva, I wish it had been discussed even more in depth, but though these two haven’t always got on perfectly it becomes clear that they’ll be there for each other no matter what and over the course of the book come to understand the other and their needs better.

There were so many more themes in this book that I loved, including the complexities of family, grief and mental health and race.

My main grievance with this book and the reason I gave it four rather than five stars is the mystery aspect of the plot. While it was intriguing, I didn’t find it to be nearly as exciting or mysterious as I had hoped. This book was very much marketed as a mystery thriller but I didn’t really find it thrilling at all. The big reveal and build up were not nearly as high stakes as the beginning of the book might make you believe and some of the clues leading to Silva were barely relevant. There are also diary entries written by Silva that pretty much explain why she’s gone before Becks finds it out, very much deducting from the suspense and surprise we could have felt alongside Becks had these not been there. It still was a complicated and interesting mystery just not to the degree I’d hoped. I felt this book was very much a character focused mystery which is wonderful but didn’t quite work for me. However Eight Pieces of Silva is still amazing and totally worth a read, with so many great aspects to it.

Eight Pieces of Silva is a unique take on a mystery and I was totally pulled in to the narrative and by the twists and turns which lead to me not wanting to put this book down! Eight Pieces of Silva follows Becks and her sister Silva who are left home alone while their parents are on their Honeymoon, or that’s the plan at least. Silva suddenly disappears and cannot be contacted leaving Becks to piece together where she could have possibly gone.

I really like how this book shows the complexity of family. First of all there is the positive representation of step-parents which was so nice to see. The relationship with step-siblings. The loss of a parent. The relationship with a biological dad who has not been around for sixteen years. It also represents a multicultural family.

Eight Pieces of Silva is filled with brilliant, realistic, complicated characters readers will love. Beck's voice comes alive on the page, feeling fresh and real in a way that sucks you straight into the novel. Lawrence shows the complexity of toxic relationships and first love through Silva's despair, and Silva's desperate passages show how a bad breakup can feel like grieving. But Lawrence also shows positive, loving relationships through Becks and China, who was supportive and caring towards Becks and was exactly who she needed by her side while trying to get to the bottom of Silva's disappearance.

Sharp narrative voices, and a very engaging read. Becks is home alone, her mother and stepfather have gone to Japan on a highly anticipated honeymoon; her stepsister has vanished. Worried about Silva, Becks has a hunt in her room and finds some clues to what has been preoccupying her stepsister...

As much as the sibling relationship within the book, I was fascinated by the friendships. Who can Becks rely on for help, and how much does she know about the people she loves?

I wanted to like this book, I thought it sounded amazing! But I cannot understand Silva's decisions, she was selfish and got on my nerves. All her plot fell flat for me.

Although Patrice is clearly a good writer, and the idea of this story is interesting, I just didn't connect to it at any point. I skimmed a lot of the middle.

Forgot to say I finished #UKYA Eight Peices of Silva at the weekend & I think Becks is one of the best characters I've read in a long time. It might even be my favourite @LawrencePatrice book! Thanks @HachetteKids @HCGFictionTeam for the #Netgalley...out THIS WEEK!

This was such a good mystery. I love YA mysteries, and I'm glad I found another writer I got along very well.
The writing was very suspenseful, the plot was really good. It all came together very nice and neat.
I'd highly recommend it if you like this genre.

Thanks so much to the publisher and NG for this copy.

Brilliant read!
One of those with many layers to peel and mysteries to solve.

Full review to follow.

Readable family relationship drama with an intriguing mystery at its heart. Characters are emotionally complex and flawed and live and breathe on the pages... I particularly loved the bold, brave but occasionally overbearing Becks! A sad and funny read with lots of heart.

Eight Pieces of Silva is an interesting and unique novel, in that I've legitimately never read a story quite like it and I mean that in a very good way. The novel weaves in and out of Becks and Silva's perspectives, following the thread between Becks working out the clues and Silva in the present so it was intriguing to follow. Becks voice feels real at all times and the many references to popular culture, k-pop, areas in London and more just made it feel all the more rich.

I thought that the depiction of family relationships as well as friendship was excellent, I especially loved that the portrayal of step family was so positive and genuine, while also portraying the complexities of two different families with their own histories and experiences coming together. This family narrative fits into the book seamlessly as well as the portrayal of Becks sexuality and her crush on her friend China, her conflicting feelings about her biological father, who has been writing to her and has just recently come out of prison, as well as the overarching mystery of where her sister Silva has disappeared to. I thought from reading the synopsis alone that this was just going to be a straight forward mystery but there is so much more to this book and it's a delight to discover all these layers as you get further.

I also thought the depiction and exploration of grief, mental health and first love and the different ways in which this can manifest was so important and valid. Without giving away too many plot details, I want to mention just how much I think this book speaks to the fact that while we think we may know what someone is going through, there's a lot that someone can hide, whether that be pain or grief or anything else in between. I think this novel also speaks to the idea of wanting to help someone so badly and wanting to erase the hurt they experience but having to accept and acknowledge that sometimes, the individual has to help themselves and be ready to accept help and take the step, and supporting them through this tough time. That was kind of a confusing explanation but I hope you guys get what I mean!

Overall, while Eight Pieces of Silva could be considered a mystery of sorts, it's also a refreshing and insightful Y/A contemporary which touches upon some key issues, which I think will be accessible and relatable to many young people.

The premise of Eight Pieces of Silva is intriguing from the start: there's a secret at its heart without it being a straight-up mystery.

Becks is an engaging main character, full of youthful confidence and naivety. Her story addresses many complex issues, including family, race and romantic love, but it's all woven together so instinctively, it never feels like Lawrence is flogging Themes with a capital T. Becks' world feels real, and her character development is wonderfully natural. It's the kind of seamless writing you only see in the very best UKYA.

Becks' London is very much that of a local, at once sprawling and familiar, which may feel a little alienating to readers who don't know the city. At times it also feels like the narrative is oversaturated with references (and I say this as a long-time K-pop fan). While this adds a realistic specificity, at times it felt like a barrier to really getting to know the characters.

Eight PIeces of Silva is a messy mystery but it's also an engaging UKYA, exploring some complex issues in a relatable way.