Review: Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings

2/5 Stars

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Full disclosure: I’m taking the summary from Amazon. I just can’t right now.

“Known across the galaxy as the Bloody Baroness, Captain Androma Racella and her motley crew of space-bound privateers roam the Mirabel galaxy on the glass starship Marauder, taking what mercenary work they can find to stay alive. When a routine job goes awry, the Marauder‘s all-girl crew find themselves placed at the mercy of a dangerous bounty hunter from Andi’s past. Coerced into a life-threatening mission, and straight into the path of a shadowy ruler bent on revenge, Andi and her crew will either restore order to the ship – or start a war that will devour worlds.”

The Good:

Alright, as per usual, we’ll start with the good. I liked this book, in concept, and occasionally there were some instances of really nice writing, but for the most part this book was just bad.

The Bad:

Alright, here we go, so the first thing: many things about this book were very juvenile. From the characters to the writing style to the plot points, and it was very frustrating. One of the most apparent points I can bring up is that the main character’s moniker is “the bloody baroness.” I really don’t know how to expand much farther on that except that the authors were attempting to write a morally gray character and ended up writing a character that contradicted herself at each turn. She would claim to hate killing and remember each death, but then go on to talk about how much she enjoy killing.

In general, I disliked basically all of the characters, and not in a “you’re supposed to dislike this character” way. They were just annoying. This was really upsetting because a space criminal girl group is right up my alley, but I felt like it just wasn’t written right.

Now we can get into the writing style. The first and most apparent problem was that it was told in split POV. Split POV itself is not a problem, but once you get more than maybe two or three people it begins to fall apart. If I had to take a guess Zenith had maybe nine. Some of which were quite irrelevant. The second problem was the dialogue. It was awkward, and felt so forced and unnatural it was hard to read. It also was full of some really bad, really childish jokes. The sense of humor in the book was very immature and childish and set the book back a few steps. The writing overall felt very awkward, and clunky; there would be poetic lines spliced next to an immature joke and a three word sentence. Overall it made the book difficult to enjoy.

TL/DR: 

This had a good premise, but I personally felt like it was very poorly executed.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31394234-zenith

 

Review: We are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

4.5/5 Stars

Summary:

The Good:

We Are the Ants had such a beautiful dark yet poetic style to it that I automatically fell in love with. The style just instilled it with this twisted sense of beauty that I felt really fit the story. (And was also just really nice to read.)

The main thing that I loved about this book was that it dealt with important issues like abuse, bullying, suicide, and mental illness. It showed a very real view of abuse and bullying and hinted at the phycological effects that one can suffer from. It showed the pain that one suffers from after losing a loved one to suicide, and, as well,  the after effects of the pain one suffers. I felt like over all it dealt with these topics in a very forthright way, which leads to my next point.

We are the Ants offered such a real point of view to life. It was depressing and painful and gritty, but it was real. It might not be what most people want to see, but it offered a real life narrative to what many people face in life.

For the majority of the time, this book was just so nihilistic. At certain times, I really disliked it because, coupled with the issues of abuse and mental illness, it was just really depressing.  While this may sound like a negative at first the way the nihilism was written was just really beautiful (if that makes sense). This is partially a “writing style” point, but I felt that sense it was such a major component in the book that I should make a whole section about it.

The Bad:

The first thing which isn’t really a negative, per say, (it’s not a positive but you know), but this book deals very frankly with some very hard hitting issues. For that reason, I’d say this book has a pretty strong trigger warning.

On a similar note, this book got really depressing and abusive very quickly which just isn’t what some people are into. I don’t mind when things get (as I so eloquently said) really depressing and abusive, but it was difficult for me to read sometimes.

TL/DR:

We are the Ants is a very honest book with a beautiful writing style, though it does deal with some hard hitting issues that some people might find triggering.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23677341-we-are-the-ants

Review: All American Boys

4.5/5 Stars

Rashad was getting a bag of chips before school started. The cop inside the store assumed Rashad was trying to steal said chips. Five minutes later Rashad was laying on the sidewalk outside the store beaten with a broken nose, broken ribs, and internal bleeding. All American Boys follows the story of Rashad, a victim of police brutality, and Quinn, a boy who was practically raised by the cop who beat Rashad and has to come to terms with the fact that the man that raised him is not the man who lives down the street anymore.

The Good:

All American Boys is such an important book. It is so relevant to today’s American society, and offers powerful insights into the problem of police brutality. I think the dual narrative format of this book made All American Boys that much more powerful as it allowed the reader to both experience Rashad and his family’s pain and connect with the realization that Quinn is coming to at the same time: that to do and say nothing is something only those with privilege can do. Quinn, who was all but raised by the cop who beat Rashad after Quinn’s father was killed in Afghanistan, must realize that it is up to those who have power in society — those with privilege — to help enact change.

The Bad:

My only complaint about All American Boys was that, while I loved this book, I did not feel connected to any of the characters. They felt like words on a page and little more than that. I’m not sure if it was the writing style or something else but I felt very disconnected from a set of characters I very much wanted to feel connected to.

TL/DR:

All American Boys is an incredibly important book whose message is only made stronger through it’s dual narrative perspective. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25657130-all-american-boys

 

 

Review: Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy

5/5 Stars

Self proclaimed “fat girl” Willowdean Dickson seeks to restore her old self confidence after she found her self esteem lacking after a short relationship with Private School Bo from work. She decides to do this by entering the Clover City Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant — the biggest thing in her small Texas town.

The Good:

This book was just overall hilarious, adorable, and so very relatable. Willowdean’s narrations were quirky and it was a very enjoyable read. It reminded me of Becky Albertalli’s writing in that in just left me feeling warm inside. Willowdean was a spitfire and a lovable main character that you were rooting for till the end. Her problems were all too real for high schoolers— self-esteem issues, fights with your best friend, and boy troubles, but the way Murphy dealt with the topic of self-esteem was so empowering and a vey important message for so many young people to hear. Willowdean was the character we deserved in YA— a young, fat girl who’s not going to apologize for it or let anyone make her feel bad for it. She knows that her being fat does not define her unless she lets it, and she can still be her best life at any weight.

This is an incredibly important message for people to hear. This is all not to say that Willowdean doesn’t ever feel self conscious (who doesn’t?), but the important thing is that the book is a story of Willowdean seeking to find her confidence back. Willowdean enters the Clover City Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant in the hopes that along the way she will find her confidence, and prove that she is just as good as any other girl in the pageant even though she is bigger than them. Along the way she collects a ragtag group of friends all looking for a bit of self confidence in the pageant, and each of the girls were such an incredible edition to the book. Dumplin’ had such a strong message of self-acceptance and strength which is such an important thing especially in a YA book.

There is also the strong message of friendship in Dumplin’; Willowdean and Ellen have been friends forever, bonded over their shared love of Dolly Pardon. As their friendship goes through some rough patches, Willowdean feels lost without her best friend. Murphy instills the message of friendship throughout the book even if friends are growing apart. The message of love and friendship through the book only adds to the theme of self-acceptance.

The Bad:

I really don’t have any complaints about this book.

TL/DR:

Dumplin’ is an incredibly powerful book about self-acceptance and friendship, and was such an incredible read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18304322-dumplin

 

Review: Code of Honor by Alan Gratz

4/5 Stars

Kamren Smith is just like everyone else. Well, he is the star of the football team, is dating one of the most popular girls in his grade, and is on track to go to the prestigious West Point Military Academy. And, (noticeably) half Iranian. But when his brother (a US soldier!) is accused of being a terrorist it’s up to Kamren to clear his brothers name.

The Good:

Gratz did a very good job at writing Kamren’s voice. He sounded like a real high school boy. Which is honestly part of the reason I didn’t like the book all that much at the beginning. He sounded exactly like guys I know (and avoid (they’re obnoxious)).

Although I generally do find high school boys obnoxious, I really loved Kamren as a character. He was well written, and I felt very connected to him throughout the story.

The whole book was full of action, and every twist and turn added a new layer to the story. But this also leads to my next point.

The Bad:

While the action was very well written at the beginning, about half way through it started to get very illogical. What I mean is that it felt like Gratz was trying to make it too intense and it stopped making sense.

TL/DR:

Very good writing and characters, and lots of action even though the action got a little illogical at the end.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22608738-code-of-honor

 

Review: Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

5/5 Stars

Wolf by Wolf is an alternate history YA novel set in 1950s Europe in which the Axis powers had won the war, and follows the underground resistance movement. Yael, a Jewish born, death camp survivor now has the power to “skinshift,” or change appearances, after being subjected to genetic experiments in the same camp her family was killed in. She must now compete in the Axis Tour: the annual motorcycle race ending in Japan with the Victor’s Ball. She must impersonate the last year’s victor, Adele Wolfe, the only person who has ever gotten close to Hitler at the Victor’s Ball, win, and assassinate Hitler in the public eye. As Yael begins the race she realizes there is so much more to Adele Wolfe than what was in her briefing packets, and she will have to be much more brutal than she anticipated to earn her spot at the Victor’s Ball.

The Good:

Okay so clearly since I normally try to keep my summaries short, y’all can already tell Wolf by Wolf has a pretty detailed plot, but it is so well done and it didn’t feel rushed. Throughout the book I didn’t feel bored, and I honestly didn’t know that I needed a book about motorcycle racing but I did. I also loved Yael’s flashbacks. They not only added a reason for all of Yael’s perseverance throughout the race, and added so much depth to her character.

So on the same vein, Graudin was able to craft such intricate characters in only one book, but she did.  I fell completely in love with the characters and world she had built. This is not to say I liked all the characters, but I could appreciate them as individually crafted characters. Some of them were inspiring and some of them were detestable, but they were all so very well written that I couldn’t help but appreciate them. Even the minor characters felt like real people instead of just names in the book or pawns to move the plot forward, and I thought that was incredible since it’s been a while since I’ve read a book where I felt like all the character’s were so alive (especially in a book that wasn’t part of a long series).

Alright so my final and probably most relevant point (I had at least four separate bullet points while making notes for my review) is Ryan Graudin’s writing style. Graudin has the most beautiful, and poetic writing style that (as my notes so eloquently summed up) had me shook. I don’t even know how to describe it without turning into a jumbling mess (that’s how obsessed with it I am), so instead I’m just going to put some quotes from the book in here because I’m really struggling to convey how incredible Graudin’s writing is.

– “Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived in a kingdom of death. Wolves howled up her arm. A whole pack of them—made of tattoo ink and pain, memory and loss.”
– “Endless hours of swaying kilometers and slats of sunlight  that cut like knives through the car’s shoddy planks and across the passengers gray faces.”
– “There was a sea of wool and shuffling. Everyone seemed lost. Moving and pushing and crying and not knowing.”
– “A laugh bubbled in Yael’s esophagus. Ready? Her readiness was years in the forging. What had started in the death camp had bloomed into something much more lethal.”
– “His voice turned words into living, breathing things that snaked under skins, lit fires under even the dullest minds.”
– “You could stare up through the snow-stung air and feel like you were falling. Tumbling into the endless voids of black and stars.”
– “She might look like Adele. But she could never be Adele. Yael was a cobweb version, composed of gaps and strings and fragile nothings.”
– “The picture sang to Yael anyway. (It was a sad, savage ballad. One that howled angry inside her, stirred the monster’s restless sleep.)”
– “Embers scattered off his cigarette, bursting to the ground like angry stars. Dying one by one.”
– “The spires that had once called all to pray and had guided every eye up toward God now pointed for no one into an empty washed-out sky for no one.”
– “The kiss was much like the last, with the world moving around them and his lips telling a story to hers. It tasted like one of the Greeks’ epic poems: Warring. Heroic. Vast. Full of so many loves and births and deaths.”
– “This is how empires crumble. This is how tyrants fall. Like everyone else.”
– “I am Yael. I am inmate 121358ΔX. I am your death. That was what the girl had said, with a wrath like hellfire. With the kind of judgement reserved only for gods.”

(Wow okay sorry I got a little carried away but I think y’all get my point)

The Bad:

Who knows. (not me)

TL/DR: 10/10 would recommend to literally anyone. Incredible writing and plot and characters and everything and wow.

This review has gotten less and less put together as we’ve gone along so thanks if you lasted to the end.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24807186-wolf-by-wolf

 

Review: My Lady Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows

3/5 Stars

Lady Jane Grey is going to be married off to a man she doesn’t know for the sake of her dying cousin, King Edward of England. She gets caught up in a conspiracy to take the throne from her cousin, finds herself the new Queen of England, and shortly after finds herself on the run.

The Good:

My favorite thing about My Lady Jane was all the political intrigue. It was well written, and the power plays kept me guessing. I do wish the book focused more on the  political aspect of the plot, but, to be fair, I felt like this book was more about Jane’s marriage. Which brings me to my next point…

Jane and G are so cute. Like, they actually had such an adorable relationship, and I normally don’t gush about relationships in books. It was obvious that they really cared about each other, and, despite the fact it took place in the 16th century, G never acted like he “owned” Jane (or any of the hyper masculine sh*t). They had a very sweet relationship, and though they had their fights, they talked it out (eventually). Overall, Jane and G’s relationship was very fun to read about.

The last point I’m going to make (about what I liked) is about the magic system. I thought it was so interesting. Also, I thought the fact that there was a religious/political group against those with magic really added to the world building and made it a lot more interesting. I do wish it had been a bit more fleshed out, but overall I thought the whole Eðian magic system was really fresh.

The Bad:

My first point revolves around the plot: there was entirely too much going on. As I mentioned earlier in my review, I wished that the authors had fleshed the Eðian magic system out which I felt could’ve been done if the book wasn’t so action based. Perhaps it was so plot heavy because the story oscillated between the three narrators, but, regardless, action overshadowed any world building or character development.

Another thing that bothered me was that I really did not like most of the characters — even the ones I knew I was supposed to like. Most of the characters I felt were just sort of aggravating which probably had to do with the fact that I found the sense of humor and writing style to be mildly obnoxious. This shifted the pressure entirely onto plot.

While you probably couldn’t tell from my review— or my bookstagram— I am an avid shakespeare fan, so the first time G quoted Shakespeare I noticed. Then I realized G couldn’t be quoting Shakespeare as Shakespeare would even be born for about ten years after the story took place. G’s “inventions” of Shakespeare’s lines happened quite frequently after that— both short phrases and entire lines. At the end the authors even went as far to say G wrote all of Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day…). The authors wrote this off with the classic “no one knows for sure if Shakespeare really wrote his poems and plays”. The combination of the flimsy excuse and the fact that they inserted Shakespeare into their book instead of just making something original up (because honestly most of the instances where they spliced Shakespeare in did not make a lot of sense. It was just a major voice shift) or just not having the sections that “needed” Shakespeare lines. Most of the time, the sections with Shakespeare in them could have easily have been omitted which meant someone thought splicing in Shakespeare’s work (primarily lines from tragedies I noticed) into a YA comedy was funny. I am here to say: it was not.

On a similar note,  I found the sense of humor in the book to be overall not funny. I thought most of the jokes were immature, and was pretty annoyed that they portrayed Jane as a stereotypical book nerd: spouting useless facts from dreary sounding books, and be generally snobby to others. What passed for humor in this book was generally childish or just stupid.

The last thing I’m going to bring up is the whole breaking the fourth wall thing. The authors would regularly break the fourth wall to insert sassy “funny” commentary which I generally found unnecessary and distracting. The commentary was basically never funny, helpful, or relevant.

TL/DR:

While my review did get rather negative at the end (sorry about that), this book is a fun, light read. It is heavily plot driven, but does have a cute romance and a fun magic system.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22840421-my-lady-jane

Review: True Letters from a Fictional Life by Kenneth Logan

4/5 Stars

True Letters from a Fictional Life follows James Liddell;  a boy from a small Vermont town who is terrified to come out as gay to his conservative friends and family. James writes his feelings down in the form of letters to his friends and family that he never plans to send, but as the truth starts to come out James must decide if he wants to keep living his fictional life.

 

The Good:

Since True Letters is a coming out story, it focuses heavily on the issue of homophobia. True Letters offers the narrative of a boy with parents that just don’t understand why he “chose” to be gay. True Letters explores the dangers of homophobia, both physical and physiological, as well as briefly exploring the ties between religion and homophobia and how one can reconcile their beliefs. While True Letters is a coming out story Logan still worked in a critic of racism in small towns through one of James’s close friends, the only black boy in their small Vermont town. I think that it’s so important that Logan wrote not only a book with representation for many different types of people, but also a book that confronts social issues like homophobia and racism.

Logan’s writing style flows so well and adds so much to the story. His writing was engaging and so nice. It’s beautifully written, but not to the point that the targeted audience feels they can no longer relate to the characters because the writing is so lyrical. As well, Logan wrote James’s voice, along with the other characters, with such authentic voices that so many YA books are sorely missing especially for male characters. The boys in True Letters felt like real teenage boys instead of the inane caricatures we so often get in YA. The way Logan wrote the character’s voice really added something to the characters, and made them feel very real. Really both the combination of Logan’s writing style and the way he wrote the character’s voice added a lot of depth to the story and made it much more relatable and interesting.

My final point: this book is just adorable (mainly James and his love interest). While sometimes bad things happen nothing ever stays bad bad (much like I’ve found with real life). As well, there’s a heavy emphasis on finding the people that make you happy in this book which I believe is always an important message for people to hear.

The Bad:

One of my main problems with this book was that I just did not feel connected to some of the characters. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved most of the characters, but there were a couple characters that I just did not like. The worst part was that I knew they were characters that I was supposed to like, but I just didn’t for whatever reason. Maybe this is just an Emma Thing, but, regardless, I found some of the characters to be unreachable. Most of them I liked a lot, but a couple of them caused some problems for me.

The second thing, which also might have been an Emma Thing now that I’m thinking about it, was the timescale of the book (if that makes any sense). What I mean is that sometimes I couldn’t tell when something was happening which is normally insignificant, but when the characters are getting ready for something in June you kind of want to know what month it is. On a similar note, sometimes I noticed scenes would end abruptly. James would be describing something at a party in detail and then all of the sudden the party was over and he was alone. This was pretty disorienting and can pull a reader right out of the story, but luckily this happened rarely in the book.

TL/DR:

True Letters from a Fictional Life is a very important novel that I would highly recommend. It touches on important topics and has representation for many different people. Logan’s writing style and the voice of his characters adds another layer of depth to the story. To boot, it is also a very heartwarming story about finding yourself and the people who love you for who you are.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24485772-true-letters-from-a-fictional-life

Review: The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter

4.5/5 Stars

The First Time She Drowned follows Cassie O’Malley after she checks herself out of the mental hospital her mother forced her into. TFTSD is about Cassie’s recovery and the struggles she faces, and reveals her past to the reader through flashbacks.

The Good:

I think the most important thing about this book was just the mental illness rep. I think representation of all types of sexualities, orientations, races, cultures, illnesses, (etc) are so important, and for people to be able to see people like themselves in their favorite stories is so important. On that note, I feel like Kletter wrote about Cassie’s mental illness and abuse very well. I would like to state that I cannot speak for the accuracy of the representation of TFTSD. Since my mental illness (anxiety) is not as severe as Cassie’s, and I have never been abused, I will not promise that the representation in this book is entirely accurate.

The second thing I enjoyed was Kletter’s writing style. I felt very connected to Cassie: I could feel her pain at every turn. I feel like I should say that Cassie is a very unreliable narrator. Personally, I enjoy reading stories with unreliable narrators, but I know some people don’t. Most of the book I spent wondering how much of what Cassie was saying was the truth- not that I thought she was lying, but I knew her abusive mother had been gas-lighting her for her entire life. Kletter’s poetic writing style is enchanting, but is interspersed with down to earth narration as well. Kletter’s style overall helps convey the story very well.

The final thing I wanted to bring up in this review which really only scratches the surface of my thoughts about this book (most of my other thoughts are either to spoiler-y or down right incoherent) was the emphasis on recovery. Once Cassie was away from the mental hospital, she began to want to recover from her trauma. While this book was full of heavy, heart wrenching topics, it was also full of hope and light.

The Bad:

Basically the only negative about this book was how upset it made me. I was basically downcast for the entire time I was reading it just because I felt so deeply for Cassie. I think it is impressive that Kletter was able to make me feel so strongly for a character I share almost nothing in common with, but, regardless, I understand that, for many reasons, some people don’t want to be reading books that they know will upset them and I will say that this is a fairly negative book.

This isn’t really negative, but I really want to reiterate that since I do not suffer from the same mental illness as Cassie and have never been a victim of abuse, I cannot speak for the validity of the representation in this book.

This also isn’t really negative, but this book deals heavily with topics of mental illness and abuse and that may be triggering to some people. Be warned. There are also mentions of molestation. If any of these topics are triggering to you I would suggest not reading this book.

TL/DR: The First Time She Drowned is a heartbreaking novel about mental illness and abuse, but more importantly recovery. Kletter writes amazing characters, and has a beautiful writing style. Trigger Warner: Abuse, molestation, pedophilia.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24724627-the-first-time-she-drowned