This is another book that for me, was just kind of in the middle. There was nothing particular wrong with it, but it also didn’t sparkle for me. I was initially drawn to this because of its premise: an #ownvoices with Hindu mythology inspired by Stardust by Neil Gaiman, which is both an amazing book […]
I don’t know what happened. I was listening to this book, and it was just kind of average, and then all of a sudden it was over and I wanted more. This book is about the audition process for a gender fluid character named Sal, also Auditioner Twenty-Three, to have a shot at becoming the […]
The Chalice and the Crown by Kassandra Flamouri is not a typical YA fantasy. It’s dark, it’s gritty, it’s triggering. It considers some pretty timely themes about racism, classism, and mental illness. It contains animal cruelty and sadistic villains and some pretty hardcore bigotry. The book starts out with a young ballerina, Sasha, as she […]
First and foremost the thing I loved most about this book is that rather than rehashing the same storytelling technique of having dual points of view telling the same story, Pearson split our couple up early on so that the dual points of view could work together to tell two different stories, which I really […]
Deathless Divide was the perfect sequel to Dread Nation. PERFECT. Whereas Dread Nation (which everyone lost their minds for, myself included, because Civil War era zombies and a black female warrior lead? Oh. My. God. Yes.) sold itself on ‘combat school for Negro girls’, it really wove in a plot that expanded beyond the school […]
It feels right that my last review for the year is about a little girl whose superpower was reading. Recently I had a social gathering at my house that contained small children. I wanted a child-friendly film to play in the background, so I chose Matilda from Netflix. It was supposed to be a low-key […]
Jodi Picoult might be a household name, but this book is about 80% terrible and the remaining 20% that is actually interesting isn’t worth my time. There’s slut-shaming, girl-hating, and the female main character Delilah has physically assaulted two other girls so far. Yet somehow SHE’S the victim. And then, when Delilah explains that she […]
With a secondary character named Darcy De Winter, who is a rich snobby boy with a sister named Gina and who immediately dislikes our heroine, Emma, you would think that this book has something to do with a Pride and Prejudice retelling, right? Especially since the blurb says “Jane Austen reigns supreme” at the boarding […]
I’ve listened to 10% of the audiobook, and while that’s not enough to fully critique a book on all of its merits, I can tell it’s not worth my time to continue. What I like: – The worldbuilding. It’s stark and drops you right in, because of course you don’t need any info dumping. – […]
Through the White Wood appealed to me because I love elemental-based magic, especially when it’s ice/water vs fire: I also learned through reading the book that it’s based in an area of Russia centuries ago, except this version of Russia has real magic. I really liked that it was based here, and it was really […]
