I remember the hype for this book when it was published several years ago. So many fellow book bloggers were excited that a book blogger was going to be the new YA star, a The Fault in Our Stars but with a minority lead. The hype was epic, but I try to avoid hype. Until […]
This book interested me right away because of the blurb: a poor half-black half Puerto Rican single teen mother trying to complete high school and fulfil her love of the cooking. There is so much conflict just in that elevator pitch, and I think I kind of fell in love right there. I was also […]
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. – […]
Because of the plot point of the king’s one hundred wives, I thought this book was based on 1001 Nights, so that’s why I’ve taken so long to read it. I didn’t particularly feel like reading a book like that. However, I was wrong. And while I don’t know the specifics behind what inspired the […]
This book has everything I’ve grown to love and adore about The Diviners: a supernatural Scooby gang, spooky atmosphere, scary villains, awesome language (I nearly said ‘Everything copacetic?’ to a colleague the other day). It’s confronting: there’s racism, attempted rape, domestic abuse, homophobia, and all kinds of bigotry that make me really mad, but all […]
This was an odd book. The blurb was a bit vague, so I had a pre-conceived notion of the plot before I went in. As it turns out, the plot in the first half of the book was exactly what I’d expected and wanted: a kind of murder mystery, conspiracy-theory whodunnit. Then the second half […]
Beauty Queens was a parody/spoof/comedy book, based on the concept of a plane full of teenage beauty pageant contestants crash landing on a deserted island and how they survive that. Think of a comedy version of Lord of the Flies, but with girls. I like clever parodies, and I really enjoyed Beauty Queens. It was […]
A contemporary YA novel set in a school that anonymously releases a ‘list’ every year of eight girls, two per year, detailing them as either the ‘prettiest’ or ‘ugliest’ and the reason why. I was a little apprehensive reaching for The List, because I didn’t really want to read a novel about bullying girls over […]
I’ve been thinking about this book for a LONG time (as in years) because I love the concept, and I built it up so much in my head and I think I assumed it was going to be SO GOOD… So I was a little surprised to find it was a pretty typical YA paranormal […]
I’ve read some of Mary Webber’s previous books, so I know that I enjoy her writing when her characters aren’t full of dumb ideas and even dumber actions. Luckily, To Best The Boys stars a female scientist in the misogynistic world designed to keep her nothing more than a placid housewife, providing for and driving […]
