Amity
This was fine for its intended audience, and could serve as a good intro to different types of horror or a recommendation for the kid who has read every Goosebumps book already. I also liked the Chicagoland setting and different time periods. However, I wasn't a fan of all the random fatphobia? Kinda soured it for me a little.
Overall, 2.5 brand new saddle shoes out of 5.
“...not eating when there's a full refrigerator downstairs is a totally different experience than not eating because you have no food and no idea where your next meal will come from. Hunger of choice is a painful luxury; hunger of necessity is terrifying torture.”
Following the eruption of the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park, teenage Alex finds himself in a world changed. Alex sets out from his hometown in Iowa to find his parents and little sister, who were on their way to visit some extended family in Illinois. Along the way, he meets a variety of dangers: a terrain comprised of ash, and people driven by a primal need to survive.
It took me a little while to get into this book, I'll admit. The above quote is from about the quarter-way mark, which was when I started to become invested in what happened to Alex. And once Darla was introduced shortly after, I was totally hooked.
The main hurdle that I had to get over was the writing style. Mullin writes in a way that is both sort of detached/clinical, and sort of conversational. A lot of times, it felt like a recitation of facts: this is happening, and now this, and then I did this. In other words, a lot of tell, not show:
“By late afternoon, the ash had pretty much dried out. Pushing the skis through it got tougher – they ground against the ash instead of sliding. I unclipped my boots and tried walking. In some places, the ash had dried onto a fairly compact surface that wasn't too bad to hike on. In others, ash was blowing and collecting in drifts. There, my feet sank quickly in the fine, dusty ash, and pulling them free was difficult. I put the skis back on.”
This was just a random example I chose to illustrate the writing style and is not indicative of the book as a whole: there is plenty of action, some of it graphic, and I found that the technique actually helped me deal with some of the more gruesome scenes. I appreciated the brutal look at survival in a natural disaster wasteland, especially in a novel aimed at a younger audience. It's never too early to learn about how terrible people are, kids!
Another thing to note, especially about my darling Darla: I was happy that both of the kids were pretty badass in their own right, but not overly so. It made sense that country gal Darla was strong and resourceful, and Alex brags about his taekwondo achievements early in the book. Maybe they are a little too capable considering everything they go through, but it seemed realistic to me.
Overall, I felt this was a strong debut from the author and a great start to a series. Thank goodness I am reading this a million years after it was released so that I can start the next one ASAP. 4/5
This was...fine? The series as a whole was not my favorite, but it was interesting enough that I wanted to finish it.
I really, really, really hate love triangles, so that definitely made reading this a chore at times. There were some parts that were good- I actually found the alternating POV to be refreshing, because there would have been no way I could have handled everything from Lena's perspective, considering how much focus was put on the “Alex or Julian??” aspect, and Hana's view as she dealt with being cured and being forced to marry Fred was pretty interesting - but ultimately, I feel like this will be a forgettable trilogy to me.
It felt like, to me, that there were many plot points that could have been elaborated on or expanded that would have made it more interesting: Lena getting to know her mother could have been fleshed out, rather than being skimmed over, or there could have been more mystery to Fred being evil rather than making it the most obvious thing in the world, to name a few examples.
Also, it got my hopes up when Hana stated that she loved Lena, only to be struck down a sentence later when she elaborates that she loved her only as a friend. I think a book where the protag decides to run off with her best ladyfriend and ditches her two dudely love interests would be much better.
Overall, it falls into the trap that many YA dystopian trilogies fall into, a trap made up of weak resolutions and love triangles. Still, I'm not sorry I read it, so that's something.
Hmm, normally I like comics that are just Heroes in Situations, but I thought that the tone of this seemed a bit inconsistent with the premise? It ends up being a bit of a wackier adventure with Bats assembling a ragtag team of misfits to break into the Fortress of Solitude, and I was expecting something a bit grittier and chaotic on the streets of Gotham. Even once I adjusted my expectations, it seemed like it should have been more serious? I dunno, the tone just didn't land for me, and I wasn't a huge fan of the art style, either. Overall, I'll give this 2.5 Lex Luthor presidencies out of 5.
I read this book several times as a kid, and wanted to re-read it in preparation for Mike Flanagan's Netflix adaptation. This and [b:Whisper of Death 137964 Whisper of Death Christopher Pike https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1378900166l/137964.SY75.jpg 1546535] were my two most-read of Pike's books, so I had hazy memories of it. I mostly liked the stories-within-a-story format of both books, but man, these stories were blehhhhhh. The only one I remembered with any sort of clarity was Anya's “deal with the devil” one. The general premise is interesting, but I did not care when I was reading about Ilonka's past lives or her deep everlasting love for Kevin. I dunno, I'm still excited about the show because like I said, the bare-bones plot of it is solid, but the execution didn't work for me. 2 of Ilonka's long-winded stories about her Master and reality being an illusion and whatever out of 5.
After making a promise to her dying grandmother, our protagonist Becca decides to go on a quest to find out the truth of her grandmother's life. Sound like the beginning of a fairy tale adventure? Well, why not make the grandmother the survivor of the holocaust, our heroine a reporter, and frame the whole story with a strange version of Sleeping Beauty?
The premise of this book is solid, and the actual truth of the grandmother's - or Gemma's - life is well-written, but Becca failed to interest me as a protagonist. The other characters in the family were equally dry at best or insufferable at worst except for Gemma. The short chapters that featured Gemma telling her version of Sleeping Beauty, and finding out how all the pieces fit together made the book worthwhile to me, and I wouldn't necessarily hesitate to recommend it to a YA patron, but overall a lot of the book fell flat to me. I think Yolen is excellent at crafting a story and an overall swell person, but the dialogue in this book is pretty cringe-y. No one speaks in unison that often! People use contractions when they talk!
Anyway, minor nitpicks. It's certainly not a bad book, and of course the imagery of WWII is always going to be powerful, and the way she chose to unfold everything was pretty great. 3/5
This is a tough book to review, so I can't imagine how difficult it was to write.
It's rare that you see something as taboo as sibling incest portrayed in a sympathetic light (I guess unless you count stuff like Flowers in the Attic, but this book is only similar in the fact that a) incest is committed by two elder siblings that act as parents to their younger siblings, and b) they have an awful, no-good, terrible mother; there are no locked attics nor are there poisoned donuts to be found in this story) and man, did the author pull it off.
As I stated, the basic premise is this: eldest son Lochan and eldest daughter Maya take care of their three younger siblings: Kit, an angsty teenager; Tiffin, a hyperactive, sugar-addicted kid; and Willa, an adorable girl who is barely out of toddlerhood. They assume the roles of parents as their father left them several years before the novel begins, and their mother is obsessed with feeling young and beautiful, and never wanted the burden of motherhood. As Lochan and Maya are only 13 months apart in age, they have always been best friends, partners, above the mere fact that they are siblings. As Lochan enters the last year of school and pressure from his severe social anxiety and the constant threat of child services mounts, the two find themselves drawn together and admitting feelings that they have been denying for years.
I have a lot of good things to say about this novel, which of course can make for awkward conversation.
Person: Hey, read any good books lately?
Me: Yeah, there's this one I just finished, Forbidden....
Person: What's it about?
Me: . . .
Person: . . .
Me: . . .
First and foremost, the writing is pretty dang beautiful. The author particularly handles the anxiety aspect well, and I noticed this early on in the book with this passage:
I don't know when it started – this thing – but it's growing, muffling me, suffocating me like poison ivy. I grew into it. It grew into me. We blurred at the edges, became an amorphous seeping, crawling thing.
That pretty much hits the nail on the head. And really, this same type of description could easily apply to how dependent he and Maya are on one another, and he even says as such later in the book (albeit in a much more positive, romanticized way):
The human body needs a constant flow of nourishment, air, and love to survive. Without Maya, I lose all three; apart, we will slowly die.
Like I said before, this novel really makes you feel sympathy, rather than disgust, with Maya and Lochan's situation. They love each other and often say (in fact, one of my few issues with this book is that it is a little repetitive at times) that they are soul mates that happen to share the same parentage.
It's a slow burn, an emotional ride, and I for one found myself wanting a happy ending for the Whitely kids. I do wish Maya would have been given more character, as her personality seems to revolve around her devotion to Lochan. He mentions at one point, late in the novel, that Maya had childhood dreams of being an actress; perhaps I missed that fact being mentioned earlier on, but her character felt a little flat at times. I still liked her, but Lochan was given more layers and thus his sections were more compelling to me.
I do fret about Kit, though; if he was so damaged before, how is he going to cope with the fact that his actions led to the suicide of his older brother? It's not even mentioned in the epilogue, and I understand that maybe it's too much to add in at the end of the book, but I can't help but wonder.
At any rate, if you feel like reading a sympathetic portrayal of how a consensual incestuous relationship could form under difficult circumstances, I would recommend this one.
I definitely liked this more on the re-read than I did the first time around, but it still has issues, primarily with pacing. I think finding out more about District 13 and Katniss dealing with PTSD while being forced into the role of rebellion leader via propaganda is interesting, but she is sidelined for so much of the action that there were just these big blocks of expositional text and it made me zone out. I dunno, it just doesn't work as well as the first two for me, but at least Buttercup survived. 3 lizard-mutt things out of 5.
High school can be hell, I don't think that's news to anyone. Even those who enjoyed those years know that it wasn't great for everyone, and this novel really decides to go big or go home on that idea.
Regina Afton is our heroine, for lack of a better term. After she is nearly raped by her best friend Anna's boyfriend, she finds herself ostracized from her group. Anna is the queen bee of the school: though just about everyone hates her, no one can deny how powerful she is. Regina gets a lot of hate just for being Anna's right-hand, though we find out as the novel progresses that she was no angel herself during her stint of popularity.
There's a lot to like about this novel: it is fast-paced and covers important issues and you definitely want to keep reading to find out what happens next, especially as the description offers “ an explosive conclusion.” Overall, a solid 3/5.
This was SO GOOD and the only thing really keeping it from a 5-star for me is the unnecessary romance. It added nothing! Especially since the focus was so much on Nora having new friends outside of Becca, the love interest could have easily just been another friend. But still, I loved the spooky atmosphere and pacing of all the reveals, and Melissa Albert's prose is so, so lovely. Overall, 4 jump rope rhymes out of 5.
An interesting story that really makes you feel what the main character is feeling, and I loved the strong sense of place, but overall a middling read for me. 3 camels out of 5.
Another short review as there are millions, possibly trillions* of things I need to do for school. It's hard to review this book without delving too deeply in the plot line, so I will say that I kind of liked it better before ~the big reveal~ and I made a note at around 1am on my phone that I would like it better if it were two separate distinct works. I don't know where sleepy!Amity was really going with that note, but I'm not going to say to disregard this book - it has some interesting prose and it's definitely one of those books that would be interesting to discuss with a friend who has read it before. 3/5 seems fitting, though I might revisit it in the future to see if I like it better knowing what I'm getting into.
*This is 100% not an exaggeration - what do you take me for, a....person who doesn't tell the truth?
Audrain is two for two in my book. I didn't like this one quite as much as [b:The Push 52476830 The Push Ashley Audrain https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1609854219l/52476830.SY75.jpg 71867231] but it still kept me turning pages; no real surprises plot-wise, but I was so invested in seeing how the characters would react to the various reveals that I read it all in one sitting. Overall, 4 paper airplanes out of 5. Also, CWs for depictions of miscarriages, infidelity, harm to a minor
Anna Alcott, an actress in her late thirties, would do anything to have a child. Her journey with IVF has been difficult, causing mounting frustration and anxiety that she and her husband won't be able to conceive. On top of this, her fame increases as Oscar buzz surrounds her latest movie, forcing her into the public eye and garnering negative attention on various social media platforms. Her husband and her doctors are quick to blame stress as the cause of her forgetfulness when she misses appointments or loses medications. Still, Anna, who begins to receive cryptic notes on her phone, is convinced someone is trying to sabotage her; when she finally becomes pregnant, a break-in at her home occurs and forces her to go into hiding. As her symptoms worsen and the messages she receives grow more threatening, Anna wonders: is her baby even human?
Filled with suspense, mystery, and the particular body horror that comes with pregnancy, Delicate Condition didn't necessarily hook me right away. Still, I was fully invested once I got a bit more into it. The frustration of not being heard by doctors is all too real; I have never been pregnant, nor do I plan on it (especially after reading this, sheesh), but I've been dismissed by doctors before. There was a lot to like about this book, and it keeps you reading, even if it is a little predictable. There's also a CW at the beginning, and I appreciate that! Overall, 3.5 honey and anise cookies out of 5. Thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for the review copies!
Also, just found out this will be the basis for the new season of AHS, but I won't hold that against the book.
I'm trying to do better. Sometimes it feels like I'm always trying and trying.
Another day, another picture book that makes me tear up at the reference desk. 5 spiky days out of 5
I'm really digging this arc so far; both the human and monster antagonists are nice and creepy! Gabi is not as outwardly loveable as James as far as kid sidekicks go, but I think her prickly nature is justified and I still quite like her overall. She might throw it back in my face, but I would still offer her a blanket and cocoa for comfort. Lowkey kind of hope Riqui and Erica do a big smooch because they both need some happiness in their lives, too. Overall, 4 evil dolls out of 5 - looking forward to the next volume!
At seventeen, Lenora HopeHung her sister with a ropeStabbed her father with a knifeTook her mother's happy life“It wasn't me,” Lenora saidBut she's the only one not dead
I hope you like this rhyme, as it is repeated approximately 70 kazillion times in the first half this book!
Okay, I kid, I kid; it's a great, creepy rhyme but it did start to lose its oomph after being repeated so many times. And really, so much of this book just seemed repetitive to me.
Also, this will make me sound like a jerk, but I think Riley Sager might be paid per line.
Because all of Kit's internal dialogue was formatted like this.
Each new thought needs a line.
It really didn't vibe with this particular reader.
I'm being overly negative. There's a lot to like here! Great gothic setting, fun mystery, lots of twists and turns at the end...I don't know, I'm definitely the outlier here. It was a compelling story and I didn't hate it (although I did think Kit was kind of a drip), but this is still a fairly low 3 red herrings out of 5.
This was so much funnier than the subject matter would lead you to believe. I quite like Drew's voice and the strong sibling bonds brought this particular only child to tears by the end. 4 faulty product reviews out of 5.
Abbott has such a compelling writing style, and it's on full display in this tense, atmospheric novel about a family getaway gone horribly wrong. I feel like the lower star rating might be due to the lack of ending, but it worked for me. 4 mountain lions out of 5.
Listen, is it subtle? No. Is this version of Dick Grayson presented as a complex individual? No, he's basically a platonic ideal of Good and Just and everyone loves him. But does it feature an adorable doggo that Tim Drake (my beloved) refers to as Bitewing? YES!
also lol @ Babs and her A+ shirt
But at any rate, I often find that I enjoy superhero comics the most when it's just a Good Person wanting the world to be a Better Place. Realistic, flawed people facing the evils of the world can make for an incredible story, but sometimes it's refreshing to read about an idealistic person doing nice things. Art-wise, the vibrant colors and energetic panel layouts complement the story and it's really easy on the eyes. Much like the titular character, amirite?? DC really loves its buff, blue-eyed, dark-haired pretty boys.
Overall, this isn't something I would normally pick up but I'm glad that the PopSugar Reading Challenge prompted me to read something with “leap” in the title, because this was delightful and I wouldn't mind continuing the series. 3.5 Bat-family groupchats out of 5, rounded up for Bitewing Haley.
There was so much I loved about this book: its surface-level similarities to IT (childhood friends reuniting decades later to face the literal demons from their youth and also maybe some of them will kiss??) by way of creepypasta (I was particularly reminded of Candle Cove), the constant online speculation of the show via reddit threads, blogs, and even fanfic, i.e. all stuff that appeals to me specifically!
However, I thought the last maybe 20% got a little muddled and a teeny bit repetitive. It was also unsubtle at times but hey, some anvils need to be dropped. Overall, I really liked it! 4 tasty colors out of 5.
not to be dramatic but i would throw myself into an active volcano for Toadling
4 changelings out of 5
I was not in love with the librarian representation in this book, but I am in love with Richard Ayoade:
So, I guess it all evens out in the end. 3 telepathic books out of 5.
