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Two teenagers meet in an extra-dimensional space after their deaths. Through a TV in this room, they watch the lives of their loved ones following their passing, communicate the best they can, and learn how their lives were intertwined.
This was a tender book that wormed its way into my heart. The cast was strong; Kenny and Caroline are sweet and loving people, and seeing their stories unfold along with them was more affecting on me than I expected. I especially liked the characterization of Caroline, who wears her heart on her sleeve and chooses kindness after moments of desperation, as well as her brother and father.
I would've liked to see more of Kenny's past; I understand depression, especially as a second-gen immigrant, and feel like I was told more about Kenny's rather than shown. His father was also a favorite.
All in all, a strong character-driven book about grief that I would recommend for book clubs.
I was given a free audiobook download of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review. Thank you!
The cover is gorgeous and the title funny, and casual Muslim rep is wonderful, but this book suffers from intensely unbelievable situations that made me feel disconnected from it. I haven't seen Four Weddings and a Funeral, so I don't know if the weird scenarios are referencing it.
1 - Ladoo the Cat. How are these two teenagers inheriting this cat together? Why didn't the librarian tell them about it in advance? Assuming she is a responsible human being, why would she put that in her will, which she had time to update given her death wasn't sudden? Do these kids ever go to the pet store, take this cat to the vet, etc.? How are they splitting finances? What on earth?
2 -An Islamic Center burning down and there not being an investigation of arson. I grew up in the 2000s in New Jersey. To me an Islamic Center burning down is an arson until proven otherwise.
3 - Everything around the Islamic Center's replacement. First, the book seems to imply that the city owns the Islamic Center, which is... illegal? Under the first amendment. Presumably this land is owned by the Islamic Center, which would likely have a board made of local community members, which would likely be working to restore it immediately and have insurance. The lack of any adult activity around the Islamic Center literally burning down is baffling to me. No LaunchGood or GoFundMe? No community involvement at all until these two kids come up with it, despite being an active enough community to warrant an Islamic Center? Why doesn't Tiwa have any friends or connections there aside from the one Not-Imam? I feel so disconnected from this supposed traumatic event.
Also, I don't claim to know Vermont zoning law, but presumably the land is zoned for community use and can't instantly be converted into apartments because the mayor (and only the mayor) wants that, especially because the apartments also wouldn't be owned by the city, so there would need to be a firm involved who is interested in this property and submitted paperwork about it months ago. Which would be weird. And how are we scheduling a demolition within a a week or so of the fire?
Actually, does this story take place elsewhere in the original draft? Both authors are from Europe and the word “knobhead” made it in without anyone talking about it. But then do cities own religious institutions in the UK??
4 - Despite all of the above, bylaws suddenly become relevant at the end.
5 - The large absence of Tiwa's brother from the story is supposed to be important and sad and dramatic but, again, just makes me feel disconnected and not care.
6 - The reveal of what split Tiwa and Said apart was super contrived. Why don't these kids just text each other. What.
I listened to the audiobook, which was okay prose-wise, but not with dialogue; both of the narrators struggled to create clear, differentiated voices for at least the main trio. Tiwa's voice routinely said “Ladoo” wrong, and Said's pronounces Tiwa's name differently than Tiwa does. Both of them mispronounce “Ghibli.”
This could have been really cute, but these glaring errors were in the way.
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to listen to the audiobook ahead of release.
I think that Death should not be allowed to have a penis. Or a clitoris, I don't care, just do Not let Death fuck.
OK gang! Here's the conundrum I present you with today: Let's say you're a young, twenty-year-old girl. Everyone you have ever loved, or who has taken care of you in any sense of the word, has died. When you should have died, you didn't. So ever since you can remember, you can see the Reaper and you can see ghosts. You have seen Death, the very real being, over and over again, and he has seen you; you decide you will be rid of him. You take a dose of poison???the titular belladonna???and Death appears before you, hulking, a predator. He calls you “Little Bird”. You run at him with a knife.It seeps through him, and he laughs. The ruckus alerts your cruel aunt, who appears at your door and tries to strangle you. You should die there, but you don't; she does. Death disavows the reaping. He says he is not your enemy. He says that he will prove it to you in two days' time.Two days later, an invitation to a new home is offered to you, and a young, handsome stable boy arrives to pick you up. His shoes are too clean to be a stable boy, and it appears improper that a young man should be sent alone to pick up a young lady, especially according to your late mother's etiquette book. You learn that the Hawthorne estate is in troubling times because its matriarch has recently passed away from illness, its patriarch is lost in wine and sorrow, its son lost also in his grief and frustration, and daughter dying of the same illness as her mother.Also, Lillian Hawthorne's twisted ghost haunts the estate, seeking to protect her daughter from the murderer that killed her.Now!As you solve the murder mystery alongside them, should you get with Sylas???the mysterious, handsome, peasant man who escorted you here???or Death himself, whose powers it seems you share? If you, like me, tend to envision Death as an ageless, sexless being, when main character Signa (yep) starts being attracted to Death???who has been watching and protecting her since she was a baby???and Death reciprocates, you said aloud, “Big yikes!” My only consolation was that there were more potential romantic interests, so maybe Death would eventually refuse her for Being Death reasons, except then the book solves the potential love triangle by having Sylas be Death in disguise. Which explains why he's so curiously around and then absent at seemingly random times, I guess, but also adds to the Yikes! factor because it's just Death grooming and manipulating Signa all the way down.I could get into how the other parts of the book are flat???none of the main cast have engaging personalities and too much time is spent at tea parties and talking about scones, plus there's constant talk of “pieces falling into place” in the “puzzle” Signa is solving???but most of my energy is lost in the fucking of Should-Be-Your-Grandfather Death. Don't do that. At least he asked for consent every time I guess.
I read this book because it was a Goodreads Nominee for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction. I surmise that when there is a young adult-ish protagonist (such as twenty-year-old-yet-to-debut Signa here) and the writing and story are Just Okay, publishers shove it into YA. The audiobook performance by Kristin Atherton is the source of 2 stars.
Oh also a big shout out to the like three instances of the shadow lesbians who are always making out in the corners 10/10 queer rep
I don't like fictional books about mass shootings; I read this because it was the 2021-2022 novel winner of the Golden Sower Award.That said - this is torture porn. I felt gross reading it. It's like what [b:The Hunger Games 2767052 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1) Suzanne Collins https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1586722975l/2767052.SX50.jpg 2792775] was trying to warn us about. It has nothing to say about shootings and how to prevent or recover from them, and only clumsily explains why this one is happening at all.Moreover, if your characters of color exist primarily for your white cast to be racist at them, I'd rather you didn't have those characters at all. Relatedly, it's “Islamist terrorist” not “Islamic.”
2.7/5
Golden Sower 2022-3 Novel Nominee. Fun mystery, although the frequency of the narrator's metaphors made me wonder when it's supposed to take place. Don't know if I would've liked it as much if not for the audiobook. Didn't care for the whole “smart sporty Not Girly Ever” twin and the corresponding witless twin. Pro-police throughout (imagine if a different kind of kid had been so involved) and church-y at the end.