Anna Tschetter
This was great! Sad and lovely all at the same time. I do think teen readers might be overwhelmed but the sheer amount of 80s/90s pop culture references at time but still wonderful and life affirming!!
A fun but sobering tale of a tween girl having the save the world by reforestation after climate change.
I absolutely adored the art. It's the type of collage-y mixed media stuff that is some of my favorites. Plus Reynolds' poem is both sad and hopeful. Both a memorial and a balm for the last few years.
What an ending! This is a great - and pretty dark - mystery for teens who like Poe or who just want a delicious thriller!
A sea story with a lot of depth, commentary on colonialism and classism, adventure, and even a dragon. I LOVED this. Also just look at the cover. So beautiful!
I'm not sure I can express how much his book meant to me and how much I am still thinking about it. Incredible.
A character study in the responses to power and the abuse of power. A slower paced read for me but one that is important.
A Southern gothic book that isn't weirdly nostalgic about the Confederacy/antebellum South! You love to see it. It's also a powerful book about sisterhood, colorism and passing, and the untrustworthiness of white “allies” like Finch Waylon.
I enjoyed this! I appreciated the found family, thinking about who gets to be invisible, and the fact that it's sort of a ghost story without being particularly scary.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in exploring the ideas of prison and police abolition! It is approachable and a great starting place.
I want to be an abolitionist though I'm afraid I'm not imaginative or hopeful enough at this moment. Even if you hear of this concept and immediately think it's impossible, please read this book! It will give anyone a lot to think about!!
I enjoyed this! It was an interesting format mixed of quotes from Butler, poems, and then short chapters of explanation. I think it is a great way to introduce Butler's work for younger audiences who should know about this visionary sci-fi author!!
This is one that's going to stick with me.
I LOVED it. Not only is the art gorgeous - I want to live in those color palettes - but the story is excellent. I think it's a great interrogation of heroism, war, and violence. I was reading another review where the person said they wanted to know what the Ornu had “done” to be treated as enemies or second-class citizens. The answer is, like so many real-life examples, that they did nothing. Their “crime” was being in the way of colonization and power and empire.
The authors clearly took so much care into all the details of this work and it is exceptional. Highly recommended for anyone who has ever wanted to be a hero.
If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would.
I knew immediately upon starting reading it that it would destroy me emotionally and I was right. I am destroyed but I didn't know how beautiful the journey to that destruction would be. Everything about the book is so well crafted: the Elizabeth Bishop poem, the music, and Misbah's chapters and that they are written by Sal! . I found that the drug plot was so well done with the way it was introduced and then kept showing up like Chekov's gun. It just worked!
If this doesn't win the Printz I'll be so incredibly sad!!
I'm very conflicted about this book. In a lot of ways, I couldn't stop listening to it and found it fascinating. I know some folks dislike the idea of a “true crime memoir” and see it as exploiting someone else's trauma for personal gain. But so much of this is about the author's own experience and it made sense that she was working through that while working the case.
It's a three star for me because of some of the ways she talked about the survivors and Daisy in particular. Krouse seems weirdly obsessed with Daisy's weight and Asian American identity in a weird, fetishistic way. She's so surprised that Daisy could be sexy and powerful even if she's “overweight” and noting in the epilogue that she is “skinny now.” It was just so weird and unnecessary that it took me out of the narrative every time Daisy appeared.
I liked but didn't love this but that probably has more to do not reading a ton of adult mystery/thrillers. While it was pretty brutal in some parts, I really struggled with Buddy Lee's constant slang. I know it was a character choice but it just didn't really gel with me. The emotions the fathers felt about their two murdered sons and their regrets of not accepting them in live was so hard and affecting, though.
I loved the concept of the noors and the Red Eye and just the whole Africanfuturist vibe of it. The anti-corporation and anti-capitalist second half was also really satisfying - I only wish it was longer!
At first I wasn't quite sure about this one because the sweet, somewhat stilted British-sequel language didn't work for me but I was win over by the story.
Chauncey was my favorite child - literally the best!
I enjoyed this but didn't love it! I'm not sure what didn't click for me - the art was good (though I found some of the backgrounds a little lacking but that's probably just a translation from webcomic) and the story cute. Something about it just didn't grab me in a new enough way for this old story.
I can see how people really love it and I'm happy for them!
This was really sweet! I enjoyed Frieren starting to learn about emotional and personal connections. I think there's a strong possibility that it will emotionally devastate me so I'm excited for that.
I really like Hur's historical mysteries. She does such a great job of building the historical world in a way that you feel like you can understand it even if it is an era/place you don't know anything about. Plus, a good whodunnit! This one had the addition of a sweet, yearning romance which was super cute.
First of all, the art is adorable and I could look at tons more illustrations of magical sea creatures! The story itself is also so sweet: one of conquering or living with your inner doubts and learning from mistakes.
I think this is a great pick for readers looking for a short mystery with multiple queer characters. While it is a mystery, it's more contemplative and emotional than something like One of Us is Lying, so it's more readers who want the mystery aspects of it, but are more interested in the aftermath of the lives touched by violence.