Renata Sancken
CRYINGGGG. I just read this all in one sitting. I thought Violi's portrayal of Donna, whose dad died when she was 14 and who now wants to go to college to become a funeral director, was intense and awesome. Violi was so so good at showing, not telling, and you could totally see how everything Donna was doing made sense to her but how much it was hurting her mom, and, and... :(
But also it was very funny in places and very wisely contemplative about death.
ok for ME I prefer AS King when she's writing stuff for teens and can really let her freak flag fly. But I think this is a good middle grade book that deals with timely issues (censorship, sexism, racism, adults being unhinged fascists) in a way that respects kids.
I did think the subplot with Mac's dad (CW for mental illness? I THINK?) was maybe...idk maybe could have been its own book? But I guess it contributed to Mac's general stress and confusion about like, what's the deal with ADULTS.
Obviously I love the original Animorphs series and I really do hope the graphic novel adaptations brings it to a new audience. I think the Animorphs concept is just so cool and I think this book captures that and the tension of the plot pretty well. I didn't love the art? I felt like the human faces were...bad? I also kind of missed the internal narration of the non-GN books. But again, the originals are very dear to my heart. But I think for a younger audience who might encounter the story for the first time in this format, there's a lot to like.
(read as single issues)
cries Goodbye Squirrel Girl! You were so good from start to finish!!!!
This is a sweet teen romcom. I have a weird fondness for YA books from the POV of Popular Girls so I enjoyed that aspect of it, and understood how that played into the love triangle. I also thought Lara questioning her sexuality and temporarily deciding she's straight because her experience didn't perfectly line up with some of her queer peers is something that felt realistic and that I think will be valuable for a lot of teens (and beyond) to read. (Also brief but explicit canon aro-ace representation which again, is validating to see.)
Ultimately it did feel a bit like the main romance here was between Lara and her own self-discovery as opposed to between Lara and Chase or Lara and Jasmine, but honestly that's fine with me. I think a lot of teen readers will be cool with this.
this was...fine. It felt to me like it was relying a lot on the general premise of “teen exorcist” to be compelling without doing much legwork. Similarly the romance wasn't particularly developed either? It feels like an outline of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction.
The cover art is really cute though.
I'd heard good things about Jessica Jones as a character but I was kind of scared to read any of her comics after reading the Wikipedia article about her... her backstory is SO GRIM. But now there's a Netflix show coming out so I was like FINE I'll READ the comics. And! I really enjoyed this. And! This volume doesn't go into her super grim backstory!
Note: I asked our adult graphic novel buyer to get this because the cover says EXPLICIT CONTENT and indeed, I would not recommend this for the teen GN collection for cussing and sexing and stuff.
OK so, I picked this up off display and was like “oh yeah I've been meaning to read this” and then gradually I realized that actually, I'd been thinking of [b:No One Is Talking About This 53733106 No One Is Talking About This Patricia Lockwood https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1601474686l/53733106.SY75.jpg 84057345] which is completely different. I have some questions about why no one is talking about this. Anyway by that point I was pretty sucked in so I kept reading although this is a little far afield of my usual preference (ie it's a murder mystery). I liked the podcaster angle a lot as well as the “cancel culture” part. I sort of enjoyed splashing around in the pool of “true crime is problematic but also helpful” waters although I'm not sure it's doing anything really groundbreaking in that area.
HEAVY SHIT.
This was a compelling book, and I like how it complicated the role of UN aid in Haiti & all of the political turmoil in Haiti. Not... super sure about the voodoo, but... okay.
I'm giving this 5 stars not because it's a perfect book, but because every book has its reader, and in this case, I am that reader. This book is like... improbably perfectly attuned to my own personal sense of humor.
I'm honestly not sure how many other people would like this book? A lot of the “tween” references are clearly aimed at twenty-somethings who were once tween girls–scrunchies, Lisa Frank, etc–but it's clearly set now-ish, with Justin Bieber and emoji references aplenty. I suspect the target audience woudl be a twenty-something person who is also attuned to today's tween pop culture but also love hobo code. So... again, I am the target audience for this book.
It's ostensibly YA but I don't know how many actual tweens/teens would think it's funny? The plot is a loosely structured cross-country adventure on rails, interspersed with a lot of tweets from the @tweenhobo account.
It was a fun, fast read that I personally thought was 100% hilarious, but I acknowledge that it is likely a book with limited appeal.
What a weird little treat! As the survivor of multiple Vegas Bachelorette weekends parts of this felt SO relatable to me but then Lubchanksy also adds in another layer of gender identity and transitioning and how hard that would make things, and then plus also the sci-fi/fantasy metaphor of it all. Just really firing on all cylinders.
WOW this was FANTASTIC. LOVED the added context for Pet but also loved this as its own thing, one that feels like it could take place, like, tomorrow compared to the more utopian* world of Pet.
*I know
Sunnyyyyyyyyyyyy
I want to re-read the whole series to date because I definitely didn't remember some details from the previous book? But I understood enough to appreciate the complexity of the journey. I just love these books!
I think I definitely missed my peak age to read this book by about 20 years–I can definitely see why it resonates with younger readers, especially back in the day when the YA landscape was pretty barren. (Yes it's true, I'd never read this before.)
It holds up... okay, I think. It is a little cheesy and feels to me like West Side Story AU hurt/comfort fanfiction? Which, hey, is a story with HELLA teen appeal.
It's interesting that it was written by a woman (a girl, really) and beloved by many girls when the female characters in this book are few and far between. But again–I get the appeal to many girls of reading about a bunch of boys with a lot of feelings and great hair and no girls to compete with for their affection. Like, I bet there is a LOT of self-insert Outsiders fanfiction out there.
This novel in verse was a quick read, but gives readers a lot to think about. You don't usually see YA novels spend this much time in a character's childhood but it was nice to see things that had shaped Michael's life. I like the messiness of this, that no character really acts perfectly but they're all allowed some kind of grace. And I think the way that Michael learns more about gender and sexuality and race as he starts college is very organic and something that will make this text useful and reflective for a lot of teen readers.
I was excited to read this bc I love Center Stage and am forever chasing YA novels to give me that high. ([b:Tiny Pretty Things 18710209 Tiny Pretty Things (Tiny Pretty Things, #1) Sona Charaipotra https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413576484l/18710209.SX50.jpg 26568298] so far was the closest.)This book for me though....was not it.I think there are aspects to like here–I think the Prince-centric 80s Minnesota setting is cool, I think the queer teen drag scene is cool, I think it's cool to highlight the talents & struggles of dancers of color. But the plot itself was SO SWEATY, and not just because of all the hard dance practices. (Rim shot) It just felt like I could realllly see the seams where the author wanted X emotional effect and therefore Y had to happen and therefor character had to do Z thing even though Z thing didn't really make sense. Like for example early on we see that Rosa's sister is a paraplegic and it's clear that Rosa is hiding something about that (even though it's her own narration which is already kind of a shaky narrative device in the first place, of like why the narrator is clearly hiding something from....herself?) But the reveal that her sister is disabled because she and Rosa were fighting at home inside the house and then Rosa got mad, took her sister's shoe out of her hand, went outside and threw the shoe into the street, and then her sister chased the shoe into the road and got hit by a truck??? whaaaat?!?! SO SWEATY, rly feels like the author could have taken another whack at that and come up with some less bonkers reason why Rosa might feel guilt about her sister's injury IMO!!!!Anyway I'm leaving out a star rating because there aren't so many reviews of this up yet and I don't want this responsibility but I did not really like this book and I kept incredulously telling improbable details aloud to my coworker. If this were a Disney Channel movie I'd definitely watch it but the problem is dance movies can get by on super thin plots/character developments because it's nice to watch dance performances but dance BOOKS have a higher bar to clear and IMO this one did not do that!!
I admit it, I doubted Elizabeth Wein... I was excited to get the galley of this and then I read the summary and kind of put off reading it because it sounded kind of boring to me... but once I picked it up, I was HOOKED. I feel like I learned so much about the history of Ethiopia, and I was so INTERESTED in it. I loved these characters so much and once all the plot twists were fully activated I couldn't put it down!!
AHHH
I need to think about how to booktalk this because I still think the plot summary sounds boring. I might need to just throw it at kids and yell AHHHHH
Mm, it took me awhile to get into this, and it never really ~grabbed~ me, although by all rights a story about Australian MURDER GHOSTS totally should have? I did like the characters, and I thought the multiple narrators were used really skillfully, and I appreciate the historical details, but overall, just... eh, I guess? Dymphna and Kelpie were totally rad, though.
This was a ton of fun, and I love the variety of aro/ace spectrum representation here. I think the backstory about them meeting on a Star Wars message board and learning together that there was a word for asexuality and creating their own spinoff Discord is something that will really resonate with teens and I love that. I will say that this is pitched as “Six of Crows in Las Vegas” and like...sorryyyy but this doesn't quite live up to that, both because Six of Crows has such well-developed characters and also because Bardugo's heist is a few notches more elaborate than this one. Here the characters are a little flatter overall and the plot is a little sweatier. But like, it was a fun read and I think a lot of teens will love this and feel seen by it.
I was obv drawn to this because of the cult aspect, and I'm a fan of Gwenda Bond's YA books (and her former podcast about cults!) The book itself wasn't totally my cup of tea, like I understand that it is a romance novel and this is the point of it, but it was hard for me to get into the super hot demon falling in love at first sight with the random human escape room operator.
It also felt like the bureaucracy of Hell and the humor there owed a lot to Good Omens but in a way where I just like, wished I was re-reading Good Omens.
But I think readers who are more into paranormal romance in general, and who are less concerned with the worldbuilding details, will probably enjoy this more than I did.
Also it was nice to include a nonbinary best friend character although that character's side plot overall didn't...do a lot for me?
hell yeah I'll read any YA novel about a cult
this one was fine, it simultaneously felt a little too long but also like everything resolved too quickly? I loved the flashbacks about life within the cult (based on the Branch Davidians), and I was interested to read about Moonbeam's recovery process but it did seem to gloss over uhh a lot.
It's no Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly but still a fine choice for the cult enthusiast reader.
Oh my God. I was not thrilled when this book was assigned for my YA lit class because I did not think some book about teenage hackers was going to be my cup of tea. But actually it was an incredible read. I read it all in one day because I could not put it down. (Okay and also I had a 6-hour flight that day.) Super intense and very believable.
Oh and it made me way paranoid about, like, everything. READ THIS, even if you don't like computers, or if you don't like YA lit, or like, whatever. Read it.
I really liked the magical worldbuilding and the tasty food! The fantasy plot itself is a little rote but overall an enjoyable read. The kind of thing that might be more eye-opening for a younger reader than a jaded old one like me.
