I devoured this book in one disturbing sitting. The writing is gripping and captivating, drawing me in from the author’s note at the beginning of the I devoured this book in one disturbing sitting. The writing is gripping and captivating, drawing me in from the author’s note at the beginning of the book. I don’t read a lot of true crime, but I grew up watching Unsolved Mysteries, CSI, and Criminal Minds, so when my friend Jess @ Fiction No Chaser screamed to me about this one, I had to read it myself!
“The subject of this book was unlike anything the FBI had ever encountered. He was a new kind of monster, likely responsible for the greatest string of unsolved disappearances and murders in modern history. And you have probably never heard of him.”
At the risk of sounding morbid, I know a lot about serial killers and was surprised that I had never heard of this guy. The book is very well researched and is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the investigators involved. I don’t read a lot of true crime so I am not sure if this is typical of the genre, but American Predator reads like an episode of Criminal Minds – it is an incredibly engaging read.
The book begins with Israel Keyes’ last crime, Samantha’s disappearance from the coffee hut that she worked in (with people around!) and follows the search for her and who was responsible. From the friction between local police and the FBI to a grandstanding prosecutor, it was really heartbreaking to read about the various missteps in the investigation.
“Payne always likened the first meeting with a suspect to telling an author his own story. And, of course, only the author knows how that story ends.”
The second half of the book follows the countless interviews that investigators conducted with Keyes as it became clear that this wasn’t his first crime. The descriptions of his crimes are very detailed. Massive content warnings for rape, murder, and dismemberment.
If you are a fan of true crime, American Predator is a must-read. I knew I was reading nonfiction, but it almost feels like a thriller when reading it. Callahan’s writing is beautiful, descriptive, and past-paced, sucking you in until the last page is turned.
CONTENT WARNINGS: dismemberment, murder, rape
eARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review. Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and subject to change upon final publication.
I read this in one sitting! I definitely picked up more Romeo and Juliet vibes from this than expected, but the themes of the Iliad are evident througI read this in one sitting! I definitely picked up more Romeo and Juliet vibes from this than expected, but the themes of the Iliad are evident throughout - the underlying story being an important one of privilege and gentrification set in San Francisco.
"You turn eighteen, and they find you. There is no other recruitment. Eighteen - old enough to have had your heart hardened, young enough that blood still passes through it. Not everyone is recruited, of course, but the gangs are smart. They pick people with nothing to lose. The ones who are angry. Those who join San Francisco's infamous Red Bridge Wars do so willingly."
The ultimate war between the haves and the have-nots has waged on the streets of San Fransico for ten years. Three gangs run by teenagers are the players: Herons, Boars, and the mysterious Stags. The Herons are the tech companies and their families; their power and wealth drastically changing the city and displacing the poor. The Boars fight back, largely with violence. And the Stags? Well, some people say they don't even exist.
The book begins on the night of Valerie's eighteenth birthday. Her younger brother was killed in crossfire by one of the gangs two years earlier, and she is determined to join the Wars to find out who is responsible to exact her revenge. But instead of being recruited by the Herons like she always thought (and thus being separated from her ex-boyfriend), she joins the Stags.
I really fell for Valerie and the rest of the Stags, especially Micah and Jax. Valerie is biracial (half Filipino and there is Tagalog in the book) and comes from a comfortable middle-class upbringing, which compared to her ex-boyfriend's family never felt like much. I appreciate that she doesn't deny her privilege when confronted by her fellow Stags, who for the most part grew up poor. I wish there was stronger LGBTQIAP+ representation. One of the stags, Nianna, tells Valerie that she is "queer and damn proud of it," but other than that line there isn't a mention of what her identity explicitly or implicitly is.
Losing her brother really affected Valerie; her grief and guilt run through the book. Major content warning for self-harm.She bakes in order to quiet the anxiety and occupy her thoughts, but she is also a cutter and there is on-page cutting in the book. As someone who has struggled with this for most of her life, I am not sure how I feel about the self-harm representation. I was able to comprehend the motivation because I have experienced it, but I don't know the motivations were really explored in text. I wish that the way Valerie talks about baking is how she would discuss the cutting. It just felt very surface level to me, and with something as serious as mental health and self-harm, I wish the representation were better than just... being there.
"Live fast, fight for what we want, then die and be remembered for all we accomplished."
Despite this being a heavy book of loss, grief, and vengeance, it is also filled with hope. Of the little things we can do to make a difference: frequenting mom-and-pop shops when we can, questioning the status quo and, researching things for yourself instead of believing what you are told. It's a love letter to civil disobedience and paints a picture of potential ways bad actors can ruin the message.
"I figure, if anything, the city's myriad ailments help the Wars. It's like a cancer - there's no easy fix, and while the state and local government tangles itself in red tape, the Wars go on as a newer symptom masked by others."
The book feels very punk rock to me, and nails the teenage optimism and fire to change the world for the better. They haven't been hardened by the reality of the world and complacent to let it simply continue as it always has. I haven't read The Outsiders, but this does remind me of my punk youth... and the Stags' methods for addressing the growing social inequality in their city reminds me a bit of SLC Punk. *choked sobbing*
The writing is gripping and engaging, once I started the book I was hooked until the end. It's a fast-paced read and a solid debut. As a note, I think the publisher got the genre classification wrong. The book is listed as a Thriller in their catalog, but it's really more of a contemporary story with elements of a dystopia setting. There is the mystery of who murdered Valerie's brother at the center of the story, but don't go in expecting an edge-of-your-seat thriller.
"Society says we're bad, but we're doing what the police can't and the other gangs won't [...] We're smarter than they are, and doing the right thing.'"
At the heart, this is a touching story of love, sacrifice, and revenge in a city at war between the haves and the have nots. San Francisco is a city where gentrification is evident on every street corner thanks to the growth of Silicon Valley, so it is the perfect setting for this story. Price did a fantastic job transporting the reader to the streets of the City, and she is definitely an author to watch. I look forward to reading her next book!
Content warnings: anxiety, child death, depression, grief, gun violence, mention of suicide, self-harm (on-page), underage drinking and drug use
eARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review. Quotations are from an uncorrected proof and subject to change upon final publication.
"Her dad used to tell her about the days when someone's name trending on Twitter meant they had died, or, best case, had dropped an unannounce
"Her dad used to tell her about the days when someone's name trending on Twitter meant they had died, or, best case, had dropped an unannounced album. But slowly, the online behaviors that were and were not acceptable began to change."
This book is essentially The Purge x Cancel Culture and it is terrifying in how plausible the plotline is. It's a smart speculative look at what could happen if the government created a system to rein in the worst parts of social media only to make things arguably worse.
"Now, people were fully accountable for their online behavior... and faced real-world consequences. [...] Things were better now. People were more careful online, more responsible. How could that be wrong?"
Cassie McKinney is our sixteen-year-old main character, daughter of a famous hacker with her own coding skills up her sleeve. But since her father died six months earlier, she hasn't really worked with code. She's angry and she wants to participate in some Hive justice... until she is on the wrong end of the Hive herself and running for her life. [image] The government created a system - the Hive - which allows people to assign likes and dislikes based on the online activity of... everyone. You know that social networking score episode of Black Mirror? Kind of like that only on steroids. Basically, if enough people don't like what you said or did and you get enough condemns, that means that you can be punished. Depending on the severity, the mob has a set amount of time to find and punish the target to exact justice.
I think my favorite parts were the presidential press conferences; it is no secret who the authors were emulating when coming up with President Dean Hythe.
"I ran for this office and won - twice - with some of the biggest margins in history. Some say the biggest margins. I don't say that. I just say some of the biggest because maybe there are some bigger. I don't know of any, but maybe there are."
"It isn't about me. Don't write that in your papers and on your blogs or whatever. This is the will of the people. I ran and won twice to I've power back to the people, and now they have that power now. It's up to them to use it."
While hilarious, this also points a strong message about how dangerous strongman politics are and how the current administration is weaponizing the anger and fear of the people to push an agenda and deflect. This is shown in the #trending Blinqs that appear throughout, and how there is always a small group talking about new bills signed into law that no one is talking about.
As the story progresses and the Hive Mob gets more rabid in their pursuit of justice, their Blinqs become increasingly hard to read. Which is the point: the anonymity of online leads people to say some truly horrific stuff when they have no consequences... suffice to say that it doesn't get better when it's condoned. I liked the mixed media component with press conferences and trending online messages to show how the world itself views our main character.
I'll admit that I found the narrative a little heavy on technical and hacking jargon at times but for the most part, I just let my eyes glaze over and I didn't seem to miss anything important. And I think the tech / hacking speak will be appreciated by readers versed in that. The pacing was a little rough with a lot of exposition a little over halfway, but otherwise, I was fully engaged (and horrified) by this speculative future. The ending is a little more open-ended than I would like because I like finite endings, but it made sense and didn't feel rushed.
I do want to say the narrative felt a little heavy-handed in its message on social media usage and I wish some nuance had been introduced to not paint this as "internet bad, cancel culture bad." Because there is some value to calling out toxic and problematic behavior, but doxxing and bullying is never okay. Riductio ad absurdum arguments like this can be dangerous and send the wrong message.
Overall, I enjoyed The Hive! I was sucked into the story and read it in two sittings because I was so invested in Cassie and her plight. This is a great piece of speculative fiction that's important for our times today. I wish the exposition were spread a bit more so it didn't affect the pacing in the middle part of the book, but this would make a terrific movie or episode of Black Mirror.
3.5 stars
Representation: biracial rep, women in STEM Content warnings: bullying, death, doxxing, grief, loss of a loved one, online threats (rape, violence, murder), violence
eARC provided by the publisher, Kids Can Press, in exchange for my honest review. This does not affect the content of my review. Quotations are from an uncorrected proof and subject to change upon fina publication.
While this review is spoiler-free for Rage, tread lightly if you haven't read Roar yet as this review has spoilers for the first book.
Anticipation is a tricky thing, friends. I loved Roar so much that I had incredibly high expectations for this sequel, and unfortunately, I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, this is a solid sequel, one that I enjoyed and would recommend, but some elements of the story didn't work well for me.
"I wanted to choose my own life, rather than having it chosen for me."
Aurora is at a crossroads in this installment of the Stormheart series. In Roar, she was able to go on the adventure she always dreamed of and find the power needed to protect Pavan. She got to choose her destiny, but now that freedom has come to an end because duty calls. And now she has a lot of choices to make.
"Life happens how it happens, and you can either move with the maelstrom or die wallowing about the change in the winds."
Miscommunication plays a big role in Rage, which is probably my least favorite plot device in the world. Remember at the end of Roar when she was about to tell Kiran the truth about her identity? I was really disappointed that it was dragged out until 24% into Rage, all the while putting her friends in danger for not knowing the truth. And then Kiran doesn't take the truth very well (who could blame him) and spends a chunk of the book not communicating his feelings either. I was just a frustrated Kal at all the not communicating - but this is a big me thing.
"All of us are loners in some way. We don't form attachments easily. But you were one of us. Nothing matters more in a crew than trust."
Despite the hurt feelings when the truth gets out, this found family is still there with their typical banter and love for one another. Each character handles the news differently, and I appreciated that nuance.
I think the root of my annoyance was with what I perceived to be backward development for Aurora's character. One of the things I loved the most about Roar is her bravery and fierce independence, but also her willingness to learn from those who are experts around her. The events of Rage test her in a lot of ways to prepare her for what she needs to do and how far she will go to protect Pavan. But she feels less sure, less open to the feedback of others. She almost feels like a completely different person to me. I know that the Aurora I loved was the adventurer and that as a revolutionary she might have some reservations, but she didn't hold a spark of that independence.
While I spent the majority of the book annoyed with Aurora and Kiran, I absolutely loved Novaya and Jinx in this installment! I am glad that Nova got more page-time in this book and it was interesting to watch her not only stay loyal to Aurora despite the circumstances but also try to gain control over her magic. I loved how supportive of Aurora Jinx was as if the truth changed nothing for her, which was a nice foil to Kiran's feelings of betrayal.
One of my favorite things about this series is the magical world Carmack created, and I love how it was expanded in Rage! Learning more about how the magic works, especially for non-Stormlings, was a fun exploration. I also enjoyed the flashbacks and how the histories all tied together at the end.
Ultimately this is a bridge from the person Aurora wants to be (Roar) to who she must become. Overall, I found this to be an action-packed read that I enjoyed and read pretty quickly, but the pacing was a little uneven. I struggled with the first half of the book a bit, which could be largely a result of my frustration at Roar dragging out the secret longer than necessary. The last third of the book was fast-paced and I was on the edge of my seat - I cannot wait for the next book because I think it is set up quite well. I look forward to finding out the truth about the Stormlord (I have my theories!) and how the events of Rage will impact the battle.
Many thanks to Tor Teen for providing me with an eARC via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review. Quatoations are from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change upon final publication.
"I am a girl surrounded by monsters and ghosts from an ancient world. Most days, they scare me less than people do."
I'm a big fan of Courtney Alameda's writing, so I jumped at the chance to read and review an ARC of this retelling of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai despite not being familiar with the source material. This book cured my slump and I devoured it in two sittings. This is a fun and immersive read that I recommend with my whole heart.
The characters? Love them. The magic system? Pretty badass. The tension? Palpable. The pacing? Lightning fast.
"Something screeches in the darkness. The sound drags itself across my skin, sharp enough to leave welts."
This is a retelling that is very accessible to someone who isn't familiar with the source material (aka me). Fast-paced and engaging, the worldbuilding is richly and respectfully crafted. Shinto is a living faith and I appreciate that the authors took care to not depict rituals on page, as well as made a point to say that referring to Shinto or deities as "mythological" is inappropriate. I'm not an own-voices reader, but I could feel the care that the authors took to depict Shinto respectfully (which was reiterated in the author's notes).
I think I should read more urban fantasy because I'm a sucker for stories with a hidden reality just beyond our knowledge that only a few Chosen can see. Every book in the genre that I pick up, I love. This book included!
"Perhaps it is better not to be the hero. You must remember one thing about the heroes from the old stories - not all of them survive."
I was so invested in this book because of the captivating plot, but also because I loved the characters. Our main character is Kira Fujikawa and her family has tended to the Fujikawa Shrine for nearly one thousand years. She is the only one in her immediate family who has the ability to see the otherworldly beings called yokai demons around; it seems the gift skipped from her grandfather directly to her. This has her at odds with her parents and family tradition, the latter of which she is intensely proud to be a part of.
"In manga the hero responsible for saving the world generally gets a free pass on real life . . . but I don't like in a manga world. The real world keeps moving forward, despite the danger it's in."
My favorite aspect of Seven Deadly Shadows is that Kira has to prepare for a supernatural war alongside all of her other responsibilities. Much like Buffy had to juggle high school with Slaying, Kira has to learn the skills necessary to battle against great evil, recruit allies, go to school, and find time to sleep. And she is tired. Kira doesn't seem superhuman and become instantly good at battle, and she doesn't become a master after one mere month of training either. She's just a regular girl - Chosen insofar as having the ability to see the Yokai - rising to an insurmountable challenge and doing her best.
The band of champions that Kira recruits to fight alongside her gave me so many feels. I love groups of unlikely heroes. The more reluctant the "hero," the more I love them and their sarcasm. Every character felt fully-fledged and real to me, each with varying and conflicting objectives that lead to complicated and tenuous relationships.
"Something screeches in the darkness. The sound drags itself across my skin, sharp enough to leave welts."
The writing is effortless and engaging. While I wouldn't remotely categorize this book with horror crossover, the atmosphere and horrific descriptions that I've come to associate with Alameda's books is spine-tingling and present. I was able to guess most of the main plot points but it didn't detract from my enjoyment because the story doesn't hinge on those developments as twists.
"Fear doesn't grip me immediately - it creeps into my soul like ice overtaking a pond, starting from the outside and working its way into the deepest, darkest parts of me."
Overall, I absolutely adored Seven Deadly Shadows and devoured the book in two sittings. The rich worldbuilding draws you in slowly, building around you while you're focused on everything else. I definitely recommend this to fans of anime, as well as anyone who enjoys urban fantasy.
Content warnings: bullying, death, depictions of grief, loss of a loved one
eARC provided by the publisher, HarperCollins, and FFBC in exchange for my honest review as par of the blog tour. This does not affect the content of my review. Quotations are from an uncorrected proof and subject to change upon final publication.
You can read about the author event with Katy Rose Pool and Kiersten White here on Reader Voracious Blog! [image]There Will Come a Darkness is an aYou can read about the author event with Katy Rose Pool and Kiersten White here on Reader Voracious Blog! [image]There Will Come a Darkness is an ambitious epic fantasy debut that features:
✨creepy cults ✨ruthless girls ✨boys with a LOT of feelings ✨siblings ✨doomsday prophecies
If this sounds interesting to you, then I encourage you add this one to your TBRs immediately!
I'm a simple reader: put doomsday prophecies, loveable characters doing their best, and morally grey characters in a book and I'm summoned! This book is epic fantasy at its best, building the world up around the reader through the characters and their experiences. The world is rich and vast, but the worldbuilding is doled out slowly so it never feels like an info-dump.
I often struggle with books that have multiple points of view, and There Will Come a Darkness has five of them. But the way that Pool crafted this story is nothing short of masterful: the exposition is doled out slowly and each character has information that the others don't. They each have a different perspective on the world and offer more information about society at large through their place within it.
"'All of these things are connected. All of them mean that the last prophecy is unfolding. One of them, or perhaps all of them together, will bring about the Age of Darkness.'"
Each character has a distinct voice and I found myself getting more and more attached as I progressed in the plot. It's rare that I love a large cast of characters as much as I did here. Their conversations feel real and authentic, and Pool did a great job building out each of their backstories.
I especially found myself heavily invested in Jude's POV because his journey explores the notion of duty and personal desires, sacrifice, and how often when achieving a goal we feel "now what?" His arc is the literal interpretation of free will versus predetermination. Everything he wants in life is in direct opposition to his role and position in the Order, so his struggle is duty versus the personal attachments he has (but shouldn't). It is worth noting that Jude offers the LGBTQIAP+ representation and his romantic interest is forbidden: not for orientation but rather because of his position in the Order (like priests or monks being celibate).
As the narrative continues, I found myself anticipating when the character's paths would cross and how their journeys would dovetail. It was like watching a puzzle be completed in story form. There is so much backstabbing and twists, too. I gasped on more than one occasion while reading! More than anything, I loved the murkiness of the 100-year old prophecy and in trying to interpret it. Each of our five main characters plays a part, and while each of them is good (aka not wanting to bring about the Age of Darkness), their actions could still be bringing forth what they fear. It does bring an interesting discussion of determinism and free will.
The one downside to the multiple perspectives is that sometimes it took a minute for my goldfish brain to connect some of the dots. I take really good notes out of necessity for reviewing though, and that really helped with jogging my memory. It did take me ten days to read this book, but I think that is in large part due to a slump because whenever I read the book I was fully immersed and devoured the pages.
Overall, I really enjoyed this debut fantasy novel and can't wait to continue the series! I recommend this to readers who like large casts of characters, doomsday prophecy, and tightly plotted narratives.
Thank you Henry Holt for Young Readers for providing me an eARC of this book for my honest review. (I have since purchased a final copy.) Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change upon final publication.
Representation: lgbtqiap (gay main character), racially diverse (4 of 5 MCs are characters of color) Content warnings: inferred sexual abuse, imprisonment, murder, PTSD symptoms, racism, refugee camps, religious war, torture, toxic and abusive relationships, violence, xenophobia
"Last summer a serial killer paid a visit to Camera Cove. By the time the dust settled, four people were dead."
I've been in the mood for a mystery/thriller, and when my friend Meaghan wrote a glowing review I decided that I needed to read this one myself. And friends, I am not joking when I say that this book cured my freaking reading slump.
Ryan manages to pack so much information into the opening page of the book, relaying complex histories between the characters and hinting to a great tragedy. The writing is almost lyrical, which is not something that I typically equate with mysteries. I was instantly swept away into this story where Mac struggles to let go of his pain. But after he finds a clue from Connor on the night he died, Mac embarks on an adventure to uncover the truth no matter the consequences.
"It's a message from beyond the grave, a year too late."
Keep This to Yourself is told in the first person perspective of Mac Bell, an 18 year old gay kid that drifted apart from his friend group after Connor was murdered the year before.
Convinced that the killer wasn't a drifted and determined to uncover the truth, Mac begins to look for clues and connections between the murder victims that may have been missed. Through his snooping he meets Quill, the cousin of one of the victims. The chemistry between Mac and Quill is palpable from almost the beginning, and the will-they-won't they dance of first attraction was a thrill to read. I'll admit that I groaned when the first black character we encounter in the story is in the trailer park, but I appreciated Ryan's subversion of what seems to be the typical poverty representation in media and fiction for black characters: Mac meets Quill in the trailer park, but we learn that he lives in an affluent neighborhood and is just visiting his aunt.
"All the things I wanted from my life, I just stopped wanting them, and nothing else stepped up to fill in the space."
I also really appreciated the depiction of grief and how each of the characters process the loss. The truth is that the pain of losing someone close to you doesn't go away quickly, and each journey is different. I feel that this is handled with care and nuance. It works as a motivator for Mac to try and find answers, but for Ben and Doris they just want to forget and move on.
I read a lot of mysteries and typically can guess the killer early on, but not here my friends. I guessed incorrectly every single time and relished in that fact leading up to the big reveal I didn't see coming a mile away. Honestly, Tom Ryan has earned a fan that will be working through his backlist after this book!
I highly recommend this book to fans of mysteries, but there is also so much more to it than just uncovering the truth of the Catalog Killer. It's about the bonds of friendship and how fragile those connections can seem to be, a wonderful m/m relationship, and the setting of a small town trying to pick up the pieces after a horrific tragedy.
REPRESENTATION: biracial couple, black rep, lgbtiap, m/m relationship CONTENT WARNINGS: depictions of grief, drugs, loss of a loved one, murder, queer slurs (challenged in text)
Initial thoughts (view spoiler)[oh my GOD, this was an incredible mystery/thriller read! I'm hardly ever surprised and usually have the killer pegged early on, but this one kept me guessing until the very end! absolutely incredible and highly recommended
Many thanks to Albert Whitman & Company for providing me an eARC via NetGalley for my honest review! Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and may change in final publication.
[image] International Preorder Incentive: Preorder a copy of The Ones We're Meant to Find and submit your receipt to receive three character cards and have $1 donated to ocean conservancy!
Friends, let it be said that Joan He is a master wordsmith. Her words resonated within me, swept me into the world straight away and kept me hooked until the very end. This is a critically important and innovative story addressing a very potential future if the climate crisis continues without intervention, and makes me want to spend some extra time outside because I take it for granted.
"The dominos had been set centuries ago. One quake, and they all fell."
The Ones We're Meant to Find is science fiction, and I'd classify it more on the hard sci-fi realm in that the technology of this near-ish future world plays a big role in the plot and it isn't explained all at once. It's a story of technological innovation out of necessity, but also delves into the psyche of human nature to explore why society reaching this point is basically inevitable. The author doles out information about the world slowly so the reader is never buried in an infodump, but also provides context clues about everything so the reader can piece everything almost completely together before it's confirmed in text. Some readers may struggle with not understanding the technology or status of the world, especially if they don't read a lot of science fiction, but trust that it will be explained and that at its heart this is a book about the bond between two sisters.
"Obviously, my sister isn't here. But the Kay-of-my-mind is right: I am forgetting. When I dream of her, it's in vibrant color, unlike the gradients of gray of my monochrome days. But everything is hazy when I wake. The details merge. The colors fade."
There are two distinct voices in the dual narratives, and let me tell you that Cee's POV will pull at every single heartstring that you have. Cee and Kay are so different and their chapters' tones reflect that. I adore Kay's pragmatism and honestly want to protect her from feeling 'defective' or 'wrong.' A common thread between the perspectives is loneliness: Cee all alone on an island trying to find her way back to Kay, and Kacey disconnected from the people around her. The loneliness is almost a character in its own right, an amorphous thing lingering just out of view of our main characters. Also, it needs to be said that I love Hubert.
"Alone is an island. It's an uncrossable sea, being too far from another world, whereas lonely is being too close, in the same house yet separated by walls because we choose to be, and when I fall asleep, the pain of loneliness follows me."
The writing is simply beautiful and the world is so interesting, fully realized, and honestly hauntingly prescient. I adore the world created: I think it's such an imaginative and logical human explanation to the climate crisis. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather recycle and give up my car so I don't have to live in like 50sqf in a tower in the sky and have to do 33% of life through VR. One of the most compelling things though is how people held onto their selfishness by bring so resistant to small personal sacrifices. It reignites my desire to do what I can for the environment; even if it's but a drop in an ocean, it's better than nothing.
"None of us live without consequences. Our personal preferences are not truly personal. One person's needs will deny another's. Our privileges can harm ourselves and others."
Unfortunately, there's something about the dual perspectives and the way the information about what happened with Cee & the worldbuilding is parsed out that didn't quite work for me, and I can't put my finger on it. There's a lot of moving parts to follow, and the author intricately plotted everything incredibly well, but my need to pick apart everything as I go and understand it definitely played a role here. That being said, I loved the sense of accomplishment I felt time and again when my guess was confirmed! But I did find the pacing of the book to be a little slow at times; the book really picks up running full-speed at 60% and everything slides into place then.
"The problem with oceans? They always seem smaller from the shore."
If you are a reader who likes wrapped up endings, I recommend you adjust your expectations now so you aren't blindsided by the book's open ending. The main reason that this is a 4-star read for me instead of 5-stars is my overall enjoyment of the book was brought down a little bit by the ending because... it kind of feels like it's missing an ending altogether. Where the slower pacing and reveal about halfway into the book felt satisfying to read, for me the ending is far too open to interpretation for my liking but that's a personal preference thing.
"As long as you exist, your hope will, too."
All in all, this is a poignant and heartbreakingly beautiful book that will tug on your heart. It's ultimately a story about sisterly love, but it's also about human nature and forces the reader to acknowledge the climate crisis and how important it is for each person individually to give up a little freedom for the good of everyone else. While the ending left questions about our characters unanswered, The Ones We're Meant to Find is a book I adore and recommend to fans of sci-fi and speculative fiction.(It's funny because this is similar to how I felt about Wilder Girls, only in this book I'm wanting for the character closure instead of worldbuilding closure.) It's a book that left me a little emotionally devastated, but still full of so much hope and a story I will cherish.
Content Warnings: climate crisis and apocalyptic themes, death, depictions of grief, loss of a parent, physical violence, suicidal thoughts, suicide, terminal illness
*hyperventilating* My soul has left my body after the cover reveal. This cover is simply stunning and I can't WAIT to be able to read Joan's second book!
eARC provided by the publisher for my honest review. This has not affected my opinions of the book nor the content of my review. Quotations are from an unfinished proof and are subject to change upon final publication.
"I've learned a thing or two in my antiquity--chief among them that things are seldom what they seem. Often the person who appears the most...
"I've learned a thing or two in my antiquity--chief among them that things are seldom what they seem. Often the person who appears the most...impenetrable...is, in truth, the most fragile."
I'm going to be honest: I requested this one for the cover. I am a sucker for art deco aesthetic and while I don't read a lot of historical fiction these days, I was intrigued. The book wasn't quite what I expected - this was more Women's Fiction to me, and I struggle to connect with these kinds of stories. Looking at the synopsis again now, this is really my bad here.
This one was a slow starter, friends. Kelly has quite a cast of characters spanning two different timelines and the first several chapters are spent acquainting the reader with the family tree and how they are all connected. It took until almost the halfway mark for the plot to really pick up for me, but I liked how Kelly wove the story and I was eager to see how the characters' lives intertwined.
This is a well-written family drama that follows Joanna in the 1960s and her mother-in-law Susanna in the 1920s. Joanna's a mother of two small children and the family recently relocated to her husband's family home in Bethlehem, with Susanna and her grandmother-in-law Hetty still in residence. The pieces come together slowly but when the plot really got going I was in for the long haul!
I enjoyed Kelly's writing style quite a lot and that is primarily what kept me reading. It's a solid debut and one I would recommend to readers who enjoy Women's Fiction. Ultimately this book wasn't the story I was looking for, but I enjoyed reading it.Many thanks to St. Martins Press for sending me an eARC via Netgalley for my honest review! Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and may change in final publication.
"The Tox didn't just happen to us. It happened to everything."
Friends, I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did and no one is mo
"The Tox didn't just happen to us. It happened to everything."
Friends, I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did and no one is more disappointed than I am. While I absolutely loved the world-building that Power crafts in her debut novel, unfortunately, I struggled to connect with any of the characters and found it difficult for me to suspend disbelief - but not for the reasons you'd think.
"Wonder what she'll get, if it's anything at all. Gills like Mona, blisters like Cat's, maybe bones like Byatt's or a hand like Reese's, but sometimes the Tox doesn't give you anything - just takes and takes. Leaves you drained and withering."
Her prose is captivating and gruesome, as harsh as life has become on Raxter Island. The writing and story seem well suited for the screen, and I think I would enjoy this as a movie a lot more. Power has a vivid imagination that she is able to translate well onto the page, but there is something about the narrative flow that doesn't work for me as a novel. It is almost as if the narrative relies heavily on foreshadowing, only it is so overt that you notice something isn't right long before the characters uncover anything. This may be fun for some readers, but it annoyed me to no end.
I found myself having an intensely difficult time believing the circumstances of life for the Raxter girls following the Tox, to the point that it prohibited me from ever fully being swept away by the narrative. I hesitate to point out specifics because I do not want to spoil the reading experience, but I couldn't stop myself from asking logical questions like How are they fighting over blankets and jackets when earlier in the text it is stated that the US Navy continues to send food & clothes for the full number of girls originally on the island (even though their numbers have dwindled)? and Why are there not enough rooms when a lot of girls have died? I am not sure if some of these things are continuity errors or not, but much of what made me frustrated and roll my eyes wound up being part of the plot... which honestly wasn't a satisfying revelation for me because it was so overtly off earlier.
"We don't get to choose what hurts us."
I never felt connected to any of the three main characters. They felt one-dimensional and paper-thin to me. The one I felt most believable was Reese with her hardened emotions and propensity for protecting herself from emotional pain. But when you don't really connect with or care for any of the characters, it is difficult for you to root for their struggle in an action-packed and dangerous plot. I was more interested in the Tox itself than what was going on with the characters in the book.
The most compelling part of the story for me is omitted from the narrative. I understand that this is in large part because we learn about the disease through Hetty, and there is a lot that she doesn't understand or uncover. But for me as a reader, the ending felt anticlimactic and reasonably there could have been another 100 pages added to the end to expand her understanding a little bit and provide some closure for the reader.
Wilder Girls is definitely a plot-driven novel, and I kept reading because Power crafted a horrifically compelling micro-dystopian world and I wanted to see how it ended. How it began. Any sort of explanation, really. But the ending felt abrupt and unsatisfying to me. Then again, I am one of the few people that didn't enjoy this book so please do take my experience with a grain of salt!
I do want to mention that while this book is sapphic, I would hesitate to call it a romance. I think some hype and early reviews may mislead some readers into thinking this book is more centered on a f/f romance that hardly exists, and I do not want people to be disappointed.
Unfortunately, Wilder Girls was not the book for me. Being a close reader who needs things to make logical sense, I had a difficult time suspending disbelief for the dystopian circumstances on the island and it really hampered my reading experience. I know that this is an artistic choice as the book centers around Hetty's struggle for autonomy, and through that struggle, she learns that the world isn't what she was led to believe. This is an important story, but unfortunately for me, the execution fell flat because I couldn't relate to the characters. My rating is 2.5 rounded up, based on my personal reading experience.
An Argument Against the "Feminist Lord of the Flies" Comparison I don't know who started this, but I've seen people call this a feminist Lord of the Flies, which has made me irrationally angry. The books are thematically different: Lord of the Flies is about the breakdown of the boys' society when left without adult supervision; Wilder Girls is about the fight for survival in a world of food and resource scarcity during the Tox outbreak and quarantine. The girls had no choice or agency in the way life evolved on the island as they are following the lead of the Headmistress and Welch, and are waiting for the promised cure. The boys are tempted by power and the conflict between the rules of society and the impulse of "savagery." William Golding said that Lord of the Flies came to be because he wanted "to write a story about some boys on an island showing how they would really behave being boys and not really saints as they usually are in children's books." [Source]
CONTENT WARNINGS:(from author's website) Graphic violence and body horror, gore, on-page character death, parental death, and animal death (though the animals are not pets), behavior and descriptive language akin to self-harm, food scarcity and starvation, emesis, a scene depicting chemical gassing, reference to suicide and suicidal ideation, non-consensual medical treatment.
Many thanks to Delacorte Press for sending me an eARC via Netgalley for my honest review! Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and may change in final publication.
It took me a long time to get over the events of King of Fools so I could read the finale of the Shadow Game Trilogy. This series has been a huge partIt took me a long time to get over the events of King of Fools so I could read the finale of the Shadow Game Trilogy. This series has been a huge part of my personality for almost 4 years and it's weird my journey with these characters is over. Powerful call to arms against the unjust and a satisfying end to the trilogy. While this review is spoiler-free for Queen of Volts, please tread lightly if you haven't read the first 2 books.
"Twenty-six years after the tyrannical ruling class had been slaughtered, a Mizer had been discovered alive. A Mizer in known partnership with an orb-maker, both of whose ancestors had governed the world side by side. Partners who'd assassinated the man who'd started the Revolution."
The City of Sin is built on its legends, and Queen of Volts is where they come out to play. We've heard the legends of the Mizers, the Revolution, the street war: and now new information will come to light that changes everything.
Largely about the consequences of the generations before and their earlier choices. Enne and Levi have been cast into dangerous roles based on their lineage. Plotted intricately well, small details from the first book are brought back and explained in a series of revelations that brings everything together. There's a new game for the City of Sin, but it is all connected... and I love how everything comes together.
"His desire and pain and grief were so intertwined that his heart could no longer tell them apart."
Do you like idiots in love who can't seem to trust one another enough to share their feelings? If so, this book is for you! Enne and Levi have been locked in this will-they-won't-they dance since book one with a variety of obstacles keeping them apart. But somehow in this one it's their inability to communicate and share their feelings. Sure, they each betrayed the other on more than one occasion... but still! I spent a lot of my time hoping they would hate kiss hahaha.
"Her entire story, her entire identity seemed to slip from her grasp as her memories were cast in a harsher, grimmer perspective."
King of Fools was largely centered on Levi's goal of becoming a legend and putting (insufferably) everything at risk to achieve that aim. It's Enne's turn to act a fool in Queen of Volts : her inability to accept ownership over her actions and constantly looking to others to assign blame is insufferable. "It was the Omerta." "It was bad information." Enne's very much having a bit of an identity crisis as she tries to cope with the consequences of her choices but it only leads to more and more bad decision making (girl, stop listening to your gut - you weren't born in this world), isolating herself more and more from those who care about her. A central developmental theme is about choices and owning them instead of blaming others. Her journey in this book is a painful one to read but her development out the other side is fantastic.
"'It doesn't feel good to question who you are."
Lola is still my absolute favorite, a traffic-law abiding knife collector with a gruff personality and a heart of gold for those she loves. And my poor girl goes through it in this book. Lola's POV and storyline is by far my favorite in Queen of Volts.
"Turns out tragedy is always tragic."
The truth is despite enjoying the book and reveling in all the loose threads being tied up in a bow, I kind of struggled with the book and didn't enjoy it as the prior two books. It's hard to put my finger on but I think I narrowed it down to 2 key things: 1) there are five (5!) perspectives in this finale and 2) I lowkey found the characters insufferable. While the Harvey, Lola, and Sophia POVs provide some necessary revelations and welcome breaks from Levi and Enne being idiots, I always struggle with multiple POVs (it's definitely a me thing).
When I first read Ace of Shades in 2018, I hadn't really seen any buzz or hype about the book. Little did I know that this trilogy would become my personality and I'd recommend the book to anyone who'd listen. It's one of the first YA fantasy books I read after starting my book blog earlier in the year and this series will always hold a special place in my heart. But I can't help but wonder if I'd have the same reading experience if I were to pick it up now. (Probably, because I re-read King of Fools *sobbs*.)
This trilogy shows we are all capable of being the villain with the right circumstances and it is about the choices you make. The book casts no aspersions and bad choices don't forever cast you the villain: atonement and being better than you were yesterday. Beautiful end to a fantastic fantasy trilogy and Foody remains on my auto-buy list!
January 6, 2020: That cover. That synopsis. That excerpt.
eARC provided by the publisher for my honest review. This has not affected my opinions for the book nor the contents of my review. Quotations have been compared against my finished copy.
"We have so much history...those ties go deep and aren't easily cut."
Friends, this was such an enjoyable read! I've been suffering from th
"We have so much history...those ties go deep and aren't easily cut."
Friends, this was such an enjoyable read! I've been suffering from the worst reading slump for the past couple of months and just wanted to read and finish something. I grew up reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy books, and I figured that there is probably no better cure for a slump that a dose of nostalgia -- and how right I was!
One of the things I loved most about reading Nancy Drew was how strong, smart, and capable she a character she is. I loved the reimagining of the characters we know and love as modern day teenagers, and unlike some other reboots that I've read this is written in a way that doesn't alienate a younger reader unfamiliar with the source material but also doesn't alienate people my age that are in it for the nostalgia factor.
I don't read a lot of graphic novels, but I was impressed with how good the character development is in these first 5 issues! Thompson managed to give the reader a real sense of who the characters are and their complicated backstory effortlessly. With Nancy returning after seven years of drifting apart from her friends, the graphic novel briefly touches on that hurt but also shows how with some friends you can just fall back into patterns as if no time passed at all. I liked that the Hardy boys are also in these comics and how gloriously diverse this is.
There was a conversation between George and Nancy that I especially loved that dealt with our propensity to apologize for being emotional or crying. George's response was so perfect: "Why is crying dumb anyway? What are we -- freaking robots?"I really appreciate the normalization of crying in fiction, and the way that both Nancy and Pete are processing their grief in different ways but also are kind of brought together through their loss as well.
Overall this was a really fun read and I will be watching for the next issue because OH GOODNESS THAT ENDING! I loved the art style and the writing is easy to follow, witty, and full of life as the voices of the characters shine through the pages. I definitely recommend this to fans of strong female characters that aren't all pointy (can be soft, too), mystery lovers, and those that read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys as a kid.
CONTENT WARNINGS: grief, loss of a loved one, murder
Many thanks to the publisher for sending me an eARC via NetGalley for review. Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and may change upon publication.
[image] “Hope had abandoned them to the wrath of all the waters. The great Old Floods had done more than exile humanity to the depths of the oceanic abyss. They had also ravaged humankind of all faith and, like expiring pockets of air, sucked out any belief they would ever again live in peace.”
The Light at the Bottom of the World is set in the year 2099, about sixty-five years after a cataclysmic climate event made the ocean’s waters rise and the surface of the Earth uninhabitable. What remains of humanity lives 1,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, stuck in the past and afraid of the unknown.
Shah absolutely nails the atmosphere. Even though I have never done more than snorkeling, I could envision the world that she created. Dark and mysterious, a never-ending expanse for exploration but danger is in every crevice. The world-building is fantastic and the tone of writing captures the anxiety and fear of what lurks outside of safety. Because while humanity has continued, it’s as dangerous as ever.
“Beneath us, the undergrowth is an endless expanse of ancient trees, all uprooted and toppled over one another. The mass of plants – a mixture of long dead and evolved new life – ripples as if the ground itself is alive, whispering, plotting.”
The writing is descriptive without being over-burdened, and as a result the book is a fast-paced read. I suffered from quite a reading slump in October, but I found myself breezing through the book when I picked it up. I did find the plot’s pacing to be a little uneven in the middle compared to the beginning and end of the book, but I never thought the plot dragged.
“All I see is a vast and terrible unknown ahead of me. An endless abyss of monstrous creatures and earthquakes and the all-destructive Anthropoids.”
Leyla McQueen is a sixteen-year-old British Muslim girl who enjoys punk rock and racing submersibles. I am not going to lie, I loved that she was blaring The Clash when we first meet her! Leyla’s parents are both of Afghan descent and I love how much her heritage means to her and her family. She’s been living alone for the past three months since her father was arrested, but no one will tell her exactly where he is. Which isn’t shady at all.
Light is told in Leyla’s first-person perspective, and like how it feels like she’s just narrating the story to her diary in a way, though. Her anxiousness and Virgo nature really come through in how the story is told. I also appreciated Leyla’s character development in the course of the book, which I can’t discuss because of spoilers.
While I absolutely loved the plot and world-building, I struggled a bit connecting with Leyla. I love her strength and courage to do whatever it takes to find and rescue her beloved papa, but this is a book that nails the sixteen-year-old perspective. This isn’t a bad thing at all – on the contrary, I think teenagers acting like teens need to be more prevalent in YA – but this is the case of right character, wrong reader.
“No past. No future.”
Other than the atmosphere itself, I think my favorite part of the book is the underlying social and political commentary. Light is set in a society which is steeped in nostalgia – they revere everything “ancient” to the point that they would rather restore historic buildings rather than deal with current social issues.
“A group of off-duty train drivers in the nearby booth discuss ancient transport over a pint. ‘I’m telling you,’ a woman says, ‘Old World trains were spotless, and everyone chatted, knew one another. It was safe as houses. And they never broke down – not once. Zero delays!'”
Revisionist history is one of the dangers of nostalgia, and you can see it across all sectors of the population in Light. People hold the time before as the Golden Age, helpfully forgetting all of the flaws. Spotless trains? Zero delays? On what planet? But besides that, an undercurrent of this book is the fact that history is written by the victors and we should always question everything.
Unfortunately, my reading experience was definitely hampered by spoilers in someone’s Goodreads updates. Can we all just agree not to put spoilers in Goodreads updates? I was assured the spoiler wasn’t real (“you’ll see”), but real or not it actually permanently and irreparably colored my opinion of a character. To the point that I don’t know if any of my feelings about this character are based on what I read or not. And that kind of sucks.
Overall, I found The Light at the Bottom of the World to be a solid debut fantasy story and I am looking forward to finding out what happens next. While I didn’t connect with the characters as much as other readers, this is very much a Me Being in My 30s Thing. I found the atmosphere amazing and thought Shah did a good job describing the setting, which made up my lack of character connection.
Representation: anxiety (and possible panic attacks, not explicit), Muslim rep, Pashtun rep Content warnings: death of a parent, loss of a parent, mention of suicide, a dog is thrown by a Bad Guy (but is okay)
Thank you Disney/Hyperion for providing me an eARC of this book for my honest review. Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change upon final publication.
Friends, Victoria Lee has done it again! This book is nothing short of incredible; it took me 6 weeks to process and write this review and to be honest there is no way that I will find the words to give this book justice. If you're sick of my incessant screaming about The Fever King... sorry (not sorry), but I won't ever shut up.
"Maybe both governments did terrible things. Secret things. And the majority of the population continued on with their lives blissfully unaware, convinced of their own government's benevolence in contrast to the evil of everyone else."
The Electric Heir picks up six months after the events of The Fever King I re-read The Fever King before diving in to refresh my goldfish brain, but there was no need! Lee masterfully catches the reader up with the events of the prior book and the subsequent 6 months with a brief historical document at the start.
The Feverwake duology is intricately woven and excellently plotted. I never found myself lost or missing necessary information. The historical documents included randomly through the two books provide so much additional context that comes into focus upon a re-read; breadcrumbs of information that leaves the reader questing to fit everything together.
"The boy in this mirror was steel and frost and a bloodied knife. And he wasn't afraid of anything."
The world Lee crafted feels lived in and tangibly real; the world-building is vast and expands in this book as we get a glimpse of how other regions live. But the characters are what will rip your heart into pieces. I was so emotionally invested in the struggles of these characters that I was in a constant state of Anxiety for like the majority of this book. This book has high stakes, so my reading experience was largely screaming in DMs to Holly because I couldn't keep my thoughts in and just needed to talk to someone about it.
This book is much darker than The Fever King and handles some very sensitive topics. Please be sure to read the content warnings at the bottom of my review and be sure you are in the right space before picking it up.
I greatly appreciate that The Electric Heir has a dual perspective narrative. If the events of The Fever King left you wanting to act as bodyguard to Noam and Dara, you'd better prepare now. Both Noam and Dara are struggling to overcome their trauma and heal - and they have very different ideas of how to accomplish their goals. Despite the dark themes, this is not a bleak story. Hope is threaded throughout the narrative and acts as a driver for their actions.
"Maybe it was okay to admit helplessness. Maybe it didn't make them weak. Not at all."
Power is central to this duology and appreciate the exploration of power through the juxtaposition of political power with the ability to acknowledge personal vulnerability. In The Fever King, Noam and Dara seek to gain power; whereas in The Electric Heir they realize that power was kind of an illusion. Leher wields all of the power: both politically and personally. The patterns of abuse are explored as Noam and Dara come to terms with and learn not to blame themselves for their abuse.
"The only thing worse than the wrong choice was complacency."
One of my favorite aspects of The Fever King is how it explores activism, and Power corrupts, and The Electric Heir really delves into that nuance. Idealism gives way to a pragmatic utilitarianism as the realities of revolution and rule set in. Is it possible to maintain values in a world of compromise? And where does one draw the line for what values you will budge on?
"Anger was better than fear. It made people just as predictable, without making them liable to run."
I swear, I didn't know who to trust the entire time and my anxiety was running wild while reading this book! I had to put the book down multiple times to take a break, and thank goodness for Holly letting me screech to her in DMs because I had some feelings. I cried some big ugly tears while reading this one and honestly it's hard to say goodbye to two characters I've come to love so deeply.
Overall, Feverwake is a powerful and painful story of processing both personal and intergenerational trauma, one which will stay with me for a long time. I'll admit that reading books about a fictional plague during an actual worldwide pandemic is a little close to home, but it is such a beautiful story of healing and hope that I honestly cannot recommend enough.
Representation: bisexual main character, m/m relationship, racially diverse, Content warnings:(full list on author's website) abuse, ableist language, attempted rape, drug and alcohol abuse, genocide, intergenerational trauma, mental health and suicide, slut-shaming, violence
eARC provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect the contents of my review. Quotations are from an uncorrected proof and may be changed upon final publication. I have since purchased a finished copy.
"I learned that stories have incredible power. They can teach. They can transport. But they can also bring misery. They can enslave. Some stor
"I learned that stories have incredible power. They can teach. They can transport. But they can also bring misery. They can enslave. Some stories can kill."
Friends, I have been itching for a new release from Janz since being wowed by The Siren and the Specter last year. I've been reading his backlist voraciously and I was so happy to be offered an eARC of this title. I was not disappointed: The Dark Game is deliciously macabre and unputdownable; while I struggled with the multiple perspectives at first, I settled into the narrative and was fully engrossed!
"Wells's mansion looked like every ghost story he'd ever read. And as they drew closer, Rick couldn't shake the feeling he was about to become part of one."
One of my favorite writing devices is when the ending is set up or heavily alluded to at the beginning of the book. I love the sense of foreboding behind every chapter as I try to piece together what is happening, and as a person that adamantly avoids spoilers like a cat avoids water this is one of the greatest mysteries of my psyche. From the beginning of the book we know that The Dark Game is to pit the authors against one another as they fight for their lives. The deaths aren't a surprise, we are just left wondering who will be first. The journey is following the characters as they notice all the weird things happening and trying to figure it out... and will they make it out alive?
"Get out while you still can."
The opening of the book felt very And Then There Were None and Clue inspired to me, with everyone making their way to a mansion after a mysterious invitation and an absent host. I almost expected Mr. Body to show up! [image]
I just have to say that I would have definitely noped out of this whole thing when the driver said that I needed to be blindfolded! But I like that Janz calls this out in the first pages:
"It occurred to her she hadn't even asked the driver for identification. No one knew she was here, and she wasn't allowed a phone. She chewed a thumbnail, a hundred horror movies flashing through her head. Why was it always a women who got hacked to pieces?"
While Janz definitely writes this one with a male character set as the hero, I like the subversion of the typical horror trope here and that the women he writes aren't completely helpless.
We all know that I personally struggle with multiple points of view, and so it shouldn't come as a shock that it took some time for me to settle into the story (primarily until a few POVs died). This is very much a me thing, and the multiple narrative voices makes sense given the And Then There Were None setup. If Roderick Wells has his way, only one of the writers will survive and getting to know each of the characters (and their deepest secrets) really added to the horror for me in the back half of the book. My struggle with the many perspectivess was well worth it as writers began dropping like flies, which is similar to my experience reading The Sorrows (interestingly enough, if you've read a number of Janz's other works you'll find some Easter eggs: Shadeland, Siren and the Specter, needing to go away to find inspiration, etc. It's like reading Vonnegut and I dig it.).
"This place... this place... is a wonderland of hideous beauty. Of dreadful passion. The water that flows on this property is laced with the elixir of madness, the trees nourished by the blood of the damned."
There is something almost comforting about Janz's writing style, which is a weird thing to say about a horror author but it's true. It's fast-paced and intricately plotted, but he doesn't forget about building his characters in all the gore. And while this is a horror novel, it is also one about the fears and struggles of being a writer. The critique process, competitiveness, and the publishing industry. I really appreciated seeing a glimpse into how the characters thought about developing their stories and characters.
Overall this is another amazing read from Janz! I found the beginning to be a little slower and denser to read as a result of having so many characters to keep track of and struggled with the multiple points of view, but as people die and the action picked up I was completely engrossed. Janz knows how to craft a horrific tale and this is yet another must-read for fans of the horror genre. As with other books in this genre, this won't be a tale for everyone so please read my list of content warnings and exercise care when reading.
Many thanks to Flame Tree Press for sending me an eARC via NetGalley for my honest review! Quotes are taken from an unfinished ARC and may not match final publication.
A quick note before we dive in: as a reviewer, I strive to be critical yet respectful because I know how much work goes into writing a book. I prescri
A quick note before we dive in: as a reviewer, I strive to be critical yet respectful because I know how much work goes into writing a book. I prescribe to the belief that no two readers read the same book and I make an effort to highlight positives about the book, be clear about the reasons why I didn’t enjeoy it, and to the extent possible share who may enjoy it. I originally was going to rate this 2 stars, but after sorting through my feelings and writing my review I realized I personally cannot recommend this book. I think there have got to be better witchy reads out there without harmful stereotypes and creepy adult behavior for teens to read.
Believe me, no one is sadder than I am that this book didn't work for me. The cover is absolutely eye-catching and "Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is a phrase I didn't know I needed until I heard it. I wanted to love this book and it was one of my most anticipated Fall releases. But unfortunately, I was left wanting for character development and worldbuilding and found the narrative at times questionable and uncomfortable.
There seems to be this trend which relies heavily on nostalgia but isn't written for the generation who would be most invested. Last year it was Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel, and sadly this year we have The Babysitter's Coven. The protagonists are seventeen years old, but honestly, this reads more on the lower-end of YA. Which is fine but there is a clear disconnect given that the marketing heavily leans on the nostalgia which people in their early-to-mid thirties have for these childhood stories. Ultimately, this was really never a story written for me, but unfortunately, this is not a case of "right book, wrong reader" in my opinion.
If this book were written as-is in the late 90s, I would have loved this when I was thirteen years old. I definitely would qualify this as a solid lower-YA read (for which I am not the target audience, and that is totally okay) if it weren't for the outdated references that I don't think teenagers in 2019 would relate to and the uncomfortable internalized biases I will touch on later in this review.
In terms of the plot, not a whole lot happens which made for a rather lackluster read for me because I didn't relate to the characters at all. Not to mention that The Babysitter's Coven is heavily inspired by both The Babysitter's Club and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to the point where our narrator Esme talks about how she is left with being the Mary Anne of the group despite having terrible handwriting and referencing the Buffyverse on multiple occasions.
I never connected with the characters. Cassandra is very much the 'Faith' character to Esme's 'Buffy,' but neither of them felt fully fleshed out to me. The romance, if we can even call it that, felt contrived and forced. I did, however, enjoy Janis and her sense of style (I'm sure she's going to be a more fashionable Willow) and I appreciated that we had three characters of color in the book. [image]
The writing is fast-paced but at times jarring because the narrative literally uses chatspeak like 'LOL,' 'IRL,' and 'IDK' in-text and conversation... and no one talks like that. Especially teens today who tend to use laughing emojis instead of writing 'LOL.' And as much as it pains me to be so critical, the worldbuilding we do get feels like words changed in the Buffyverse lore. The Hellmouth becomes a Portal, Slayers become Sitters, Watchers become Counsel, and The Council becomes the Synod. The main difference is Sitters don't kill, they Return the monsters to the Portal. Oh, and they use magic because ~witches~.
I hate to be so critical of a book, especially a debut. But I would be remiss to not mention how uncomfortable the text reads at times. The first-person narrative voice of a teenager is difficult because let's face it: we can be catty bitches in high school and our thoughts are unfiltered. But Esme is not a nice person and she is someone who I struggled to want to root for when she is the one being bullied. And let's talk about the choice to make the main bully overweight and have Esme refer to her as both a hippo and fat cow. Of making fun of Stephani for not having an 'e' at the end of her name. It's just unnecessary. [image] The whole Counsel situation and the circumstances for them actually kind of learning about who they are and their powers is... it's creepy as hell and quite frankly uncalled for. Especially because it goes unchallenged? Like who the HELL would go with an angry person in their car under "get in the backseat or I will make you" duress (this is a literal quote. I am not making this up.)? The whole exposition-in-the-creepy-basement thing made me so uncomfortable. The dude basically kidnaps them but it winds up okay apparently because he's supposed to be their paranormal teacher.
Unfortunately, this book did not work for me at all, but it may work for a younger reader who especially loves the 80s and 90s and isn't as into Buffy as I am. But given some of the cringey and uncomfortable things in text, I am not really comfortable recommending a young teen to read this book. I really wanted to love this one, and Williams has a lot of quirky ideas that will likely develop in the series as she hones her craft, but I won't be continuing with this series.
Many thanks to Delacorte Press for providing me an electronic ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. Quotations taken from an uncorrected proof and may change upon final publication.
Cover reveal first impressions:(view spoiler)["Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this funny, action-packed novel about a coven of witchy babysitters who realize their calling to protect the innocent and save the world from an onslaught of evil."
I never knew I needed this book before this moment but THIS IS THE MASHUP CHILDHOOD/TEENAGE FAVES I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR! (hide spoiler)]
What a wild ride the Stream Raiders duology was. I'm not going to lie: I was hoping that this installment would bring some piratey seafaring adventures, but unfortunately, that's not the story this duology is telling. (15/10 would read a spinoff adventure with Teo the raider, though!) If you enjoy complex political revolutionary stories filled with political intrigue, colonization, oppression, war, disillusionment, and religious fervor then this series is for you!
"You won't even feel it happen - something will become more important to you than fear, and you will find yourself doing amazing things."
Ben, Lu, and Vex are all at a crossroads in this book, very much struggling with who they are and trying to reconcile their pasts - which was forced upon them - with the present. Each of them has been put through the wringer, and the sorrow is not over yet. As a result, this is a darker book than the first, and I found myself missing the levity and banter between the characters. But this is war and their reactions to their actions make perfect sense and really does a good job of depicting the effects of war on people, both those who choose to fight and the innocent people that are affected through no choice of their own.
I found Ben's character development to be particularly compelling to me because it touches on complacency and not standing up until it affects you directly. I admire his unwavering support and wishing to atone for his father's crimes, but refusing to stoop to the same methods in order to stop him. He is a revolutionary figure you want to see succeed because you believe he will make things better. Teo is as precious as ever and must be protected at all costs. We do have two romances in this book, a m/m and m/f relationship, both of which kind of sit on the backburner for the first two-thirds of the book. I did find both of the relationships to be organic in their development, although I wish the tension between old and new love interests had been addressed a bit more than just longing glances.
A major theme in the book looks at what becomes justified when fighting in a war. Do the ends justify the means? Or do you lose a part of your soul when you use the methods of the oppressor you fight against?
"Permanent magic wasn't the most dangerous weapon to bring to war. Devotion was. And Elazar had already mastered it."
The religious fervor and persecution is tough to stomach. Elazar has painted himself as the Pious God Incarnate, and the devotion his people have for him and his holy persecution against the magic of Grace Loray is alarming but does touch on charismatic leaders that stoke the fire of hatred through fear-mongering. He is a villain who you have no difficulty hating, although I do wish that some insight into why he has done all he's done had been offered. I like my villains to be more than just evil and think it would be interesting to see just how he got to be the way he did.
Unfortunately, I did struggle a bit with the pacing of the book and found the middle to drag a bit. I think this is in large part due to the multiple POVs: at times the perspectives contained the same information and revelations because the characters weren't all privy to the same information and the plot progression felt stunted to me. The narrative voice being in third person also didn't help the situation because the perspectives didn't feel distinct to me - there are times where I am honestly not sure the section was from Vex or Ben's POV. This is a struggle that I often have with multiple POVs and could very much be a me-thing.
Overall, I found the Stream Raiders duology to be a compelling fantasy tale of revolution. It is heavy on the political themes and won't be for everyone, but as a reader who enjoys these kinds of explorations of humanity I enjoyed this one despite the hiccups with pacing. I definitely would recommend a re-read of These Rebel Waves before diving into this one because the worldbuilding and history is very complex, and I found that I enjoyed the first book more the second time that I read it!
Many thanks to Balzer + Bray for providing me with an eARC via Edelweiss for my honest review. Quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change in final publication.
Kal ★ Reader Voracious
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