Won Finished Hardcover in BookishFirst.com Giveaway!
Gorgeous Gruesome Faces is not your average young adult novel. Far from it. It's so much more thanWon Finished Hardcover in BookishFirst.com Giveaway!
Gorgeous Gruesome Faces is not your average young adult novel. Far from it. It's so much more than I was expecting! It takes an Asian folklore tale, the celestial maiden, and contemporizes it with a horror twist! At first I wasn't sure about the plot. I don't listen to K-pop or watch K-dramas, they're just not something I'm much interested in or had much opportunity to delve into. So I wasn't sure I was going to like this book. But then my expectations were turned on their heads because strange goings-on start happening and the explanations are unraveling throughout the book. I enjoyed Sunny, Candie, and Minnie and the Now/Then chapters helped to put all of the pieces together. Some parts gave me chills! The cover is absolutely beautiful but also the naked hardcover is pink and has black end papers! A very aesthetically pleasing book!...more
I really enjoyed this debut! I wasn't sure where we were going to be in terms of location and time period so I just assumed it would be England becausI really enjoyed this debut! I wasn't sure where we were going to be in terms of location and time period so I just assumed it would be England because most historical fiction I've read has been England. It's not! It's Pennsylvania in 1875. A female doctor working at Woman's Medical College. I found it fascinating and I'm glad the author didn't shy away from the gruesome side of death and autopsies. I also really enjoyed the mystery! Looking forward to Mukerji's next book.
I received a paperback and e-book ARC from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
Being set during actual Covid was not enjoyable. Would've rather it had been a fake 2021. I can also see why people were annoyed by all of the Trump aBeing set during actual Covid was not enjoyable. Would've rather it had been a fake 2021. I can also see why people were annoyed by all of the Trump antagonisms too. It was annoying. But Holly, Pete, Jerome, and Barbara really shone in this one....more
I was a bit scared to read this book. From the offset, I thought it would be some sort of Black girl magic Won Paperback in BookishFirst.com Giveaway!
I was a bit scared to read this book. From the offset, I thought it would be some sort of Black girl magic HP knockoff. But I was also was hoping so much that it would be more than that! I haven't read much Dhonielle Clayton, just her first middle grade Shattered Midnight, part of a series where each book is written by a different author, which I enjoyed, and The Rumor Game which I did not enjoy at all. So this was really anyone's game. Well! I was so very pleasantly surprised! Just because it's about a school of magic does not mean it's like HP. Clayton did really well at making the Arcanum and the Marvellers entirely her own. I loved the two types of magical people, Marvellers and Conjurors and how there was something amiss between them that was teased out throughout the book. I liked the bad person and liked the snippets in between chapters of their POV and also mixed media to show what was happening outside the Arcanum. I adored Ella and her family so much! I will definitely be continuing this series....more
I liked this a LOT more than The Power. I remember just not really connecting to The Power and finding it having an agenda. I didn't feel the push of I liked this a LOT more than The Power. I remember just not really connecting to The Power and finding it having an agenda. I didn't feel the push of an agenda as much in this one. The forum chats were a bit meh and those were very hard to read in e-book form but I also had the paperback so I mostly read from that. Some parts got bogged down but overall, I enjoyed the "mystery" of the rabbit and the fox and where this lead. I will be checking out Alderman's next novel.
I received a paperback and e-book ARC from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
Thankfully this was much better and cuter than Weather Girl and I liked that fact that no condom and no birth control actually meant no penetration. YThankfully this was much better and cuter than Weather Girl and I liked that fact that no condom and no birth control actually meant no penetration. Yes, there are other things to do and they can be just as satisfying and hot! That was refreshing to read....more
How do you rate and review a book that was terrible? Terrible in the that this book broke me and I never want to read it again. If you have had or areHow do you rate and review a book that was terrible? Terrible in the that this book broke me and I never want to read it again. If you have had or are close to someone who has had any sort of childhood trauma (rape, assault, torture, abuse, drugs, sex trafficking), you will not want to read this. It was graphic (underage and adult sexual situations) and upsetting and it hurt my heart. And to know that the author wrote this based on his own similar experiences, it just...it's unimaginable. Horrifying. I need a Disney movie and a rom com stat. The author did what he set out to do, what any author sets out to do, make the reader feel something. I could not relate to a word of this book and I will feel it for a long time. I just didn't like one thing that's a spoiler - (view spoiler)[that we didn't get to see where the case ended up. (hide spoiler)] And I know that's not really what this book is about, it's about Dylan and his growth and bravery and facing his trauma and putting it in the past, but as an outside observer, I wanted, no needed, something to happen that didn't. But is also a reality for many abused children.
I received a paperback and e-book ARC from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
This was my first Stephanie Oakes book and I was not expecting a dystopian book where life Before and lWon Paperback ARC in BookishFirst.com Giveaway!
This was my first Stephanie Oakes book and I was not expecting a dystopian book where life Before and life After are so different. Where life Before is life as we know it today (mostly), and life After is life where women are again treated as second-class citizens with far less rights than we have today. The "Turn" is when nature supposedly took back and righted itself. We don't learn much about the Turn, except that races, genders, and sexualities were deemed "against nature" and those are what supposedly caused upheaval (I assume flooding, starvation, climate change, etc etc, all the bad things essentially), per the Quorum, a nameless and faceless group of men.
We get to know Eleanor, a thirteen-year-old living with her adoptive mother in a rundown place called the Cove. She receives a letter inviting her to attend the Meadows, a school for the country's "best and brightest." She will attend for four years, then be introduced into society to meet a husband and fulfill her obligation to be a mother and housewife. But Eleanor knows there is something different about herself, though she has no words for it. She likes girls. But the algorithm has chosen her to attend the Meadows and off she goes to learn how to be a proper lady.
We watch Eleanor navigate two timeframes, while she is attending the Meadows and a year after she is released (graduated?) and is working as an adjudicator, checking up on fellow facility attendees who needed to be "reformed" and how they are getting along.
The book starts off pretty slow but once I hit about page 150, I was invested in Eleanor's past and present and wondering what exactly is going on in this society. I really enjoyed the book and where it went, what it had to say, how not very far we are in real life from this dystopia......more
Having just finished a very harrowing, graphic fictional account of a man who was sex trafficked and abused (among other things) as a teenager, I was Having just finished a very harrowing, graphic fictional account of a man who was sex trafficked and abused (among other things) as a teenager, I was expecting this book to be a lot harsher than it was. It's basically Orange Is the New Black. It's been a minute since I read OITNB but white woman incarcerated, do we really need another one? I'd rather hear from women of color who have it a hell of a lot harder than a "model" mom turned drug addict who got caught but then learned from it and turned her life around (eventually). I had the same comments about OITNB, where I was expecting a grittier story and was kind of disappointed. Oops. Sorry fellow white woman. DJ was an idiot and utter trash and you were an idiot to keep going back to him and thinking he would save you (or his mommy). The whole thing was his fault and yet you kept falling for his tricks. I'm glad she turned herself around but being/turning into this white woman savior to incarcerated women of color was just blech.
I received a paperback and e-book ARC from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
A generous 4 stars. I don't get the Divergent comparisons. The Wings aren't broken out into personality traits or types of people so they're not like A generous 4 stars. I don't get the Divergent comparisons. The Wings aren't broken out into personality traits or types of people so they're not like the factions at all. They're just broken out into squads like the military and this is a military-centered book. I actually felt it was more similar to An Ember in the Ashes where Violet is Elias/Mom is a high-level military figure. I haven't read ACOTAR so I can't comment on the Rhysand/Xaden comparisons. I got so sick of all of the "this has never happened/this hasn't happened in a century" ALL happening to the FMC. Like, pick one. This took "the chosen one" trope to a whole new level and it was cheesy. But I loved the dragons 1000%. And I'm sure I'll be continuing the series but I won't rush since it's going to be a quintet and that will take some time to publish. Though, two full-length novels for a series published within six months of each other (May and November 2023) is quite the feat....more
Won Finished Hardcover in BookishFirst.com Giveaway!
This was a sweet young adult contemporary gay novel about a teenage boy who has a lot on his plateWon Finished Hardcover in BookishFirst.com Giveaway!
This was a sweet young adult contemporary gay novel about a teenage boy who has a lot on his plate. Becoming a senior, hopefully becoming soccer captain, falling in love, fighting with friends, it's all very nostalgic. I don't miss it! Ha. Zack seems to have it all so when the former soccer captain, and Zack's idol, Ryan, asks him to lie for him, Zack "takes one for the team" and bears the prank on his shoulders instead of his friend, Meyers's shoulders like Ryan suggested. What comes of that is community service at a marine research center, a cute new crush who happens to be Ryan's cousin and hates soccer, a fallout when he's honest with one friend over another, and more. I think Zack learns a lot over the course of the book and definitely starts growing into his adult self. He finally starts seeing people for who they really are instead of who they pretend to be and he finds some new friends along the way. A great sophomore novel. Now I have to go read Weber's debut!...more
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