May 2024 Books

Posted in Reviews, Statistics by

Books read in May: 12

As a reminder, you can see every book I am currently reading on both the Goodreads sidebar on this blog as well as on my Goodreads profile.

Reading Stats:

*The categories do not cross (i.e., rereads will not count in their respective genres)

Non-fiction: 1

Adult fantasy/sci-fi: 2

Adult fiction: 3

Children’s: 0

Rereads: 0

Middle Grade: 3

Young Adult: 3

Publisher Copies: 0

Favorites:

The Vanderbeekers Ever After

Posted in Children's, Fiction, Reviews by

Rating: 4/5

The Vanderbeekers Ever After is the last Vanderbeekers book, and it is a good one. Finally, after all my griping about the chaotic, uneven nature of most of these books, this one delivers when it really needs to, closing the series in a really satisfying way.

Though the content of this book is serious (Laney being diagnosed with leukemia), Glaser handles the topic in an age-appropriate way, delivering it seriously but still maintaining a light tone in all the character interactions and explanations. Even though a minor character ends up dying, there is no heaviness or angst as the main characters mourn. It’s a great approach in addressing such a heavy topic as cancer in children. And the book ends hopefully, even happily!

By focusing almost entirely on Laney, Glaser avoids the complaints I’ve had about former Vanderbeekers books, and even the chaos is toned down. The book is still funny and realistically characterized; though not touched on much, each of the other characters in the book have some time to come to terms with Laney’s diagnosis in their own time. Again, Glaser does a great job of addressing and touching on all the various emotions and responses of a family in this situation.

This was a great way to end the series, and for once I’m actually satisfied with an ending. Though the middle books were a bit too all-over-the-place for my liking, the first and the last stand out as stellar children’s books: fun, heartwarming, interesting, and approachable for all sorts of readers.

Info: Karina Yan Glaser; published 2023 by Clarion

Genre: Middle Grade, Realistic

Notes: None

Recommended Age Range: 10+ (4th grade and up)

House of Roots and Ruins

Posted in Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult by

Rating: 2/5

House of Roots and Ruin is the sequel to House of Salt and Sorrows, a book I read back in 2020 that I enjoyed. Luckily, you don’t really need to have read Salt before this book. In this book, the youngest sister of the family of the first book seizes a chance to escape her boring, protected life when she is given the opportunity to paint the son of a noble family of another country (I think it’s supposed to be different countries, but it’s really not clear). Yes, the romance is as typical as it sounds. Once Verity arrives, the Gothic horror atmosphere kicks up, and she is confronted by dark, disturbed secrets that the family holds.

Let me start with the positives: Craig is a great writer; the Gothic horror nature of the book is really well done, and there’s a lot to be said about the subtle nature of the ending (minus the epilogue) and its punch. I wouldn’t be mad at all if Craig never chose to write a sequel, as I think the ending honestly fits the atmosphere of the book better than a sequel that tries to “explain” or “fix” everything would.

However, much as I wanted to enjoy this book, I simply couldn’t. First, there’s this rather puzzling focus on Verity and her lack of interest in Alexander’s romantic advances, which at first I thought I would appreciate due to how that seems a little more realistic to my own experiences then the instant love and attraction found in most YA. However, it ended up just being strange and almost contradictory to Verity’s own thoughts about love.

Then, along came several explicit and gratuitous scenes that were completely unnecessary. In the first, Verity stumbles across a book of Victorian pornography, which is explicitly described and thought about by Verity. It gets even worse in a later chapter, where Verity has a vivid, explicit sex dream about a character, a scene so gratuitous, so self-indulgent, so unnecessary that I don’t even know how a publishing company could put a YA label on the book afterwards. And I do mean explicit, one of the most of the kind I’ve read in YA. The thought of a 13-year-old reading this book is horrifying to me.

Maybe I’m just a grumpy adult, but I have found that YA literature is becoming just approved almost-pornography, self-gratification on the part of the authors, and it ruined my enjoyment and experience of this book as a result.

Info: Erin A. Craig; published 2023 by Delacorte

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Notes: Explicit sexual content

Recommended Age Range: 17+ (I would not recommend this to anyone who is not at least a senior in high school)

April 2024 Books

Posted in Reviews, Statistics by

Books read in April: 11

As a reminder, you can see every book I am currently reading on both the Goodreads sidebar on this blog as well as on my Goodreads profile.

Reading Stats:

*The categories do not cross (i.e., rereads will not count in their respective genres)

Non-fiction: 0

Adult fantasy/sci-fi: 3

Adult fiction: 2

Children’s: 0

Rereads: 2

Middle Grade: 2

Young Adult: 2

Publisher Copies: 0

Favorites:

The Similars

Posted in Reviews, Science Fiction, Young Adult by

Rating: 2/5

I often rate books on Goodreads and then, later, last-second change the rating as I type the review. I suppose there’s something about thinking through a book that makes me change my mind. Sometimes the rating is higher, but more often than not I change it to a lower rating.

The Similars I changed from a 3 to a 2, not because I hated the book (in fact, I probably will pick up the sequel), but because I liked it only because of its “mildly interesting” nature. The book takes place in some sort of future where technology has advanced enough for cloning, but that’s the only difference that the world of the book shows. The premise is about the existence of clones, specifically 6 clones of high school students that enroll in a high school, one of whom is the clone of main character Emma’s best friend who died over the summer. Cue predictable romantic subplot.

Though the book takes place at a high school, the characters are never in class and no classwork is ever actually described; it’s mostly just teenage drama and elite clubs and anti-cloning/pro-cloning debates. The cloning plot is fairly interesting, though very predictable—however, of the two twists at the end, one was actually surprising (though the other was pretty obvious). Hanover does seem to be taking the book in a “adults really have it out for teenagers for some reason” type of way, but I suppose in this setting it makes sense if it’s about control of clones/indoctrination/special-powered beings, all of which are focused on.

One of the main criticisms I have is the writing style, which is clumsy, clunky, and really-not-beautiful. It’s awkward to read in parts; some of the characters sound like they’re reading scripts. Some of the plot dynamics are wildly unrealistic or unbelievable, science fiction aside, and characters frequently do stupid things for no purpose than plot. The premise is pretty much the only interesting thing about the book, which is full of obvious, cliched teenage drama and romance. It leans towards the “so bad it’s good” territory (though I’ve read worse), which is perhaps the only reason I’m curious about the sequel.

Info: Rebecca Hanover; published 2019 by Sourcebooks

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Notes: Though many of the characters talk about progressive and inclusive their school is, the book lacks any such content.

Recommended Age Range: 14+

In Some Other Life

Posted in Realistic, Reviews, Young Adult by

Rating: 4/5

In Some Other Life, though fairly predictable and pretty unsubtle in its themes, is still a really interesting and engaging novel about a high school senior who gets to experience the other side of a “What if…?” The main character, Kennedy, wonders what would happen if she had made a different choice of high schools…cue fall down the stairs, cue waking up in a parallel universe.

As you might expect, this book is about “the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence.” Kennedy quickly discovers that even though things seem perfect, the ripple effect of going to a prestigious private school has significantly altered her family, her friends, and herself (or at least, parallel universe herself). Though the portrayal of the school as a stress-fest where students need to heavily medicate and caffeinate themselves (and cheat) to survive is a little over-the-top, the little snippets of humor and Kennedy’s sheer disbelief at many of the things the parallel-universe reveals help to relieve some of that.

I wouldn’t really call this book particularly unique, but it is fun, engaging, and enjoyable—I devoured most of it in one day, even as I raised my eyebrows in parts and sighed at the heavy-handedness of the ending. It’s a great look at how you shouldn’t worry about the choice you didn’t make or wish for something that you can’t change.

Info: Jessica Brody; published 2017 by Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic

Notes: None.

Recommended Age Range: 14+

The Lady with the Dark Hair

Posted in Historical Fiction, Reviews by

Disclaimer: I voluntarily received a copy of The Lady with the Dark Hair, by Erin Bartels, from Revell. All opinions are my own.  

My rating: 3/5

It’s hard to do a dual-timeline story well. Inevitably some part of the story seems irrelevant or unnecessary or simply weaker than others. Erin Bartels manages a fairly successful dual plot in this novel, though at times there are certainly chapters that are clearly characters trying to get from Point A to Point B, and tells a solid, heartwarming story about female accomplishment in two separate time periods in the process.

Though I didn’t enjoy this book as much as her previous one I read, Bartels is a good author, avoiding many pitfalls and problems with her straightforward, usually non-romance-centric tales. Her books are usually more character-driven, and the same is true of this one, where she tells two stories side-by-side: the story of Viviana Torrens, an aspiring female artist in the 1880s with a secret, traumatic past, and Esther Markstrom, a present-day gallery owner who, in her forties, is still struggling to figure out her place in life. As you might expect, the stories are connected, and even though the reader will figure things out much, much sooner than Esther, the build-up is quite nice and each story has enough to distinguish them that it makes each of them interesting, rather than imbalanced. Though there are hints of romance, it is not the focus; rather, the focus is more on females accomplishing things outside of the male sphere (especially Viviana’s story, which is about how female artists were underrecognized and struggled more than male artists).

I am sometimes critical of Christian-marketed books that don’t mention God at all. This book does not, as far as I can remember. However, the beauty of this type of book is its wide appeal: because there’s nothing overtly religious, many more people can read and enjoy it, and Bartels’ message about self-worth and perseverance is powerful and true.

Genre: Historical Fiction

March 2024 Books

Posted in Reviews, Statistics by

Books read in March: 12

As a reminder, you can see every book I am currently reading on both the Goodreads sidebar on this blog as well as on my Goodreads profile.

Reading Stats:

*The categories do not cross (i.e., rereads will not count in their respective genres)

Non-fiction: 2

Adult fantasy/sci-fi: 2

Adult fiction: 3

Children’s: 1

Rereads: 0

Middle Grade: 1

Young Adult: 2

Publisher Copies: 1

Favorites:

The Goblin’s Puzzle

Posted in Fantasy, Middle Grade, Reviews by

Rating: 2/5

The Goblin’s Puzzle is an interesting MG novel: shades of those absurdist/satirical-lite stories that seem a little self-indulgent, but manage to be at least marginally entertaining. It’s not at all what I was expecting, and because of that, I think I viewed this novel more unfavorably. I also had a very hard time focusing while reading it, so maybe that contributed as well.

What this book seems: a quirky puzzle book where characters join together to solve a puzzle set up by a goblin.

What this book is: an absurdist take on fantasy tropes with a plot involving a kidnapped princess; the goblin is along for the ride and to provide logical thinking puzzles for our plucky protagonists to solve.

I’m honestly reallynot sure why this book is titled the way it is.

Anyway, the book is fun, mildly humorous, and full of some witty conversations revolving around logic. It does seem horrendously self-indulgent and I think only a very mature MG reader would actually understand half of the topics discussed and poked at. As an adult, I chuckled in several places, but I don’t know how appealing this book would be to the actual age level it’s trying to reach. And it was so wildly unlike what I was expecting that I had a very hard time getting involved with the characters and their problems. It just wasn’t a great time for me to read this book, I guess.

That being said, it’s a great book for those niche readers that would really thrive from and love this style of writing, so there’s that. But I can’t really pinpoint the type of audience besides “readers who like a little bit of quirky, a little bit of wit, and a fairly entertaining plot, who won’t get bored halfway through like I did.”

Info: Andrew S. Chilton; published 2016 by Alfred A. Knopf

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy

Notes: None.

Recommended Age Range: 11+

Festergrimm

Posted in Fantasy, Middle Grade, Reviews by

Rating: 3/5

Festergrimm continues the delightfully creepy tale started in Thomas Taylor’s Malamander, starring Lost-and-Founder Herbie Lemon continuing on his quest to discover the secret of his past, and his friend Violet, whose recklessness continues to push the plot forward as a foil to Herbie’s timidity.

I didn’t like this book as much as the previous three; there’s a definite “Part 1 of 2” feel throughout the entire novel, and this book definitely ends on a much looser note than any of the previous ones. While there are a few mysteries solved, everything else seems to be building up to a giant finale in the last book, and while that’s not a bad thing, it does make for an inevitably unresolved ending, for the most part. And it also serves to make the first three books feel a little useless, in a sense, at least in terms of plot (though obviously not in character development).

However, the book still has all the elements that make the first three so memorable. The illustrations continue to help contribute to the overall eerie atmosphere, and I’ve long gotten used to the same villain showing up again and again. And, in this book, there’s no “misunderstood monster,” or at least, it’s done in such a way that actually seems realistic (as realistic as a novel about ghosts, giant robots, and mythical sea creatures can be, anyway). Also, though we don’t seem any closer to discovering Herbie’s past, it does seem that Taylor finally realizes he needs to wrap up the series, so we get a lot more in this book than we have before, even if it’s mostly just “things that Herbie feels.”

I do think all the discussion about dead human body parts was a bit too much, though, especially in a book geared for a younger audience. That was taking “eerie” in a much more “gross and disturbing” direction than it needed to go.  

Info: Thomas Taylor; published 2023 by Walker Books

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy

Notes: Some elements of horror, mainly mentions of dead body parts being reused

Recommended Age Range: 11+