Category: Reviews

I feel like someone told me about this book a while ago, but I cannot remember who or how long ago. I have a vague recollection of someone mentioning this book in the same conversation as something about Cemetery Boys, at least, so when I saw it I figured it was probably worth checking out!

The book follows Alex, the middle of three sisters and a bruja who has been actively supressing her magic because it terrifies her. She wants nothing to do with it, but once her family finds out that her magic has appeared, she uses her death day celebration as an opportunity to try and get rid of it. This plan backfires and she ends up having to go through the portal into Los Lagos, a sort of purgatory, to try and rescue her family with Nova, a brujo with a mysterious past, and Rishi, her crush with no connection to this world.

Now, I will admit that I may have had trouble with this book as I read it while I was sick with Covid, but I had trouble keeping track of things. I disagreed with which parts were interesting, and the things that it lingered on had me a little bored. I wasn’t sure what made Alex special or why only she was, and there is a lot of longing looks in the love subplot that were losing me when I wanted some more foundational information about what was happening.

There was also random animal murder? Apparently everyone is just okay with stabbing a parakeet.

The plot progressed pretty briskly, though, and some of the concepts were pretty interesting. I did like the world of Los Lagos, though I never fully understood it1 and enjoyed the overall story of trying to rescue her family.

Overall, not bad! It certainly got me through a rough patch, and it’s an interesting concept. If you’re looking for a YA read, this might be something to check out.

1. There was some religious stuff in there, I think? Which would explain why, I am very bad at understanding that kind of thing [↩]

I’ve had this book sitting in my to check out list for my library for a while, and I have finally gotten around to it! The story of an underground post apocalyptic city on the verge of collapse just felt weirdly right for the moment.

The book follows Lina, a young woman who has been given a job in the City of Ember, a place that has been having issues of late. The crops are starting to fail, the large storage of food is running out, and the power is going out, which is an issue when you live underground. But Lina’s friend, Doon, is starting to learn more about the inner workings of the city and Lina has uncovered a mysterious note that might be the way for them to leave the only place anyone living in the city has ever known.

Apparently this was a movie, which makes a weird amount of sense because it is written like it wanted a screen adaptation for a Disney movie and it was paced pretty similarly. I wasn’t quite sure how old the characters were for most of the book, but they read like they were twelve or thirteen, even though you later learn that they are much older. The motivations are uncomplicated and things are pretty straight forward, with very clear lines between good and evil.

The universe is still pretty interesting, though. The idea of an underground city and the things that would be put in place to maintain it for a finite amount of time was done very well, and the idea that the people who created it left behind such a flimsy method to tell people how to when the time comes is…. well, I’m in tech, I can believe it. It’s ridiculous, but I believe it.

Overall, it was cute. The characters read younger than they are, so it’s honestly better to pretend they are younger and think of it as a family movie. I don’t know how it stacks up to the movie, but it is a fun book.

I took a bit of a reading break, but I’m back and I have more library books! I am continuing to not read the descriptions very closely, but I feel like that makes my reading list a lot more interesting. Premise only, and then I see how long I stay for the ride!

So this book follows a family of women, from mother to daughter, as they suffer tragedy after tragedy as love comes in and out of their lives. From untimely deaths and heartache caused by families being torn apart, none of the women have had a solid, lasting love life that has been able to survive. The women all have something about them and rumours about what they can do follow them around until one day the latest in the line is a baby girl born with wings.

The premise in the description is about a girl with wings venturing out into the world and, well, Ava’s story doesn’t actually start until the half way point or so. Until then it’s about her mother and her grandmother and the relationships that have fallen apart for them to set up the ongoing tragedy of the family.

Once it hits Ava’s story, you’re already primed to know that any relationship she has is going to fall apart because that’s just what happens in the book. Everything ends in tragedy, right down to the ending. It is a depressing book without much levity, but written in an almost dreamy manner so the blow doesn’t hit quite as hard.

It’s not romantic, even with the focus on the love lives of these women, and it’s full of tragedy. If you’re looking for a read that’s a bit of a downer, but has some interesting concepts, this might be a good fit for you.

Did you know they made a book out of this? And a sequel book, no less! A new story from the world of one of my favourite Halloween movies from my childhood!

This book is told in two parts: The original movie from 1993 and the story of their children bringing the Sanderson sisters back to gain immortality and bring back more witches from the dead in order for them to have a coven that will take over and the kids must find a way to stop them before it’s too late.

The first half is exactly the movie in text form. If you have seen the movie, that’s the first half of the book. It felt off simply because it was in the wrong format, and it made me want to watch the movie.

The second half reads exactly like a 90s movie, but set in modern day. From the structure of the insults to the way everything falls neatly into place and gets resolved at the end, and there’s even a musical number in the middle which was… weird. I did ultimately feel nostalgic reading it, even while the Sanderson sisters were using smart phones to cast spells on the population, and it was surprisingly fun.

While I liked it, though, I would only recommend this if you were a fan of the original. The experience is very similar, if not identical, with a different plot. It’s fun and nostalgic, but it is also cheesy in the same way as the original.

I know I read a ton of YA, but it feels like it’s been a while since I read one that really felt like it was young adult and not young adult as written for an adult audience. But I find I have a lot better luck in that regard when it comes to the random library book finds, and at last I found something!

This book follows Silva, a young woman whose age I never caught, as she returns to her grandfather’s house at a most unfortunate time. He’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and his days are numbered. At this time, Silva starts to spot a magpie and a door that leads to a library where the words come out of the books and pull you into the story. Slowly, Silva finds herself falling into these stories and realize that they are not all they appear, and she has been leaving more and more of herself behind at the library with every visit.

I really liked this one! I’m in a bit of a dour mood from the general life I’m having at the moment and that is probably what made this a good thing for me in this moment. Silva slowly coming to understand that her escape isn’t helping and realizing what the magpie is trying to do creates a really effective mood for the narrative, and nothing feels overly forced. There are some mysteries remaining at the end, but nothing that really bothered me.

I do think I’m starting to pinpoint the thing that is bothering me with modern YA and how they discuss issues, though. Silva at one point identifies her brother as having depression and there’s just something about how issues are discussed in YA that feels off.

Overall, though, it is a lot of fun! I mean, it’s a depressing story about acceptance and loss, but it’s done well and I really enjoyed watching as each of the characters learned to come to terms with the circumstances that they really shouldn’t try to control. Definitely check it out.

I’ve gotten back into D&D recently after playing a bit in Uni. And I’ve always been a fan of the fantasy and comic stuff, as those who have followed me for a while will know. And also I’ve worked in tech for the past decade. Which means every once in a while I find a book like this and it feels like someone was trying to write something specifically for someone like me.

Addie is a literature professor that is brought in by an eccentric tech CEO to help a team of mercenaries get his private island back — A private island that he his company had been using to develop a technological world that makes fantasy a reality. Like Disneyland for LARPers. But her ex is suspected of having led a revolt against the CEO and cut the island off from the rest of the world and Addie is being used as bait to lure him out, all while she is trying to not become too enamoured by the wonders of the magic that this technology has created.

I really liked Addie as a lead. She’s a woman with PTSD from a school shooting when she was younger, a thing that comes into play at the right character moments rather than the plot-relevant ones, and a penchant for escapism because of it. The way she’s written strikes a nice balance between exploring and overcoming that trauma in the moment and focusing on the story I came for, which meant I left the story satisfied. On top of that, I enjoyed the interactions between her and her ex, which felt like they reinforced why they were exes more than they were trying to create the illusion of a potential rekindling of their relationship.

Overall, it was a lot of fun! It will be fun for anyone who’s grown up into fantasy media and has a little extra sprinkled in for those who grew up to work in tech. If it sounds interesting, check it out!

R

I really liked the last Kingfisher book I read, so when I saw this one I added it to my list. It didn’t matter that it was book 3 of a series, and yet again I just barely skimmed the blurb. One of these days, I will learn to actually read the thing.

The book follows a paladin, Galen, and a gnole, Earstripe, as they try to figure out who is killing all the bodies that are washing up in town. They enlist the help of a lich-doctor named Piper, who can see the final moments of the corpses. Eventually, they find an eclectic man in a run down estate upstream who has been sending people into a death trap in order to uncover its secrets.

I liked about half of this book. The mystery wasn’t much of a mystery, but I enjoyed how gnoles were introduced as a species and how they interacted with the humans around them. The death trap maze was also in general a lot of fun, as was Piper for the first half of the book. Notably, despite this being book 3, I didn’t feel lost and it all felt pretty contained.

Unfortunately for me the book becomes very horny around the middle while they are trapped in the maze. There were mentions of attraction before this that I was skimming over, but at the half way point it is downright carnal and after that, everything is about this relationship. Everything. Somehow even the third character nearly dying and being unjustly imprisoned is still about this relationship.

That honestly killed the book for me. I finished it, mostly to just get that closure, but I did not enjoy the insistence on pining and making the relationship the central focus of the book. It might be more your style, though.

I have been wondering what exactly new adult is, so I figure I would pick up something that I think is supposed to be classified as new adult. And yes, I did forget that all new adult is romance. Sigh.

The book follow Emmy as she returns home after being away and having a whole new life in Chicago. Upon her return, her magic returns and she takes her place as the next in the Harlow line, one of the four lines of founding witch families for their town. But when she returns, we learn that her and two of the other families have had bad relationships and rough break ups with a guy from the fourth. And the three of the four families are about to compete to claim the mantle of whose family gets the power and prosperity in town, with Emmy being the impartial arbiter of it all.

The romance is, thankfully for me, not too intrusive and can be skimmed. Emmy has other traits and an arc outside of being in a relationship where she is trying to figure out if leaving the small town she loved to escape the trappings of her family name which she hated is really worth the city life she has built for herself. While they really try to make the romance a pivotal deciding factor in it, it really did feel more like it was a choice that was made for herself and the relationship was a bonus. I appreciate that.

I don’t think this is actually new adult, though. At one point they broke down everything Emmy had done since leaving and she’s close to 30.1 The writing, the voice, and the choices the characters made make me think they are all in their early twenties at most. And no one has weddings or kids? You’re all conspiring to get revenge on the guy who wronged you—and one of them was wronged nearly a decade ago! These characters feel way too young.

There was a sex scene, though, so I guess it might have been new adult.

Anyway, it was overall an enjoyable read. It reads better if you imagine they are all in their early twenties and still have the energy to spend on the premise, though. Or maybe that’s just what romance is like.

1. Early on they also mention that it’s been 9 years since high school, but I seem to have glazed over that part. [↩]

We all know I have a thing for fairy tale reimaginings. So naturally, I eventually had to check this out. And I knew I had heard of this author before, so I thought this might be a good time to check them out. I had, of course, forgotten that I already had!

The book follows Zinnia, a young woman turning 21, which will be the year she dies due to a rare condition. She is obsessed with Sleeping Beauty to the point that her best friend finds her a spindle to prick her finger on right on her birthday, which sends her into a fairy tale world where she meets another Sleeping Beauty and has the opportunity to help her escape her fate.

Do not think too hard about this book. Do not think too hard about anything in this book or it will fall apart. The moving between worlds, the cell phones never losing power or connection, everything about the climax, why Zinnia’s illness has no impact on her whatsoever until it is dramatically relevant, do not think about anything to do with the mechanics because it does not make sense. And for me and reading it in this moment, that is okay.

It is a very light, very quick read. Zinnia may be the lead, but Primrose is the only character with a real arc and it was interesting to see her change from damsel to desperate to downtrodden as she kept going after glimmers of hope. Ultimately you always knew that all the characters were going to have a happy ending, the narrative is just a little too peppy to imply anything else, so it ended up being a very relaxing read.

If you’re looking for something that’s low stress and low stakes, but still have that implication that maybe something bad might happen because it is ultimately a story about women who are terminal, but know that absolutely nothing bad will happen to anyone you care about and everyone will get a happy ending, this might be for you.