young adult

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland | Review

aquapages // eline3 Comments

I haven’t written a review in a month and a half, so I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten how to.

Pages: 418

Genre: young adult, historical fiction, zombies

Synopsis

Jane McKeene goes to Miss Preston’s School for Combat in Baltimore because zombies have taken over the cities and girls like Jane are needed to stop them. The civil war of America never really ended, the two sides needed to decide the undead had become their biggest enemy. Being the coloured daughter of a white Southern woman has always made Jane’s life difficult, but now people with her skin is treated like they’re disposable, fighting the undead to protect wealthy white people. With her curiousity, spontaneity and fighting skills Jane is caught up in a big conspiracy as families in the town are going missing and certain political groups are promising the return to safety.

My thoughts

Rating out of five: three

I’d heard a lot of good words before the release of this book and was pretty excited to read about zombies and girls who are awesome at fighting with weapons. My opinions on this book is kind of mixed, both because of not personally matching with the surrounding plot and other things that confused me. It’s still a book I would recommend!

My big problem with historical books and westerns – which this book was going towards the last half – is that it’s so boring to read over and over that the girl is constantly put down. Like there’s no feminism, we get it, stop mixing it into every other sentence. And this book created this balance so well, it made points out of how different this society was from ours, without making it completely unenjoyable reading experience, because Jane and her friends were awesome girls who knew their courage and value. The way it dealt with racism was the same, in that racism was everywhere, as it was one of the main parts of the story. But you still got to see these pockets of coexistence carved out, like the estate Jane left, and how horrifically it could go when someone bigoted and racist was introduced to them. There’s so many horrifyingly racist scenes in here, showing how it tears at the characters, and I think that’s very well done and important.

I love politics in books, usually. But I don’t think this book went deep enough that it mattered much. I’m still confused about how I feel about thins. Maybe I feel like the book alluded to things all the time, but I didn’t really get any message from it except maybe how quick racism can develop in crises when someone need to be blamed and how dangerous division is. It’s certainly a book with a awesome, black heroine. It’s not just a book about zombies, though, but it didn’t quite switch over to politics within the story and like the bigger conspiracies either. I think the mix is what I didn’t like personally – it goes from mystery and boarding school to sudden danger and a more western-like survival story with religious fundamentalists everywhere to full-on war with zombies. With funny, snarky Jane moments sprinkled in there. It sounds interesting, but it’s a lot. While I liked some parts, it felt like others weren’t completely cohesive, which contributed to the feeling of it being a lot put into one book.

I’ll most likely read the next book because I’m curious about where it’s going to go, with Jane and Katherine. I liked Jane sometimes, but the mix of grave danger and humor makes me compare her to like Percy Jackson-type lead characters. I can’t really think of any flaws Jane has that messes up or otherwise interact with the story. Like she talks back to teachers, that’s it. She always takes charge, to great sucess, and while it was a relief to see things go down well, the knowledge that it would because of her drew me out of the story.

I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman | Review

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Pages: 400

Genre: contemporary young adult, lgbt characters

 

Synopsis

Angel Rahimi does not know what she wants to do with her life, but she knows she loves The Ark, a famous pop-rock trio boyband. She’s very involved with the fandom, which is seen to have its positive and negative sides as we also experience Jimmy Kaga-Ricci’s opinions about it. He’s one of the members of the trio boyband, playing with his childhood friends. The music is what makes him like it, being on stage and performing. But he can’t go out on the street alone without being assaulted by fangirls, he barely have any free-time with their busy schedule and his anxities are getting worse as he feels his privacy is invaded. When they started to get popular he was accidentally outed as trans, so he knows a couple things about privacy concerns. His dream has turned into the beginning of a nightmare, caging him in. Angel and Jimmy is forced to figure out the balance together, as one helps the other.

 

The Audiobook

There’s two narrators for the two different main characters, Angel and Jimmy. I really liked both of them, the accents were lovely, but sometimes they got on my nerves as well which was strange. Jimmy’s narrator voices all the guys though, and the voice he gave Mac (a minor character) is the most douchy and annoying voice, which made me laugh and grin my teeth together at the same time. Didn’t surprise me when he was starting to act a bit douchy as well, it fit well.

 

My thoughts

Rating out of five: four

fire

“Most adults see teenagers as confused kids who don’t understand much, while they’re the pillars of knowledge and experience and know exactly what is right at all times.
I think the truth is that everyone in the entire world is confused and nobody understands much of anything at all.”

Writing books about internet and fan-culture seem to be a difficult thing based on the books I’ve read that has gotten it wrong. There’s many reasons for that, most of all how fast it’s changing, making it difficult to capture even one particular moment in time. Alice Oseman does it so well, describing it as well as dvelving deeper into the pros and cons of idolizing groups and celebrities and how much space and influence to give them in our own personal lives. And she does all this in anentertaining way! Alice has some really on-point thoughts on it, with different sides conveyed through Jimmy and his other bandmates Rowan and Lister, along with their “biggest” fans Angel and Juliet.

idolization

I’ve always had a difficult time idolizing people, like I’ve always known that on some general level all those people have flaws as well. Also I’m very scared about meeting people I look up to, in case I have to experience those flaws first-hand. I’ve not been a big fan of artists, even though I wished I was at times. The community I saw friends building, bonding over their favourites, going out and promoting their records, waiting in line for their concert. All this is things Angel would do, and during this book she goes out of her way to help the guys of her favourite band. To an almost comical degree, because she finds herself in weird situations with them. But it wasn’t unrealistic enough to break the fun it was to see these characters interact and the questions, prejudices and reactions they all had to each other. Angel and Jimmy especially had some hilarious and cringy scenarios together, where the characters goes a bit meta and describes how much it’s seeming to turn into a fanfic, but it’s always done cleverly and tastefully.

characters & plot

Through this light and fun story Alice serves, there’s also greater themes pointing to internet and fandom culture, as well as indentity and how we might use things we enjoy both to escape and to connect with others. There’s always lines between interests being healthy and unhealthy, losing yourself in it. Still, I did not appreciate Jimmy’s grandpa telling Alice how things were and that she needed to focus more on herself and stop thinking she was in love with the guys from the band. Okay, some of it made sense, but when he started his speech I realized how much Alice grew on me through the book. I didn’t like Jimmy very much, I thought he should’ve reached more out to his friends, but I also wanted to defend his anxiety and the need of a good support system, which none of them had. So there’s proof that he had his place in this story as well. They all did. I thought I knew where this book was headed for a while, but the ending was a (kind of) pleasant surprise.

Feelings I had reading this book: enjoyed it, clapping my hands at the well-written characters and their personal struggles coming to terms with their popularity or identity, want to read more Alice Oseman books right away

 

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness | Review

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Pages: 320

Genre: contemporary young adult, lgbt characters

Synopsis

What if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.

The Audiobook

Narrated by James Fouhey, which had a good and fitting voice. It was just good in general.

My thoughts

Rating out of five: four 

fire

“Not everyone has to be the Chosen One. Not everyone has to be the guy who saves the world. Most people just have to live their lives the best they can, doing things that are great for them, having great friends, trying to make their lives better, loving people properly. All the while knowing that the world makes no sense but trying to find a way to be happy anyway.”

It’s a good read if you don’t go into it expecting a fantasy story. You get a “normal” coming of age story, of a teenage boy Mikey who are worried about what to do after high school, but mostly just trying to survive the year. Aren’t we all? (Like seriously, I have nine long months left). It’s definitely a surreal experience reading Mikey’s description of the special “indie” kids (aka with powers) disappearing and dying in the fight against monsters and green lights. It’s explained by a clear separation between who is a indie kid, one of the heroes of a regular fantasy novel, and who is the cilivians. His town is definitely a warzone. And as a reader you just have to go with it, to not ask too many questions or it will fall apart.

I don’t know what I think about a book where asking to many questions about their situation will dig enough plot holes until it’s mostly holes and not much left to enjoy. I feel like Patrick Ness often seem to keep to the line of “is this real or the main character’s imagination” until about half the book has passed, when action start to set in. Still, I couldn’t stop myself asking questions. Like why don’t they move out of town, if it’s overrun by monsters? Why haven’t they found weapons that work? Lots of these questions aren’t even asked in the book, the reason I suppose is that Mikey isn’t a part of that world. But he is, constantly seeing and choosing to ignore or investigate it. They all are, which makes it interesting.

The balance between having a normal highschool life – being with friends, parties, schoolwork, drama, relationships – and the monsters wrecking shit in town and endagering humans is a really funny and heartwrenching one. It’s a bit too relatable, as while I was reading it dealing with major health concerns that come in like one of those monsters. A lot of this book is about contrast and responsibility. While the basic plot of the friendgroup was enjoyable, with camping and relationship and friend drama, everything else brought added dimension, perspective and funny satire of the stereotypical fantasy hero novel. For example, the “indie” kids have apparantly chosen, maybe just been born for, fighting against the monsters alone. They insist that it’s their job, and the civilians are happy to comply.

Last thing worth mentioning is the vivid descriptions of Mikey’s anxieties and OCD, I haven’t read many books about it, but he describes being trapped in thoughts and actions and it seems very real. It does not help having anxiety that feels like something bad is going to happen soon, when monsters are roaming, but that seems to be the point.

Feelings I had reading this book: trying to survive the schoolyear is relatable af, i also want to go camping with friends (it’s never supposed to go well is it?) … also sometimes monsters has to be talked about and dealt with i guess?

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman | Review

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Pages: 400

Genre: young adult contemporary, lgbt

The norwegian cover.

Synopsis

What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong?

Frances has always been a study machine with one goal, elite university. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside.

But when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favourite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken.

Caught between who she was and who she longs to be, Frances’ dreams come crashing down. Suffocating with guilt, she knows that she has to confront her past…

She has to confess why Carys disappeared…

Meanwhile at uni, Aled is alone, fighting even darker secrets.

It’s only by facing up to your fears that you can overcome them. And it’s only by being your true self that you can find happiness.

Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

My thoughts

Rating out of five: five

fem

I loved this book, it’s going to be one of this year favourites and be reread many times. It made a bold choice, like Oseman seem to do, in placing the book in this decade and referencing movies and popculture. It also brings out very time-defining characteristics like questioning sexuality through research, celebrities, rise of podcasts, internet and fandoms. Most of all this book is about wanting to be heard, to be seen for who you are. Which is easier with the help and support of friends.

the characters & writing

None of the characters are always in the right, which is always interesting. The main character Frances tries her best, I would say, but at one point she realizes she hasn’t been paying enough attention to the people around her and their struggles. The writing seems very honest, it’s very straight forward as well. Carys, the bestfriend, is going through shit and Frances tells that story in between the right-now action of Frances and Carys’ brother Aled starting to get along and find shared interests (like the podcast). Frances believes that she made a mistake, which partly led to Carys disapperance, and trying to not make a smiliar mistake again  colors the rest of the book. The friendship between Frances and Cary is strange and reletable, Frances admits that she hated Cary for having it all figured out, but loved her for being so perfect.

the podcast universe city

I wasn’t so sure about the podcast part of this book before reading it. I love podcasts, but in general at some point writers could’ve just made the podcast in real life and not have us read it every awkward break or info dump. This book is centered around the podcast in that Frances and Aled finds each other through the making and fandom of it, both things done really well. There’s a chapter where they are having fun outside camping and makes what Aled considers the worst episode ever, but it was all so visually told and really brought out a certain feeling in the book.

 

Feelings reading this book: interest in where the podcast was going, glee over Frances becoming more comfortable, relatable af moments and strong hate for Aled and Cary’s mother.

 

SPOILERS BELOW

my fav moments

  • Frances discussing being bi and relationships of the Universe City podcast and Aled saying the world might be a bit tired of boy-girl relationships anyway. Them geeking out in general and allowing themselves to be “weird” aka being very passionate about things and fandom.
  • Going to save Aled from university. Also his mom was truly awful in one of the probably worst ways physiologically, because so many outside the house thought she was great. Reading Aled scream after going over to his mother to figure things out made my skin crawl.

Finally, I hated Cary when they all met her. I was certain she didn’t want to be found, but the way she reacted … She had worked out a pretty okay life for herself considering she escaped to the city with barely anything, though. She’d tried to leave her past behind, which I can understand. My immediate hate came from having a little brother though, but she didn’t have a perspective to mind to predict how her brother would be treated when she left. There’s a lot taken up in this book and I appreciated it.

 

The Unbinding of Mary Reade | Review

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by Miriam McNamara

Pages: 340

Genre: historical fiction, lgbt

 

 

Synopsis

A romantic novel based on the true story of a girl who disguised herself as a boy to sail with the infamous pirates Anne Bonny and Calico Jack—and fell in love with Anne Bonny.

There’s two parallell stories told, the first in 1717 of Mary Reade trying to please her wealthy grandma, dressing up as a boy to have a claim to be her heir. Her childhood friend and love is Nat. In 1719 we meet her again as she’s on a merchant ship, still passing as a boy, until it’s raided by pirates and she manages to join them. She joins after seeing Anne Bonny, the girl of the captain Jack, and becomes fascinated with this female pirate, with a sword and a gun in her hands. Sailing with a crew on the verge of another mutiny, she has to decide if she wants to reunite with Nat, side with the captain or risk everything by going for Anne.

 

My thoughts

Rating out of five: three stars

tre

This book is a romance, with little action. It has grime and darkness, but it feels like it’s put here obligatory to meet some minimum requirement of being a pirate novel. That said, one thing I found interesting about this book is Anne and Mary returning to Anne’s home, a settlement of religious people where her the husband she escaped from has gathered a lot of influence. Nat – Mary’s childhood crush – also have settled there and the two girls struggle under the mysogynistic principles and ideas of what a woman should be (definitely not a pirate and unmarried). They’re fighting for their independence, realizing they have little to stand up with and that they’re trapped. The hopelessness was so strong in these scenes and broke through the apathy I’d weirdly felt for the characters until that point.

 the characters

Well, I didn’t feel anything for the characters except Anne. Mary first describes her as a independent and fierce girl standing on the deck with a sword and pistol in hand, being the only woman on her crew. She comes soon to realize she’s only there because of Jack’s permission, everyone on the crew apparantly dislikes her for being a woman. Anne doesn’t feel very thought-through as a character, she’s very girly and whiny, it’s like being relatively free on the ship after being beaten by her husband in the town hasn’t changed her at all. There’s no development, she’s uncomplex and flat like many of the other characters. I feel the author adressed this at one point, having Mary notice how Anne was manipulating Jack by being sweet and kissy when Mary was in danger from him.

It’s this weird battle through the book of Anne wanting to be free and independent, not tied to any man, at the same time as she haven’t gathered any skills to make it on her own. Mary is sewing dresses, struggling as the town is considering her an unmarried whore who they need to reform. I so wish Anne had been written as girly, yes, but also a woman of skills and personality. If she was “broken” by her circumstances, make that something that lasts more than a couple paragraphs.

 

the romance

If you want your sapphic Mary and Anne pirate romance, my opinion is that the chemistry is barely there. Sure, it’s a lot of back and forth, proclaiming their love to each other, but I did not feel the romance. Protectiveness sure, towards the end.

 

their struggles

I’m seeing reviews that expected Mary to be trans, which I do not think was the intent of the book. She certainly struggles with her identity, trying to figure out what parts of her was acting. If you should expect anything from that part of the book, it is that Mary feels like something in between a woman and a man. Both she and Anne faces so much discrimination and little freedom, in different ways and I think the fact that they didn’t understand each other struggles were one of the more realistic things. One is claiming the other have it easier, until they realize they need to both escape.

 

The feeling this book gave me: it got an extra star for the fact that it made me shed a tear (it was 3 am and that’s my excuse) when it showed the hopelessness of the situation of Anne and Mary trying to be “correct” women and still being beaten for it. other than that i was bored much of the way through, considering to dnf it several times.

 

Thanks to the publisher for receiving this copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sadie by Courtney Summers | Review

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Pages: 320

Genre: young adult

 

 

Synopsis

Sadie has run away from home, she’s on a mission to get revenge on the death of her sister Mattie. They were very close, as Sadie practically raised her. The details of their difficult childhood are slowly being told as a podcast host is trying to piece their story together. The book follows Sadie on her journey as well as the host West McCray researching, interviewing family and presenting the story in form of a podcast.  

 

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

tre

This book is about very important subjects. Children abuse, drug problems, teenagers running away and how they’re treated. Sadie is trying to get revenge, everyone else is trying to figure out what happened to her and her sister Mattie. Along the journey Sadie uncovers pedophiles and tries to gather as much information about her target as she is able to. The way Sadie keeps going indicates how dark the story will get. We don’t get to know how Mattie died until the end, but it was pretty easy to guess after a while. The few “plot twists” in this book is generally easy to guess, but it’s more a story of how important it is that someone is paying attention to Sadie, Mattie and girls like them.

Turns out a book partly formatted as a podcast might be a bad idea. They’ve really leaned into the idea of “Serial-like podcast” (which it was marketed as) and it’s very noticeable as I read it. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts, there might be a reason they’re audio. It reads like a very confusing interview. I had problems finding out where the host was talking from, if she was “out in the field” following up leads, if she was interviewing someone or in the studio. It’s written sometimes. Also some weird choices are made in how the story is told, which works for a book, but isn’t usual for actual podcasts. I just got confused at times on what type of story telling they tried to achieve, because it flunctuates between an article written after all the facts are found and a news article being more continually updated. It might be a personal preferance to stick to one style.

But that the podcast isn’t real also seem to limit what kind of story can be told. In real life, awful and weird things happen. In the story, certainly awful things happen, but all the “random” people and actions was placed there to fill out the narrative and give descriptions or accounts of Sadie and her story. It’s an important story to tell, but it was very straight-forward. The story felt somewhere on the edge of having too much information of Sadie’s whereabouts to not knowing anything else than directly what was needed. There were no deeper dive on characters we met, like a “Serial-like” podcast would have, or any other details.

Back to the other half of the story, where we’re following Sadie directly. This was the most interesting parts for me. I admire her drive and the protectiveness over her sister that we get to see and hear about. It’s obviously she’s not thinking right, after the death, but we really don’t get to see just how hard she’s taking it or how she’s feeling. I missed that sometimes. She puts on faces, clearly stated, and it’s amazing to watch how she manages to con her way into information. But I didn’t really feel like I got to know her, or any of the other characters closely. She has a strong personality, but through all the different viewpoints (and trauma) it’s hard to decide what’s really her. Which might not be a wrong choice, it just made it more difficult to connect with the story.

I loved the book “All the rage” by Courtney Summers, this one just didn’t fit me.

 

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for giving this copy in exchange for a honest review.

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas | Review

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Pages: 229

Genre: new adult, fantasy

Synopsis

Feyre, Rhys, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve.

Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated–scars that will have far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.

Honest summary? Friends giving each other gifts, celebrating Christmas – no wait Winter Solice – and talking about a war somewhere, but Tamlin being unhappy is the only piece of action as everyone (Feyre) is fucking or going to the store or painting.   

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

to

I’ve read a lot of reviews of this book, before actually reading I saw a lot of varied ratings given and afterwards to get the answers to “why are people liking this?”.

Here’s a rapid fire round of things I disliked: males and gentlemales everywhere, smutty sex scenes from a bad fanfic, all for girlpower in theory but not in action? even Amren isn’t seen fighting here. More is coming, just wait.

Let’s get my favourite moments over with, to balance it out a bit: Feyre interacting with Ressina and other artist or people who also have been affected by the war, Cassian & Feyre decorating for Solstice (basically Christmas), they all getting drunk, Amren moments in general.

I don’t care for the sex scenes. When I read them in earlier books I wondered why I hated them so much, and they’re just bad and cringy. Also I hate it if I have to pause the action of a book to read detailed cringy description of how sex works and the word “thrust” over and over. In this book there were no action that needed to be paused, like the last one, but I felt like I needed to read this book to not miss out on the bigger storyline. There’s a lot of rebuilding of Velaris in this book along with healing for all the people there, including all the characters we know and love. I didn’t want to miss that.

I’ve never read so many pages about friends giving each other gifts. It was cute, the first two, but IT NEVER ENDS. I feel like this about many of the fluffier moments of the book. That along with the sex is why people are comparing it to fanfiction I think, the book is written with the focus to include the characters in different settings and scenes to get these heartwarming moments. I definitely appreciated reading them, but they were very transparent and felt artificial or false, which is a weird thought to have about something that’s in a book, but I couldn’t help but notice it. Perhaps it’s made worse by how the rest of the series doesn’t really match the tone of this novella.

In case someone hasn’t realized it (I didn’t when I first heard about this book): IT’S A NOVELLA. But it doesn’t feel detached from the rest of the series? It’s a bridge between what happened in book three and four, and that’s why it’s difficult to advice if people need to read this. At the high price I first saw of this book (it’s become some lower since I think), I wondered if the publisher agreed to sell anything Maas was willing to write, and after reading this I still feel the same way. Maybe it’s something a part of the fans wanted, but my opinion is that that’s a slippery slope down to making a worse book and product in general. This novella reads like fanfic. Unfortunately it made me more nervous and less excited for the next full book in the series, and the series overall as I have loved it until now. 

Fawkes by Nadine Brandes | Review

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Pages: 450

Genre: young adult fantasy

Synopsis

Thomas Fawkes is turning to stone, and the only cure to the Stone Plague is to join his father’s plot to assassinate the king of England.

Silent wars leave the most carnage. The wars that are never declared, but are carried out in dark alleys with masks and hidden knives. Wars where color power alters the natural rhythm of 17th century London. And when the king calls for peace, no one listens until he finally calls for death.
But what if death finds him first?
Keepers think the Igniters caused the plague. Igniters think the Keepers did it. But all Thomas knows is that the Stone Plague infecting his eye is spreading. And if he doesn’t do something soon, he’ll be a lifeless statue. So when his Keeper father, Guy Fawkes, invites him to join the Gunpowder Plot—claiming it will put an end to the plague—Thomas is in.
The plan: use 36 barrels of gunpowder to blow up the Igniter King.
The problem: Doing so will destroy the family of the girl Thomas loves. But backing out of the plot will send his father and the other plotters to the gallows. To save one, Thomas will lose the other.
No matter Thomas’s choice, one thing is clear: once the decision is made and the color masks have been put on, there’s no turning back

My thoughts

Rating three out of five:

I enjoyed this book for the most part, especially in the beginning as Thomas are thrown out of magic school and seeks his father Guy Fawkes to get his mask he needs to connect to a colour and get his magical abilities. As he gets dragged into the gunpowder plot to assassinate the king, we learn with him as readers, and I thought it was well-done without too heavy information dumps. Then the middle part arrived and I started to get bored, and confused.

the characters 

The interactions between Emma and Thomas lead to them both learning and one wasn’t there just for the others behalf. Emma is very determined, which I liked, and it’s obvious what kind of girl the author did not want her to be, even if she’s under the care of wealthy people and without measures to get free. We get to see a lot of Thomas’ journey in the middle part of the book, and there were some moments of clarity I really liked. Emma could show him another perspective, his father showed him the gravity of the situation and the Gunpowder plot, he himself saw the conditions “his people” the Keepers were under as they were executed. The moral dilemmas he went through really had something to say for the ending of the book and it was interesting seeing that journey he took.

That said, I had a few things that didn’t sit right with me in this book. As much as I liked Emma’s determination and strong will, it made her very predictable as a character. I’ve read other fierce female characters who avoided this, and when you know she’s going to follow, or eventually break out of other’s control, it makes her plotline very obvious. Still, her fighting people and Thomas standing there silently cheering her and being impressed was awesome. 

 

The author really spelled out what she wanted to include in this book, like literally on the last pages or afterword. I would not mention this had it not also been very obvious throughout the book. She wanted to show a historical fiction where a female character finds her independence, with moral dilemmas over those in power and including and raising questions around slavery and treatment of people of colour. And all that’s great, but those things had a very streamlined, straight-forward and predictable route even as the plot itself had its twists and was interesting done. It felt too one-dimensional in comparison to the rest of the book, perhaps to make sure the points were clear enough.

the stone plague

Through the whole book I realized Thomas being plagued was like a portrayal of illness/injury and how it can change identity and be an insecurity. Emma talks to him about not letting her darker skin define her, and that conversation was really good. At the same time, with the exception when he’s stabbed and plagued for the second time, he doesn’t seem to really feel it physically. Like he’s worried about people’s thoughts, obviously as it makes him a target, but he’s not in pain and when it’s mentioned how his skin turns to stone it’s more like the skin is a bit tight which sounds so unbelievable. I don’t think the author did anything wrong, it’s just one of these smaller things that doesn’t make sense to me. Let me tell you, as I’m typing this my fingers are hurting because of joint problems, you cannot have a plague turning you into stone and not be in constant pain or uncomfortable, if that’s not explicitly stated. 

 

the damn White Light

Then it’s White Light as a concept. I’ve read enough Sanderson books to consider it a god in this world (not that I’m comparing books here). But do you want a Light who is able to talk to and know everyone? How the hell would we have the plague in the first place if White Light could guide people like he did with Thomas? The moment I realized Thomas was supposed to have as much power as Dee who had studied it for so many years, when the Light could give him (and possibly others) its god-sized ability, that reduces the credibility drastically. It’s a known trap in fantasy, like that moment made it obvious whatever side Thomas was on would win and ruined the whole finale. Like Thomas could’ve gotten his father out of prison, definitely. The Light could have a whole army of teen boys out there doing its bidding. Also did it want the Keepers dead? I’m confused.

Everything else is so spelled out that I need an explanation to why you have a god with such powers and ability to bend others to his will basically, who knows enough about people to be witty about Emma’s determination, and it comes down to the ending this book has. The characters never questions its intention.

the ending

The ending really didn’t work personally, it was apparent that the gunpowder plot would not go down in the book either, the fact that Thomas didn’t tell his dad about Dee’s bad intention made barely sense in the beginning and the characters went out of character for the whole ending, the way I see it. Thomas could have flipped a switch and become very secure in the White Light, fine, but the rest of them … I was done.

The feeling this book gave me: intrigued, but never satisfied with a big finale or explanations

Thanks to publisher Thomas Nelson for receiving this copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Series I Won’t Finish

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I’ve gone on a purge of my tbr list and realized there’s book series I won’t ever get to because of various reasons. It might be years since I read the previous book, maybe the book  wasn’t that good or it didn’t need to be made into a series. So here’s my official goodbyes!

 

Throne of Glass: Tower of Dawn, book 6

As the series have progressed it went from young adult to new adult, the focus of plot and characters have shifted and for some reason I lost interest with each new book. Book five was a struggle to get through. I think there’s been too many let-downs that I can’t get over, it’s a whole post in itself. I’m still on the fence if I’ll ever give it another try, but I think I’ll spare myself from it.

The 5th Wave: The Infinite Sea, book 2

I’ve picked up the second book of this series twice, and while I liked the first one I couldn’t get into it. I have yet to see the movie with Chloe Graze Moretz though (I love that actress).

The Darkest Minds: In the Afterlight, book 3

The biggest problem is that I don’t know if I read the second book “never fade”. I’m pretty sure I did, because I tried to start it again and it was just familiar enough to be boring. That along with having been some years, I don’t think I’ll get to finish this one.

 

 

 

Night School: Endgame, book 5

Read it so long ago, started the book again, but wasn’t feeling it. Won’t happen, even though it has good ratings.

Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children: Hollow City, book 2

The first movie was good, will watch the next one too, but the book I read so long ago and doesn’t really catch my interest anymore.

Embassy Row: Take the Key and Lock Her Up, book 3

First book in the series was fun, second book more of a mess. I won’t get to the third, even though it has good ratings.

 

 

 

 

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson | Review

aquapages // eline12 Comments

Pages: 420

Genre: young adult, mystery

Synopsis

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym, Truly Devious. It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

fem

I really hoped this would be a fantastic book, because Maureen Johnson seems like a brilliant person and I already know she’s a good author, so I’ll say upfront I went into this with all the expectations. This book is the most perfect young adult murder mystery I’ve ever read, and I read a lot as a child. Possibly not as many as the main character Stevie, but I’m not planning on going to a boarding school to solve a murder either.

the characters

The characters are very different and all supposedly gifted, though the book could’ve showed more of their abilities. But they seem like complex people, and their different personalities is shown well. Everyone from Stevie’s parents who are supporting a much hated politician (senator?), to the teachers and classmates like Janelle who build awesome machines and wear lemon baby-blue dresses. Or Ellie who lies there clothed in bathtubs, talking about Paris and art, instantly accepting Stevie’s interest. Stevie also has her distinct voice, and the social insecurities (especially in friendships) were relatable. Almost forgot to mention the author Nate among all the cool ladies. He comes with quotes like this:

“It’s two thousand pages and nothing happens. It’s all terrible. I wrote the first book and then I forgot how to write. It used to be that I would sit and write and I would go into some other world—I could see it all. I was totally in another place. But the second it became something I had to do, something in me broke. It’s like I used to know the way to some magical land and I lost the map. I hate myself.”

Nate was unable to bring himself to lie. “I feel kind of better,” he said to Stevie. “I think you’re even more screwed than I am.”

the plot and story

It amazed me how overall relatable to the current time and teenagers this book felt. Let’s just say I’ve highlighted a lot of quotes, amazed at the accuracy. Another thing I loved was the plot, which I can’t say much about without spoiling the book. The murder mystery and boarding school parts are really good, and I love seeing Stevie trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle. As well as the teachers treating them like teenagers, like not allowing access when the police is involved, which other books seem to get wrong.

some negative opinions

Here’s the things I’ve had a problem with in past similiar books and didn’t disappear in this one: past police interviews. They’re so dry, they need to be that to seem semi-realistic. I don’t want to read more than two pages of them, and only if someone turns into a dragon midways.

Also there’s paralell stories with Stevie in one and another girl at Ellingham Acadamy from the past, who was murdered early on. The stories didn’t overlap enough to really be interesting, it was a lot of tension between the characters in the past, but I didn’t know enough of them to care. They simply slowed down the plotline of Stevie. I realized more towards the ending that they surely will or already have presented some crucial clue to the murder mysteries, but I couldn’t bring myself to care in the moment.

Which leads me to my final negative point, that it ends in the middle of it all. I think that was better than making it one very long book, for marketing reasons and because it’s young adult. But this one just came out, I’ll have to wait at least a year for any kind of resolution, perhaps even longer as I now realize it’s a trilogy. Well, I’m already captured by this story.

all in all

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a good murder mystery, especially if young adult and at a boarding school sounds good to you. I grew up on mysteries like Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars, and this book really brought me back there.  

more favourite quotes

“She felt like someone walking out onto the branch of a tree, feeling it bounce and give under each step. And she loved the feeling.”

“I have no idea. The guy looks like he came out of a 3-D printer.”

“Stevie distinctly felt part of her soul die. She hoped it wasn’t an important part.”

“reading books in class because there was nothing new to be learned, so the time might as well be spent doing something useful.”

“Hayes said sorry. Hayes always said sorry. He said it was a joke, but . . . you don’t get to say that, you know? You don’t get to frighten people and threaten them and say you’re only kidding. Because you’re not.”