Category Archives: book reviews

Review: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

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CDChallenger Deep was another hard read. Hard– but incredible.

Meet Caden Bosch, a young man whose behavior has been growing increasingly curious to his family and friends.

Caden, who is on a ship headed for the deepest part of the earth: Challenger Deep, part of the Marianas Trench.

There are two stories but really only one.

This is a very well-drawn story of a boy battling a mental illness. There was so much I could relate to in this novel– the paranoia, the medications, the darkness.

I know that Neal Shusterman’s son inspired this story. It’s clear to see that Shusterman knows what he’s talking about. It mimicked my own experiences in such critical ways.

I highly recommend this book.

 

 

Review: A Sense of the Infinite by Hilary T. Smith

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sense of the infiniteThis book was really, really hard for me to read. It covers some difficult territory that– for a time– almost made me dread reading the story. Now, that said, I tore through this book, and in the end, I think it was tremendously well-written. Smith is a genius with words, and she made me feel a hundred different ways while reading this book.

A Sense of the Infinite is ultimately a story about Annabeth and Noe, best friends since ninth grade and now having a rough go of their friendship as senior year ensues. Wow, could I ever relate to this storyline. You could have substituted Annabeth and Noe’s names with mine and my high school best friend’s. It was so interesting to see Annabeth make all these college plans for the two of them and know from personal experience, Girlfriend, it ain’t gonna happen.

There were some really serious storylines in this novel, most of which are too spoilery to share. It is not a fluffy book at all; it is hard but incredibly rich– like life.

Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

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Is this tweet enough or do you need more?

six of crowsSix of Crows is a heist novel set in a fantasy land (the same as that of the Grisha trilogy). Picture Ocean’s Eleven with only six players– and now make those six be teenage outcasts with nothing to lose and everything to gain. That’s Six of Crows.

What makes it are the characters. For me, characters are always number one, and these characters will woo you, delight you, break your heart, terrify you, and humble you. Kaz, Inej, Nina, Matthias, Jesper, and Wylan.

Lots of great action and surprises. On one hand, I’m thrilled it’s a series so that I get to spend more time with this crew. On the other, now I have to wait!!!!

It’ll be worth it.

Review: Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

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bone gapThere’s been a lot of buzz about Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, and so I finally purchased the book and read it. It was great.

Bone Gap is the name of the small town where the O’Sullivan boys live on their own, their father dead and their mother having run off. Sean is the big, strong, brilliant one, and Finn is the “spacey” but beautiful one. Roza is the lovely Polish girl who appeared out of nowhere and disappeared from their lives just as fast. The story is mostly told from Finn’s and Roza’s perspectives.

What’s missing from that description is Petey. Priscilla “Petey” is the beekeeper girl that Finn falls for, and she’s my absolute favorite part of this novel, maybe for reasons I can’t quite explain. I’ll try anyway.

Petey is unusual. She’s not traditionally beautiful. She’s brave and feisty and strong and weak. I love her for all those reasons, and so does Finn, and it’s adorable.

Roza is incredible. Total badass Polish heroine.

Sean is strong and broken. I loved him. He frustrated me too.

Finn is lovely, precious, amazing, boyish in the best way. I want to put him in my pocket.

Bone Gap is classified as magical realism. It may or may not surprise you that I loved the realism and could have done without the magical element, though it seems that it works for most readers.

Read this. You will love it.

Review: Another Day by David Levithan

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another daySo. Another Day. It’s the companion novel to Every Day, which I reviewed here almost two years ago.

Both tell the story of Rhiannon and A– Rhiannon, an insecure girl in an abusive relationship, and A, who wakes up in a new body every morning. The first novel was written from A’s perspective, and as you might imagine, it was fascinating to read about a character whose appearance– and even gender!– changed daily.

Now it’s Rhiannon’s turn to tell their story.

Levithan did a great job of making it into Rhiannon’s story; he’s a masterful writer, and just like with the first book, he raised so many important questions in this novel. I even thought he did a better job in this second novel of leaving those questions unanswered for the readers, whereas in Every Day, I got the impression that Levithan was trying to shoehorn his own answers into the text.

Now, here’s the thing.

This is what I wrote about the end of Every Day: “The ending was PERFECT and unexpected, but I can’t tell you how it made me feel because I want you to experience it for yourself.”

That said, Another Day ended a little bit differently.

I’m not going to drop any spoilers here, no worries. I just want to say that when I finished Another Day, my jaw dropped and I think I said aloud to the darkness of my room, “Wait– what?” It was absolutely not what I was expecting from having read the companion novel, which was difficult for me because that was my favorite part!

It was one in the morning, but I emailed my friend Alison at Hardcovers & Heroines anyway. 1) I knew she had read and reviewed it. 2) David Levithan is one of her instructors. We emailed back and forth a little bit, and she let me know that he is actually writing a third book for this series. That makes the ending of Another Day make more sense. That said, it sort of diminishes the perfection of Every Day’s ending. I’m torn.

I will just have to wait for book #3!!

 

 

(Even More) Recent Reads

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I’ve been reading a lot lately, hooray! I’m not even joking when I say that The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh seriously messed me up in the greatest way and I couldn’t really read anything for a couple months– with the exception of The Horse and His Boy. Twenty times. I’m not joking. I think I listened to the audiobook about twenty times in a row.

Now that I’m back in the swing of things, here are a few other books I’ve recently read:


acotarA Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas | This was my first Sarah J. Maas book I’ve read, even though I own the books in her Throne of Glass series. This is a re-telling of the Beauty and the Beast tale, set in a faerie world. It was romantic and kinda darkly sexy; the big twist came near the end, and I liked that. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to continue the series or not. Pretty sure a love triangle is going to pop up in the next book, and I really don’t want it to, not with these characters. Even though I had a tougher time connecting with Feyre, the main character, there is a lot of love for this book out there, and I’d love to discuss it with you, should you read it!

what i thoughtWhat I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick | This was a very engrossing read … could not put it down! It’s a story about Gwen Castle, an “island girl”– she’s one of the poor people who live on the island year-round, while in the summer, the rich people come to stay in their summer homes. This summer, though, rich-boy Cassidy Somers (awesome name, woot!) is working on the island too– and he is Gwen’s “mistake from last spring.” It was really fun to get to know Cass and Gwen and let them battle through their issues on the island. One of the things that I love about Huntley Fitzpatrick’s characters is the way that they talk through things with each other, even when they are awkward conversations. I love that she gives them the maturity enough to do that. I really loved this book. I can’t believe I get to be on a panel with Huntley Fitzpatrick this weekend. (Is this real life??)

emmy and oliverEmmy & Oliver by Robin Benway | Loved this story! Emmy and Oliver were best friends up until age seven, when Oliver was kidnapped by his own father. Ten years later, he comes home. At first, things are really awkward between them– Oliver barely remembers his former life, and he’s been told lies for the last ten years, not to mention that he still adores his dad, who is now in hiding, and is trying to wrap his head around his dad as the bad guy. But they begin to warm to each other, and of course this is a love story. It was very sweet, very thought-provoking, full of emotion, and I highly recommend it!

bounceBounce by Noelle August | Noelle August is, of course, the pseudonym for the partnership between Lorin Oberweger and Veronica Rossi. To me, this was the most interesting book of this series. It’s about nineteen-year-old Grey, a partying wannabe rockstar, and Skylar, an up-and-coming actress cast in the movie that Grey’s brother is working on. They have to read lines together, and of course there’s a kiss, and of course the kiss doesn’t feel like acting. 🙂 It was just a sweet, sexy romance that I read in one sitting. One of the reasons I think I loved it so much is that Skylar is a size twelve (and having to lose weight for the movie), but anytime we see her through Grey’s eyes, she’s so perfect. And not in spite of her weight, but because of it. The descriptions were spot-on and lovely and made this book so unique. A fun, charming read.