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REVIEW | Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang

January 29, 2018 , Mon | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“I’ve been called magic, but I wouldn’t use that term exactly. I like to think of myself as always being in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time. Very rarely am I simply in an acceptable place at a generally convenient time. That said, I find those rare occasions very pleasant, mostly because they give me time to work on my crosswords.”

Themes:

  • Family dynamics
  • Nature’s raw power
  • Finding your purpose

When I read the synopsis for this book, I became immediately convinced that I’d love it. Once I had the book in my hands, I began with apprehension, because my expectations were high! I can happily say, those expectations were exceeded. This book is MAGICAL.

Brimming with whimsy and wildlife, quirky personalities and human complexity, Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance was a joy to read.

Throughout the book, our protagonist, Weylyn, finds himself within a few different family dynamics. It inspires thoughtfulness on the reader’s part, and is an element of the story that captured my attention early on and entertained throughout. It created a sort of examination of human life through Weylyn’s observations. His wildness lent him a fascinating and believable naïveté through which the reader explores average things through a new lens. read more

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REVIEW | Hiddensee by Gregory Maguire

December 29, 2017 , Fri | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“Drosselmeier’s more delicate and individualized figures were reserved as gifts for Klara. A Russian princess in a painted wooden cloak. A Cleopatra in Egyptian blue. A charming family of pigs in graduated heights that stood on hind legs and wore nothing but pince-nezs, all of them, except the very smallest, who with a potbelly and a sour expression stood looking down and sucking her cloven hoof.”

Themes:

  • Creation, in so many forms
  • The influence dreams can have on real life
  • What we lose and/or forget the further we get from childhood

This “tale of the once and future nutcracker” is fantastic! Much darker than I expected, Hiddensee actually focuses on the life of Drosselmeier, not the nutcracker. However, I loved this. Exploring the story of the legendary toymaker, known throughout this novel as simply Dirk, was a joy for this lifelong nutcracker fan.

I’ve never read something by Maguire before, so his style of writing—quite formal, somewhat blunt—took me a few chapters to get used to. I’ll admit that as I started this, I wasn’t sure if it would live up to my hopes and expectations. Once I grew accustomed to the voice, I found myself immersed in the world Maguire so masterfully builds and enjoying the language. read more

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REVIEW | Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

December 26, 2017 , Tue | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“Somewhere far in the distance, she heard the rumble of engines. The voices of the girls grew louder, drawing her onward. They were fifty now, one hundred, the sound so lovely it brought tears to Alia’s eyes. When had she stopped being a child? The first time a guy had whistled at her out of a car window when she was walking to school? The moment she started wondering how she looked when she ran, what jiggled or bounced, instead of the pace she was setting? The first time she’d kept from raising her hand because she didn’t want to seem too smart or too eager? No one had sung. No one had told her how much she would lose until the time for grieving was long over.”

Themes:

  • Female empowerment
  • Trusting instincts over misguided authority
  • Humanity’s natural inclination towards war

So I want to start off by saying that I’m not someone who typically enjoys superhero stuff all that much. I’m not sure that it’s for any particular reason. It’s just one of those things I’ve never been drawn to. Because of this, I had trouble deciding whether I was excited to start this one. I’ve read the Six of Crows duology by Bardugo, and I LOVED it. I also got to meet her at a local book festival, which she attended as part of her tour for this book. On top of all that, the DC Icons series is also going to have books by Marie Lu, Sarah J. Maas, and Matt de la Pena. I’m obsessed with everything Maas does, and the short stories I’ve read by Lu and de la Pena have made it clear that I’m going to enjoy their larger works. So, there were a lot of reasons I wanted to read Wonder Woman: Warbringer, but I wasn’t too invested in the actual story before beginning. Guess what? I adored this book. read more

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REVIEW | There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

November 21, 2017 , Tue | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“The killer sat on the rug—crisscross applesauce—picked up the abandoned controller, and unpaused the game. There was no hurry.”

Themes:

  • What loneliness can do to a person
  • Allowing past mistakes to control you
  • Prejudices and judgements based on appearance

Okay, so I’m going to start by saying that while I think this was a pretty good book, my entire perspective on it has been influenced by two things. First, I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to certain elements of horror, and this did freak me out enough that I had to take a break from reading at some moments. Second, as you might expect given the first thing, I don’t read or watch much horror at all. Before this, the only horror I’d read was in the form of a few short stories! So, I can’t speak to where it stands within the genre.

All of that being said, There’s Someone Inside Your House was a fast-paced and fun read! I really enjoyed the characters, which surprised me. I think I expected Perkins not to spend the same amount of time building well-rounded characters since it’s a slasher. Um, no, she totally makes you love and lose! read more

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REVIEW | The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken

November 19, 2017 , Sun | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“Nell held the stuffed animals just out of his reach, trying not to laugh as the hob jumped up in the air for them. His long ears flopped back and forth, and his snot went flying.

‘Give them to me, give them to this hob!'”

Themes:

  • Resisting temptations
  • Putting the needs of others above your own
  • Inclusion in family and friend units/feeling known

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding is fantastic! This is the first book by Alexandra Bracken that I’ve ever read, and I’m now certain I’ll love everything she’s done! To start with, the atmosphere is absolutely wonderful. It has that New England at Halloween vibe we all love. I read it last month, and it’s the PERFECT October read. I mean, most of the story takes place in Salem, Massachusetts—need I say more? And the town Prosper’s family founded, Redhood, mixes that New England feel with a power family element I loved. We’re also told of the realm from which the demon Alastor hails, and I’m hopeful that we’ll get to visit it in book two!

One of the things that so impressed me about this novel was the complexity of the plot, despite the book being quite character driven. You spend a lot of time worrying about Prosper, getting to know him and Nell, wondering what’s up with Uncle Barnabas and Prosper’s whole family back home. You are thinking about the plot as it’s seen from Prosper’s perspective. But then by the end you’re like, oh yea, wow, there’s like this whole other world Alastor comes from, and he is part of the royal demon family there, and that’s really the essence of this whole plot. read more

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REVIEW | One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

November 19, 2017 , Sun | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“Her manic phases were a trip, though. For my eighth birthday she took me to a department store, handed me a cart, and told me to fill it with whatever I wanted. When I was nine and into reptiles she surprised me by setting up a terrarium in the living room with a bearded dragon. We called it Stan after Stan Lee, and I still have it. Those things live forever.”

Themes:

  • Friendship
  • Thinking you know someone versus truly seeing them
  • The importance of reserving judgements and always striving to empathize

Before starting this, I had heard it described as The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars—intriguing, right? I’m not huge into thriller books, but Halloween was approaching, and I kept hearing about this, so I started it. And I’m so glad I did! I expected One of Us is Lying to be entertaining. I didn’t expect it to be something I can see myself rereading.

Let’s start with the fact that while the characters are, at their basest level, somewhat tropy, they all have such interesting growth. By the end of the novel, I really felt McManus had demonstrated each character’s individual complexity quite well. I feel like I know these people, and I want to know them more. Addy’s story arc was particularly awesome, in my opinion. She went from a character I couldn’t stand to one I would read a whole book about. Seriously. I also loved Cooper, who is gay and outed in the process of the investigation into what happened to Simon. I can’t personally speak to the representation, but I could imagine how his story line would be relatable to an underrepresented group of people, which is so important. He’s a star baseball player, with a father who literally calls people fags. It’s in this environment that we first see Cooper, in love with a man named Kris, but dating a girl named Keely. When Cooper was forcibly outed, it was painful. It was awful. But, it did help someone like myself, who hasn’t had that particular experience, empathize with people who do go through that. I felt better able to relate to how assaulted someone in that situation would feel. So I thought that was a great element of his story! Plus, I loved him and Kris! read more

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REVIEW | The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories by Penelope Lively

November 17, 2017 , Fri | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“Funny, she could be. Sharp—not malicious, just occasionally barbed. People who’d got up her nose. So you see I realized I can say what she was like—a sort of climate of mind—clever and astute and kind—yes, kind—but critical and quite judgmental and ambitious, yes, but the kind of ambition that’s about the thing being done, not the person doing it.”

Themes:

  • Regret
  • The quiet beauty of ordinary life
  • Society’s expectations and judgments, and how they influence choices

In May, my family moved to a new area. In the beginning of June, I went to the local library for the first time. This particular library has a “new to us” section, which visitors encounter immediately upon entering. On the day I walked in for the first time, The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories was prominently placed, facing out on this very shelf. What a magical place libraries are, and bless the librarians who put Lively’s masterpiece in that attention-grabbing spot. Because I picked it up, read it in a matter of days, and haven’t stopped loving it since.

I love to read, and I’ve enjoyed literature in all of its forms. But it’s a rare work that compels me to read and reread and reread again. This is one of them! I’ve already reread a few of the stories since having first read it in full back in June. I don’t normally write reviews so long after initially reading something, but since I’ve reread many of my favorite parts of this recently, and I love it so dearly, I decided I simply must write this! read more

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REVIEW | The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

October 29, 2017 , Sun | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“The second thing I thought was that I knew everything. Lettie Hempstock’s ocean flowed inside me, and it filled the entire universe, from Egg to Rose. I knew that. I knew what Egg was—where the universe began, to the sound of uncreated voices singing in the void—and I knew where Rose was—the peculiar crinkling of space on space into dimensions that fold like origami and blossom like strange orchids, and which would mark the last good time before the eventual end of everything and the next Big Bang, which would be, I knew now, nothing of the kind.”

Themes:

  • Unreliable memory and the fluidity of time
  • The idea that good and evil work on a scale
  • The individuality of wisdom and knowledge

Seriously, I am blown away. I bought this several years ago at Miami Book Fair. It’s a signed copy Books & Books (the primary independent bookstore in South Florida) had in its back stock. It has been sitting on my tbr since then. It has come along with me all four of the times I’ve moved house since purchasing it. All because it was Gaiman, so I knew it was good. I just had to, at some point, be in the right mood and pick it up. That happened recently, and it’s now on my list of all-time favorites. read more

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REVIEW | The Shark Club by Ann Kidd Taylor

October 28, 2017 , Sat | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“Trailing a respectful distance beside her pectoral fins, I could feel the sheer force of her in the water. The sound her movement made was like thunder coming from far away, yet I felt it shuddering against me. I swam instinctively, not thinking, floating in a half-dreamed place, and what came to me was the quote stenciled on the wall in room 202 of my grandmother’s hotel—the Keats Room: ‘Love is my religion. I could die for that.’ The sea, its creatures, its sharks—they were my religion. I could die for that.”

Themes:

  • Balancing career and family
  • Holding grudges and offering forgiveness
  • Personal growth over time, and how it can change not only who you are, but who and what you need

When I first picked up this book, it was for two reasons: I love Sharks, and I enjoy Sue Monk Kidd’s work, so I thought it would be really cool to read something by her daughter. But after the first few pages, I knew this book was going to end up meaning a lot more to me than all that.

This novel was emotional for me, in ways I totally didn’t expect. I lived in South Florida for the last 15-plus years. Even before we moved there, we had family there. Some of my most vivid childhood memories take place at my grandparents’ house in Key Largo. From the mangroves to the great key lime pie debate, The Shark Club took me back to a place I’ve long considered a home in one way or another. Everything about the setting of this book and the characters’ lifestyles was nostalgic to me! read more

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REVIEW | Uprooted by Naomi Novik

September 29, 2017 , Fri | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“I hated her; I wanted her to burn, the way so many of the corrupted had burned, because she’d put her hold on them. But wanting cruelty felt like another wrong answer in an endless chain. The people of the tower had walled her up, then she’d struck them all down. She’d raised up the wood to devour us; now we’d give her to the fire-heart, and choke all this shining clear water with ash. None of that seemed right.”

Themes:

  • Cyclical violence
  • Female empowerment
  • Humanity’s destruction of the natural world

Oh my goodness, how I adore this book. It is already on my favorites list!

Uprooted gives the reader that old-timey fantasy feel. It reminded me almost immediately of The Charwoman’s Shadow by Lord Dunsany, but it also makes me think of Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. So if you enjoy elements of those, this is a book you should give a try. If you have never read those or don’t enjoy them, you should still give this one a try.

I love the way magic works in this story and how Novik allows the reader to slowly discover it. Sarkan and Agnieszka’s magic operates so differently, yet creates beautiful results when worked together. It is a fascinating element of the story and inspires growth in Sarkan and Agnieszka’s relationship. read more

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