YA Review: Arc of a Scythe
Thunderhead
Oh, Neal Shusterman. Your books are so morbid but so, so good! Scythe and Thunderhead are YA, but if you like dystopian literature, I think any age would enjoy these. But given the content, I would definitely say 7th or 8th grade and up!
Scythe and its sequel, Thunderhead, are a YA dystopian series about a society in which the Cloud (yup, that Cloud) has taken over and perfected society. People live forever . . . until they are chosen to be gleaned (ie, killed) by a Scythe, to keep population numbers under control.
Death. So much death.
I know.
The REAL story is about Citra and Rowan, two teens chosen to train to be scythes, and how they interpret their new roles in society. And what can go wrong in a situation like this.
Y’all, these books are real dark, but really good. Walking around the house with my nose in them good. It’s an interesting concept, and even though they’re YA, they made me think about the way society often solves problems, and the problems that go along with a disconnected leader and all-consuming power.
If you like dystopian stories, I highly recommend these. The third and final book, The Toll, is coming in November 2019, and I cannot wait to see how the series ends!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Review: Where the Crawdads Sing
“I wasn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.”
That quote from Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing basically describes how I felt after finishing this book. Because the book, while extremely entertaining, is absolutely full of words and sentences that are meaningful. The story is bursting with emotions, feelings, and depth of character, not to mention the storyline, which I am still thinking about. This is Owens’ first fictional novel, and it’s kind of unbelievable. (And I’m extremely jealous, in the best possible way!)
I won’t go into detail on the plot, because I really want you to discover it for yourself as you read. It’s about Kya, known as the Marsh Girl, and how she survives essentially alone in the marshes of North Carolina, and how that affects her interactions with other people. Oh, and there’s also a murder plot thrown in, and it’s a good one.
Where the Crawdads Sing is a deeply emotional, incredibly well-written story about a girl who is a survivor, a creator, and an explorer, even if she doesn’t really leave her immediate surroundings. Truly a wonderful story, and I wish I could read it for the first time again. And I feel the need to go visit North Carolina immediately . . .
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
[Top]Review: An Ocean of Minutes
You cannot put life on hold to have a moment of grief, so every second, half the people in the world are split in two. This is what they mean by life goes on, and the worst is that you go on along with it too.
Have you ever been delayed in an airport without a book and no way of getting one? I have. Luckily, when my flight in San Francisco had a 5-hour delay, I remembered passing a bookstore in the terminal earlier, and immediately headed over. Compass Books not only had a bookstore in the terminal, it had a FANTASTIC bookstore. Old books, brand new releases, and everything in between. I spent a good 30 minutes browsing and trying not to buy everything. One of the books I settled on was An Ocean of Minutes
This story is about Frank and Polly, a couple in the middle of a flu epidemic in America. Time travel has been invented in the future, and when Frank catches the flu, Polly decides to time travel to the future in order to secure health insurance for Frank and to meet him in the future after the epidemic has passed. They agree on a time and place to meet in Galveston, 12 years in the future, and she heads off. However, Polly is sent an additional 5 years into the future with no way of going back, no money, and no way of finding Frank. She has to navigate her new life in a new America and try to find Frank, if he’s even still waiting for her.
I thought this was a really interesting story and plot (I love post-apocalyptic settings), and I definitely understand why it’s compared to Station Eleven. Lim’s writing is beautiful, almost poetic (just look at that beautiful quote above), and she put a bit of a twist on the flu epidemic story. However, I didn’t love it as much as I expected. Some of the chapters seemed to start in the middle of a story, and I had to flip back to remind myself of what was going on. And while I truly appreciate what the author was trying to do, a lot of spots in the book felt like she was trying to do too much. It felt like Lim was trying to write higher brow literary fiction, and instead she might have embraced just writing a fun, well-written time travel book with a great story. It felt a bit too cerebral in parts, and I just wanted to be on the adventure with Polly.
That being said, while I didn’t love this book, I did think it was well-written, and Lim clearly has a lot of talent. I think this is a good book that just happened to not be for me. If you enjoy post-apocalyptic books that really take a good look at humanity and how people respond in catastrophic situations, definitely give An Ocean of Minutes
⭐️⭐️⭐️
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YA Review: The Summer of Jordi Perez
The Summer of Jordi Perez (And the Best Burger in Los Angeles)
And right at this very moment, for maybe the first time ever, I feel like I’m in my own story.
When Kate over at Kate Olson Reads tells me multiple times to read a book, I read it. She’s never steered me wrong. When she suggested The Summer of Jordi Perez
Abby Ives is 17, gay, plus-sized, and obsessed with fashion. Her parents are less than supportive. But when she meets fellow fashion intern Jordi Perez over the summer (and fully falls for her), Abby has to balance romance with competition, and who she wants to be going forward.
Let me say this first: I want to be friends with Abby. There’s no wordsmithy way to put it: she’s a damn cool girl, and I wish I knew her in real life! Now. This is a very cute, contemporary YA romance that is a really fun book to read. I don’t have a lot of experience reading LGBTQ YA, but thanks to the Diverse Books Club and Kate Olson, I’ve found some good ones. (There’s also just not a ton out there, and definitely not many in the mainstream lit world. Lesbian romance seems even harder to find than male romance.) This one is fantastic. So, so good. I rooted for Abby and Jordi the whole time, and I love that the author doesn’t make a big deal out of the actual gay romance-it’s just romance and normal teen angst. This is how YA lit should always be written. Because it is normal.
The only thing I wanted more of was Abby’s friendships. We’re kind of dropped into the middle of Abby and Maliah’s (her best friend) friendship, and I would have loved to see more of their story because the characters were so good! She also befriends a boy named Jax who seemed to have some family issues of his own, but was only hinted at. I love background stories on side characters!
If you’re looking for a good YA book, or a fun romance, and also want to diversify your reading a bit, I highly recommend The Summer of Jordi Perez
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Review: Crazy Rich Asians
. . . finish everything on your plate, girls! Don’t you know there are children starving in America?
If you haven’t heard of Crazy Rich Asians
Rachel Chu lives with her boyfriend, Nick Young, in New York City. She agrees to spend the summer with him in Singapore, even though she’s never met his family, and really knows nothing about them. When she arrives, Rachel discovers that Nick isn’t just the underpaid college professor he is in NYC. His family is extremely, crazy rich. A home that looks more like a palace, private jets, designer clothes, and family members who definitely think Rachel isn’t good enough to be a part of the family. She has to learn to navigate a family with a legitimate dynasty and decide whether or not this family, and lifestyle, is really for her.
My sister in law read this at the same time I did, and she said it reminded her of Gossip Girl, and she is right on. It definitely has a Gossip Girl vibe, but with a million times the money, glamour and drama. The story is fun, and it feels like you’re peeking behind the scenes of a family that really doesn’t want you to know what’s going on. Some of the writing did bother me a little bit. There were places where it just felt like a dude writing about idiot dudes. Which is fine, it’s a personal preference for me that I didn’t enjoy that. The characters are written SO stereotypically, but that’s sort of the point of the book-over the top, wild, with a lot of truth in all of it. Kwan grew up in Singapore, so I don’t doubt the validity of the characters and their situations.
Crazy Rich Asians
⭐⭐⭐⭐
EXTRA
There is a scene that really, really bothered me, and I had a hint that it was coming, so I was able to skim over it. It’s a dogfighting scene, and it’s horrible but brief. It only takes up about a page and a half, and it adds nothing to the story (other than to reiterate what we already know-some of these guys are awful people), so just skip it and move on.
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