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a_mae13's reviews
226 reviews
The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono
3.0
“You can't protect what's precious to you through violence.”
This was super cute! I haven’t read Manga before and obviously they are quick reads but I thought it was adorable. The insults were amazing, I am stealing some of them. “Tree-Huggin Candy Ass” was definitely my favorite. The fact that Tatsu wears his apron everywhere cracks me up, especially because it has a cute little bear on it with its tongue sticking out. The funniest part to me is that he still uses gang-like lingo for everyday things. Like when he’s in the grocery store with Miku looking for flour, she’s just like “please just say flour and not white powder, like it’s not crack calm down.” My favorite part is when the kid he was babysitting broke her action figure and he gave it a burial ceremony and she’s like “babe…super glue.” I thought it was cute and a good change of pace for me.
This was super cute! I haven’t read Manga before and obviously they are quick reads but I thought it was adorable. The insults were amazing, I am stealing some of them. “Tree-Huggin Candy Ass” was definitely my favorite. The fact that Tatsu wears his apron everywhere cracks me up, especially because it has a cute little bear on it with its tongue sticking out. The funniest part to me is that he still uses gang-like lingo for everyday things. Like when he’s in the grocery store with Miku looking for flour, she’s just like “please just say flour and not white powder, like it’s not crack calm down.” My favorite part is when the kid he was babysitting broke her action figure and he gave it a burial ceremony and she’s like “babe…super glue.” I thought it was cute and a good change of pace for me.
After by Anna Todd
0.5
“The problem is that I can't stay away from Hardin. I am a moth to his flame, and he never hesitates to burn me.”
And I'd like to burn this entire series. I have nothing good to say about this book; the entire plot is Tessa and Hardin getting together and breaking up. His name is HARDIN. There are so many names that start with the letter "H" and we chose Hardin? Absolutely not. The characters have no personality besides annoying and the ending is the worst thing that I have EVER read.
THE SHEETS. Need I say more?
And I'd like to burn this entire series. I have nothing good to say about this book; the entire plot is Tessa and Hardin getting together and breaking up. His name is HARDIN. There are so many names that start with the letter "H" and we chose Hardin? Absolutely not. The characters have no personality besides annoying and the ending is the worst thing that I have EVER read.
THE SHEETS. Need I say more?
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
3.0
“I was angry at the fate I'd been given. Because I realized that in order for you to have what you want, I'd have to lose the only thing I've ever wanted.”
Following the red string of fate myth, Mina jumps into the crashing ocean to save another maiden from being sacrificed. Literally chaos right from the very start. Mina is then thrust into the world of the Sea God. She finds that her red string is connected to the God himself, and follows it until she finds him... unresponsive on his throne. His guards, Kirin, Namgi, and Shin, find her there and snip the string. This unbinds her soul from the Sea God, but traps her in the world. Her soul is a magpie, and Shin takes it with him. She loses her voice in the process of this and turns to other souls in the village to help her out.
Mina meets Mask, Dai, and Miki, three souls that decide to help her get to the House of Lotus to get her voice and soul back, without becoming a permanent spirit in the process. Along the way, she spots some of the former sacrifices. Hyeri, who was sacrificed years before, ends up marrying the God of Death. And Nari, who helps Mina sneak into the house. Once inside, she gets her soul back, but the red string appears, again. And now she's tied to Shin. Mina panics because she's worried that being tied to Shin, not the Sea God, will mean that her village will sacrifice another girl. Everyone is now after Mina because if she's wiped out, the power dynamic will shift away from both Shin and the Sea God.
And then we discover that Shin is actually the Sea God and the unconscious fella from the opening is the emperor. But to save Shin and put him back in power, he has to forget Mina. It's all very vague and cryptic. She finds Shim Cheog, the girl she jumped into the ocean for, and makes a deal to come back to the human realm. She eventually goes back to the Sea realm because the goddess of memory gives Shin his memories back, and they live together as soulmates. There were a lot of other ups and downs in the book; the souls helping Mina were deceased members of her family (which was extremely obvious) and the boy gang had a lot of war and drama going on...Nagmi is killed but brought back to life? Some things were not clear for me and maybe it's because I'm not familiar with all of the versions of the red string myth. But I still enjoyed the story.
Following the red string of fate myth, Mina jumps into the crashing ocean to save another maiden from being sacrificed. Literally chaos right from the very start. Mina is then thrust into the world of the Sea God. She finds that her red string is connected to the God himself, and follows it until she finds him... unresponsive on his throne. His guards, Kirin, Namgi, and Shin, find her there and snip the string. This unbinds her soul from the Sea God, but traps her in the world. Her soul is a magpie, and Shin takes it with him. She loses her voice in the process of this and turns to other souls in the village to help her out.
Mina meets Mask, Dai, and Miki, three souls that decide to help her get to the House of Lotus to get her voice and soul back, without becoming a permanent spirit in the process. Along the way, she spots some of the former sacrifices. Hyeri, who was sacrificed years before, ends up marrying the God of Death. And Nari, who helps Mina sneak into the house. Once inside, she gets her soul back, but the red string appears, again. And now she's tied to Shin. Mina panics because she's worried that being tied to Shin, not the Sea God, will mean that her village will sacrifice another girl. Everyone is now after Mina because if she's wiped out, the power dynamic will shift away from both Shin and the Sea God.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
4.0
"Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”
There are a lot of mixed reviews on this book and I honestly don't remember how it made it to my TBR but I'm so glad that it did. It's a heavy read, discussing suicide, regret, and life trajectory...but somehow remained very uplifting and inspirational. Make sure that you look up trigger warnings before starting this and that you're in a good headspace!
Nora is at an impasse in her life; she doesn't want to keep living because she's full of regret with her life choices. In her mid-thirties, she was just fired and her cat passed. She feels utterly alone and attempts to take her life. And that's where our story starts so like I said, read the trigger warnings. While losing consciousness, Nora is seemingly transported to a library. The librarian is her elementary school librarian, Mrs. Elm. She explains to Nora that she's in between life and death, and here in this library, she can explore all of those "what ifs" she's been regretting. She can live those lives by picking up a new book. It transports her to that new life.
The lives are fickle in the sense that if you love it, then your memories of your root life will start to disappear and this will become your new life. But, if you're still not happy, you'll find your way back to the library and start again. Nora explores all of the what-ifs that she could imagine; being an Olympic athlete, a professional singer, an animal care and rescue owner, a glaciologist in the deep Arctic, and the list goes on. Every life is exciting and different! But yet, still not perfect. And each time she is transported back to Mrs. Elm in the library. About halfway through the novel she meets another person named Hugo, who is also life-hopping. His "library" is an art gallery and each painting he chooses is his new life (I think), which demonstrates that this limbo state is unique per person.
Ultimately, Nora decides that her root life is the best route for her and she writes in her book of regrets "I am alive" which destroyed me honestly. This was such a poignant story and an incredible message to let people know that just because you made some decisions that you don't love, changing them may not have yielded a better result. I gave it four stars just because it has some triggers and is an emotional read. It's a bit repetitive in parts because it's the same premise in each life, but regardless. It's a beautiful story.
There are a lot of mixed reviews on this book and I honestly don't remember how it made it to my TBR but I'm so glad that it did. It's a heavy read, discussing suicide, regret, and life trajectory...but somehow remained very uplifting and inspirational. Make sure that you look up trigger warnings before starting this and that you're in a good headspace!
Nora is at an impasse in her life; she doesn't want to keep living because she's full of regret with her life choices. In her mid-thirties, she was just fired and her cat passed. She feels utterly alone and attempts to take her life. And that's where our story starts so like I said, read the trigger warnings. While losing consciousness, Nora is seemingly transported to a library. The librarian is her elementary school librarian, Mrs. Elm. She explains to Nora that she's in between life and death, and here in this library, she can explore all of those "what ifs" she's been regretting. She can live those lives by picking up a new book. It transports her to that new life.
The lives are fickle in the sense that if you love it, then your memories of your root life will start to disappear and this will become your new life. But, if you're still not happy, you'll find your way back to the library and start again. Nora explores all of the what-ifs that she could imagine; being an Olympic athlete, a professional singer, an animal care and rescue owner, a glaciologist in the deep Arctic, and the list goes on. Every life is exciting and different! But yet, still not perfect. And each time she is transported back to Mrs. Elm in the library. About halfway through the novel she meets another person named Hugo, who is also life-hopping. His "library" is an art gallery and each painting he chooses is his new life (I think), which demonstrates that this limbo state is unique per person.
Miraculum by Steph Post
2.75
"Oh really? You felt human? How very special for you." "No. I felt like a god."
Oh look, another book that I remember nearly nothing about besides that I enjoyed it and that I had read another circus-themed book 😂 this was like the third or fourth book I read that was centered on a circus. Miraculum was a slow-burn plot about the Spectacular Star Light Miraculum, a traveling carnival that's petering out in terms of popularity. It's the 1920s, so there's new and exciting entertainment on the market. But the carnival pushes on.
As soon as we meet the freaks of the show, a man is found dead hanging in a tree (I'm pretty sure). He was the show's geek, someone who bites the heads off of chickens. It's ruled as a suicide since he was hanging. Conveniently, a new man in town named Daniel and he's willing to fill in as the geek. Ruby, the carnival's snake charmer, is pretty reserved and doesn't love the new guy. Everything seems a bit suspish to her, since the previous geek had JUST died. But, it's business so the owner puts Daniel in the show.
Of course, Daniel isn't what he seems to be and since he's started, all of these weird things start to happen. Soon after, there is another death. I'm pretty sure that this guy was found dead and it was presumed that he fell off of the Ferris wheel. We soon discover that there is more to these characters than what's on the surface. Ruby was abandoned by her family, living with her grandparents in a small cottage in the forest. She's sent away to become a tattooed woman in New Orleans, but the tattoos she receives aren't the beautiful, precise images that the other girls have. Hers are tribal, minimal, and tattooed with ancient methods, leaving her with undefined patterns rather than the remarkable masterpieces that she's seen. She stays with a woman who's a well-known hoodoo master. Ruby becomes infatuated with the history of hoodoo, the gods, the magic, and the rituals. That is until these things come to life around her. Also, her dad is the Pontillier, the carnival owner.
After the second death hits the carnival, Ruby starts to snoop on Daniel. He's too normal to be a geek. He's got clean clothes and fancy accessories, he's not hurting for money and doesn't need the poor income that geeks make. So why is he there?Well, he's a trickster god, that's why. He's come to wreak havoc on the carnival before he moves to his next chaos site. With his magic, he can charm and manipulate others, making them do whatever it is he wants or demands. But Ruby? She's immune. Why? Her tattoos. The hoodoo master foretold a prophecy that Ruby would eventually cross paths with this god and wanted to arm her with charms to defeat him.
Daniel is frustrated with her immunity and explodes, literally. He sets the carnival ablaze and destroys everything in his path, including people. One of the side characters, January, melts to death in Ruby's arms. Many others die (except our main characters of course) and this is the breaking point for Ruby. She vows to defeat him and seeks the help of Hayden, her ex-boyfriend, and an artist with the carnival (who is technically a main character but a bit forgettable unfortunately). They set up a little blackmail situation at a ball. I don't remember how we got here, but we did. It's a black and white theme but Ruby wears a bright red gown to stand out and grab Daniels's attention. This is where things get a little confusing because it's described as a power balance, Ruby can see into his power and Daniel can see into hers. And then it just ends, literally. It's a funny ending because he is a trickster god, and he says "Oh well you don't get to know how it ends, she drove me out of town and won this time". I suppose it leaves it open for additional installments, but it's a little disappointing since Ruby and Daniel were the only characters that I cared about.
Overall it was an interesting storyline. I really liked the hoodoo aspect and the introduction of the old gods. There are a lot of circus books that focus on magical carnivals where the carnival is literal magic. But this was a historical representation of carnival acts, where you had people who practiced hoodoo, snake charmers, menagerie girls, and ancient books of gods and spells. It has a tragic backstory of our main characters, both Ruby and Hayden, and a mystery character that appears after death and destruction. While it was a bit slow to start and had a very abrupt and unresolved ending, the majority of it was captivating and entertaining.
Oh look, another book that I remember nearly nothing about besides that I enjoyed it and that I had read another circus-themed book 😂 this was like the third or fourth book I read that was centered on a circus. Miraculum was a slow-burn plot about the Spectacular Star Light Miraculum, a traveling carnival that's petering out in terms of popularity. It's the 1920s, so there's new and exciting entertainment on the market. But the carnival pushes on.
As soon as we meet the freaks of the show, a man is found dead hanging in a tree (I'm pretty sure). He was the show's geek, someone who bites the heads off of chickens. It's ruled as a suicide since he was hanging. Conveniently, a new man in town named Daniel and he's willing to fill in as the geek. Ruby, the carnival's snake charmer, is pretty reserved and doesn't love the new guy. Everything seems a bit suspish to her, since the previous geek had JUST died. But, it's business so the owner puts Daniel in the show.
Of course, Daniel isn't what he seems to be and since he's started, all of these weird things start to happen. Soon after, there is another death. I'm pretty sure that this guy was found dead and it was presumed that he fell off of the Ferris wheel. We soon discover that there is more to these characters than what's on the surface. Ruby was abandoned by her family, living with her grandparents in a small cottage in the forest. She's sent away to become a tattooed woman in New Orleans, but the tattoos she receives aren't the beautiful, precise images that the other girls have. Hers are tribal, minimal, and tattooed with ancient methods, leaving her with undefined patterns rather than the remarkable masterpieces that she's seen. She stays with a woman who's a well-known hoodoo master. Ruby becomes infatuated with the history of hoodoo, the gods, the magic, and the rituals. That is until these things come to life around her. Also, her dad is the Pontillier, the carnival owner.
After the second death hits the carnival, Ruby starts to snoop on Daniel. He's too normal to be a geek. He's got clean clothes and fancy accessories, he's not hurting for money and doesn't need the poor income that geeks make. So why is he there?
Daniel is frustrated with her immunity and explodes, literally. He sets the carnival ablaze and destroys everything in his path, including people. One of the side characters, January, melts to death in Ruby's arms. Many others die (except our main characters of course) and this is the breaking point for Ruby. She vows to defeat him and seeks the help of Hayden, her ex-boyfriend, and an artist with the carnival (who is technically a main character but a bit forgettable unfortunately). They set up a little blackmail situation at a ball. I don't remember how we got here, but we did. It's a black and white theme but Ruby wears a bright red gown to stand out and grab Daniels's attention. This is where things get a little confusing because it's described as a power balance, Ruby can see into his power and Daniel can see into hers. And then it just ends, literally. It's a funny ending because he is a trickster god, and he says "Oh well you don't get to know how it ends, she drove me out of town and won this time". I suppose it leaves it open for additional installments, but it's a little disappointing since Ruby and Daniel were the only characters that I cared about.
Overall it was an interesting storyline. I really liked the hoodoo aspect and the introduction of the old gods. There are a lot of circus books that focus on magical carnivals where the carnival is literal magic. But this was a historical representation of carnival acts, where you had people who practiced hoodoo, snake charmers, menagerie girls, and ancient books of gods and spells. It has a tragic backstory of our main characters, both Ruby and Hayden, and a mystery character that appears after death and destruction. While it was a bit slow to start and had a very abrupt and unresolved ending, the majority of it was captivating and entertaining.
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories by Stephen King
3.0
"Books are real objects. Books are friends."
This was a fun collection, even though I didn't finish all of the stories. I'll probably give some another try at a later date but the last few just weren't vibing with me. I love King's short stories because they're such a nice way to break up full length novels. And, I just love his writing. Even stories that weren't my favorite, still stuck with me. I'll summarize some of my favorites and rate them by story.
Favorites:
● Mile 81: this was a fun read. There's a suspicious car that eats people, and no one believes it until they actually see it happen. And that's really it! It just attacks everyone.
● The Dune: this was probably my favorite one because it's spooky and ominous. A mysterious, secluded island covered in sandy dunes has names written in the beaches. Every time the main character, Harvey, heads out there, there are new names. Some days there are 100s, some days just one.
● Bad Little Kid: this one had a funny scary vibe. We have a man on death row who is willing to talk about his crimes, the murder of a young boy. He calls in his attorney to tell his side of the story. He's been tormented by this young boy for all of his life, the boy has orange hair, green eyes, and wears a propeller hat. He caused his best friend in elementary school to be hit by a car. And later, he sees the boy again, but he hasn't aged at all. He made his girlfriend commit suicide, blew up the mine his father worked in, and caused his wife to have a miscarriage. So George (mc) sets a trap to kill him and that's why he's on death row. When the attorney leaves, there's a propeller hat in his locked car with a note that says "see you soon".
● Afterlife: I really loved the concept of this one. After dying, William Andrews wakes up in purgatory. He's met by a spiritual caseworker who tells him that he has a choice to make, he can go through one of two doors or stay in purgatory. One door takes him back to his life where he remembers next to nothing and the other door is eternal rest. If he goes through the first door, it may not change any of the bad things that happened in his life. We also learn that his caseworker is the owner of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and is stuck in purgatory until he owns up to his bad deeds.
● Ur: this one cracked me up with the introduction of technology to an "older" person. Wesley is a college professor who desperately wants to fit into modern times. He loves books and reading, so he decides to get an Amazon Kindle. The Kindle he received is bright pink. Why? Because this Kindle was supposed to go to a Wesley Smith in an alternate universe. This Kindle has a search function that lets you search multiple timelines for data, and Wesley ends up saving his girlfriend's basketball team from a fatal bus accident.
● Under the Weather: this reminded me of A Rose for Emily, need I say more.
● Obits: another scary funny vibe story where the main character Michael writes a comedic obituary for an actor who overdosed. His humor lands him a job at a webzine writing obituaries. He asks his supervisor for a raise, which is denied, and he writes a fake obituary for him to blow off steam. And then his boss drops dead.
Okay:
● Premium Harmony: this one was just sad! who kills off a dog! i mean the woman dies too but the dog!
● Batman and Robin have an Altercation: this one was kinda funny because I can see the truck driver so vividly as someone who lives in Indiana.
● A Death: I feel like this one just needed to be fleshed out more because it's not totally clear that we're supposed to discover that he was actually guilty...I definitely needed more details.
Morality: this one frustrated me for reasons I can't really describe. I don't understand the "sinful" aspect of this? Obviously punching a kid in the face, bad. But I kept expecting it to get worse. I mean there's a clergyman asking his in-home nurse to record "sinful acts" for him regarding children...but that was it?
● Herman Wouk is Still Alive: this one was just sad too!
● Blockade Billy: this could have been shorter honestly... because I really liked the premise of it but there was so much baseball that I kept getting distracted. That's a me problem though.
DNF:
● The Bone Church
● Mister Yummy
● Tommy
● The Little Green God of Agony
● That Bus is Another World
● Drunken Fireworks
● Summer Thunder
This was a fun collection, even though I didn't finish all of the stories. I'll probably give some another try at a later date but the last few just weren't vibing with me. I love King's short stories because they're such a nice way to break up full length novels. And, I just love his writing. Even stories that weren't my favorite, still stuck with me. I'll summarize some of my favorites and rate them by story.
Favorites:
● Mile 81: this was a fun read. There's a suspicious car that eats people, and no one believes it until they actually see it happen. And that's really it! It just attacks everyone.
● The Dune: this was probably my favorite one because it's spooky and ominous. A mysterious, secluded island covered in sandy dunes has names written in the beaches. Every time the main character, Harvey, heads out there, there are new names. Some days there are 100s, some days just one.
● Bad Little Kid: this one had a funny scary vibe. We have a man on death row who is willing to talk about his crimes, the murder of a young boy. He calls in his attorney to tell his side of the story. He's been tormented by this young boy for all of his life, the boy has orange hair, green eyes, and wears a propeller hat. He caused his best friend in elementary school to be hit by a car. And later, he sees the boy again, but he hasn't aged at all. He made his girlfriend commit suicide, blew up the mine his father worked in, and caused his wife to have a miscarriage. So George (mc) sets a trap to kill him and that's why he's on death row. When the attorney leaves, there's a propeller hat in his locked car with a note that says "see you soon".
● Afterlife: I really loved the concept of this one. After dying, William Andrews wakes up in purgatory. He's met by a spiritual caseworker who tells him that he has a choice to make, he can go through one of two doors or stay in purgatory. One door takes him back to his life where he remembers next to nothing and the other door is eternal rest. If he goes through the first door, it may not change any of the bad things that happened in his life. We also learn that his caseworker is the owner of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and is stuck in purgatory until he owns up to his bad deeds.
● Ur: this one cracked me up with the introduction of technology to an "older" person. Wesley is a college professor who desperately wants to fit into modern times. He loves books and reading, so he decides to get an Amazon Kindle. The Kindle he received is bright pink. Why? Because this Kindle was supposed to go to a Wesley Smith in an alternate universe. This Kindle has a search function that lets you search multiple timelines for data, and Wesley ends up saving his girlfriend's basketball team from a fatal bus accident.
● Under the Weather: this reminded me of A Rose for Emily, need I say more.
● Obits: another scary funny vibe story where the main character Michael writes a comedic obituary for an actor who overdosed. His humor lands him a job at a webzine writing obituaries. He asks his supervisor for a raise, which is denied, and he writes a fake obituary for him to blow off steam. And then his boss drops dead.
Okay:
● Premium Harmony: this one was just sad! who kills off a dog! i mean the woman dies too but the dog!
● Batman and Robin have an Altercation: this one was kinda funny because I can see the truck driver so vividly as someone who lives in Indiana.
● A Death: I feel like this one just needed to be fleshed out more because it's not totally clear that we're supposed to discover that he was actually guilty...I definitely needed more details.
Morality: this one frustrated me for reasons I can't really describe. I don't understand the "sinful" aspect of this? Obviously punching a kid in the face, bad. But I kept expecting it to get worse. I mean there's a clergyman asking his in-home nurse to record "sinful acts" for him regarding children...but that was it?
● Herman Wouk is Still Alive: this one was just sad too!
● Blockade Billy: this could have been shorter honestly... because I really liked the premise of it but there was so much baseball that I kept getting distracted. That's a me problem though.
DNF:
● The Bone Church
● Mister Yummy
● Tommy
● The Little Green God of Agony
● That Bus is Another World
● Drunken Fireworks
● Summer Thunder
The Merciless by Danielle Vega
1.0
"After all, everyone has their own sins to confess."
Yeah, no. Don't ask me what happened in this book. The blurb promises a Mean Girls meets thriller style of story, but the result reads more like a B-list horror film equipped with bad acting, horrible scripts, and sets that are almost worse than the glaring plotholes. Our main character is Sofia Flores, the new girl. She's torn between being friends with Brooklyn, who's the goth outcast, and the group of rich, popular girls. And in true Mean Girls fashion, she befriends both and reports back to the other, throughout the entire book.
How could this go wrong? How could it be different from Mean Girls the movie? Well, demons. That's how. The popular girl group has a hyper-religious ring leader, Riley. She's obsessed with Brooklyn and thinks she is possessed by a demon. She wants the girls to all meet at her bougie mansion and perform an exorcism on Brooklyn, against her will. Sofia thinks that Riley's mad because Brooklyn was seen with Riley's boyfriend at a party. That may be part of her motive, but it's definitely not clear. Somehow, the girls manage to throw this little exorcism party...only to discover that Riley is absolutely unhinged.
Riley has the entire house nailed shut; windows are covered, doors are locked, and there are no extra keys. She is overly brutal with Brooklyn since she won't admit that she's possessed. Which, I don't know how one would know if they're possessed, but anyway. Sofia starts to side with Brooklyn because she feels bad for all of the abuse and torture. Riley rips off one of Brooklyn's fingernails. Once the girls realize that Sofia is switching sides, actual chaos breaks.The entire house is turned into a house of horrors: Riley tries to drown Brooklyn. Brooklyn escapes and starts to fight back with all the popular girls. And then, Brooklyn kills one of them. Why? Because she is, in fact, a demon.
The rest of the book is Brooklyn offing the girls one by one and Sofia trying to stop her. She didn't want any of them to die, even though Riley also tried to drown her and broke into her house. She wanted everyone to get along and be friends. I felt like that was a weird personality trait for Sofia since the book foreshadowed her "dark past" up until the very end, where we discover that Sofia ALSO KILLED SOMEONE by pushing her IN FRONT OF A TRAIN. Why? Sofia, too, is a demon. Not a single thing in this book made sense. I've read Bunny by Mona Awad and felt like this tried to be like that. The popular girl group takes in an outcast, only to discover that group is just as horrifying as being an outcast. But I loved Bunny, it was so weird and shocking...but The Merciless? Hard pass.
Yeah, no. Don't ask me what happened in this book. The blurb promises a Mean Girls meets thriller style of story, but the result reads more like a B-list horror film equipped with bad acting, horrible scripts, and sets that are almost worse than the glaring plotholes. Our main character is Sofia Flores, the new girl. She's torn between being friends with Brooklyn, who's the goth outcast, and the group of rich, popular girls. And in true Mean Girls fashion, she befriends both and reports back to the other, throughout the entire book.
How could this go wrong? How could it be different from Mean Girls the movie? Well, demons. That's how. The popular girl group has a hyper-religious ring leader, Riley. She's obsessed with Brooklyn and thinks she is possessed by a demon. She wants the girls to all meet at her bougie mansion and perform an exorcism on Brooklyn, against her will. Sofia thinks that Riley's mad because Brooklyn was seen with Riley's boyfriend at a party. That may be part of her motive, but it's definitely not clear. Somehow, the girls manage to throw this little exorcism party...only to discover that Riley is absolutely unhinged.
Riley has the entire house nailed shut; windows are covered, doors are locked, and there are no extra keys. She is overly brutal with Brooklyn since she won't admit that she's possessed. Which, I don't know how one would know if they're possessed, but anyway. Sofia starts to side with Brooklyn because she feels bad for all of the abuse and torture. Riley rips off one of Brooklyn's fingernails. Once the girls realize that Sofia is switching sides, actual chaos breaks.
The rest of the book is Brooklyn offing the girls one by one and Sofia trying to stop her. She didn't want any of them to die, even though Riley also tried to drown her and broke into her house. She wanted everyone to get along and be friends. I felt like that was a weird personality trait for Sofia since the book foreshadowed her "dark past" up until the very end, where we discover that Sofia ALSO KILLED SOMEONE by pushing her IN FRONT OF A TRAIN. Why? Sofia, too, is a demon.
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
2.5
“It didn't matter to her that Tamani only had weak magic, he was magic.”
This was a super quick and cute read. Though it's more middle grade than YA, I think it had a unique take on fantasy. Laurel is a high school girl who has some odd eating habits. She only eats vegetables and only drinks Sprite. Her family recently moved from their estate to a suburban area in California. She starts school and becomes friends with David and Chelsea. As she grows closer to David, she tells him how she's adopted, but her biological family left her in a basket at the age of three. Her adoptive family took her in and raised her as their own. She has no memories of her adoption.
Suddenly, Laurel develops a giant bump on her back that eventually blossoms into a giant blue flower. She doesn't tell her parents (why would she) but confides in David. He takes a look at her "wings" under his microscope and determines that it's a flower, but it's shaped like wings. The two do their best to conceal the growth from friends and family. During all of this, her parents are in the process of selling their previous estate. They take a trip back to the land where Laurel is pretty much lured into the forest and meets Tamani. He remarks on her flower, telling her that she is a faerie and that this forest (and the land with the estate) is her rightful property. The lore in this story is that faeries are highly evolved, sentient, plants.
She breaks down and tells David everything that happened with Tamani and he's somehow very accepting that she's a walking, talking, plant. The suspension of belief is STRONG with this one. With some further "tests", David discovers that her blood is clear (like xylem) and that Laurel doesn't have a heartbeat. They also figured out that Laurel exhales oxygen and inhales carbon dioxide. The two go to the school dance together and her blossom starts to wilt, leaving petals everywhere. Laurel heads back to her family estate to find Tamani and get answers about this flower and her powers as a faerie. Tamani lives on the land because he's guarding one of the portals to the Faerie realm, which is conveniently located on her family estate. He also tells Laurel that she was sent to live with her adoptive family so that she could inherit the land, and keep the portal safe.
And then, chaos.Laurel's father becomes very very sick. Nothing is helping and the family breaks down and takes him to the hospital. The potential buyer of the estate turns out to be a troll, and trolls hate faeries. David and Laurel try to investigate the buyer but get caught. The trolls chain up the kids and throw them into the river to drown. But! Laurel expels oxygen! So the two can survive long enough to make it to the surface alive! 😂😂 The trolls poisoned Laurel's dad to force him into selling the land, as they want access to the fae world. Laurel explains the chaos to Tamani, and he sneaks into the troll's house and kills the other trolls by snapping their necks, but Barnes (the buyer) discovers him and shoots him in the leg. Laurel shoots Barnes in the shoulder but he escapes. The fae world gives Laurel a cure for her father and some diamonds to offset the cost of moving, keeping the land in their family.
This was a super quick and cute read. Though it's more middle grade than YA, I think it had a unique take on fantasy. Laurel is a high school girl who has some odd eating habits. She only eats vegetables and only drinks Sprite. Her family recently moved from their estate to a suburban area in California. She starts school and becomes friends with David and Chelsea. As she grows closer to David, she tells him how she's adopted, but her biological family left her in a basket at the age of three. Her adoptive family took her in and raised her as their own. She has no memories of her adoption.
Suddenly, Laurel develops a giant bump on her back that eventually blossoms into a giant blue flower. She doesn't tell her parents (why would she) but confides in David. He takes a look at her "wings" under his microscope and determines that it's a flower, but it's shaped like wings. The two do their best to conceal the growth from friends and family. During all of this, her parents are in the process of selling their previous estate. They take a trip back to the land where Laurel is pretty much lured into the forest and meets Tamani. He remarks on her flower, telling her that she is a faerie and that this forest (and the land with the estate) is her rightful property. The lore in this story is that faeries are highly evolved, sentient, plants.
She breaks down and tells David everything that happened with Tamani and he's somehow very accepting that she's a walking, talking, plant. The suspension of belief is STRONG with this one. With some further "tests", David discovers that her blood is clear (like xylem) and that Laurel doesn't have a heartbeat. They also figured out that Laurel exhales oxygen and inhales carbon dioxide. The two go to the school dance together and her blossom starts to wilt, leaving petals everywhere. Laurel heads back to her family estate to find Tamani and get answers about this flower and her powers as a faerie. Tamani lives on the land because he's guarding one of the portals to the Faerie realm, which is conveniently located on her family estate. He also tells Laurel that she was sent to live with her adoptive family so that she could inherit the land, and keep the portal safe.
And then, chaos.
Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
4.0
“In every story, there’s a hero and villain. Sometimes one person can be both.”
I flew through this story so quickly that the details are a bit fuzzy...but I'm going to summarize what I remember 😂 I'll probably have to reread this to actually digest the entire plot but here goes nothing.
Georgina, who goes by Geo, is serving her sentence for murder. 14 years ago, her best friend Angela Wong went missing. Except, she wasn't really missing. Geo and her then boyfriend Calvin, killed Angela 14 years ago and buried her body behind Geo's house. She finally came forward with the murder because other similar cases have popped up, and law enforcement began to connect them all to Calvin. With the remains on her property, Geo was sentenced to five years in prison for accessory to murder.
The lead detective on the case was a friend of Angela and Geo, Kody. He saw how the relationship between Calvin and Geo actually was, volatile and borderline obsessive. Once Kody arrests Geo, he tries to get the whole story out of her, what happened, why Angela, did she know about the other murders, etc. And as Geo recounts the memories of that night and her relationship with Calvin, the two timelines eventually converge into present day, where more murders are hitting the news, the day that Calvin escapes from prison.
From here out will be spoilers so I'll blur everything, but here's the rest (from what I remember) of the story:
The book opens with Geo in prison and it's GRAPHIC. Her bunk mate rapes her as soon as she's assigned to the cell. Geo teams up with a woman (who's name I don't remember) in return for help on the outside. Since Geo is serving less time than her, she needs financial help (I think) for her family. Geo is assigned to work in the hair salon, which is wild to me. She's serving time for accessory to murder and we gave her scissors? Because she gives those scissors to her new bestie and she STABS THE BUNK MATE and kills her. I mean she did rape Geo but WHAT.
Flash back to when she met Calvin, the two were inseparable it seemed. So much so that Geo started to miss cheer practices and that caused a rift with her and Angela. Everyone felt that Geo was spending too much time with Calvin. Which was fair. There's a lot in these flashbacks but what's important is that, the girls went to Calvin's house one night after a party, got very very drunk (and maybe drugged) and Calvin raped Angela and then killed her. Geo helped him dispose of the body by taking it to the woods behind her house to bury her. ALSO at the very end, we learn that Calvin was too squeamish to dismember the body, Geo did that all on her own.
Geo gets out of prison and goes back to her childhood home to live with her dad until she's back on her feet. She was a CEO at this pharmaceutical company and engaged to the owner, but obviously a murder charge put a damper on that one. Geo experiences a lot of disdain from the community because she was involved in a murder. But mainly because all of these new murders are popping up. These cases are different; Calvin was known as the Sweetbay Strangler, he would target single women (who looked an awful lot like Geo) and strangle them. These new cases have a mother and child victimology, and the killer is writing "See Me" on the bodies. And he just so happens to be using the lipstick from one of Geo's beauty lines from her pharmaceutical days.
Everything points to Calvin, but the murders are strange. The mother child duo are all mothers who put their children up for adoption and had had no contact with the child after the fact. WELL we learn that Calvin raped Geo and she got pregnant. She wanted to go through with the pregnancy and put her son up for adoption. Her dad helped her find a loving family for the boy and they never looked back. Geo was initially devastated with her decision but learned to live with it. Her son, fathered by Calvin, is the serial killer. Why? He's trying to get their attention because this "loving family" he was adopted into was abusive, traumatic, and treated him like trash. He blamed Geo for giving him up.
Geo tracks him down in hopes of starting a relationship with him, not knowing that he's the murderer. He traps Geo in her room and tries to rape her, HER SON, and then Calvin shows up conveniently at her window. They have a brief little family reunion after Calvin beats up their son, before knowing it's his son. And during the chaos, Geo reaches for her gun and shoots them both. Then she starts dating Kody and occasionally visits the graves of her son and her late mother. The end.
This was such a wild and twisty story with so many moments that were intense. Hillier threw in every possible trigger and trauma that she could think of. I felt that the end was a bit rushed with the last climatic scene but as I mentioned at the top, I finished this in a day. It was so unbelievably horrible that I needed to know what happened next.
I flew through this story so quickly that the details are a bit fuzzy...but I'm going to summarize what I remember 😂 I'll probably have to reread this to actually digest the entire plot but here goes nothing.
Georgina, who goes by Geo, is serving her sentence for murder. 14 years ago, her best friend Angela Wong went missing. Except, she wasn't really missing. Geo and her then boyfriend Calvin, killed Angela 14 years ago and buried her body behind Geo's house. She finally came forward with the murder because other similar cases have popped up, and law enforcement began to connect them all to Calvin. With the remains on her property, Geo was sentenced to five years in prison for accessory to murder.
The lead detective on the case was a friend of Angela and Geo, Kody. He saw how the relationship between Calvin and Geo actually was, volatile and borderline obsessive. Once Kody arrests Geo, he tries to get the whole story out of her, what happened, why Angela, did she know about the other murders, etc. And as Geo recounts the memories of that night and her relationship with Calvin, the two timelines eventually converge into present day, where more murders are hitting the news, the day that Calvin escapes from prison.
From here out will be spoilers so I'll blur everything, but here's the rest (from what I remember) of the story:
Flash back to when she met Calvin, the two were inseparable it seemed. So much so that Geo started to miss cheer practices and that caused a rift with her and Angela. Everyone felt that Geo was spending too much time with Calvin. Which was fair. There's a lot in these flashbacks but what's important is that, the girls went to Calvin's house one night after a party, got very very drunk (and maybe drugged) and Calvin raped Angela and then killed her. Geo helped him dispose of the body by taking it to the woods behind her house to bury her. ALSO at the very end, we learn that Calvin was too squeamish to dismember the body, Geo did that all on her own.
Geo gets out of prison and goes back to her childhood home to live with her dad until she's back on her feet. She was a CEO at this pharmaceutical company and engaged to the owner, but obviously a murder charge put a damper on that one. Geo experiences a lot of disdain from the community because she was involved in a murder. But mainly because all of these new murders are popping up. These cases are different; Calvin was known as the Sweetbay Strangler, he would target single women (who looked an awful lot like Geo) and strangle them. These new cases have a mother and child victimology, and the killer is writing "See Me" on the bodies. And he just so happens to be using the lipstick from one of Geo's beauty lines from her pharmaceutical days.
Everything points to Calvin, but the murders are strange. The mother child duo are all mothers who put their children up for adoption and had had no contact with the child after the fact. WELL we learn that Calvin raped Geo and she got pregnant. She wanted to go through with the pregnancy and put her son up for adoption. Her dad helped her find a loving family for the boy and they never looked back. Geo was initially devastated with her decision but learned to live with it. Her son, fathered by Calvin, is the serial killer. Why? He's trying to get their attention because this "loving family" he was adopted into was abusive, traumatic, and treated him like trash. He blamed Geo for giving him up.
Geo tracks him down in hopes of starting a relationship with him, not knowing that he's the murderer. He traps Geo in her room and tries to rape her, HER SON, and then Calvin shows up conveniently at her window. They have a brief little family reunion after Calvin beats up their son, before knowing it's his son. And during the chaos, Geo reaches for her gun and shoots them both. Then she starts dating Kody and occasionally visits the graves of her son and her late mother. The end.
This was such a wild and twisty story with so many moments that were intense. Hillier threw in every possible trigger and trauma that she could think of. I felt that the end was a bit rushed with the last climatic scene but as I mentioned at the top, I finished this in a day. It was so unbelievably horrible that I needed to know what happened next.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
3.0
"Without the memories, it's all meaningless.”
I never read this in school, I read Gathering Blue instead. Reading this as an adult is underwhelming but it's meant for a younger audience. That being said, it still is a good short story to read. The Giver touches on dystopian ideals; Jonas and his family are living in an idyllic world where crime is very low and people get to do whatever they want. You're able to pick your dream job, everything is decided for you, there is no uncertainty, and everyone is healthy. My younger self would have loved this plot. The mundane tasks pre-decided would have been lovely. I wouldn't have to waste any energy on learning things I didn't care about? I'd always have everything prepared for me? Sign me up.
Reading this as an adult, the "everything is decided for you" trope is more ominous. Adults understand that the freedom of choice is precious and a privilege, something often overlooked as a child. Jonas is 11 years old and is living with his family and his baby foster brother, Gabe. His father works at the Nurturing Center and decides which babies and elders are fit for their community and which will be released "elsewhere". At the upcoming Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas is skipped over for his career/education path. This only means one thing: he's going to be paired with the Receiver of Memory aka the Giver. In this world, people don't have memories from before the community became perfect. The Giver holds onto all of these memories and is tasked with the burden of holding onto all of the memories from before.
The community lives in sameness; everything is one color, there are no seasons, there are no emotions, there is no caste/social hierarchy, everything is the same. When Jonas discovers how people lived before the sameness, he's shocked to see the pain and happiness that people once felt. Hanging over Jonas's training is the fact that the Giver once before had an apprentice, named Rosemary, but the boy finds his parents and the Giver reluctant to discuss what happened to her.Jonas also learns that the "released from the community" ceremony is actually murder. Citizens that are realized aren't simply shipped to "elsewhere", they are euthanized by physicians in the community. Identical twins (and presumably other multiples) are released because only one of them can stay in the community. Jonas realizes that his father, who is fostering Gabriel, plans to release him if he doesn't build strength.
Jonas takes all of this and decides his best bet is to run away to elsewhere. He takes Gabriel with him and sneaks out during the night. The Giver tells him that he'll start to see more of the "beyond" (aka how life is usually depicted with colors and feelings) the longer he has his gift. He also tells him that Rosemary, his daughter and former apprentice,killed herself when she realized the horrors of their perfect community.
I never read this in school, I read Gathering Blue instead. Reading this as an adult is underwhelming but it's meant for a younger audience. That being said, it still is a good short story to read. The Giver touches on dystopian ideals; Jonas and his family are living in an idyllic world where crime is very low and people get to do whatever they want. You're able to pick your dream job, everything is decided for you, there is no uncertainty, and everyone is healthy. My younger self would have loved this plot. The mundane tasks pre-decided would have been lovely. I wouldn't have to waste any energy on learning things I didn't care about? I'd always have everything prepared for me? Sign me up.
Reading this as an adult, the "everything is decided for you" trope is more ominous. Adults understand that the freedom of choice is precious and a privilege, something often overlooked as a child. Jonas is 11 years old and is living with his family and his baby foster brother, Gabe. His father works at the Nurturing Center and decides which babies and elders are fit for their community and which will be released "elsewhere". At the upcoming Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas is skipped over for his career/education path. This only means one thing: he's going to be paired with the Receiver of Memory aka the Giver. In this world, people don't have memories from before the community became perfect. The Giver holds onto all of these memories and is tasked with the burden of holding onto all of the memories from before.
The community lives in sameness; everything is one color, there are no seasons, there are no emotions, there is no caste/social hierarchy, everything is the same. When Jonas discovers how people lived before the sameness, he's shocked to see the pain and happiness that people once felt. Hanging over Jonas's training is the fact that the Giver once before had an apprentice, named Rosemary, but the boy finds his parents and the Giver reluctant to discuss what happened to her.
Jonas takes all of this and decides his best bet is to run away to elsewhere. He takes Gabriel with him and sneaks out during the night. The Giver tells him that he'll start to see more of the "beyond" (aka how life is usually depicted with colors and feelings) the longer he has his gift. He also tells him that Rosemary, his daughter and former apprentice,