goatsrsexy's reviews
544 reviews

Happyhead by Josh Silver

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is already out in the UK I believe, but it's coming out Oct 22 in North America and I received an advanced copy from Penguin Teen Canada.

Happyhead is about a group of teens/young adults who get brought to this kind of mental health camp type thing. I guess it's supposed to be some kind of government initiative to help the disaffected youth of the country with their mental health, but you can tell from the start that something super weird is going on and it takes a bunch of super dark turns.

I really liked this book it's like a queer dystopian camp story. Some parts of it gave me crazy deja vu though I really wish I could put my finger on what it reminded me of, I think a scene in a movie but what movie???

Anyways, this is the first book in a duology and I'm itching to read the second book which has its North American release in Feb (hey penguin feel free to send me the second book right away 😇).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

The Judgment of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum

hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really loved this book! The story is about Yoyo Gold, the daughter of an orthodox rabbi who is seen as kind of a pillar of her community for teen girls, or an extension of her father. But when her best friend gets sent away and then she starts hanging out with the daughter of a reform rabbi, who lives a very different life and has very different ideas of right and wrong, she starts to question the way that she lives and the rules of her community.

This was a really great YA coming of age story with good Jewish representation which I obviously love. I liked that the book showed different types of Judaism. It tackled religious criticism and questioned the way Yoyo was raised very well without being anti-religious or anti-orthodox.

I related a lot to Yoyo, though I didn't grow up in a similar environment to her I think that the anxiety  and hard lessons that come out of growing up and finding your sense of self is pretty universal.

I really liked the romance in this book as well and thought it was very sweet, believable, and well written.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes YA contemporary books especially with Jewish representation. Thanks so much to Penguin Teen Canada for the advanced copy!!

I Did Something Bad: A Novel by Pyae Moe Thet War

dark funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I wasn't sure how I was gonna feel about a romcom with murder tbh. The premise felt a little silly to me, but this book actually worked really well and I tore through it way faster than I've typically been reading lately!

I should've known I'd like this book because I love rom-coms about celebrities. They're so much fun and you can get away with a lot that wouldn't be believable otherwise. So this book is about a journalist who gets assigned to do a profile on a huge actor and shadow him for two months but the two of them get wrapped up in a murder. There are some dark themes in this book, especially around themes of feeling unsafe as a woman, as well as access to abortion. This book takes place in Myanmar where abortion is illegal and the main character wrote an article about underground abortions so that's talked about quite a bit.

The only thing that kinda annoyed me with this book was that the conflict near the end didn't really make sense. Like he knew the whole time she was a journalist writing a story about him, that's literally why they met, but then all of a sudden he was angry and betrayed because she wrote notes on a whiteboard? I don't get it. But other than that I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it! 

Advanced digital copy was provided by Netgalley.

The Republic of Salt by Ariel Kaplan

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I read the Pomegranate Gate a few months ago and immediately requested this book on Netgalley so I could find out what happened next. I was super excited to be approved. To my utter dismay I found out this is a trilogy not a duology so now I'm gonna be waiting for the third book. These books end on major cliffhangers and continue from where the last one left off (which I like, but it makes for a hard wait for the next book to come out).

I absolutely love this series. Those who follow me know I am Jewish and love reading Jewish books, I also love fae stories. I'm not a big fantasy reader but I've always had a weakness for fae. It's so cool how this series is a Jewish take on a fae fantasy novel and I think it works really well.

I found this second book a little bit slower than the first one but I still really liked it. I love how each character feels so different and multi faceted. I especially love Elena and the old woman, which is cool because I often have trouble relating to elderly characters 

I can not wait for the next book! I definitely recommend this series!! Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy on Netgalley.

The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I really enjoyed The Dividing Sky! It felt very reminiscent of the YA dystopian books I loved so much as a teen, and if this book is a sign of that genre having a comeback I'm all for it.

Near the end, Parable Of The Sower by Octavia Butler was mentioned, which made me realize how the Metro is actually pretty similar to the cities owned by businesses that were described but not focused on in the Earthseed series. Maybe this is a direction the world could have gone in those books if different things had happened. Anyways, I'm sure it was a source of inspiration for the author.

The romance in this book was sweet and believable, and I also really liked the way friendships and relationships in general were portrayed, as well as the beautiful and loving descriptions of nature.

Thank you so much to Penguin Teen Canada for the advanced digital copy of this book!

The Glass Girl by Kathleen Glasgow

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It's been a long time since I read a book like this. YA contemporary books about teenage girls dealing with addiction or trauma were a big thing for me when I was a preteen/teenager. I think that these kinds of stories are a good way for young people to process their own experiences and also understand their peers, gain empathy.

I stopped reading these types of books at least a decade ago, but I'm really glad I read The Glass Girl. It was a very well written and empathetic story. I felt like I really understood Bella. I personally have never struggled with addiction and this story helped me to understand it in a way I hadn't before.

I would definitely recommend this book!

Thanks to Penguin Teen Canada for the advanced digital copy!

Ultra 85 by Logic

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

So I did request this book from the publisher, but I did so purely based on the synopsis. I had never heard of Logic and didn't know he was a recording artist, so that is kind of neat and I look forward to checking out the album that is going to be released with this book as well as his other works.

I love SciFi so that's what made me want to read this book. It's set in a future space colony where humans live by fairly rigid rules with the hope that they will one day get chosen to go to a planet called Paradise that only has room for a small number of people. I won't go too much into the plot/synopsis since it's pictured in this post. 

Science fiction is probably my most read genre, which means I had a lot to compare this book to, for me it wasn't like, a masterpiece, but it was entertaining and fun to read. It had a very casual and accessible voice which made it easy to read but sometimes felt a bit forced. I think this would be a good book for people just starting to dip their toes into SciFi because it's not too dense. I enjoyed all the movie quotes and references, clearly the author is a big movie fan which I also am so that was fun. My favourite character was definitely Atilla which is no surprise because I'm a fan of precocious children in general.

While the ending of this book left a lot to be desired, (I thought it wrapped up a bit fast) I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes SciFi or space stories or fans of the author in general. I'm definitely interested in checking out his other books.

This book will be released on September 17 2024! Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster Canda for the advanced copy.

A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories by Mariana Enríquez
Did not finish book. Stopped at 34%.

I was really excited to receive an arc of this from netgalley but unfortunately I didn't enjoy it. I love this author and enjoyed her other short story collection but I just found these slow and uninteresting.

The Future by Naomi Alderman

fast-paced

5.0

Absolutely fantastic book about the end of the world and ways to go forward from it.bso full of twists and surprises I never knew what was coming and a super satisfying ending.

Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell

challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Sky Full Of Elephants was a truly fascinating book. Many parts were painful but there was a lot of beauty too.

The basic plot is that for an unknown reason, all the white people in America drowned themselves. The story mostly follows two characters, a man who was in prison until the event, and his daughter that he's never met, whose entire white family just drowned themselves. They come together mostly out of desperation and go on a journey together.

I was surprised at the science fiction parts and they were definitely the weakest part of the book. I think if the science wasn't gonna be a bit more fleshed out it maybe should've gone in a different direction ? But that's a small criticism for a book I truly loved. I'd definitely recommend picking it up.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for the advanced copy.