oofsharkz73's reviews
81 reviews

The Tea Dragon Festival by K. O'Neill

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

4.75

"Just because
something comes
easily to you, does
not mean it has
no value.
You find it
effortless because
you love it, and
that is why it is
your gift."

Endearing & cute. Another great edition of adorable little tea dragons. 

The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Did not finish book. Stopped at 4%.

Just couldn't get into it. 

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

4.75

Nic Stone's Dear Martin is gripping and real - probably one of the realest books on the market right now. 

Message Not Found by Dante Medema

challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

"It's not the secrets that matter when people we love die, but the memories we keep in our hearts."

"Bailey: He is wrong.
Look at us.
We know everything about each other.
V: come on.
you have to admit we have a few things we don't know about each other. we didn't meet until we were like 10.
and the part about everyone knowing a different side of a person. that's true."

Dante Medema's Message Not Found is an ode to the notion that everyone has the right to cope with grief in their own way. Bailey's use of the NewVision project to communicate with an AI version of her best friend is heart-wrenching, even more so when you realize the only reason she wants to uncover Vaness's secrets is to have closure and rid herself of the survivor's guilt that haunrs her. Message Not Found begins with Bailey being conflicted with what secrets may lay in the wake of loss, and we follow her on a poignant journey in which grief becomes a mystery with no easy resolution. 

Every page is filled with melancholy, pact with fraught emotion. I had trouble narrowing down the best quotes to show the impactfulness of Medema's words, but feel that these ones capture the vividness that she wrote with. 

"But I should have said something. I should have asked her to tell me the truth.
I should have grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes and told her that she couldn't get away with a lie because friends don't let friends leave in the middle of the night. They don't let each other get away with being intentionally vague about something that is very clearly bothering them.
But I didn't.
And I'll always, always live with that.
...I was reading the last page in the book of her life and I didn't even know it."

"I don't think I'll ever be able to scream as loud as it hurts."

"I know better than anyone how he feels-congruent lines with the same intersection of grief. Vanessa."

"The cord in my heart has been ripped out of the socket, and I can't stop living in the memory of a relationship that was broken any more than I can live in the memory of a person who isn't here."

"It feels like watching an avalanche form. I've done nothing to stop the growth of snow backed up in my heart. Nothing to stop the snowfall from accumulating. Now I'm staring at the drift as it tumbles at Mach speed, and I'm in a direct path of its chaos.

And it happens. I clutch my knees, tears pouring out of me like snow passing down the mountain. Pulling my emotion trees from their roots, dislodging the ways I've ignored all these feelings for so long. I sob, giant body-shuddering sobs."

"...Two tectonic plates sliding against one
another until his whole body shakes next to me. If only she could see the aftershock she left in us all."

These are stark examples of how an author can turn something so anguishing and bleak into a provoking story. Medema combines her morose reflectiveness with an impeccable formatting. The fact that this book progresses in a series of weeks seems such a minor detail, but it adds so much to the story in the name of the grieving process. In so many novels it's hard to sort out the timeline, so you wonder how the main character moved on so fast, but for Bailey the timeline in which she is engulfed in grief is clearly written out...That formatting adds an introspective aspect to Message Not Found that many novels surrounding grief don't touch on.

Layered with somber beauty and the unforgivingness of death, Message Not Found immediately found it's way into my heart. It is a searing exploration of love, loss, and the mysteries left behind. 

With so few months remaining in 2024, it will be hard to top something this evocative. This is the kind of book I can't even fathom the idea of disliking, so I refuse to look at any rating below a solid 5 stars. 

Cut by Patricia McCormick

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

"'It must take a lot of energy,' you say.
I blink.
'Not talking. It must be very tiring.'
I watch granules of dust slowly drift through a shaft of afternoon sun, and all at once I am tired. Something inside me sags, like a seam giving way. But my brain fights back."

"How do I feel? I feel like cutting. I don't know why. And I don't tell you."

Penetrative. That would be the best way to describe Cut by Patricia McCormick. From the perspective of Callie, the reader is engulfed in the story of girls in a rehabilitation center, Sea Pines or "Sick Minds." Among the guests, there is a myriad of issues - eating disorders, anger management, and self harm. Being inside the mind of Callie - who is dealing with self-harm, cutting specifically - is intensely moving, as we see her inner monologue about her surroundings and self. Each character is overwhelmingly relatable, with McCormick's words acting like a swift punch to the gut when you realize you have been there, you know what these girls are going through. 

A sudden liquid heat floods my body. The pain is so sharp, so sudden, I catch my breath. There's no rush, no relief. Just pain, a keen, pulsing pain. I drop the pie plate and grasp my wrist with my other hand, dimly aware even as I'm doing it that this is something I've never done before. Never tried to stop the blood. Never interfered. It's
never hurt like this before. And it's never not worked.

I imagine you working on me as an algebra problem, reducing me to fractions, crossing out common denominators, until there's nothing left on the page but a line that says x = whatever it is that is wrong with me. You fix it. I get to home.

Absorbing every critical detail that happens, every fleeting thought in Callie's mind, and then watching her begin to make progress in her recovery is transformative. With resonant visualization of self-harm and anorexia, Cut is such an important story. I still feel rattled from reading it, honestly, and can't gather my thoughts all that well - but it feels like a good thing. 

Frankie and Amelia by Cammie McGovern

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective 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? No

4.5

"Watching Chester has taught me that if I want to be part of a family again, I have to learn what they really need and fhen I have to figure out a way to give it to them. It's a daunting prospect. Humans are confusing. 
Suddenly Chester doesn't seem dopey at all."

Humourous and heartfelt, Cammie McGovern's Frankie and Amelia is a charming little book about a cat and his humans, both navigating the struggles of being different. Throughout the novel, Maine coon cat Franklin spends time getting to know his new human Amelia, and comes to many epiphanies on why she's not quite like other humans. 

"I wish the other kids at school could see this side of her. I don't know if she would consider making a cardboard box for each of them with drawings on the wall of their faces. If she did, I bet they would start to see her differently."

"I don't want Amelia to wish she was someone different. Just the idea scares me."

This novel, while being funny, is one of inclusion, and super cute for readers of all ages. Loved it. 

Goodbye, Eri by Tatsuki Fujimoto

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Up on the Woof Top by Spencer Quinn

adventurous challenging funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

5.0

"At that moment I got hit by another crazy thought, maybe linking to the thought I couldn't quite get to just a little while back. Was Rudy-our Rudy, the one we were searching for-actually Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? All at once I knew this case was very important."

"Then a strange thought hit me: This was a Christmas case. Did that explain it?"

I think what I needed was a break from Chet and Bernie. I took a long hiatus between reading Bark to the Future and the present novel, and have yet to even purchase A Farewell to Arfs. Which is not typical for me when it comes to Spencer Quinn. Since I started reading this series, I never stopped - besides for waiting for the next book to be released. But life got the better of me, and I finally made my way back around to my beloved Chet and Bernie - what an absolute treat it was. Based on my review of Bark to the Future, I had thought it was rushed in comparison to Quinn's other works. In Up on the Woof Top, any notion of a hurried novel is dismissed. Quinn took his time with the unravelling of this story. The pacing began with a pleasantly slow start, and moved at a satisfying gradual pace. Chet's narrative was hilariously endearing, as always. 

How astonishing was that? Every time you think you've hit bottom when it comes to what the human nose can't do they take it down another notch.

They gazed up at Bernie, eyes open wide in a hopeful look like they were-oh my goodness!Begging. Didn't they know begging is a no-no? Also, Bernie had no treats on him. I keep close track of things like that.

Thinking why not might not be one of my strengths. But... but could it be that turned out to be one of the reasons for the success of the Little Detective Agency, except for the finances part. What an idea! 

The books-within-a-book adds another level to the book, subtly foreshadowing the relevations Bernie will make. His conversations with Ariadne about her novels and specifically Trudi were helpful in feeling even more of a connection to Quinn, as there are parallels drawn not just in the investigations, but in Ariadne's perception of herself as an author and Quinn himself's.

"You like that line?" Ariadne said.
"I do."
"Well, that's welcome feedback. When I wrote it I remember worrying that it was maybe a bit much."
"What do you mean?"
"Edging too close from drama to melodrama. With melodrama as a cliff to be avoided."
...
"I don't know anything about that," Bernie said. "Do readers even care?"
Ariadne smiled one of those mixed smiles, happy and unhappy. In the nation within our tail does that one for us, not up and stiff, not down and droopy, but in between."Critics do," she said.
"Boy oh boy," said Bernie.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning I wouldn't want your job."

Sometimes Bernie reading the Trudi novel also serves as a red herring, similar to the ones that Chet's narration already so often gives, which only amps up the mystique and intrigue. That, with the change of scenery, made Up on the Woof Top so much more engaging. Instead of the usual desert landscape, Chet and Bernie venture into the mountains of Colorado for this novel, with scenes of skiing, snowshoes, and evergreens being a welcome enrichment.

After putting a pause on reading the series, I found Up on the Woof Top by Spencer Quinn to be a refreshing and meticulously paced return, where the change of scenery to the mountains of Colorado, combined with Chet’s hilariously charming narrative and subtle layers of storytelling, made for a thoroughly engaging read. Up on the Woof Top reminded me why I fell in love with Chet and Bernie in the first place, now on to Farewell to Arfs to catch up...!

No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz
Did not finish book. Stopped at 11%.

No wonder it was on clearance at my local bookstore 🙄

Room: A Novel By Emma Donoghue by Emma Donoghue, Emma Donoghue

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

"I find the lollipop nearly in the bottom, it's a red ball shape. I wash my arms and my lollipop too because there's yucky stew on it. I get the plastic right off and I suck it and suck it, it's the sweetest thing I ever had. I wonder if this is what Outside tastes like."

I had originally seen snippets of this film on Tiktok, without knowing it was originally a novel. So it goes with a good portion of movies, not holding a candle to the book they originated from. But because of seeing bits and pieces of the movie, I was hesitant to pick up the book - the child always screaming and complaining seemed like an entitled brat, even given the circumstances. But Emma Donoghue was brilliant in writing in the perspective of Jack. Initially I found it hard to follow with the phrasing and grammar of a sheltered five year old, but viewing the world from Jack's eyes created a sort of intimacy. In the film adaptation, Jack's indignance is poorly illustrated, while in the novel Donoghue captures his innocence and fragility. Jack's narrative makes their confined space seem full of adventure and possiblity, while simultaneously adding a level of poignancy and authenticity that enhances the emotional impact far beyond the movie’s portrayal.