This is the December Barnes & Noble YA Bookclub book for December and my son likes to do the bookclub. Also OwlCrate had a special edition of the last book in the trilogy, The Toll so I decided to get that and read this before passing it on to my son. So many of the teens and adults I talk to while at work who read and love YA loved this so I had been meaning to read it for some time and the two things I mentioned just pushed me to read it. And I was hooked from the first page. So much so that when I finished it this evening I ran out in my PJs to get book 2!!!
In this version of the world The Cloud has become The Thunderhead. The Thunderhead has replaced governments and in a way god. There is no famine, disease, or war. There isn't even pain, there is something in all people that heals and stops pain. And everyone is pretty much immortal. That is unless Scythe has chosen someone for gleaning. A Scythe can also grant someone immunity from death. When someone dies by other means they actually are only something called deadish. They are healed and sent back on their merry way in a few days.
In this world two teens, Citra and Rowan, are both chosen to be Scythe apprentices to Scythe Faraday. This is highly unusual and it sets off a chain of events that change both of them in ways they could never have imagined.
The questions this kind of world raises are both interesting and disturbing. After all aren't all people, no matter how long they live and what kind of world they live in, aren't they still just people with all the flaws and complexities that makes us human? So if death is in the hands of a few, for the purpose of keeping the population under control to some extent, and these people answer to know one outside of the group of them, and they have the discretion to choose their gleaning targets, isn't there a risk of bad apples spoiling the bunch?
It is really something, when you stop to think of it...as much as their rules, basically a version of then commandments, forbid choosing using any kind of bias or malice, and to always be compassionate, aren't people still just human and so possibly corrupt or corruptible? It is a lot of power to have, the power to end life in a world where there is no natural causes of death....
It is enough to scare the heck out of you if you think to hard on it...and what would you do with that kind of power?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Doesn't it?
(Finished Oct. 30, 2019)
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Crier's War (Crier's War #1) by Nina Varela
Damit!! I did it again. I read a book I was excited by the description of only to find out when I was just about done that it was the start of a series. I first learned about this book when a little booklet about upcoming YA releases came into the Barnes & Noble where I work. I was very excited about it and then it came in my most recent Owl Crate box and I was so happy.
"Humanity is how you act. Not how you are Made." This is the crux of the story of Crier and Ayla.
Ayla is human. Crier is Automae. Ayla lost her family because of Crier's father, the ruler of the land she lives in. She spends years wanting and dreaming about revenge, about how she would take Crier's life as revenge. But then Ayla meets Crier. What begins to happen in their hearts isn't something either girl could have seen coming.
Crier shouldn't be able to feel anything, it isn't how she was Made. Ayla shouldn't feel anything but disgust and hate for Crier because of all the harm the Automae have done to humans. But neither of them does or thinks or feels what they think they should.
Crier finds she is more than anyone told her she was or gave her credit for being...she has some sort of humanity inside her. Is it a flaw in her design?
Ayla should be able to act when the chance presents itself to finally have the revenge she has been longing for...But there is a story, a cold night in water, a bed, food, safety, kindness that should not be possible, all of this has begun to soften and change her.
Crier shouldn't care what Ayla thinks or feels. She shouldn't want to protect and please her. But there it is...She does...
This was a really good story. But there is more to love her than the story.
It is a Queer story. There are uses of gendered pronouns AND gender neutral pronouns....
But dammit now I have another wait for the next piece of a story.
(Finished Oct. 27, 1978)
"Humanity is how you act. Not how you are Made." This is the crux of the story of Crier and Ayla.
Ayla is human. Crier is Automae. Ayla lost her family because of Crier's father, the ruler of the land she lives in. She spends years wanting and dreaming about revenge, about how she would take Crier's life as revenge. But then Ayla meets Crier. What begins to happen in their hearts isn't something either girl could have seen coming.
Crier shouldn't be able to feel anything, it isn't how she was Made. Ayla shouldn't feel anything but disgust and hate for Crier because of all the harm the Automae have done to humans. But neither of them does or thinks or feels what they think they should.
Crier finds she is more than anyone told her she was or gave her credit for being...she has some sort of humanity inside her. Is it a flaw in her design?
Ayla should be able to act when the chance presents itself to finally have the revenge she has been longing for...But there is a story, a cold night in water, a bed, food, safety, kindness that should not be possible, all of this has begun to soften and change her.
Crier shouldn't care what Ayla thinks or feels. She shouldn't want to protect and please her. But there it is...She does...
This was a really good story. But there is more to love her than the story.
It is a Queer story. There are uses of gendered pronouns AND gender neutral pronouns....
But dammit now I have another wait for the next piece of a story.
(Finished Oct. 27, 1978)
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
I got this in my Owl Crate Box and the reverse colored cover is so amazing. It is a great read for Halloween time.
Ryn lives with her brother and sister. Her mother died and her father is presumed to have died in a mine collapse. She has been trying to keep the family graveyard and house from being taken and they are deep in debt.
Outside the village there are woods, woods where the dead don't stay dead. They haven't been known to leave the woods and so the village was considered to be safe and people began to forget what it was like when there were monsters afoot. The dead that aren't are called Bone Houses and Ryn needs to stop them to save her brother and sister from them and from the slimy jerk who runs their village and has been skimming money from the Prince's coffers.
Ellis has lived in the Prince's household since he was a little boy. He is a mapmaker who doesn't know his family name and doesn't know what happened that left him with a terribly painful shoulder and the desire to learn who his parents are.
Following a badly drawn map and working to fix it Ellis and Ryn meet and he asks her to be his guide into the mountains. She is desperate to pay of her family's debt and stay in their home and it is more than she can say no to.
I really enjoyed the magic and the goat and the slow burning chemistry between Ellis and Ryn. The story builds and gets tense and then the tension is released when the answers are revealed.
This feels like it is an old fairy tale and I lost myself in the reading and have zero regrets.
(Finished Oct. 23, 2019)
Ryn lives with her brother and sister. Her mother died and her father is presumed to have died in a mine collapse. She has been trying to keep the family graveyard and house from being taken and they are deep in debt.
Outside the village there are woods, woods where the dead don't stay dead. They haven't been known to leave the woods and so the village was considered to be safe and people began to forget what it was like when there were monsters afoot. The dead that aren't are called Bone Houses and Ryn needs to stop them to save her brother and sister from them and from the slimy jerk who runs their village and has been skimming money from the Prince's coffers.
Ellis has lived in the Prince's household since he was a little boy. He is a mapmaker who doesn't know his family name and doesn't know what happened that left him with a terribly painful shoulder and the desire to learn who his parents are.
Following a badly drawn map and working to fix it Ellis and Ryn meet and he asks her to be his guide into the mountains. She is desperate to pay of her family's debt and stay in their home and it is more than she can say no to.
I really enjoyed the magic and the goat and the slow burning chemistry between Ellis and Ryn. The story builds and gets tense and then the tension is released when the answers are revealed.
This feels like it is an old fairy tale and I lost myself in the reading and have zero regrets.
(Finished Oct. 23, 2019)
Friday, October 18, 2019
This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender
Imagine being a teen trying to figure out who you are in the general way teens do. Imagine that your dad died and you have seen your mother mourn for the years since. Imagine your best friend moves away and you have been crushing on him for a long time so you kiss him before he leaves and it freaks him out, but being 11 you don't know how to handle it. Imagine your girlfriend kisses someone else and breaks up with you and you try to remain friends but you aren't sure how you feel about that or her. Imagine now that your 16 and starting your junior year that best friends comes back and is cuter than ever and you find yourself having feelings for him, while you think you may still have feelings for your ex-girlfriend turned best friend. And imagine that you have internalized your mother's loss and your break up and taken it to mean that it is better to avoid relationships and/or hurt before you get hurt because it will always end and end badly so why wait to have your heart torn out....
Now imagine all of that happening at once....That's Nate. He acts out, sometimes really hurting others (and himself), from a place of fear and anxiety. He isn't by nature a mean spirited person, he is just a shy introvert who is trying to figure out who he is, how to deal with growing up and falling love and being a good friend and son but also good and true to himself.
Life can be overwhelming in the best of times, but being a teen on the cusp of adulthood, trying to figure out your feelings, your sexuality, your ability to trust and live your life even when it is scary AF, that just makes it even more overwhelming. Nate gives hope though, makes it feel like even when it is dark and one feels out of control there is a way through it. He is aware when he acts like a nitwit and feels remorse. He may take awhile but he tries to make amends and is truly apologetic. He has a big and good heart. He isn't perfect but that is what makes him feel real and alive.
His friends also have baggage but rather than get lost fully in their own muck they try to be helpful and good to each other.
This was really an epic story, a love story yes, but not just between Nate and Ollie, but between Nate and himself. And that is a lesson we all need to learn and relearn all the time, that we can fuck up on a grand scale but we can work on an even grander scale to fix our mistakes.
(Finished 12:10am on Oct 19, 2019)
Now imagine all of that happening at once....That's Nate. He acts out, sometimes really hurting others (and himself), from a place of fear and anxiety. He isn't by nature a mean spirited person, he is just a shy introvert who is trying to figure out who he is, how to deal with growing up and falling love and being a good friend and son but also good and true to himself.
Life can be overwhelming in the best of times, but being a teen on the cusp of adulthood, trying to figure out your feelings, your sexuality, your ability to trust and live your life even when it is scary AF, that just makes it even more overwhelming. Nate gives hope though, makes it feel like even when it is dark and one feels out of control there is a way through it. He is aware when he acts like a nitwit and feels remorse. He may take awhile but he tries to make amends and is truly apologetic. He has a big and good heart. He isn't perfect but that is what makes him feel real and alive.
His friends also have baggage but rather than get lost fully in their own muck they try to be helpful and good to each other.
This was really an epic story, a love story yes, but not just between Nate and Ollie, but between Nate and himself. And that is a lesson we all need to learn and relearn all the time, that we can fuck up on a grand scale but we can work on an even grander scale to fix our mistakes.
(Finished 12:10am on Oct 19, 2019)
Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo
First I want to say that this book made me think the Universe hates me....I will spare you the crazy story of why I was so late getting my ARC from work (I get ARCs of the Barnes & Noble Bookclub picks so I can read them since I lead the discussion in my store).
But I got it on Monday October 8th while working and got out at Midnight. When I got home I started it and ended up staying up an hour an a half reading until I fell asleep...
I loved the story from page 1. But then over the next 10 days, it early takes me this long to finish a book, the Universe kept throwing things in my path to keep me from having blocks of time to read...But I finished it last night, Thursday October 17. And what an ending!! WOW!!!
Ninth House is my first Leigh Bardugo read and her first adult book. Now I need to go back and read her YA stuff.
Alex (Glaxay but don't call her that) can see ghosts. Alex survived a brutal attack that left her best friend (maybe a girl she loved) among the dead. She survived a rough and traumatic childhood. And now Alex is at Yale. She is the new Dante of Lethe, the house the is the guardian house of the secret societies at the school. And magic is real. And danger is all over the place.
The story is told mostly from two POVs. Alex and Darlington. Darlington is the person who is working with Alex teaching her what she needs to know, he was the Dante before her. Yes there are code names and it is like all the stories of the secret societies are real but with magic too.
The story of what happened to Alex unfolds as she tries to solve a murder and figure out what happened to Darlington causing him to disappear. And the story of from Darlington's point of view leads up to the moment he disappeared.
Under all the magic and secret groups is a typical mystery story. That isn't a knock, it isn't "typical" in a bad way, just that there are clues and some are red herrings and there is a cop and a lay person and misdirection and surprise twists....just with magic and creatures and it works together brilliantly.
And now I have another wait for the next book in a series on my list....Because my life appears to be all about falling in love with books that draw me in and string me along waiting for the next fix.
(Finished October 17, 2019)
But I got it on Monday October 8th while working and got out at Midnight. When I got home I started it and ended up staying up an hour an a half reading until I fell asleep...
I loved the story from page 1. But then over the next 10 days, it early takes me this long to finish a book, the Universe kept throwing things in my path to keep me from having blocks of time to read...But I finished it last night, Thursday October 17. And what an ending!! WOW!!!
Ninth House is my first Leigh Bardugo read and her first adult book. Now I need to go back and read her YA stuff.
Alex (Glaxay but don't call her that) can see ghosts. Alex survived a brutal attack that left her best friend (maybe a girl she loved) among the dead. She survived a rough and traumatic childhood. And now Alex is at Yale. She is the new Dante of Lethe, the house the is the guardian house of the secret societies at the school. And magic is real. And danger is all over the place.
The story is told mostly from two POVs. Alex and Darlington. Darlington is the person who is working with Alex teaching her what she needs to know, he was the Dante before her. Yes there are code names and it is like all the stories of the secret societies are real but with magic too.
The story of what happened to Alex unfolds as she tries to solve a murder and figure out what happened to Darlington causing him to disappear. And the story of from Darlington's point of view leads up to the moment he disappeared.
Under all the magic and secret groups is a typical mystery story. That isn't a knock, it isn't "typical" in a bad way, just that there are clues and some are red herrings and there is a cop and a lay person and misdirection and surprise twists....just with magic and creatures and it works together brilliantly.
And now I have another wait for the next book in a series on my list....Because my life appears to be all about falling in love with books that draw me in and string me along waiting for the next fix.
(Finished October 17, 2019)
Sunday, October 6, 2019
I'm Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones, Gilly Segal
This was the Barnes & Noble YA Bookclub book last month and my son, a regular attendee at the store where I work, told me I needed to read this book. So I did. And wow!!!
If you read and loved The Hate U Give or Internment or On the Come Up or When I Was the Greatest (I could go on but I think you get the point, and if you haven't read all of those get on that!)
This story is told in two voices and from the perspective of each of the two girls. Lena is a Black girl who has lived her whole life in the neighborhood the story takes place in. Campbell is a White girl and is new to the area, just moved in with her dad for her senior year of high school.
The girls don't really know each other but when a fight at a school football game they are both at throws them together and sparks protests that becomes a riot they must see past their differences to the main thing they share, the desire not to die and to get home safely. During the long night we get to have a view through each of their eyes and hear their thoughts. What we see and hear is that they both makes assumptions about the other and about the events of the night, and we see and hear their biases, which they aren't always they have.
But they must see past the words that the other has spoken which voice these assumptions or hint at them in order to survive.
I loved these two girls. They are both so strong and smart and vulnerable. The tension and pain the girls experience felt like it was leaking off the page and into me and it was at times so scary and worrisome.
It becomes clear they are both more than their skin and the other begins to see it too. In the time we are living in now this becomes an even more important story and a great lesson that needs sharing.
This is a must read!
(Finished Oct. 6, 2019)
If you read and loved The Hate U Give or Internment or On the Come Up or When I Was the Greatest (I could go on but I think you get the point, and if you haven't read all of those get on that!)
This story is told in two voices and from the perspective of each of the two girls. Lena is a Black girl who has lived her whole life in the neighborhood the story takes place in. Campbell is a White girl and is new to the area, just moved in with her dad for her senior year of high school.
The girls don't really know each other but when a fight at a school football game they are both at throws them together and sparks protests that becomes a riot they must see past their differences to the main thing they share, the desire not to die and to get home safely. During the long night we get to have a view through each of their eyes and hear their thoughts. What we see and hear is that they both makes assumptions about the other and about the events of the night, and we see and hear their biases, which they aren't always they have.
But they must see past the words that the other has spoken which voice these assumptions or hint at them in order to survive.
I loved these two girls. They are both so strong and smart and vulnerable. The tension and pain the girls experience felt like it was leaking off the page and into me and it was at times so scary and worrisome.
It becomes clear they are both more than their skin and the other begins to see it too. In the time we are living in now this becomes an even more important story and a great lesson that needs sharing.
This is a must read!
(Finished Oct. 6, 2019)
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Spin the Dawn (The Blood of Stars #1) by Elizabeth Lim
I got this in one of my OwlCrate Box (click on the link to check them out and give it a try, I LOVE THE BOXES) and just got around to reading it. It took me longer than I would have liked because of work and other commitments and being a bit under the weather, a headache that dragged and made reading hard. But I enjoyed the book. It is the start of a series of I am not sure how many books with book two, Unravel The Dusk, coming sometime in 2020.
In this part of the tale we meet Maia who is a very talented tailor in a world where only males are allowed to be master tailors. When the opportunity to help her family arrives she pretends to be a boy, her brother Keton, to try and become the Emperor's Master Tailor. All she has to do is make people believe she is a he, and beat out 11 other tailors who are men and older and more experienced.
The story that is weaved here is one of magic, romance, palace intrigue, Chinese culture, and adventure. It was one that grew on me over the course of reading and I love Maia and her desire to be and do good and help her family. And when she falls in love I want her to have a happy ending that includes love and a career.
I really liked Edan and the dynamic between him and Maia. He is an interesting character with a long history that I think isn't fulled revealed yet but I hope to learn more in the future. I felt sad for him at times and also admired him too.
I will read book 2 because I want to know where she ends up. And I need to know what Edan's fate is as well as a few other questions I have but can't say here because "spoilers"
(Finished October 4, 2019)
In this part of the tale we meet Maia who is a very talented tailor in a world where only males are allowed to be master tailors. When the opportunity to help her family arrives she pretends to be a boy, her brother Keton, to try and become the Emperor's Master Tailor. All she has to do is make people believe she is a he, and beat out 11 other tailors who are men and older and more experienced.
The story that is weaved here is one of magic, romance, palace intrigue, Chinese culture, and adventure. It was one that grew on me over the course of reading and I love Maia and her desire to be and do good and help her family. And when she falls in love I want her to have a happy ending that includes love and a career.
I really liked Edan and the dynamic between him and Maia. He is an interesting character with a long history that I think isn't fulled revealed yet but I hope to learn more in the future. I felt sad for him at times and also admired him too.
I will read book 2 because I want to know where she ends up. And I need to know what Edan's fate is as well as a few other questions I have but can't say here because "spoilers"
(Finished October 4, 2019)
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