Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames ***** - I read Kings of the Wyld in January but I loved it so much I wanted to re-read it before reading The Bloody Rose in March. The opening to Kings of the Wyld introduces us to two of our main cast of characters, Clay “Slowhand” Copper and Golden Gabe. Gabe has come to ask for Clay’s help in getting their old band, Saga, back together in order to rescue his daughter Rose from the siege in Castia. At first, Clay refuses thinks of his wife, Ginny and his own daughter, Tally but Tally is the one who convinces him that he needs to go and save Rose which is the last thing Clay wants to do at his age. In order to get the band back together they need to find and convince Matrick, Moog and Ganelon to come with them but Ganelon might be harbouring a grudge towards the band. They also need to reclaim Gabe’s legendary sword, Vellichor back from their old booker, Kal as Gabe sold it to pay his debts. This is going to be difficult because Kal knows the worth of Vellichor as it is an ancient sword given to Gabe by the Archon, Vespain. Vespain is part of a race of mystical beings that used Vellichor to create a portal from their world to this one in order to save themselves. It is also going to be difficult since Gabe’s ex-wife, Valery left him for Kal but the pair set out anyway. However, it isn’t long until they are robbed on the road by Lady Jain and the Silk Arrows but she forms quite a bond with Gabe and Clay even stopping to others from taking Clay shield, Blackheart which is as legendary as Vellichor although less mystical.
Life On Mars by Tracy K. Smith **** - Many of my readers will know I don’t read a lot of poetry often but this short collection apparently has a real sci-fi theme to it and the cover is stunning, so I couldn’t resist picking it up. The collection is split into four parts so I will be reviewing each part separately then concluding with my thoughts on the collection as a whole so you can expect this review to be a lot shorter than my regular reviews.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi ***** - All I knew about Before the Coffee Gets Cold before I went into it was it featured a time travelling café but with some interesting restrictions and I have been trying to read more translated books recently and this seemed like a good place to start. From what I can gather the novel is going to be following for different customers of the café which is referenced by its four parts: The Lovers, Husband and Wife, The Sisters and Mother and Child. I think I will discuss each part separately and the wrap the review up with my thoughts on the book as a whole and whether I will be continuing to the other books in this series.
High Rise by J. G. Ballard **** - I didn’t know much about High Rise going into it other than I was sure it was made into a movie that I watched and I remember being really confused by it. However, the opening line to the novel was probably one of the most gripping I have ever read. We learn straight away we are following Doctor Robert Laing, who in the last three months has watched the high rise descend into chaos which is where we join him as he reminisces about moving into the high rise which eating the hind leg of a dog. Robert explains he moved into the building at the urging of his elder sister who also lived in the building due to its self-contained nature which suits Robert’s withdrawn personality and that almost everyone living there is quite well off and should be the kind of people Robert should be mixing with. We learn that Robert’s apartment sits on the 25th floor which is quite high up but not close enough to the top as he explains about a party that place on the 31st floor which is either the top or very close to it. Robert also introduces us to some other characters that are going to be important as the novel progresses. The first is Charlotte Melville, a young mother of a six year old boy who Robert is contemplating having an affair with. There is also Richard Wilder, a tenant from the 2nd floor who lives with his wife, Helen, and their children and finally, Anthony Royal, the architect for the building and the current tenant of the penthouse. Through these characters minus Royal, we learn that there is already some unrest among the tenants aimed at those living on the lower floors, this is shown through the Wilder’s as Helen is often targeted by people from the upper floors about her children, which might be because the majority of the tenants don’t have children and are rich to boot. Richard and Charlotte seem to be putting something together but we don’t know what yet since Robert doesn’t really pay that much attention to things that don’t concern him. We can also see there are issues with the building itself that Royal should have fixed before people moved in and they are beginning to cause bigger problems so before we even get to the point where Robert is eating a dog, we can see things aren’t as good as they appear on the surface and they are only going to get worse.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie **** - I saw this book around a lot a few years ago and I am finally picking it up as it fits the own voices prompt for one of my reading challenges as it is based on the author’s personal experiences. However, we are following a fictional character, Junior who is an aspiring cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation which sounded really interesting. The first thing we learn about Junior is that he was born with water on the brain which led to a lot of physical and psychological problems for him growing up including seizures but he managed to survive even when the odds weren’t in his favour and unlike a lot of other children on the reservation Junior wants to be a cartoonist when he grows up and this is something, he devotes a lot of time and energy too. The second thing we learn about him is that his family is extremely poor which isn’t uncommon on the reservation but this means that he is only about to get things like glasses and dental care once a year.
Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark **** - I read The Black God’s Drums by this author a while back and was intriguing at the strange genre combination that just seemed to work and when I got a copy of Ring Shout, I couldn’t wait to get into it. All I knew about this novel before hand was that it is a supernatural twist on the Ku Klux Klan’s reign of terror which was even more intriguing. In the opening of Ring Shout, we are introduced to Maryse Boudreaux, Sadie and Cordelia better known as Chef as they wait during a KKK march on the 4th of July 1922. Them seem to be waiting for certain members of the KKK present at the march and we soon learn that some of them aren’t human, they can only be identified by the strange way the move and their love of animal flesh, particularly dog. The trio of women have a trap set when three of the Ku Kluxs appear, Sadie quickly shoots the body of a dead dog filled with explosives thanks to Chef. However, the explosion doesn’t kill the Ku Kluxs which baffles the women as that should have been the result, while Sadie tries to take down one now transformed into its giant and ugly state the other two have gone after Maryse hiding in a cotton warehouse. However, Maryse has a special sword which she uses to deal with the creatures and I have a feeling despite being labelled as the softest of the group she isn’t soft at all.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado **** - As this is a short story collections, I will review each story individually as I have done with other collections in the past, then sum up my thoughts on the collection as a whole at the end of the review. I didn’t really know anything about this collection going into it but the synopsis sounded interesting and I had to pick it up especially since it was under 250 pages long.
A Better Bad Idea by Laurie Devore *** - I didn’t know anything about A Better Bad Idea before going into it and honestly that is the best way to experience this book as everything hits you out of nowhere. We follow three main characters, Evelyn Peters, Reid Brewer and Ashton Harper so this book does bounce back and forth between different POV’s a lot which I wasn’t a huge fan of but then I am not a huge fan of multiple POV’s in general. As many of the warnings imply with this book the main trio are an absolutely mess, not just one of them but all of them which was very refreshing to read.
City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab *** - I read both City of Ghosts and Tunnel of Bones a few years back while I was still in college but the third book wasn’t out then so I forgot about the series until the final book dropped recently and I thought since they are pretty short, I’d re-read the first two book before getting into Bridge of Souls. We are introduced to Cassidy Blake, a teenage girl who can see ghosts and she reveals to us that the world is full of ghosts and the only way for her to stop them drawing on her attention is to see them by crossing the Veil. We are also introduced to her best friend, Jacob, who is a ghost that saved her life a year before when she fell into a frozen river and he has been haunting her for that year. At school one day a ghost is trying to get Cass’ attention which leads her to the school theatre where a boy once died during a production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream as there was a fire and we get to see her skills in actions but she also keeps this fact hidden from her parents who are paranormal investigators/writers. Reading this for the second time it wasn’t hard to figure out how Jacob died even if Cassidy doesn’t see the truth of it yet, however, it was fun learning about the Veil and how she crosses through it but sometimes gets stuck which is why she needs Jacob with her to push her back into the realm of the living.
Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab **** - I don’t remember much from my previous reading of Tunnel of Bones but I do remember liking it more than the first book as it had more elements that I enjoyed. I remember that we have more exploration of Cassidy’s gift and we get to see Jacob’s growing strength that Lara warned Cassidy about and it is also set in Paris this time. By the time the family arrive in Paris, Cassidy doesn’t feel it is that haunted compared to Edinburgh but her parents inform her about some of Paris’ history which is as dark as it comes. Her parents want her to be more involved in the show and given the filming locations, The Catacombs, The Jardin Du Luxembourg, The Eiffel Tower, The Pont Marie Bridge and The Cathedral of Notre-Dame I can safely say we are in for some interesting experiences especially since Jacob has developed the ability to move a lot of smaller objects now.
Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab ***** - After re-reading City of Ghosts and Tunnel of Bones I couldn’t wait to get into the finale as see where Cassidy and Jacob’s journey ends. This final book takes place back in America but in New Orleans which is seen as the paranormal hub of the United States. Cassidy is continuing to keep an eye on Jacob as his strength increases but she is also worried about the skeletal man she saw in Paris who caused her to faint and it is playing on her mind. Jacob suggests that she asks Lara about it and see if she knows anything but Cassidy is afraid of the answer she might get, however, Lara does tell her that voodoo is completely real and that New Orleans is the home of the Society of the Black Cat and it might be worth her seeking them out if she has any trouble there. So far, the opening of Bridge of Souls follows the trend of the previous two books but I am hoping for something a bit more substantial from this book as it is the finale of the series.
The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín ***** - The Call has been on my TBR basically since it came out, and I am only now picking it up. We are introduced to 10 year old Nessa, who caught polio as a child and struggles walking because of it. Her parents explain to her about something called the Three Minutes, that happen during everyone’s teenage years, where the Sídhe hunt them down and they have to survive unless they are put to sleep for all those years. The same thing happened to Nessa’s older brother but we don’t know whether he was caught by the Sídhe or whether he is sleeping, but Nessa realises this is the truth as she doesn’t know any teenagers and hasn’t seen any, however, Nessa is determined to survive even with her disability. We then jump forward four years, where Nessa is now fourteen. Nessa and other teenagers are training for the day where they are called by the Sidhe and Nessa has only gained one friend, Megan although she did have a sort-of boyfriend, Anto but she has called things off with him as she is going to be called soon. We get to see some of the surviving students who have returned and yet they all come back changed, even though Nessa has been training her disability puts her at a major disadvantage, and she is constantly told to give up because none of them believe she will survive the call. The Sidhe themselves are considered to be faeries or Celtic Gods, that were overthrown by the race of humans and driven into underground burrows, and the Call is their form of revenge but the odds are increasing as 25 years ago only 1 in 100 children survived and it is now 1 in 10, but most believe that the Sidhe are looking for a way to turn the odds in their favour again.
The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper **** - The Gravity of Us wasn’t something initially on my radar but I decided to give it a shot for my 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge, inspired by the lovely Emily Foxx on YouTube. We are introduced to 17 year old, Cal, a successful online journalist who doesn’t have an easy life right now as his parents are constantly fighting. Most of their fighting revolves around his father applying to be an astronaut on NASA’s highly publicized mission to Mars, the Orpheus project despite only being a commercial pilot with none of the accolades that the other astronauts have. Cal and his mother really don’t want his father to get the job because his mother has lived in New York all her life and they would have to move to Houston and Cal doesn’t want him to get it because they would be part of a reality show called Shooting Stars and there is a clear clause in the contract that no public transmissions can be made outside of that show which would basically end Cal’s journalistic career and he would have to give up his BuzzFeed apprenticeship as well. This all come to a head when his father is accepted which is like a gut punch for both Cal and his mother and I can see things only getting worse between the family behind closed doors. Overall, the opening segment of The Gravity of Us was very gripping and I couldn’t wait to get deeper into Cal’s story.
Infinity Son by Adam Silvera *** - I have heard some very mixed things about Infinity Son which is why I have put off reading it but personally all the Adam Silvera books I have read have been four or five star books for me. They Both Die at the End was in my top 10 favourite books of 2018/19 and I have re-read it multiple times so I finally decided to read this one with the sequel being released this year. The opening to Infinity Son was actually quite interesting as we are introduced to twin brothers, Emil and Brighton who are about to turn 18. We can see Emil is the more level-headed of the two as Brighton is obsessed with the idea of becoming a Celestial. In this world, Celestials are people who have superpowers and they generally get them by the time they are 18 although they are instances of a few Celestials gaining their powers when they are older but Emil has long ago given up this dream. As they are waiting to celebrate their birthday at midnight a block party is attacked by a Specter, a person who has stolen their powers by drinking the blood of a mythical animal normally a phoenix. The Specter is being chased by some Spell Walkers, they are a vigilante group former seen as heroes until the Blackout where some Spell Walkers destroyed a building killing hundreds and they are gradually being hunted down and arrested. Brighton with his love of Spell Walkers believes they were framed but Emil sees the truth of things, he also sees the wonder in his brother’s eyes when he sees the Specter and hopes his brother is smart enough to never walk down that road. After escaping the block and return home, Brighton learns someone else also recorded the events of the block party and she is getting more views than he is which is something big for him as all Brighton wants is to get out of the Bronx and to be someone famous, a hero in his own right but this isn’t to be especially at a meet and greet he is holding where only 7 people turn up. Emil is content to live a normal, ordinary life where as Brighton isn’t but they are leaving for college in a few days and they meet up with their friend, Prudencia who Brighton has feelings for but would never pursue without powers but they are never going to emerge and this might be a defining point for the brothers.
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd ***** - The Book of Longings wasn’t initially on my radar despite the interesting synopsis as I don’t tend to read any literary fiction and I rarely read historical novels outside of YA historical. However, this was one of the books I picked for my Goodreads 2020 reading challenge to challenge myself. The novel opens in Sepphoris in 16-17 CE where we are introduced to Ana, the wife of Jesus. Ana is born into a life of privilege as her father is a wealthy man but she has skilled more suited to a young boy of her time not limited to her love of reading and writing which her father has indulged. Hated by her mother she has a close relationship with her aunt, Yaltha who her parents took in under mysterious circumstances but Yaltha is forbidden to speak of her past. However, she does tell Ana about the women of Alexandria who read and write and aren’t looked down upon for it and gives her some religious practices to follow. Ana also has a close relationship with her adopted brother, Judas who taught her compassion for those less fortunate than herself and always hated her father for the connections he has with Rome leading to her father casting him out of their home. One day Ana is taken to the market with her mother and father in the best clothes where she quickly realises, she is going to be betrothed to a man far older than her purely because he wants a son, a common practice of the time but one Ana hoped she had escaped, however, in the market she meets a young man Jesus who helps her when she falls although because of his lesser stations the guards think he attacked her and don’t listen to her when she tries to correct them.
The Invasion by Peadar Ó Guilín * - After recently reading The Call I was eager to get into The Invasion as soon as possible especially after the explosion ending of the first book, I was also eager to revisit the romance between Nessa and Anto. This book start almost immediately when the first one ended and Nessa is on her way to stay with Anto and his family when she is arrested for treason as no one believes that someone like Nessa who has a disability could truly survive the Call and she is thrown into the last prison in the Nation which sends traitors into the mist and we know from the first book that anything that goes into the mist never returns. Anto is also collected being told that they have a mission for him and that Nessa has already gone on her own mission. Meanwhile, the warden of the prison tries to convince Nessa to tell the truth but we already know she is but they refuses to believe her especially since their world and the Grey Lands are closer than ever with Sidhe crossing more frequently into their world. Nessa does manage to learn that another prisoner confessed to the warden that they are people who had made deals with the Sidhe in order to return alive, many of which we saw in the first book and these survivors are being branded as traitors but I believe if they rounded those people up there would actually be very few survivors.
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green **** - I have seen An Absolutely Remarkable Thing around since it was published and it has received a lot of hype, not all of it good which intrigued me, and I wanted to see which side of the fence I fell on. We are introduced to April May, her semi-serious girlfriend, Maya and their friend from college, Andy. The novel opens with April May leaving her job at three in the morning when she sees a mysterious robot in samurai armour on the street. She thinks that it is something interesting and proceeds to walk on, but something causes her to return and knowing Andy is trying to be internet famous she calls him to come and get the scoop before anyone else. Together she and Andy film a slightly comedic interview with the robot who they call Carl before heading home, however, overnight the video blows up as Carls appeared in almost every major city at the exact same time. In addition to this Andy and April make a lot of money overnight thanks to Andy’s lawyer father and by late afternoon, they are being interview on the local news. However, there are people already asking questions about the Carls and where they came from, as they are warm to the touch and no surveillance footage shows them appearing as they all cut out at the same time, and a Queen song can be heard faintly in the background. All this information is interesting, but the most interesting thing we learn from April is while she is telling us this story, she is already dead and I can’t wait to find out what happens there.
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust DNF - Girl, Serpent, Thorn didn’t appear on my radar until the Goodreads Choice Awards because I’ve read so much young adult fantasy over the past couple of years. I have been trying to branch out, but this one caught my eye more than most. In the opening of Girl, Serpent, Thorn we are introduced to our protagonist, Soraya and we learn that before she was born, her mother, a stubborn girl headed into a forbidden forest in order to prove she was brave. There she encountered a woman caught in a trap where a div was coming for her. Divs in this world are like demons so Soraya’s mother freed the woman, however, she encountered the div who caught the woman and instead of killing her, the div cursed her firstborn daughter to be poisonous. Her mother went on to marry and tried to forget about the div’s curse until she gave birth to twins, one male, Sorush and one female, Soraya. When the nurse picked up Soraya, she dropped dead so Soraya has been hidden away from the world her entire life. However, she can touch plants and not kill them but any animal or person will die and you can see when Soraya’s power is activated as her veins turn green. Soraya is beginning to become envious of her brother, especially after her family returns from travelling and she learns that Sorush is going to marry their childhood friend, Laleh who Soraya also had dreams of marrying. She also learns of a boy called Azad who has been promoted to a high ranking soldier, positions people are usually born to after saving Sorush’s life from a div which they managed to capture alive. While Azad intrigues Soraya she is more interested in the div as it might have some knowledge to undo her curse.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett *** - I didn’t know much about The Vanishing Half before getting into it but it fell under Historical Fiction for my 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge. We are following the Vignes twins and the novel opens in 1968 and the town of Mallard is going to be central location we may return to more than once. We are introduced to our protagonists, Desiree and Stella Vignes, twin sisters who have grown up in the town of Mallard. Mallard is an interesting town as everyone living there is of mixed race with the aim of lightening their skin down the generations until they can pass in the white world unnoticed. Desiree has always hated the town and wanted to leave whereas Stella is happy there until her mother tells her they need to leave school in order to work which breaks Stella’s heart as she had dreams of going to college and becoming something more. Just after their sixteenth birthday, the twins disappear from Mallard and they aren’t heard from for 14 years until Desiree returns with what the townspeople describe as an extremely dark daughter, Jude. We learn from Desiree that six months after leaving Mallard, Stella abandoned her in favour of her dream of becoming white and while Desiree holds onto the hope her sister will return or at least call, the hope dwindles over time. Meanwhile, Desiree meets a coloured prosecutor, Sam Winston and eventually they marry and have a daughter, however, it doesn’t take long for Sam to become abusive and at times Desiree fears for her life and she returns to Mallard and her mother’s home where she finds her mother much more welcoming that she ever expected. We are also introduced to a bounty hunter named Early Jones who makes his living by forgetting people the minute he doesn’t need to interact with them anymore when his boss informs him that he has a new job in Mallard. Early is told to find a woman there and ring his boss as soon as she is found as her husband wants her and their daughter back and this is confirmed to be Desiree when he is shown a picture. Early remembers having a crush on Desiree as a child and I wonder how their stories are going to play out when they meet again.
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo **** - Clap When You Land wasn’t initially on my radar but I have heard nothing but good things about Elizabeth Acevedo’s books. I picked this one because the audiobook was less than 5 hours long so I should be able to fly through it. All I knew about this book before picking it up was that it is a novel told in verse, and we are following to girls in the aftermath of a plane crash. We are introduced to Camino Rios and Yahaira Rios and we will be following them from the day of the plane crash and the next 60 days after. Camino lives in the Dominican Republic where she is eagerly awaiting her father’s annual arrival to visit them as he works and lives in the United State when the plane he is on crashes. It is too early for anyone to know about survivors right now but we can already see Camino’s father is hiding something as when she mentions going to medical school in the US, he tells her that he doesn’t want to pay for another fancy school which is going to hint at the other life he has in America. Novels in verse are difficult to review as they move quickly like poetry but have the depth of a novel so this review might be a little shorter than normal.
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