★★★

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

December 20, 2019 Leave a Comment

201 pages | Saga Press | Adult Science Fiction | 7/16/2019

In recent years I’ve been picking up more adult sci-fi. I’ve seen This Is How You Lose The Time War all over the bookternet. The idea of two soldiers on opposite sides of war falling in love intrigued me and when I saw this on the shelf at my library I picked it up.

I’m going to steal the character descriptions from the book jacket because it’s kind of hard for me to describe them. Our two soldiers are Red, who belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia; and Blue who belongs to Garden, a vast consciousness embedded in all organic material.

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Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien (A Noodle Shop Mystery #1)

December 18, 2019 Leave a Comment

328 pages | St. Martin’s Press | Cozy Mystery | 3/27/2018

I really don’t know how to review a cozy mystery. I picked this book up because I was in the mood for something different and I like seeing authors of color in spaces that have been traditionally very homogeneous.

Death by Dumpling felt very much like an origin story as we are introduced to Asia Village–a quaint Asian shopping center in Ohio—and Lana Lee, our 27- year-old half-English half-Tawainese protagonist. Lana is working at her family’s restaurant in Asia Village after quitting her corporate job and when she delivers the dumpling that kills the owner of Asia Village, she reluctantly joins the case to find the true murderer.

I found Chien’s breezy first-person writing enjoyable as we met the residents of Asia Village and Detective Trudeau–who I think plays a significant role in other books. The book fell a little flat for me but I’m curious to read the next book.

I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi

December 6, 2019 Leave a Comment

9 hours 58 min | Sci Fi YA | Harper Teen | Release Date: 10/22/2019

I Hope You Get This Message is one of those books that asks the question ‘what would happen if everyone on Earth knew they were about to die ?’ I feel like YA does this kind of book every once and a while* but this is my first time reading this trope in YA…and it just didn’t work for me.

In this iteration of the end of the world, Earth has picked up communication from a planet called Alma. They learn from intercepted transcripts that Alma has been incubating Earth for thousands of years and is currently debating whether or not to kill all of humanity in 8 days for what they have done to Earth.

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The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht

November 17, 2019 Leave a Comment

3 hours 53 minutes| Tor | Adult Fantasy | 9/24/2019

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Broken Things by Lauren Oliver

October 10, 2019 Leave a Comment

408 pages | Mystery YA | HarperCollins | Release Date: 10/02/2018

Mia Ferguson and Brynn McNally are the notorious Monsters of Brickhouse Lane. Five years ago they murdered their best friend Summer Marks in the exact way described in their fanfiction and then got away with it. But here’s the thing nobody will believe; they really didn’t do it. On the 5th anniversary of Summer’s death, the former friends reunite to find the truth.

Jess gave me this book for my birthday and it was so much in my wheelhouse. I’ve been a fan of Oliver’s writing since the Delirium series and one of the few true comes stories I’m fascinated by is the Slenderman stabbing. I was excited to see how these elements and fanfiction was going to be used and…I was a little disappointed in the execution. The inclusion of the fanfic didn’t feel natural or realistic and most of what they were “discovering” had no bearing on the mystery.

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The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert

October 7, 2019 Leave a Comment

6 hours 30 minutes | Contemporary | LBFYR | Release Date: 8/20/2019

16-year-old Dove “Birdie” Randolph obediently follows every expectation her strict mother sets out for her. But the summer before her junior year her estranged Aunt–recovering from addiction–moves in with the family and Birdie starts to challenge everything she’s ever been told.

This book delivered a lot of what I expect from Colbert; quiet, deeply character-driven, slice-of-life YAs that can serve as an introduction to sensitive topics to teens. I liked the journey Dove went on as she learns about addiction and recovery from her aunt and starts dating a new boy.

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