We're an Open Book
I inadvertently read two local-to-me authors last month a while ago. I didn’t plan to review these books together but I found that one informed how I thought about the other. Both explore what it means to exist outside of the cis-heteronormative identity in the South.
Though they are coming from VASTLY different perspectives.
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On Rotation is as close as I’ll ever come to medical school.
This novel follows twenty-something Angie Apia as she tackles her third year of medical school, demanding residents and her parents’ high expectations. To top it all off she can’t stop pining over a charming sensitive artist… who has a girlfriend. Talk about a quarter-life crisis.
This was a fun slice-of-life with an angsty emotional romance subplot that will appeal to Kennedy Ryan fans. Medical school is not glamorized at all and I felt like I was being let into a world I will probably never experience. I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that Shirlene Obuobi is a physician. Obuobi is also a cartoonist and I believe she designed the book cover.
Angie is supported by her group of wild and successful friends. A large part of this book is about how those friendships can change and grow. The pace of the book was a tad slow for me and we probably could have dropped a few side characters.
My only other critique is that the first few pages of this book had a much different tone than the rest of the book. The book starts with Angie confidently monologuing about her body and curves…then it never comes up again. I mean the cover has ‘peach’ earrings on it so I sort of thought her relationship with her body would play more into the book. Instead, her biggest hurdle is overcoming her imposter syndrome.
Urban fiction is a genre I’ve always wanted to explore. Going in, I was expecting this book to be about hustling and doing what it takes to make it big on the streets– but this book takes a slightly different perspective. It focuses on three women searching for stability and success decades after their lives intersected with the high-powered Brooklyn drug game.
Ivy has spent 16 years supporting her incarcerated husband Mikey and raising their sons, but she’s ready to start over in Staten Island along with Deja, who became a suburban mom instead of holding down her wrongfully convicted boyfriend. Ivy’s sister-in-law, Coco, is a top executive whose education and success are owed to Mikey but she is ready to strike out on her own.
The book is compulsively readable and you get sucked into the melodrama. The character’s backgrounds feel real and complicated. I don’t know if this is a function of the genre, but I found the book does reiterate plot points and character relationships quite often. It was a little jarring
You also never have to worry about trying to figure out what a character is thinking because this book seamlessly shifts POVs in the middle of scenes in a way I don’t think I’ve read before.
My favorite character was Deja’s sister Nikki–an Instagram model and professional party girl. She brings a lot of humor and provides plenty of unfiltered advice to the characters. She doesn’t have a storyline but is played up as a main character in the marketing for some reason ? I’m curious if she will get her own book.
The last 20% of this book focuses on police brutality and the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. The shift was sudden but I think the plot line was well done.
I can’t wait to read more urban fiction and maybe dive into Tracy Brown’s backlist.
Brown was getting her feeling out about 2016 in this book. Tr*mp supporters get dragged (one literally) left and right in this book.
This book is also not the Lifetime movie of the same name. I’m sure the publishers must have been annoyed by that.
I didn’t make any official goals this year but one thing I’m trying to do is read more “literary fiction” and books by men of color.
The Bad Muslim Discount is a carefully observed coming-of-age story of two young Muslims–Anvar, a sarcastic Pakistani immigrant in San Francisco, and Safwa, a young Iraqi woman burdened with endless tragedy in a country torn apart by war.
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After a disastrous show, performance artist Neale Delacroix decides to trades in the stage for corporate America–where she discovers she is capable of more than she ever thought possible.
This book is basically about a twenty-eight-year-old who decides to start “Adulting” with the help of her roommate, sisters, and cute new co-worker. I would classify this book as women’s fiction with a splash of romance. I know teen me would have loved to read a book centered around an eccentric but loving family of sucessful Black artists living in Washington state.
The book is light and humorous. Woolridge notably creates a wonderfully diverse and inclusive community in a way I wish more authors (and editors) would. Neale is an easy character to root for though at times she does come off as (for lack of a better word) a bit like Mary Sue. She is always able to make things work in her favor and anyone who slightly questions her is a villain.
I gather this book is a part of a series that follows the three Delcroix sisters. While I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by starting with book two, I can see the appeal of going back to the first book.
This is from Amazon’s Montlake Imprint. I know Amazon is an evil corporation but I find that I enjoy books put out by them.
Unrelated, the art style on this book cover just doesn’t work for me. It’s a little to abstract. Also I feel like putting the love interest on the cover makes it seems like this is a romance–which it is not. On the flipside, I think if they put a sole female character on the cover it looks YA.
On a wild secluded Irish island, friends and family gather for an exclusive celebrity wedding. As the big day approaches, secrets are revealed and one person won’t make it off the island alive.
I picked up The Guest List because all the marketing described Foley as a modern-day Agatha Christie. I went in expecting a parlor room whodunit mystery but that wasn’t what I got. Instead, it plays out more like a modern-day grip-lit thriller.
I was kind of annoyed that all the women’s stories are rooted in motherhood or their relationship with men. Meanwhile, the men’s stories focused on their ambitions and careers.
The setting is key to this story and Foley nails the ominous and desolate setting of the island. It’s very foreboding.
This book is character-driven and therefore lends itself well to audio. Each of the narrators embodies their characters. Narrator Olivia Dowd in particular nailed Jules–the cold, determined, and successful bride–who accounted for everything when planning her perfect wedding except murder.
Overall a gripping slow-burn mystery with a twist I didn’t see coming.