Book Reviews

Book Review : The Wake Up by Catherine Ryan Hyde

April 16, 2018 Leave a Comment

Unrated| 323 pages | Lake Union | Contemporary | 12/5/2017

I don’t think I would have stumbled upon The Wake Up if I hadn’t been given the chance to review the audio. It caught my interest because it is published by Lake Union, an Amazon imprint that is marketed as “book club fiction” and because it’s one of those books by an author who has written a bajillion books, yet I’ve never heard of her.

I’m sure most people will recognize Catherine Ryan Hyde as the author of the book that inspired the movement and movie, Pay It Forward. So every time the person in front of you pays your toll…she’s why (unrelated, someone once paid for my lunch at my work cafeteria and I paid for the person behind me and they were totally freaked out, even after I explained it to them…btw cashier’s must hate this, right ?)

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Audiobook Review : Scythe by Neal Schusterman

April 14, 2018 Leave a Comment

10 hours 32 mins | Simon & Schuster | Sci-Fi/Dystopian | 11/22/2016

I picked up Scythe when it was a daily deal on Audible. I didn’t know too much about it, I didn’t even know it was a YA book, I thought it was a middle-grade book or a graphic novel.When I dived in I found another one of Shusterman’s expansive worlds dealing with ethical and moral issues in an unconventional way.

Scythe takes place in a world much like our own…except everyone is immortal. With natural death a thing of the past, death now must be dealt out by the hands of a select few highly-trained individuals known as Scythes. It’s a daunting task because even though death comes in human form, fundamentals of death are still intact. When a Scythe comes for you it is swift, resolute and inescapable.

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The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

April 12, 2018 Leave a Comment

15 hours 35 mins | Harper Audio | Adult Fiction | 02/06/2018

Spanning the late 70s to early 90s, The House of Impossible Beauties is a fictionalization of the real-life figures at the center of House of Xtravaganza–a Puerto Rican drag queen family.

If you’re wondering if this is the documentary Paris is Burning in book form, let me tell you–yes, yes, that is literally what this is. In interviews, the 28-year-old author Joseph Cassara has said he was inspired to write this book after watching the documentary. I really don’t know how to review a book like this, so I’m just going to do a feels dump and start with what I liked.

I came across this book because I was looking for something narrated by Christian Barillas after Jess gave him a glowing review last year.In this 15 hour behemoth of an audiobook Barillas gives a wonderfully emotional and varied performance. New York City is diverse and he was doing everything from old-school Italian accents to the “Nuyorican” accents to several dead on “white guy” voices.

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Audiobook Review: Batman Nightwalker (DC Icons #2)

March 12, 2018 Leave a Comment

12 hours 36 minutes | Listening Library | 1/02/18

After getting caught playing vigilante on the streets of Gotham City, 18-year-old Bruce Wayne is sentenced to scrubbing the floors of Arkham Asylum as community service. There he crosses paths with Arkham’s newest inmate Madeline Wallace, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the notorious Nightwalker street gang. But Bruce thinks there might be more to Madeline than meets the eye.

When DC announced it was working with YA authors to write teen versions of their superheroes I knew Marie Lu would be a perfect choice. Her books are all about super capable teens fighting the system and saving the day. She’s an auto-buy author for me, but this book was just kinda meh for me. The plot focused so much on what is not said, that if I didn’t know this was a Batman prequel I would have DNF’d it. It does find its legs in the end but the middle section just dragged.

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Audiobook Review: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

March 5, 2018 Leave a Comment

8 hours 39 minutes| Hachette Audio | Fantasy | 1/02/18

Jude and her twin sister Taryn were taken from the mortal world as children by their mother’s vindictive ex-husband and raised within the gentry of the Faerie world, where they have always been seen as outsiders especially by Cardan–youngest prince of Faerie–who delights in torturing them. Jude has had enough of being a victim and is ready to show she deserves a place in the Faerie courts. Her ambition gets her mixed up in a world of espionage, power plays, violence and oh so many plot twists.

I just ate this story up, which is saying something because I am def not the ideal reader for a book like this. I have always struggled with fantasy and have no base for Faerie mythology, but Holly Black draws the world so vividly I was able to put most of it together and quickly learn the rules of Faerie, If you like lush descriptions of fantastical beasts, clothes and greenery this is your book.

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Book Review : Here We Are Now by Jasmine Warga

February 15, 2018 Leave a Comment

Unrated | 304 pages | Balzer + Bray | Contemporary | 11/07/2017

Here We Are Now is the captivating story of a family being broken apart and brought back together at the same time. At just 304 pages Warga tells this very insular story about family, loss and love. I mean once this story knows where it wants to go it hits all the marks.

Taliah Abbaldat summer afternoon takes a dramatic turn when the father she has never knew, famous rock star Julian Oliver. shows up on her doorstep. Julian is facing the impending loss of the father he had a tumultuous relationship with. Inspired by the impending loss Julian finds himself ready to do right by his own daughter before it is to late. Together Taliah and Julian set off for his small hometown together as they begin to unearth the murky waters of her parent’s relationship. I was very tempted to comp this to a Sara Dessen novel but there is a sense of closeness and focus on character building to this narrative that makes it less so.

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