Genres

Birthday by Meredith Russo

August 3, 2019 Leave a Comment

288 pages | Contemporary | Flatiron Books | Release Date: 5/21/2019

Content Warnings: transphobia, homophobia, and domestic violence

Eric and Morgan are best friends who share everything–including a birthday. On their 13th birthday, Morgan is ready to tell Eric they identify as a girl even though they were assigned male at birth. But that moment never comes and in each chapter, we visit Morgan and Eric on their shared birthday and watch how their lives grow and change through adolescence.

The cover calls this a love story—and it is–but this isn’t exactly a romance, which is kind of what I thought it was going to be. This story takes place in small-town Tennesse where the only way out is football. Morgan has to struggle with toxic masculinity, poverty and alcoholism while trying to come out as trans. There is also mention of and one scene of domestic violence as well as lots of homophobia and transphobia so it can be a tough read at times.

Birthday is a heart-wrenching but ultimately hopeful story about friendship and love I’m sure we will be hearing about around Printz time.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely By Brigid Kremmerer

July 19, 2019 Leave a Comment

496 pages | Bloomsbury YA | Fantasy | Release Date: 01/29/2019

The big marketing push for this book in the blogosphere totally put this book on my radar. Brigid Kremmer is a veteran YA author and the premise of this book sounded pretty intriguing; Harper, a modern teen girl, teams up with Rhen a prince from another world, to end a curse. While the ending is quite the cliffhanger I generally found that this book wasn’t for me

I want to preface this all by saying I’m sort of fascinated by YA Fantasy and the tropes it often inhabits. Tropes that I think are so prevalent that the YA Fantasy novel Damsel purposefully turns them on their head. Some things I keep an eye out for are :

No Boys …. Unless They’re Cute

YA Fantasy has no shortage of brooding cute boys. Usually royalty. If there isn’t one just wait until book 2

Capitan of The Guard

In a YA fantasy world, you can usually count on a high ranking bodyguard or royal protector. 9 times out of 10 this character is secretly in love with their charge. I feel like this character’s existence is an easy way to create an emotional bond between the main (usually royal) protagonist and the secondary character. Kremmer turns this concept on its head during the last few chapters which was pretty interesting.

Rebel

There is always a rebellion. A lot of YA fantasy has a fight-against-the-machine-tear-it-down mentality. This is one of my favorites tropes in YA fantasy because whether or not I will read the second book in a series depends on how much the rebellion has changed the status quo.

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Timekeeper by Tara Sim

July 9, 2019 Leave a Comment

8 hours 48 minutes | Fantasy | Skypony Press | Release Date: 11/8/2016

In Sim’s Victorian London clock towers do more than just tell time…they keep it moving. Danny Hart is London’s youngest clock mechanic and his job is to repair England’s many clock towers. But when Danny falls in love with the spirit of the Enfield clock tower their forbidden relationship could stop time forever.

Oh, and they solve a crime.

I kept hearing Eric Smith talk about this book on the Hey YA podcast so when I saw it at the library I decided to pick it up. This is such a unique genre-bending story. It’s got a steampunk setting with fantasy elements and some mystery beats. I will say, the rules about clock spirits and how they work and who can see them does fall apart if you look too hard. I’m a little afraid Sim will have to break her own rules to continue telling more stories in the series.

The audiobook is narrated by Gary Furlong (whose name kept making me think of the character in Veep) who gives a great performance and I highly rec this on audio. Furlong has this great arsenal of British male accents, although he only has about one female voice in him. I see he does some romances so I’ll have to check those out.

Even though Danny is 17-years-old I think this is a great YA for younger readers. It has interesting themes and questions without being too dark. Sims’ world is also inclusive. The clock spirit, Colton, is a boy and Danny being gay is part of his story but not the whole story. I do kind of side-eye the half Indian character who is constantly described as fair and blonde.

Adult Genre Fiction: A Curious Beginning and Kill The Queen

July 2, 2019 Leave a Comment

I remember being a teenager in Borders (RIP) and hating that one day I’d have to give up YA and read only boring “adult” books. But over the years I’ve discovered adult books are kind of awesome too and this year I’ve been dabbling in adult genre fiction.

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Book Review : The Care and Feeding of Ravenous Girls by Annisa Gray

June 18, 2019 Leave a Comment

304 pages | Berkeley | Adult Fiction | Release Date: 02/19/2019

I like a book with a really long title. Just throwing that out there.

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls is this blend of African-American, Women’s and Literary fiction that I’m starting to find myself drawn to more.

This is a very human story of the Butler siblings who are brought together after their seemingly perfect elder sister, Althea, and her husband Proctor are convicted of a crime that shakes up their small lakeside town.

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Spin By Lamar Giles

May 6, 2019 Leave a Comment

Rating: unrated | 10 hours 50 minutes | Scholastic | YA Thriller | Release Date: 01/30/2019

Last weekend Virginia Beach hosted something In The Water Festival and they honestly should have just started throwing these books out at the audience. Spin is a love story to the underground music scene and the tradition of Tidewater musicians.

DJ ParSec started from the bottom with nothing but her best friend Kya’s tech skills, mismatch DJ equipment and a passion for music. After blowing up online and gathering a rabid fanbase DJ ParSec was on her way up— until she is found dead– now it is up to Kya and ParSec’s estranged social media manager, Fuse, to find justice.

Giles knows how to write a solid thriller, he keeps the stakes high and has his characters face danger at nearly every turn, especially from DJ ParSec’s most devoted fans whose intense network is keeping tabs on Kya and Fuse. Along the way Kya and Fuse, who have never seen eye to eye, begin to bond through their shared grief. It was great reading a story about complicated female friendship.

Giles does not hold back when it comes to violence and peril his characters face, but I’ve always found it interesting that the language remains fairly tame.

Spin really taps into the world of social media fandom with a dash of action, and suspense that will keep you guessing until the end.

Check out the audio review on Audiofile