3 stars

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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Girl At Midnight by Melissa Grey

November 2, 2017 Leave a Comment

357 pages | 4/28/15 | Delacorte Press

I finally decided to grab Girl at Midnight because it’s been a minute since I’ve listened to some YA for fun. I see this book pop up all the time as a read-a-like for the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. Girl at Midnight is a worthy comp it features; hidden worlds, mystical creatures, a centuries old war, er… cross-species love interests and a girl with a destiny.

As a child, Echo was a runaway living in a library until she is taken in by the Avicen, a fantastical race of feathered people who live in the in-betweens of our world. One day Echo stumbles upon a locket that could unlock the Firebird, a legend that could to stop the cold war between the Avicen and the their enemies the Dracain.

Along the way she unwittingly teams up with Caius the recently ousted Dracain Prince and his beautiful blue eyed BFF who is also the head of his guard, who is of course secretly in love with Caius. Together they begin a somewhat short journey to follow the clues and unleash the weapon.

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The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

March 21, 2017 Leave a Comment

Release Date: May 2013
Hours: 13.75
Genre: Middle Grade/Fantasy
Publisher: HarperCollins

Every four years the villagers of Gavaldon will stop at nothing to protect their children from a shadowy figure who whisks them away to a magical school, never to be seen again. Except maybe in the pages of your favorite storybook.

This magical school us where students are trained to become the villains and heroes in your favorite fairytales. When best friends Sophie and Agatha find themselves on different sides of the divide, they must fight to hold on to their friendship and who they truly are.

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The Wrath And The Dawn by Renee Adieh

November 4, 2016 Leave a Comment

May 12th 2015 | Pages: 388 | Genre: Historical/Fantasy | Publisher : Penguin Random house

I’m going to go ahead and reuse a .gif from my Red Queen Review

I mean we have the cold boy king Khalid, his protective cousin Jalal, the boyfriend Tariq and then his best friend Rahim.

Let me back up here. This YA novel is an adaption of the Arabian story of Scheherazade, a woman who tells the king a captivating story for 1001 nights to keep him from killing her and they eventually fall in love. You know kind of a Netflix and chill situation.

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Joint Review: Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

October 5, 2016 Leave a Comment

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Thieving Weasels by Billy Taylor

September 23, 2016 Leave a Comment

Cam “Skip” Smith is going to graduate from a prestigious prep school. Cam Smith is going to Princeton in the Fall. . . just as long as no one finds out Cam Smith is really Philips O’Rourke, the youngest member of a thieving, scheming family. Skip thought he left his family behind when he ran away at thirteen but they are pulling him in for one last job. This job could be the “big one”, but it could also be fatal.

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