All Book Reviews

Beneath the Sugar Sky
McGuire, Seanan
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

This series, the Wayward Children series, has become one of my favorite series this year and Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire’s third installment is no different, it has stolen my heart. This series center’s around a school Eleanor West’s home for Wayward Children. It is a boarding school for children, who have found themselves in magical worlds of all types and then had to come back to “the real world”, to become reintroduced to society. But, to the children, the school is a waiting place, a holding cell, a place to stay until they find their door back into the magical world from which they came. This series explores the curiosity of children, their adventurous spirit, and their willingness to believe in the impossible.

In this story, we join our heroes right after the events that took place in Every Heart a Doorway. Right at the beginning we meet Sumi’s daughter Rinni, who comes from one of these magical lands. In it her mother, Sumi, was foretold to birth a daughter that would save their magical land from great evil, but Sumi died in our world before she could fulfill her destiny. But Rinni is born anyway and comes back to our world to bring her mother back from our world, a world without magic. Our heroes then embark on an adventure through many dangerous, intriguing, and beautiful worlds to bring back Sumi and right the wrong that has been committed.

I love Seanan Mcguire’s writing style. It is dark, whimsical, and at times serious and sad, with a touch of magic thrown in. She tackles issues such as how families and children relate to each other, and obesity with grace and clarity. I really enjoyed the fact that one of the main characters in this book, Cora, was overweight and portrayed as a hero. While I do agree with others that have read the ARC of this book, that the character of Cora does, I think, dwell too much on her status as “the fat girl”, it seems like every other page; I also think the character’s inner dialogue of the subject is a good portrayal of how many teens who deal with this issue, think about their weight. I also love the world building in this series and in this book, particularly the world of Confection, the world Sumi and Rinni come from. It is particularly atmospheric, alluring and to be honest, a child’s dream. Finally I really enjoy the diversity of characters in this book from a Mexican American to a child with a broken arm, to a bisexual character, it has a character that is relatable in it for just about anyone.

Studded with beautiful worlds, engaging and believable characters, and atmospheric literary prose, Beneath the Sugar Sky is a diamond in the rough of YA fiction.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge books and Netgalley for the E Galley of this book for review! This book isn't out till January 9th but you can put a copy on hold today.

Reviewer's Name: Tawnie
Genres:
The Adventures of Nanny Piggins
Spratt, R.A.
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

The enchanting tale of a nanny who is a flying pig that babysits 4 children. Each story of the series is different. It is extremely humorous and funny. A must read.

Reviewer's Name: Vanya
Genres:
The Darkest Part of the Forest
Black, Holly
3 stars = Pretty Good
Review:

This was my first foray into Holly Black’s books, and I coming away from it not as impressed as I thought I would be. While I generally love fantasy and anything to do with faires, or fairy tales, there was just something about this book that made me not fully connect with the characters.

The general story line, I absolutely love! Of a small town forced to live in between two worlds that of fae and human and all the complications that comes with; Of a sleeping beauty like character waking after centuries of sleep; and of a hero that pledges her life to fighting the monsters in the middle of the forest. I also absolutely love the world building in this book, the description was beautiful, atmospheric, and haunting and made me wish fairy worlds were real. But the character development for me was just not as strong as it could have been, which is why rating this book was so difficult.

I am giving this one a solid 3.5 stars.

Reviewer's Name: Tawnie
The Cottingley Secret
Gaynor, Hazel
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

“ I said my story had many beginnings, and the day the camera arrived was one of them. After all, without the camera, there wouldn’t have been any photographs. Without the camera, I wouldn’t have a story to tell...”

The Cottingley Secret is a story about fairies, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and an old bookshop in a Irish harbor town, what is not to love about this book.
This story is a modern retelling of the real historical legend of the Cottingley Fairies. After coming to live with her cousin Elsie Wright in Cottingley England, during the height of the first world war, Frances Griffiths and her cousin both claim to see real live fairies at the bottom of the garden. The cousins soon prove their claims by photographing the fairies in the garden. These real live photos soon catches the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wholeheartedly believes the girls and proceeds to publish several of these photos in a magazine. Soon after, the girls and the fairies became a national sensation and through the country into the grip of fairy fever. This marks the beginning of a time that would define their lives and have them keeping secrets until the day of their deaths.

Meanwhile in modern day Ireland, Olivia Cavanaugh inherits her grandfather’s bookshop and soon discovers a manuscript that recounts the story of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths. As she reads through the manuscript, written by Frances, she soon discovers she has more in common with her than she ever imagined.

Hazel Gaynor connects past and present in a way that is both modern and extremely touching. I really connected with Olivia in this book. As she, and the reader, reads through Frances and Elsie’s story, she finds strength to face her painful past and let go of a life that has always been planned out for her to pursue a life that connects her to the desires of her heart.

Filled with amazing literary prose, a beautiful atmospheric environment and strong characters, this story is historical literary fantasy at it’s best.

Reviewer's Name: Tawnie
A Natural
Raisin, Ross
2 stars = Meh
Review:

***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY***

This book was, without a doubt, the gayest book I’ve ever read. Usually, I don’t read books with LGBTQ+ themes, but the cover and title led me to believe it was about soccer (or, in this case, football). I am not against books with these themes, per se, as long as the characters are likable and relatable. It’s just I would hope that Random House isn’t merely publishing books with these themes to get “automatic” sales from people who want to support the LGBTQ+ movement. Unfortunately, based on the weakness of the story in A Natural, I suspect this as the only reason a large publisher released it.

For a book I thought was about football, actual instances of the sport being played collectively comprises perhaps 1% of the entire book. That’s roughly 3.86 pages of football in a book about football players. If you’re looking for tension and action on the pitch, you’d be better off reading something like The Rook Crew instead of this. So, instead of football, what does this book have in it? In a nutshell: sexual assault, rape, and homophobia. I would have hoped that a story about coming to terms with a young man’s sexuality would have been more inspiring, but the undertone of the narrative certainly feels against the idea.

Like I mentioned above, I could let most of this slide if the characters were interesting. Instead, we’re left with a loner football player who gets in a relationship with someone involved with the team. I don’t know why the main character decided to do this, as the characters are all pretty flat. On top of this, we have to follow a side-plot of a failed marriage included only for a minor (and predictable) plot point near the end. I was actually more taken aback by the sexual abuse that was allowed/permitted as part of the team’s “hazing” than the gay sex scenes that lacked any description at all. By the end, nothing was resolved, and I felt unfulfilled. I honestly failed to see the point of this book, other than a cash grab.

A boring book with boring characters playing a boring sport, I give A Natural 1.5 stars out of 5.

Reviewer's Name: Benjamin
Genres:
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride
Elwes, Cary
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

While I love audiobooks for their capacity to let me mindlessly absorb books while I’m driving to or from work, much of the story comes down to the narrator and their inflections. Sometimes these narrators can be annoying, or incomprehensible, or vary their volume too much. It is a rare treat to find an audiobook that fully capitalizes on the medium, either by adding music and sound effects or (in this case) using the voices of actual people to narrate the story. As You Wish is just such an audiobook, and I would even go so far to say it is the superior version of this book, even without “reading” it for myself.

As one of the most frequent and common of quotable movies, The Princess Bride (1987) is an odd little film that just works. It’s fantasy, it’s comedy, it’s family-friendly. It’s all these things and more. But what about the people who made it happen? There have been horror stories of narcissistic directors or difficult actors making successful films, even despite their personalities. Fortunately, this most beloved of classics was not like that at all. All the behind-the-scenes stories helped to add an understanding and depth to The Princess Bride that should appeal to both diehard fans and those unfamiliar with the film.

Cary Elwes does a fantastic job of stringing these stories together while also exploring the backgrounds of all the characters (and the actors who played them). While the other actors do get their say in this audiobook, it’s Elwes’ impersonations of many of the individuals that was hilariously on point. He takes a humble and even-handed approach to storytelling that brings the listener into the midst of the filmmaking process without letting his personality get in the way of recounting historical events. Whether you’re a fan of the movie or a fan of audiobooks, his book is absolutely worth a listen.

A superb audiobook that everyone should listen to, I give As You Wish 5.0 stars out of 5.

Reviewer's Name: Benjamin
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Finney, Jack
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

Most people know this book by its numerous film adaptations, including Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and 1978), Body Snatchers (1993), and The Invasion (2007). In fact, I like to think that many facets of this story have become a part of popular culture, including the replication “pods” and Donald Sutherland’s scream in the 1978 film version. While the source material is inherently pulpy, a result of the genre and the era in which it was published, there is an entertaining quality to the story that has allowed it to survive for so long.

Simple in its execution, but brilliant in its reveal, The Body Snatchers builds up an inherent distrust of the people surrounding the main characters as they investigate why everyone seems “off” in this small, California town. While the full explanation of the aliens’ presence and purpose is relegated to an enormous information dump more than half-way through the book, it nevertheless contains some interesting ideas and concepts that could be plausible given the circumstances. I would have preferred better integration of this information into the plot, but sometimes the characters just need to sit down and explore these ideas in depth.

In the end, The Body Snatchers has plenty of strong moments in its plot. Sure, there’s the weaker section or two, and the more upbeat ending didn’t have much explanation other than the aliens’ annoyance of humanity’s persistence. Still, it’s a fun story, and even decades later it’s clear why The Body Snatchers is a timeless classic, even if it’s not “on par” with more significant literary titans. Maybe that’s its charm, though. By making it about the “everyman,” the horror and terror of everyone around them being replaced by emotionless beings is much more relatable on a visceral level.

A timeless pulp classic, I give The Body Snatchers 4.0 stars out of 5.

Reviewer's Name: Benjamin
Book Review: Rules for Radicals
Alinsky, Saul
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

Rules for Radicals is a complicated book and yet one i find myself applying more and more to my everyday life as time wears on. It was written by a lifelong political organizer and social reformer and is a guide he wrote on these topics when his health started to fail. The title may sound extreme and certainly some of its content is, the majority of its pages are simple and can be applied to much of one’s life in the form of philosophy. It covers topics from government to culture and how they should operate, how to tell if they are corrupt, and when corrupt if they should be reformed or replaced. In an age of vast political change I see this easily being applied to many facets of life.

Reviewer's Name: Jaydon K.
Genres:
Book Review: Night Sky
Brockmann, Suzanne; Brockmann, Melanie
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

"Night Sky" is a joint effort Between mother and daughter Suzanne and Melanie Brockman. Despite the fact that two different minds worked on this title, It is smooth polished and a well unified work of fiction. This is a fantastic young adult novel that I would recommend well before Titans of the genera such as "Divergent".Within its pages we follow a girl by the name of Skylar who develops from a pent up and unconfident teen with an over bearing mother to a strong young woman with the courage to stand up not only to her mother but also to the shadow organization that orchestrates horrible events the world over that no one will dare defy. Like most young adult novels it has a romantic sub plot that you can see coming from one hundred miles away while facing the other directions with your eyes closed. Thankfully however, this fact does little if anything to detract from the quality of this book. The characters feel real and alive, each with their own personalities. The descriptive language is detailed enough that the world easily paints its self in the readers mind. With elements of horror, mystery, action, fantasy, and romance this is a well rounded first effort from the duo that I recommend wholeheartedly.

Reviewer's Name: Jaydon K.
Book Review: Deep Blue
Donnelly, Jennifer
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

I picked this book because of the title, genre, cover, and reviews. I enjoyed this book because there are several points of view and the plot. Serafina seems to be the main one, a princess of blood, first in line to the throne, and engaged to a prince of foreign waters. Although most girls do not face those situations, Serafina is also a sixteen year old teen trying to pass school, make her mother proud, and avoid people spreading rumors and gossip about her.
Then war breaks out after her parents are assassinated and she is forced to go on a journey along with five other young mermaids she must lead. Along the journey they discover they have to work together to gain the power they need in the upcoming battle. They must destroy a monster, win a war, and stay alive while they all face their own personal problems.
This book is one out of four in a series. Each book after the first only seems to only grow in excitement with twists, turns, and surprises for which there's no warning. If you like this first one, I recommend reading them all.

Reviewer's Name: Amber H.
Genres:
Book Review: Into the Deep
Fleming, Missy
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

I picked this book because of the cover and title. There are so little people who know about the ocean, so who's to say what the possibilities are. I enjoyed that author's thoughts to include some real life situations in the world which should be addressed. In a lot of ways this book raises awareness to the treatment of the oceans.
There were several surprises normal teen girls would not expect to be normal in their daily lives, but you can still relate to the feelings the main character Zoey feels. After all she is still a girl worried about passing high school.
Zoey's wish is to be normal, but it is not a possibility after she lost her leg in a freak shark attack when she was little. Then things only become stranger when she is drenched by a rogue wave on the night of her sixteenth birthday. Zoey's fear of the water tries to keep her away, but she can't help the pull to the ocean she feels while she is away. She decides to venture out to the world of merpeople after she meets her long lost grandmother. After a few short days she realizes life under the sea has dangers, and she may be the only one who can stop the end of the world.
This is the only book for the story, although I am hopeful it will continue into an amazing series.

Reviewer's Name: Amber H.
Genres:
Book Review: The Goddess Test
Carter, Aimee
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
When I was searching for a book, this one caught my eye because of the title and cover. I have an interest in Greek mythology and this book was an amazing refresher. Even if you don't know much about the myths to begin with this book covers the need to know basics, especially with the story of Persephone. I enjoyed the modern twist to the original stories I grew up with as a child. This book held surprises and turns to the plot I would never have expected. I recommend this book for the teen girls. I could really relate to all the emotions and thoughts which seem to fly through Kate's mind.
There is romance, challenges, and life threatening situations the main character Kate Winters must face to save the lives of her dying mother, and a mysterious dark handsome stranger who seems to believe he's a god. All the while she tries to save the lives of the people around her, someone wants her dead and that someone has succeeded in killing eleven girls before her. She must become immortal or die trying.
This book is one of three in a series, with other connecting books on the side I highly recommend. Once I started reading I could not put it down until I finished the entire series.

Reviewer's Name: Amber H.
Book Review: Time Riders Day of the Predator
Scarrow, Alex
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

Day of the Predator, by Alex Scarrow takes place in 2001 in an archway in New York. The main characters are Time Riders, people who watch over time and make sure it doesn’t become corrupt. The story start when someone who would write a report in 2026 that would eventually begin time travel is assassinated in 2015. The Time Riders head to 2015 to try to stop the assassination before it can happen. The setting is in Texas where they land in a laboratory that is testing zero-point energy. The entire class the writer was in and the Time Riders are caught in an explosion caused by tachyons, particles that move faster than light. Instead of killing them, the explosion sends them 65 million years ago, 250,000 years before the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs happened. There a super intelligent undocumented species of reptiles (not dinosaurs) discovers them and silently begins to hunt them. They don’t make their appearance until later in the book. This species is intelligent enough to think and successfully manages to kill off the humans, except the Time Riders and the two humans that they could save who managed to warp back to 2001 in time. But when they get there, there is another problem. Actions packed and interesting, Alex Scarrow makes his book seem like a possible future for humans in another reality.

Reviewer's Name: Nathanael G.
Book Review: Mitosis
Sanderson, Brandon
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

The novella “Mitosis” by Brandon Sanderson is not about mitosis, but is about an Epic who can create multiple copies of himself. The more he makes the less individual intelligences they have. When there is a lot of them they all speak with one voice and work as one intelligence. This novella is technically book 1.5 in the Steelheart Series. It has about 57 pages and happens shortly after Book 1. An Epic is a normal human who has been given powers and turns into a tyrant. Epics feel darkness in their powers and often succumb to it and start killing innocent people and other Epics. There are different levels of Epics from normal one to High epics. Normal Epics can be killed by conventional means, in ways that normal people can die. High Epics can’t be killed by conventional means and often the only way to kill one of them is to use their weakness against them. Some Epics can fight the darkness and these Epics tend to be Gifters, Epics who are able to give some of their power to other people. They aren’t using their power for themselves and that gives them some relief. Steelheart was one of the most powerful High Epic who was invincible. He could could fire powerful bursts of energy from his hands and he could also fly. He was the ruler of Newcago and could only be killed by someone who wasn’t afraid of him. He had a habit of killing people with their own weapon. The only reason he died was because the main character, David, put a detonator inside the gun Steelheart was going to fire at him and the bomb blew up. If David had detonated the bomb it would not have hurt Steelheart at all. Since Steelheart detonated the bomb and he wasn’t afraid of himself, the bomb killed him. Shortly after Steelheart’s, David and the Reckoners, a group who have dedicated themselves to fighting the Epics before he joined them, are left to watch over Newcago while their leader and founder Jonathan Phaedrus, or Prof, is away. Mitosis sneaks into the city looking for “Steel Slayer”, as David is called by the city. He threatens to kill one person every five minutes until he shows up. When he does, Mitosis tries to kill him and the Reckoners have to fight him.

Reviewer's Name: Nathanael G.
Book Review:Maze Runner
Dashner, James
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

The book The Maze Runner by James Dashner is a fascinating book. It places the reader in a semi- dystopian world. The time for this story takes place in the late 2200s (Maybe. Dates tend to come in this format 231.5.4 or May 4, 231.). As a disease ravages the world outside turning people into savages, the main character, a 16 year old boy named Thomas wakes up in a swinging box having no recollection of his life before that point. He remembers nothing except his name. Half an hour later, the box opens and Thomas meets the Gladers (as they call themselves because they live on a glade). All of them are male. They are all surrounded by towering walls and giant gates that shut whenever it gets dark. The giant gates lead to a seemingly impossible maze with moving walls and creatures that threaten to hurt them. These creatures are called Grievers and they are hideous bulbous creatures with concealed blades and needles. Whenever someone gets caught by one of the Grievers, they are Stung, which has a lot more meaning than getting stung. When someone is stung, they experience horrible pain and occasionally go mad. The Gladers have people they call Runners who go into the Maze every day to find new passageways. They receive food and water and antidote for Stung victims at the same times every day. Someone new arrives once a month and they are always male. All that changes when someone new arrives two days after Thomas and she is female. Then supplies and antidotes stop arriving.

Reviewer's Name: Nathanael G.
Book Review: How Few Remain
Turtledove, Harry
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

How Few Remain is a alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. In his book, it depicts an alternate universe where the south wins the American Civil War, and the Confederate States of America is now its own independent country. What I enjoyed about this novel is the many different characters and how they view the other country. In every page you can just see the tension that will eventually snap between the two powers. People from the North and the South always spewing insults at each other. Each character that comes into play are very interesting and all seem like they have their own backstory. My favorite character in the story would be Abraham Lincoln. Just because you get to see what his life is like and how the country views the man who lost the civil war. The book is also just the first part of a series which goes through the period of World War I and World War II and how the North and South react to that. I believe there are two things that make this book standout, its characters, and its lore. For those two reasons alone I will have to recommend this book. Or the entire series, what ever is your cup of tea.

Reviewer's Name: Christopher K.
Book Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

A Midsummer's Night Dream is one of Shakespeare's many plays that he wrote. Unlike many of his works, this one does not have a sad and tragic ending, and is a drama more than anything. The story is about four lovers Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius. There is a whole love triangle where Hermia loves Lysander, but is forced to marry Demetrius, who Helena loves. For Hermia to escape getting married to someone she doesn't love, she and Lysander run off into a forest where they are outside the law. Already in the forest, there is drama going on between two faeries, Oberon and Titania. Titania is protecting an Indian boy that Oberon wants, so Oberon gets his faerie Puck to go receive a love potion, so that Titania will now be distracted by love and Oberon can snatch the Indian child. Back in the city however, there is a group of actors organizing a play. After one of them tries to take up every part in the play, they get it all organized and head off to the forest to practice. So already in the first act we got everybody running off to the forest to cause drama. This play shines at how good its humor is, and is jammed pack with drama. I would recommend anyone to read this fancy story.

Reviewer's Name: Christopher K.
Where Things Come Back
Whaley, John Corey
4 stars = Really Good
Review:

In his novel, Where Things Come Back, Whaley explors many different stories of different characters that he somehow joins together to be coherent and related to one another. I loved this book! It was my second time reading it because I remember thinking it was a really good book the first time I read it and wanted to see if I missed anything. It encompasses the relationship between two brothers and the mystery of how and why one of them went missing. As I was reading it the second time, I realized all of the clues that Whaley put in the book as to tell you how Gabriel got taken. I had a love-hate relationship with this book because of some of the very sad, real, and deep characters Whaley includes. This book had me in tears of joy and sorrow as it goes through Cullen’s memories he had with his brother and also the HORRIBLE crazy man that stole Gabriel and the way he terrorizes him. Gabriel was definitely a character that I loved the most as he was calm and has unspoken humor. He also isn’t the average athlete as he has nerdy interests as well. The only thing I didn’t love was how insignificant the ending was compared to the rest of the story. I wish Whaley went into more depth of how Culen Reacted to the surprise at the end of the book. I recommend this book to an older audience as it has some very deep stories within the characters. I’d rate this book a 9/10 only because of the ending. I thought everything was so beautifully incorporated into the story.

Reviewer Grade:11

Reviewer's Name: Micah L.
The Great Gatsby
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
1 star = Yuck!
Review:

The Great Gatsby takes place during the Roaring 20’s in New York before Prohibition was ended. Gatsby hosts parties where he also gives out alcohol to his guests. I did not like this book at all because I didn’t like the love story between Gatsby and Daisy, frankly, I didn’t really like any of the characters to begin with. I think it might’ve been probably because I personally have higher morals than the characters show during this time period. I didn’t like the way Nick was used and quite honestly taken advantage of by Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby. What I disliked the most about this book is the psychotic obsession Gatsby has for Daisy because she’s his “dream.” If he has a clear mind, he’d notice that he couldn’t be in love with a lesser human being. I think all of his achievements to get to where he was, a wealthy popular man was all a waste because it was all for someone who didn’t have the equal affection in return for him. I also didn’t like how loose everybody is in the story. I thought it was sad how because Gatsby’s couldn’t see how his “dream” later became unattainable and nonexistent. I don’t recommend this book as there was hardly a turning point and it seemed to linger in unresolved conflict. I think this book suits a much older audience as it is quicker pace and sometimes hard to follow, and also for it’s immoral content.

Reviewer Grade: 11

Reviewer's Name: Micah L.
Genres:
The Help
Stockett, Kathryn
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review:

In Kathryn Stockett’s, The Help, she writes about African-American maids in Southern Mississippi during the 1960’s. Skeeter, one of the protagonists in the story, brings light to their circumstances by publishing a book about their experiences. Through her interviews, I began to love every single character for different reasons, even Hilly Holbrook. I thought it was a heart-warming story that I could not put down! It’s good for all ages to read as it lets you in to some history, comedy, and respectful romance. I was interested into reading this book because I’d seen the movie a dozen times and still am not tired of it. I heard that the book was better than the movie and I thought that was just not possible and needed to find out for myself. Inspite of my efforts to prove them wrong, they were right! The book is better than the movie as it goes more in to depth about Mini, Abbigail, Hilly, and Keeter and her relationship with her Mother. Out of all the books that I’ve read, this is definately in my top three and I’d recommend it to anyone who is looking for a exciting and witty story where justice is served for whats right. I also don’t think that watching the movie before the book ruins the story. As I read the book and Stockett was describing the characters, I pictured Emma Stone and the rest of the cast as if they were actually made for the book.

Reviewer Grade: 11

Reviewer's Name: Micah L.