Posts

The Summer I Ate the Rich / Maika Moulite & Maritza Moulite / Book Review

Image
THE SUMMER I ATE THE RICH Because it is always the people who have been victimized who are asked to consider their reaction to the harms done against them and never the other way around. Brielle Petitfour has a secret: she's a zombie. But not, like, the undead flesh-eating kind. Or at least not entirely. She's closer to the zonbie of her Haitian roots, made of dark magic and something more-than-human. Mostly, she's been a burden to her immigrant mother, who has had to remind her all her life to be more likable, more friendly, more human . Brielle has done her best to comply. When her chronically ill mother suddenly loses her job, Brielle knows she has to step up to earn some extra cash. Even if that means tapping into her latent zombie power. Even if that means using her culinary skill to serve the very people who have used and abused her mother and other poor immigrants like her. The rich elite of Miami are begging for unique flavors, and Brie...
3 comments
Read more

True Life in Uncanny Valley / Deb Caletti / Book Review

Image
TRUE LIFE IN UNCANNY VALLEY Eleanor is a huge fan of Hugo Harrison, the brilliant tech genius at the forefront of AI research. And Eleanor isn't just any fan. This connection is personal. Because, well, he's her father. Her father who she's never met. Her father, who her mother had an affair with years ago before cutting off contact completely. Eleanor's mother would rather that connection remain severed. It's always been just the three of them, Eleanor, her mother, and her sister. They're a tight-knit unit. They don't need Hugo Harrison. Except Eleanor has never felt like she fits into her family. She isn't not who her mom and sister would like her to be. She doesn't share their hobbies, their interests, their aspirations. So when she finds out that Hugo and his new wife are in need of a live-in nanny to look after their son, she jumps at the opportunity. This is her chance to get to know a whole new fam...
21 comments
Read more

Fable for the End of the World / Ava Reid / Book Review

Image
FABLE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD Everyone and their grandmother might be obsessed with watching the Lamb's Gauntlet, but Inesa wants nothing to do with all of that. She's got it tough enough as it is, running a taxidermy shop in a ramshackle town one rainstorm from being washed from the face of the earth. She wants nothing to do with the mega-corporation Caerus, with their flashy products and the debts they help accumulate. That, or their deadly competition for those who default. Melinoë, on the other hand, is Caerus itself. Or at least, she's the face of Caerus to the people. One of Caerus's products, she is a living weapon, psychologically altered and reconditioned to be a brutal and deadly beauty. She's the cold weapon sent out to slaughter Caerus's chosen Lamb on livestream, entertaining the masses and digging one family out of debt in the process. She's never failed to assassinate one of her marks. When Inesa ...
10 comments
Read more

I Am the Swarm / Hayley Chewins / Book Review

Image
I AM THE SWARM The women of the Strand family are magic. They always have been, as far back as memory goes. And with Nell's fifteenth birthday upon her, she's dreading the arrival of her own magic. Because she knows it's more than magic. It's a curse. Nell's older sister bleeds music, and she'll do anything to let that music loose from her veins. Her mother's in a state of constant change, never the same age from one day to the next--often too young to be the mother Nell needs. Her aunt's magic feeds her secrets she doesn't want to know, the kind of secrets that pushed her to leave the rest of them behind. When Nell's magic arrives in the form of ladybugs alighting on the piano as she practices, she feels relieved. Magic can be worse. So much worse. But the ladybugs are just the beginning. Each new emotion brings something different, and the more Nell feels , the more the insects swarm... ...
18 comments
Read more

The Beasts We Bury / D.L. Taylor / Book Review

Image
THE BEASTS WE BURY Mancella Cliff may have a bloody reputation, but she longs for a life without bloodshed. A life she can't ever have. Not since she emerged from the Broken Citadel as a child with the power to summon an army of animals... if and only if she's killed them with her bare hands. Wielded as a crown jewel for her kingdom, her magic lends strength to her father's rule. And for hers, should she be named his heir. Silver, on the other hand, has only ever lived in the shadows of the Cliff family's bloody rule. A runaway from an academy designed to sculpt poor children into the perfect soldiers for the crown, Silver can't legally hold a job or a own house or have any sort of stability. Luckily, he's a pretty decent thief... who has just been tasked to steal something from the Cliff family's palace. And if there's one thing Silver knows, it's that the best way into a rich family's home is throu...
13 comments
Read more

How to Survive a Slasher / Justine Pucela Winans / Book Review

Image
HOW TO SURVIVE A SLASHER CJ Smith knows how quickly real life can turn to horror. Afer all, their hometown is Satterville (sometimes called Slasherville), the site of not one but two slasher-style massacres. CJ's dad survived the first attack. Only CJ and their little brother survived the second. So CJ isn't exactly a stranger to survival skills. They've been drilled since childhood--since the second bloody massacre rocked the town. And thanks to reclusive local writer Moon Satter, CJ has to relive that massacre each and every year when the slasher festival sweeps through town to celebrate Moon Satter's bestselling novels. But when an unpublished Moon Satter manuscript arrives on CJ's porch just before this year's festival is set to begin, CJ knows something is different. Because this manuscript isn't rehashing the past. No, this manuscript details murders that haven't happened yet... but will. This week, in f...
24 comments
Read more

The Rose Bargain / Sasha Peyton Smith / Book Review

Image
THE ROSE BARGAIN For centuries, England has been ruled by an immortal fae Queen, and nobody can say she isn't a benevolent ruler. After all, every citizen of England gets to make a bargain with her, one impossible wish granted (for a price). Now that Ivy Benton's debut season is upon her, she gets to make her bargain at last. Like most high society ladies, she's expected to bargain for a quality that will help her make the perfect match: some rare talent, a prettier face, an absolutely perfect smile. But when the Queen asks her what she wants, Ivy asks for nothing. She can't do it, not after what her sister went through. Even if that means she has less of a chance at winning a suitor's hand. But this matchmaking season, something's different. Because this year, the Queen's fae son himself is entering the marriage mart. He isn't just a regular suitor, and a regular courtship isn't what the Queen has in mind. Not ...
22 comments
Read more