Posts

What Feeds Below / Tatiana Scholte-Bonne / Book Review

Image
WHAT FEEDS BELOW At the edge of the City of the Void, a massive chasm yawns, a dark expanse stretching deep into the earth. Carnivorous plants, vicious monsters, and creeping fungi reach toward the light, protecting the ruins of an ancient civilization at the bottom of this pit. And orphaned teenagers (and best friends) Petra and Jade are here to be your tour guide to the bottom. There aren't a lot of jobs in the City that don't involve diving into the Void, and taking treasure-seeking tourists down is the best way Petra and Jade have to pull themselves out of the slums for good. Petra prefers to play it safe, stick to the upper levels of the Void even if the payout is smaller. Jade is ready to risk the descent all the way down to the bottom; the deeper they go, the quicker they will find themselves set for life. When a tourist comes along seeking to go deeper than the girls have gone before, they snatch up the job. Petra might not b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Formula He's the One / Andie J. Christopher / Book Review

Image
FORMULA HE'S THE ONE Tessa loves a fast car. She always has. Raised in Indianapolis by her race car driver father, she's grown up with oil stains and kart racing in her blood. She's always dreamed of becoming the first full-time female driver for Formula 1. But that all changed with the accident that took her mother. In the years since, Tessa's been on autopilot. No fast cars. No driver's license, even. She's at her father's mechanic shop more often than the racetrack these days. When a family friend offers Tessa an internship for the Grand Prix at Monaco, she's inclined to turn it down. But her father won't hear anything of the sort. So Tessa's swept off into a glittering world of champagne, yachts, and racing royalty... including the boy who used to be her rival, back in the day. THOUGHTS Did I think this book was going to be ...
7 comments
Read more

The End of Us / Sandra Proudman / Book Review

Image
THE END OF US Jules and Rico only have each other, but that's more than enough. They've been side-by-side through it all: burning summer heat, hungry winter nights, and long hours scavenging the Wasteland to find the salvage needed to keep them alive. What else can someone ask for, in this environmental post-apocalypse? The future isn't entirely bleak. They have one thing to hope for: the lottery. The Oasis was set up generations ago by some wealthy billionaire, and it's provided refuge ever since. Limited spots means hoping for a resident of the Oasis to die. Limited spots means waiting for the random chance to be selected as the next resident. And this year, with three potential places in the Oasis open, Rico and Jules have more hope than ever before. When Rico's selected despite all odds, he does the unthinkable: he gives his coveted position in paradise to Jules. But leaving for the Oasis means leaving Rico behind. An...
16 comments
Read more

A Thousand Nights / Nafiza Azad & Intisar Khanani, Editors / Book Review

Image
A THOUSAND NIGHTS Nusaybah doesn't want to leave her home, but she doesn't have a choice. Her mother, father, brother, grandparents have been buried now, and there's nothing more for her here. Especially with the Occupiers on their way. Fleeing across the desert is her only option. Across the desert, she can find refuge. With invading forces at her heels, she has no time to rest and to doubt. There's only moving forward, but Nusaybah doesn't have to do it alone. Hers isn't the only life that's been uprooted. First she finds one refugee. Then another, and another. Setting out across the desert isn't her burden alone. Together, they push on with stories of hope, of home, and of magic, heading toward whatever the future holds. THOUGHTS This book is an arduous journey. It takes a very long time to read and digest. The journey that Nusaybah and her ...
20 comments
Read more

Night of Madness / Ryan Douglass / Book Review

Image
NIGHT OF MADNESS Everybody knows Jack Stanley. He directed some of the best slasher films of the past few decades. The Jack Stanley cinematic universe is the end-all-be-all for all horror buffs out there. So when a competition is announced, one night of challenges inspired by his most terrifying psychological horror film Asylum , fans all over the country jump at the chance to win a spot to compete. Mara needs to catch a lucky break, and if that means playing Jack Stanley's #1 Fan, so be it. She knows all his films, after all, thanks to her father's obsession with Stanley's campy slashers. She can play the part. She just needs to convince the fans. Because it's not as simple as presenting an audition tape or filling out an application. Jack Stanley's looking for rising influencers to thrust into his twisted limelight. And for Mara, that means doing a lot of work... and not all of it legal. And Mara's creative solutio...
22 comments
Read more

Where We Go at Night / Ikwo Ntekim / Book Review

Image
WHERE WE GO AT NIGHT Trixie Godfrey has no plans to leave Woods Crossing after graduation. No college for her. No gap year travel. No, Woods Crossing is all she'll ever have, all she'll ever need . How could she leave it behind, with a family estate she's set to inherit and the fae realm lurking just at the edge of the trees? Not that Trixie's interacted much with the fae (or, as her Mama has always called them, those aberrations ). Pops won't let her get too close, for one. He keeps promising to take her to the other side, but it's never happened. Which is why she can't leave now, with real adulthood looming. Once she's an adult, he won't be able to say no. But on the night of her graduation, Trixie makes a mistake. She stays out too late. Wasn't her plan. Wasn't her fault. But she's stuck sneaking home way past curfew just to find the front door open... and her Pops in the kitchen, split wide...
17 comments
Read more

Hearts on the Table / Susan Metallo / Book Review

Image
HEARTS ON THE TABLE Violet Cesari is a girl who knows her mind. She'd rather be organizing with the suffragists than sitting at home working on her embroidery. She'd rather be thrashing men at the cards table than courting whatever lord her father has picked for her. And she'd rather her transgender twin Seb live the life he deserves than whatever life their father dictates for the both of them. Even if that means fleeing their father's oppressive household together in the middle of the night. England might be their father's home, but Italy has always been the twins' safe haven. And that's where they're headed now that their father's house is no longer home. The only problem? There's a bit of a war on... and the passenger ship that was meant to bring them to Italy has been struck by a U-boat instead. When Violet washes ashore on a nearby island, she's only certain of two things: her twin is still a...
17 comments
Read more