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  • Tag: book review

    • Favorite Reads of 2022

      Posted at 10:15 am by Laura, on December 29, 2022

      Hello, bookworms! I know it’s been quiet on the blog when it comes to book reviews. It was a busy year at work, and so writing any kind of review on the blog––books I enjoyed reading for fun––fell by the wayside. But I’ve been keeping track over on Instagram, and I am so happy to share that reading for quality instead of quantity the last few years is really paying off! This year was full of four- and five-star books, and below I’m sharing my absolute favorites!

      Empire of Gold || The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue || Part of Your World || The Huntress
      The Book of Gothel || A River Enchanted || Babel

      Over the summer I shared my reviews for the first four books (check it out!). This fall I read the last three, with reviews below. I loved these books to pieces, and I think it’s such a great representation of my reading taste overall. Magical, inspiring, sweeping emotions; hilarious, honest, and real; intriguing, tense, and curious. 

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      Curious about my thoughts? Read the reviews after this break!

      Continue reading →

      Posted in books, Reviews 2022 | 1 Comment | Tagged book review, books, genre: adult fiction, genre: fantasy, genre: historical fiction, mini review, review
    • 2022 Favorites: First Half of the Year

      Posted at 2:00 pm by Laura, on June 18, 2022

      Hello, hello! Life is nuts, the world’s on fire, my to-do list grows and grows––but I still manage to find little pockets of time here and there to read for fun. Ever since I started prioritizing my reading for quality over quantity, I’ve really started to hone in on what I truly enjoy. While I’d love to be the kind of person who could read 100 books a year (on top of the reading I already do at work!), it’s definitely nice to be able to end the day or week (or even month, in some cases) with a book that wholly transports me.

      I’ve read 12 books so far. 5 of them were for book clubs, 1 of them a buddy read, 2 read during the flights to and from our honeymoon, 4 of them on my “2022 goals” list to read this year, 2 of them I picked up out of pure curiosity, 3 of them audiobooks. Of this collection, 4 received 5(+) stars! Here are my five-star favorites from January through mid-June! Read after the break to glimpse my mini reviews!

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      Continue reading →

      Posted in books, Reviews 2022 | 2 Comments | Tagged book review, books, genre: adult fiction, genre: contemporary, genre: fantasy, genre: historical fiction, mini review, review
    • 2021 Favorites: First Half of the Year

      Posted at 1:54 pm by Laura, on August 21, 2021

      Time is flying by, leaving this blog in the dust! I apologize for not including book reviews for recent reads. Work has been good and overwhelming in the best ways, leaving me with little time or energy to read published books for fun. If I manage to read a published book, it’s on the weekend. And then I post a quick snippet of a review on Instagram instead of the blog. But I’m (finally) here today to give you a glimpse of my favorites from January through June!

      Five stars!

      I thoroughly enjoyed, devoured, and (for half of these) sobbed over these six books. Click to read the reviews (and see bonus books!)

      Continue reading →
      Posted in books, Reviews 2021 | 1 Comment | Tagged book review, books, genre: adult fiction, genre: contemporary, genre: historical fiction, genre: young adult, mini review, review
    • Book Review: “A Darker Shade of Magic” by VE Schwab

      Posted at 4:55 pm by Laura, on December 26, 2020

      A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab

      Publisher: Tor
      Published: February 2015
      Genre: fantasy
      Rating:
      ★★★★★

      Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

      Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

      Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

      After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

      Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.

      This isn’t so much a review as it is a journey of my experience with Schwab’s writing and this book in particular.

      In the spring of 2014, I went to a book signing for Schwab’s YA duology. I’d read The Archived for my graduate thesis and wanted to meet her. At that event she talked about a book about “pirates, thieves, and sadist kings” that would be published in the next year or so. Then this came out, the world exploded with hype, and I avoided it like the plague—because more often than not, hyped books disappoint me. I wanted to read it away from all that. Fast forward to fall 2019 when an Instagram friend read it for the first time. She was separated from the hype, and loved it to pieces. At this point I figured it was safe…so I bought it, and like many books, it sat unread on my shelves till now.

      I shouldn’t have been so worried or afraid. But at the same time, I don’t regret waiting so long to read this book. I think I can appreciate it more now, absorb and cherish it better than I could have in the middle of the hype.

      Schwab infuses the magic of her world into every single carefully written word. Her language evokes the atmosphere, her words propel the narrative, the diction and syntax so purposefully crafted that I felt transported immediately in the first chapter. Her characters are so well-developed in the way she shows their actions and movements and interactions with others, there wasn’t a single moment of telling or explanation for behavior or history. The world/s is/are so lush and vibrant and beautiful—even in the Grey and White—and yet she managed to craft them with little description. I’m in awe. She evoked all the senses in her writing and not once did I feel bogged down by the narrative, or annoyed with the dialogue, or frustrated with the pacing. It was all so perfectly, exquisitely written.

      A wholly unique experience. I loved this with every fiber of my being.

      I’m excited to learn more about Kell and Lila on this next adventure in the Shades of Magic trilogy. This is one of a kind!

      Posted in books, Reviews 2020 | 1 Comment | Tagged book review, genre: adult fiction, genre: fantasy, review
    • Favorite Reads So Far in 2020

      Posted at 3:44 pm by Laura, on October 31, 2020

      I’m extremely behind on book reviews––heck, one of these books I finished at the start of lockdown––but I wanted to write up a post of my favorite five-star reads so far this year. Now there are a few nonfiction titles I gave five stars to (Born a Crime and Becoming among them), and I’ve already reviewed two others (The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Digital Minimalism), but I’m focusing today on fiction and ones I haven’t reviewed yet!

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      Just looking at these covers make me so happy! I’m hoping I’ll find another gem before the end of the year. There are many other books I still need to review, and may end up doing another group post to save time. Until then, click below the break and read my five-star reviews!

      ★★★★★

      Continue reading →

      Posted in books, Reviews 2020 | 1 Comment | Tagged book review, genre: adult fiction, genre: contemporary, genre: fantasy, genre: gothic, genre: historical fiction, review
    • Book Review: “The Switch” by Beth O’Leary

      Posted at 11:52 am by Laura, on October 1, 2020

      The Switch by Beth O’Leary

      Publisher: Quercus
      Published: April 2020
      Genre: women’s fiction
      ISBN: 9781787474994
      Rating: 
      ★★★★

      Ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, Leena escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some overdue rest. Newly single and about to turn eighty, Eileen would like a second chance at love. But her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen… So Leena proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love, and Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire.

      But with a rabble of unruly OAPs to contend with, as well as the annoyingly perfect – and distractingly handsome – local schoolteacher, Leena learns that switching lives isn’t straightforward. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, and with the online dating scene. But is her perfect match nearer to home than she first thought?

      Leena is super stressed at work, and her grandmother Eileen wants to expand her dating horizons, so they decide to spend the summer at the other’s home—sometimes all you need is a little change of scenery. Hilarity, enlightenment, community, and heartwarming experiences ensue!

      This is the perfect little pick-me-up and cheerful read. I loved Eileen’s gumption and view on life—her no-nonsense personality and “see it, fix it” helpful attitude, her sense of community spirit—and she totally reminded me of my own Nana. Eileen is the kind of person I strive to be, to find or have the answers while helping others while maintaining healthy boundaries and a balanced sense of self. Leena, on the other hand, was achingly familiar to me. I related a little too intensely to her desire for perfection, her need to please, her hamster-wheeling brain. There were whole scenes in the book that had me wondering if O’Leary had a little camera on the wall of my office. But Leena, too, found her zen in her summer and it served as a reminder to me to take a step back and breathe once in a while! You can’t give your all when you’re out of gas.

      While Flatshare highlighted gaslighting, unhealthy romantic relationships, and finding ways to come out of abuse in a healthy, positive way, The Switch focused on self improvement, self care, and familial grief. Leena and her mother experienced Leena’s sister’s death in two drastically different ways, and Eileen was left to referee her daughter and granddaughter’s emotional well-beings. Part of Eileen’s tendency to keep the peace in all aspects of her life brought on heavy burdens she didn’t need to take on. Part of Leena’s tendency to grind and overwork was to stave off unwanted memories and unacknowledged grief, all of which she needed to experience in order to reunite with her mother and move forward in life.

      What I love the most about O’Leary’s books is the way she handles universal, deep, and modern female experiences––all of them heavy, many of them uphill battles as a modern woman––and wraps them with humor and compassion. I know now when I dive into her novels I’m going to be dealing with some dark stuff, but I’ll still smile and laugh throughout the journey. All in all, she’s an “up-lit” author!

      If you enjoyed the humor and familiarity and female experiences of The Flatshare, you’ll enjoy this book. If you’re looking for predominantly romance, this isn’t quite it—though there, it’s not the point at all. This is uplifting fiction, discussing grief, community, mental health, aging, and never giving up.

      Posted in books, Reviews 2020 | 1 Comment | Tagged book review, books, genre: adult fiction, genre: contemporary, review
    • Mini Reviews

      Posted at 1:28 pm by Laura, on September 1, 2020

      It’s been…quite some time since I’ve really shared anything on here. It’s also been a very strange spring and summer, and reading for fun has been off and on, hit or miss. I’m way behind on reviews, so I’ll do my best over the next few weeks to catch up! First, some beachy contemporary reads!

      ~

      Beach Read by Emily Henry (★★★)

      I gave into the hype for my very first Book of the Month book, and while I enjoyed it I also found it to be of a bait-and-switch situation. Beach Read looks like a romcom, the premise seems like a romcom, but I’d argue it’s fairly close to domestic fiction with everything that’s unpacked in here. Nothing wrong with that––I enjoy romcom and women’s fiction alike––but it left a sour taste in my mouth with the packaging on this one.

      January is under deadline to write another romcom for her publisher, but she just doesn’t have it in her to do it. Her recently deceased father blew open a huge secret and it’s left her wondering if happily ever afters are possible. So she escapes to a lake house in Michigan to get back on track. Her neighbor, though, is rival writer Gus, who is so smug about writing literary fiction and winning all the big awards. They decide to enter a little competition: January will write something literary, and Gus will write something romantic. Sparks fly.

      Seems cute on the surface, but as we dig deeper into the novel there’s so much more to unpack: grief, childhood abuse, parental adoration, manipulation, the impact of bad relationships, defining family…to name a few. Though a few of the detours or ruminating scenes seemed unnecessary or overly drawn out to me, at the end of the day this is a character-driven novel that straddles commercial and literary romance. Go in knowing this isn’t a romcom, and you should be in good shape.

      Summer Longing by Jamie Brenner (★★★.5)

      I’ve checked out Jamie Brenner’s books from the library before but never got around to reading them before return. Finally was able to read this one in time, though. Jamie Brenner is going to be a new summer staple for me along with Kristy Woodson Harvey.

      The novel follows three POVs—Ruth (retired workaholic), Olivia (Ruth’s daughter, also a workaholic), and Elise (wife of Fern, owner of a tea shop)—and the lives of other women in the small Cape Cod Provincetown. Ruth just wants to reprioritize her life and relax, Olivia wants nothing to do with her mother and run run RUN successfully at her job, and Elise is desperate for a baby after she and her wife went through three failed IVF attempts. Ruth is renting Elise’s house for the summer, and all plans crash when a baby is left on the doorstep. Who is the mother? Why was the baby left here? And what is the right thing to do in this situation?

      I’ll admit I identified so much with Ruth and Olivia, and was very frustrated with Elise (so in this sense, I identified with her wife Fern who was so stern and practical). I’ll also admit this is likely because I’m in a headspace right now where the thought of having a child sends me into a panic. But there are women in my life, close friends, who would absolutely identify with Elise, who experienced similar disappointments. Ruth’s career-driven attitude and laser focus, and Olivia’s close connection with her phone, were both things each woman acknowledged and tried to redirect into something that brought joy. All in all, the way the women of this town come together to help raise the baby and figure out the best possible solution, was a joy to read. Sisterhood.

      This qualifies for my library books challenge!

      Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite (★★★)

      This YA novel is funny and surprising—a whirlwind of adventure, intrigue, and family secrets.

      Alaine is smart and sassy, clever and quick-witted. After her famous TV show host mother loses it live, and a nasty girl at school bullies Alaine over it, Alaine takes her abilities and uses it to pull an epic prank in a class presentation. Not the best idea in the world, as it results in her father sending her to Haiti to be with her mother and aunt, working on an immersion program to atone for her misbehavior. But once in Haiti, she finds there’s a whole lot more to her family history than she first believed, and that curses may in fact be real.

      I loved the way this was written—epistolary style is so much fun. Alaine is also the kind of person I wanted to be as a teen: fast with a comeback, confident, defends her loved ones fiercely. (I’m probably more of a Tatiana in this book!) She can be a little overly confident and that gets her into trouble, but her heart is always in the right place. I was surprised and very appreciative of the relationship she had with her mother. Her mother’s narrative is one I haven’t seen (or at least cannot recall) much in YA and I liked that exploration immensely.

      There was a lot happening in this narrative—Alaine’s assignment, her mother’s health, Alaine’s internship with her aunt for this app program, the history with her aunt and mother, the family curse—that felt disorganized. It worked, but did leave me reeling. I had to pause or slow down frequently to see how they all connected. Some events and characters seemed to be placed as vehicles to further the plot and curse. It almost felt like this book was trying to do too much, and I wanted more depth to one or two of the plots more so than a sprinkling of all of them. But ultimately, these writers (sister duo!) have a knack for the YA voice and it kept me engaged. I’m interested in reading their future books!

      This qualifies for my library books challenge!

      Posted in books, Reviews 2020 | 0 Comments | Tagged book review, genre: adult fiction, genre: contemporary, genre: young adult, mini review
    • Book Review: Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow

      Posted at 11:42 am by Laura, on June 27, 2020

      The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow

      Publisher: Redhook
      Published: September 2019
      Genre: historical fantasy
      ISBN: 9780316421997
      Rating: 
      ★★★★★

      In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.

      Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

      It feels like a lifetime ago I read this book and it left me speechless. Nearly six months later and I’m just now finding the time to sit down and write about it…

      The premise alone intrigued me. Stories that have artifacts, books, papers, letters, and this dusty, quiet, academic quality to it will always capture my attention. Stories within stories are fascinating. I went into this novel expecting one thing, and quickly learned it was entirely something else.

      January, as a mixed-race young woman in the early 1900s New England, is treated like an object to be examined, “treasured,” and hidden away. While Mr. Locke appears to be benevolent, it is because of his thirst to acquire artifacts from across the globe (and beyond)––in true rich, old, white man fashion––that January is unable to be with her father, a Black man who speaks thoughtfully and has beautiful tattoos across his arms. January wants nothing more than to be loved by her stranger of a father, and his departures become more difficult to bear.

      She finds solace in a mysterious book of stories. It smells like the sea, and it reminds her of a Door she discovered as a child in the middle of a field. This book feels like a friend, for in it the narrator shares they too know of these Doors to other places. She feels a deep connection to the narrator, and she can’t quite put her finger on why.

      This book opens January’s eyes to the life she could have had, to a life elsewhere, to the truth of her father’s departures and Mr. Locke’s nature. This book shapes January’s identity in such beautiful and heartbreaking ways. As each piece of the puzzle fell into place via these interconnected stories within the book, so too did the puzzles of January’s remarkable life. I was swept up in each tale, in January’s voice, in the melancholy of oppression and separation, in the deep joy of love and family, in the hunger for storytelling and knowledge. Months have passed and I’m still haunted by this stunning narrative.

      Ten Thousand is about nostalgia and hope. It’s about the magic of words and stories, love and friendship. It’s about power, obsession, and corruption. It’s about rebuilding and pushing forward. It’s about sacrifice. It’s everything I could want in a historical gothic portal fantasy.

      This qualifies for my TBR & genre challenge!

      Posted in books, Reviews 2020 | 2 Comments | Tagged book review, books, genre: adult fiction, genre: fantasy, genre: historical fiction, review
    • Mini Reviews

      Posted at 10:59 am by Laura, on June 13, 2020

      Once again I’m several weeks behind on reviews…months, even. This post will contain mini reviews of historical fiction I read in March through May!

      ~

      The Other Windsor Girl by Georgie Blalock (★★★)

       

      For fans of royal drama, The Crown, and “beach read”-style historical fiction, this is right up your alley. The novel is about Princess Margaret through the eyes of her (fictional) lady-in-waiting, Vera. Vera is a lower peer whose dream is to become a respectable published author. Her romance novels under a pen name prove successful, as Princess Margaret is a fan. Swept up in royal drama and the whirlwind that is Margaret’s life and personality, Vera loses sight of authorhood to devote all her energies to the royal.

      The novel spans about 10 years or so, from just before Queen Elizabeth’s coronation to Princess Margaret’s marriage to Tony. The writing was engaging enough for a novel that seemed to lose direction (though to be fair, it would make sense as Vera’s life is put entirely on hold to serve the princess). Characters felt a little two-dimensional, so it made for a quick read. However, if you’re at all familiar with the royal family’s history, and understand protocol, addressing royals/peerage, and the nicknames for things, this novel will grate a bit. I had to stop reading the Her Majesties and Ladies and Your Graces (and “Buck Place”) because it was all oh-so-painfully wrong.

      But! If you love historical fiction and you’re seeking a light, escapist read, this is just the ticket! 

      This qualifies for my TBR & genre challenge!

      A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas (★★★)

      Big thanks to my library for their vast digital collection! I finished listening to A Study in Scarlet Women on Hoopla, and enjoyed it overall. I liked the twist on the Sherlock Holmes narrative—still Victorian London, but Holmes and Watson are women and shocking society with their gender assumptions—and found the writing to be engaging enough to see what’s in store next. Thomas really brought London to life, and all the expectations and social norms of society and women’s roles really made for clever cover-ups and murder motives. I have the other audiobooks saved in my Hoopla account now––interested in seeing where this goes.

      This qualifies for my library books & genre challenge!

      All the Ways We Said Goodbye by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White (★★★)

      I’d listened to the W Trio’s work before (Glass Ocean) and did not enjoy it. Though I was impressed I wasn’t able to tell the authors apart, it just didn’t have that forward momentum for me.

      Flash forward to this novel—where three narratives are connected via the Hotel Ritz in Paris—and it was a massive improvement. Though I’d figured out/guessed all the connections and twists halfway into the novel, I wanted to power through to the end to see how it would be revealed to the characters. Aurilie is determined to save her family estate in WWI but she’s fallen in love with a German officer; Daisy’s husband in WWII is a Nazi-sympathizer and she stumbles into the Resistance; and Babs is a young widow in 1960s, uncovering her husband’s war work secrets with a spy. The settings felt so tangible, the hotel glamorous and a character wholly its own. The dialogue was engaging and I felt the characters’ emotions deeply—hard to do with so many POVs!

      I’d hoped to see/feel more of the wars and spy work, but I also believe this was meant to be more of a historical romance (or trio of romances) more than anything else. And if that’s the case, it was very well done! I personally would love to see more of Daisy’s grandmother…she would make an excellent character study. 

      This qualifies for my library books & genre challenge!

      The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordyn Taylor (ARC) (★★★)

      Thank you, Edelweiss, for providing this galley from HarperTeen for review!

      A lovely historical/contemporary parallel narrative about a teen who discovers her grandmother’s abandoned Paris apartment, and the secret sister she never knew Gram had.

      I enjoyed this for what it was: a sweet Anna and the French Kiss narrative in modern day (with a dash of seriousness with mental health that I wish was developed further to give the weight it deserved) and a French Resistance historical to excite any histfic reader. It had a blend of younger YA meeting older YA. The historical narrative felt almost adult to me—which seems fair, WWII generation had to grow up fast. I enjoyed the sense of adventure and research Alice (modern) put into discovering Adalyn’s (hist) past. What was meant to be a summer of cleaning out Gram’s secret Paris apartment turned into all sorts of deeper surprises into Gram’s past and ties with her family. What appears like sympathizing with the enemy is really spy work.

      If there are more hist/contemp parallel narratives in YA, I’m not familiar with them—this was my first experience within YA. I love parallel narratives in adult and seeing how it all ties together. Either because I’ve read so many, or maybe it was the new experience in YA itself, I’d guessed everything about halfway through. I would’ve appreciated a bit more secrecy and a more satisfying conclusion.

      However, this is meant for teens. I think a teen reader would appreciate the twists and turns, the parallels, the setting, the dip into historical fiction, the balance of upper and lower YA. (Plus, I was totally that teen who loved books about diaries and abandoned homes full of secrets!) I’d definitely recommend this.

      This qualifies for my genre challenge!

      Posted in books, Reviews 2020 | 1 Comment | Tagged advance reading copy, ARC, book review, genre: adult fiction, genre: historical fiction, genre: young adult, mini review
    • Book Review: Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender

      Posted at 2:47 pm by Laura, on May 3, 2020

      Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender

      Publisher: Orbit
      Published: November 2019
      Genre: fantasy
      ISBN: 9780316454933
      Rating: 
      ★★★.5

      An ambitious young woman with the power to control minds seeks vengeance against the royals who murdered her family, in a Caribbean-inspired fantasy world embattled by colonial oppression.

      Sigourney Rose is the only surviving daughter of a noble lineage on the islands of Hans Lollik. When she was a child, her family was murdered by the islands’ colonizers, who have massacred and enslaved generations of her people—and now, Sigourney is ready to exact her revenge.

      When the childless king of the islands declares that he will choose his successor from amongst eligible noble families, Sigourney uses her ability to read and control minds to manipulate her way onto the royal island and into the ranks of the ruling colonizers. But when she arrives, prepared to fight for control of all the islands, Sigourney finds herself the target of a dangerous, unknown magic.

      Someone is killing off the ruling families to clear a path to the throne. As the bodies pile up and all eyes regard her with suspicion, Sigourney must find allies among her prey and the murderer among her peers… lest she become the next victim.

      Difficult, compelling, rage-filled, complex, vengeful, powerful… This was the first book I read in 2020, and I started with a bang.

      This novel is full of unflinching rage and complexity on colonialism, power, and revenge. I am aware of my own privilege and the history of my race and the horrors and atrocities we committed, so this was a difficult pill to swallow but one I’m glad to have done.

      Beautiful writing—haunting, even—and great world building inspired by the Danish control of the Virgin Islands. Sigourney’s character was a bit passive amidst all the action and uninterested in the mystery of who was killing off all the kongelig, but her rage and moral complexity was strong as hell. I found this to be a character-driven novel with lots of intricate political intrigue and background detail going on. I’m interested in Løren’s POV in the next book, and what will come as a result.

      More than anything, diverse books are wonderful in sharing another’s view, and they also shed light on my disappointing lack of knowledge of the world. At least in American curriculum, the majority of our history lessons focus on white history, the successes of our power. We are not taught—unless we take an elective in college, and even then it’s likely white-centric—of the horrors and atrocities that having such power brought.

      Callender handles these complexities so well in this novel—what would an oppressed person do if given that power, but is not respected by others in power or those who are also oppressed?—exploring the ambiguity of what it means to walk that fine line. The terrible things Sigourney sees, does, and hears about are truths of our history, and we must face them head on too.

      This qualifies for my TBR & genre challenge!

      Posted in books, Reviews 2020 | 1 Comment | Tagged book review, books, genre: adult fiction, genre: fantasy, review
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    • Hello, I’m Laura!

      I'm a bookish bookworm and book hoarder. By day I'm a literary agent, and by night I'm forever rearranging my bookshelves. I could talk your ear off about Gothic literature, and in my past life people thought I'd become a professional musician. I have a fluffy black cat named Rossetti, I love to knit, tea is my drink of choice, British TV is the best, and I'm obsessed with popcorn. Welcome to Scribbles & Wanderlust! Grab your favorite hot beverage and let's chat books!
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