When I saw the description of this book being Addie LaRue but darker, I lowered my expectations. I read Addie long before I read other works from Schwab and found myself simply whelmed, not over or underwhelmed. Unfortunately, I have to agree that the comparison is accurate. Schwab has a magnificent writing style, one that adapts so well to many different types of books. That writing style kept me reading this book. Each
of the characters has incredible depth as well. I resonated with all three characters’ desire to push back against the injustice that kept them in their supposed place. Unfortunately, I grew to extremely dislike Maria, an incredibly toxic character and the one of the three that – I think – had the most page time. The ending also left me unsatisfied after an interesting twist because I did not see Alice’s accusations of Lottie that led her to do what she did. This book will work for some but I am not among that number.
Some books are not bad; they just do not work for me. Some books, however, lack a lot of the elements that make it at least decent in terms of technical writing skill. I wish I had never requested this ARC (that I noticed afterwards belonged to a book published 11 months ago – I requested it only a few days prior to reading). I should have DNF’d. Instead, I tortured myself with this book that masqueraded as a YA coming of age/romance
simply so I could write the review on Netgalley. None of the characters have any depth or act like actual high schoolers (aka not what an adult thinks high schoolers act like.) Almost all of the guys – save the ultimate love interest of course – act like horrible humans and potential abusers. The writing was incredibly simplistic. Obviously, I do not recommend this book – even though it somehow has a 5 star rating on both Storygraph and Goodreads. How?
Neal Shusterman always has challenging, thought-provoking ideas that he bases his novels on. Some have worked better than others for me. This premise worked well, although not quite as well as his Arc of a Scythe trilogy. This book takes place in a recently post-Covid world where a new virus threatens to upend the world once again. This virus – Crown Royale – is just as deadly but has a unique side effect for the 96% who
survive. Recoverees experience no negative emotions and instead are driven by a compulsion to make the world better. The narrative has three primary characters who all fall into the upper YA age range. Their lives interact with each other and a large host of other characters in various ways as they – and the world – grapple with the complicated ethics surrounding this virus. This is a fascinating case study albeit one that lacks significant depth to any of the characters, the one flaw that brings down my rating. I do recommend this book with the caveat that some may find it a bit lacking.
This was a difficult memoir to get through. The author had a difficult and traumatic childhood because of the schizophrenia of her father, the likely undiagnosed mental illness of her mother, the abuse from and instability of her stepfather and other things that I cannot remember specifically. I learned a lot from her story but would not necessarily recommend her memoir. I think the times when the narrative skips around
chronologically – it proceeds in a general chronological manner but not a strict one – impedes the reader’s experience. Overall though, this memoir presents much for the reader to learn.
I really enjoyed this companion sequel ti A Drop of Venom and hope that we get the story of the third sister which is set up well at the end of this novel. (I say that I hope for the third novel because it seems like the Rick Riordan Presents imprint may be ending or Disney publishing in general may be pulling way back on the number of titles that they publish because they have only six books available on Netgalley, none of which are
RRP.) In this book, one of the twin elder sisters makes a deal with some sort of underworld creatures to save her family which they eventually come to collect on. Just like the first book in the series, Patel retells an ancient Greek myth – Persephone this time – through Indian mythology. I really enjoyed how Patel wove the two mythologies together as well as the care she took in developing all of the characters. I definitely recommend this book.
This book had an interesting premise. The main character is a smart kid with a penchant for all kinds of pranks which gets him in trouble frequently at school and at home, especially with his gullible younger brother who clearly loves his older brother while ending up as the guinea pig for a lot of the main character’s pranks. The book opens with a sene where the main character has used all of the aluminum foil to wrap up his
brother, convincing him that doing so will give him superpowers. When the duo calls it quits on the “experiment”, the main character checks the mail and finds a letter telling him that he is a finalist for a “Greatest Kid in the World” contest. He thinks it’s a joke but it turns out to be real and involves fine days of filming and online voting. One does have to suspend disbelief a bit in a doable way. Throughout the story, the main character learns how his behavior has affected others and been affected by various events in his life. That ending though? At first it seems like the resolution will wrap up nicely but then the final scene feels like an abrupt curtain drop leaving the resolution – in my mind – unresolved. I did not mind the book but that ending definitely dropped it down for me.