I'VE MOVED!

You can now follow me at my new blog!

Review: A MONTH OF MONDAYS

Title: A MONTH OF MONDAYS
Author: Joelle Anthony
Rating: ★★★★★
Summary: This can’t be good! Suddenly Suze’s mom wants back into her life, and her teacher wants her to “try harder”?!

As if middle school wasn’t hard enough, Suze Tamaki's life gets turned upside down when her mother reappears after a ten-year absence. Once Suze gets over her shock, she thinks it might be cool to get to know her mom. But her older sister Tracie is determined not to let her back into their lives.

At school things aren’t much better. One of her teachers decides the way to cure Suze’s lack of motivation is to move her into Honors English – a development Suze finds both inspiring and distressing. When she's paired with straight-A student Amanda on an English assignment, she finds herself caring about people’s expectations like she’s never done before.


***I was given a free e-ARC of this book by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***


Suze Tamaki is literally just coasting through middle school, trying to survive rocky friendships, bad dye jobs, and a principal who is out to get her. Her English teacher pairs her up with an Honors English student to work on a project. When Suze and Amanda find out that the school system is planning to get rid of their beloved custodians, the two girls turn saving their jobs into their English project. And if everything goes well, Suze will get to stay in Honors English- something that she desperately wants (it also scares her to death).


Adding to that stress is the reappearance of Suze's mom who left the family when Suze was just 3. While Suze wants to give her mother a second chance, older sister Traci is adamantly against it and resents Suze for her decision.


This is a pretty realistic story about not just growing up but also family ties. The characters were well thought out and the plot was solid. I loved the way it wrapped up and the decision Suze made about how much she influence she was going to allow her missing mother to have on her life. I've read a lot of stories where the child just fully forgives the parent who walked away, so it was nice to see a story where the child acknowledges their hurt over being abandoned and taking steps to protect themselves.


It was a lovely middle grade read but I would definitely recommend this to all realistic fiction lovers.

Review: ALLEGEDLY

Title: ALLEGEDLY
Author: Tiffany D. Jackson
Rating: ★★
Summary: Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.

Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?


This was a strangely hard book to rate. Part of me understands exactly how impactful this book is. ALLEGEDLY covers a hard but true topic of how PoC, specifically Black people, are treated by the police and justice systems. Tiffany Jackson is also a masterful story teller. There's also a narrative on child abuse, survival sex, and the broken system that handles children who have been taken by the state and given to folks who use them as a business instead of treating them like children.


However, I cannot give this book a high rating due to the fatphobia and queerphobia represented in this book.


Ms. Stein limps into the kitchen, her bowlegs fat and swollen. You’d think someone would change their diet after they reach over two hundred pounds. But not Ms. Stien. She still eats an entire box of Entenmann’s crumb topped donuts a day.


"She wears black wrist guards and one of those weight belts that sits right below her bulging gut, yet I've never seen her work out or lift anything but food to her mouth." 


I've seen several people comment that the fatphobia was to show how the system and Mary's mother had made her intolerant but I don't buy that. This is not a character flaw. This is an author who chose to make two of the most arguable heinous characters in her book fat, slovenly, mean, and lazy. She could have made Ms. Stein evil without ever mentioning her size but she goes into great detail several times to push home the fact that not only is this woman abusive and terrible, she's also fat. Which, in text, seems to be her greatest crime of all- existing while being fat.


My mom… she kicked me out when she caught me with my first girlfriend. Pretty little light skin thing with curly hair…”


She glances at me and I stare at the floor. Kelly rolls her eyes and mouths. “Ew.”

China is the manliest person in the house. She wears nothing but boy clothes, even boxers which seems like overkill. Momma would be disgusted at the “nasty lesbian” I’m living with. she hates anything that is not in the Bible, which seems like everything.

“How long you been a rug muncher for?”


At no point in the book is this homophobia every questioned. In fact, China seems to only exist to be made fun of or to have sex with another female character. It was highly uncomfortable to see the only queer character being used in this way.


The last thing I want to talk about in my review is something that was hard for me to stomach and almost made me DNF the book. Mary is pregnant. She is 15 and the father of her baby is an adult. While I understand that this is real life for many people, it was also hard for me to read this book and never once see Mary understand that she was taken advantage of. I've seen a lot of arguments about this but Mary is fifteen. She is a child. She is a child who grew up in prison and has not had adequate emotional development being taken advantage by an adult. The whole book is Mary trying to protect this adult because she knows he will go to jail because what he did to her is illegal. Let me reiterate this: children cannot consent to sex with an adult. They cannot consent because they are children.


Honestly, the only thing that kept me from DNFing this book was I wanted to find out what really happened to Alyssa although half way through I pretty much figured out what the plot twist was going to be as it is heavily foreshadowed throughout the book.


Again, I do understand the importance of this book due to the topic at hand but I can't say that I would ever recommend this book to anyone due to the fatphobia and queerphobia.

February 2017 Wrap-Up!

I read 15 books this month but I read one book 3 times so... February was pretty much on track with January considering this month was 3 days shorter.

Without further ado...

THE LIE TREE by Frances Hardinge
- I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book. Generally I stay away from books set in the 1800s but the cover of this one sucked me in and then the promise of a demon tree kept me reading. I was not disappointed.

THE DISTANCE TO HOME by Jenn Bishop
- I love middle grade books that deal with hard subjects. This book follows Quinnen during the spring after her older sister's death. The topic was beautifully handled, and I couldn't resist any book that has baseball in it.

STELLA BY STARLIGHT by Sharon M. Draper
- Set in North Carolina in 1932, this book chronicles life in the Jim Crow area through the eyes of Stella, a young Black child who has just witnessed the KKK burning a cross near her home. I read this one with my godkid for their Black History Month project and was incredibly pleased with how the book handles family, truth, and understanding that sometimes you just have to stand up.

THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick
- After hearing so much about Selznick's half picture, half word books, I decided to check on out for myself. Despite the size of the book, it was a really fast read with a terribly heartwarming ending.

UNTITLED (THE LEAH BOOK) by Becky Albertalli
- This is the book I read 3 times, haha. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say... just know this book is amazing and I can't wait to scream about it!

BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jaqueline Woodson
- My first audio book ever! This was read my the author herself so it definitely added a lot of depth to her already beautiful prose.

THE WARDEN'S DAUGHTER by Jerry Spinelli
- This book follows 12 year old Cammie, the warden's daughter. Set in 1959 against the backdrop of a penitentiary, this isn't your normal coming of age story. Cammie is desperately searching for a mother figure. Book deals with mental illness.

SANCTUM by Madeleine Roux
- Sequel to ASYLUM and in my opinion, much better than ASYLUM. Secret cults, creepy carnivals, messages from the possessed... what could go wrong?

ASYLUM by Madeleine Roux
- A dorm full of teenagers in an old asylum where gruesome experiments took place... I'm sure we can all guess what happens. Not the best book in the world but not the worst either.

THE PANTS PROJECT by Cat Clarke
- Story of a trans boy who fights his school's gendered dress code. I really enjoyed this book.

TRICK OR TREAT MURDER by Leslie Meier
- My first cozy mystery in months!

HOODOO by Ron L. Smith
- There's hoodoo the practice and Hoodoo the boy and together they can defeat any ol' demon that comes along.

ALLEGEDLY by Tiffany Jackson
- I was beyond excited to read this book but was ultimately terribly disappointed. Jackson has a strong writing style and an obvious gift for story telling but the book was packed tight with fatphobia and queerphobia.

LEGEND by Marie Lu
- I ended up skimming the last 50 or so pages of this.

ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND by Gena Showalter
- I thought this was going to be Alice in Wonderland with zombies but it's actually just a girl named Alice and some zombies. Not to mention that the "love interest" was totally abusive. No thanks.


And that's it for February! I hope everyone had a great reading month and I hope March is just as kind!

SERIES I HAVE NOT FINISHED

Spring Cleaning fever started a touch early for me this year and I started with my Goodreads TBR shelf. While I was culling books that I have lost interest in reading, I noticed that I had a lot of unfinished series on my list. I decided to jot them down and determine whether I was actually ever going to finish them or not. Below are the series that I've started and haven't finished... and might not ever finish.

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL by Soman Chainani.
- I started this series in October 2016 when I thought I was going to meet the author at YallFest. If you follow me on twitter, you probably already know what a disaster YallFest was for me and for whatever reason, when I got home, I put these books away. I do plan to finish books 2 & 3 sometime this year.

 

DOROTHY MUST DIE by Danielle Paige
- My dad bought me the first book as a Christmas gift in 2015 (I'm not sure why... I was terrified of the Wizard of Oz as a child). It took until September of 2016 for me to actually read the first book and then I waited a little while before reading the second and third books. The final boo, THE END OF OZ, comes out in March and I'm SO excited to see how Danielle Paige wraps this series up.

CURIOUSITY HOUSE by Lauren Oliver
- I read this one after watching Richard Denney give it a rave review on his booktube channel. This is a middle grade series that is full of mystery and spooky vibes. I haven't been able to get into Lauren Oliver's YA books but I do love this series.

CASTOR CHRONICLES by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
- This is definitely one of those series that either you love it or hate it. If you look at any booktube video where the booktuber discusses series they won't be finishing, this is usually on it. I, personally, enjoyed the first book and after finding the rest of the series for about $9 at my local used bookstore, I will be (at least attempting) finishing this series this year.

13 TREASURE by Michelle Harrison
- Another middle grade series I want to finish. Again, this one came at the recommendation of Richard Denney, and really, who doesn't love a story about fae?

WILDWOOD by Colin Meloy
- I'll be honest- this was 100% a cover buy. I did enjoy the first one, even it's occasional pretentious Portland vibe, but I really struggled to get anywhere with the second book and ended up putting it down after the first 100 pages. I do plan to give this series another shot before I donate them to my library.

PRETTY LITTLE LIARS by Sara Shepard
- There was a time in my life where I was painfully obsessed with the TV show Pretty Little Liars. When I found out they were originally a book series, I compulsively bought the first 5 books and then was hit with a brick wall of disappointment because the books and the show are nothing alike. I'm still really on the fence about finishing this series but since I have fallen out of love with the show... maybe the books will be more appealing now.

THE DARKEST MINDS by Alexandra Bracken
- I received this book as a gift in 2016 and didn't really pick it up until right before YallFest. On the way to Charleston, I finished THE DARKEST MINDS and stopped in Atlanta to buy the 2nd and 3rd books. I did start the 2nd one but was kind of overwhelmed with just how boring it was. I'm going to give it another shot this year but I kind of have the feeling I'll be donating this entire series to the library.

SOMETHING LIKE by Jay Bell
- I purchase SOMETHING LIKE SUMMER and SOMETHING LIKE WINTER when they were on sell on Kindle. I really enjoyed the first book but felt kind of iffy on the second book. It's definitely white cisgay centered and that's just not appealing to me anymore. I might pick up the other books if they ever go on sale.

(just a quick run through because these books have already wasted enough of my time)

THE MAGICIANS by Lev Grossman
- Sold as "adult Harry Potter", I barely finished the first book. The characters were flat and Quentin is definitely your typical douchebag who feels sorry for himself. All. The. Time.

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs
- I tried to do a reread for the release of the third book, got through half of the first book and then questioned myself extensively on why I liked this series in the first place.

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS by Cassandra Clare
- No.

WORLDWALKER by Josephine Angelini
- This series is so problematic. Between the magically cured chronic illness, the Native "savages", and the white savior complex from the little blonde girl... yeah, this is a hard pass.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis
- Dude risks a girl's life because he wants a chance to have sex. Lol no.

FAIRYLAND by Catherynne M. Valente
- I wanted to love this book. It has dragons and an assortment of magical creatures but reading the book felt very much like talking to someone who tries too hard to be smart.

NEED by Carrie Ryan
- The only thing I remember about this series was that the vampires? fae? whatever left trails of gold glitter.

THE 5TH WAVE by Rick Yancey
- The first book was good. The 2nd, not so much. The 3rd... I don't know her.

DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver
- I didn't make it through the first 50 pages, to be honest.

13 TO LIFE by Shannon Delaney
- My niece was really into these books and I decided to read them as a "bonding" thing with her. She finished the entire series. I read the first two books and then some spoilers.

LEGEND by Marie Lu
- Those last 20 pages were the hardest I've ever forced myself to read.

THE WHITE RABBIT CHRONICLIES by Gena Showalter
- I thought this was going to be Alice in Wonderland with zombies. But this was just a girl named Alice and some zombies.

And that's the series I have started and haven't finished... and might not ever finish.

NATIVE/INDIGENOUS ERASURE IN THE DIVERSITY COMMUNITY

In the later part of 2016, I had a confrontation with someone on twitter who claimed they were an ally to all marginalized people. I had been subscribed to this person on booktube beforehand but had quickly unsubbed when they created a video that featured them using lipstick as "war paint" in a video where they talked about Peter Pan. When I called them out on twitter about it, I was immediately met with resistance and the person even talked down to me, asking me if I understood what the video was "really about" because they were using "war paint to point out racism in the book". I'm 100% sure that's not how pointing out racism works. This rocked on for a few hours and ended with her sending a handful of her white male friends to harass me through DMs as she not so vaguely subtweeted me and lamented to her followers about what a bully I was.

In reality, I expect this from white twitter. I do. I'm not shocked by it. What I was shocked by was the absolute lack of response from the diverse book community. Literally no one came to my aid, no one stood up for me. And this happens a lot of with Native people, I've noticed.

Not only is the diverse book community content to stand by while Native people fight their own battles, there is an alarming lack of Native books and authors being recommended in these long diverse book lists. And it takes a Native person calling this out for even one Native book/author to be added. My timeline was filled with women's march posts but the only people I ever see posting #NoDAPL things are... Natives. It's just like when I posted about the problematic line in JULIET TAKES A BREATH about Native genocide, I was met with a smattering of replies but mostly silence. People are still recommending that book with absolutely NO warning or acknowledgement of the hurtful treatment of Natives. I have people I consider to be my friends who will RT every post about social injustice but NEVER post anything regarding Native/Indigenous lives.

I'm tired of giving my all and being given crumbs in return. I am currently on hiatus from twitter as I work out my complicated feelings for a community I love that clearly has no room for me or my relatives in it.

Review: The Pants Project

The Pants Project by Cat Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

***I received a free e-ARC from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review***

THE PANTS PROJECT follows Liv, a transgender boy, as he navigates his first year of middle school and tackles his school's outdated gendered dress code.

I was initially hesitant about reading requesting this book because I couldn't find any information about the author and whether or not THE PANTS PROJECT was an #ownvoice book. Generally, I do not read books with trans characters that are not written by trans authors because cis people tend to make a mess and mockery of the trans experience. I did, however, end up requesting this book. There were a few lines that felt off to me (comparing being trans to being a transformer) but since that's outside of my experience, I can't speak on whether that language is problematic or not. While I am nonbinary, I have not had the same experience as Liv and so my review will not be focusing on the trans aspect until I hear from trans reviewers and what their thoughts on the language and terminology in the book is.

I did enjoy this book. The plot was solid and I enjoyed reading about Liv tackling a resistant intuition and forcing them to reevaluate their gendered dress code (pants for "boys", skirts for "girls"). I thought the reactions of everyone in the story was very true to real life. The characters themselves were wonderfully fleshed out, everyone had a distinct voice in the story, even the minor characters.

My favorite part of the book is that while Liv forgives his former best friend, he doesn't feel the need to accept her back as a friend. I think that's important thing for young readers to understand. Too many times we have books where the best friend betrays the MC in a terrible way but by the end of the book, they are best friends again. It's definitely important to remind young children (and even adults!) that we don't have to allow people back into our lives just because they are "sorry" that they treated us poorly.

A few things that I didn't like in this book: I wish the author would have explained more about Jacob's condition. This is a middle grade book and I'm guessing a lot of middle grade aged kids probably wouldn't really understand what hypermobility is. That was the second thing I didn't like about this book- sometimes it felt like the author forgot they were writing a middle grade book. The kids in the book are 11/12 years olds but sometimes it felt like the author was writing them as 16/17 year olds.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a good 'sticking it to the man' story.


View all my reviews