Review: Alice & Jean

Alice & Jean by Lily Hammond
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**Disclaimer: I received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Alice & Jean tells the story of Alice Holden, a war widow with two small children, who has fallen in love with Jean Reardon, the woman who delivers her milk every morning. The story starts off very fast with Alice already being head over heels for Jean (and vice-versa) so the reader doesn't get a very good sense of why Alice has fallen for Jean until near the end of the story when both women confess when/how they fell in love with the other. The pair face a lot of obstacles together- from Alice's overbearing and downright evil mother, to the whispers of the neighbors about Alice being seen with that woman, to the stereotypical man who feels jilted and can't stand women being together.

Which brings me to things I didn't like about this book: I feel like Big Jim was overdone. I do realize that there are plenty of men like him the world, but I really feel we could have done without his macho homophobia. And I understand that his actions were the means to the happy end of the story but just once I would like to read a f/f love story that didn't include alpha males or rape.

I also wasn't that impressed with Jean. The story definitely fell into that stereotypical "one is very femme and the other is very masculine" trope that I'm very, very burnt out on in f/f fiction. And maybe it wasn't the character herself as much as it was the way people treated her (Alice saying she wishes Jean were a man so they could get married, Tilly saying she wishes Jean could be her father, the men treating Jean like a man, etc.,) I think gender expression and fluidity is great and amazing (I myself am nonbinary) but I feel like Jean was only a stand-in for a man in the story. We don't get a sense of how she feels about her gender, only that she likes to wear trousers and enjoys jobs that are traditional more masculine. I would have felt more comfortable with her if there had been more discussion on how she identified or how she felt about having people continuously treat her like a man.

I did like the story, though. I loved the way the group of women came together to protect Alice from Big Jim because we have a severe lack of solid, powerful, and protective female friendships in LGBTQAI+ literature. I also loved the fact that Alice does not forgive her mother in the end but does reach a compromise with herself that makes her happy.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick f/f read with minimal sex scenes, strong female friends, and a HEA ending.

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Diversity in YA (HOLIDAY GUIDE)

Putting this list together was incredibly hard because there are so many GREAT diverse book in YA. Here are just a few to get you started!

SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo




Summary: Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price--and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction―if they don't kill each other first.




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LABYRINTH LOST by Zoraida Cordova




Summary: Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation...and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can't trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange marks on his skin.
The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland...




BUY HERE: AMAZON   THRIFTBOOKS   BOOK DEPOSITORY

*NOTE: This is not an own voice story but Becky Albertalli has done a wonderful job with her characters and with the situations they face.




SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA by Becky Albertalli




Summary: Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met.




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ALL AMERICAN BOYS by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely




Summary: A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?

There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before.




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IF I EVER GET OUT OF HERE by Eric Gansworth




Summary: Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the Fireball games, the snow blowing through his roof. What he's not used to is white people being nice to him -- people like George Haddonfield, whose family recently moved to town with the Air Force. As the boys connect through their mutual passion for music, especially the Beatles, Lewis has to lie more and more to hide the reality of his family's poverty from George. He also has to deal with the vicious Evan Reininger, who makes Lewis the special target of his wrath. But when everyone else is on Evan's side, how can he be defeated? And if George finds out the truth about Lewis's home -- will he still be his friend?




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THE WRATH & THE DAWN by Renee Ahdieh




Summary: Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.




BUY HERE: AMAZON   THRIFTBOOKS   BOOK DEPOSITORY

A TIME TO DANCE by Padma Venkatraman




Summary: Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.




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SHADOWSHAPER by Daniel Jose Older




Summary: Sierra Santiago planned to have an easy summer of making art and hanging out with her friends. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Her stroke-ridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears... Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on.

With the help of a mysterious fellow artist named Robbie, Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one -- and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret. Now she must unravel her family's past, take down the killer in the present, and save the future of shadowshaping for herself and generations to come.




BUY HERE: AMAZON   THRIFTBOOKS   BOOK DEPOSITORY

KILLER OF ENEMIES by Joseph Bruchac




Summary: Years ago, seventeen year old Apache hunter Lozen and her family lives in a world of haves and have-nots. There were the Ones (people so augmented with technology and genetic enhancements that they were barely human) and there was everyone else who served the Ones.
Then the Cloud came, and everything changed. Tech stopped working. The world plunged back into a new steam age. The Ones' pets — genetically engineered monsters — turned on them and are now loose on the world.
Lozen was not one of the lucky ones pre-C, but fate has given her a unique set of survival skills and magical abilities. She hunts monsters for the Ones who survived the apocalyptic events of the Cloud, which ensures the safety of her kidnapped family. But with every monster she takes down, Lozen's powers grow, and she connects those powers to an ancient legend of her people. It soon becomes clear to Lozen that she is not just a hired gun… Lozen is meant to be a hero.




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CHALLENGER DEEP by Neal Shusterman




Summary: Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.
Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.
Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence to document the journey with images.
Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.
Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.
Caden Bosch is torn.




BUY HERE: AMAZON   THRIFTBOOKS   BOOK DEPOSITORY

GEORGIA PEACHES AND OTHER FORBIDDEN FRUIT by Jaye Robin Brown




Summary: Joanna meets the perfect girl for her and must decide whether to break a promise that could change everything for her and her family or lose out on love in this charming young adult romance that’s perfect for fans of Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’ and Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.
Joanna Gordon has been out and proud for years, but when her popular radio evangelist father remarries and decides to move all three of them from Atlanta to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: to lie low for the rest of her senior year. And Jo reluctantly agrees.
Although it is (mostly) much easier for Jo to fit in as a straight girl, things get complicated when she meets Mary Carlson, the oh-so-tempting sister of her new friend at school. But Jo couldn’t possibly think of breaking her promise to her dad. Even if she’s starting to fall for the girl. Even if there’s a chance Mary Carlson might be interested in her, too. Right?




BUY HERE: AMAZON   THRIFTBOOKS   BOOK DEPOSITORY










And that wraps up my first ever holiday guide series! I hope y'all found something you like and may this be the jumpstart to a new year of diverse reading for you!!

Review: Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case

Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was unfamilar with the Loving vs. Virginia case until a few months ago when I saw an ad on YouTube for the upcoming movie. While I am excited to see how it plays out on screen, I was even more excited to see a book about the case.

Not just a book, really, Loving vs. Virginia is a carefully crafted novel of blank prose, photos, pieces of legislation, illustrations, and other excerpts that bring to life the case that changed laws regarding interracial marriage. At its heart, though, this is a wonderful story about two children who grew up together and fell in love despite the laws and prejudices that were set against them and ultimately tried to tear them apart. Despite the obstacles they faced, Mildred and Richard shared an unflinching love.

I can’t wait to have an actual physical copy of this book to add to my collection.


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Good versus Diverse

I keep seeing this discussion of good books versus diverse books.


"I want to read diversely but I also want to read good books."


"I value quality over specific topic." (yes, that was a real tweet but a real live white person trying to defend their decision to not read diversely.)


Brace yourself, here's some shocking news for y'all not in the know: Books can be good and diverse. At the same time. Can you believe that?? Is your mind blown?


Let me explain to you what I hear when you say that you want to read good books instead of diverse books. When you tell me that you prefer quality books over diverse books, you're telling me (and every other PoC, Queer, or marginalized voice) that you think our stories are boring. You're saying that you think marginalized authors are not capable of writing good books. You are playing into every white fantasy of white people being smarter, more articulate, more creative than any PoC in the room. You're saying that a marginalized author can't possible build a fantasy world as rich and deep as your favorite white authors. You are continuing centuries of oppressing marginalized voices.


I hear people say that they don't want to waste money on books (diverse books) because they might not like them, but you'll gladly spend cash on white authors that booktubers have promoted that you've never read. If you're willing to invest money in unknown white authors but hesitate to invest in marginalized authors, the problem isn't that you're afraid of the book not being good. The problem is that you think marginalized authors are not worth your money or your time. That's racism. That's sexism. That's ableism. That's homophobia.


In the last few weeks, I've been given a few books for review. The only one that was any good was by an unknown diverse author (Tristan J. Tarwater to be exact and I highly recommend you check her out here). The best books I've read this year have been by diverse authors.


I want to say this as clearly and as loudly as possible. IF YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE CHANCES ON UNKNOWN WHITE AUTHORS BUT NOT ON MARGINALIZED AUTHORS, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.


I can't force anyone to read more diversely. I can't. But I'm also not going to turn my head and let you pretend that you have "standards" that just happen to include only reading cishet white authors who write about cishet white characters. You might not read diversely but trust me when I say that everyone in the room has their eyes on you and have figured you out.

Review: THE HUNDRED LIES OF LIZZIE LOVETT

Title: THE HUNDRED LIES OF LIZZIE LOVETT
Author: Chelsea Sedoti
Rating: ★★☆☆☆


Lizzie Lovett is missing and Hawthorn Creely has a theory...


I'm always a fan of books that involve mysterious disappearances and teenager misfits so I thought that THE HUNDRED LIES OF LIZZIE LOVETT was going to be the book for me. It only took 20 pages for me to realize that was definitely not true.


I have never been opposed to unreliable narrators. Usually they add depth to a story but Hawthorn is not really an unreliable narrator as much as she is a privileged, spoiled brat who probably has a mental illness that her hippie mother and look-the-other-way day had ignored her entire life. The reason I think Hawthorn is mental ill is the fact that she clearly suffers from delusions. We're told of an instance where she thinks her teacher is a terrorist and when Lizzie goes missing, she genuinely believes this wild and utterly unbelievable story she's concocted in her head.


From the beginning of the story, Hawthorn wants us to believe that Lizzie was a mean girl in high school but when we get the backstory of why Hawthorn hates Lizzie, the reader starts to see how unreliable Hawthorn's POV is. She built this huge friendship in her head with Lizzie after they had one tiny conversation and was crushed when Lizzie didn't remember her weeks later.


The title of the book itself is misleading. There are no 'hundred lies' in Lizzie's life. I actually think it's pretty problematic to act like Lizzie's depression and the way she tried to hide it was a 'lie'. She was clearly a girl trying to survive high school and trying to make herself feel better. That's not a lie- that's life. Hawthorn saying that Lizzie was "always changing" after she found a middle school yearbook where Lizzie had died her hair black (presumably she was goth or emo) struck me as odd because yes, people do change as they age and grow.


I'm still unclear if Sedoti meant for Hawthorn to be as unlikable as she was. There were moments where Sedoti tried to write redeeming parts for the character but after all the awful things she did and said, the efforts fell very flat. I was horrified that Hawthorn thought it was ok to approach people who were clearly grieving over Lizzie's disappearance with her absolutely ridiculous theory about what had happened to Lizzie, even more horrified when her parents didn't swiftly punish her for such behavior.


THINGS THAT LOST THIS BOOK MAJOR POINTS:
- The sexual relationship between a 17 year old girl and a 25 year old man. YA authors really need to move away from this.
- The casual use of the slur 'g*psy' to describe a caravan of white hippies.
- Hawthorn calling another girl a slut. There were a million things she could have insulted Mychelle about but she instantly goes in to calling her slut and degrading her for being sexually active which was extremely funny to me since Hawthorn was sleeping with a grown man she barely knew. We need to be steering teenage girls away from calling each other sluts or whores instead of encouraging them to do it in books.


Would I recommend this book? Absolutely not. The plot was flimsy at best, the pacing dragged (the first 100 pages were absolute filler), and the only character that was even likable was the best friend who we were clearly not supposed to like that much.

Review: Challenger Deep

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Deads kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug.

So many times I have picked up a YA book about mental illness and realize with horror that the books is romanticizing it (*cough* All the Bright Place *cough*). But Neal Shusterman has done an excellent job showcasing mental illness as it actually is: painful and embarrassing. He shows not only the descent of Caden's mental state but also the start of the uprise and all the messy moments in between. From lashing out, to disturbed cognitive behavior, to hurt friends and family, to vomiting because sometimes the medicine just make you do that.

As someone who has been hospitalized due to mental illness, who has suffered through that mental collapse, I can honestly say that I've never read a book that got it this right.

I was I could write a review that would do this book justice, but I can't. There's no words to describe how much I loved and appreciated every moment of this text.

I will say to keep an eye out for the drawings in the book. They were drawn by Brandon Shusterman, the author's son, during his own hospitalization!

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Review: The Marauders' Island

The Marauders' Island by Tristan J. Tarwater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm really not even sure where to begin with this book.

No, I do know where to begin. If you haven't read this book, you need to go do so. Right now. Buy this book.

I hadn't heard much about The Marauders' Island until I saw it on twitter and even though the person had given it a glowing review, I didn't think that I would be as entertained by the book as I was. You will fall in love with these characters as you get to know them but there will also be times where you dislike their actions. I mean, these are well-rounded, fleshed out characters, so that's how it's supposed to be.

This book follows Azria, a teenage mage, as she is reunited with her mother Apzana, a runaway pirate with a ragtag crew and pretty sweet pirate ship. It seems like a simple adventure story when you realize what Apzana wants Azria to do but as you read the text, you will discover that above the adventure is a story of a mother and daughter healing old wounds and mending their very frayed relationship.

My favorite things about this book is how gender roles play no part and the easy with which sexuality is discussed. There is no big 'coming out' for any of the characters, just casual mentions of their same-sex partner or partners ("His husband and wife pine for him...") and it was so refreshing to have a story that involved Queer characters without their Queerness being front and center stage.

There were a few times the dialogue seemed clumpy, mostly in the beginning when the author was trying to develop the back history of Miz but it honestly took nothing away from the story to me.

I am very, very excited to see where Tristan Tarwater takes us in the next book!

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