April Mystery Book review - Witchshadow by Susan Dennard

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm omitting the cover synopsis for this one, because Witchshadow is the fifth book in the Witchlands series, so I don't want to give spoilers from the jump to anyone who wants to read the series and hasn't yet. Instead, I'm including the synopsis from the cover of the first book, so anyone interested knows what the series is about, and then I'll talk a bit about the series as a whole.

From the cover of Truthwitch:

"Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs, as she is a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden, lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking, and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike, for some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch."

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So, the story centers around Safi and Iseult but involves a whole cast of characters, and the first book starts just as the Twenty Year Truce, which has kept several warring empires from destroying each other for nearly two decades, is about to end. Politically, tensions are high because this collapse of already tenuous peace is looming, and with the end drawing near anyway there's every chance that one of the signers will choose to violate the truce and end it early just to get a jump on the war that will inevitably come soon anyway. Personally, tensions are also high for Safi and Iseult because a Bloodwitch has discovered Safi's magic and begun to track them, so now they have to sneak out of Venaza City without being discovered, something made extra tricky because Iseult is Nomatsi and prejudices against the Nomatsi run high in the city, drawing her added attention. 

Of course, things immediately go wrong when they try to escape Venaza City, and things continue to go wrong from there, but along the way, we meet several fascinating characters, like Merik Nihar, his threadbrother Cullen, and Cullen's heart thread Ryber. We learn more about Aeduan, the Bloodwitch, and his complicated past, delve into the stories of Paladins and the Cahr Awen, and discover long-forgotten Cartorran history. Things get impossibly complicated, and I have to say, I wish I kept a notebook with me while I read to take notes. There's SO much backstory, and it's incredible, but it's a lot to keep track of! Fortunately, losing track of things just means getting rocked by huge reveals instead of seeing them coming. 

Just Ask Elsie - Ari Koontz

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Elsie Parker is having a totally normal fifth grade year. Fractions and conjunctions - check. Stressing about middle school - check. Body-positive puberty class at church that also covers feelings and identities - check.

Okay, maybe that last one isn't so normal. It's a little weird (and awkward) to spend her Sundays talking periods, B.O., and pimples. But Elsie's also learning a lot more than she's heard in her public-school health class - like the difference between sex and gender, and what consent is, and what it might mean that she can't stop blushing around a certain cute girl at her school.

When her puberty lessons become the school's latest gossip, Elsie's totally humiliated...until she finds an anonymous note in her locker from a classmate who wants to know more, and realizes that other kids might have embarrassing questions of their own.

Starting an underground advice board wasn't exactly in her plans, but Elsie won't pass up a chance to turn her reputation around - or to share words and labels that have not-so-accidentally been left off their curriculum. But when the principal tries to shut down the unauthorized puberty talk, Elsie has to decide what she's willing to risk to tell the truth to kids who really need to hear it."

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So Elsie is one of only a few students in her school who has access to real, helpful education about what to expect from puberty, and while at first it's embarrassing when people find out, she ultimately realizes that her classmates need the information she's learning as much as she does, and what's more she is passionate about trying to share it. Her principal doesn't like that she's sharing said information on a whiteboard on her locker (particularly information about what the letters in LGBTQ stand for), so she and her crush/new friend team up to put the information in a zine instead. The objection to her whiteboard was that it was too public, so younger students who weren't ready for puberty information might encounter it - a zine shared only with fifth graders solves that problem, right?

Wrong. When a copy is found in a restroom and shared with the principal, Elsie finds herself in hot water with a week of detention. With her future at Pathways, a specialized middle school that would allow her to focus on her passion for art, at risk, Elsie has to consider whether to drop her quest for improved puberty education for her fellow classmates or keep pushing. Dropping it would be the safer path, but with a little encouragement from her friends, Elsie knows she can't just let this go. Together, they hatch a plan to show their principal why actual puberty education is important...but will their message get across? Or will Elsie find herself suspended and, worse, lose her spot at Pathways?

I liked this book (the first two thirds got me through my iron infusion this week), so I'm going to get my gripes out of the way first so then we can focus on the good stuff. I've only got two, but let's say one and a half because one isn't exclusive to this book, it's more of a general peeve. So, gripe the first: all the Pathways stuff. Elsie has two parents and a DNA donor who have the means and capacity to advocate for inclusive policies and positive change in public schools, so OF COURSE they're going to send their kid to a specialized school instead of continuing with the public school system! Why try to make public schools better for everyone when you could just use your means to make sure your kid is taken care of? Like I said, this isn't specifically a complaint with this book, but it's something that really irks my nerves. If we want public schools to be better, then the families like Elsie's need to support the public school system. That's all I'll say about that.

Gripe the second: the lack of dimension with the principal. Are there teachers and admin out there like this principal, complete tools who clearly became teachers to exert control over kids in attempt to feel powerful and in control? FOR SURE. But in my experience, admin who mean well but are quick to crumple to perceived possible pressure from narrowminded parents at the expense of student well-being are much more common, and it would have been more satisfying to see this type of more nuanced take, instead of just having it be "principal bad guy, must take him down!"

Anyhow, all that said, overall I thought this was a very strong story, and I appreciated that Elsie found ways to push back where needed in a way that felt true to life and not contrived. I loved the character development and how well multiple different students were brought in without it feeling overwhelming or like people were being shoehorned in. I really appreciated Mara and Elsie's friendship, and I especially loved that while they did get in a big fight, the way it was resolved demonstrated healthy communication in a very realistic way. I also loved Elsie's relationship with her parents, and I thought her dad's interactions with her were so sweet and understanding. Finally, I thought the development of Elsie's crush was a great way to showcase a little bit of romance without it feeling unrealistic or too mature for her age. The characters were the strongest part of this book, and I loved them all.

Reading Hard in March...was hard.

Well, I finished Take the Lead, and that's something! I was not able to read Guardian of Fukushima or Uncommon Grounds because I guess I missed my hold coming in for the first and the bookstore I bought the second from still hasn't sent them, nor did they respond to my multiple emails asking for a status update until I said if they didn't answer me I would have to cancel the order (at which point they responded IMMEDIATELY, so that's very cool). Bunk is far longer than I expected and, it turns out, incredibly dry, so it took me some time but I finished just in the nick of time! Parts of it were interesting, but it was a lot.

For April's first challenge, #7: read a sports book by someone other than a cis man, I've already read TWO, I started Off Balance and read it in a couple of days - my god, if you want insight into how absolutely fucked competitive gymnastics was at that time, read this. It broke my heart to learn about everything Dominique went through, especially remembering my perspective of her around the time of the 1996 Olympics and realizing how far off that was from reality. I'll also be reading The Hard Parts by Oksana Masters, hopefully that one is as good as the other two! 

For challenge #24, pick a previous year's challenge, I chose 2019's challenge to read an alternative history novel, and for that I'm going with Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It's been on my radar for so long, I figure it's about time that I read it!

Bonus Sunday = Bonus Reviews

Five Sundays this month means an extra blog post for me! I recently finished a handful of middle grade books that are potential nominees for our state book award list, so I figured why not give a little rundown of each of them? Here we go!

Seeds of Discovery: How Barbara McClintock Used Corn and Curiosity to Solve a Science Mystery and Win a Nobel Prize by Lori Alexander - This biography of Barbara McClintock was so informative and interesting! I loved how it broke down the scientific process, and I found Barbara's determination to be herself no matter what inspiring. Did I expect a biography about a scientist to make me cry? I did not, but it did!

Psychic Investigators, Evil Exterminators by K.T. Healey - I liked this story overall, it was very touching and a great book about the different ways people navigate grief. I especially appreciated the way our main character went to bat for his friend when one of their teachers were trying to tell his mom that she was a "bad influence" because she was flamboyant and a bit of a class clown. I am going to level with you, though, sometimes graphic novels are a bit overstimulating for me, and this one was no exception. A LOT going on, and I didn't always know what order panel dialogue was supposed to go in. Still a solid read!

Global by Andrew Donkin and Eoin Colfer - Another graphic novel, but this one was much less dialogue-heavy and relied a lot more on the illustrations to tell the story. This book was very haunting and tense, two kids in difficult situations as a result of climate change (and, let's be real, their own questionable choices). I thought it was beautifully told, inspirational, and touching.

So anyway, I'm a few books into this list of choices for our final top ten list of nominees, and I've already enjoyed all of them? It's going to be fun trying to narrow these down to my favorites.

March Mystery Book review - Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to her, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt - enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus's livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb's Gauntlet.

Melinoe is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.

When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs -  the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she's had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.

For Melinoe, this is a game she can't afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.

As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there's more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she's capable of more than killing. And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love."

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Ohhhh, I hate Inesa's mom so much. She straight up sucks so bad, there's no nuance to it at all. Beyond my hatred for her, my feelings about this book are thoroughly middle of the road. The idea behind the world is intriguing, but from the jump I had questions - like, people can rack up a bunch of debt and then nominate seemingly anyone to take their place in a gauntlet? Unless I missed something, it seemed like that was the case, although maybe it's just people you're related to. Either way, though, it seems a little too free-for-all to be like yeah, you get into huge debt and then you can just pick a name to nominate. I know this premise is so that Inesa will end up in the Gauntlet, but it just doesn't feel justified. Give me like...her mom somehow tricked her and got her to cosign as an account holder or something, you know?

Beyond that, everything just feels one-dimensional. They drip information about the creation of the Angels program, but I don't think it's enough. Inesa, Luka, their mom, and the few people we're introduced to in town all fall flat and, in Inesa's case, it didn't seem like she was fully developed and things about her sort of flip flop depending on what the scene calls for. I'm a little more forgiving of the inconsistencies with Melinoe, since part of her whole thing is that Caerus wipes the Angels' memories and does all kinds of shit to them, but with her as well it was like...the Angels are augmented super killing machines, but then Luka hits her with a glancing shot and she has to stop for hours to regroup, and then she takes a stimulant, gets hit in the head, and is completely destroyed after. Unstoppable killing machine, unless she's in a Gauntlet for more than an hour, I guess, or she gets bonked on the head extra hard.

Next, let's talk about the romance. It was forced, and that's an understatement. Inesa is on the run from the Angel that she knows murdered a CHILD in her village. This Angel is actively trying to murder her. Yet in her first encounter with Melinoe she's so frozen by her gaze that she wonders if she was hypnotized and then when she and Luka are regrouping afterward she's reflecting on how she just doesn't have it in her to hate the Angel. It doesn't take long for her to be thinking about how beautiful she is. Same with Melinoe - her whole existence as she knows it depends on her murdering this stranger, it's her job, she's not only been conditioned to think this is okay, she knows that if she fails she's going to be turned into a mindless sex slave for some rich asshole, and yet the entire chase she's like "wow, she's so pretty." Just...really doesn't work for me, man. It's a steep mountain to climb already, but there was just zero effort to even try to make it plausible.

And finally, the Gauntlet itself...so little actually happens, and there's a bunch of stuff with the cameras that is so weird and, again, unearned and contrived, and it doesn't make sense. I'm really trying to not post open spoilers, but it's like fake out after fake out after nonsense fakeout, and then at the end of the book I was like wow, there is ZERO payoff to any of this. Deeply unsatisfying. I gave the book three stars because a. I didn't DNF and b. I did find the first probably third or so of it okay enough, but overall it was a frustrating reading experience.

Strays - Gia Gordon

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Campbell Cole has a big heart for all living things, especially strays. It might be because her father, the director of the local animal control, is as aloof as they come, so Campbell knows what it's like to feel alone. 

When she spots an adorable dog being dumped on the street, the last thing Campbell can do is tell her dad. He might take the pup straight to the shelter, where new rescues have just three days to be adopted. The only person she can trust with the truth is her best friend, Luz.

The more time Campbell spends trying to catch the dog, the more he starts to trust her, which is both great and terrible because Campbell knows she can't keep him. But perhaps she doesn't have to. With the help of Luz's father, an army vet grappling with PTSD, she just may find a solution that benefits not only the dog, but everyone else, too."

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Another ARC, already?! I must be on a roll...or it took me a really long time to finish my last one and then I read this one right after and finished it in a couple of days. Could be either, really.

Anyhow, as a card-carrying animal-obsessed person who works at a school full of kids who equally love animals and staff who regularly help rescue lost pups in the neighborhood (I keep an extra leash and harness in my bottom desk drawer just in case and so does our school secretary, that's how often we end up taking in wandering doggos to help track down their owners), I was sold on the idea immediately. 

The thing about it is, though, it is SO SAD, in such a hopeless-feeling way, for MOST of the book. I did end up enjoying it overall, and I'll still give it a shot for my school library, but I'm not sure students will stick with it for the entire almost 300 pages when the bulk of it is such a downer. Up until the last couple of chapters, I had to take periodic breaks to just sit there and feel sad, and my husband even asked me if I was okay a couple of times. That's how sad it was.

I enjoyed Campbell, Luz, and their friendship, and I loved the array of school staff we got to meet. It felt very true to life to have such a blend of staff, teaching styles, and attitudes, and I have to give a shout out to Gordon for having a NICE LIBRARIAN! She was lovely and the kind of librarian that I strive to be. I also enjoyed the dynamic of Luz's family, their interactions with each other and the different types of back-and-forth depending on who was there. Again, very true to life. I thought the characters were one of the highlights of the book. 

Where I struggled was that after creating all these gorgeous, lifelike characters, the plot developed too slowly. Everything that happens in the book is included in the synopsis, and that should not be the case. I think if Campbell had caught the abandoned puppy and come up with the plan for Luz's dad to help them earlier in the book, we could have seen more of what came next and the whole book would have felt more hopeful. Instead, we got like 260 pages of pure sadness and then a fast forward through a solution and next steps. As noted, overall I still think it's a decent read, but I thought it had so much more potential. 

The Strange Disappearance of Imogen Good - Kirsty Applebaum

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Fran doesn't want to stay with her aunt and uncle and her annoying cousin, Imogen. Imogen is rude and unfriendly and, it turns out, she's missing. Stranger still, no one seems to know where Imogen is, or even remember that she existed. Not even her own parents. 

It's up to Fran to convince Imogen's best friend, Bex, to help her find out what happened to the girl nobody, including Bex, can remember. All Fran knows is that it's got something to do with the hidden garden at Stillness Hall and the twelve statues that belong there..."

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Fran is on her way to stay with family while her mom goes on a business trip and dreading spending so much time with her awful cousin Imogen, so imagine her confusion when she asks her aunt and uncle where Imogen is and they don't seem to know who that is. At first, she thinks they're playing a prank on her, but after multiple other people in town seem equally confused she realizes that something strange is going on. But what?

After meeting the new owner of Stillness Hall, Fran is pretty sure she has something to do with it. But how would someone make an entire town forget that someone existed? And how is Fran supposed to undo whatever Stillness Hall's owner did to make that happen? As she pulls at the thread of what happened to Imogen, the story is interspersed with flashbacks from "The Storyteller," who shares the story of what happened to the original owners of Stillness Hall and gradually reveals what may have happened to Imogen.

The explanation is impossible, but when Imogen suddenly reappears and Bex vanishes, it's clear that it's true. Can Fran team up with her cousin to find a way to free Bex and thwart whatever magic is causing children in town to disappear from memory? They don't know, but they have to try. And whatever they do, they need to do it soon, because Bex's family is moving away, and if Bex isn't back by the time they do, they'll be leaving her behind.

I found the mystery of what happened and the gradual Storyteller reveals intriguing, and while I thought the ultimate solve was a little simple after the magic of the statues was made into such a complicated, impossible knot, I think the pace of the story was good and the overall storytelling was engaging and interesting. I'll be adding a copy to my school library when this comes out for sure!