Read Harder: Return of the Updates

Guess who's back on track, babyyyyyy? I've been on a tear of great books: Parable of the Sower, so intense and incredible; Not "A Nation of Immigrants," holy shit, the amount of history we are not taught; Nikhil Out Loud, simply adorable; A Fate Worse Than Death, thought-provoking as hell; Abyss, couldn't put it down; Indian No More, also couldn't put it down (I should have reviewed it and didn't, but shout out for telling a great story in less than 250 pages); The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family, an excellent middlegrade story about figuring out who you are and how to be true to yourself in the face of other people's expectations and while navigating ableist assholes. Home run after home run.

I finished the above books early enough that I also started on the books I chose for July: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe for challenge thirteen, read a comic that has been banned; Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth for challenge fifteen, read a YA nonfiction book. I'm skipping challenge fourteen for now, read a book by an author with an upcoming event and then attend the event, because I couldn't find any upcoming virtual events and don't want to go to an in-person one. We'll see if I go back to it or not, but either way, challenges thirteen and fifteen are in the bag. I finished Gender Queer in a day - such an excellent read - and I'm about halfway through Apple: Skin to the Core, also very, very good. I guess I should look further ahead and pick new books for July...

Hmmm. Challenge sixteen is pick a book based solely on the title, so I went through my TBR list on The Storygraph (superior to Goodreads in basically every way, if you're still using that Goodreads bullshit) and landed on The Bennett Women by Eden Appiah-Kubi. What's the twist? I don't know! But I'll take any Pride and Prejudice content. Gotta read 'em all. And challenge seventeen is read a book about media literacy, so I picked Can You Believe It by Joyce Grant, which I hopefully will be able to add to my school library after I read it! Oh boy, taking the full summer break off may have meant not getting paid for two months, but it has been a huge boon for my reading.

Dragonboy - Megan Reyes

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Blue, River, Wren, and Shenli grew up on different sides of a war they didn't start. Their land has been torn apart over centuries of conflict, with humans taught to fear all things magical, dragons driven to near extinction, and magic under attack. But an ancient prophecy has put the four of them on a collision course with destiny - and with each other - in a mission to heal the fractured realm once known as Haven.

All of them must follow the threads of Fate, leaving behind the lives and homes they know to discover the truth about the seemingly endless war - and the truth about themselves. As the barriers between them begin to crumble, can they unravel the lies they've been taught to believe in order to restore the balance between humans, dragons, and magic before it's too late?"

📚📚📚

It's MGMASFMRS time! I was really hoping to keep up more of a regular rhythm with these posts, but this one took me a long time to read, and I don't think it was just the slump. This is the first book in the Heroes of Havensong series, so I expected it to be heavier on the world building than a standalone, but it went so far beyond what I had anticipated. It's 416 pages (that's too long for middle grade!), and the majority of it felt like setup for the actual story, rather than story itself. I like the premise, and I really wanted to enjoy the book, but it was too much. A lot of repetition of things introduced early, granular detail about some things and then almost no information about others, tons of exposition while light on the action...it needed more balance. 

I would say this book's greatest strength was its character development. Blue is a hugely sympathetic character, and I immediately felt a connection to him. Wren, River, and Shenli are also great, and I loved their relationships with their family members. I think if we had gotten the prophecy referencing all of them working together to save the world and then hit the action earlier in the book, this would be a much different review. Instead, we get reference after reference to the prophecy, we inch toward their paths connecting, we get a couple pages of action, and then...the book is over. I finished it, but it took me almost two months to do so. I don't see any of my students putting that much effort into getting to the end of the story, and even if they did I don't think they would be motivated enough to pick up the next book, even though it ends on a pretty big cliffhanger. 

The second book came out in January, and the completionist part of me wants to get it and find out what happens next, but the part of me that spent so long slogging through this one doesn't think it'll be worth it. If this was a duology I might be willing to give it a shot, but I looked it up and there's going to be at least three books. That's too much commitment after a lackluster first book.

Reboot Rereads Recap

I wasn't sure when to post this, because I was writing reviews for my rereads and it seemed weird to post a recap and then post some reread reviews...so anyway, mid-June recap, here we are! Emotionally, I declare Operation Reboot Rereads a success. Even if the quantity of time I read or total number of books finished didn't go up, I found myself wanting to read more, and that's a victory.  That said...

Emotionally and statistically, Reboot Rereads was a rousing success. I reread a total of seven books, which surpassed my goal, and I also finished Not "A Nation of Immigrants," which I had been working on for quite a while, and read three* other Read Harder books, plus At the End of Everything for my book club. (Very good book, by the way, so many emotions). And now it's summer break, so hopefully this new reading energy carries over into June and July - think of all the books I can enjoy! Delightful.

*I wrote this after my last day of work, a few days before the end of May. Since then, I've read two more Read Harder books, so even MORE impressive!

Belladonna - Adalyn Grace

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Nineteen-year-old Signa Farrow, orphaned as a baby, has been raised by a string of guardians, each more interested in her wealth than her well-being - and each has met an untimely end. Her last remaining relatives are the Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at the glittering and gloomy estate of Thorn Grove. Thorn Grove's patriarch, Elijah, mourns his late wife, Lillian, through wild parties and drink, while eldest son Percy grapples for control of the family's waning reputation and daughter Blythe suffers from the same mysterious illness that killed her mother. And when Lillian's spirit confronts Signa and claims she was poisoned, Signa realizes that Blythe could be next to die.

Signa's best chance of uncovering the culprit and solving Lillian's murder is an alliance with Death himself - the very man she hates most. And Death, that fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side, shows her that their connection may be more powerful than she ever dared imagine."

Remember when I joked about starting a series where I reviewed books that are not YA but get classified that way because they're fantasy, written by a woman, with a female MC? Seriously, I need to do it. Because again, I find myself typing a review of a "YA" book that IS 👏 NOT 👏 YA. Truly, begging publishers to stop calling things YA just because women are involved.

Now that that's out of the way...I put this audiobook on hold at the library because I got something in my Owlcrate subscription box that referenced it, and I figured hey, if I have things that quote books, maybe I'll try to read some of them! (Sidenote: Maybe Owlcrate choosing this book to reference should have tipped me off that it was FauxYA, since Owlcrate so clearly loves curating a selection of not-actually-YA books). The premise sounded interested, so why not give it a shot? I'll tell you why not...

It's kind of boring. 

Like, I'm three-quarters of the way through and the narrative has not progressed past the information provided in the synopsis. I know it's the first in a sequel, so there's some world-building that has to happen, but GOOD LORD, pick up the pace. I kept waiting for a reveal or for some actual action, but...no. Lots of outfit descriptions though - not that I don't love a good gown description, but I like them more when they're balanced by actual things happening. I finally gave up on it, I just did not care enough to slog through another several hours of story in hopes that maybe something would happen.

The one good thing I'll say about this book is that I enjoyed the audiobook narrator, Kristen Atherton. She did such a great job that sometimes I got lost in her narration, even though nothing was really happening. Sadly, a great narrator wasn't enough to drive me to finish the book, but snaps to her for being such an engaging narrator anyway!

Reboot Rereads - To All the Boys I've Loved Before

I've never written an individual review for this book/series, but BOY OH BOY have I included it in an excessive number of book lists! I mentioned it in one (as a case for polyamory over love triangles), and I've featured it in at least four, including my top ten favorite series, books to read if you like Animal Crossing, easy to read books (hello, reboot rereads!), and books that feel like a hug. This series is so cozy and comforting, and I continue to adore it. (Also the movies, although I don't know why, but it endlessly bothers me that they decided in the movie series to change the setting to the Pacific Northwest instead of Virginia. Just, why? And I wish they had left it being Peter that got the video taken down.)

Lara Jean, so sweet, so firm in her standards. Kitty, possibly the best character ever written. Margot, eh. But everyone else...wonderful. It's low stakes that feel high stakes, because who amongst us doesn't remember when minor teen dramas ruled our lives? Lovely series to revisit, and I recommend it to anyone looking for something low-stakes and comforting to get into.