Castle of the Cursed vs. The Immortal Dark

Remember back in the roaring tenties, aka the 2010s, when two movies would come out and it was like...I mean, these are two versions of the same movie, did one studio pass and then steal the idea while another studio picked up the original? You know what I'm talking about, right? Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman - retellings, but still, same year? No Strings Attached, featuring Natalie Portman and famed rapist-apologist Ashton Kutcher, and Friends with Benefits, featuring dumpster fires Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake? (Per the IMDB trivia, NSA actually tried to title their movie FWB when their original title was rejected and couldn't because...you know, a movie with that exact title and the same plot was coming out a handful of months later...)

Anyhow, I guess this is a thing, they're called Twin Films, movies with similar plots coming out at similar times, which usually would get flagged but every once in a while slips through the cracks. This happens with books too, obviously, and while I always really enjoy reading a book and being like heyyyy I've read something similar to this before, this time I happened to read both books at exactly the same time, and it was a really interesting experience for me so I figured hey, why not blog about it. And here we are.

For starters, personally? These book covers are different variations on the same theme. Similar vibes.

Also, there's an orphaned main character who has lost the last of their known family due to mysterious and probably nefarious circumstances. Both, mostly unwillingly, take a journey to live at a place they find distasteful with an aunt they don't know and don't trust, where both end up allied (tenuously?) with a vampire. Both have lost their native tongue and attempt to relearn it. Both discover their families have complex, mysterious, and dark legacies. Both protagonists are dealing with mental health stuff, with PTSD in the forefront of that stuff.

There's more, but to be honest I thought I had finished this review days ago and foolishly didn't make any notes, so a lot of the more nuanced stuff I'm having trouble remembering and a lot of the less nuanced stuff is spoilers. So I'll just say, interesting experience reading two books that are so similar in overarching plot yet so different in storytelling style. If a person could only read one and asked me for a recommendation, I would say go with Castle of the Cursed if you like things that are mysterious, slightly creepy, but also relatively straightforward when it comes to worldbuilding. Go with The Immortal Dark if you like much more complex, lore-heavy stuff where the book is as much about building the world as it is about advancing the plot. 

Your Blood, My Bones - Kelly Andrew

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

From the cover:

"Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she's just inherited - to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement - Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.

Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family's property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can't really live, either. Not while he's bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There's only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.

He needs to kill Wyatt.

With Wyatt's parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter - the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic. But how can she trust a boy who's sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart."

📚📚📚

 Look...I'm going to start this review by acknowledging that this type of book? Really not for me. It isn't my cup of tea, it's never something I'm going to seek out, and I read it more out of obligation than anything else. Disclaimer having been made, I'll also say that the synopsis from the cover makes it sound so much more suspenseful and spooky than it actually ended up being. Former friends, dark secrets, one plotting murder, but then...a grisly twist forces them together. 

Instead, what the reader gets is things revealed that don't totally make sense to reveal, then the narrative sort of pretending like those things haven't been revealed and tiptoeing around them with weird hints even though, hello, that's not a secret! All while things that it would actually make sense to reveal to the reader are inexplicably kept a secret. I didn't totally understand how the author chose what to reveal and what to keep hidden, and it made things both frustrating and a little boring. Maybe I was supposed to get swept up in how Wyatt didn't yet know the things I did, but trying to do that just didn't do it for me.

Add to that that nothing much really happened and...eh. Don't get me wrong, there were a few creepy-lite moments, but thinking back on my reading experience, it was pages and pages of angsty arguing between Wyatt and Peter and then like a few paragraphs of oh my god! And then immediately back to the angsty arguing. It would have been forgivable if all the back and forth between them furthered the story, but it was just rehashing the exact same plot point over and over with no new development. No thank you. Begging you to pick up the pace. 

Maybe I would have gotten more swept away in everything if horror was more my thing, but I don't know. If anything, I feel like my aversion to anything in this vein should have meant even horror-lite gave me the shivers. Instead, I was three hundred pages in and checking to see how much was left, wondering if something was actually going to happen at some point. Spoiler alert: Not really! My approach when I write fiction is "write these big scenes that I already have in my head!" and then "FUCK, now I have to fill in around these, how do I do that?" And this book very much read like that. They had an idea for a beginning, they had an idea for the end, and then...uhh....

Anyway, I totally thought I had finished this review and scheduled it to post yesterday, and I just realized that was not the case. So...enjoy, it was mostly done.

The Last Bloodcarver - Vanessa Le

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

From the cover:

"In the harsh, industrial city of Theumas, she is seen not as a healer as she was meant to, but a monster that kills for pleasure. And in the city's criminal underbelly, the rarest of monsters are traded for gold. When Nhika is finally caught by the infamous Butchers, she's auctioned off to the highest bidder - a mysterious girl garbed in white. But this strange buyer doesn't want to use Nhika as an assassin or a trophy piece. She intends to use Nhika's bloodcarving to heal the last person who saw her father's killer.

As Nhika delves into the investigation amid Theumas's wealthiest and most powerful, all signs point to Ven Kochin, an alluring yet entitled physician's aide intent on casting her out of his opulent world. But despite his relentless attempts to push her away, something inexplicable draws Nhika to him. When she discovers Kochin is not who he claims to be, Nhika must face a greater, more terrifying evil, turning her quest for justice into a fight for her life.

Her only chance to survive lies in a terrible choice - become the dreaded monster the city fears, or risk destroying herself and the future of her kind."

📚📚📚 

I've been making a concerted effort to read all the books I buy this year, which includes my random monthly book subscriptions. This is one that I've been curious about, and I got into it right away. It was a bedtime read, and I finished it in four nights. It was hard to put down, and honestly if I wasn't exhausted from iron deficiency and a pup recovering from surgery who wakes me up over and over every night, I would probably have stayed up past my bedtime to finish it even faster. 

I found the premise super interesting, and I loved Nhika and her very complicated relationship with her mysterious rescuer, the woman in white, and her family. Without spoilers, I will say that I unraveled the mystery pretty early on in the book, but even with my strong suspicions of what was going on, the story pulled me in. I think my last night of reading I had about a hundred and fifty pages left, and I refused to go to bed without finishing it. Crushing decision, because some of the last hundred and fifty pages are so heartbreaking, so then when I went to sleep I was very sad. But it was so good! 

The only downside to having read this book...is that now the other book subscription books I need to read from this year all sound scary and kind of horror-y and not necessarily my vibe. 😭 I guess there's a reason I left them for last.

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!

What the River Knows - Isabel Ibanez

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

From the cover:

"Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires, and like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old world magic that’s been largely left behind or forgotten. Inez has everything a girl might want, except for the one thing she yearns the most: her globetrotting parents—who frequently leave her behind.

When she receives word of their tragic deaths, Inez inherits their massive fortune and a mysterious guardian, an archeologist in partnership with his Egyptian brother-in-law. Yearning for answers, Inez sails to Cairo, bringing her sketch pads and a golden ring her father sent to her for safekeeping before he died. But upon her arrival, the old world magic tethered to the ring pulls her down a path where she soon discovers there’s more to her parent’s disappearance than what her guardian led her to believe.

With her guardian’s infuriatingly handsome assistant thwarting her at every turn, Inez must rely on ancient magic to uncover the truth about her parent’s disappearance—or risk becoming a pawn in a larger game that will kill her."

 Before we get into the book, I'm just going to say it. This is classified as young adult, but it is fucking not young adult. Publishers, just because a book is fantasy, written by a woman, and has a female main character DOESN'T MEAN IT'S YA! Stop with that shit.

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, I am glad this book was included in my FUCKING YA subscription box even though IT IS NOT YA, because it probably wouldn't have been on my radar otherwise, and HOLY SHIT was it good. For starters, the cover is gorgeous. The dust jacket is beautiful and has a hidden illustration on the inside, there are incredible sprayed edges, the inside covers are illustrated...I mean, any one of those things and I would have been swooning. All of them together? How was I to resist?

Add to that Inez's determination and grit, her curiosity and unwillingness to settle for what others told her she should be doing with her life, and I'm sold on this main character. Then there's the incredible descriptions of Egypt, the inscrutable and mysterious Whit, the fact that you don't know who you can trust, or if you can even trust anyone, and I'M SORRY, WHAT IS HAPPENING?! This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I'm sorry that this review is rambly and unspecific and all over the place, but I literally just finished reading and am still reeling. I need the next book to be out, like, NOW, because I have so many questions, and I need all of them answered. WOW, what a journey I've just been on. I'm still on. If anyone needs me, I'll be thinking about this book.

No One Leaves the Castle - Christopher Healy: Part 2

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

From the cover: 

"The Lilac. The bard songs say that she's the world's most fearsome bounty hunter. That there's no criminal she can't catch, no mystery she can't solve.

None of that is true. Yet.

In reality, the Lilac is just a kid, and the bard who wrote all that is her best friend, Dulcinetta. But when a priceless artifact goes missing from the home of famed monster hunter Baron Angbar, the Lilac and Netta see their chance to apprehend the thief and make a name for themselves.

When they get to Castle Angbar, however, and meet the Angbar family and their servants and guests - an unsavory group of nobles, mages, and assorted creatures, each more shady than the last - the Lilac begins to wonder if the reward is worth the trouble.

And that's before the dead body is discovered.

Now everyone is magically sealed inside the castle - and there is a murderer among them. If the Lilac wants to make it out with her reputation intact, it's going to be up to her to figure out who the killer is. But everyone in the castle - even the Lilac herself - has secrets to hide, and as the walls literally start to close in around them, the Lilac worries that her first job as a bounty hunter may be her last..."

Welcome back to the Middle Grade Mega Awesome Super Fantastic Massive Review Spree! I finally finished this, and I was definitely right that this book is less spooky, more silly, but that wasn't a bad thing. I thought Healy found a great balance between goofy moments and establishing a sense of urgency and a little bit of an ominous tone. I think the pace could have been stepped up a teensy bit (I've griped about this before - this book is almost 400 pages, please give me a middle grade fantasy that is shorter and snappier!), but as I got further in, things sped up enough that I think if a kid gave it a chance and got into it, they would get invested and want to find out what happens.

Aside from the Lilac and Netta giving everyone nicknames, which is something I also do and a detail I loved, I think my favorite thing about this book was all the red herrings. An embarrassment of red herrings! It was so fun! Which of these are real clues? Are any of them?! Did someone even actually steal the artifact? Or was this all some giant trick? In this book, nothing is as it seems and like the Lilac, you've got to keep your wits about you. It's a solid read, and I actually think it would be a good non-spooky fall/Halloween read. I give it a solid four stars, and I can't wait to recommend it to students once I get it added into my collection.

Queen of the Tiles - Hanna Alkaf

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

From the cover:

"When Najwa Bakri walks into her first Scrabble competition since her best friend's death, it's with the intention to heal. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to choose the very same competition where said best friend, Trina Low, died. It's macabre, but Najwa finds meaning in the gesture, because she's not ready to give up Trina just yet.

But the same can't be said for all the other competitors. With former Scrabble Queen Trina gone, her friends are eager to take the throne. All's fair in love and Scrabble, but all bets are off when Trina's formerly inactive Instagram starts posting again, with cryptic messages suggesting that maybe Trina's death wasn't as straightforward as everyone thought. And maybe someone at the competition had something to do with it.

As secrets are revealed and the true colors of her friends are shown, it's up to Najwa to find out who's behind these mysterious posts - not just to save Trina's memory, but to save herself."

 Mystery, love triangles, word nerdery...this book has everything. I was excited to read this after I loved The Weight of Our Sky so much, and Hanna Alkaf knocked it out of the park again. Clues unraveled at just the right pace to make the book impossible to put down, and I loved the way that Najwa's assumptions about each character influenced - and sometimes hindered - her investigation. And there were so many perfectly-placed red herrings that I kept thinking I had it figured out only to have the rug pulled out from under me.

I don't want to get into details about the book because I don't want to accidentally spoil anything, but this is probably the most excited book set at a Scrabble tournament that you will ever read. Also, she would destroy me, but I would love to play Scrabble with Najwa and talk about the definitions of each word. I'm firmly on her side as far as word meaning - I don't understand how anyone could memorize a bunch of words for Scrabble and not want to know what they mean.

You'll Be the Death of Me - Karen M. McManus

Initial draw: ✰✰✰✰✰
Character development: ✰✰✰✰✰
Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰✰✰
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out--he's been working two jobs since his family's business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up . . . again.

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day.

So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They'll ditch and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they've barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say . . .

. . . until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school--and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it's about to get worse.

It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common. They all have a connection to the dead kid. And they're all hiding something.

Now they're all wondering--could it be that their chance reconnection wasn't by chance after all?

Look...in the interest of full disclosure, I'm not sure Karen M. McManus could write something that I wouldn't like. She's just...so good. Even if this wasn't her book, though, the premise really appealed to me. Friends who began to grow apart as they moved from elementary to middle school until ultimately they started traveling in different circles? Who hasn't lived that? I can certainly think of some friends from my earlier school days who, if presented with a chance in high school to spend a nostalgic day with, I would have leapt at the chance. And how could Ivy, Mateo, and Cal have predicted that this chance to recreate their "best day ever" would turn out to be a nightmare instead? 

The twists and turns as the trio moved through their day kept me on the edge of my seat, and there were some delightful surprise moments from some of the side characters that delighted me as well. This was not a book I wanted to put down, and I'm already looking forward to reading it again when it comes out!

Grown - Tiffany D. Jackson

Initial draw: ✰✰✰✰✰

Character development: ✰✰✰✰

Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰✰✰
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Content warning: Abuse, sexual violence, references to suicide

From the cover:

"When Enchanted Jones wakes with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night, no one - the police and Korey's fans included - has more questions than she does. All she really knows is that this isn't how things are supposed to be. Korey was Enchanted's ticket to stardom.

Before there was a dead body, Enchanted was an aspiring singer, struggling with her tight-knit family's recent move to the suburbs while trying to find her place as one of the few black girls in high school. But then legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots her at an audition, and suddenly her dream of being a professional singer takes flight.

Enchanted is dazzled by Korey's luxurious life, but soon her dream turns into a nightmare. Behind Korey's charm and star power lurks a dark side, one that wants to control her every move with rage and consequences. Except now he's dead and the police are at the door. Who killed Korey Fields? All signs point to Enchanted."

Enchanted Jones' story starts off in the eye of the storm, a hotel room splashed with beet juice - or is that blood? - and the unresponsive body of superstar Korey Fields lying in their bed. Then it backs up, taking you to where everything started and, if you're anything like me, filling you with dread knowing what's in store. Enchanted is single-minded, focused so intently on her goal of making it as a singer that she can't hear the warnings from her friends and family or see the red flags that are waving in front of her. All she knows is that recording an album could be life-changing for her family and that working with Korey provides her with an obvious path to success. Then, of course, there's the added bonus that he - a multi-platinum artist - seems to be falling in love with her. When the opportunity to tour with him (and date him in secret) comes up, how could her parents possibly expect her to pass that up?

But of course, we know from the first page that all that glitters is not gold, and it isn't long into their tour before Enchanted is confronted head-on with the darkness within Korey that until then she had only caught glimpses of. Trapped in his world, all she can do is cower and try her best to follow his rules while he cuts her off from her family, restricts her freedom, and brings her fully under his control. Before she can even fully grasp what is happening, the tour she had so looked forward to goes from a dream to a nightmare, and Enchanted is swept along, at the mercy of Korey's whims and rages. At first she blames herself for making mistakes, not being able to make him happy. Eventually she realizes that this isn't the life she wants...but would she really have murdered him to get away? 

This book is gripping and intense, and it's difficult to read because I'm pretty sure we can all name more than a few people who have had experiences similar to Enchanted's. As hard as it is, though, it confronts so many important issues. Key among those issues, of course, is the importance of believing victims and not giving predators a pass. I want to stop reading stories like this and seeing real people in the struggles of the main character, but that's impossible while, like in Korey's case, there are no consequences for powerful people who prey on others. Thank you, Tiffany Jackson, for reminding us to stop giving abusers and predators a platform. I don't care how much we like their art, their music, their whatever...our enjoyment of the things they produce doesn't matter more than the well-being of their victims.

Winterwood - Shea Ernshaw

 My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Be careful of the dark, dark wood...especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Cursed, even.

Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it's this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman, the same boy who disappeared from the camp for wayward boys weeks ago - and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive and left in the woods with no memory of the time he'd been missing.

But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver's presence. And it's not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn't know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own - secrets he'll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn't the only one who went missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago."

I'm not a huge fan of spooky stuff, but this book is eerie in the most perfect way. The world-building is excellent, and the scene is set so well that from the first page I found myself transported into Nora's cold, snowy, dimly-lit world. The moment Oliver's green eyes snap open, I was enthralled, and from the first page to the last, I didn't want to close the book.

I pride myself on being someone who sees twists coming and can call the end of a book, movie, TV show, what have you early on, but this one kept me guessing. There were multiple scenes that had me gasping out loud, and even a few "ohhhh shit"s that got out before I could stop them. Shea Ernshaw will keep you on your toes! Ultimately, even if you are able to call twists and turns where I wasn't, this book is worth it for the ambiance, the mood, and the excerpts from the Walker spell book interspersed throughout the story.

Plus, as a bonus, you know I judge books by their covers, and THAT COVER THOUGH.

Whichever version you get, I could eat it with a spoon. And I don't know about the dark cover, but the white also features blue sprayed edges to match, and my god, it is a thing of beauty. Even if I hadn't loved the story from start to finish, I would keep this on my shelf for the cover alone. Everything about this book is art.

Mask of Shadows - Linsey Miller

My rating: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But genderfluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper class - and the nobles who destroyed her home.

When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of the Left Hand - the Queen's personal assassins, named after the rings she wears - Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge

But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive."

FYI before we get started: I'll be using she/her pronouns for Sal since that is what the description defaults to.

Story time. I just bought a book journal, and I was SUPER excited to start writing in it. SO PUMPED. The journal happened to arrive at the beginning of April, and this book happened to be the book my book club is reading in April, so it made sense for this to be the first book I included in my awesome new journal. I drew a little sketch of my version of the cover ("my version" meaning it isn't very good), I wrote down the title, and I had all my pens and markers ready to record favorite moments and quotes and such.

And...

And...

It was a real struggle to come up with anything to add to the journal.Because y'all...I did not love this book.

I wanted to. The premise is interesting, the cover is beautiful, and I was looking forward to reading it. But it was all so very "meh" for me. Everything about it was underdeveloped. Sal is a great thief...based on...the fact that the book tells you she is, I guess, because (spoiler, I guess?) she steals someone's purse with the flyer about Left Hand auditions in it in chapter one (speaking of...why did some noble lady have a flyer about the Left Hand auditions in her purse?) and has murdered her super powerful and intimidating boss and headed off to the audition by the end of chapter three, so there is literally no world-building or character development to introduce you to Sal or this world.

We get to chapter four, where auditions begin, and it's like "WHOA. This is super serious, a fight to the death. I am but a simple street thief, I'm not prepared for this!" But after the first day, no one really messes with Sal (at least not in any way that made me nervous at all). And while we're talking about the auditions, Sal pretty much sucks at everything...but is leading the pack from the get go? I don't buy it, my friends. Nah.

Then the Big Reveals start. But they aren't big reveals, because...oh yeah...we don't know anything about Sal, her motivation, or this world! If you want me to be like "GAAAAASP, this guy is at court?!" then maybe like...tell me about that guy first? Same with the romance between Sal and the "intriguing scribe at court." There was so little build-up that it all seemed forced and stilted. Even the other auditioners are barely developed, which is a huge let down given that the bulk of the story revolves around auditions. Honestly, the only characters I felt had enough personality and development for me to connect with them were Maud and Ruby.

Ultimately, while I wanted to enjoy this book, it was a drag from start to finish. I struggled to get into it, and finishing it felt like running a 5k through water. Pass.

When - Victoria Laurie

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father's premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she's unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?"

Ok, ok, I know it says right there in the description that Maddie ends up part of a homicide investigation and a target for the murderer, but uh...it still caught me off guard what a thriller it was. I know, I know. Kept me on the edge of my seat, though! In fact (**spoiler alert!**) I was into it until the very end, when everything wrapped up superneatlyperfectly, and then I was like meh...that's a little Disney movie-esque for a book about a serial killer. Also, it killed me that when she got home at the end of the book and smelled the cigarette smoke, knowing full well that there's a serial killer following her around who smokes and has left cigarette butts at the scene of each crime, she decides that her mom has miraculously gotten out of rehab, rather than recognizing that hey, maybe the murderer got into my super unsecure house. Unforgivably dumb of her. Maddie, be a little less naive. (/spoileralert) Ignore my gripes, though, because really, it's a great book. I was a big fan of the character development, I thought the concept was super intriguing, and it's pretty intense and gripping. It's definitely worth a read!

House of Salt and Sorrows - Erin A. Craig

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last - the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge - and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who - or what - are they really dancing with?

When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family - before it claims her next."

Are the Thaumas sisters cursed, or do they just have extraordinarily terrible luck? When Annaleigh gets suspicious that someone is actually murdering her sisters, it makes sense...after all, it seems wildly coincidental that their mother and then four sisters would just happen to all die, one right after the other...but who would want them dead?

As the book progresses, things don't get much clearer. If anything, things only get more muddled. Verity, Annaleigh's youngest sister, claims to have seen the ghosts of their older sisters, and now Annaleigh has started seeing them too. With every passing day, things around Highmoor get stranger. Her father and sisters are acting oddly, her childhood best friend seems to be hiding something, and she has a feeling the young man she met recently isn't being entirely truthful either. Annaleigh no longer knows who, or what, she can trust, but she has a feeling that if she doesn't figure it out soon, it will be too late. Can she piece things together in time?

This book was nothing like I expected, and while there are a couple things I wish had been done differently, most notably that the end had been a touch longer to truly do it justice, overall I thought it was an amazing read. The world-building was incredibly vivid, the atmosphere was mysterious and chilling, and from the first page to the last I was on the edge of my seat. There were a couple times where I thought I had everything figured out, only to make it another couple chapters and have my theory smashed. Even when I did start to unravel the mystery, I never could have imagined the full scope of was actually going on.

If you're like me and have vivid dreams, I would recommend not reading this right before bed, because my damn, it gave me some strange nightmares. Day or night, though, it's a great read.

Four Dead Queens - Astrid Scholte

The inaugural #FirstPageFriday of the year! Can it be inaugural if I've already been doing #FirstPageFridays for a while? Who knows...who cares? Hopefully none of you. I've been waiting to read Four Dead Queens for a while, so I am pumped about this review. Also, I'm changing up the way I post and just posting my reviews on Friday, so y'all don't have to remember to check back. Woo! So, first things first, take in this gorgeous cover.

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington may seem harmless, but in fact, she's one of Quadara's most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara's most enlightened region, Eonia. Varin runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When Varin attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara's queens dead.

With no other choices and on the run from Keralie's former employer, the two decide to join forces, endeavoring to discover who has killed the queens and save their own lives in the process. When their reluctant partnership blooms into a tenuous romance, they must overcome their own dark secrets in hopes of a future together that seemed impossible just days before. But first they have to stay alive and untangle the secrets behind the nation's four dead queens."

AHHH! I give this book an extremely enthusiastic five stars. It's off to the races from page one (seriously, my first note is "I mean, I know it's called Four Dead Queens, but it got so real so fast!), and it does not let up. The character development, the plot twists, the world-building...

Chef's kiss!

Mackiel creeps me out from the jump, I might be a little in love with Varin, and I for sure have a tiny lady crush on Keralie. I stayed up way past my bedtime trying to figure out what was happening, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. This book was so unputdownable, I read it on the way to the grocery store with my husband, and when there was a line at the butcher I seriously contemplated pulling it out to read more while we waited. IT'S. SO. GOOD. I wish I could gush more without including spoilers, because all I want to do now that I've finished it is talk about this book, but no way am I ruining the mystery for other readers. Go read it. Experience it. Message me along the way and let me know what you think. Drop a comment with your thoughts. The messaging and commenting is optional - reading the book is not!

Two Can Keep a Secret - Karen McManus

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone's declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she's in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous--and most people aren't good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it's safest to keep your secrets to yourself."

💭💭💭

After their mom lands herself in rehab, Ellery and her twin brother, Ezra, move away from California to live with their grandma in Echo Ridge, a small town in Vermont. Echo Ridge is a far cry from what they're used to, but while Echo Ridge may seem like a sleepy little town on the surface, it has a dark past. The twins' aunt went missing her senior year in high school and was never found, and just five years ago the town's homecoming queen was strangled to death at the aptly named local theme park, Murderland. Ellery, obsessed with True Crime and unsolved mysteries, is wary of Echo Ridge from the moment they arrive, and for good reason when ominous threats begin to appear, suggesting that whomever murdered Lacey Kilduff might be back for more. Ellery is determined to get to the bottom of the unsolved mystery of Echo Ridge's missing girls, but will her digging into the town's secrets stir up more trouble than she is prepared to handle? 

WHEW, my friends, Karen McManus does not mess around! I started reading this book in the early afternoon yesterday with every intention of taking it slow...nope. Stayed up past my bedtime to finish it because it was impossible to put down. I started off with every intention to take notes as I read and document my theories, but I pretty much got "it's always the boyfriend" a couple of chapters in and then could not stop reading long enough to write anything else down. This book is fucking intense, and it will leave you chilled to the bone, right down to the last chapter.

Dear Martin - Nic Stone

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning debut.

Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.

Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack."

I'm getting very behind in writing reviews, so disclaimer: they're gonna be short and sweet until I get caught up.

I read this the weekend that Childish Gambino's "This is America" music video came out, so I got to the most intense part of this book and watched the music video within an hour or so of each other. Fuuuuuuuuck. Can't get either one out of my head. After things went down during Justyce and Manny's car ride, I felt viscerally angry when stories on the news came out trying to paint Justyce as a thug and when the defense attorney in the police officer's trial brought up things unrelated to the shooting, trying to make it sound like Manny deserved what he got. Excellent job, Nic Stone, on writing a book that makes the reader feel so fired up. Justyce's emotions really came through, and the injustice going on throughout the book made me furious. The only downside I found listening to the audiobook, and the reason I only gave it four stars, is that format of the book didn't always lend itself to being read aloud. There were points where the story felt stilted or abrupt, and I wonder if that was because of the format. Definitely planning to read the physical book and see if it flows a little better...which in all honesty is not a downside. It was an excellent book, and I'm looking forward to reading it again and hopefully bumping this review up to a five-star.

Monster - Walter Dean Myers

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. A Harlem drugstore owner was shot and killed in his store, and the word is that Steve served as the lookout.

Guilty or innocent, Steve becomes a pawn in the hands of "the system," cluttered with cynical authority figures and unscrupulous inmates, who will turn in anyone to shorten their own sentences. For the first time, Steve is forced to think about who he is as he faces prison, where he may spend all the tomorrows of his life.

As a way of coping with the horrific events that entangle him, Steve, an amateur filmmaker, decides to transcribe his trial into a script, just like in the movies. He writes it all down, scene by scene, the story of how his whole life was turned around in an instant. But despite his efforts, reality is blurred and his vision obscured until he can no longer tell who he is or what is the truth. This compelling novel is Walter Dean Myers's writing at its best."

This book has been on my to-read list for quite some time, and now that I've read it, I don't know why I waited so long! Not only was it fantastic, it was also shockingly short, so....super fast read. I listened to the audiobook, and I thought the narrator did an incredible job of portraying Steve's fear, confusion, and uncertainty. It tugged at my heartstrings, especially the way he reacted to being called a monster, wondering what choices he was supposed to have made that had led him to the point where people viewed him as something so terrible. Also, even knowing how ludicrously unfair the justice system can be to people of color, it was mind-blowing to me that the prosecutor was so intent on busting a teenage kid for allegedly "checking the coast was clear" that she was willing to make a deal with one of the people who admitted to being directly involved with the robbery and part of the reason someone ended up dying. Like...what?! Why? He's a teenage kid, for fuck's sake. You'd really rather put him in jail than one of the people who robbed the place and caused an innocent man's death? That made me so mad...which was kind of the point of the book, so good job, Walter Dean Myers. If you're looking for a book that examines racism and prejudice in the justice system, this one is a must-read. And like I said...super short. So there's really no excuse to pass it by.

The Female of the Species - Mindy McGinnis

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"A contemporary YA novel that examines rape culture through alternating perspectives. 

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it.

Three years ago, when her older sister, Anna, was murdered and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best—the language of violence. While her own crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people. Not with Jack, the star athlete who wants to really know her but still feels guilty over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered. And not with Peekay, the preacher’s kid with a defiant streak who befriends Alex while they volunteer at an animal shelter. Not anyone.

As their senior year unfolds, Alex’s darker nature breaks out, setting these three teens on a collision course that will change their lives forever."

Holy shit, you guys.

That description does not do this book justice, but I'm honestly not sure it's possible to write a description that nails it. This book is just...next level mind-blowing. Be warned, it is a pretty heavy read. But my god. It needs to be read.

After her sister is murdered, Alex secretly exacts revenge on her killer. She lives in a small town, but it isn't difficult for her to put up a wall between herself and her peers, not socializing with anyone at school and spending most of her free time at home or out running. She does pretty well at keeping herself isolated until her senior year, when she starts volunteering at the local animal shelter with Peekay and ends up on Jack's radar after he learns she is currently beating him in the race to valedictorian. Together, Jack and Peekay begin chipping away at Alex's hard exterior, and gradually Alex starts to realize that whatever she feels is wrong with her doesn't mean she can't let people in. Maybe she can have friends...have a boyfriend...be happy.

But there are other members of their community with darkness inside them, and not all of them fight against it the way Alex does. One of them, a local drug addict who graduated a few years ahead of Alex and Peekay, crosses their path at a party and puts himself on Alex's radar after attempting to roofie and rape Peekay. Another, the uncle of one of her friends, catches her attention later in the school year when Alex learns he molested Sarah's younger sister. What will happen to Alex, her friends, and her new boyfriend if she isn't able to push back against the darker parts of herself?

My favorite part about this book, aside from an ending that literally made me yell "holy shit!" as I pulled into the parking lot at work and listened to it unfold, was seeing Alex work at the shelter. She was so compassionate, patient, and kind to all the animals they took in, and it really hit me hard when she wondered how much kindness a person has to show to animals before it erases the terrible things they've done to some humans. Alex did horrible things to monsters like Comstock, her sister's killer, but there's also no question that she was a ray of hope for countless innocent animals in need. Seeing that duality in her, watching her treasure her friendship with Peekay and Sarah and gradually fall for Jack...do those things balance out the bad she's done? It's hard to answer that question.

My least favorite part of this book, far and away, was Jack. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to like him, I really did. But uuuuuuuuuuuugh. I can't. I hated his reactions to Branley and how helpless he acted when she came onto him, sent him dirty pics, etc. Like, really? Poor me, this super hot girl just woooon't stoooop trying to sleep with me! I'm powerless to stop this, and I'm only human! What's a poor boy to do? Shut up with that garbage. Alex deserved better. But my dislike of Jack aside, seriously? This book is amazing. Read it.

This Story is a Lie - Tom Pollock

My rating: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"A YA thriller described as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time meets John le Carré, about a teen math prodigy with an extreme anxiety disorder who finds himself caught in a web of lies and conspiracies after an assassination attempt on his mother.

Seventeen-year-old Peter Blankman is a math genius who suffers from an extreme anxiety disorder, one that subjects him to intense panic attacks. He only manages to get through his daily life with the constant help of his scientist mom and his beloved twin sister, Bel. But when their mother is nearly assassinated in front of their eyes--during a major awards ceremony in her honor--Pete finds himself separated from Bel, alone, and on the run. 

Dragged into a strange world where state and family secrets intertwine, Pete has to use his extraordinary analytical skills to find his missing sister, uncover the mystery of his mother's life's work, and track down the people who attacked her--all the while fighting to keep a grip on the fear response that threatens to overwhelm him. Weaving back and forth between his past and present, the novel is an extraodinary testimonial from a protagonist who is brilliant, broken, and trying to be brave."

I wanted to love this, but it was a struggle. The first chapter was jarring, it was frustrating to follow, and from the beginning I couldn't get into it. Nearly halfway through the book, there didn't seem to be any driving force behind the story beyond the hazy "my mom is a spy" twist and "I have severe anxiety/paranoid delusions/who knows wtf else." It felt like a concept for a story being forced into becoming an entire plot. There wasn't any real character development, no opportunity to connect to anyone in the story, and the "assassination attempt" and ensuing drama felt forced.

I know it's a psychological thriller, and it may have been by design that it was never clear what was going on--after all, that's how the main character feels a lot of the time, so why not put your readers in his shoes. I can appreciate the attempt, but I'm not a fan of spending an entire book in the dark like that. Then there was the inclusion of his father as a looming threat, even after it became clear the dad had nothing to do with what was happening. At first I wondered whether he might crop up, but it seemed in the end to be nothing more than a way to incorporate punishing domestic violence perpetrators into the story, I guess so Bel could be a monster but not that much of a monster. Again, it felt forced. Ultimately, while I find the concept for this story intriguing, the execution was a bit too hazy for my tastes.

The Chemist - Stephenie Meyer

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"She used to work for the U.S. government, but very few people ever knew that. An expert in her field, she was one of the darkest secrets of an agency so clandestine it doesn't even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning. 

Now she rarely stays in the same place or uses the same name for long. They've killed the only other person she trusted, but something she knows still poses a threat. They want her dead, and soon. 

When her former handler offers her a way out, she realizes it's her only chance to erase the giant target on her back. But it means taking one last job for her ex-employers. To her horror, the information she acquires only makes her situation more dangerous. 

Resolving to meet the threat head-on, she prepares for the toughest fight of her life but finds herself falling for a man who can only complicate her likelihood of survival. As she sees her choices being rapidly whittled down, she must apply her unique talents in ways she never dreamed of. 

In this tautly plotted novel, Meyer creates a fierce and fascinating new heroine with a very specialized skill set. And she shows once again why she's one of the world's bestselling authors."

This started off on a strong enough note...The Chemist has been on the run since her former bosses tried to kill her, but now they've offered to call off their dogs if she comes in for one last job. She takes the bait, only to find herself interrogating an obviously innocent man. Just as she's realizing her former employers have played her somehow, the interrogation is interrupted--by her mark's twin brother, back from the dead.

Gaaaaaasp! Things are about to get interesting!

It turns out she was sent to flush out the ex-CIA twin brother of the guy they sent her after, who had faked his own death to escape being taken out by a corrupt CIA official. Or something. Now the trio (for the adventure would not be complete without the innocent former schoolteacher brother The Chemist tortured for information he didn't have) has joined forces in order to take our their oppressors and free themselves from the terror of living in constant fear for their lives.

It's all so exciting, in theory. But then you get into some pretty hard to believe things shoved into the story for convenience, mainly the schoolteacher brother who is a-ok with being tortured, falls in love with the main character immediately, and is somehow almost completely unfazed by all the insane violence and murder going on around him. Like, sorry, but no matter how attracted I find myself to someone upon seeing them on the DC metro, as soon as they cause me immense physical pain in order to force information out of me, I'm out. I'm for sure not going to be down to travel around with my torturer and a brother I know nothing about while they hatch some crazy plan to flush out the people chasing them and kill them. It was a little much to believe, and it only got worse as he and the Chemist's weird relationship developed. I was alright with the book until they got together, but after that there was a clear shift in the focus of the plot, and the insane romantic storyline became the focus, with the whole "let's get rid of these guys and free ourselves to live our lives" thing taking a backseat. Bleh. No thanks. 

Ultimately...it was ok. There are better books out there, but if you're looking for something, say, to get you through a six-hour plane ride, this will do the trick.