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.

Scattered Showers - Rainbow Rowell

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

This is a collection of nine short stories, some based in existing Rainbow Rowell worlds and some featuring new characters and places. All in all, I greatly enjoyed it! Individually, I definitely had my favorites. Shall we go story by story to hear my thoughts? We shall.

Midnights: Loved it. So cute. The flashback, the slow burn, the dance moves and jokes about allergic reactions. Just adorable.

Kindred Spirits: Pretty good! I think this one struck a chord with me because my first job was at a movie theater, so people camping out for a movie brought back memories. I thought the character development was impressive given the length of the story, it had some excellent reveals, and overall I really enjoyed it. 

Winter Songs for Summer: Oh, this one might have been my favorite. Benji is adorable - I love him, his weightlifting gloves, and his mixed CDs. It's set at the same college, so it makes sense, but it gave me big Fangirl vibes.

The Snow Ball: Looooook...this one fell off a bit for me. Maybe it was the pace? I didn't check page numbers, but it felt like one of, if not the, shortest, and it was all one scene, super heavy on dialogue. I just didn't see the chemistry between the characters. It felt forced.

If the Fates Allow: REAGAN! This is set in the Fangirl world, and I love Reagan, and I love it. I'd read most of it before, when it was initially released as a standalone short story, but Rowell expanded it a bit for Scattered Showers (either that or I totally deleted part of it from my brain?), and while it's kind of tough reading a very COVID-centric story while the majority of the Western world pretends it no longer exists and abandons those of us who still try to be safe to bear all the weight of the pandemic on our own, I still love Reagan, and I still love her story. And I love her for being so COVID-responsible!

The Prince and the Troll: Hahaaaaaa, this one drove Joel up a wall! Is it an allegory? Is it not? What is happening?! Nothing makes sense! I thought it was very entertaining and odd and fascinating. Was it maybe sponsored by Starbucks? Could be! Reading it definitely makes me want a coffee.

Mixed Messages: This is set in the world of Attachments, which lands solidly in the middle on my ranking of Rowell's books. I found the characters' ages slightly confusing - kind of assumed they were younger than they were until toward the end - but also thought it had some funny moments. Much like the novel the characters come from, middle of the road for me.

Snow for Christmas - SIMON SNOW, babyyyyy! I'll read anything with Basilton Pitch in it. I love him forever. And I thought this was a very sweet story. Have you read the Carry On series? If not, what the fuck are you waiting for? Get after it!

In Waiting - Last one, and oooooh, it was so interesting! Not only was I intrigued from the start, it really got me in a writing mood. Of course, I was reading this in bed to Joel before we went to sleep, so I did not actually write after reading it...but I wanted to, and that counts for something, right?

Starts and Finishes

Finishes and starts. New thing! Let's talk a little bit about a book I finished this week and a book I'm starting. (Dewey, this is a very transparent attempt to come up with a blog post because you're in such a reading slump and don't have anything to review! Yeah, I know it is. Leave me alone, I'm just trying to make it to fall break.)

This week, I finished reading How to Raise an Intuitive Eater, which I highly recommend to anyone who spends time in some capacity with young people, or is just curious to learn more about intuitive eating and how much better it is than fucking dieting and embracing diet culture.. Very informative, lots of great tools for changing how we think about food, dieting, and bodies and how we teach children to understand and care for themselves. Excellent book.

Also this week, I started reading How to Be You: Stop Trying to Be Someone Else and Start Living Your Life by Jeffrey Marsh. I adore Jeffrey Marsh, and I acquired this book a long time ago and have been meaning to read it, so we're diving in! So far, I've only gotten through the introduction and am already in love. I'm ready to dig in and discover what "zaps me in the heart," as he puts it. It's gonna be good.

September Read Harder update

SEPTEMBER? Is ENDING? I don't know how so much of this year is already over, someone must have sat on the remote and accidentally hit fast forward. Anyway, my books this month were Hood Feminism and Postcolonial Love Poem. I also bought a copy of Butcher by Natasha T. Miller, since poetry books are usually on the shorter side - does doubling up for this challenge compensate for refusing to read a DNF book? I say it does. I ended up reading Butcher before Postcolonial Love Poem - waiting on my hold from the library for that one. And I'm only about a quarter of the way through Hood Feminism, but WOW it is a must-read. 

As has been the case for months, I also continued to work my way (slowly, so slowly) through The 1619 Project. I'm in a bit of a reading slump, so it's a bit slower than it has been right now, but I'll pick back up soon, I'm sure.

📚📚📚

And now, October challenges. OCTOBER. Fuck. How?

#21: Read a book of short stories

As luck would have it, Joel chose a book of short stories for our next bedtime read after we finished two heartbreaking historical fiction novels, so I'm reading one now! Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell, here we go! Now I just need Joel to not work a million night shifts so we can finish it before the end of the year.

#22: Read any book from the Ignyte awards shortlist/longlist/winner list

Wow, I did not know what that award was! From their website:

"The Ignyte Awards began in 2020 alongside the inaugural FIYAHCON, a virtual convention centering the contributions and experiences of BIPOC in Speculative Fiction. Founded by L.D. Lewis and Suzan Palumbo, the awards were an attempt to correct representative gaps in traditional spec lit awards and have grown into a coveted and cherished addition to the awards landscape. The Ignytes seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre."

Pretty cool. I've already read the YA winners from 2020 (We Hunt the Flame) and 2021 (Legendborn), the middle grade winner from 2020 (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky), and a few of the runners up, which is a fun surprise! Now I'm torn between reading the 2021 middle grade winner, Ghost Squad or the 2022 YA winner, A Snake Falls to Earth. Or the 2020 middle grade winner, Root Magic. Again with the difficult choices! When in doubt, start with the first choice and proceed from there, it's worked before. So Ghost Squad it is, and then I'll read my way through the others! Should be fun.

No One Leaves the Castle - Christopher Healy

Welcome to the second review in the Middle Grade Mega Awesome Super Fantastic Massive Review Spree! Although I will fully admit I'm cheating, this is NOT actually a review of the book, because I just started reading it. But I thought I would pivot and try out a "first thoughts" thing - going into a book with no knowledge about what to expect and sharing my initial reactions after the first few chapters. 

(And if you're thinking "Dewey, you're clearly doing this because you don't have a book ready to review and you're desperate," then first of all, how dare you? And second of all, yes, OBVIOUSLY. But necessity is the mother of invention, or whatever the saying is.)

So, let's see how this goes, shall we? I'll start us off on the same footing, going into this with equal information with which to form a first impression. Let's take a look at the book cover.

So, maybe a little spooky? Mysterious vibes, for sure. I picked this thinking it would maybe make a good semi-spooky book to add to my school library after I finished it, hopefully just in time for fall/Halloween. My students are always begging for more spooky books, so very first impression, this seems like a promising potential new option for them - probably not GENUINELY scary, but spooky, wandering-through-the-woods-late-at-night-with-nothing-but-the-light-of-the-moon-to-guide-you vibes.

In a complete reversal, based on the first couple pages, this actually seems like a tongue-in-cheek, funny take on what typically might be a spooky story. Case in point, our omniscient narrator:

"Unfortunately for Gribbinsnood Flornt, he was looking to get out of [a mystery].He was not a fan of mystery. Mystery went hand in hand with the Unknown, and Flornt was happiest when he knew exactly what would happen next. (Personally, I also love knowing things. It's the whole reason I became a narrator - narrators know everything.)"

I immediately highlighted that (with a removable tab, because I'm putting this in my school library. I only write in books I'm keeping for personal library), because it really tickled me. So...maybe not scary? Maybe a little cheeky and one-liner-y. This was further confirmed when "The Lilac," a 14-year-old girl trying to break into the bounty hunter game by hiring a fledgling bard to sing of her great deeds and convince people to hire her, contemplates the many pubs she has been inside, such as the Stumpy Boarhound and the Hairless Pidgeon, and then observes that as a general rule, "the stranger the name, the rowdier and more dangerous the pub." Again, not scary, although I will be stealing this general rule for my DnD campaign.

And speaking of DnD, while this book has moved pretty decidedly away from the "spooky" category for me, it DOES give me strong Dungeons & Dragons vibes, and I am very on board with that. I don't have quite as many students clamoring for these types of stories as I do for scary ones, but I ran a DnD class for a bunch of students last year, so several of them have gotten more interested in adventuring stories. Based on what I've read so far, I think they'll enjoy this one.

The Kingdom Over the Sea - Zohra Nabi

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

From the cover:

"'My Own Yara,

If you are reading this, then something terrible has happened. And you are on your own. To return to the city of Zehaira, you must read out the words on the back of this letter...Good luck, my brave girl.'

When twelve-year-old Yara's mother passes away, she leaves behind a letter and a strange set of instructions. Yara must travel from the home she has always known to a place that is not on any map - Zehaira, a world of sorcerers, alchemists, and simmering magic. But Zehaira is not the land it used to be. The practice of magic has been outlawed, the Sultan's alchemists are plotting a sinister scheme, and the answers Yara is searching for seem to be out of reach. Yara must summon all her courage to discover the truth about her mother's past and her own identity...and to find her place in this magical new world."

Could this be the start of a Middle Grade Mega Awesome Super Fantastic Massive Review Spree? It's possible! Prepare yourselves for an imminent onslaught, just in case. Batten down the hatches, cover your windows with planks of wood, hide in the bathtub. Whatever it is people do in inclement weather. It's a middle grade monsoon! (See, this works because it could be torrential rain that leads to flooding, or it could be a Phoenix monsoon where this whole paragraph is the humidity building up, and then...no rain. Just this lone review. Guess we'll see which it is.)

Anyway, this book was solid! It went by sneakily fast - I was really surprised when I realized I was coming up on the last few chapters - so this will probably be a brief review, since it was such a whirlwind of a read. I enjoyed the world, but we got such a small glimpse of it and so little detail into why some things were the way they were that rather than feeling invested in it, I was left wanting more detail. Not a bad thing, I would read more books set in the world to get that detail! But I wish there was a touch more time spent on the worldbuilding.

For me, the strongest part of the book was the characters. Yara was determined, clever, and stubborn, her relationships with some of the secondary characters she comes across (trying not to give spoilers or I would be more specific!) develop so well and tugged at heartstrings. Some of these relationships also did a great job of building suspense and making me want to keep reading so I could figure out what was going on. And even minor characters drew me in so immediately that I was excited for any mention of them. Very impressive character development! They were the best part of the world, for sure.

As for the plot...solid. It's hard to get more into it without spoilers, but if you like magic, battling evil, and unraveling mysteries, this might be up your alley. Check it out!

(Also, the cover is very pretty, had to throw it out there.)

The Storyteller - Kathryn Williams

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

From the cover:

"It's not every day you discover you might be related to Anastasia Romanov...or that the tragic princess actually survived her assassination attempt and has been living as the woman you know as Aunt Anna. 

For Jess Morgan, who is growing tired of living her life to please everyone else, discovering her late aunt's diaries shows her she's not the only one struggling to hide who she really is. But was her aunt truly a Russian princess? Or is this some elaborate hoax? 

With the help of a supremely dorky but undeniably cute local college student named Evan, Jess digs into the century-old mystery. But soon Jess realizes there's another, bigger truth waiting to be revealed: Jess Morgan. Because if she's learned anything from Aunt Anna, it's that only you can write your own story."

I tell you what, I've really been diving into books about things I hyperfixated on when I was younger lately. Did I forget I had this one because it ended up at the bottom of a stack of middle grade books I'm planning to read soon instead of somewhere safe with the rest of my library books? Yes. Is that relevant? No. Give me all the Titanic books, all the Romanov books...Bookie Monster needs them! 

This book had a very interesting premise for me. Instead of a historical fiction following Anastasia or theorizing what happened, it's almost present day and one of her grand (great grand?) nieces discovers Anastasia's hidden journals while cleaning out her attic years after she has died. They're written in Russian, so Jess has to hire a translator, and the pair of them end up spending most of their free time trying to unravel the mystery of the journals. Was Jess's Aunt Anna really the long-lost princess Anastasia? And if so, how did she escape the firing squad that killed the rest of her family and end up living in a small town in New Hampshire?

I wish that Jess had been a little closer with Aunt Anna before she died and her secret was subsequently uncovered, instead of barely having a relationship with her prior to discovering her journals, but that's a nitpicky gripe. Other than that, I really enjoyed the way Anna's story unraveled. Such a rollercoaster of discoveries, and my nerdy librarian heart loved all the stones Evan and Jess thought to turn in their quest for the truth. Research...I love it.

As far as the non-Anastasia parts of the story...it was fine. Everything felt a little underdeveloped, which I guess is understandable given that the main focus was on figuring out what was up with Anna's history, but I wish there had been a little more polish applied. Example: Jess has two best friends, and one is periodically brought up and once texts her, but outside of that we never see him. Why include him, then? That was an odd choice to me, and it kind of read like periodically the author went "oops, forgot I had established that she has this other friend, better throw his name in somewhere!"

My biggest gripe is that a big part of the non-Anastasia plot is drama surrounding Jess's boyfriend and best friend (the one who actually IS in the book!) not liking each other, which, fine...but frankly, her boyfriend sucks and is completely unlikable, so the whole time I was just like Jess, girl...dump his ass? It reminded me of movies like How Do You Know, where there's a love triangle and the main character is like oh no, who do I choose, help, this is an impossible decision! Buuuuut one of the love interests is an irredeemable sack of garbage and the other is a shining beacon of how humans should treat each other. Wow, who could ever decide between the two?! I'm begging for just one reason why Jess would actually want to date him.

Complaints aside, it was a solid read. I really liked Katie, Jess's best friend ,and thought Evan was the most adorable goofy polyglot nerd. We only see them once, if I recall correctly, but I also adored Evan's friend group. And honestly, I found the Anastasia storyline strong enough that I think I would have enjoyed this regardless of what happened outside of that. I could not put it down last night - I was playing Among Us with my family and was literally sneaking in paragraphs in the 15-20 seconds between games. Compelling!