A fun, engaging, snarky book full of Indian mythology. The action, humor, and darkness is almost perfectly balanced, making this a quick, enjoyable read perfect for Percy Jackson fans.

Okay guys, this book was incredibly difficult to follow. At least for me. For most of the book, I didn't really know what was going on, the characters were difficult for me to latch onto, and the world wasn't built well enough. There was also a few times where I questioned the way things were phrased. It was an interesting premise that wasn't executed well enough for me.

I read this for the BN Book Club next week, and I had hesitations going into it that were confirmed while I read the book. There are plenty of people (this is a good essay on it, if you're looking: https://tropicsofmeta.com/2019/12/12/pendeja-you-aint-steinbeck-my-bronca-with-fake-ass-social-justice-literature/). For the most part, it felt in authentic to me. Between the sprinkling of Spanish words to the descriptions of what was happening, I wanted to know how Cummins got this information and what work she did to even try to make it authentic.

It is fast-paced, so I'll give her that. But there are better books to read out there about this particular story; two YA books come to mind: Disappeared by Francisco X. Stork and All the Stars Denied by Guadalupe Garcia McCall.

Trigger warnings: drug and alcohol abuse, rape, parental abuse, descriptions of murder, death of a pet

For her senior capstone project, Pip decides to uncover what really happened in the murder of Andie Bell five years ago in her town. But doing so puts her and her family in danger.

Overall, this book is fast-paced and engaging; the narrative easily sucks you in and the inclusion of case notes, maps, and other things helps to drive along the story. I had an inkling about who did it, but to me, it read a lot like other YA mystery/thrillers. It most reminded me of Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen McManus, honestly. With a more journalistic spin.

There were some aspects of Pip's investigation that seemed a little far-fetched and pieces if the story that seemed a little too convenient. But overall, an entertaining read!

Trigger warning: sexual abuse

I'm not usually a fan of reading scripts for plays, but the next challenge for Book Riot's Read Harder list was play by author of color/queer author. Out of the list of recs they had, this one sounded the most interesting to me. It was a really quick read, and the chorus parts threw me off a little as I was reading. Ideally, I would love to see how this is played out on a stage, but I don't think that will happen any time soon. Still an interesting read, nonetheless!

Really giving this 4.5 stars. There is a lot to love about this book. Zenobia is starting over in a new place with her two aunts, trying to navigate her new school as a girl for the first time. When someone starts hacking the school website, she puts her coding skills to use to find the culprit.

What to love: there are lots of identities portrayed throughout this book: Zenobia is trans, Arli is genderqueer, Zen's aunts are lesbians, and her Uncle Sprink is a drag queen. All of these characters are fully fleshed out and you really feel for them. Zen also finds a little group of misfits at school that she makes her own family with.

The only reason I'm docking this half a star is because I didn't get why the interludes were included. They really took you out of the story and I didn't see the purpose of them by the end.

Other than that, a beautifully crafted book that deserves to be in any school or library!

This is the book I stopped at when I first read these because I thought the series was over. Alas, there are sooo many other books now, but I needed to re-read these before I moved on. I didn't remember anything that happened in this book, so that's a good thing.

I'm going to start with this: Clary drove me crazy at the beginning of this book. She was complaining so much! All because she kept doing things people told her not to do. She was all "woe as me, blah, blah, blah." I couldn't stand it. Find something else to talk about, please!

The second half of the book was much better, in my opinion. We got more voices, there was more action, things wrapped up pretty well. The Jace/Clary thing was finally resolved, and we got more from Simon and some fantastic Alec/Magnus moments. I love them, so much. I will read the rest of the series just for them!

Anyway, the audiobook was pretty good for this, too. I've been enjoying listening to them; it was a good series to get into this year!

"Words were my tools of creation. And love, I learned, is a constant act of creation, just as creation is almost always an act of love."

This is a collection of stories and poems surrounding the idea of love and relationships. As per usual David Levithan fashion, there are gorgeous sentences in here, with some familiar characters if you've read his other work.

The author's note mentions that Levithan writes stories for his friends on Valentine's Day and this is such a pure, beautiful thing. It's books like this that put me in the mood to write again--and that's a wonderful feeling.

So far, a lot of the House of M crossovers have read pretty much the same. This one was mediocre. The art was pretty decent, but I wasn't very impressed with the story. Maybe it's because I'm not attached to the Hulk? Just a couple more House of M stories to go!

This may be a long book, but it doesn't feel like it! I've never read any of Sanderson's other stuff, but this was fantastic. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of diagrams between each section; it helped me get a better sense of what was happening.

And the characters! You get so attached as you learn about this corrupted society in space. And with that ending, I can't wait to get the next one!