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chronicallybookish's Reviews (1.53k)
4.5
Didn’t like it as much as the first 2
Be warned it gets way darker than the other books
Didn’t like it as much as the first 2
Be warned it gets way darker than the other books
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 12+
Over All: 5 stars
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3.5/5
Disability Rep: 10/5
Special thanks to FierceReads and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.
TW: blood, gore (minor), death of a parent, murder, sexual assault (off page), attempted sexual assault
None of these are graphically depicted, but they are present in the book.
I finished this book months ago, and I have sat down to write this review countless times since then. I still don’t know what to say. How to I put into words what this book meant to me? How do I convince you to read it?
One For All is a historical fiction/fantasy novel, following Tania, a teenage girl with POTS as she attends a finishing school in Paris that is secretly training its students to become Musketeers. There is female friendship, romance, mystery, action, and sword fighting in ball gowns. The author herself is a fencer, so there is an accuracy to the fight scenes that YA fantasies often lack.
I was about Tania’s age when I was diagnosed with POTS, a few years ago. 1% of teenagers—which may not seem like a lot, but for a chronic illness, 1% is quite a lot—have POTS, and yet this is the first traditionally published YA book to feature the illness. Never before have I seen myself in a character in the way I see myself in Tania. Lillie Lainoff’s #ownvoices portrayal of POTS put into words emotions and experiences I’ve never been able to express. From page one I was crying. I don’t think I managed to go more than a few chapters without crying because of how much it meant for me to read a book where I was so fully represented, written by an author who truly understands what it is like to be in my shoes.
One for All is a promising debut, though on the technical side it does suffer from a common issue that I see in debut novels—especially fantasy ones. There were more than a couple instances, especially in the middle of the novel, where the pacing was lacking, and I found myself having a hard time engaging in the plot. It was predictable at times, as well.
However, the rest of the book: the relationships, the fight scenes, and the majority of the plot were thoroughly enjoyable. And the representation was, as I’ve already expressed, life changing.
I think One for All will especially appeal to younger YA readers, those aged 11-14, but I definitely encourage older readers to pick up the book as well. Just expect a younger writing style and characters that will appeal more to pre- and early teens.
This was (and remains) my most anticipated release of 2022, and I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint. I can’t wait for its official release, when I can hold a copy in my hands and annotate it and take pictures of it and stare at it. I’m going to end up with way too many copies of this book. I’m obsessed. Prepare for my Instagram feed to be nothing but pictures of One for All.
Anyway! Pre-order One for All right now! You won’t regret it! Plus it has an incredible preorder campaign sooooooooo ;)
Age Rating: 12+
Over All: 5 stars
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3.5/5
Disability Rep: 10/5
Special thanks to FierceReads and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.
TW: blood, gore (minor), death of a parent, murder, sexual assault (off page), attempted sexual assault
None of these are graphically depicted, but they are present in the book.
I finished this book months ago, and I have sat down to write this review countless times since then. I still don’t know what to say. How to I put into words what this book meant to me? How do I convince you to read it?
One For All is a historical fiction/fantasy novel, following Tania, a teenage girl with POTS as she attends a finishing school in Paris that is secretly training its students to become Musketeers. There is female friendship, romance, mystery, action, and sword fighting in ball gowns. The author herself is a fencer, so there is an accuracy to the fight scenes that YA fantasies often lack.
I was about Tania’s age when I was diagnosed with POTS, a few years ago. 1% of teenagers—which may not seem like a lot, but for a chronic illness, 1% is quite a lot—have POTS, and yet this is the first traditionally published YA book to feature the illness. Never before have I seen myself in a character in the way I see myself in Tania. Lillie Lainoff’s #ownvoices portrayal of POTS put into words emotions and experiences I’ve never been able to express. From page one I was crying. I don’t think I managed to go more than a few chapters without crying because of how much it meant for me to read a book where I was so fully represented, written by an author who truly understands what it is like to be in my shoes.
One for All is a promising debut, though on the technical side it does suffer from a common issue that I see in debut novels—especially fantasy ones. There were more than a couple instances, especially in the middle of the novel, where the pacing was lacking, and I found myself having a hard time engaging in the plot. It was predictable at times, as well.
However, the rest of the book: the relationships, the fight scenes, and the majority of the plot were thoroughly enjoyable. And the representation was, as I’ve already expressed, life changing.
I think One for All will especially appeal to younger YA readers, those aged 11-14, but I definitely encourage older readers to pick up the book as well. Just expect a younger writing style and characters that will appeal more to pre- and early teens.
This was (and remains) my most anticipated release of 2022, and I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint. I can’t wait for its official release, when I can hold a copy in my hands and annotate it and take pictures of it and stare at it. I’m going to end up with way too many copies of this book. I’m obsessed. Prepare for my Instagram feed to be nothing but pictures of One for All.
Anyway! Pre-order One for All right now! You won’t regret it! Plus it has an incredible preorder campaign sooooooooo ;)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Death of parent
Minor: Gore, Blood
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14+
Over All: 5 stars
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Setting:
Writing: 5/5
Special thanks to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.
TW: physical abuse, violence, genocide, war, death, cruelty, sexual assault, starvation, illness, forced prostitution, + more
I read the original version of Between Shades of Gray about two years ago, and from the very first line, which is the same in this version of the book, “They took me in my nightgown.” I knew that this book was going to change the way I see the world. And it did.
This is the same story as the original book, published 10 years ago, but reformatted and illustrated into graphic novel form. I had two main concerns about how the book would translate into a graphic novel.
1. How were they going to take this whole book and condense it into a graphic novel (which has less words than a traditional novel) without losing something important?
I can’t pretend to know how they did so—I don’t know the first thing about adapting a book into a graphic novel—but nothing felt to be missing from the graphic novel. All of the important scenes and events were there, and all of the themes and emotions were displayed even more powerfully with the addition of illustrations.
2. Are they going to be able to adapt this novel, which shows horrible, disturbing truths, into images without illustrating anything too graphic?
This book has many scenes of abuse, death, sexual assault, and more. In the original book, Ruta Sepetys masterfully expresses the severity of these events without ever becoming too graphic or detailed, allowing the book to safely fit within the YA genre. I wasn’t sure if they would be able to successfully translate those scenes into graphic novel form without directly illustrating them, which would potentially have caused the book to feature images too mature for a YA audience. However, Sepetys, Kopka, and Donkin successfully portrayed these events through text boxes of internal monologue (a staple of this book) placed on background imagery that gave you the sense and mood of what was going on without visually showing it.
Ruta Sepetys had an incredible story already. One that taught me many heartbreaking—but oh so important—truths about the horrors of World War 2. And now, along with Dave Kopka and Andrew Donkin, the book has been reimagined in a way that makes it even more impactful and will bring new readers to Lina’s story.
Age Rating: 14+
Over All: 5 stars
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Setting:
Writing: 5/5
Special thanks to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.
TW: physical abuse, violence, genocide, war, death, cruelty, sexual assault, starvation, illness, forced prostitution, + more
I read the original version of Between Shades of Gray about two years ago, and from the very first line, which is the same in this version of the book, “They took me in my nightgown.” I knew that this book was going to change the way I see the world. And it did.
This is the same story as the original book, published 10 years ago, but reformatted and illustrated into graphic novel form. I had two main concerns about how the book would translate into a graphic novel.
1. How were they going to take this whole book and condense it into a graphic novel (which has less words than a traditional novel) without losing something important?
I can’t pretend to know how they did so—I don’t know the first thing about adapting a book into a graphic novel—but nothing felt to be missing from the graphic novel. All of the important scenes and events were there, and all of the themes and emotions were displayed even more powerfully with the addition of illustrations.
2. Are they going to be able to adapt this novel, which shows horrible, disturbing truths, into images without illustrating anything too graphic?
This book has many scenes of abuse, death, sexual assault, and more. In the original book, Ruta Sepetys masterfully expresses the severity of these events without ever becoming too graphic or detailed, allowing the book to safely fit within the YA genre. I wasn’t sure if they would be able to successfully translate those scenes into graphic novel form without directly illustrating them, which would potentially have caused the book to feature images too mature for a YA audience. However, Sepetys, Kopka, and Donkin successfully portrayed these events through text boxes of internal monologue (a staple of this book) placed on background imagery that gave you the sense and mood of what was going on without visually showing it.
Ruta Sepetys had an incredible story already. One that taught me many heartbreaking—but oh so important—truths about the horrors of World War 2. And now, along with Dave Kopka and Andrew Donkin, the book has been reimagined in a way that makes it even more impactful and will bring new readers to Lina’s story.
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14+
Over All: 5 stars
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Disability Rep: 10/5
PANS REP PANS REP PANS REP PANS REP
There are so many different things that I want to say about this book, and so many different ways that I could take this review, but to start I’m going to elaborate on my rating
This book means the absolute world to me. I was diagnosed with PANS (a form of autoimmune encephalitis) at 15. It’s a shockingly common autoimmune disorder considering no one has ever heard of it, suspected to effect 1/200 adolescents, however it was only officially recognized in 2013, which means the resources regarding it are extremely anemic, and the media representation is wholly nonexistent. I never expected to read a book with PANS representation unless I was the one to write it.
PANS is one of the biggest parts of my life. Everything in my life has been impacted by it. I am who I am because of PANS. I cannot begin to express how seeing that represented in a book has meant to me.
(I’m not crying as I type this. Nope. Definitely not me.)
Due to the onset of both the author and character’s PANS being after adulthood, PANS is most often referred to as encephalitis induced OCD (the P in PANS stands for pediatric, as most cases are first triggered in childhood, but that is not a requirement for the disorder).
The book itself, outside of the PANS rep, was okay. It was good. I really liked the characters and their relationships, but the writing wasn’t the best and the mystery was never much of a mystery at all. I really enjoyed the romance, especially the asexuality aspect.
Basically—you need to read this book. It is incredibly important. But don’t go in expecting a literary masterpiece. You will get a book with incredible chronic illness representation and a cute romance, and I truly believe that everyone would benefit from reading this book.
--
Full review to come, but for now:
PANS REP PANS REP PANS REP!!!
This is an adult romance, but outside of the mystery element, there aren’t really any mature themes, so I’d say it’s okay for 14+
Age Rating: 14+
Over All: 5 stars
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Disability Rep: 10/5
PANS REP PANS REP PANS REP PANS REP
There are so many different things that I want to say about this book, and so many different ways that I could take this review, but to start I’m going to elaborate on my rating
This book means the absolute world to me. I was diagnosed with PANS (a form of autoimmune encephalitis) at 15. It’s a shockingly common autoimmune disorder considering no one has ever heard of it, suspected to effect 1/200 adolescents, however it was only officially recognized in 2013, which means the resources regarding it are extremely anemic, and the media representation is wholly nonexistent. I never expected to read a book with PANS representation unless I was the one to write it.
PANS is one of the biggest parts of my life. Everything in my life has been impacted by it. I am who I am because of PANS. I cannot begin to express how seeing that represented in a book has meant to me.
(I’m not crying as I type this. Nope. Definitely not me.)
Due to the onset of both the author and character’s PANS being after adulthood, PANS is most often referred to as encephalitis induced OCD (the P in PANS stands for pediatric, as most cases are first triggered in childhood, but that is not a requirement for the disorder).
The book itself, outside of the PANS rep, was okay. It was good. I really liked the characters and their relationships, but the writing wasn’t the best and the mystery was never much of a mystery at all. I really enjoyed the romance, especially the asexuality aspect.
Basically—you need to read this book. It is incredibly important. But don’t go in expecting a literary masterpiece. You will get a book with incredible chronic illness representation and a cute romance, and I truly believe that everyone would benefit from reading this book.
--
Full review to come, but for now:
PANS REP PANS REP PANS REP!!!
This is an adult romance, but outside of the mystery element, there aren’t really any mature themes, so I’d say it’s okay for 14+