As every sequel picked up relatively where the last installment concluded, The Polluted War asks enough open-ended questions about the next phase of Velcro’s journey. The Red Easter left all of her friends in various locations and in the throes of heated one-on-one-battles, letting everything that they fought for burn down seemingly for good. As the country hangs in the balance the end of one war and the origins of possible another, there's time now to ask what is peace and how can that be accomplished instead. Similar to not necessarily starting where the last book left off, Widdop starts to thread new ideas of what it means to start over. I expected The Egg Hunters to pick up where it left off, but it defies a lot of expectations by not necessarily letting the same battle continue on forever.

Since the plot consistently set Velcro and her allies in motion to thwart evil schemes, The Egg Hunters features a new crew rising to take the place of The Devil Corps but it doesn’t feel like its repeating the origins of the war Velcro and her friends just faced. One of the common threads of the series so far was its theme of war and how it divided or united the characters – how it affected their decisions and actions to cast revenge or avenge friends and family, or believing in a cause that turned out to be nothing but empty promises. Without war so much at the forefront as much as it was in the past, this book is able to slow down more. This next part of his world seems like it has another fight up his sleeve of his characters, but it’s also more reserved than the one that came before.

In many ways, this final book feels like a return to the start of the series when we were first introduced to Velcro and she was just starting to expand her knowledge and use of magic. After the previous books explored the feud with her brother Charlie and the training to become a masked vigilante, she’s now able to try to understand her own role with the resurgence of pro and anti-magic rhetoric, and as well as what she can do with magic now - to cast revenge for what happened with The Red Easter, to end magic for good, or save her friends by staying in the shadows. Since I’m trying to avoid spoilers, I’ll just say her discovery of how her disappearance had an impact on the world, and how her mythos continued after she was seemingly gone, was a real treat to see the typical defeated hero thrust back into their world of saving turned on its ear. Widdop’s always managed to create good backstories for his wide range of characters and ramping up all the stakes between them. With that part now taking more of a backseat, he’s able to continue building his heroine and give her a heartwarming and emotional end to her arc.

While Widdop definitely shows a gift for expanding Velcro's story, it is difficult to depart with how the story began and continued to tread for the past few books. Since the beginning, a lot of supporting characters, locations, and origins of magic were introduced and explored - a fair portion of them earned their own backstories and raised the stakes in overall the story. In contrast, The Egg Hunters really dials it back from that approach. Many of the minor characters might have just been smaller cogs in the whole wheel, but they kept the whole machine well-oiled and running. Their disappearance or just the allusion of what happened to them fits the story he was telling. But on the other hand, it's difficult to feel like their arcs matched up to hers as completely and satisfyingly.

Velcro: The Ninja Kat series offers a fun adventure for readers wanting to look for a unique short set of books to dive into but offers a complete world. Sometimes it’s difficult to get involved in a series because the ending doesn’t always live up to the hype. But Widdop’s story expands and never loses sight of his ideas. Each installment added a new action-packed layer to his world-building and made the battle for magic (or against it) worth it. I enjoyed reading the series and to see the story conclude for now.

Emily St. John Mandel crafted a really beautiful story of survival, not just about people but art's ability to persevere. Our connection to books, graphic novels, theatre, etc. can survive just as courageously and deeply as people can. With or without civilization, it has the power to bring people together. Her variety of characters and the mix of humane survivors and even the inhumane ones are shades of what the world used to be; all adversely affected by how they want to remember the way it used to be and sustain the new world they're in. Her balance of time, places, and people is quite extraordinary; she manages to shift focus between the past and present and not becoming confused. (My only critique is perhaps the narrative switching quickly from one of the main characters (Kristen) to some of the others towards the end and it felt wrapped up for too swiftly.) As much as this book takes place before and after epidemic, like The Walking Dead, the importance of the story is not so much on the apocalypse, brutality or violence, but the delicate connections of people, to who they were and who they will become when they face threats, human or otherwise. It left me thinking about the world differently, the delicate network not just of people but technology and so many things we come to rely on - each other, essentially life itself.

I mostly checked this out because hello it's Leslie Odom Jr. In a semi-memoir/self-help book, he takes us through his career from the early days of wanting to join theatre after seeing "Rent" to working with Lin-Manuel Miranda for "Hamilton," and the lessons he learned about trying to make it as an actor and singer. Most of the other platitudes throughout the book didn't quite stand out from what I've read before with similar titles. They felt quite repetitive and didn't seem to move past using the shortcomings life throws at you in your favor as much as possible. Learning about his life and career was the main highlight for me, and it'd be fascinating if he released a full memoir sometime in the future that focused mostly on that.

One of the best anecdotes that stood out was how he was about give up on his dream when his mentor asked him to try before he quit. Instead of sitting around an waiting for someone to call, what could he / we do something small that puts him out there and take him closer to his dream. That was a nice reminder for when we get stuck thinking about the bigger picture to magically appear instead of focusing on the details.

The book is practically hand-held and only 200 pages long, so it's easy to read in one or a few sittings. Though his perspective will be helpful to all readers and appeal to younger fans, this will be more enjoyable for aspiring artists or creative-types who need reminders on how to stay positive and to keep trying. If this had been released while I was studying theatre in college, it would've been inspiring for me to keep acting.

I never like to dole out one star reviews, especially since this was my first intro into Courtney's work. It was fine if you like cute Pinterest-like reminders. She explores heartbreak, love, healing, etc., but it felt like it was the same simplistic sentiments over and over again. Despite the chapters angling for different meanings, I didn't feel like there was an overarching story of her relationship with herself, her partners, or the world. I wished there was more revelations that probed deeper than, but her writing is honestly too vague to think about it more. I'd be interested to see what Pillow Thoughts is about.

After reading one of Courtney's other entries I Hope You Stay (and still being relatively new to her style), I was open to giving this a go and see if her work was more expansive. Unfortunately, I found this to be more frustrating. These prose center on Courtney and fellow poet/collaborator Zack Grey sharing ruminations about long-distanced relationships starting with how far apart they are to reuniting towards the end. But it didn't feel like the authors were on any sort of overarching journey of connectedness with the people they were writing about. Their poems certainly hit the mark with the title because most of the poetry is just about longingness. Even if that's the aim of the book's theme, the poetry and prose felt irritatingly repetitive in the choice of words/phrases such continually using a pillow to act like the other person's absence in bed and ending multiple poems with "you are mine" to rhyme with "time."...A lot of popular poetry on social media and pinterest isn't for me (which is what Courtney's work reminds me of), and I know that going in....I'm always willing to be open-minded, but then is left frustrated that these compilations count as popular poetry/prose.

I judged this book by its cover in a good way and immediately checked it out at the library. I thought by my 30s, I'd find a cure-all for some of my mental health challenges. But it's taken me a long time to learn that anxiety and depression don't just need management. All facets of my emotions and thoughts need nourishment to ease my mind from overloading. Martin walks through her journey of figuring out what triggers a wide range of emotions or moods, and how she transforms them by practicing self-awareness. She first gained popularity online with her community wordsofwomen - a collection of honest and vulnerable experiences written by women to celebrate their stories. The Book of Moods extends her work but more from the perspective of Martin's journey to understand her emotions from becoming moods that end up sabotaging us. Her advice never came across as contrived or heavy-handed, it's practical to apply to our relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and ourselves. If you're looking for an insightful and conversational book to help you cope from the past year or so, I'd highly recommend this - especially if you like The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin or Atomic Habits by James Clear.

I was looking for a queer-fabulous fantasy book to read for the summer, and I don't think I could've found a better option (but I'm still on the lookout because why not?? lol). I thought the story would at most be a fun witchy read, but I increasingly fell in love with the diverse amount of characters and world-building.

Sterling does a marvelous job creating characters from all kinds of backgrounds, who you can relate to instantly. Hannah, in particular, is a well-rounded heroine who does her best to help everyone she can, sometimes at the expense of her own safety - which creates a lot of fun conflict against the witch hunters. I loved how intimate her crush with Morgan is as well as the complexity of moving on from her ex Veronica. Nobody feels like they were put into the story for the sake of checking a box off for LGBTQ+ representation. (#ownvoices)

The world-building also weaves together a lot of details to offer a little bit of everything - fantasy, mystery, and romance all wrapped up in a contemporary Salem witch hunt. Sometimes the mix of genres inhibited the story because Hannah's relationships slowed the pacing down. And I also felt like the world-building of the coven protecting their witches and how the relationships between Elementals, Casters, and Blood Witches could've been detailed. But Sterling makes up for it with her descriptions. She truly uses all of the senses to put you in the moment of what Hannah is experiencing whether it's something that will make you swoon or make you want to find out what happens next (the violence isn't gratuitous but it might be a little too much for some readers).

What I'd love to see This Coven Won't Break is more improvement with the dialogue and development of the villain(s). The former was sometimes pretty cringey and struggling to capture how teenagers talk (something I think is pretty common in a lot of YA books), meanwhile the latter didn't seem to be developed more than: witches = bad = I must do something about them. However, the Hunter did express that more is going on underneath the surface than just hunting witches because "they're an abomination to humans," so I'm interested to see how much further this goes and expands in the sequel. Otherwise, this was a lot a breeze to read and I look forward to seeing how it finishes it up.

3 to 4 stars overall

There's really only one reason I grabbed this from the shelf at my library and that is the cover and the word 'Pulp.' I kinda knew immediately this would gel into the pulp fiction genre, and reading the summary made me so excited that it would touch on the lesbian subgenre too. What I didn't know but what this review describes perfectly is that the books is very much 'Your Mileage May Vary.'

Pulp offers a little bit of everything - and maybe it's a little too much. The 2017 timeline is your 'typical' contemporary young lit with Abby juggling too many things at once - dysfunctional parent relationships, school, an ex that she doesn't know if they've officially broken up. The 1955 timeline is a big gateway into historical non-fiction and what was happening to the LGBTQ+ community during the McCarthy era - there's a lot of exposition to cull through and I'm sure is what makes the book a lot longer than it might've needed to be. There's also romance woven between Abby and Janet's relationships and mystery over the author Abby is searching for. I enjoyed the various genres coming together outside of the weak spots.

Talley makes sure to take her time with the dual narratives and not make the characters copies of each other but share similar arcs, emotions, and revelations. Both Abby and Janet feel like full fleshed characters, but it does take a while for the 'can't wait to read what happens next' to kick into high gear. My favorite part of the book was how Talley took the the tropes of tragic LGBTQ stories and turning them on upside down - I wanted to get to the end to make sure that Janet didn't share the same fate as most lesbians in pop culture and literature face - tragedy, death, etc. I was also grateful for the brief guide of who's who in the back of the book because it helped clear up the books and authors that Abby and Janet meet or read about along the way - which can become a little confusing. But similarly to the characters' own arcs and how much they felt seen and validated, this gave me a priceless sense of feeling represented that I haven't felt in a long time.

Overall - 3 to 4 stars in between liked and really liked.