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purplepenning
“Blood is one thing. The sight is another. But courage—that is rarest of all, Vasilisa Petrovna.”
Vasya is the fifth child of Pyotr, a feudal lord of northern Rus', and Marina, daughter of the prince of Moscow. Marina knows her daughter, like her mother, will have the sight to see and commune with the spirits of their land. She also knows that the cost of Vasya's life will be her own. But so she chooses, placing her wailing child in the protection of Pyotr and their nurse, Dunya. Pyotr does his medieval best by all of his children, but political machinations have domestic and spiritual ramifications that he is powerless to avoid. Peril seems drawn to them, drawn especially to the spirited Vasya, who can't help but see the world as it is and walk as herself in it.
There is an obvious struggle between the old religion and the new, but this is really an epic yet domestic battle between faith and fear, with themes of courage, self-determination, coming of age, coming of power, and sacrifices made for loved ones. It's beautifully written, comfortably paced, and both subtle and startling — at times barely tinged with magic and at others plunged deeply into it.
Content notes: stepmother trope, hunting, domestic violence, marital rape, bloodshed, zombie vampire slaying, oppressive gender roles (and the subversion of them)
Vasya is the fifth child of Pyotr, a feudal lord of northern Rus', and Marina, daughter of the prince of Moscow. Marina knows her daughter, like her mother, will have the sight to see and commune with the spirits of their land. She also knows that the cost of Vasya's life will be her own. But so she chooses, placing her wailing child in the protection of Pyotr and their nurse, Dunya. Pyotr does his medieval best by all of his children, but political machinations have domestic and spiritual ramifications that he is powerless to avoid. Peril seems drawn to them, drawn especially to the spirited Vasya, who can't help but see the world as it is and walk as herself in it.
There is an obvious struggle between the old religion and the new, but this is really an epic yet domestic battle between faith and fear, with themes of courage, self-determination, coming of age, coming of power, and sacrifices made for loved ones. It's beautifully written, comfortably paced, and both subtle and startling — at times barely tinged with magic and at others plunged deeply into it.
Content notes: stepmother trope, hunting, domestic violence, marital rape, bloodshed, zombie vampire slaying, oppressive gender roles (and the subversion of them)
"People who let themselves learn new things are the best kind of people." And my favorite kind of people to read about. Frank Li, first generation Korean American and nerdy AP senior in a Southern California high school, certainly qualifies. True to form and expectations, he's learning at an AP rate — about calculus, himself, his family, the SATs, his friends, racism, identity, dating, tribalism, society, forgiveness, communication, love, life, the universe, and everything (Hitchhiker's reference intentional). The lessons aren't without missteps and sacrifices, but Frank's overall sincerity and integrity as a friend, son, and human being ground the story, making it a pleasure to read. Which isn't something I often say about a book that makes me cry even a little. But it made me smile more.
A note about the writing and characters: I've seen some criticism about the writing and the too-mature-for-teens characters, but neither bothered me. I think the writing is good, with quirky but well-drawn characters driving the story and unexpected but well-placed details and gestures bringing it to life. Frank tells the story in first-person present tense, which I often find exhausting for high school tales of self-discovery, but his voice works for me — even when he's doing a weird faux British aristo dialect with his best friend / top chap, Q. (See previous re: quirky characters.) Yes, this group is more self-analytical, more comfortable expressing feelings, and perhaps more articulate than the average 18-year-old (and I do wonder where Frank learned his emotional intelligence), but they aren't adults in kid's bodies. They're observant, analytical, relatively sensitive, soon-to-be college students.
Content note: fake relationship trope, racism, cancer, off-screen gun violence, family estrangement, drunkenness, cheating, death, strong language, underage drinking, consensual sex (off-screen/non-explicit)
A note about the writing and characters: I've seen some criticism about the writing and the too-mature-for-teens characters, but neither bothered me. I think the writing is good, with quirky but well-drawn characters driving the story and unexpected but well-placed details and gestures bringing it to life. Frank tells the story in first-person present tense, which I often find exhausting for high school tales of self-discovery, but his voice works for me — even when he's doing a weird faux British aristo dialect with his best friend / top chap, Q. (See previous re: quirky characters.) Yes, this group is more self-analytical, more comfortable expressing feelings, and perhaps more articulate than the average 18-year-old (and I do wonder where Frank learned his emotional intelligence), but they aren't adults in kid's bodies. They're observant, analytical, relatively sensitive, soon-to-be college students.
Content note: fake relationship trope, racism, cancer, off-screen gun violence, family estrangement, drunkenness, cheating, death, strong language, underage drinking, consensual sex (off-screen/non-explicit)
This is a "Christian mystery/thriller romance" or "romantic suspense," the first I've read by this author, who comes highly recommended.
In the opening scenes, a girl called Button gives birth on her 15th birthday on the commune of the cult that she has begun to lose faith in but that she and her parents still belong to. The commune comes under attack that same night. In the melee, her father informs her that her baby died, her mother refuses to leave, and they have to escape immediately. With no real relationship with Moose, the baby's father (who she's never even seen clearly), and with no hope for her baby or her obstinately indoctrinated mother, Button leaves with her father.
Fifteen years later, a series of vigilante crimes and a gruesome murder take place in Pelican Harbor, Alabama, a small, nascent tourist town on the gulf. Jane Hardy has just been appointed chief of police after her father's retirement. At the mayor's insistence, successful documentary filmmaker Reid Dixon and his son will be shadowing Jane as she works to solve the crimes, prove her worth, clear her father's name, and deal with her own emotional issues and an intersecting web of the secrets and lies of others.
A note about genre — I'd consider this a police procedural mystery/thriller, where the mystery and thrills are adequate but the procedural part seems a little loose. It's very light on romance. I suspect there will be more in the rest of the series, but that doesn't quite fulfill the happily-ever-after requirements for this first book. It's relatively moderate on Christianity — a couple of Bible verses, invitations to church, a couple of C.S. Lewis quotes, a main character and two minor characters explicitly guided by Christian perspectives.
So why only 2 stars? It's a decent story, but not a great book — too many characters introduced in the first few chapters and referred to by too many different names, too many unnecessary subplots, a couple of plot holes and fact-checking issues, and one character's intro to the narrative is jumbled. And I wasn't comfortable with some of the content — unnecessary identical stereotyping of the only two explicitly Black or brown women in the book (both 50-something described as looking like 30-somethings because of their dark skin or their dark eyes and hair), the psychological issues surrounding the cult participation weren't very well examined (though perhaps that, too, will come in future installments), the prepper lifestyle and stockpiling of a private arsenal was justified if not completely normalized, and
Content warnings: cult, underage sex and pregnancy, vigilante justice, tar and feathering, corrupt police, child abduction, death and dismemberment
My thanks to #NetGalley and #ThomasNelson for an advanced copy of #OneLittleLie in exchange for my honest feedback.
In the opening scenes, a girl called Button gives birth on her 15th birthday on the commune of the cult that she has begun to lose faith in but that she and her parents still belong to. The commune comes under attack that same night. In the melee, her father informs her that her baby died, her mother refuses to leave, and they have to escape immediately. With no real relationship with Moose, the baby's father (who she's never even seen clearly), and with no hope for her baby or her obstinately indoctrinated mother, Button leaves with her father.
Fifteen years later, a series of vigilante crimes and a gruesome murder take place in Pelican Harbor, Alabama, a small, nascent tourist town on the gulf. Jane Hardy has just been appointed chief of police after her father's retirement. At the mayor's insistence, successful documentary filmmaker Reid Dixon and his son will be shadowing Jane as she works to solve the crimes, prove her worth, clear her father's name, and deal with her own emotional issues and an intersecting web of the secrets and lies of others.
A note about genre — I'd consider this a police procedural mystery/thriller, where the mystery and thrills are adequate but the procedural part seems a little loose. It's very light on romance. I suspect there will be more in the rest of the series, but that doesn't quite fulfill the happily-ever-after requirements for this first book.
Spoiler
[SPOILERS: Given the delicate situation of the burgeoning relationship and the characters' backstories, I would've been super uncomfortable if it *had* wrapped up into an easy HEA resolution, so I'm not knocking it for being romance-lite. What was there was already borderline disturbing.]So why only 2 stars? It's a decent story, but not a great book — too many characters introduced in the first few chapters and referred to by too many different names, too many unnecessary subplots, a couple of plot holes and fact-checking issues, and one character's intro to the narrative is jumbled. And I wasn't comfortable with some of the content — unnecessary identical stereotyping of the only two explicitly Black or brown women in the book (both 50-something described as looking like 30-somethings because of their dark skin or their dark eyes and hair), the psychological issues surrounding the cult participation weren't very well examined (though perhaps that, too, will come in future installments), the prepper lifestyle and stockpiling of a private arsenal was justified if not completely normalized, and
Spoiler
[SPOILERS: yes, I liked Reid well enough and I understood his dilemma of trying to get to know Jane to find out if it was safe to introduce her into Will's life, but the subterfuge was a big ol' NOPE for me. Controlling, disrespectful, counterproductive to building trust in an already messed up situation nope. Also, and probably most importantly, I understand the urge to "redeem" what happened to Jane (and Reid) in the cult, but it was basically statutory rape — she was FOURTEEN and he was eighteen — and I'm zero percent comfortable with romanticizing that into a sweet "feels like coming home" kiss between them 15 years later and without her informed consent about who he was and how their paths had crossed earlier. Nope. Nope. Nope.]Content warnings: cult, underage sex and pregnancy, vigilante justice, tar and feathering, corrupt police, child abduction, death and dismemberment
My thanks to #NetGalley and #ThomasNelson for an advanced copy of #OneLittleLie in exchange for my honest feedback.
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
5-star confirmed on the re-read! I'll even stand by my surprising original assessment of "perfectly paced" but I'm sure that pace drives some readers mad since most of the "action" happens in the last 20% of the book.
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I did not know if I would even like this and certainly did not expect to love it, but wow — 4.5 stars, unhesitatingly rounded up to 5. Quietly powerful, surprisingly cheerful, on the sweet side of bittersweet, intriguing, charming, philosophical, witty, beautifully written and perfectly paced...
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I did not know if I would even like this and certainly did not expect to love it, but wow — 4.5 stars, unhesitatingly rounded up to 5. Quietly powerful, surprisingly cheerful, on the sweet side of bittersweet, intriguing, charming, philosophical, witty, beautifully written and perfectly paced...
"Reverie" is a hugely imaginative #OwnVoices YA fantasy that I really wanted to love but am instead filing under "wasn't quite right for me, but I'm glad I read it."
Kane is the only openly gay high school student in a small town and he is trying to puzzle through the aftermath of his mysterious car crash because he can't remember the details. And it's not just the details of the crash that are a problem — things, people, and, well, reality, just don't seem to fit. Who are the Others? What's a Reverie? What kind of power does he have in these Reveries? Does Poesy, the powerfully fabulous case-worker who shows up to smooth his way through a police situation have the answers? Will the answers, uh, break reality? Because that seems like it might kinda be a thing.
Reverie is full of mystery and imagination and pain and healing and friendship and adventure. It's the mystery-adventure that lets me down — we only know as much as Kane and it takes a bit too long before things start to make sense. And then, after they do, well … you know how listening to other people tell you about their dreams is never quite as interesting as they think it's going to be? That. Even when the dreams are significant and exquisitely detailed and beautifully described, it can be wearisome to be locked in a world of dream logic.
But the writing is good and the world is fascinating and the characters who populate it are interesting, so — I'm glad I read it. Also, the book cover is cool.
Kane is the only openly gay high school student in a small town and he is trying to puzzle through the aftermath of his mysterious car crash because he can't remember the details. And it's not just the details of the crash that are a problem — things, people, and, well, reality, just don't seem to fit. Who are the Others? What's a Reverie? What kind of power does he have in these Reveries? Does Poesy, the powerfully fabulous case-worker who shows up to smooth his way through a police situation have the answers? Will the answers, uh, break reality? Because that seems like it might kinda be a thing.
Reverie is full of mystery and imagination and pain and healing and friendship and adventure. It's the mystery-adventure that lets me down — we only know as much as Kane and it takes a bit too long before things start to make sense. And then, after they do, well … you know how listening to other people tell you about their dreams is never quite as interesting as they think it's going to be? That. Even when the dreams are significant and exquisitely detailed and beautifully described, it can be wearisome to be locked in a world of dream logic.
But the writing is good and the world is fascinating and the characters who populate it are interesting, so — I'm glad I read it. Also, the book cover is cool.
"Ben told me once that the Greeks had this term, epoché, meaning 'I suspend judgment.' Useful for those of us prone to making common cause with strangers on buses."
And for those of us prone to reading books that we're pretty sure aren't going to work tremendously well for us. It's an interesting, maybe even important, portrayal of a contemporary moment but not one I enjoyed reading. "There is a tradition in Judaism that happiness and sorrow must be intermingled." There simply wasn't enough happiness here.
From appearances, you might think this is a breezy, short read. From the measured tone, you might think the narrator is settling in to methodically tell a fantastic or tragic tale. Neither is true. Lizzie, whose head we live in here, is an intelligent, anxious, family-enmeshed, under-achieving, urban woman faced with climate crisis and sociopolitical discouragement on top of the normal concerns of work and family. Almost all of the typical actions of plot take place off page, however, and are revealed through vignettes of Lizzie's observations from six short time spans (each of which makes up a chapter). It's neither breezy nor methodically fantastic or tragic, but it is expertly distilled and purposeful. Each thought, recollection, or conversational snippet is loaded with significance; many will obviously and immediately resonate while others will take a moment and some deciphering. For the right readers willing to put in the work, this would make an excellent book discussion.
Content notes: addiction, post-partum depression, drinking in excess, emotional cheating, suicide watch
And for those of us prone to reading books that we're pretty sure aren't going to work tremendously well for us. It's an interesting, maybe even important, portrayal of a contemporary moment but not one I enjoyed reading. "There is a tradition in Judaism that happiness and sorrow must be intermingled." There simply wasn't enough happiness here.
From appearances, you might think this is a breezy, short read. From the measured tone, you might think the narrator is settling in to methodically tell a fantastic or tragic tale. Neither is true. Lizzie, whose head we live in here, is an intelligent, anxious, family-enmeshed, under-achieving, urban woman faced with climate crisis and sociopolitical discouragement on top of the normal concerns of work and family. Almost all of the typical actions of plot take place off page, however, and are revealed through vignettes of Lizzie's observations from six short time spans (each of which makes up a chapter). It's neither breezy nor methodically fantastic or tragic, but it is expertly distilled and purposeful. Each thought, recollection, or conversational snippet is loaded with significance; many will obviously and immediately resonate while others will take a moment and some deciphering. For the right readers willing to put in the work, this would make an excellent book discussion.
Content notes: addiction, post-partum depression, drinking in excess, emotional cheating, suicide watch
This is a modern, gender-flipped, loose retelling of Pride and Prejudice that focuses on the role of Darcy, which is filled by Trisha Raje, a brilliant (but frustratingly tone deaf and self-absorbed) neurosurgeon from a rich and powerful Indian American family. Her Elizabeth, the talented chef who captivates her despite her best efforts, is Darcy "DJ" Caine. There's also a Raje family secret/scandal, a Wickham complication, and DJ's sister will be ruined if Trisha doesn't help her.
The first half of the book was so frustrating that I almost didn't finish, but the last half was good enough that I'm glad I did. This could've easily been a 4-star read if the first half didn't spend so much time alluding to huge character- and plot-affecting backstory without giving any particulars for 100+ pages. The Rajes, and Trisha in particular for the first half, are not pleasant enough to hang out with for that long without some understanding and redemption underpinning the effort. Also, it seems unnecessarily confusing to name the male lead Darcy even though he's in the Elizabeth role. But, in general, I really liked the modern interpretation of the Pride and Prejudice plot points.
The first half of the book was so frustrating that I almost didn't finish, but the last half was good enough that I'm glad I did. This could've easily been a 4-star read if the first half didn't spend so much time alluding to huge character- and plot-affecting backstory without giving any particulars for 100+ pages. The Rajes, and Trisha in particular for the first half, are not pleasant enough to hang out with for that long without some understanding and redemption underpinning the effort. Also, it seems unnecessarily confusing to name the male lead Darcy even though he's in the Elizabeth role. But, in general, I really liked the modern interpretation of the Pride and Prejudice plot points.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
"I think people came here for the same reason we came here," Dorian says. "ln search of something. Even if we didn't know what it was. Something more. Something to wonder at. Someplace to belong. We're here to wander through other peoples stories, searching for our own."
On the surface, if there is a surface, this is the story of Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a game theorist post-grad with a penchant for literature, who is trying to solve the mystery of a tale written out of time and a door connected to another realm. Within the mystery, he discovers that lines have been drawn, sides taken, and very real peril introduced. Once you scratch that surface, though, you find that this is a love story wrapped in a myth wrapped in faith wrapped in folklore wrapped in mystery wrapped in another love story. Or maybe the same love story, but in another form.
Sometimes, my soul falls in love with a book before my mind catches up. My mind is, in fact, still catching up on this one. There were parts I decidedly didn't like (bees and initiations and tearing talons). And some I'm still not sure I understand. But then — the amazing kaleidescopic story! The searching, striving, wandering, surrendering, struggling, ephemeral, foundational, timeless story that swept me up and along. This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I loved it.
On the surface, if there is a surface, this is the story of Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a game theorist post-grad with a penchant for literature, who is trying to solve the mystery of a tale written out of time and a door connected to another realm. Within the mystery, he discovers that lines have been drawn, sides taken, and very real peril introduced. Once you scratch that surface, though, you find that this is a love story wrapped in a myth wrapped in faith wrapped in folklore wrapped in mystery wrapped in another love story. Or maybe the same love story, but in another form.
Sometimes, my soul falls in love with a book before my mind catches up. My mind is, in fact, still catching up on this one. There were parts I decidedly didn't like (bees and initiations and tearing talons). And some I'm still not sure I understand. But then — the amazing kaleidescopic story! The searching, striving, wandering, surrendering, struggling, ephemeral, foundational, timeless story that swept me up and along. This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I loved it.
"Traveling to another plane of existence tasted like cyan. It smelled like a stubbed toe. I detected notes of lighthouse, iambic pentameter, and general relativity."
This was an interesting and satisfying sequel/conclusion. The stakes are raised — right into another dimension — and Genie has to face the sacrifices necessary to save the multiverse. While also dealing with the adminstrative duties of being a guardian, the scheming politics of heaven, and the pressures of a new relationship.
This was an interesting and satisfying sequel/conclusion. The stakes are raised — right into another dimension — and Genie has to face the sacrifices necessary to save the multiverse. While also dealing with the adminstrative duties of being a guardian, the scheming politics of heaven, and the pressures of a new relationship.