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2.41k reviews by:
renatasnacks
LOL GUYS IDEK. I know this is a classic classic X-Men storyline and I kind of thought I'd already read it, but I wanted to re-read it before the movie? But in retrospect maybe I only saw the animated series version of this?
Anyway I'm not really used to how clunky older comics can be. Like the first issue of this is literally just Cyclops narrating the entire history of the X-Men. It's pretty boring honestly, except for when he refers to a "crazy donnybrook in Calgary" because that is like the most improbable description of superhero adventures ever. Then, all the X-Men go to DANTE'S INFERO? And Wolverine goes to Canada and fights a Wendigo? And then the actual Days of Future Past story is only 2 issues long.
If you're nerdy enough to really appreciate this you probably read it like 20 years ago.
Anyway I'm not really used to how clunky older comics can be. Like the first issue of this is literally just Cyclops narrating the entire history of the X-Men. It's pretty boring honestly, except for when he refers to a "crazy donnybrook in Calgary" because that is like the most improbable description of superhero adventures ever. Then, all the X-Men go to DANTE'S INFERO? And Wolverine goes to Canada and fights a Wendigo? And then the actual Days of Future Past story is only 2 issues long.
If you're nerdy enough to really appreciate this you probably read it like 20 years ago.
I was surprised by how much I got into this! I read [b:Delirium|11614718|Delirium (Delirium, #1)|Lauren Oliver|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327890411s/11614718.jpg|10342808] a couple years ago when it was new, and I think I just had like, dystopia fatigue. But now I've been off dystopias for awhile and I took the audiobook of this since it was about the same length as the trip to my parents' house, and also I just read [b:Liesl & Po|10425811|Liesl & Po|Lauren Oliver|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1298937848s/10425811.jpg|14615333] and was feeling favorably toward Lauren Oliver.
I meant to read a summary of Delirium before I left, but I forgot to do so, but I basically did okay at getting Pandemonium. She does a good job of feeding you back the stuff you need to know.
Also I think maybe the first book had a lot of heavy lifting to do with worldbuilding and in this one things are more established and Lena has more adventures and such?? IDK IDK. Whatever, I'm into it, and I put myself on the list for [b:Requiem|9593913|Requiem (Delirium, #3)|Lauren Oliver|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1340992438s/9593913.jpg|14480925] & will def be reading it as soon as possible.
Readalikes include basically every other YA dystopia, whatever.
The audiobook I felt neither subtracted or added to the experience. The reader was fine, but not one of those were I would say the audiobook was way better than the text book. It was a good car book though because it's pretty fast paced and exciting.
oh and one of my favorite thing was
Oh and I liked that there was a canonically queer couple in a way that was like realistic and casual but also kind of a big deal because homosexuality is illegal in this dystopia? It'd be cool if our protagonist were queer but, you know, better than nothing. Or maybe that will be the twist in the 3rd book!!
I meant to read a summary of Delirium before I left, but I forgot to do so, but I basically did okay at getting Pandemonium. She does a good job of feeding you back the stuff you need to know.
Also I think maybe the first book had a lot of heavy lifting to do with worldbuilding and in this one things are more established and Lena has more adventures and such?? IDK IDK. Whatever, I'm into it, and I put myself on the list for [b:Requiem|9593913|Requiem (Delirium, #3)|Lauren Oliver|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1340992438s/9593913.jpg|14480925] & will def be reading it as soon as possible.
Readalikes include basically every other YA dystopia, whatever.
The audiobook I felt neither subtracted or added to the experience. The reader was fine, but not one of those were I would say the audiobook was way better than the text book. It was a good car book though because it's pretty fast paced and exciting.
oh and one of my favorite thing was
Spoiler
how Raven is like too tough and Lena runs away to save Julien and she's thinking she's done with the revolution forever but then Raven realizes she was wrong and comes to help. I think it's nice to see that kind of character development and friendship or w/e, and I think a lot of authors would have gone for the "Lena and Julien against the world, no one understands!!" narrative, but I really appreciated that Raven etc came to help. YAY!Oh and I liked that there was a canonically queer couple in a way that was like realistic and casual but also kind of a big deal because homosexuality is illegal in this dystopia? It'd be cool if our protagonist were queer but, you know, better than nothing. Or maybe that will be the twist in the 3rd book!!
Oh uhhh I decided to read this because [b:Pandemonium|9593911|Pandemonium (Delirium, #2)|Lauren Oliver|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1310371414s/9593911.jpg|14480923] made me think I was recovered from Dystopia Fatigue but maybe I wasn't really. Maybe my government mandated cure for Dystopia Fatigue didn't work! Maybe I'm a special and unique CHOSEN ONE!!!
But also I guess maybe I didn't like [b:Legend|9275658|Legend (Legend, #1)|Marie Lu|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1333909141s/9275658.jpg|14157512] as much as [b:Delirium|11614718|Delirium (Delirium, #1)|Lauren Oliver|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327890411s/11614718.jpg|10342808] in the first place.
Anyway, same deal as with Lauren Oliver's books, in that it had been awhile for me between books 1 & 2 and I did not super remember what happened in Legend. I found that to be slightly more crippling for Prodigy, but also I didn't super care enough to try to google it. I think by about halfway through the book I'd pieced together most of what happened in Legend.
IDK. It was fast paced? I read it all in one day. It was maybe too fast paced? They did all this shit in like 2 days? Fine, whatever.
Is this like a love rectangle now or what.
I did like all the talk of class consciousness. Four for you, Day.
like WHATEVER. if you're crazy about teen dystopias you probably already read this. if you're not I wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to read it.
I can't decide if this should be 2 or 3 stars. But, I did read it all in one day, so I guess that's something. Also I like that Day's chapters were in blue ink. Uh... yeah.
But also I guess maybe I didn't like [b:Legend|9275658|Legend (Legend, #1)|Marie Lu|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1333909141s/9275658.jpg|14157512] as much as [b:Delirium|11614718|Delirium (Delirium, #1)|Lauren Oliver|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327890411s/11614718.jpg|10342808] in the first place.
Anyway, same deal as with Lauren Oliver's books, in that it had been awhile for me between books 1 & 2 and I did not super remember what happened in Legend. I found that to be slightly more crippling for Prodigy, but also I didn't super care enough to try to google it. I think by about halfway through the book I'd pieced together most of what happened in Legend.
IDK. It was fast paced? I read it all in one day. It was maybe too fast paced? They did all this shit in like 2 days? Fine, whatever.
Is this like a love rectangle now or what.
I did like all the talk of class consciousness. Four for you, Day.
like WHATEVER. if you're crazy about teen dystopias you probably already read this. if you're not I wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to read it.
I can't decide if this should be 2 or 3 stars. But, I did read it all in one day, so I guess that's something. Also I like that Day's chapters were in blue ink. Uh... yeah.
I really liked the IDEA of this (camp for gifted kids actually seems to be brainwashing them and then it turns out it's because of aliens/the government) but it felt just like kind of rushed and too simplistic?
Also (spoiler I guess whatever)
Faith Hicks' art was cute and great.
IDK, I feel like this could have been really great if it were longer? Or just, I don't know, I guess GNs don't have to be longer to have characters you care about (cough [b:Robot Dreams|377254|Robot Dreams|Sara Varon|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1317066744s/377254.jpg|367095] cough crying forever about it), but just somehow more developed.
But it was a fun quick read and I'd give it to tweens.
Also (spoiler I guess whatever)
Spoiler
ok the aliens need to incubate their babies inside humans and then at the end the kids kill all the babies? Was that genocide? Is that the last of the bird aliens? Couldn't they have like found some other solution?? Like a heat lamp or something? what the FFaith Hicks' art was cute and great.
IDK, I feel like this could have been really great if it were longer? Or just, I don't know, I guess GNs don't have to be longer to have characters you care about (cough [b:Robot Dreams|377254|Robot Dreams|Sara Varon|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1317066744s/377254.jpg|367095] cough crying forever about it), but just somehow more developed.
But it was a fun quick read and I'd give it to tweens.
Solid conclusion to the trilogy, with enough closure to be satisfying but also open-ended enough to feel true to the world as it's been built.
IDK, I guess I don't have anything earth-shattering to say about this. Probably if you read and liked the first 2 of the trilogy you will also enjoy this one.
IDK, I guess I don't have anything earth-shattering to say about this. Probably if you read and liked the first 2 of the trilogy you will also enjoy this one.
AWW GUYS I really wanted to like this. I love campy ghost stories and mean girls. The back of this book cover says LET THEM EAT CAKE... AND DIE. This should have been a home run.
But I really struggled to finish it or care about it. The main character, Collete, and her friends Hannah and Pilar are like mean girls out of an afterschool special. Collette is secretly poor but pretending to be rich so her mean girl friends don't reject her, and she's very aware that she doesn't even like the mean girls and would rather be friends with the nonpopular girls, but like, social status?? Ughh.
Then the ghostly aspect of it made no sense. Like the idea of it was that Marie Antoinette was murder-haunting all the descendents of the families of the Order of the Key, which was a secret society that protected the queen or something. (Which, in an afterword, Alender says is 100% made up, so it's not even like Dan Brown territory where it's sort of based in truth, which I find more interesting.) But it wasn't really clear why just NOW the queen was starting to murder-haunt them.
OK I have to confess something, this book (maybe because it was an ARC, maybe they fixed this in the final version) was printed in 3 different fonts, and the like flashback font I guess was really hard to read, so I barely read any of those parts. So it's possible that this was better explained than I'm giving it credit for.
Anyway also Ghost Marie Antoinette was marking all her victims by putting ghostly smudges on their wrists that only other members of the society could see? What? That's not a thing that ghosts do.
Also it made very little sense that this whole thing took place over a 1 week trip to Paris. It couldn't have been a semester abroad? A summer, maybe? Like, so much shit happened in this week, I can't even.
Let's be real, guys... if I can't love a mean girl ghost murder book, who will??
But I really struggled to finish it or care about it. The main character, Collete, and her friends Hannah and Pilar are like mean girls out of an afterschool special. Collette is secretly poor but pretending to be rich so her mean girl friends don't reject her, and she's very aware that she doesn't even like the mean girls and would rather be friends with the nonpopular girls, but like, social status?? Ughh.
Then the ghostly aspect of it made no sense. Like the idea of it was that Marie Antoinette was murder-haunting all the descendents of the families of the Order of the Key, which was a secret society that protected the queen or something. (Which, in an afterword, Alender says is 100% made up, so it's not even like Dan Brown territory where it's sort of based in truth, which I find more interesting.) But it wasn't really clear why just NOW the queen was starting to murder-haunt them.
OK I have to confess something, this book (maybe because it was an ARC, maybe they fixed this in the final version) was printed in 3 different fonts, and the like flashback font I guess was really hard to read, so I barely read any of those parts. So it's possible that this was better explained than I'm giving it credit for.
Anyway also Ghost Marie Antoinette was marking all her victims by putting ghostly smudges on their wrists that only other members of the society could see? What? That's not a thing that ghosts do.
Also it made very little sense that this whole thing took place over a 1 week trip to Paris. It couldn't have been a semester abroad? A summer, maybe? Like, so much shit happened in this week, I can't even.
Let's be real, guys... if I can't love a mean girl ghost murder book, who will??
I probably wouldn't have read this, except it was on my desk and I started flipping through it and realized that the main character is planning to go to a "mini Peace Corps" after high school. First of all, I was so excited that Myracle didn't just lazily say she was going to "Peace Corps" right after high school, because that's something that weirdly happens a lot in fiction and it's just one of my pet peeves. YOU NEED A COLLEGE DEGREE OR SIGNIFICANT LIFE EXPERIENCE TO DO PEACE CORPS. YOU CAN'T JUST DO IT ON A WHIM AFTER HIGH SCHOOL. PLEASE STOP DOING THIS, FICTION CREATORS.
oh what you didn't want me to rant about the Peace Corps application process in the middle of this review? whatever, you can't tell me what to do.
Anyway. I liked it as a realistic contemporary romance. It kind of captured that last-summer-after-high-school sense of possibility. I liked the frank but romantic talk about sex, and the way Wren's ~*first time*~ is presented.
youth, dreams, possibilities, sexy times, accurate representations of the work involved with applying to volunteer abroad, hurrah
oh what you didn't want me to rant about the Peace Corps application process in the middle of this review? whatever, you can't tell me what to do.
Anyway. I liked it as a realistic contemporary romance. It kind of captured that last-summer-after-high-school sense of possibility. I liked the frank but romantic talk about sex, and the way Wren's ~*first time*~ is presented.
youth, dreams, possibilities, sexy times, accurate representations of the work involved with applying to volunteer abroad, hurrah
This came highly recommended by several people... highly recommended enough that I sucked up my general disinterest in medieval-y high fantasy court intrigue type books. And yeah, I definitely enjoyed it! The protagonist, Ismae, is saved from a shitty arranged marriage by being swept away to the convent of St. Mortain, aka Death. Turns out her real dad is Death and she has some cool death powers, such as being immune to poison. She gets trained by the nuns to be a handmaiden of death, aka assassin!! They are on the side of the kingdom of Brittany, and there's a whole lot of stuff about impending war and remaining free of the French (which, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's all futile in actual history, right...?) This tends to be the part I don't super care about in books like this. I don't care about the sanctity of the monarchy. Overthrow them all! Socialism for the people!!
Uh but that's not really Ismae's whole deal, so, whatever, I guess.
Ismae's powers were cool! her budding romance with the duchess's illegitimate bro, who might be a traitor but Ismae's sure he's not b/c he's so totes loyal and dreamy, was kind of creepy to me, to be honest. He's like twice her age and she's been living in a convent forever? Was this supposed to be creepy or romantic? I couldn't tell.
The parts I liked the most were Ismae trying to interpret the signs from Death and reflecting about mortality and loyalty and stuff like that. Some puh-retty profound insights. Also some really interesting content about gender and agency! Maybe a bit anachronistic but WHATEVER.
The parts I liked the least were the blah blah royalty parts, as mentioned above, but for me they were more tolerable than the blah blah royalty parts in other works in a similar vein.
NOW CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE ENDING
CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW DEATH GAVE ISMAE A MAGICAL VAG THAT CURES POISON WHEN SHE GOES TO THE BONEZONE WITH SOMEONE???
WHAT THE FUCKKK
WHAT IF A LADY GETS POISONED?? CAN SHE CURE POISON WITH CUNNILINGUS?
IS SHE GOING TO GO AROUND BONING PEOPLE ON THE BRINK OF DEATH? LIKE HOW OFTEN IS THAT GOING TO COME IN HANDY? CAN ALL THE HANDMAIDENS DO THIS?
WHAAAAAAAATTTT
also and unrelatedly, I liked the complexity--that neither the court nor the convent were totally morally just, and Ismae had to figure stuff out for herself. Good job Ismae.
Uh but that's not really Ismae's whole deal, so, whatever, I guess.
Ismae's powers were cool! her budding romance with the duchess's illegitimate bro, who might be a traitor but Ismae's sure he's not b/c he's so totes loyal and dreamy, was kind of creepy to me, to be honest. He's like twice her age and she's been living in a convent forever? Was this supposed to be creepy or romantic? I couldn't tell.
The parts I liked the most were Ismae trying to interpret the signs from Death and reflecting about mortality and loyalty and stuff like that. Some puh-retty profound insights. Also some really interesting content about gender and agency! Maybe a bit anachronistic but WHATEVER.
The parts I liked the least were the blah blah royalty parts, as mentioned above, but for me they were more tolerable than the blah blah royalty parts in other works in a similar vein.
NOW CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE ENDING
Spoiler
CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW DEATH GAVE ISMAE A MAGICAL VAG THAT CURES POISON WHEN SHE GOES TO THE BONEZONE WITH SOMEONE???
WHAT THE FUCKKK
WHAT IF A LADY GETS POISONED?? CAN SHE CURE POISON WITH CUNNILINGUS?
IS SHE GOING TO GO AROUND BONING PEOPLE ON THE BRINK OF DEATH? LIKE HOW OFTEN IS THAT GOING TO COME IN HANDY? CAN ALL THE HANDMAIDENS DO THIS?
WHAAAAAAAATTTT
also and unrelatedly, I liked the complexity--that neither the court nor the convent were totally morally just, and Ismae had to figure stuff out for herself. Good job Ismae.
What a powerful, important book. Having read it, I'm very happy it won an Alex Award last year.
I enjoyed Ira Glass's forward but even more than that I enjoyed Bart Lubow's preface calling out Ira Glass's forward for focusing on violent teen offenders when so many teens in the American juvenile justice system are NOT there for violent crimes but rather for stupid bullshit. (OK that's not exactly what he said.)
Richard Ross's photographs of teens in juvenile detention centers and of the centers themselves are very powerful, as are the brief statements collected from teens and the few carefully chosen statistics/quotes that are pulled out onto blank text pages between the photos.
"'What percentage of girls have been sexually abused when they come here?' 'What percentage? Every one. All 88 girls in our custody.'"
"Black youth are 9 times as likely to be sentenced to adult prisons as white youth."
"Children as young as 11 have been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole."
Very well done and effective. Highly recommended for teens and adults. Definitely recommended for libraries to purchase for their collections--I had trouble ordering it here but fought for it based on its subject matter and its Alex Award, and I'm glad I did.
I enjoyed Ira Glass's forward but even more than that I enjoyed Bart Lubow's preface calling out Ira Glass's forward for focusing on violent teen offenders when so many teens in the American juvenile justice system are NOT there for violent crimes but rather for stupid bullshit. (OK that's not exactly what he said.)
Richard Ross's photographs of teens in juvenile detention centers and of the centers themselves are very powerful, as are the brief statements collected from teens and the few carefully chosen statistics/quotes that are pulled out onto blank text pages between the photos.
"'What percentage of girls have been sexually abused when they come here?' 'What percentage? Every one. All 88 girls in our custody.'"
"Black youth are 9 times as likely to be sentenced to adult prisons as white youth."
"Children as young as 11 have been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole."
Very well done and effective. Highly recommended for teens and adults. Definitely recommended for libraries to purchase for their collections--I had trouble ordering it here but fought for it based on its subject matter and its Alex Award, and I'm glad I did.
Why I am so behind on comics: this book came out in June. I ordered it for my library in June. It finally got processed and sent to me... yesterday. In November.
But it was worth the wait. I love everything about this!! Carol, obv, but also Monica and Jess and Wendy and Kit and CHEWIE <3 <3 <3 I love that it's just cool, smart, strong women kicking ass (and kicking shark and kicking dinosaur) and having sort of relatable human problems (such as taking your cat to the vet, only to be attacked by dinosaurs... and then telling a passerby that your cat is Spider-Man undercover and will they please be an honorary Avenger and take him to the vet)? PERF.
Reading this was so delightful. It made me feel like all of my interests were being pandered to. Like, all of them. And then I thought: holy shit, is this what it feels like to be a straight white bro comics fan ALL THE TIME?? ugh now I want to punch a SHARK.
But it was worth the wait. I love everything about this!! Carol, obv, but also Monica and Jess and Wendy and Kit and CHEWIE <3 <3 <3 I love that it's just cool, smart, strong women kicking ass (and kicking shark and kicking dinosaur) and having sort of relatable human problems (such as taking your cat to the vet, only to be attacked by dinosaurs... and then telling a passerby that your cat is Spider-Man undercover and will they please be an honorary Avenger and take him to the vet)? PERF.
Reading this was so delightful. It made me feel like all of my interests were being pandered to. Like, all of them. And then I thought: holy shit, is this what it feels like to be a straight white bro comics fan ALL THE TIME?? ugh now I want to punch a SHARK.