This book wanted to be a more representational Caraval or Night Circus and it just... wasn't. There was none of the tone and ambience, no use of metaphor or playing on fairytale structure to set the mood. The magic is Wonderlandian and overly convenient, but is described in endless lists - Jani saw this silly thing, she saw this, she saw that - so that the magic, despite its scope, never FEELS magical. The representation is token, even insulting. For example, the protagonist and her sister - Jani and Zosa - are brown-skinned, yey for PoC heroes, right?... Yeah, except those PoC's get hired as a maid and the entertainment, and one of them gets turned into a bird with little to no agency/page time for the whole book... :/. There is a very tepid attempt at saying something about classism, how all should be welcomed and worldly and given opportunities... But there WAS a story RIGHT THERE about cultural appropriation, that the author just shied away from. This book could have been elevated, and instead it just... was.

So okay, face value magic system, face value protagonist and antagonist, yada yada yada... If this were a middle grade book instead of YA, and the watering down was to reach a younger audience, would this book hold up? Well, no. XD I found Jani to be an incredibly boring and moronic heroine. At least Harry Potter, once he learned what the Sorcerer's Stone was, had the decency to say, "Oh yeah, I can see why Voldemort wants that." Jani is handed a cheat sheet of all the magical items in the world, and what they do - and the villain SPECFICALLY POINTS OUT which one he wants the most - and she still mulls it over for days, "But WHY does he want it?" Girl, it says on the paper! Plus, obvious villain reason is obvious! It's not that deep, Jani! Or, she's told repeatedly, "Don't cross the lobby, don't go in the Salon, don't go in the Aviary, don't go in the Freezer, etc etc, bad things will happen." But she's also told, "The hotel shifts to accommodate people's needs." She does everything she's not supposed to do, gets all her friends hurt, is spared punishment herself by necklace ex machina, and NEVER ONCE just reaches out to the hotel to MAGIC her out of a situation. This is another failed opportunity to elevate: This could have been a story about self-empowerment, girl power, power of love, SOMETHING! But no, Jani never hones HER skills in any meaningful way. Jani outsources heroing to a man with ice-bomb powers and he blows up her problems for her. Sorry, spoiler, not sorry :P. #JaniDon'tNeedNoMan

Lastly, and this is a literary, nitpicky thing, but... The Hotel can go anywhere in the world, that's its grand selling point. Jani and Bel, the deuteragonist love interests, both have magical cartography skills, and love the idea of sharing the hidden wonders of the world with each other. They are both hunting down magical objects across the globe, and later are liberating magical people around the world... This is one of those fantasy books that would have benefitted from a MAP!!!!! A FREAKING MAP!!!!! HOW is there no map on the inside cover?!?! The other big theme in this book is the wonders of ink and paper: Storybooks come to life, origami forests full of enchanted animals and imprisoned sorcerers, magical contracts - the wonders of this hotel are literally bound in writing! I am disappointed that the story doesn't play more with known fairytale figures to drive this point home. But I am even more disappointed that the PHYSICAL BOOK doesn't play with the romanticizing of literature! The paper could have been those ragged, uneven, thick pages. The chapter headings could have used calligraphy. Heck, whole sections of the book could have been written sideways, or in corkscrews, to symbolize the occurrence of magic, like how the bouncing text in Illuminae simulated space-walking, or the increasingly off-kilter text of House of Leaves symbolized the shifting of the haunted house and the protagonist's descent into madness. Hotel Magnifique wrote an homage to writing without having any style!

Which is the bottom line: For a story about endless spectacle and intrigue, this book is anything but.

Holy guacamole, I understand why this book is required reading in schools! It's little, but dense, with so much to unpack! It's timeless and smart and delightful; The American Dream in miniature. Is it a little hokey that Mr. Monopoly gives all his money away to hard-working immigrants? Yeah, more than a little bit unrealistic XD. But the book is so witty with its huge, diverse cast of characters. They are flawed: greedy, jealous, dishonest, racist, attention-seeking... But they are also capable of great change and big dreams. They learn from each other, and empower one another. In the end, it's not really about solving the mystery, or winning the cash prize. It's about how we all win when we live with both ambition AND compassion.

4.5 stars! An awesome retelling of The Phantom of the Opera!!! The changes add a whole new perspective to the narrative. There was always room for sympathy for the original Phantom: he was soulful, desperately lonely, and ostracized for superficial reasons. His social maladjustment is tragic. BUT his predatory behavior - both grooming Christine and murdering folks at the opera - inevitably condemns his story to be "Psycho: The Musical!" But Isda, our new Phantom, her anger, her jealousy, her longing and lust, her deceptions, her need for social acceptance AND her disdain of that same society, her acts of rebellion, her experimentation with drugs and struggle with addiction, even her violent outbursts and acts of vandalism, are all just... part of being a troubled teen. She is Cinderella, and Ariel, and Aurora, and Jasmine, and Rapunzel, and every princess we were ever trained to idolize. AND -Isda is up against a racist society which wants to obliterate her simply for existing. My biggest regret is that this book made Isda a pale red-head, because it would have hit SO HARD if this fantasy faux-France had a stigma against faux-Middle Easternish folks, and forced them to cover up based on their appearance or misunderstood religion, or scapegoated them for an uptick of violence in the city. HOW is Isda not a PoC?! Every line she had about wanting to be dutiful, but ultimately feeling betrayed when good behavior didn't garner change or respect, and how she felt /forced/ to commit violence - at times even relished it - just to be Heard and Seen - her whole story SCREAMED #BlackLivesMatter to me. Or, you know, #MuslimGirlsMatter. I really wanted one more turn of the screw! But regardless, Isda's story hits threefold: A survivor of abuse taking back her power; a teenage girl's awakening; and an Other fighting to be considered an Equal. Standing ovation Isda!!!

But for all that I just compared her to the original Phantom, the characters in Sing Me Forgotten are not a perfect 1:1 rehash. In fact, they're all mash-ups, and I am HERE for it! Isda is equal parts Phantom + Christine. Emeric is Christine + Raoul. Cyril is all the opera owners and father figures, including The Phantom, combined. All of the original architecture is there - the orphaned and deceived ingenue; the covetous and capricious tutor; the opera house's violent and reclusive judge - but everyone takes a turn playing out a portion of the story. Sing Me Forgotten is like a masquerade ball where everyone swaps masks as they swap dancing partners. But the /characterization/ and theme is intact! It's like when a book-to-screen adaptation happens, and the book is quoted by a different character (I mean, how many of Dumbledore's pearls of wisdom are given to Hermione in the movies XD). The story of The Phantom of the Opera is all there, but it means something new when The Phantom or Christine's insights echo from all echelon's of society. There IS a specter haunting faux-France: It's Racism, and Greed, and an entitled patriarchy that thrives on hurting invisible little girls. One of the sad truths about The Phantom of the Opera is that all of the cast besides the Phantom are rather flat: Christine is a doe-eyed damsel, Raoul is a white knight, etc. But Sing Me Forgotten is a more human book: Everyone has a deeper layer that haunts them, everyone struggles with their own metaphorical Phantom, everyone has a choice to make between empathy and growth or self-pity and destruction. This was a really intricate dance Jessica S. Olson did, creating rich and sympathetic characters while also honoring their inspiration, and I am EXTREMELY proud of the end result!!! JSO is definitely a force to follow!

Praise where praise is due, but that said, this IS a debut novel, and it reads as such XD. Some of the lines were hyperbolic, or clunky. For example, I LOVE this line; it's even on the cover of the book! "Destruction is a music all its own. One composed of drumbeats and a percussion of passion and pain." She had it, she had the perfect line... and then she wrote too much XD. It only needed to be "Destruction is a music all its own: a percussion of passion and pain." Bam! Done, feelings evoked, message achieved, nice and succinct! Just little things throughout, little tightening moments, that would have elevated this book from a 4.5 to a full 5.

Also, the last 100 pages get a bit dumb XD. I don't know if this is a symptom of the author trying to translate the hunt for The Phantom, or is just a debut novel's shaky attempt at a big action sequence and that awkwardness would ware off with future writing... BUUUUUT.... Emeric has less than 24 hours before he loses his sense of self forever because MAGIC, and Isda WASTES every opportunity to bring him the magic potions that could save him! In fact, she drinks all the potions herself! Yes, there is subtext here about how addiction is a selfish monster that steers you away from making empathetic choices, buuuuuuut from a strictly plot-based, non-metaphorical, subtext-ignoring stance... it was reeeeeally annoying to watch Isda dither around not-France instead of rescuing the person she allegedly loves.

All in all, this book left me feeling like Isda: Hungry and longing for more! I cannot wait to see what Jessica S. Olson writes next, and I will be /singing/ praises for Sing Me Forgotten for a LONG time! <3 <3 <3

An absolutely stunning sequel. The back cover spoiled for me that there would be new protagonists, and I thought the shift wouldn't live up to the rivalry between Eli and Victor in the first book. Boy, was I wrong! The new additions are a welcome, strong, deliciously scary team. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
The mechanic V.E. Schwab uses, of counting down to the moment when all the characters collide, is beautifully done. My heart was in my throat the whole book!

The pitch for this book was right up my alley: Southern, Gothic, murder mystery with LGBTQA themes. Chef's kiss!

But the execution was anything but. The book's "Gothic horror" elements are campy, and too well-telegraphed. The protagonist calls attention to the antagonist's suspicious behavior from the get-go, instead of the author allowing the unsettling mystery to build. And the protagonist allows herself to be put into precarious situations, the dangers of which she is NOT naive about, which makes her unsympathetic. For instance, Common Sense 101: Don't accept purple tea that makes you dizzy from the woman you think murdered your brother.

But more than the book's campy, dopey attempts at paranormal horror, the book's biggest flaw is that it actually has too many realistic triggers or cringe-inducing moments. Before you can lose yourself in the paranormal horror, there is a whole third of the book devoted to the death-by-suicide of a family member, and the grief of the protagonist. If, dear reader, you are someone who is sensitive to drama (as I am), you should have fair warning about what's in this book:

- Suicide
- Dead sibling
- Fighting parents
- Parent with cancer/Cancer death
- Drugs and alcohol/roofies
- Dead animals (mice)
- Viscera and exposed organs
- Overhearing roommates having sex
- Overhearing roommates unfriending you in your hour of grief
- Depression, anxiety, avoidance, grief

I started avoiding this book, because instead of getting lost in the fantasy of it all, I was instead being jarringly reminded of all the painful moments from my own life that I /turn to reading/ to help cope with! This book was sloppy, sometimes too over-the-top, sometimes depressing and mundane; it didn't try nearly hard enough to tie its themes together and build a story that makes the reader want to invest in it. This book made me sad, anxious, annoyed and impatient. Not the vibe I was pitched, and not the vibe it was going for I'm sure.

I regret reading the Acknowledgements at the back, because the author likened writing this book to trying to turn an Oreo commercial into a full length raunchy rom-com and....YUP! XD Can't unsee that description! This was some Netflix Original fluff right here. And respect, sometimes you're in the mood for a popcorn book, you don't go in with literary expectations, you just want warm fuzzies... or hot toddies, whatever XD. But this book wasn't fun to read. The insta-love, the long distance, the long wait times between plot points... It was boring. And Aidan and Dexter don't grow as people, and don't have to work very hard to make their relationship dreams come true.

There is something about this book which makes it seem like it was written by a high schooler. This is a fantasy about The Fated Long-Distance Lovers Who Go Away to College But Agree to Stay Loyal and Keep in Touch and Live Happily Ever After Post-Graduation... There is an immaturity to the writing and the message. For instance, I shouldn't have been surprised, given the title, but I found this book very crass XD. I admit, I was clutching my pearls, and that's not usually me. The sudden cursing or attention drawn to awkward boners was jarring. I expected more of an effort to hide these things with fun holiday euphemisms. Aidan and Dexter's love was tallied in erections, stolen kisses, and the letters they swap (But the letters are all disgruntled gossip, like how Aidan doesn't like his boss, or Dexter doesn't get along with his parents. The whole "you're the only person who really understands me" thing had me rolling my eyes). The book also drops A LOT of Christmas pop culture references, mostly kids movies and books. It's a certain-age reader who is old enough for a horny rom-com, but young enough to have watched Arthur Christmas. Final criticism: The last quarter of the book takes a turn for the emotionally abusive, when Aidan cuts Dexter out of his life until Dexter is willing to move in with him. It's an immature fantasy wrapped in immature writing, the kind of depthless thing I wrote when I was a teenager, and thought I had crafted underappreciated genius.

And somewhere in here was a lost plot about how Aidan and Dexter save Christmas by spreading faith? Yeah... not sure about that...

But whatever! If you're a teenager who just wants to read about two dudes boning and eating cookies, give this book a shot! It's short, at least.

This was a clever and heartfelt retelling, I was tearing up by the end of it :'). I love Scrooge as a teenage valley girl, that was a fun twist XD. I thought it would get annoying to have a narcissist for a narrator, but the whole point is that Holly grows, so it was actually okay. It was like reading a mashup of Loki, Devil Wears Prada, and A Christmas Carol: Sure, the lead is self-absorbed and materialistic, but she comes to care about other people, and giving them their best chance, and that's what matters. The focus on friendship hit home for me. The friend-breakups especially, hit me right in the feels! The importance of empathy, of putting another person first, truly hit home through this theme: You can be a friend to anyone.

And all the little references to Dickens or pop culture were just the cherry on top XD. I laughed, I cried, I swooned! Too good. I could SEE this book if it were made into a movie, I had the cast ready in my head. It was so fun, and now, and alive.

I already bought a Kindle copy of this book, and I want to buy a physical copy to display with my other copies of A Christmas Carol, that's how much I loved it. The Power of Friendship, baby! Gets me every time!

This book was a MESS! XD The narrative "structure" was all over the place! Less scaffolding, and more a trash mobile: disconnected themes and plot devices swirling around a central character. Creatures and characters were seemingly introduced as foils, but then were either easily conquered or never actually featured in person (just in recollections from the narrator). Subsequent paragraphs would veer off on unrelated tangents, as if the narrator were easily distracted from telling her own story. Scenes were interrupted by a chapter break mid-dialogue, for no obvious reason. The "villain" has been "plotting" to kidnap the heroine for 15 years, but is only successful because of a crime of opportunity, and then runs amok playing pranks in Santa's workshop instead of making good on his "evil plan". The "heroine" has been dreaming of one day ditching Santa's workshop for "adventure in the great wide somewhere", but her "great escape" ends in her choosing to stay home and join the family business! She only leaves twice, and one of her "great escapes" is entirely underwhelming: She orders sushi and sings carols at a diner. FIRSTLY, my daddy always warned me: don't order fish at a diner! Secondly, she is supposed to be fleeing, why does she DAWDLE?! The only other time she leaves home, she trespasses on a bird sanctuary, and is the catalyst for a MASSIVE FIRE that destroys the park O____O. And this is glossed over as no big deal! WHAT?!?!? I don't care how much ennui this teenage girl had with playing Santa, she and her friends committed a CRIME, and do not deserve hot cider and cookies! Naughty List for life! The villain is campy, the heroine is a ripoff of Elsa, and I don't even want to get into the "romantic" lead, because he has less chemistry than an unvarnished plank of wood XD.

Which is a crying shame, because this author did WORK. She invented an alphabet, and wrote a music video, and interviewed people who actually live in Alaska for tips on how to write about their culture... But all that effort didn't make up for juvenile writing. It's as if a teacher assigned a group project on modern day Alaska, and one classmate wrote about the nature and wildlife, and one wrote about holiday and family traditions, and ONE - the author - covered the posterboard for the report with glitter and Frozen stickers and stick drawings of Santa and his elves!

This author had ideas, and just blurted them all out, and then never refined them into a cohesive, compelling story. And half of those ideas were cartoonish fun, but dangerous and misleading for a younger audience. The other half of those ideas just seemed to be autobiographical. You want to dress up as Elsa and sing Frozen karaoke? Go have fun!
But don't:
- Feed candy to polar bears. They are not pets. They are not children. Do not do.
- Build a bonfire in a bird sanctuary. Birds will die.
- Carry a broken snowglobe around in your backpack for a week. That s--- will leak everywhere.
- Keep your employees in an underground crypt and call it "free lodgings".
- Discover an underground crypt full of slave labor, and ignore it.
- Drink sour milk.

I could go on. I don't want to. This book was nonsense, and trying to draw sense from it in hindsight to make up for my wasted time, is just not going to happen. Save your pennies, folks. Skip this one. Go read The Golden Compass instead.

A very sweet fated mates/shifter story. It had its tropes, but I was actually impressed with its emotional maturity in most places. Jasper isn't the typical snarling, aggressive, paranormal alpha. He's gentle and generous. He's always considerate: How can he be helpful, how can he make today special, how can he make the people he cares about feel cherished... He is the perfect personification of Christmas. And Abigail was the perfect flipside to that coin: Her dealing with seasonal depression hit me right in the feels! There is a deep person there who is clearly still working through some trauma. She's her own harshest critic, and she self-sabotages. But she knows her brain's emotional deceptions, and she is trying to limit her exposure to triggers, master her spirals, and trust other people not to abandon her over mistakes. The way that Jasper and Abigail inspire each other to reach out with kindness, creativity, and security, is truly heart-warming.

The book does have its flaws, though. A lot of typos. And it IS a short story, there is no fleshing out of WHERE this takes place, or WHAT Jasper does for a living, or WHO Abigail wants to be besides Mrs. Jasper. They are shown to be strong, sensitive people, buuuuut a lot of their romance does revolve around mutual sexual attraction XD. And the magical bondage gets introduced with dubious consent. PLUS, for a book with magical bondage, the sex scenes were kind of vanilla, and repetitive; the final 40 pages were putting me to sleep.

But typos and simplicity aside, this at its core was a story about how emotions can be overwhelming, especially during the holidays, and it's important to treat people with tenderness, even yourself. I think that's a positive message for any reader, but especially for the paranormal romance fan who, too often, sees surly and catty leads. No matter your gender, or your baggage, it is ok to be vulnerable and to expect kindness.

The author did amazing work recreating that narrative style and voice you might find in a classic mystery or drama. UNFORTUNATELY, this book does NOT live up to its title and premise XD. The book is largely NOT about The Christmas Tree Murders XD. It is instead about a missing person. The lady lead, Camille, ignores significant evidence, and jumps to conclusions about other details. Not that ANY of the detecting matters one iota! The author A) Holds the reader's hand by switching PoV, making sure we get all pertinent information and confessions straight from the horse's mouth, and B) Holds the surprise (i.e. tropetastic NON-surprise) of a hitherto unknown evil sibling having been the guilty party all along until the final 15 pages of the book! There are head-banging parts of the mystery that the reader can deduce so easily, that it's an insult when Camille can't, and yet she's praised for her "intelligence". And there are other parts of the book that the reader was never going to get, because the author was more interested in giving a reveal than rewarding a sleuth.

I give the book one star back for being inclusive, and for having positive messages about community needing to be about mutual respect and friendship that transcends class. But I can't do more than that, I'm too bitter about the misnomer of this mystery.