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wren_in_black
This has a slow start, which had me on the edge of quitting the series, as I didn't like the first book. It got much better. I might actually like all of the next book. We'll see.
Friendship. Diversity. Body-Autonomy. First Loves. Crushes. Gossip. Mistakes. Forgiveness. Redemption.
This book has it all! The art is beautiful. I also think that Jorge Ruiz is Svetlana Chmakova's most adorable character yet!
I hope this becomes a rather lengthy series. My one wish is that I had seen a bit more of Penelope and Jensen.
This book has it all! The art is beautiful. I also think that Jorge Ruiz is Svetlana Chmakova's most adorable character yet!
I hope this becomes a rather lengthy series. My one wish is that I had seen a bit more of Penelope and Jensen.
A perfect remembrance. A perfect call to action.
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Having grown up in the same Missionary Baptist church association in Arkansas, I can relate to Conley's upbringing. Everything he describes about the religion, from the immense guilt over every single sin to the near constant fear of hell despite accepting salvation to the daily expectation of evangelism to strangers - it's all truly taught and expected in this group of churches.
This story is strong, but unfortunately not well organized. The narrative jumps back and forth where Conley remembers seemingly random events from his childhood and college. This can make things confusing and sometimes a bit boring. The middle 50% or so of this story wasn't easy to stick with because of the flaws in the structure of the novel. This would have worked much better as a chronological narrative without flashbacks.
I've read other reviews that say that this novel isn't strong because Conley only spent 8 days in LIA. I think that dismisses how much of Conley's upbringing led him to that experience. His erasure and self-torture lasted far more than 8 days and began from infancy, 19 years before he ever walked into the ex-gay center.
This story is strong, but unfortunately not well organized. The narrative jumps back and forth where Conley remembers seemingly random events from his childhood and college. This can make things confusing and sometimes a bit boring. The middle 50% or so of this story wasn't easy to stick with because of the flaws in the structure of the novel. This would have worked much better as a chronological narrative without flashbacks.
I've read other reviews that say that this novel isn't strong because Conley only spent 8 days in LIA. I think that dismisses how much of Conley's upbringing led him to that experience. His erasure and self-torture lasted far more than 8 days and began from infancy, 19 years before he ever walked into the ex-gay center.
Maybe Applegate grew as an author over the course of this series. Maybe Jalil is just the best.
That's it. Jalil is just the best.
Anyway, it's nice to see throwbacks to my own YA years, such as Beanie Babies and Borders book stores. The 90s were the best. Fight me.
That's it. Jalil is just the best.
Anyway, it's nice to see throwbacks to my own YA years, such as Beanie Babies and Borders book stores. The 90s were the best. Fight me.
I love this book best of all the mythologies I have ever read. Madeline Miller manages to make the myth a reality. I never quite felt anything about any of the Greek gods and goddesses and heroes before this. Now I want her to retell the stories of every single Greek deity and hero. She makes them human. I feel like I know these characters, even those I do not particularly like.
Bold. Brutal. Brilliant.
Bold. Brutal. Brilliant.
I really enjoyed this one. It was definitely better than the Grisha trilogy. I'm about to dive straight into Crooked Kingdom.
This book is perhaps the most timely thing I have read so far this year. The politics of 15-minutes-into-the-future America will read like a punch to your face, but if you haven't been living under a rock, then politics probably already feel that way.
I found Layla to be a likable enough character. She does tend to have a narrow focus throughout the story that leads her to make several unintelligent decisions and she is immediately too trusting of one of her guards, Jake. I do, however, like that she is unwavering in her relationship to David, a Jewish boy, and that she is unwilling to just accept what happens to her.
After about the 50% mark, I found that the story almost became more about the guard Jake and how he was saving Layla than about what Layla was actually doing herself. This bordered on "white savior" for me, and I would have appreciated Jake and his part in the story more if either the ending was different or if he had been a person of color. Jake's character made me feel like this story was almost bigger than the author's ability to tell, especially when it focused so much on him. Perhaps another fifty pages of amazing brown and black hijabi girls kicking ass would have lessened the emphasis on Jake. At least the author was extremely diverse in the representation of nationalities and practices of the Muslim population in Camp Mobius.
Overall, with how pertinent this story is and with the author's note about internment being the past and current reality of America, I absolutely have to recommend this book - especially for the rising generation of teenagers. Fascism isn't something threatening America from the outside. It's already here in plain sight, and it has been for years. But we are here too. Putting books like this on our shelves and in our hands will make it harder for fascism, xenophobia, homophobia, racism, Islamophobia, and all other unique characteristics of our identities to divide us.
The people united will never be defeated.
I found Layla to be a likable enough character. She does tend to have a narrow focus throughout the story that leads her to make several unintelligent decisions and she is immediately too trusting of one of her guards, Jake. I do, however, like that she is unwavering in her relationship to David, a Jewish boy, and that she is unwilling to just accept what happens to her.
After about the 50% mark, I found that the story almost became more about the guard Jake and how he was saving Layla than about what Layla was actually doing herself. This bordered on "white savior" for me, and I would have appreciated Jake and his part in the story more if either the ending was different or if he had been a person of color. Jake's character made me feel like this story was almost bigger than the author's ability to tell, especially when it focused so much on him. Perhaps another fifty pages of amazing brown and black hijabi girls kicking ass would have lessened the emphasis on Jake. At least the author was extremely diverse in the representation of nationalities and practices of the Muslim population in Camp Mobius.
Overall, with how pertinent this story is and with the author's note about internment being the past and current reality of America, I absolutely have to recommend this book - especially for the rising generation of teenagers. Fascism isn't something threatening America from the outside. It's already here in plain sight, and it has been for years. But we are here too. Putting books like this on our shelves and in our hands will make it harder for fascism, xenophobia, homophobia, racism, Islamophobia, and all other unique characteristics of our identities to divide us.
The people united will never be defeated.