I was excited to read the Shatter Me series because I loved [a:Tahereh Mafi|4637539|Tahereh Mafi|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png]'s A Very Large Expanse of Sea.

Shatter Me isn't quite as complex or satisfying, at least not so far. The protagonist, Juliette, has a terrible curse: she can kill with her skin. Bad people consider Juliette's curse a blessing and want to weaponize it. Juliette is horrified by her ability and its consequences, and like the rest of the world, considers herself a monster. The rest of the world, that is, other than the weaponizers...and a guy. And maybe another guy, Warner, who also happens to be one of the weaponizers, but also fancies himself in love with Juliette.

This being dystopic YA, the world is going to depend on Juliette one of these days. When Shatter Me ends, that day hasn't arrived, but it's in sight. The version of the ebook I have is followed by a bonus novella [b:Destroy Me|13623150|Destroy Me (Shatter Me, #1.5)|Tahereh Mafi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1340398466l/13623150._SX50_.jpg|19226840], told from the point of view of the weaponizer in love. I'm about halfway through and thinking, dear blob, please don't ever pair Warner and Juliette.

Destroy Me bridges [b:Shatter Me|10429045|Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)|Tahereh Mafi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1310649047l/10429045._SY75_.jpg|15333458] and book two in the series, and is written from the villain's point of view. I'm caught between feeling like it's important to illuminate that we're all doing the best we can, even villains, and thinking it's dangerous to set the stage for understanding and forgiving the perpetrator of enslavement. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Life is complicated. I guess both can be true. Maybe? Right now, under the devastating shadow of DJT I'm less interested in what makes a bad guy tick and more interested in shooting him and his VP into oblivion. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks, NetGalley, for the DRC. How hard is it to tell a story about a bisexual? You have to work in love interests from the two primary sexes and not make it a competition between them as if the teenage protag's happily ever choice is a forever statement about their preference.

Regardless, [a:Sophie Gonzales|17149007|Sophie Gonzales|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1555846398p2/17149007.jpg], can write a fun romance. Darcy Phillips has two secrets: a crush on her best friend, Brooke and a thriving romantic advice business that she's only abused twice, so far, both times to manipulate Brooke. What could go wrong?!?

The Locker 89 conceit is a good one. Darcy, whose mom works at her fancy private high school, which enables her lower middle class self to attend, has taken over a locker (found the combo and taken it out of circulation due to Darcy's borrowed admin access). Students slip a letter and $10 into the locker, describing their romantic woes, and Darcy emails back from an anonymized email address. If her advice doesn't pan out, she refunds the money, but that doesn't happen often. Darcy's success rate is 95%. I was please do see that her advice is warm and wise, never dismissing. Darcy does a lot of relationship theory research, even if she doesn't need it anymore. She's never like, "dump that needy brat." Instead she advises clients to understand the real issue. Why does the lover think they require so many text messages; what is it they actually need?

I don't think it's too spoilerish to say that the things you think are going to happen, happen, and that's fine. Along with way we have a well-adjusted trans woman sister, Ainsley, whose existence is just a fact, a supportive Queer and Questioning club where lots of genders and sexualities are represented, students of color, divorcing and divorced parents, class differences, and sort of regular high school life.

I'll be glad to hear corrections or conflicting interpretations of Ainsley's role and experience.

Thanks [a:Ocean Capewell|1346108|Ocean Capewell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1324155519p2/1346108.jpg] for sending me this 1990s lesbian delight, which I will, in turn, pass onto [a:Kelly Wooten|6151825|Kelly Wooten|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1472565285p2/6151825.jpg]. Not only is Car Pool a Naiad Press published lesbian romance, it's corporate espionage against a Bay Area energy evil corp. Written in the 1990s, the book may proffer some biphobic and other attitudes that are now seen as problematic, so prepare yourself. The white protagonist's love interest is Japanese-American, and there is also a Black character. I was glad to see Kallmaker addressing race--and class--issues. The white protag is wealthy, and no one else in the book is. She starts off with concerns about her own place in office hierarchy, and by the end is no longer focused on herself. Read it for titillating sex scenes and environmental justice...or for an incomparable comparison of breasts to "baby tushy pizza dough."

I never buy books for myself, and I bought this one because books about perimenopause and menopause are so rare. For that reason, Kate Haas co-edited a on the topic called Are You There God? It's Me, Menopause. One thing that Czerwiec, the editor of Menopause: A Comic Treatment did much better than Kate and I did, is get perspectives from trans and gender nonconforming people and more people of color.

Comics fans will see some favorite people among the contributors. I was excited about Lynda Barry and [a:Jennifer Camper|211655|Jennifer Camper|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1385701825p2/211655.jpg], who is like the classiest person in comics. I failed to note all of the passages (lol) I appreciated.

Moníca Lalanda invites us to pay attention to adverts with middle-aged women. "A lady running in a beautiful spot...is not about fancy holidays but about INCONTINENCE PADS. Message: older women are urine leakers" and the same for dentures and thin bones. I couldn't find an image. Sorry! Same with a page from the editor's piece, Burning Up that theorizes hot flashes as "give-a-shits burning off."

I'm going to hold onto the book for a bit, but will probably eventually give it away. Let me know if you want it.

Cinderella Is Dead takes place approximately 200 years since Cinderella has died, and everything has gone to shit, especially for women. Prince Charming instituted all sorts of laws and customs that keeps women servile, makes same sex love impossible, and is generally repressive for the people and pockets-lining for the king. While Charming died long ago, his successors honor Charming's vile regulations. A warped version of the Cinderella story (the same one we know) is weaponized, with the annual ball a meat market where any man may claim any 16-year-old girl in attendance.

Sophia, who has known she wanted to marry her friend Erin since the girls were twelve, has no patience for the rules enforced by the current king, Manford, and is dangerously loudmouthed about it. And maybe a little free with her knees; she's not interested in most men's testicles romantically, but she doesn't mind making violent contact with them when necessary.

Sophia is Black, per the cover and her description, but while race doesn't play a lead role in the story, I tracked racial justice parallels throughout. Things like

I tried to take out that statue in the square a few nights ago.

*

...the woman smiles one of those fake smiles, all mouth and no eyes. I know the smile, and a little piece of me dies every time I have to use it.

*

The king may be a pile of ash, but his ideas are alive and well.

*

"we want a say in what happens next,"the man on the ground says as he scrambles to his feet.
"You've sad idly by while the people of Mersailles suffered and died, and now you want a say in what happens to us?" I'm shocked at his arrogance. "You're not in a position to make demands. I watched you try to buy a young girl in the dungeon."

All of the above quotations are ostensibly about the women of Mersailles, but to me they seemed to be as much about Black people in America.

Virgin sexpert violist composer Lacey and her two best friends, Evita (singer and I forget which instrument(s)) and Theo (cello) are planning to attend Berklee College of Music together. They submit their applications at the same moment. The "sexpert" thing comes from Lacey's mom (who was a teen when she gave birth to Lacey), who is an OB nurse and Lacey's having volunteered in the maternity ward. Lacey finds herself giving out advice about sex--from demonstrating how to put a condom on to emotional care. She's good at communicating about communicating, but kind of sucky at it herself, as we see when she develops a crush on Theo. For his part, Theo previously dated Evita, who is asexual (and bisexual and started the school's queer club), and is now seeing Lily Ann a violinist who is not Lacey's biggest fan. Lily Ann's damage could be because Lacey loves to compose syncopated music that violinist's hate to play...or because she sense's Lacey's crush.

There's a non-musical wrinkle for Lacey, too, when she realizes the miracle of childbirth begins to compete with the magic of music.

It's a sweet, quick read. I found everyone loving Theo annoying, probably because it's credible. I've been hung up on that guy, too.

I wish I'd taken more literature classes in college, or paid better attention to the ones I did take (all plays), so I would be a more skilled/attuned reader. I sensed that The Project has literary devices galore, but all I caught was a possible allusion to The Crucible and/or life in the Divided States of Trump. Two narratives, told in the third person by Bea Denham and in the first by Bea's six-years-younger sister Lo, alternate, going back and forth in time.

The girls were orphaned in a car accident when Bea was a teen and Lo (Gloria) a tween. Lo was in the car with their parents and still bears a scar on her face. Without any close relatives, Lo ended up with an elderly aunt (great aunt?), and Bea got sucked into a Christian community called the Unity Project. Now 19, Lo, who hasn't spoken to Bea in six years, thinks the project is a cult and wants to take it down. She works for a journalist known for breaking that kind of story, so she's primed to dig.

Lo is a tenacious and possibly ill-mannered person who is accused of "living in her accident," but she is also strong and resilient in the way of people who have nothing left to lose. Bea, on the other hand, has less of a sense of self or more of a selflessness and becomes a central figure in The Project. What happens as the sisters try to find each other is unexpected, believable, and tragic. They remind us that everyone is broken, but some people can be saved.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the DRC!

I'm not always the biggest middle grades fan (except for books by [a:Celia C. Pérez|9838714|Celia C. Pérez|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png] and when I was in elementary school), so it says something that I enjoyed Chirp, about Mia, whose family moves back to Vermont from Boston to be closer to Mia's grandmother, and the scary secret Mia has been holding onto.

Mia has recovered, physically, from a gymnastics injury, but she's not the fearless kid she once was, diving off cliffs into water and performing dangerous feats on the balance beam. Her grandma is also in a bit of a situation; her cricket farm is failing, possibly due to sabotage. Yes, cricket farm! One thing I do like about MG novels are the wild, niche topics they cover. Grandma will sell you crickets in flavors like barbecue, maple syrup (because Vermont), and Mia's favorite, garlic and sea salt. Insects are healthy, don't you know? I mean, they are! High in protein and all. I'm a vegetarian, so I think consuming all flesh is gross, with insect bodies being no worse than flesh.

Family and friend relationships are centered in this novel, along with girl power.

Thanks, Net Galley for the DRC! I'm a Renée Watson fan, so it was nice to get an advance copy of her latest book. The central character is Nala, who lives with her aunt, uncle, and cousin-sister-friend Imani in Harlem. Nala's mom is alive and well-ish, but not in the best place to care for a teenager. It's the summer before Nala and Imani's senior year of high school. Imani is deeply involved with Inspire Harlem, a group of community activists that Nala thinks are a little too intense. However, at an event on Imani's birthday, Nala meets a handsome new Inspire Harlem member named Tye and begins to transform herself--for him. Tye hates a liar, and Nala is becoming one. There's also tension with Imani, who is growing distant from her family. For Nala, family is a top priority. She loves spending time with their grandmother at her senior home.

It's possible Nala exaggerates her activities at the senior home, claiming them as a volunteer job. I find lying protagonists tough to take, knowing they're going to get caught, usually just before they were finally going to come clean. The big reveal in Love Is a Revolution lands better than you might expect, but it's still a rough moment.

Like a lot of teen love interests, Tye is on the too perfect side, but he can't help loving Nala, even if she buys disposable water bottles and doesn't recognize quotations by great Black thinkers. Nala is a little ashamed that she's not more cognizant of Black history, but she's also committed to having fun. Tye appreciates that about her. Imani, not so much. Then again, Imani isn't thrilled when Nala is all of a sudden hanging out with her Inspire Harlem friends. Both girls are struggling, in realistic and relatable ways.

It's strangely appealing that Imani is the character that many readers might identify with, or think that they should. I appreciate that Watson emphasizes self in the umbrella of revolution. She cares for all of the characters--and people--in this Harlem-set novel.