3.5 rounded down because it took me so damn long to read it. I believe in print format it's 560 pages. It was 502 on my tablet, and I don't think the length was warranted. Still and all, it's a powerful story about injustice and rage, and timely for its vaccine-related plot. You'll want to have read Dread Nation first because Deathless is mostly recurring characters whose development is crucial to the story.

Protagonist Jane McKeene pretty much goes from one zombie apocalypse to the next. She has to do one very bad thing for someone she loves, which leads her to doing bad things to people she doesn't, and who might, in the context of 19th century frontier justice, deserve it. In her afterword, Ireland shares that part of her mission in writing this novel is putting Black people back in the history of the American West. She accomplishes this goal and also peoples her novel with American Indians and Chinese, as well as whites. Because I know a little of her history in YA Twitter, calling out and being called out, I wonder if some of the elements of Deathless are Easter eggs for those in the know.

You would think half family-ax-to-grind meets credentialed-psychologist-analysis of the Donald would make for a fun read, but it turns out neither perspective really works. I don't really care about the forces that caused Trump to be Trump, and I'm not sure I believe it was all nurture anyway. Fred Trump may have passed his arrogance and cruelty down to his son genetically. Fred seems to have been competent, as do Donald's siblings, so it's unclear where that gift came from. Can you nurture someone into stupidity? Idk and I mostly don't care. I hope Mary makes a couple million on this book because it seems the only way Trumps recognize value is money.

The protagonist in this queer brown girl YA, Nishat is Bengali-Irish. Her family is Bengali, and they live in Dublin. The love interest, Flávia, is Brazilian-Irish--Brazilian mom and Irish dad. As a side note, it is interesting to learn that Ireland is not the red-headed monoculture an ignorant American might think it is.


I just read an angry zine about being a lesbian in Ireland, which apparently is not the most enlightened country, so I expected more societal issues about Nishat's coming out journey. Instead the judgment comes from her family, and a cur of a competitive, bigoted schoolmate named Chyna.

In Nishat's corner is her younger sister, Priti and her friends Jess and Chaewon, the latter Korean-Irish. All the white kids disappoint the brown kids at one point or another, but they mostly come around. Although the characters are mostly 16, the story reads a little middle-gradesy, so if MG is your jam and YA isn't, give The Henna Wars a try.

Amelia and her best friend Jenna are superfans of the Orman Chronicles, authored by a boy just a little older than they are, N.E. Endsley. It's not surprising that Amelia is so taken with the fantasy series, given her absentee parents. Her dad divorced her mom and moved on. The one interaction I remember between Amelia and her dad is devastating to Amelia. Her mom is so depressed she's barely a presence in Amelia's life. One day, she looks in a bookstore window, the girl looking out the window, Jenna, befriends Amelia. Jenna's family is generous and well-off. The two girls become inseparable for the rest of high school, though Amelia does occasionally resist Jenna's family's endless generosity. She does accept their graduation gift, which is a trip to a book convention at which Endsley is schedule to speak.

The book con is a misadventure, after which other bad things happen, and Amelia finds herself alone again. What started as a story of fandom and friendship moves into the realm of love story. Surprisingly, I was there for it, rooting for two broken kids to find their way to happiness.

Bonus for book lovers, lots of bibliophile characters.

Gharib, who I got to know about and DM with, because she has taught hundreds of people to make one-page zines since Covid-19 quarantine started, shares her life growing up with a Filipinx mom and Egyptian dad. Gharib's parents divorced when she was young and went on to remarry others and have more kids, her dad back in Cairo. Being of Filipinx descent wasn't unusual in Gharib's So Cal town; Egyptians were rarer, and being a mix between the two may have made her unique.

In addition to the usual struggles of immigrant kids to be true to their family cultures while also identifying as "American," whatever that is, Gharib has a hard time reconciling? blending? sometimes conflicting home cultures. Her parents are both devoted to their religion--her mother to Catholicism and her father to Islam. Gharib takes what she wants from each, though it's still confusing, especially when she goes back and forth between Cerritos and Cairo--from being confirmed in the church and halal in the mosque.



Things get even more confusing for Gharib when she falls in love with a white guy. Despite all the potential conflicts, Gharib embraces all the differences in her worlds, loving them all. She comes across as happy and well-adjusted and eager to share her multitudes with her future descendants.

I hung in for over a hundred pages because of the interesting premise. Due to China's one child law and the Chinese preference for boys, there is a population imbalance. Men are allowed to have one child. Women can have as many as they want--in plural marriages. May Ling has two husbands already and is interviewing a third, a gym owner in his 40s. She loves her first husband, Hann, and has reproduced with him, but although Hann loves May Ling, too, he's not that into her, sexually. His younger brother and May Ling's second husband is on the autism spectrum, but not diagnosed as such because that would preclude him from fathering a child.

I gave up because the book is just too long for me for a pandemic read, and it was taking too long to get somewhere.

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."