Month: January 2025

All My Rage is the story of Salahudin’s life and family, both blood and chosen. The story begins with Sal at 16, his Pakistani parents own a motel in Juniper CA, his mother is sick and dying. Through the process of her death and his taking over of the business he needs the support of his ex best friend Noor. The reader follows him through the struggles of losing his mother and dealing with his alcoholic father. His story is told alongside Noor’s, her uncle saved her from a earthquake back in Pakistan when she was six, her whole family died. She now lives with him in Juniper and has known Sal since her first day of school. Sal’s mother Misbah took Noor in as her own and would make big beautiful meals for them to come home from school to. Her lose was deep, but throughout the story here and her story is told in short chapters from her perspective. About before, during and after the move to Juniper, the chapters share tidbits from her life. Losing Misbah helped to ease the rift Sal and Noor’s fight had torn between them and they soon began to lean on each other and even fall for each other as they had before.

I really enjoyed this book, it was for sure very heavy at times, so I would put it down and come back. To me this book felt really real and lived. Not a story someone dulled down to make age appropriate (my main qualm with this genre). The issues faced by the main characters are not any that have happened to me but the writing style described so clearly how it felt, that it was almost as though you were moving through their struggles alongside them. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a story that feels like real life and has a good romantic aspect.

Marit Weisenberg’s This Golden State tells the story of Natlie, a teenage girl who grew up in a closed and strict community in California and had a very strict and influential mother in soicial. She believed that she was growing up with the best conditions, but gradually she became skeptical about what she had learned and things that were not explained. What happened was that when she learned a few things about her mother’s past, she realized that what she believed was not entirely accurate. So she stepped out of her comfort zone and went in search of the truth and found freedom, because she felt that she was no longer in a place where she felt happy. In her journey to find freedom and freedom, it was extremely difficult, feeling lonely and integrating into a complex society was not easy for her. However, she also learned more about herself, her family and the vast world. After reading the book, I felt the strength and courage of this girl when she sought the truth and stepped out of her comfort zone to find herself and her own happiness. She always knew how to resolve conflicts in her heart. I feel that everyone should live true and honest to themselves, find their own purpose to strive for.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is the first book in her, The Folk of the Air series. The Cruel Prince book follows seventeen year old human Jude Duarte’s life in Elfhame, a city of faerie. At the age of ten she witnesses her parents murder and then she, along with her two sisters, are taken to Elfhame by the murderer. A place she can’t seem to fit into no matter how hard she trys and she’ll do anything to fit in with the immortal. Trickery, murder, and violence become regular parts of her life, an elaborate game being played from all sides, by many different players. A game that could lead to civil war if it isn’t played properly. Prince Cardan, the one Jude hates most, somehow always ends up in the middle of all the games. He is wicked, cruel, and more beautiful than the rest, something Jude especially hates. She learns to tolerate him as she learns to play the games of the court. A game that proves deadly in the end.

The Cruel Prince is an interesting book. It is written in the first person from Jude’s point of view. I don’t typically mind first person but think I would have enjoyed this book much more if it was written in a third person or with a dual point of view. It would have been interesting to know what Cardan was thinking throughout the book, it also would have made it more captivating. Other then that I liked the book. The beginning was slow and it took awhile for anything truly interesting to happen but once the action started one event lead right into the next.

The characters in the book are all very compelling and complex. They all go so much deeper than surface level, which helps makes the book more engaging. Vivi, who is Jude’s older sister, is bisexual and is in a relationship with a human girl. Taryn is Jude’s identical twin. She comes across as very innocent and sweet but in reality she is one of the more complex characters in the book. She is in the middle of many secrets and betrayals.

This book is a young adult fantasy, there is romance and action. There is a intriguing magic system within the series that can be confusing at times but is also unique. The book is about 370 pages, pages that fly by all to fast once you get into the story.

Message Not Found was a story about a girl named Bailey grieving the recent loss of her best friend Vanessa. However, despite knowing that she died after swerving off the side of the road, there was a lot of mystery surrounding why she was there in the first place. Lies began to resurface after talking with Vanessa’s boyfriend Mason, whose take on the situation revealed holes in the story of Vanessa’s death. Bailey was with Vanessa in her last moments, right before she left rather abruptly that night. Mason described the last texts he received from her were that she was driving over to his house, but the spot that she crashed was nowhere near his home.

As Bailey began to navigate her grief and confusion, her mother started talking to her about a new AI technology she had been developing called NewVision, which could be feed text messages in order to recreate the likeness of a person as a simulated version of that individual. Bailey immediately created a copy of the technology in secret and started to feed it the text messages between Vanessa and herself. Bailey thought that maybe if the bot couldn’t give her answers to her questions, it could at least relieve some of her pain.

Despite all her efforts, Bailey’s pain didn’t seem to lessen, more and more questions arose as she began to take rather drastic measures to gain more data to feed the bot with. It starts affecting her relationships as she dove deeper into the situation, consumed with this desire to know the truth, and struggling with the implications that the truth may reveal an uglier side to the friendship she held so dear.

I thought Message Not Found was an expertly paced mystery exploring the many facets of grief and how each person who knew Vanessa dealt with grief in different ways. It did a great job of shaping the different ways Vanessa was viewed as a person by Bailey as she grew to know more and more about her best friend. As it showed the unearthed sides of Vanessa, it created almost a new person in her mind, shattering the notion that they told each other everything as lies were brought to the surface. It was a very richly emotional piece with a surprising conclusion with fleshed-out characters. I enjoyed how the book portrayed Bailey’s grief and the lengths the was willing to take to satisfy her questions, it had you rooting for her despite knowing how horrible a lot of her decisions were.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery, a quick-paced page-turner, or a story filled with much drama and plot-twists.

twenty-fourseconds from now is about Neon,and Neon is nervous him and his girlfriend aria are about to take a major step in their relationship. that is if neon can get out of his own head. twenty four minutes before this neon has arrived at arias with a bag of chicken tenders. and twenty four weeks before that neon and aria talk about taking the next big step in there relationship. and twenty four months before that neon is getting chased around by a ugly white dog at church.

I thought this book was pretty decent. the concept of going from present back to past back to present was interesting. you learn more about the characters in a shorter amount of time so when its twenty four weeks in the past you have a idea of who the character is. and I thought this was a pretty smart idea and enjoyed it. As I do not read a lot of books that have this component within them.

the characters were all strongly developed throughout the story. it’s weird to see some of the characters habits actually disappear throughout the story because it goes farther back in time the more you read. the characters were very good and didn’t really need much development though. but it was nice to see how characters have developed from the past in the story. it is also very easy to side with the characters. for example neon hates the dog and because he does you do kinda thing.

i would recommend this book for anyone who likes romance as it is a primarily a romance book. however there is some comedy within the book as well as some sad elements.

The Corpse queen, written by Heather M.Herrman, is about a young orphan girl named Molly green who deals with the grief of her best friend kitty, who was supposed to run away with her lover Edgar. After Kittys death Molly is suddenly found by her “aunt” who takes her away from the Orphanage and into her home but for a price, as the book goes on Molly Learns that she has to take dead bodies from the morgue/graves and bring them to her aunt, who cleans them and lets student doctors used them. Throughout the whole story Molly is always brought back to her dead friend Kitty, and has a distaste for her lover, and having to deal with multiple theories like a man called the tooth fairy, and the corpse queen herself.

I personally loved this book so much, I though that the depth of it was very intense and the way that Heather described some of the scenes in detail was very good, I also enjoyed how the story would keep bringing back Kitty, showing that Molly’s whole strive is to find out who killed her best friend, and even that Kitty is somewhat haunting her, making her stay on her toes all the time. I loved the scary and horror that was in this book, and I seriously recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t mind scary things

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is author Sherman Alexie’s semi-autobiographical story about a young cartoonist named Junior, who has had enough of the reservation, and one day after a little bit of convincing from his teacher, decides to leave his school, his best friend, and his community, to go to a white school off of the reservation.

I absolutely loved this book. Going up there immediately with some of my all time favorites. I love the story of a young boy leaving the reservation and going to an all white school, mainly because that’s what had happened to me when I was either six or seven, I can’t remember exactly. I left the Passamaquoddy and went to Jefferson, in my opinion a criminal downgrade. Downeast ( that’s what we’ve always called it) I had a tight knit community, no one came in, no one went out, you had to be born there to be seen as a real member of the rez. I remember I had a few friends downeast, and now that I think of it, I can’t remember where my preschool was, I remember how it was to go to that preschool however, I’d see all my friends, play with cars, draw, then watch scooby-doo while I waited for my mom to pick me up, and would you believe it if I told you I still pretended to be sick and stay home?

I love this book because it’s well written and the drawings compliment the story, of course I would love the book without being a part-time Indian myself. But, being the part-time Indian I am, I love this book for how it connected to my life, I would see a character, or an event, and recall something similar that I did when I used to wake up on the rez. Basketball was something I loved on the rez. I probably sucked, no matter how bad I was I have fond memories when thinking about those sweaty shirtless days, where I’d travel down the court down by the water, then drop the ball and skin my shoulder, then get right back up because I knew I would rather break a bone and keep playing, as opposed to getting tired and walking back home. That’s another thing I love about the rez, walking. Here in Jefferson there’s no walking to do, I tried, believe me, I tried, and when I got a bike I rode 20 miles looking for something that was as exciting as the rez. On the rez I’d walk around playing Pokemon Go with my sister, I’d walk along the beach, the beautiful beach, I’d walk on the desire path down to the road from my grandmother’s big blue house.

I know now why people feel solace in hearing situations similar to theirs. I’m not sure I can recommend this book to everyone and expect them to be wowed as I was when it seemed like I was reading over my own biography. I would recommend this to every part-time, full time, or intern Indian however, and I would recommend everyone to read a book that would make them feel this same way, reminiscing on the past can make me feel sad sometimes, but when I remember those hot days, and that cold ice cream, the past doesn’t seem so bad.

The Silent Unseen is a fast-paced, occasionally confusing YA thriller set in 1944 Poland. The novel follows two principal characters, Maria and Kostya, as they meander through treacherous escapades, botched assassinations, and interconnected family tales. McCrina explores a hidden area of history while simultaneously weaving an intricate and surprising plot.
The book begins with Maria traveling home to see her family, who she has not seen since the start of the war. Maria, who is Polish, spent the entirety of the conflict in a German labor camp. A few chapters later, we meet Kostya, a young Ukrainian who was recruited into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The UPA is embroiled in a battle against both the Soviets, who have just pushed the Nazis out of Poland, and the Polish nationalist forces. This part of Poland has been fiercely contested between Poles and Ukranians for centuries—a little-known war that transpired at the closing of WWII. A chance rescue brings Maria and Kostya together. But their warring ethnicities cause Maria to regret saving him. They are forced to work together to save Maria’s brother and outsmart the Soviets, the Poles, and the UPA. Both must confront trauma, commit treason, and take drastic action to save those they love–even if sometimes those actions backfire.
I especially enjoyed the historical context of this book. It’s a situation which I knew very little about before reading it, and was particularly interesting to consider given the current war in Ukraine. The way McCrina dealt with the complicated emotions of the characters was also satisfying. On one hand, the ways in which Maria and Kostya expressed their emotions were rudimentary and simple. Upon first reading, this diminished my view of the book because it felt immature. But by the time I arrived at the harrowing final chapters, I understood that these characters were expressing emotions in an age-appropriate manner, but the emotions themselves were incredibly complex and multifaceted. Maria and Kostya both felt intense loyalty to their families, but also to each other, although they were on different sides of the fight. They had both suffered trauma and bore the memories. They both retained their human empathy, but were forced to reconcile this with ethnic and family ties.
What I did not enjoy was Maria’s character development. It felt as though she was initially portrayed as rational and crafty, someone who could find her way in the woods and waters of wild Poland. As the book progressed, she seemed to fall deeper into anger and resentment. Although this is understandable given the circumstances she faced, I thought she lost aspects of her character to the war. Additionally, certain points were confusing because new characters with similar names are introduced frequently, and the book tends to jump around between time and place.
I would recommend The Silent Unseen to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and mysteries or thrillers. Its snappy pace, complex characters, and frequent plot twists make it suitable for a pleasurable rainy day read.

This version of Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut was a graphic novel adaption, and while reading I focused on the question on whether or not it was more geared towards YA readers than the original version of the story. It is still very much an anti war book with the title so obviously making fun of the men who wage war by calling them children. From what I’ve read online it is a very good adaptation and the pictures helped most readers to better follow the storyline.

Slaughter House Five is told in a very non-liner way, jumping from different points in the main character, Billy Pilgrim’s, life to highlight his fragile mental state. Much of the time these jumps also occur in Billy’s head, this is when he time travels. It starts out with him as a skinny soon to be prisoner of war in Germany. His attitude as a soldier was very fatalistic and his companion Ronald Weary had much to say to this fact. The are eventually captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Dresden, where they are present for and possibly some of the only survivors of the Dresden fire bombings. Billy survives the war and ends up as an optometrist and sometimes resident zoo exhibit for the inhabiters of Tralfamadore to view, none if this is told to you the reader in any cohesive way. The story jumps back and forth in time because as Billy learned on the planet of Tralfamadore nobody truly dies because they exist in so many other moments, you just have to find which one.

I enjoyed this book, it made me want to read the original version to see if there are any major discrepancies between to the two stories. I do think this book is probably a little bit less obscene and detailed as the original, and therefore it is more geared towards YA readers but I really don’t know as I haven’t read it yet!

Kingdom of Ash follows Aelin Galathynius on her journey home to Terrasen to take her rightful place as queen. She was a captive to Maeve, the Queen of the Fae. While she was a captive war was raging throughout the continent, Erilea. Her friends, allies, and family continue to fight unknown horrors without her while her husband and friends search for her. Once she is freed she once again begins her quest to get to Terrasen to fight. Along the way she picks up more allies for her cause. In the middle of her trip home the Gods demand payment for what was taken from them, something only Aelin and Dorian, king of Adarlan, can give. Aelin believes it must be her and that she owes it to her kingdom and people to make the sacrifice, so she pays the price. Once Aelin makes it to Orynth, the capital of Terrasen, she along with her allies and friends, defeat the forces working against them and the world begins to return to what it once was.

Out of all the books in this series this one was the most tragic and my personal favorite. Multiple characters take heroic, unexpected paths and the outcomes are heartbreaking. There is a point in the middle of the book that was boring, but it picked up again after about fifty to seventy-five pages. Overall it was a very good book, one I would definitely read again and again. It was very heartfelt with lots of raw emotion from many characters. The writing was very fast paced throughout the entire book. The characters were always doing something, there was always a plan unfolding. The book is a duel point of view which also adds characters to the writing. There are many plot twists and while there are things that happen that the reader may not agree with the end was very satisfying.

Kingdom of Ash can fit into a multitude of category’s. It can be defined as both young adult and new adult. The characters are all a little older in this book, ranging from about 18 to 25 years old, with the main character being 19 years old. However, this is a series, in which Kingdom of Ash is the last book. Which also means all the books take place over the course of a year, so the characters age and mature. If Kingdom of Ash was a standalone it would fall into the new adult category more than young adult. But, since it is an eight book series and the characters better fit the YA category in the beginning it is fair to classify the whole series as YA.