Review: For a Muse of Fire

For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Welcome to the fourth in my series of reviews of ARCs for which I traded this August, and for sure one of the best, brightest, and most unique new books of the year! Heidi Heilig impressed me a great deal with her first duology, The Girl from Everywhere and The Ship Beyond Time. Now, she starts a new trilogy in For a Muse of Fire, another stellar fantasy in Heilig's signature style. It's dark and deadly, very lavish, highly critical of colonialism, and decidedly unconventional in its structure. Between almost every chapter is at least one piece of ephemera - a bit of dialogue between two side characters, presented in the form of a stage play; telegrams between officials in the Aquitaine armée (the colonial power of Aquitan being largely French-inspired, though with some subtle cultural differences; similarly, the Chakran people and civilization aren't inspired by any one Asian country - I sense aspects of Indian, Vietnamese, and Cambodian cultures, unless I miss my guess); in-universe folklore relevant to the story at hand (my personal favorite being the tale of the King of Death - very definitely a high point); that sort of thing.

Another major reason to read this book is because it's #ownvoices for Heilig as a bipolar writer. One of the driving forces behind heroine Jetta's journey to Aquitan is the possibility of finding a cure for her own illness in the same spring where the Mad King is said to help himself as well. But as with all the best #ownvoices leads, Jetta is nowhere near 100% defined by her bipolar disorder. Her strong family ties help define her as well, as do her magic (dangerous though it may be, using blood-magic necromancy) and her art (coming from a family of shadow puppeteers as she does.) Though I'm not reading this book #ownvoices, as an #ownvoices writer myself - for autism - I very much appreciate how engaging a protagonist Heilig gives us in Jetta. Heilig also helps set a new standard in the business, ensuring the inclusion of all relevant content warnings on the copyright page - something I'm still seeing in oddly few published books.

Perhaps the only issue I had with reading this book as an ARC is that some of the extra artwork details - notably, maps and sheet music - are still TK. For sure, I'll be taking a look at the final product as soon as it comes out to see how glorious these details are - and, knowing the lovely map work Heilig's books have gifted us with before, that's just another way my standards remain high.

And one last question - did Heilig name Leo Rath after the actor Jesse Rath? Just curious.

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Review: Bruja Born

Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think this latest book of the Brooklyn Brujas is not only well worth the slightly longer-than-expected wait (a year and a half, or more, since Labyrinth Lost), but a new easy candidate for the best book yet by Zoraida Córdova. It's a different kind of personal for Lula Mortiz, the second sister in the family, who is the protagonist of this one (don't worry, Alex still plays a very significant role.) Lula, though, she's scarred both physically and spiritually by her and her family's ordeal in Los Lagos, and then comes a metric ton of emotional devastation to start this book off.

I will spoil nothing, but I will say this much.

Los casimuertos.

Holy crap, does Córdova not hold back. And I'm not talking about gore, either. But that sheer emotional horror show, that's where Bruja Born excels.

For sure, this one's a strong, strong contender for the Pinecone Awards at the end of the year. Count on it.

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Review: Nyxia Unleashed

Nyxia Unleashed by Scott Reintgen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Scott Reintgen's first book, I gave it a 3.5 and rounded it down to a three at the time last year. In hindsight, though, I'd round it up to a 4. This book, though, it earns an easy 4 right from the get-go. While the first Nyxia novel was just a little too fast-paced at the wrong times, this book takes things a little more slowly to allow for more world-building, as we're now on the native planet of the Adamites - or, as they call themselves, the Imago. We also get to learn that they change the name of their planet based on which of their two moons is closer to them in the sky, and that these two moons strongly influence their culture to the point where they're ruled by two queens who are meant to be, respectively, tough and gentle just like the two moons themselves.

Unlike the confined-by-design setting of the first book, Nyxia Unleashed really does unleash such significantly larger scope as to be a much more engrossing read. Hell, the landscape of the Imago homeworld, it gives me a ton of World of Warcraft vibes, enough that I went and recommended the books to my buddy Koda last night while he was streaming WoW. (I've failed as a friend if I haven't convinced him to give his library card a good workout.)

Perhaps the best part of this book is how uneasy the journey is for Emmett and all his Genesis crew. Obviously the Babel people are a bunch of corporate-cum-colonist assbutts, but the Imago have a few agendas up their sleeves too, rooted in the many ways their own civilization is on the verge of imminent doom. The real challenge is finding allies who are genuinely interested in forging a path for the greater good.

Luckily, while it may seem like such allies are in short supply, that supply is always longer than you'd think.

Too bad it's all sides who have many willing to fight for them.

And while this book doesn't end on a cliffhanger nearly as abrupt and diabolical as the first Nyxia, it's still clear that Reintgen's working to blow all our minds with Nyxia Uprising next year. Or whenever it comes out.

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Review: Catwoman: Soulstealer

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Third time is...ehh...not so much the charm for DC Icons, a series I was eagerly awaiting when it was first announced but have now found myself feeling increasingly less excited for. The first book, Leigh Bardugo's Wonder Woman: Warbringer, was a well-deserved hit and a half. Marie Lu's Batman: Nightwalker wasn't half bad, but failed to live up to the usual Marie Lu gold standard for me. And as for what comes after this one, I'm still disappointed that DC didn't postpone the Superman novel after its author was accused of serial sexual harassment (though it's unsurprising given the case against MDLP appears to have gone absolutely nowhere, lost as it was in the brouhaha around certain bigger names that were exposed at around the same time.)

Then there's this Catwoman: Soulstealer novel, about which I'm kinda torn. I mean, it actually felt, at times, like a better Batman book than the one Marie Lu did, even though it was decidedly more anti-heroic and also carried a certain Suicide Squad vibe. Helped, of course, that Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn were major supporting characters, both canon sapphic and in a relationship. Though Sarah J. Maas has rightly been called out for her terrible diversity record in the past, books like this one and Tower of Dawn do, at the very least, indicate that she's listening to reader response and attempting to compensate accordingly. It's not perfect - Ivy and Harley are referred to as "more than friends" at some point, and Selina's bisexuality from various canons is so barely-there it might as well not even be. But Maas also gives us a black POV in Luke Fox, who of course brings up a few nods to police brutality and racism just like Marie Lu alluded to in Nightcrawler. And Luke, he's an army vet with PTSD, which actually gave me more than a few Chaol vibes. There's more than a bit of the usual SJM style at times, too, and I'm not just talking about how Selina and Luke's dynamic reminded me a lot of Celaena and Chaol. There's some use of the infamous "purred" dialogue tag, for one thing. But hey, at least this time SJM remembered she was writing YA instead of her usual NA-masquerading-on-the-YA-shelf, so we're not wall-to-wall with sex scenes the size of Rhysand's dick (and good thing too, 'cause I'd have hated to have seen her try to write sex scenes with Luke and Selina - I'd probably have to DNF.)

All in all, a better book by Maas than the disappointment that was ACOFAS this spring, but also evidence of the unfortunate downward trend of DC Icons. Shame, because, again, my hopes were high from the start.

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Review: Odd One Out

Odd One Out by Nic Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Love is hard, sex is easy."
-Arcade Fire, "Signs of Life"

Welcome to the third in my series of ARC reviews for books I received on Twitter's very own #arcsfortrade this August 2018. We're at the halfway point now, surrounded by two books on either side of Nic Stone's latest: the already-read Girls of Paper and Fire and Light Years on one side, and my forthcoming reads For a Muse of Fire and A Blade So Black on the other.

And I can tell you that this is my favorite of the three I've read thus far, simply because it gave me a little something that's still quite lacking in the YA world - questioning rep. Nic Stone's candid author's note talks about how much she needed this book at various points in her life from questioning her sexuality, and I agree with her 100% re: my own queer experience. I questioned for years after high school, and while I've spent just as many years since then self-labeling as bi, I fully embrace the possibility that said label may not stick over the years because I'm still not 100% sure about anything when it comes to sex.

Maybe it would help if I knew a Coop or a Rae or a Jupe in my life.

These three protagonists - here listed in the order of their POV segments; they each get an act of the book all to themselves - are a pretty special lot. Not only because of the diversity they all bring to the table, but also because each of them reflects me in their own way. Coop, that guy who wants someone to love and have sex with, but can't be with the one he wants (okay, maybe I haven't been crushed out on a gay girl, but I have felt, too many times, that kind of sad longing for people who just aren't interested in me) - and also wrestles a lot with how to approach love and sex without upholding the patriarchy. Rae, who has feelings for two people at once and is very confused about it (me watching The Amazing Spider-Man back in 2012 and being unable to decide whose shoes I'd rather be in, Peter's or Gwen's, during that one scene where Gwen and Peter kiss while she cleans his battle wounds.) And Jupe, who thinks she knows herself and her identity but oh, how life can still throw curveballs her way (me going weeks at a time feeling more towards the gay end of the Kinsey scale until I meet a woman in class, get to talking to her, and want to ask her out.)

Again, I can't say there's been a lot of questioning rep in the YA world - or any other literary age group, for that matter. To be frank, the best example I can think of is More Happy Than Not - naturally, Adam Silvera gives the glowing blurb that tops this book's cover. Maybe Ramona Blue too, though I haven't read that one yet. On that subject, I sincerely hope that this book doesn't get Ramona Blue'd to death, if you know what I mean. It's pretty good on depicting questioning and/or fluid sexuality, and draws attention to the potential harm certain scenarios can cause, but I still can't help but think that there are those out there who would probably try and drag this book and author to hell and not come back.

Don't.

Seriously, just don't.

Because while a lot of the scenarios Nic Stone presents are messy as hell and I found myself staring in stunned surprise at the pages very often (like, "holy crap, did they really just do that? THEY DID OH MY GOD"), that's the gorram point.

Not everything is neatly tied up in a bow with easy answers. And if you read Stone's debut, Dear Martin, last year, you know this is going to be a pretty well-recurring theme in her work.

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Review: The Darkest Legacy

The Darkest Legacy by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Almost perfectly coinciding with the long-awaited movie adaptation of The Darkest Minds - which I still haven't seen, though I'm pretty willing to bet that the critics have it all wrong in their utter panning of the movie just like they did with the entire Divergent series - is Bracken's written-word return to this world, promising to be the start of an all-new sequel series. Perhaps another trilogy, all centered on Zu? I'm pretty well down for it.

Naturally, it's as Bracken as it gets, bringing a lot of the same stylistic touches she employed so often in the previous Darkest Minds novels. Unfortunately, one of those is the usual dead air and narrative bloat that so often plagues Bracken's other books - I mean, the original trilogy could have worked better as a standalone or a duology, or at the very least three pages in the 300-400 range like the Hunger Games trilogy, not Bracken's bricks that often approach or even exceed 500 pages (as this one does.)

But for its troublesome length, Bracken does a better job with pacing in this book - it felt like the earlier novels tended towards interminably long chapters, but here the chapters feel shorter, and move faster too. The political commentary of the original trilogy already feels oddly extra-relevant now, but here, Bracken ups the game by making it clear that even those in government who claim to be on the side of good may not be after all. And that those who really are evil, and out to ruin the world even more, are above nothing and are often more than smart enough to really screw over the good guys and gals and enbies.

One touch I particularly appreciated was how this book introduced a few new terms for various Psi powers and their wielders, shying away a bit from the rainbow color scheme the original trilogy had as a signature. Which I suppose is for the best, given that even the movie, as I understand, made a key change by changing the electrokinetic Yellow classification to Gold, the better to avoid the racist connotations of the most prominent character with that power being Zu. (And is the largely gold-colored cover a nod to that particular change? I'd like to think so.) But yeah, now we're getting new names for various powers, including various subtypes of the original colors, and even a few powers that don't quite fit under the old color scheme.

Trust me, Bracken's got a lot to impress us with, not only in this book, but in the inevitable sequel or two. Bring it on, rockin' soundtrack and all.

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Review: Light Years

Light Years by Kass Morgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second ARC of five which I traded for this month, and I'm very happy I managed to get my hands on it! One thing I've noticed with Kass Morgan is that she writes a better book each time - The 100 series being just such an example of this trend. I remember I gave the first book a three-star rating on my first read, but I reread it just after finishing the first season of the TV series and upgraded it to four on the second go. Then the second and third books got four stars right away, and the fourth book, five.

I have similar high hopes for Morgan's new series, which I'm really hoping for them to adapt on the CW next. Or Netflix. Or, even better, that this series and The 100 secretly take place in the same universe (no spoilers for the TV series, but my God, you need to watch all five seasons NOW if you haven't already.)

Really, the only reason why I'm giving this one four stars is because of the sheer aggravation provoked by that cliffhanger. Or, more accurately, cliffhangers, plural. It wouldn't be Kass Morgan if we didn't have multi-POVs, and multi-cliffhangers to go with it. Including the very last page, which is downright Aveyardian like the original Aveyardian cliffhanger of Glass Sword and bloody hell I'm so mad!

But over the course of these nearly 400 pages, Morgan gives us a gripping look at four people from different corners of this star system. All four main planets are represented in our four POV characters - except not really Loos, because Orelia's a spy sent from the system's ancient enemy, Sylvan. But we get a lot of perspective of the centralized nature of Tri - centralized, and privileged, looking down on those from Deva and Chetire because those planets are smaller and dirtier. Literally, in Deva's case, because that planet is as toxic as it gets. But all four POV characters are very well-developed - the aforementioned Orelia, a girl on a most important mission of infiltration; ambitious and driven Vesper; Cormak, who has to sneak into the Fleet Academy on his brother's ID; and Arran, who's tired of having never been kissed. (No prizes for guessing which one I relate to the most, and obviously it's the fellow queer guy.) Though there's not a great deal of physical description of the characters, just going by the cover models (I'm guessing it's Arran, Orelia, Cormak, and Vesper, clockwise from top left), they're a pretty visibly diverse lot all the same. (Also, am I wrong, or does Cormak bear a very strong resemblance to Ricky Whittle, aka Lincoln kom Trikru himself?)

The setting of this book, as its GR synopsis implies, owes a lot to Ender's Game. It's set in a floating, rotating space station in a classified interstellar location ferpetesake. And Arran, in particular, reads a lot like Ender because he's smart but isolated and an easy target for bullies. Though I bet Orson Scott Card would resent one of his signature characters being compared to a gay guy, but whatever - I don't recommend Card's books at work, but this one, I most certainly will. Especially for anyone looking for an Ender's Game alternative because, like me, they just can't stomach Card's vile politics. Or anything in the vein of Brazil's very own 3% - there's no way that didn't influence Morgan on some level as she wrote this book.

Still, though...

...that cliffhanger.

Gorrammit, Kass Morgan.

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Review: Girls of Paper and Fire

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Trigger warnings for this book: rape, sex trafficking, homophobia.

I've heard a lot of positive buzz for Natasha Ngan's latest in the last few months, and after trading for this ARC, I can tell you that she and her book earn it all. It's a read that's often dark and dangerous and scary, with the aforementioned triggers. But then there's also the deep dives into royal-court intrigue, the sweet and incredibly loving f/f relationship that comes to anchor this story over time, and of course Ngan's knack for worldbuilding.

She gives us a world with a three-level caste system, where we focus more on the uppermost and lowermost castes - the Moon and Paper castes, respectively, with somewhat less focus on the mid-level Steel caste. It says a lot that the Moon caste, members of which look a lot like really humanoid animals, come off as fearsome instead of the children's cartoons they would've been in a lesser writer's hands. Hell, even the King, I admit I found myself snickering at his initial description, because he reminded me a lot of Disney's live-action Beast. But unlike Disney's Beast, this guy doesn't have much of a nice side. He's all around quite despicable, privileged as hell and prone to fits of paranoia and rage - and, worse, quite adept at putting on a gentle veneer when he wants to.

Ngan also does a great job with the culture of her world of Ikhara. As stated in her author's note at the end of the book, her childhood in Malaysia, surrounded by people of many nationalities, helped inform the creation of this fictional land. It's very pan-Asian, not specifically inspired by any one country. Some Paper Girls have Chinese names and some have Japanese; cheongsam and saris are featured fashions; sake is consumed. Ngan also shines a critical spotlight on male privilege - tellingly, in the court, men can sleep with other men and nobody really bats an eye, but women are expected to lie with men and men only. Especially when they're Paper Girls, making the blossoming love between Lei and Wren as forbidden as it is true.

Without spoilers, let's also just say that perhaps Ngan's greatest game is the cliffhanger game. A tad predictable, maybe, but very welcome if only because it promises a sequel. And dammit, this book deserves a sequel.

When Girls of Paper and Fire hits shelves this fall, I'll be sure to give it prime real estate on my work's displays. And with that special note from James Patterson himself in mind, I can hope that if my own books get published, they can be James Patterson Presents titles as well. After all, Patterson's made it pretty clear that he's committed to diverse authors and #ownvoices stories, and on that front, Natasha Ngan absolutely delivers.

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Pitch Wars 2018: #BoostMyBio

Hey peoples. So, as a hopeful Pitch Wars mentee, it's time for me to take part in the #BoostMyBio blog hop, because as much as they said it was optional, I get the feeling (insert Honey Lemon voice) it's really...not. Or I just want an excuse to write some fun stuff about myself. Something like that.

As a YA contemporary fantasy/science-fantasy writer in need of publication, with over 150 queries under his belt, I'm thinking conventional routes might not cut it. Already I've got a small Wattpad fanbase (though they have yet to read my more recent, more polished drafts), but any help from seasoned tastemakers and writers (like the Pitch Wars mentors) I can get, that would absolutely give me a shot at getting ahead.

And getting ahead is exactly what my book, Red Rain, needs. First, a brief synopsis:

Heaven and Hell aren't above or below Earth. If you want to find them, you should be looking sideways.

Coldfire Creek, California, is a small mountain town straddling the border between Heaven and Hell - but not the Heaven and Hell we think we know. Instead, they are simply alternate versions of Earth. In this split-up town lives teenage angel Alex Snow, whose life is a very weird one. His twin brother Gabe is a demon, his tastes in pop culture are quirky at best...and one of his classmates has been brutally murdered. After some more bodies start to pop up in a string of gruesome homicides, all with some connection to water, the brothers are contacted by the still-living souls of the victims, who ask them to help stop this "Aqua Killer." What they do not expect is to discover their own shocking connection to the madman. And when Alex's girlfriend becomes a target, he must put a stop to the Aqua Killer or risk losing his first love.

And not only that, but thanks to the brilliant Sam Ayers, I even have a wonderful piece of cover art that I seriously would LOVE to see on the actual printed book someday.

If all this doesn't whet your appetite, I've failed as a reader, writer, and fanboy.

And now...my actual bio. Ready, Pitch Wars peeps? Here we go!

The Pinecone General, wishing he had this outfit for real. Especially the lightsaber.

Hey everyone.

Officially, I was born in 1993 in the San Francisco Bay Area, in a town too far south for driving winter rain and too far north for blazing summer heat. Unofficially, I was born in 1983 in Los Angeles, where the government immediately took me away, froze my infant self for ten years, and tried their best to make me forget I was Andrew Garfield's evil half-Maltese twin.

They failed. 😉

BEHOLD!

Unable to wait tables for lack of hand-eye coordination, and barely able to land a bookstore job for lack of the ability to maintain eye contact with the customers, I've instead turned to writing YA contemporary fantasy to fuel my career. It doesn't pay the bills, which is why I still live at home with my parents. Speaking of which, they were always bound and determined that I should grow up to be a nerd when my real dream was to be a geek, which is why we have so much trouble seeing eye to eye. That, and the fact that they usually see me through tracking the GPS on my phone, which is why I pretty much can't go anywhere except work, the library, and the movies maybe once a month, if that.

Because of my long-standing feeling that I don't belong in this world, I've either lost myself in the fictional ones of movies, books, and TV, or made up my own. It's a time-honored defense mechanism, and if my parents didn't want me to be a doe-eyed autistic INFP geekboy dreamer...

You should see how often I practice this in the mirror.

...they shouldn't have bought me Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at age seven. Sadly, it's gotten to the point where happy endings are just so hard to come by in my work, because deadly feels are right where it's at, or so it appears. I blame Harry Potter, of course. And Divergent. And The Amazing Spider-Man, Supernatural, Buffy, Danny Phantom, Teen Wolf, Avatar: The Last Airbender, E.T., The Flash...the list goes on.

Ad infinitum nauseam.

I should also mention that after my last deal with the Devil, I'm required to continuously lament my single-pringle status lest I lose my soul. Even if I find a date (this in spite of the fact that I'm perfectly undateable), I must continue lamenting. That way, my parents won't suspect a thing, and won't get to disapprove of my significant other.

If you want to find me, I'm often in my writing cave (my bedroom), or perhaps listening to my Pandora because I'm mentally stuck at age 17 and that was super-hot back then in 2010. Believe it or not, none of my writing has ever been produced under the influence.

Though much of it was inspired by scenes like this one, scenes that make angels' wings shrivel all across the universe.

And thus concludeth my overlong bio page...for now.

Sending love to all my Pinecones. 🖤

#FeedTheRightWolf

Remember - Denis Leary is always watching. Always.

Review: Surface Tension

Surface Tension by Mike Mullin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A few years have gone by since Mike Mullin gave us the most recent Ashfall novel. Not the last one, I don't think - on his website, he's hinted at a potential future fourth novel, Blades of Spring, which he's been working on for a while. Well, now he's back with the first of another promising new series, this one a little less sci-fi apocalyptic, but no less action-packed.

It's almost Hitchcockian in how our main character Jake Solley (not, of course, to be confused with Avatar hero Jake Sulley - he's heard that joke before, a ton of times) winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessing a domestic terrorist attack in which the terrorists do everything they can to pass themselves off as jihadists. Though the psychological terror is even more gripping than the initial act of terror that kick-starts the whole story, because Jake winds up with a head injury that makes it so nearly everyone consistently doubts him all along. Even his mother. Really, the only people sticking in his corner absolutely 100% are his best friend Zach and his girlfriend Laurissa.

In addition to Jake's POV, we also get that of Betsy, daughter of the terrorist leader. She's tons of no fun to read most of the time, because she parrots her father's vile white-supremacist, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic alt-right views, like, a lot. (This despite the fact that, like a lot of alt-right types, he's misogynistic and highly abusive too.) She even moderates a neo-Nazi message board and freely refers to anyone who doesn't politically align with her father with a few all-too-familiar ableist and/or emasculating slurs.

I guess it's a good thing that this book kinda flies under the radar of Book Twitter, because there's a lot of people there who would have a lot to say about this book stepping into a racist POV and even finding a way to redeem said racist, on some level. But there's a lot to be said for this book condemning such unacceptable "values" too. Jake and Laurissa, as an interracial couple (white and black, respectively), have a few important conversations on race in modern America, in addition to their usual less-serious geekery (both bonded over being Trekkies and fans of YA fantasy like the works of Kristin Cashore and Tamora Pierce, and Laurissa, in particular, enjoys swearing in Lord of the Rings references.) Not to mention there's a very strong recurring theme of law enforcement being untrustworthy, if not outright villainous, which I'm sure will resonate with many as well. And like I said, Betsy does get slowly redeemed over the course of the story. While I can't speak for other readers' reactions to her arc, it's at least refreshing to see that over time, she's willing to listen to people outside her racist echo chamber and change her ways accordingly.

I was surprised to find out this book was out in the world when it got delivered to my work, which is when I immediately ordered it at the library. And now, that means I can hand-sell it - and that reminds me, I'll need to get us to stock the Ashfall series for hand-selling purposes too.

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Review: The Complication

The Complication by Suzanne Young
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Promised by Suzanne Young to be the final book of the Program series, and yes, this is most definitely the case. It's not just the end of Tatum's duology, but the wrapping up of the original Program story and the Remedy duology as well. All three main concepts that started all three duologies figure strongly into this final entry. And while it's a bit of a long haul to the end of this one, with a bit of a slow and confusing first half, it's the second half where Young really outdoes herself. Endless surprises and twists, some pretty life-threatening ones, even...but then it all builds to a majorly hopeful ending. Though not every loose end is quite tied up, most are - including one reference to the original Chipotle, unless I miss my guess. And the very last page, it's so symbolically defiant of the Program and all it stands for that I can't help but smile thinking about it.

(Also, rereading James' description in this book, I now realize in hindsight he happens to resemble a buddy of mine from Oregon. Because why not?)

To the Program world, I now say ave atque vale.

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Review: Pride

Pride by Ibi Zoboi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another ARC I've picked up at work, another ARC review to make...and like a few of Becky Albertalli's books, I'm going to consider this one a 3.5 to be rounded up to a nice 4.

I admit, the phenomenal level of greatness to which Ibi Zoboi debuted in American Street made me extra-hyped for Pride. It's a slight case of Sophomore Slump to me, but that might be more a case of personal taste than anything else. American Street, after all, has more than a foot in the gateway of magical realism, while Pride has next to no genre-fic trappings whatsoever. And it being a remix of Pride and Prejudice, a book I admittedly don't like all that much, doesn't help.

But what Zoboi's two books have in common is a vibrant atmosphere rooted in Caribbean culture - in this book's case, largely Dominican. Spanish dialogue abounds, and you can practically smell the food and hear the music on the page. And then in come the gentrifiers, the Darcy family, building a huge mansion so they stick out like sore thumbs before they even arrive. Zuri, our leading lady, thinks she's got them all figured out. But she doesn't, and nor has she got her own friends and family quite figured out either. Everyone's got something to hide, some more so than others.

For sure, this is another Zoboi book I'll be happy to hand-sell at work. Now, when do we get that middle-grade one of hers I heard about? The one with the ice cream people? (Or am I wrong?)

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Review: Escaping from Houdini

Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Last year, when I first started my bookstore job, one of the first ARCs I read was Kerri Maniscalco's second book, Hunting Prince Dracula. Now, almost a full year down the line, the time is almost here for Escaping from Houdini to hit shelves, and I got an ARC of this book at work just like I got for its predecessor.

Picking up very soon after where the second book left off, this one takes place almost entirely on an ocean liner, the RMS Etruria. It actually kinda continues a trend I've noticed with Maniscalco's novels - each one features a smaller, increasingly confined setting, the better to heighten the suspense each time. We've gone from the city of London to a distant Romanian college to, now, the most narrowly defined setting of them all. One can only wonder how much more confined the upcoming fourth and final book can be...but I digress. Here, though, it's got to be one of the most classically Holmesian stories yet, built around a magic show and thereby managing to put some of the most daring and impossible seemingly supernatural murders in this series on display. As a result, it plays out a little like Maniscalco applying her own spin to the circus fantasies of Caraval or Daughter of the Burning City - the latter, especially, because of the murder mystery element.

Though I'm a little disappointed that there's relatively little of Houdini in the story - and the title's a tad bit misleading too - I'm actually happy to report that Mephistopheles makes a very interesting magical showman in his own right. Audrey Rose and Thomas keep the story very strong too with their romance, arresting in how much they need each other but also have to try and maintain some sense of era-appropriate decorum. In public, that is. And once the crime is solved, let's just say, without spoilers, that Agatha Christie would approve of the subtle homage to one of her classics (unless I miss my guess.)

I'm hoping that next year, with the final book in the series, I'm able to get an ARC of that as well to complete my (admittedly incomplete since I never got one of the first book) cycle. And until then, I'll happily hand-sell all the books at work - once we get restocked, that is, because I got one coworker to buy our last copies of the first two recently. :)

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Review: The Brightsiders

The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Written in graffiti on a bridge in the park
'Do you ever get the feeling that you're missing the mark?'"
-Coldplay, "Hurts Like Heaven"

Trigger warnings for this book: abusive parents, abusive relationships, slut-shaming, biphobia, mental illness (particularly acute social anxiety), allusions to transphobia and racism.

Yeah, compared to Queens of Geek, Jen Wilde's latest ain't so fluffy and sweet. Well, Geek got into some pretty heavy territory sometimes as well, but not to this degree. Though that's to be expected when the territory here is about teenage rockstars, and our main character, in particular, parties hard to cope with the sheer pressures of fame.

But then, Emmy King's got a lot of great friends to back her up. Her bandmates, Alfie and Ryan. Her best friend Chloe. Alyssa and Charlie and Taylor and Jamie from Queens of Geek - you have no idea how happy I was to see all my faves return! And of course, Emmy's cousin Kass, one of the few family members of hers who has her back at all times. Unlike her parents, who are lying, backstabbing, self-absorbed...God, I just loathed them so much, even more so than Charlie's ex whose name I've now forgotten, lol.

And, as always, Wilde's greatest strength lies in the sheer diversity of her cast. All three Brightsiders band members are some flavor of queer - Emmy and Ryan are both cis bi (the latter figuring his own sexuality out over the course of the book), Alfie is pan and genderqueer, using he/him pronouns (and, being Emmy's major love interest throughout the book, it's actually the first I've read in YA with an f/nb romance - the only other one I know of being Cam Girl, and that's decidedly NA.) Chloe, as a major supporting character, brings some welcome enby rep to the table (and they're bi too!) And it definitely wouldn't be Wilde without a few nods to intersectionality and race - Chloe, being black (and with a white feminist for a mom, because Emmy's not the only one with serious parental problems), has a few good words on the subject. Ryan is Korean too, and of course there's the interracial pairing of Alyssa and Charlie carried over from Queens of Geek.

What really shone the most for me, though, was Alfie's social anxiety. I went into this book thinking I'd be reading it #ownvoices only as a bi person, but I was surprised to find another aspect to make this one an #ownvoices read for me too - one that I've very rarely seen, and if I have, it's never been explicitly made clear. Like a lot of #ownvoices cases for neuro- and psychological conditions, Alfie doesn't 100% mirror me - I don't find myself vomiting like he often does - but he does mirror me as exactly as he can in one way that really counts. He masks well enough that literally nobody can tell he struggles until he says so - or, worse, when they see him in a vulnerable moment. Heck, just last year I was sort of reconnecting with an old high school classmate on Facebook, and I told him I had social anxiety, and he said something to the effect of, "Would never have guessed that, man." (On a lighter note, after a few years of literally all my old high school friends slowly forgetting my existence, this same guy was the only one to actually wish me a happy birthday just last week like next to no time had passed.)

I guess Wilde's building herself a sort of SwoonReads universe with Queens of Geek and The Brightsiders. I can only imagine where she'd go from here, but it'd really be something to see. And one thing's for sure, it's going to be inclusive as hell and I'm here for that. :D

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Review: Lifel1k3

Lifel1k3 by Jay Kristoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First off, Mister Kristoff, how dare you.

Second off, Mister Kristoff, of course you dare. You're the most rockstarinest author in YA, after all. You call your fans "droogs" fershitsake, ya goddamn edgelord, you.

Still, though...there's a reason or two why I named the villain in my current WIP after you. And it's not just 'cause I'm pretty sure you reached into my brain, saw the names Alex and Gabe, and decided to use them a hell of a lot differently than I do for my own favorite Snow Bros.

No, it's 'cause, just like your other stories, the Illuminae Files and the Nevernight Chronicle, you're giving us some of the most bloodydamn killer cool storytelling in the industry. And in order to achieve that bloodydamn killer cool factor, you just have to reach into our lifelike little hearts, rip them out, crush them, stomp on them with your Doc Martens (or whatever's your preferred footwear, but boy's intuition tells me it's Doc Martens), and finally eat them raw.



Please, leave some hearts for the rest of us writerly types to tear out, starting with the wannabe prettyboy writing this review. (Yeah, between this book and Illuminae, it's pretty clear that "prettyboy," all as one word, is a Kristoff signature.)

It's a shame that this book hasn't gotten nearly the same attention and traction as Illuminae and sequels, that I've noticed. Sure, this one gets off to a bit of a slow start, but when cometh the second half, Kristoff straight-lines a ton of hookups and betrayals that all combine to give exactly the emotional roller-coaster promised by all those leaving their "HOW DARE YOU"s in Mister Kristoff's mentions.

I'm sorely tempted to mail my copy up north to Oregon just 'cause I know a certain Wulf of the Chrono variety (true cert' I can't stop won't stop shouting out my best bloody bro) who would love this book. I mean, the guy hooked me on Altered Carbon. It's time I returned the favor.

Oh, and one more thing - did Mister Kristoff name BioMaas after SJM herself? Just curious.

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