Avengers: Endgame - Throw It All At The Wall And See What Sticks? Everything. (Almost.)

***NO SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME, BUT SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS MCU FILMS - ESPECIALLY INFINITY WAR AND ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, ABOUND WITHIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.***

It all ends here.

Well, not really. There's more. We know there's more.

But yes, this 22nd film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings to a close Book One - the Infinity Saga - after eleven years of entertainment and ever-decreasing patience on the part of we the fans.

And if you don't let the inevitable plot holes brought on by the very premise of this one bring you down, well, you're in for a hell of a ride.

"Whatever it takes," Cap says. And he's soooo right.

Review: The Size of the Truth

The Size of the Truth by Andrew Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

According to Goodreads, this is to be the first in a new series centered on Sam, "the Abernathy," that ever-excitable, wriggly little dude from Stand Off who, let's be honest, stole the show for me. So I'm glad that Andrew Smith is finally giving him the backstory he deserves - and while the content is a little toned down for middle-grade audiences, it's still recognizably an Andrew Smith novel, weird and (excuse me) smartassed as hell. And unpredictable too, because where the story goes, you can't quite see it coming. Maybe you can - and there's still some reveals that I'm headcanoning to the point where I'd fully expect them to appear in any sequels that Smith writes - but the greatest unpredictability of this book is how much it dives into challenging toxic masculinity. Perhaps a little heavy for MG readers? Well, then again, this is from the guy who literally Keeps YA Weird with such gross and thought-provoking reads as Grasshopper Jungle and Rabbit & Robot. If there's a sequel, I'd hope it picks up Sam's story from where he left off in Stand Off - and that, dear God, those ridiculous parents of his get some much-needed comeuppance for being so overly controlling (perhaps my greatest trigger, tbh.)

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Review: Chrysalis

Chrysalis by Brendan Reichs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Today I've got two series-conclusion reviews to write, and here's the one for the conclusion I liked more - Chrysalis, the final phase of Brendan Reichs' Project Nemesis. I won't go too much into plot details for this one, in case you're reading this review without having read the first two books - because by their very nature, both Nemesis and Genesis are so unpredictable and unexpectedly, increasingly, grand in scope that to even begin summarizing this book will invariably give massive spoilers to its predecessors. All I will say is this: you need to go back to Nemesis and enjoy that terrifying ride ASAP if you haven't already. Then the twists of Genesis, and finally the soaring thrills of Chrysalis. Consider this your doctor's prescription from the Pinecone Surgeon General. And now, to Project Nemesis, I can, after two years, say ave atque vale.

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Review: The Everlasting Rose

The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just like The Belles before it, The Everlasting Rose is a 3.5 that I'll round up to a 4 for a lot of the same reasons that came before. It's more than a bit slow to start, but rewarding in that Clayton loads the fast-moving, action-packed parts of the story into the latter half. It's also got a lot of the same pitch-perfect social commentary as its predecessor, dissecting capitalism and unreasonable beauty standards and, now, overly accelerated scientific advancement. And inhumane treatment of scientific subjects.

Oh, and of course, there's teacup dragons galore.

Despite that slowness to start, The Everlasting Rose concludes this duology in intelligent and satisfying fashion. Though Goodreads still says that there'll be a third book, Clayton herself has said it's a duology "for now," and with that in mind, I now bid this world ave atque vale.

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Review: The Priory of the Orange Tree

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While Samantha Shannon takes a bit of a break from the Bone Season series - I think the fourth book's been put off till 2020 and still doesn't even have a title announced, right? - here she gives us a standalone (for now) epic fantasy, an 800-page brick with one of the prettiest packages on the market in all of history. It's a long, sprawling story, spanning several nations drawing inspiration on medieval periods in numerous parts of our world's history - Europe, Japan, China, hints of Arabia, etc. Though the plot is a little on the thin side for a book this size, it's the characters that really shine, bringing the characteristic complexity of Shannon's style as much as they can. That, plus the fact that by design, this book subverts the typically white, straight, hetero, and male nature of fantasy novels with the spotlight on numerous women, PoC, and/or queer characters - many of whom are in positions of power. It's a lush fantasy world written with 2019 sensibilities in mind, and I'd be very happy to see a film or TV adaptation that captures Shannon's unique style perfectly!

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Review: Opposite of Always

Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I saw this book bless the shelves at work, I picked it up and saw the dust-jacket blurb of the premise - plus the glowing recommendations by Angie Thomas and Becky Albertalli - and immediately thought myself in for one of the sweetest book treats of the year. I wasn't wrong, but there's a lot more to it than that, of course. The sweetness is balanced out by, naturally, a strong emotional core as befits its Groundhog Day - well, more like Groundhog Spring, that amount of time - premise about a smart, unlucky Black boy trying to figure out which of the endless repetitions of his head-over-heels romance with a smart, cute Black girl will end with her not dying. Among other assorted consequences which I won't go into here because spoilers. Perhaps the book is a bit undercut by its severe overlength, and especially its abrupt and overly headscratching ending, but Jack and Kate, I love them too much to not root for them and keep on reading for their ultimate resolution, whatever it may have been.

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Review: Defy Me

Defy Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The greatest present I got on my 25th birthday? Learning the title and release date for this book from Tahereh Mafi herself.



Of course, this year we're extra blessed when Mafi tells us the title and release date for her next book in the series - the last one too! - so soon after Defy Me's release. And after finally reading her latest, that blessing is real, because this book is one of Mafi's best yet - building on the shocking, shocking revelations from the end of Restore Me and adding even more truths that I never would've seen coming, even as a student of the original trilogy who's read and reread all three of those books at least three times. But all those truths are more than enough to fill this, the slimmest book yet in the series - a book jam-packed with three dynamic POVs (Juliette, Warner, and now making his main-series debut after narrating the Shadow Me novella, Kenji Freaking Kishimoto himself) and a metric ton of surprises and twists and cathartic violence and sweet love scenes that only Mafi could write - and make it well worth the buy. Next year it all ends with Imagine Me, and while this book ends on a far sweeter note than its predecessor (literally), it's no less urgent for it, gentlefriends. That wait of one more year is gonna be nigh unbearable!

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Review: The Vanishing Stair

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After the cliffhanger ending of Truly Devious, I was pretty eagerly awaiting this second book of the trilogy to keep the mystery going in both the past and the present. I've finally read The Vanishing Stair, though, and I feel a little bit disappointed in the end result. Though I think that might have been Maureen Johnson's point, as this series draws so much inspiration from Agatha Christie that it would be very surprising if anything here actually played out in a way that the reader can easily predict - and that includes being overwhelming as opposed to underwhelming. But that underwhelm, I think, is because it's now more obvious than ever that this whole trilogy is a single book stretched out to three with a heavily padded story and too many characters taking up space. Even Janelle and Vi, a sweet f/nb couple (whereas the first book waffled a bit on Vi's enby identity, here it's beyond clear that they and their pronouns and gender identity get due respect), simply feel like a distraction, and the Greater Scope Villain that is Edward King simply lurks in the background, managing to do even less than President Snow in the Catching Fire book (after all, the movies make it easy to forget that Snow was actually a little less omnipresent in the source material.) And even more so than the ending of the first book, this one just feels like a total non-ending, chosen arbitrarily to split this from the upcoming third and final book. All in all, the generally creepy atmosphere and well-appreciated diversity of the cast are positives enough to keep me recommending this series - and to bump up the star rating to three instead of two as is my immediate instinct - but unless the third book is an epic finale, I'm going to be incredibly disappointed that I had to slog through this one to get there.

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Review: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another one from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, and it's another one that's a totally fresh twist on the signature style. Here, it's far more about contemporary Cuban culture and sci-fi shenanigans than it is about mythology, but it's still recognizably a graduate of the Riordan school of thought. A certifiable First Person Smartass protagonist who's disabled - Type 1 diabetic, to be precise - and has some magnificent powers that he has to learn to control a little more properly or else. It's a little less mythological, like I said, but the whole multiversal madness underlying Sal and Gabi and their adventure is, no cacaseca, the most fun I've had yet reading a Rick Riordan Presents book. Thank God it's not a standalone either, because I'd be super crushed if I couldn't read any more stories from Carlos Hernandez, following Sal and Gabi. Till then, all I gotta say is, "¡Chao pesca'o!"

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Review: Into the Drowning Deep

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I got recommended this book on the basis that it had some pretty good autistic rep, and I was not disappointed on that front. On the fronts of autistic rep and queer rep - especially bi rep - I pronounce myself most pleased with this book. There's also some deaf rep that I think will go very well appreciated by many. That said, I found the story a little longer than I would have liked, and a lot of the characters, to me, didn't really feel dynamic enough. Like, they tended not to react to the goings-on in a really active way, and it made me feel a lot less connected to the story than I would have hoped. But it's a very uniquely dark and old-fashioned take on the mythos of mermaids, a pretty good fit into the Mira Grant bibliography. If she comes out with another story in this 'verse, I'd be pretty happy to read it. But for now, I think I'll go back and try to find that first story that Grant wrote, one which I think I've managed to forget about for the better part of four years...

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Review: Recursion

Recursion by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The latest from Blake Crouch, which I read in ARC form after getting it behind the scenes at work, is another deep dive into contemporary sci-fi wildness in the vein of Dark Matter. It starts off pretty well-grounded and procedural, focusing on a law-enforcement agent slowly uncovering a conspiracy beyond real scientific ability - not unlike the Wayward Pines trilogy either, to the point where I can just as easily see a lot of the same creative team behind that TV series (Chad Hodge, M. Night Shyamalan, and all) handily adapting this book to either TV or film. But once the conspiracy becomes known...hoo boy, does Crouch turn up the mind-screw game like nobody else, hitting the reset button on reality itself so constantly that after a while it feels like a needle to the brain direct through the retina. Just imagine how mind-bending this story would be on screen, though. I'm ready for that to happen, and until then, I'll be happy to help sell this book at work when it comes out!

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Review: The Malta Exchange

The Malta Exchange by Steve Berry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Steve Berry returns to the world of Cotton Malone with one of his most interesting thrillers in a while - focusing, as its title suggests, on the island of Malta. This, of course, particularly grabs my attention since I'm Maltese on my mom's side. So, naturally, we get a focus on Malta's long history of having numerous empires lay claim to it - some successfully, others less so, all depending on how well one takes advantage of the island's fortifications both natural and artificial - as well as the ever-presence of the Catholic Church and some, erm, corrupt higher-ups thereof. And then there's the historical legend of Churchill having possibly written to Mussolini about ceding Malta to Italy, though only after Italy was about to lose anyway and it was more of a troll job against Mussolini than anything else...there's a lot to unpack in this book, and as much as I was expecting a five-star read for something Malta-related, it's still a pretty active - if standalone - Cotton Malone adventure.

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Review: Daisy Jones & The Six

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though it's not Taylor Jenkins Reid's first book, this one, a well-fabricated rock history piece, couldn't help but capture my notice of her for the first time. Reading a lot of other reviews for it - with the common refrain being that the book was so well-fabricated, in fact, that it was easy to forget that Daisy Jones & The Six were never a real band - I really had no choice but to jump into this book as quickly as I could. The fictional history of this band reads like what Fleetwood Mac might've been if they hit it big with Rumours and then let their infighting and dysfunction break them up early, and for good. Plus a little dash of Janis Joplin for good measure, with Daisy Jones (though I can't help but think of her as a fictionalized Stevie Nicks) being a strong, self-assured, creative woman. She's literate as hell, and even throws in quite a bit of 2019 sensibility even as far back as her childhood (like, when she proudly talks about having gotten an F on a school paper for pointing out that Columbus did NOT, in fact, discover America.) With this book in mind, I'm for sure going to look into Reid's previous works as well - this one's too much evidence of a strong talent to ignore.

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