Review: The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Leigh Bardugo's look at the folklore of the Grishaverse gives those of us who thus far never read any of the three short stories she wrote in this department a chance to see some more subtle world-building for Ravka, while also including three additional short stories to give us glimpses into Zemeni, Kerch, and Fjerdan culture. (Not Shu, though, but that's no surprise given that Shu Han is by far the Grishaverse nation about which we know the least.) The stories themselves all read like some of our world's fairy tales with a very dark, original-Brothers-Grimm style, sometimes to the point of predictability - though not always, of course. Bardugo's too inventive for that. The best part of the book, though, is the lavish illustrations that accompany each story, with a little more to the picture being revealed on each page until each story ends with a beautiful full-page image. Though these illustrations sometimes distract from the text, they also become extremely inventive, to the point where even when you think you know what's next in this little flipbook effect, your expectations will be seriously challenged. At least this book is here to help tide us Grishaverse fans over since Six of Crows ended with two books (God, I'm tired of the duology trend) and until King of Scars comes along in about two years' time.

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Review: Dumplin'

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This month's book club read at work was a little not my style, though certainly good as another #ownvoices read I've spent some time sleeping on. Though Dumplin' wasn't quite to my taste, it had more than its share of small moments of relatable humor - like Will's laments early on about how people in relationships always get way too public with their displays of affection - and some very well-written relationship drama. I think the biggest flaws this book had were a few too many characters, and the pageant storyline taking over the book slowly but surely to the point where the latter half starts to feel repetitive, and finally a very abrupt ending that doesn't really tie the story up - though at least there'll be a sequel, Puddin', next year. But I can tell you that for what it's worth, this book, the first Julie Murphy novel I've read, is pretty lighthearted and fun and really not to be missed by the YA audience.

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Review: Fairest

Fairest by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you, Marissa Meyer, for giving us this piece of insight into the increasingly evil, increasingly deranged, and surprisingly sad story of the appalling, atrocious, love-to-hate-her-'cause-she-is-so-freaking-evil Queen Levana. It's a short story, only a shade over 200 pages, but Levana is so Cersei-grade nasty that it proves compulsively readable to a shocking degree. And I do mean Cersei-grade - of all the books in this series, this one is the least family-friendly by far, the only reason I would hesitate to recommend The Lunar Chronicles to anyone under, say, thirteen years old. Now I've got one more full-length novel left in my reread, and of course the short story collection. Haha, but remember when I thought this book would be just another e-book exclusive? Nope, not the case, and thank the stars for that.

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Review: Cress

Cress by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Long, but oh so totally worth it. The Wham Line at the very end sells it, natch. Along the way, Cress, the semi-official midpoint of The Lunar Chronicles, delivers the most globe-hopping adventure up to this point in the series, with a jam-packed storyline full of not one, not two, but three vastly reimagined fairytale heroines. And Cress, of course, is perhaps the most radically reimagined of them all, a Rapunzel whose tower is a satellite, and whose painting skills get a serious upgrade to world-class hacking. All the books in this series are great ones, and Cress is absolutely no exception.

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Review: When Dimple Met Rishi

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like The Upside of Unrequited, this piece of lighthearted YA contemporary is more of a 3.5 for me, but I'll round it up to a four. After spending six months sleeping on Sandhya Menon's debut, I've finally read it, and I found I enjoyed it more than I was expecting, especially given that I got a lot of spoilers. Most of which had to do with Dimple's actions and attitude, which didn't endear her to me very much. After reading the book and seeing the contrast between her and Rishi, however, that endearment finally came into play, rather unexpectedly. Obviously I'm not Indian and can't fully relate to Dimple or Rishi, but on many levels, I do. Not only because I can totally picture their stories happening in real life as those of various classmates and friends of mine (and also my boss' sons, of whom Rishi and Ashish remind me greatly, but because there are just enough surface similarities between my own life and those of Dimple and Rishi. Like Dimple, I tend to reject the traditions in which I was born and raised because I no longer feel comfortable participating in that life. Like Rishi, I know how it feels to have artistic ambitions which parental pressure forced me to tamp down. And of course, I especially appreciated this book's Bay Area setting, which, like many other recent Bay Area-set reads of mine, is spot on point. I'm definitely down to pick up other Sandhya Menon books in a more timely fashion in the future!

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Review: Looking for Group

Looking for Group by Rory Harrison
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I sorta remember I picked this book up because of Zac Brewer's blurb on the cover, because as far as I know, Zac Brewer almost never blurbs books, and he's one of a few authors whom I would absolutely LOVE to see blurb for mine someday. Suffice it to say I was actually extremely disappointed in what I read. I mean, it should've been pretty well tailor-made for me, this book, with its strong queer rep - Dylan being gay, Arden being trans. And I totally see why Uncle Z blurbed this one, because like his own books, this one offers a few lessons on fluidity of sexuality and blurring the label lines (though it's also backfired somewhat; I've peeked at other reviews and found a lot of people, including trans women, either confused or dismayed or outraged or some combination thereof).

Me, though, my problem with this book wasn't rooted in its queer rep in any way. No, it was a combination of unusual formatting (when was the last time I saw a book where all the paragraphs were unindented with breaks between each one?) and a storyline that mashed up a bunch of John Green books at once. TFIOS for Dylan being a cancer survivor, Paper Towns for the road-trip elements, Turtles for the extremely rambling narrative style hiding a surprisingly paper-thin plot, and pretty much all the other John Green books for its (admittedly unique) spin on the manic pixie dream girl trope. So, while this book does get credit where credit's due, it's not enough for me to recommend it, I'm afraid. Shame, I had high hopes.

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Review: Scarlet

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's hard to say which I like more: the OUAT-verse or The Lunar Chronicles. Though I'd probably go with the latter only because the true stellar-ness of OUAT lies in its all-too-short-lived Wonderland spinoff, which, by coincidence, I remember I was watching around the same time that I discovered The Lunar Chronicles. Which might explain why Scarlet and Wolf in this book remind me so much of my failed Knalice ship, except maybe not so failed here...and of course with Scarlet bearing a stronger resemblance to Merida than Alice, but that's neither here nor there, really. Scarlet continues this series in fine form, building even more of this world with a whole new heroine while continuing to add to Cinder's story (and introducing fan-favorite Carswell Thorne and the Rampion in the process, of course), and continuing Kai's story as well as he has to deal with Levana's ramping-up threat. Bottom line, Marissa Meyer is a YA genius, virtually unparalleled, and I live for the day when all her books, starting with The Lunar Chronicles, get their long-overdue film adaptations.

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