#brandi reads
This was a stupidly busy week with school, but I still managed to finish a few books. I finished Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel and an ARC of The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas, but I haven’t had time to write reviews for those.
Title:Across the Universe
Author:Beth Revis
Format: Audiobook
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review:
I had typed out a long review about how much I hated Amy, but Goodreads thought it would be cool to crash instead of uploading my review.
Basically, I really wanted to like this book. It started off well enough–the Cryogenic freezing scene was really cool! But then Amy woke up and everything started to suck. She is one of the worst characters ever, and I honestly can’t think of another character I have disliked as much as her. I found myself rolling my eyes every time I was reminded of her existence.
Elder wasn’t much better than Amy, but I still think the book would have been significantly better if it had been written entirely from his perspective.
I’m going to read the next one solely because I want to know if they make it off the ship.
Title:The Prince and the Dressmaker
Author/Illustrator:Jen Wang
Format: Print
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
This is a super cute fairy tale about a prince and his friend/dressmaker who makes him amazingly fabulous dresses. The prince knows he sometimes likes to wear dresses, but he is also really afraid what his parents would do/think if they found out, so he hides it. He does his best to be Prince Sebastian during day and then transforms into Paris’s hottest fashion icon at night. I loved watching Sebastian work through the questions regarding his identity and I loved the friendship between him and Francis. Also, the artwork is beautiful! I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a quick read with a happy ending.
Title:A Million Suns
Author:Beth Revis
Format: Audiobook
Rating: ★★★☆☆(2.5 stars which, let’s be honest, is generous)
Review:
There are spoilers for Across the Universebelow.
This book was just as disappointing as the first.
100% how I feel right now:
Just replace movie with book and paid money with wasted my life.
I really don’t have much to say other than I still hate Amy. I honestly cannot believe she had such a fit about Orion being unfrozen, but she actually felt guilty that Luthe was murdered. This was someone who tried to rape her, definitely raped someone else, and likely raped and murdered a third person. She felt she had a tough decision to make when she found him dead; open the airlock and move the frex on or waste more of her life trying to figure out his murdered him. But when it came or Orion, she was determined that he didn’t deserve to be unfrozen without a second thought.
Did I mention I just really hated her?
I also just realized there was ANOTHER book in this series.
Scythereview: kinda spoilery
★★★★★
Scythe is one of the best scifi books I’ve read in a long time. It makes readers think about so many things—death, technology, knowledge—in ways that most of us probably avoid. It was interesting to read about a world most people would consider to be a utopia, no conflict, no sickness, no natural death…one that could so easily be turned upside down—not just by the scythes, but by anyone who decided they wanted to know more. All of mankind’s knowledge is at their fingertips, it isn’t too much of a stretch to think that one day someone will become curious and go looking through the Thunderhead, and then find weaknesses that will bring the Thunderhead and society as they know it crashing down around them. Also, the Scythdom, Scythe Goddard has already proven that there is discontent and a desire for greater power, though most of his immediate followers have been killed in the first book, there are always more looking to grasp on to whatever tendrils of power they can find. I’m looking forward to reading more in this series, but most of all I’m very excited to see if chaos and destruction will reign in the end.
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★★★★★
The Middle Passage: White Ships | Black Cargo is unlike any picture book I’ve ever encountered. There are stories that tell the horrors of slavery after they had reached their destination, but I can’t think of any others that tell the story of the journey. There are a few pages of commentary from the author, and an introduction—but the story itself is told solely with illustrations, and honestly, I can’t see that words would have added anything to the story. Each illustration conveys the horror, pain, and struggle that African men and women experienced during the Middle Passage. This book is one that can be used alongside various history lessons to help gain a deeper understanding of what this experience was actually like. It can also be used to help readers think critically about certain aspects of history they were taught that sugar coated or glossed over the horrors of the slave trade.
★★★★
Skim was a compelling coming of age graphic novel that showcases what it is like to be a teenage girl. It highlights tough issues that many teenagers face on a regular basis: body image, depression, suicide, first love, sexuality, and outgrowing your friends. This is a realistic graphic novel that many teens will be able to relate to, and it can serve as a source of reassurance that they are not alone in feeling like they don’t fit in. It could also help in advanced emotional intelligence in teens by helping them recognize their own emotions in the face of issues they are dealing with. Also, because teens are likely experiencing many of the things Kim is, they can also see their emotions reflected in other people, helping them become (more) empathetic.
★★★★★
First of all, I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH!!!
Ramona Blue is one of the best books I have listened to in a long time. Sometimes you read a book that just hits so close to home that it is unreal, and this was one of those books. This book is for any teenager who has ever felt like they were stuck in their hometown, who is afraid to hope for something more, and who feels the weight of the world on their shoulders. I don’t feel like there was much in the way of traditional plot, but it was realistic in the sense that it follows a young girl trying to figure out life after she thought she had everything figured out. So many things are addressed in this book—poverty, natural disasters, questioning sexuality (without the bisexual erasure that is so typically found in YA books), heartbreak, absent parents, and learning to live for yourself. I saw myself in Ramona, and I know many other teens will be able to see parts of themselves reflected throughout this novel.
Synopsis:
“Emma and Violette are sisters who share the same dream of attending Paris’s most prestigious dance school. Violette passes the first audition with flying colors, but Emma doesn’t…their wold comes crashing down. But if this vibrant and graceful story teaches us one thing, it’s that there may be more than one way to dance through life…”
Review:
★★★★
This was a short and cute coming of age graphic novel about two sisters who love to dance. Emma is learning who she is, she is growing up and realizing that dreams can change. She is also learning that her parents are human, and though they want what is best for her, they are not all knowing.
I really liked this story, and the artwork is BEAUTIFUL! I look forward to the next one.
I received a copy of Emma and Violette for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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★★★
I really, really wanted to like this book, but I didn’t. I guess I expected it to be a little like The Serpent King, but other than the weirdly “religious” dad it was nothing like what I expected. First, the cover is actually pretty nice. It’s a dark matte red, the title is written in a way that the first line is Con, which I thought was fitting, and the ‘t’ is a cross—also, there is a car that has obviously been in an accident of some type, and illuminated by the headlights is “A lie will set him free.” Braden is a wealthy, white teenage boy, who happens to be a really good pitcher with a bright future in baseball. From the outside, Braden’s life looks pretty envy worthy—but things are never what they seem. Braden’s dad is abusive, manipulative, and just generally awful—not to mention he’s been accused of murdering a cop, because he did literally murder a cop. Braden does a lot of soul searching, he punishes himself for so many things, and he tries to bargain with God regularly throughout the story. He has been conditioned to think that everything that does wrong is his fault, and that if he were a better kid, a better pitcher, a better student, a better Christian—just generally better—then the bad things would be rectified. This book was incredibly realistic, but I guess I still hoped for something good to happen. I hated that Braden literally had no one tell him that the things happening weren’t his fault, and that no matter what he did terrible things would just happen sometimes. I was also incredibly disappointed that he chose to testify the way he did—though I likely would have done the same thing, if I am being honest. I had hoped for more from the ending, but realistically it was probably about as good as it could have been—anything different would not have fit with the rest of the story.
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★★★★
Some Girls Are is very similar to other books by Courtney Summers. It was sort of a Mean Girls (on steroids) meets Speak. Regina, the main character, is self-admittedly a mean girl. She, along with her group of friends are basically the Plastics from Mean Girls, but worse. They are awful to pretty much anyone outside of their group—and even pretty awful to each other. One night at a party Regina is almost raped Anna’s boyfriend, Donnie. Anna is the leader of their little group; she is probably the most awful of them all, but that’s still up for debate. For some reason, instead of going to the police or some other adult who could have helped her, Regina runs to Kara—who still (rightfully?) holds a grudge for Regina suggesting she develop an eating disorder if she wanted to be a part of their group. Kara sees this as the perfect opportunity for payback and tells Anna that Regina slept with Donnie. Chaos ensues, and Regina is ostracized from the group and bullied by her ‘friends’ among others at school—many of whom she had bullied in the past. I wanted to be shocked at how awful these kids were to one another—I wanted to be shocked that not a single adult realized that this level of bullying was going on—but after thinking about it for a bit I realized it was entirely realistic and the shock wore off. I still don’t understand why these girls got off on ruining other people’s lives, just like I don’t understand why it happens in real life. The thing that was most disappointing to me is that a teen who is experiencing something like this might pick up this book and still have no idea how to help themselves or get help. At least in Speak Melinda had someone offer to listen to her—in Some Girls Are there was basically no encouragement to reach out to an adult for help.
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★★★★
To Stay Alive: The story of Mary Ann Graves and the Tragic Journey of the Donner Party was a very emotional read. Just like the title says, the story is incredibly tragic, but it is told so beautifully. The prose is situated on the page in a way that you can almost get an idea of what Mary Ann and other pioneers felt while they were making the journey West. Even the really disturbing parts about cannibalism and all the death were still somehow beautifully conveyed. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, or fiction written in prose, but this book has inspired me to read more. I think the author choosing to tell this story in prose was the right move, it was a really heavy story, but it felt a little less so because of the way it was written—I don’t know if I could have made it through 300+ pages of this story written any other way.
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Hey friends!
I had to make a thing for class and I thought I’d share it with y’all! This is basically a readers advisory for a group of teens who really liked Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas and I’m pretty proud of how it turned out!
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