Author: Charli

Slasher Girls & Monster B..

Posted 10/06/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I have to say, I’m not a big fan of anthologies for some reason. Maybe it’s the fact that a lot of anthologies I see are collections of stories that are in genres I’m not the biggest fan of – romance being a huge one, especially at Christmas time. So when I originally purchased Slasher Girls & Monster Boys, I didn’t think I’d particularly like it. And to be fair, I think I read two stories, put it down, and never picked it up again. In fact, my copy is in the garage, in a box. But then I decided to do the All Hallows’ Read Challenge and I had to read an anthology and read a book that has been on my TBR for a while. So I picked this one. I didn’t have the get-up-and-go to try and find my copy, so I checked it out of the […]

Serpent & Dove by Shelby ..

Posted 10/05/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I’d been hearing about this book on Bookstagram, BookTube, and BookTwitter as an anticipated release for September 2019. And then the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club chose it as the book for the October 10, 2019 meeting. So of course, I picked up a copy as soon as I had the money. I’m definitely not sorry I did. Serpent & Dove is Shelby Mahurin’s debut novel. As such, it does suffer a bit from “first book syndrome” where the story starts off rather slowly and takes a bit to get into. In fact, the only reason I stuck it out was because when I went in to purchase November’s YA book club book, the bookseller who was helping me with my purchase told me she’d read the book and that it should start getting better around page 125. It took me a little longer than that – I had […]

The Testaments by Margaret Atw..

Posted 09/22/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

If you want to see inflammatory reviews, just go look at the reviews for The Testaments on Goodreads. Several people have panned the book majorly, stating that the book wasn’t necessary. I’m here to tell you that while those people might feel The Handmaid’s Tale was fine as it was, it really wasn’t. What those illustrious readers and reviewers failed to understand was that The Handmaid’s Tale left off with so many unanswered questions. What happened to Offred in the end? Did she survive? Was she ever reunited with her daughter? How long did Gilead exist after Offred’s story ended? How did Gilead fall? We needed answers. This book provided them. I was ecstatic to hear this book was coming out. I immediately set out to obtain a copy as soon as it was released, although it took me a few days to get to it. This book was amazing. […]

I’m Not Dying With You T..

Posted 09/12/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

This was another book I read for the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club. I have to say, it was completely different than what we thought it was going to be. Somehow, we got the idea it was going to be some sort of post-apocalyptic or dystopian thing. Instead, we got a very real look, in fiction form, at reality. Campbell is a white girl from Pennsylvania who has been tossed into a high school in Georgia city. Lena is a black girl who’s lived her whole life in this Georgia city and knows full well how the police and everyone else there sees black people. During the course of the book, Lena calls Campbell on her naivety when it comes to how the police and black people get along in their city. She calls Campbell on her views about black people. But Campbell calls Lena on her own views […]

Gravemaidens by Kelly Coon

Posted 08/09/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ve been trying to read this book since I first downloaded it from NetGalley on May 1. The problem is, the book just doesn’t really hold my interest. The book is considered fantasy by many readers who’ve given it the genre of YA and Fantasy on Goodreads, but so far, there’s no reason to call it fantasy. Unless you mean because of the world itself – but honestly, I’ve seen no indication of magic. Just primitive healing like you’d have found in medieval times. I guess the biggest thing is that the book doesn’t get to the point. I mean sure, you have to give the reader something to read, but you also don’t need to take forever to do it. I made it almost 40% into the book and for the most part, the most exciting part was the selection of the Sacred Maidens. I can’t stand Kammani. She’s […]