Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Tales from the Hinterland by M..

Posted 03/31/2021 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

CW: Violence, Death Tales from the Hinterland is the book of fairy tales that is featured in The Hazel Wood and The Night Country. Weirdly enough, I could never seem to get into either The Hazel Wood or The Night Country. Perhaps I just needed to read the fairy tales the fueled the story. I love fairy tales – the darker the better. I’m a huge fan of the original Grimm’s fairy tales. Yes, I do like the Disney versions as well, but in Grimm’s fairy tales, you don’t always have a happy ending. So it is with Tales from the Hinterland. These tales are dark, grim, and don’t necessarily have happy endings – although I suppose it does depend upon your point of view. The tales themselves are interesting – although one of them I recognized and I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve read a similar tale or […]

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K...

Posted 05/07/2020 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

TW: Abuse, Racism, Mommy Issues, Daddy Issues (I’m sorry it’s been a month since I listened to it, so if there are triggers I missed, I’m sorry.) Emergency Contact is the story of Penny and Sam. Neither of them is a particularly likable character. They are seriously messed up. But if I have to choose one over the other, I’ll take Sam, thanks. For one, both have issues with their mothers, but for different reasons. To my idea, Sam has a legitimate reason to have issues with his mother, considering what she did to him. Penny, on the other hand, has issues with her mother for being herself. Penny seems to think that her mom is embarrassing and a pain in Penny’s butt on purpose. To my idea, that’s ludicrous and Penny is just being a brat. When Penny moves to college and meets Sam via her dorm roommate, they […]

A Good Girl’s Guide to M..

Posted 03/13/2020 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

If there is one thing I do like, it is a good mystery. This one was definitely one of the good ones. The first thing you learn in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is that Sal Singh killed Andie Bell. At least that’s what everyone in town believes. Except Sal’s family and one other person. That person is our main character, Pippa. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – The Main Characters Pippa is sort of an interesting character. She’s every faculty member’s dream. Her homework is done on time and very neatly. She studies all the time. Even when she chose to prove Sal Singh was innocent, she worked on that all the time. While she is an interesting character, I don’t think we got to see enough of her real personality. We got more of the workaholic than we did the actual person with Pippa. While she […]

The Toll by Neal Shusterman

Posted 02/13/2020 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’m going to admit, I was a bit confused when this book first started. I didn’t realize there was a time gap because I hadn’t read the blurb. I’d figured they’d have immediately started trying to salvage Endura, but clearly not. I’m going to admit this right now, I can’t stand Goddard. He’s egotistical, he’s power hungry, and he’s a grade-A jackass. Yes, I said it. He’s a jackass. The way he treats people makes me want to reach through the pages and punch him. I can see why everyone hates him. Greyson Tolliver’s character becomes much clearer in this book – he’s more defined than in Thunderhead and his reason for being in the story makes a lot more sense now than it did when I read Thunderhead. He’s not a particularly likeable character for me – he’s more just there because he needs to be, not because I’m […]

Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao

Posted 02/08/2020 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

In case you didn’t know, this book is basically a retelling of Anastasia with magic and fantasy built in. Let me tell you, it works. I love the concept of the Affinites and their affinities. I love that it isn’t just your basic elements, but that Affinites could have any number of things for their affinities. We see marble affinities, flesh affinities, blood affinities, grain affinities, as well as the basic elements. So the concept of having an affinity for a particular element has been taken much further than normal, which is awesome. Ana is a great character. She’s tough, but she loves with all her heart. She loves her empire and she loves her people. And yes, she is naive when it comes to some things because she did spend the majority of her life living behind the Salskoff Palace walls. So there are things that she doesn’t know […]