Where I chronicle my attempts to get through hundreds of kindle books, my personal library, library books and my NetGalley requests
Thanks to Usborne Publishing and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review. I'm not really going to spend a whole lot of time talking about the plot of this book. It's a pretty generic YA fantasy story. A young girl finds out she has some mysterious powers, bad things happen, she goes on a journey of discovery in which secrets are revealed and there's a handsome boy of course.Continue reading ““The Gilded Ones” by Namina Forna”
Long time no post! I’m currently on the second year of my Masters and reading for that understandably has to take preference. That said, I have been able to read some books for my own pleasure so hopefully I’ll be able to knock a few reviews out over the next few months.
Continue reading ““These Violent Delights” by Chloe Gong”
Thanks to Headline and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book tells the story of Mina, a South Korean immigrant to the United States and her daughter Margot. The story is told from two different viewpoints, Mina in the past and Margot in the present day. The story chronicles Mina’s life as an immigrant and Margot’s journey to find out the cause of her mother’s unexpected death.
Mina’s story is definitely the stronger of the two, but I enjoyed Margot’s too. The narrative explores the dark side of the American dream and the challenges faced by undocumented immigrants and the Korean diaspora in the United States which makes for some tough reading at some points. The novel also delves into the enduring effects of past trauma, grief and loss and was often desperately sad.
Thanks to Penguin Random House UK Children’s for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
When I requested this book, I thought it was for older teens but I think it’s probably aimed more at the younger teen/tween audience – think Jacqueline Wilson age group. The story follows Jo, a young British Chinese girl growing up in the 1980s. As an 80s kid myself, a lot of Jo’s experiences really clicked with me and there are some real laugh out loud moments, particularly in the first part of the book. The text is interspersed with Cheung’s illustrations which are quirky and fun and really enhance the narrative.
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
. So Girl, Serpent, Thorn sounded rather interesting despite the fact I’ve gone off YA a bit recently or maybe I’ve become a bit more picky about what I want to read when I don’t have nearly as much time to read as I used to. What piqued my interest in this book was it was clear that it was set in a slightly different world to most of the young adult fantasy settings that are usually a riff on Western European countries. I haven’t come across many Persian inspired settings before, so I was looking forward to seeing a Persian inspired story by an own voices author.
Continue reading ““Girl, Serpent, Thorn” by Melissa Bashardoust”
Thanks to Penguin Books and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
This almost felt like two different books to me, and I liked one a lot better than the other.
Thanks to 4th Estate and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
When I was about 20% of the way through this book I thought to myself “this is one of those amazing books that gets ignored for no good reason” and seeing as it has hardly any reviews I guess I was right.
Thanks to Little Brown and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
I’m usually pretty chill when it comes to reading negative reviews of books I really liked, different strokes for different folks and all that, but this is one of those books that I got annoyed reading any negative reviews for. Sometimes a book comes along that is just so important and expertly written that people who didn’t like it probably need their head examined.
