It took me a few days to properly compose my thoughts and feelings after finishing Julia Fine’s debut novel What Should Be Wild. I needed to calm down so my entire review wouldn’t just be incoherent key mashing interspersed with “GO READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!” Hopefully, this review is a little more eloquent.
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Apparently lots of great books are going to published in May, and my bookstore has been overflowing with new advance readers copies for us booksellers to snatch up. I grabbed The Honey Farm after a glance at the gorgeous cover and a quick skim of the advance praise on the back cover, with many lauding this debut book as “unnerving,” “mesmerizing,” and “chills-inducing.” All these statements are true and then some.
Lucky me recently snatched up an advance reader’s copy of Danielle Teller’s new upcoming novel All the Ever Afters, the story of Cinderella as told by Cinderella’s “evil” stepmother, Agnes. This book is in a similar vein to Wicked, in that it deeply expands on, reinvents, and complicates the original fairytale in a way that feels very relevant and necessary, minus all the “bippity boppity boo.”
Opening up a newly-released book by Tamora Pierce felt a little bit like breathing in sunlight. Okay, my inner poet likes being a little dramatic, but when I finally got around to reading Tempests and Slaughter, I was a little worried that returning to Pierce’s work after seven+ years would be disappointing. I still remember so vividly the magic and wonder of her Circle of Magic series, and the vivacity of the Alanna books, and the intensity of the Beka Cooper series. I was afraid that Tempests and Slaughter might reveal to me that I’d outgrown Pierce’s writing, or that it wasn’t as good as I remember it being, or that I simply wouldn’t like this new story.
I needn’t have worried. I first picked up Scythe a few months ago, when I saw that its sequel, Thunderhead, had come out. The cover was intriguing, the shiny Michael L. Printz Award on the cover was a definite indication that this might be worth a read, and the synopsis on the back was even more interesting. I ended up reading both books in a matter of days. While I didn’t initially feel compelled to do a book review, I think I’d be doing a disservice to these books by not writing about them on my blog.
So, without further ado, here is my review of Scythe and Thunderhead, of the Arc of a Scythe series by Neal Shusterman. I’d been waiting eagerly for Tomi Adeyemi’s debut novel Children of Blood and Bone as soon as I heard the buzz about it in the months before it hit the shelves. A magical YA fantasy set in a West African-inspired land? I was so excited, but none of the hype could prepare me for the payoff. This book is my new favorite.
For years, I resisted the pull of reading fanfiction.
“I am way too picky about my reading content!” I would cry as my friends tried to show me novel-length, multi-chapter fanfiction featuring their favorite characters. “I don’t have time to sort through millions of fics just to find one that doesn’t have abysmal grammar!” I would wail. “I have enough reading to do just for class!” To conclude my “Forays into Fairyland” themed month, I will be reviewing an exciting new bestseller by Holly Black.
When I saw that there was a new fairy-themed book out by Holly Black, beloved author of the Modern Faerie Tales series that I adored as a wee teen, I nearly jumped up and down. I don’t follow Black on Twitter, so I had no idea that she was cooking up another faerie series. I brought the book home a few days later, practically vibrating with excitement. As you may know, I’ve been on a faerie (fairy, faery, faerie, fairie, whichever spelling floats your boat) book review kick this month. This particular book is by no means a new one--Bones of Faerie, by Janni Lee Simner, is the first in a trilogy first published in 2008. I don’t remember what year I picked it up from a shelf in a bookstore and decided to buy it, but it was probably relatively close to that publication date.
I don’t think I even read the first page of this book after I bought it—if I had, I definitely wouldn’t have let it gather dust on my shelf for 8+ years. Every so often, I’d see this book’s spine on my shelf, and wonder why I never bothered to read it. Finally, I decided enough was enough, and I read it in less than a week. As I was cleaning up the kids’ section of the bookstore I work at the other night, smiling at a few beloved, familiar novels, something that’s been on my mind a lot struck me.
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AuthorWriter, reviewer, bookseller, book nerd extraordinaire. Fiction reader at Waxwing Magazine. Archives
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