Young Adult

Two Books in the Gender Secret Series

2018, Books in Bed, Feminism, Fiction, Young Adult /

OK books 2 & 3…kind of blended together because I read them back to back in less than three days.

In Book 2, Violet and Viggo reconnected in The Green and came upon Ms. Dale and some Matrus bad guys (gals?) … and they found another egg. And Violet found her brother. And some bad things happened. Also, new characters were introduced. Thinking about it like this, a lot happened. There was a lot of running and fighting and fear and stuff. Very fast-paced.

Book 3 was much slower. Viggo was unconscious for many, many chapters and there were a lot of interpersonal relationship types of things and just going about our day discussing issues rather than doing anything about them. And then, BAM – the last couple of chapters kind of exploded all over the place. The twist at the end was an interesting twist. I wondered if that was what would happen when Ms. Dale was confused about Desmond’s behavior and loyalties.

It will be interesting to see what happens in Book 4 (and 5 and 6.)

(PS. I’m getting a little tired of the Matrus vs Patrus, misandry vs misogyny stuff, lol.)

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The Book of Ivy

2018, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

First in a post-apocalyptic fiction YA series, The Book of Ivy wasn’t too bad. It was slow in parts, particular Ivy’s character development. It was too quick in others, particular in Bishop (he was what he was and that was that.)

It almost felt like a book two that was created primarily to set up book three. Everything that (slowly) happened, happened just to get Ivy (and I assume Bishop) to where they are at the end of the book. Period, that’s it. I would like to read book two but … it’s not available in print from my library, and it’s certainly not worth buying. I’ve put it on my TBR list, should I ever find a way to get a print (or audio) copy… it may be a long wait.

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Highly Illogical Behavior

2018, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

Huh. I thought Highly Illogical Behavior was a Cybil. It’s not. It’s very Cybil-like. The writing is good. The characters, I really liked (though Lisa made me angry from the first page.)

Anxiety + Severe Panic Attacks + Some OCD = Agoraphobia and Solomon hasn’t left his house in more than three years. There are a whole lot of problems with this book but it didn’t matter. I liked the characters enough to overlook everything else, (even all of the Star Wars Next Generation chatter), and ended up enjoying the book a lot.

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The Last of August

2018, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

I did not like The Last of August anywhere near as much as I liked A Study in Charlotte. It didn’t even feel like the normal book two set up for book three, well part of it did but not enough of it. I just didn’t like either Charlotte OR Jamie in this book and I definitely didn’t like them together. I preferred the brief bits with Jamie’s father and Charlotte’s uncle — maybe they need a series of their own, instead. I’m going to give the next book a chance but if I don’t love it and there’s a fourth, I’m not going to bother.

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Alex, Approximately

2018, Books in Bed, Young Adult /

I liked Alex, Approximately but the whole situation with Mink’s mom just made no sense. NONE. Absolutely zero. And, that kind of ruined it all for me at the end. OK maybe not ruined but it was annoying.

Reading this one made me really want to watch old movies all day. TW said that happened to her in the beginning but stopped (I guess once Mink and Alex started talking so much and I’m guessing she didn’t read the movie quotes at the top of each chapter? I don’t know) but it happened for me all of the way through the book. I’m planning a movie marathon weekend for March!

(Also, the hardcover version’s cover has nothing to do with the book and that bugged me, too. The paperback cover is better.)

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Faith Volume 1: Hollywood and Vine

2018, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Women, Young Adult /

Woot, a graphic novel! Faith Volume 1: Hollywood and Vine is from last year’s Cybil shortlist and I finally managed to get it added to my library hold list. (Another reminder to myself to get more graphic novels on my hold list in 2018.)

Faith is not one of those thin, sleek, gorgeous super-heroes. She’s an average sized woman who writes blog posts for an online media company (sorry, Faith — blogging was better 5-10 years ago) as her day job.

I liked Faith but I didn’t love her. I feel like the writers are trying a little too hard to make her a “real” woman. I am going to grab volume 2 and see if they’ve settled into her character a little more because I’d really like to love her.

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Rook

2018, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

Rook should not be confused with The Rook (which I did when I first spotted it on the library bookshelf.) It also should not be confused with the first Pink Carnation book (which I didn’t really do but it sure as heck reminds me of that.)

It’s middle-grade/YA and there are a lot of similarities between the Pink Carnation and Rook, in all the good ways. It started a little slowly and I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep reading — and it took for freaking ever to read, and I’m not sure why. Yes, it’s more than 400 pages but middle-grade/YA should not have taken that long. (TW suggested Yoga and work are to be blamed, I suspect it’s Disney Emoji Blitz and work.)

Anyway, it’s totally fun and if there was a sequel, I’d read it.

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The Light Fantastic

2018, Books in Bed, Young Adult /

The Light Fantastic is on last year’s Cybil shortlist is NOT on last year’s Cybil shortlist (I just discovered this when I went to link it to last year’s list. I’m so annoyed that I read this for no good reason. haha.) and I started it at the very end of December. I almost quit it at the end of December, too — when I figured out this was going to be about school shootings and when I figured out there was a Mastermind who was attempting to mastermind a … thing. (No spoilers.)

Instead of quitting it, I put it down til after the new year and tried again. The writing is wonderful. The ties between characters and the use of “the light fantastic” works rather than feeling like a gimmick. What didn’t work was the rest of the darn book.

I didn’t hate this. I won’t tell you not to read it. But, I did not love it either.

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