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Kelsey Ford:
New Year, New You: 9 Books for a Better You, 9 Books for a Worse You
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I’m not a huge believer in new year’s resolutions — they always feel like set ups for failure and disappointment instead of the well-meaning self-bettering they’re intended to be. However, I do believe in the fresh promise of a new year and taking the opportunity to deliberately (and gently) think about your routines and what you might be missing...
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Keith Mosman:
Powell's Picks Spotlight: Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham's 'Lunar New Year Love Story'
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Kate Brody:
What If the Real Monsters Were Inside Us All Along: Kate Brody’s Movie Playlist for ‘Rabbit Hole’
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Customer Comments
TheLadywithGlasses has commented on (21) products
Lunar New Year Love Story
by
Gene Luen Yang and Leuyen Pham
TheLadywithGlasses
, January 02, 2024
A totally original love story, this magical tale combines elements of the supernatural and the mundane. We witness Valentina’s inner turmoil as other people grow up and leave behind childish things such as schoolhouse valentine cards. Even her father no longer indulges her when she gives him yet another sweet card. She struggles to avoid heartbreak while chasing after love…all the while a spectral figure, uncertain and grim, haunts her. Is Valentina Tran seeing ghosts or suffering from visions brought on by a motherless life? Is she in a state of arrested development? How does she know when it’s love or when it’s just a passing fancy? Advice given to her by her love-em-and-leave-em girlfriend Bernice Lee doesn’t help nor can she get decent help from her unhappy father. The illustrations are superb, especially the Cupid/Saint V/Valentine of Rome figures. When chubby, cheery Cupid transforms to a ghastly specter, it’s the stuff of nightmares. Valentine wonders why he can’t turn back. We wonder if this is a romance or a ghost story. The ending isn’t necessarily happy but that’s because it’s better. It acknowledges that love isn’t all sunshine, roses and handmade cards. The best kind of love is one that includes everything that the emotion brings with it, even if that happens to be pain and heartache. It’s a thrilling tale of passion, amorous flings, secrets, lies and deception…all the good stuff you’d expect in a romance.
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Gorgeous Gruesome Faces
by
Linda Cheng
TheLadywithGlasses
, October 29, 2023
This tale of a young woman’s feverish grasp for stardom combines familiar classic horror tropes: an all-girls environment, a creepy figure lurking in the darkness, winding corridors that don’t lead anywhere, inexplicable injuries, secrets from the past and a wrathful spirit out for revenge. The madness begins early as two estranged women try to help a third member of their trio—only to fail spectacularly. The story then winds back and forth in time as Sunny Lee attempts to unravel why the sweet Mina committed suicide and why Candie refuses to talk about or acknowledge it. It’s a horror tale but also one of female bonding. Except for the odd male or two, it’s almost entirely women who fill these pages, in an atmosphere that combines the anxiety of models who must keep to a certain weight and the hardship of tireless practicing you’d expect from ballerinas. The mystery runs deep and the twist is as shocking as it is unexpected. There’s also an aching romance nestled amidst the dread, as fangirl longing gives way to infatuation and finally love. The only off note comes at the end when the mystery is revealed through a verbose exposition. It’s nowhere near as long as a Lovecraftian explanation but it does tell rather than show who the real villain is and what’s her motivation. This is a genuine workmanlike effort at feminine horror and will appeal to people who crave something a little different in their tales of terror.
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Multitude of Dreams
by
Mara Rutherford
TheLadywithGlasses
, October 18, 2023
The horror of a mysterious plague that arises out of nowhere is set alongside historical pogroms as mass hysteria leads to finger pointing and the frantic urge to find scapegoats. The characters are as varied as a deck of cards but quite a few stand out from the pack. A disguised Jewess is forced to enact a role she never wanted. But the urge to survive has made her resilient at keeping up the façade. Indeed, many characters are acting out roles they never thought they’d have to play. It makes the inclusion of a masquerade ball all the more fitting. This is a brilliant reimaging of one of mankind’s darkest hours, a time when the Black Death swept Europe for almost two centuries, when superstition gave rise to outlandish paranoia. But it’s also a story of human strength, camaraderie and invention in the face of terrible odds. It’s not on the level of facile zombie/robot/A.I. apocalypses. It’s deeper and richer than that. The people interact with each other in believable fashion as they succumb to fear or learn to find courage. It also features not just one but four strong female protagonists. Ms. Rutherford has taken a blood plague, wedded it to vampirism and a horror tale from a master of the macabre and come up with something wholly new. It’s a savage tale of love and deception and worth sinking your teeth into—perfect for a Halloween night.
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House of Marionne
by
J. Elle
TheLadywithGlasses
, October 16, 2023
Quell Marionne is touched with dangerous magic, a magic that causes matter to rot if she lets it flare out of control. But the story doesn’t start with her; it starts with an assassination. Thus we learn that Quell’s magic makes her targeted by a lethal group, one sworn to eradicate her kind from the earth. But matters are more complicated than that. Quell flees to a magical academy in which she hopes to find sanctuary and a place to belong. Supposedly she’ll be safe from the assassins who’ve marked her for death. But her refuge comes with considerable cost. The magical rules are convoluted and require considerable concentration on the part of the reader to make any sense. But what enthralls are Quell’s clever ways of hiding her forbidden powers, of striving to fit in, learn her lessons, negotiate a world of tangled politics for which she is wholly unprepared by her life on the run and pleasing a strict grandmother, the matriarch of the Marionne line. The magical tale possesses a tortured romance wrapped with thorns, a rebel assassin, a duplicitous debutante with designs of her own and a terrible secret that may prove to be our heroine’s undoing. This story contains plots and counter plots and it seizes you from the opening oath the house listings in the back. Quell’s journey is only beginning. I can only hope to join her on it.
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Name Drop
by
Susan Lee
TheLadywithGlasses
, October 03, 2023
I have to confess I was intrigued by a boy so rich and entitled that he literally didn’t know how to do the smallest tasks. He wasn’t allowed even to wipe his own butt; he had a high-tech bidet for that. The internal image this phrase produced made me snort. Elijah and Susan’s wrangling of their “Prince and Pauper” scenario is eye opening for both of them. Jessica has an entire brownstone mansion to herself, even though there are rooms for guests. Elijah is forced to share a single room with nine other interns and has to wait his turn to use the bathroom. Both of them find challenges and pleasures in their new lifestyles, even as both of them know the switch is only temporary. The mutual fishes out of water tale is amusing in spots, thought provoking in others. Neither Jessica nor Elijah are perfect and we come to understand their very different viewpoints about how the world works. Jessica comes to realize that there’s nothing wrong with having money to smooth the way and Elijah takes pride in completing a project without the bulwark of his father’s cash to help him. I’d recommend it for anybody who likes switcheroo stories in which characters get to walk a mile in someone else’s moccasins.
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Wrath Becomes Her
by
Aden Polydoros
TheLadywithGlasses
, September 30, 2023
The golem appears often in literature. From the myth of Adam, the Greek tale of a second-generation of humans formed from stone to fictional androids, we constantly find stories of beings who must create something in their image. The legends of golems function as warnings: the clay figures invariably become mindless, violent killing machines. They always rebel against their creators as they strive for humanity and realize that they can never achieve it. Their yearning invariably turns to desolation and then rage. As they go on a rampage, they must be destroyed. Mr. Polydoros’s golem is placed firmly within the era of Nazi Germany and its purpose is the one from Yiddish myth. It has been created as a destroyer, a thing of vengeance, hatred and malice. The story of Vera’s journeys—to find her missing father, seize German goods, decipher the mystery of stolen texts and kill Nazis whenever she encounters them—is the stuff of glory and nightmare. Her journey reflects the human condition because mortals also question our existence, wonder why we’re here and who, if anything, created us and if so…why. This is a deceptive story, one of mythology and yet with sociological impact. It’s a YA novel but decidedly adult in its subject matters. It’s filled with horror, wrath and romance. From the strange, eye-grabbing cover to the last word, it rings out with a thinly veiled truth: we have all been formed with the ability to become monsters. What matters is what we do after our creation.
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Together We Rot
by
Skyla Arndt
TheLadywithGlasses
, September 28, 2023
Reminiscent of “Children of the Corn”, “Harvest Home” and “The Wicker Man”, this novel plumbs into the horrors of small-town beliefs and rituals. Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple insisted that small towns carry all sorts of dark secrets at their hearts, just as much as big cities do—if not more so. Stephen King’s most iconic novels are often sent in little hamlets that harbor eldritch terrors. It’s easy to imagine cults growing out of such sheltered communities. We may believe that twisted religious practices are seen in multi-million-dollar megachurches with fire-and-brimstone preachers belching about witches, demons and the dangers posed by the LGBTQIA+ communities. But nothing beats the narrow minds of people who never venture more than 10 miles from their quaint little villages. Such a shuttered atmosphere is bred in Pine Point, a place smothered by an encroaching forest and governed by an indifferent police force. The story sinks its claws deep into you as a bunch of meddling kids take on a terrifying cult. But the Scooby Doo always learned that so-called ghosts were usually nothing more than deceitful miscreants. There is no such comfort here. The denouement of this novel is as shocking as it is unexpected. We witness just what calamity can transpire when people pray to elder gods. This is one grisly gothic horror novel for the YA crowd. People who prefer their horror dark, frosty and stripped of sunlight will adore it.
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Scarlet Alchemist
by
Kylie Lee Baker
TheLadywithGlasses
, September 25, 2023
This pseudo-historical look at a world where gold is munched like nuts, people can live forever, monsters can be created by eating pearls and the dead are brought back to life by skilled magicians is amazing. It’s a dazzling juxtaposition of extreme wealth and abject poverty, where a person’s caste may not necessarily bind them to their position. Fan Zilan is an ambitious character, smart, willful, determined, avaricious and loyal to her family. Her tale of how she rises from being a skilled worker, capable of resurrecting the dead, to an imperial alchemist is fascinating in its details. The author warns us that it’s only partially based on true historical details but don’t let that get in the way of what turns out to be a ripping good yarn, complete with a Cinderella romance (featuring a girl who doesn’t want to become royalty), the shambling dead, near-invulnerable beings with hardened skin, visions of the afterlife and a conniving concubine whose Machiavellian cunning makes her one of the most impressive villains you’ll ever read. The novel gives us four redoubtable female presences, some of whom nearly overshadow her. But that’s not a bad thing. It would be insulting if she were the only smart person around and everybody else were dullards and dimwits. They form different aspects of the feminine and allow us other windows into these alien culture. There will be a sequel and I want to see how Zilan makes her way in a world radically changed by her daring.
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I Feed Her to the Beast & the Beast Is Me
by
Jamison Shea
TheLadywithGlasses
, September 18, 2023
The notion of a dark god that fulfills its promises, offers a kind of tenderness, doesn’t rend away souls or destroy lives is an odd and welcome novelty. Laure’s path towards becoming the best turns into a redemption arc, a journey of self-fulfillment and a battle to the death against a fiercer and uglier opponent. This first novel is breathtaking in its viciousness, its tying ballet with horror and showing the price of success and failure. It’s hard to believe this is a debut effort. The writing is assured, the characters unforgettable and the author’s previous experience as a dancer lend it an undeniable air of authenticity. It also drenches us in bloodshed: accidental, deliberate, inflicted upon others or upon the self. There is so much gore, it’s like a mashup of Clive Barker and “The Red Shoes”; you expect your hands to come away sticky and red after closing the cover. The trigger warnings (which I usually disdain) are very necessary. This is not a novel from the faint of heart. From the startling scarlet cover with its barely glimpsed skull in the background to its enigmatic end as Laure explores yet another tie to the god, this is a novel to be torn into and ground between the teeth.
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Thieves Gambit
by
Kayvion Lewis
TheLadywithGlasses
, September 12, 2023
There is something screwy about Rosalyn Quest’s situation right from the beginning. Having realized from reading the initial chapters that her mother is a manipulative schemer, the first of many twists at the ending wasn’t much of a twist at all. However, it’s not the end of the book that enthralls. Rosalyn’s desperate attempt to complete her mission pits her against equally vibrant opponents. These characters are realistic and grab the reader’s attention practically from the moment they enter the story. Even the somewhat two-dimensional psycho Lucas manages to be compelling in almost every scene he’s in. The tests set for them are crazy, heart-stopping and feature complex scenarios that make you dizzy just reading them. (I wonder if they’ll make a movie about this…) I don’t usually like such stories like this. But this one, featuring an adolescent yet powerful female figure set in one Mission: Impossible-type scenario after another, was absolutely riveting from beginning to the nail-biting finish. This is a high-octane thrill ride, one that excites, tantalizes and terrifies. It’s like a roller coaster ride with no end in sight. My only complaint is that it promises a sequel and that wasn’t indicated on the book cover. Had I known that, I might have shied away from making this kind of literary investment of my limited time on this planet. However, I don’t begrudge the hours spent racing through this book. It’s a definite read for fans of heist tales.
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The Marvellers
by
Dhonielle Clayton
TheLadywithGlasses
, August 17, 2023
There is much that will remind contemporary fantasy readers of J.K. Rowling’s award-winning series about a boy wizard in this story. But there are vastly significant differences as well. Ms. Clayton manages to fill her Arcanum school with a dazzling diversity of skin colors and cultures and keeps us interested in them; they’re not just temporary background filler. The various “senses” come with their own brands of magic and children must study to find out which marvel Paragon (i.e., magical house) they will fit into after their first year. This is a stark reversal of Rowling’s system, one that sorts small children into a specific house on the very first day of their orientation at an age when most children don’t even know how to eat a healthy breakfast. Ella Durand turns out to be a redoubtable heroine. She’s not foolhardy; in fact, she thinks of herself as a coward although circumstances prove her otherwise. But she’s willing to be kind, to meet hatred with sweetness, to strive for high grades in class (she gets them; she’s no dummy) and to reach out to those who are as different as she. She’s also peevish on occasion, desperate to please and too willing to hare off on her own when older, wiser heads are advising her to stay put. This novel sparkles with humor, tenderness, fierce familial ties and an altogether different type of magic system, one that mesmerizes with its originality and beauty.
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Threads That Bind
by
Kika Hatzopoulou
TheLadywithGlasses
, June 24, 2023
When contemporary books retell the stories of the Greek gods placed in modern settings, the familiar roles of the major pantheon are usually the deities of choice. Not so in this imaginary worldscape. Kika Hatzopoulou has decided to people her tale with descendants of other beings—not gods or goddesses, exactly, but major players all the same. So we have a world filled with descendants of the Fates, Furies, Muses, Keres, Phobos and Deimos (Ares’s sons), gods of sleep, dreams, etc. This novel idea plunges us into the world of women who literally can see life threads swirling in the air around them, allowing them to manipulate other people by sowing love, indifference, hatred, rendering an enemy unconscious, strengthening emotional ties or weakening them. These gifted females and others of their ilk must make their way in a world of humans who hate and/or fear them. They must struggle with being second-class citizens and the hardships that entails. They are either poor and struggling or delving into illegal activities to survive. Part crime mystery, romance and political thriller, this is potent, heady stuff, giving us a tale rich in otherworldly detail, emotional entanglements, original scenarios and all of this graced with truly memorable characters. It intrigues from the very first page to the last and, while I was sorry to have it end, I’m cheered by the fact that it’s not over by a long shot. Gods and mortals are set to battle. There will be blood.
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Garden of the Cursed
by
Katy Rose Pool
TheLadywithGlasses
, June 04, 2023
The plot keeps you engaged from page one. We’re constantly guessing as to who is friend or foe, who has leveled a clever and potentially lethal curse, who is searching for a lost grimoire, a book of sorcery so puissant and malevolent that just touching it subjects its handler to a black-veined inner rot that proceeds from the hands and slowly takes over the host. The reasons why someone would curse another are as varied as human beings themselves and, after dealing with so many clients, Marlow Briggs is fairly certain she understands the treachery of which human beings are capable. It’s your nearest and dearest who are especially likely to betray you, as she’s learned to her cost. She’s clearly a woman of keen intellect (although she does let her paranoia get the better of her from time to time). This is a heady novel, bursting at the seams with backroom deals, the threat of gang warfare, curses flying like swarms of angry bees, dazzling opulence with spells as gaudy as the rich clothing, food, architecture and lives of those who possess it. In short, it’s one of the best fantasy novels I’ve read in a long time. I’m almost sorry it needs a sequel. That means I’ll have to wait and see what further hijinks Marlow gets herself into now that her circumstances have changed so drastically.
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Clytemnestra A Novel
by
Costanza Casati
TheLadywithGlasses
, May 22, 2023
Powerful women, whether in history, myth, legend or literature, must muscle their way onto the stage, often disturbing or shouldering aside men who are outraged by their presumption. Having been entranced by the legend of Clytemnestra, Ms. Casati decided to give this Spartan princess and Mycenean queen the literary treatment. She breathes life into this figure, making her more than the flat figure of menace, vengeance and bloodshed portrayed by male writers. This is a debut novel for Ms. Casati but it’s hard to believe it. The author paints her characters with a deft hand, one that doesn’t shy away from brutality, gore, murder and sacrifice. There is tenderness amidst the mayhem; we understand Clytemnestra craves love, warmth and genuine affection, even though she knows that affection often comes burdened with harsher emotions. Above all, we see her in her many roles as daughter, wife, mother, lover, diplomat and queen. She is ably depicted in all of them and this reader laid the book aside with regret. This was a woman and queen I grew to appreciate as much as Ms. Casati did. In that, the author has succeeded admirably.
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Ring of Solomon
by
Aden Polydoros
TheLadywithGlasses
, May 11, 2023
The payoff for this story wasn’t quite as powerful as I expected. There are curious blanks and jokes that lead nowhere. The magic ring that allows Zach to summon the demon attached to it also allows the wearer to converse with animals. However, it’s snatched away from Zach partway through the novel and replaced by another magical artefact—as if the ring never mattered at all. The bad guys turn out to be plasticky suburbanites with toupees, khaki and too much Botox. Lacking the funereal majesty you’d expect of an apocalyptic fanatical secret order jonesing for the end of the world, they disappoint Zach and the reader alike. Zach’s association with Ashmedei seems to consist mainly of having the demon stuff his face and occasionally rescue Zach from dangerous situations. Ash’s behavior vacillates unpredictably from morose introspection to gleeful mayhem. What is intriguing about him is that he’s not actively evil. The notion of good and evil is different in the Talmudic religion and the book does touch on that. However, Zach’s family isn’t particularly religious so his interest in that part of his life is glancing at best. This book is aimed at the tween set so its lackluster performance may not be as apparent to them. Older readers may want to pass over this book for more engrossing fare.
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Stars and Smoke
by
Marie Lu
TheLadywithGlasses
, April 29, 2023
In spite of its ridiculous premise, this YA spy thriller proves to bring everything you’d expect in a similar cinematic enterprise: rollercoaster action, espionage, cool gadgets, intrigue, high-octane fight scenes, a surprise villain and romance on the job. When Winter Young encounters Sydney Cossette (a bizarre moniker that reveals a love of Dickens and Hugo), the sparks fly between them. She thinks he’s an arrogant, stuck-up celebrity; he thinks she should park her attitude. We know that romance is on the horizon for the two of them and the rocky path towards love is laced with enough spice, action and moments of intense emotion to keep you invested along the way. This is a book that I think will appeal to boys and girls alike. It’s got two protagonists who light up the page whenever they interact and the author makes sure to give us their inner thoughts so their actions and emotions seem entirely credible. This is a terrific plot, far outstripping its outlandish outline.
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Headmasters List
by
Melissa De La Cruz
TheLadywithGlasses
, April 28, 2023
Spencer Sandoval has it all…until she doesn’t. In the aftermath of a car crash that leaves one young boy dead and her ex-boyfriend accused, Sandoval is hurting inside and out and the author doesn’t shy away from detailing her anguish. Although she’s as much a victim of the accident as the poor dead boy, she’s ostracized, whispered about, speculated upon and stared at, especially since she’s shown up to school with a service dog at her side. Spencer is a black girl and yet she’s headed from great things. She’s got her sights set on NASA and, with her gritty determination, high grades, scholastic brilliance, endless ability to excel, she seems a sure candidate to being an astronaut. But, as is typical, there are those who resent her success, sneer at her rewards and are jealous of her boyfriend Ethan Amoroso, another example of shining rich-boy, white privilege. She’s a teacher’s pet and other students always hate those. The truth, with its shocking denouement, stuns the reader and shows how easily the role of good guys and bad guys can be flipped. The narrative yanks us and Spencer over the coals until we practically share her every mood shift. This is a heady story filled with romance, thrills, danger, excitement, brilliance and emotion. For people who like their YA stories with a twist, this definitely fits the bill.
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Enter the Body
by
Joy McCullough
TheLadywithGlasses
, April 25, 2023
Artful reworkings of the Bard of Avon’s works are always welcome to the literati who adore English plays. Four hundred years after his birth and Shakespearean performances continue to exert a powerful influence. Ms. McCullough has decided to look at the beleaguered heroines of some of Shakespeare’s plays. While I was interested in hearing Juliet, Ophelia and Cordelia argue in their unique voices about their lives and what they think their endings should have been, I was a bit put out by her omissions. We know Desdemona’s there but she never speaks. Goneril and Regan are referenced often by their younger sister and they are present as well, hidden in the shadows. But they never come forward to tell what their version of Lear’s story are. Why do we get Lavinia, the raped and maimed victim from one of Shakespeare’s earliest and most questionable plays? She can’t even speak yet she’s allowed her mute gesticulations and weird foot tapping. There is even a reference to Joan of Arc (and I admit I didn’t even realize she was in any of Shakespeare’s works). I would have liked seeing something from any of them rather than mute and ultimately murdered Lavinia. But Ms. McCullough made her choices and, imperfect as they are, the resultant work stands as an intriguing play in its own right.
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I Like Me Better
by
Robby Weber
TheLadywithGlasses
, April 25, 2023
I don’t care for sports in general and have zero interest in soccer in particular. So, if those parts of the book bother you, you might want to steer clear. However, there is plenty of off-field drama to engage those who like to read about young love. Zack is playing a rather tricky game…and I don’t mean soccer. He’s taken the fall for Ryan, a teammate he idolizes, and his soccer teammates are baffled and upset about his seeming deviation from honest behavior. He’s got issues with another teammate, Noel, who has rightly guessed who’s behind a prank involving a dead shark. Zack is also dealing with his parents’s divorce. All this while trying to win the affections of a head intern named Chip Cannon. Zack’s efforts lead him into silly lies and even sillier hijinks. It takes quite a while for him to face his own foolishness and make things right with his friends, family and teammates. It’s a little hard to believe that a high schooler could make eloquent speeches that set things square. But Zack manages to settle matters. His life doesn’t become perfect and Chip is reluctant to declare that he’s a “boyfriend” rather than a “friend”. But there is a kind of happy ending. It leaves you with a smile on your face and a satisfactory glow. Go, team.
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Promise Boys
by
Nick Brooks
TheLadywithGlasses
, April 25, 2023
The book switches POVs from one boy to another and various other people. The character voices ring clearly from the page as each manifests their inner thoughts. Parents or guardians are staunch in their defense (predictable statements like “not my kid” are rife). Others have their doubts about the system in which the boys find themselves. Internal pressures (like stress nosebleeds) and external ones (gang members hovering too close and the ever-present poverty line) contribute to the tension rising in these pages. So why the two-star rating? It’s because of the tired trope of the kids deciding to solve the mystery by themselves. Yes, their opinions on the way cops typically treat blacks mean that they dare not go to the police with their findings. But, as their discoveries get more concrete, their alibis become more solid and outside circumstances (like a mis-taken firearm) become apparent, you’d think at some point these adolescents would go to the cops and present what they know. This “meddling kids” shenanigans are ever so tiring to read and nerve-wracking as well. It was a good story. It’s just not great enough for me to recommend wholeheartedly.
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Chaos and Flame
by
Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland
TheLadywithGlasses
, April 25, 2023
We come into this novel where most stories would end: the throes of an interminable conflict and its abrupt end. The story embroils us in the tale of people struggling with conflicting instructions even as they strive for a unification of their war-torn provinces. The authors immerse us in a thrilling world, where psychic talents are called “boons”, legendary animals once roamed the planet and ancient gods once granted mortal prayers…albeit not exactly as the mortals wanted. While we are invested in the growing romance between Talon and Darling, we’re even more swept up by Talon’s frustrated attempts to connect with his older brother, Caspian. Talon is told time and again that Caspian is neither ill nor mad. But Caspian’s fits, cryptic messages, haunted paintings, mood swings and enigmatic public outbursts strain Talon’s patience and nearly drive him to despair. Talon can’t bear his brother’s behavior yet his love for his elder sibling is genuine and without question. The final denouement is an astonishing, jaw-dropping scene of metamorphosis, yet, like the consort’s murder, all the signs are there if you read the story. Will this stop the war, as Caspian, Talon and Darling hoped? I will be on the lookout for the sequel.
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