Category Archives: Fantasy

Review: Westfallen by Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , ,
Westfallen by Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares

Westfallen
Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares
Simon & Schuster
Published September 17, 2024

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About Westfallen

From #1 New York Times bestselling Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants author Ann Brashares and her brother Ben Brashares comes an action-packed middle grade alternate history thriller that asks what it would be like to wake up in present-day America if Germany had won World War II.

Henry, Frances, and Lukas are neighbors, and they used to be best friends. But in middle school, things can change fast—Frances has become an emo art-girl, Lukas has gone full sports bro, and Henry has gone sort of nowhere. But when a dead gerbil brings them together again, the three ex-friends make an impossible discovery: a radio buried in Henry’s backyard that allows them to talk to another group of kids in the same town…on the same street…in the same backyard…seventy-nine years in the past.

The kids in 1944 want to know all about the future: are there jetpacks? Laser guns? Teleportation? Most of all, they want to know about the outcome of the war their dads and brothers are fighting in. Henry and his friends are cautious—they’ve all seen movies about what happens when you disrupt the fabric of time—but figure there’s no harm in telling them a little bit, just enough so they can stop worrying so much. And, at first, everything seems fine. Nothing’s changed—well, nothing so big they can’t contain it, anyway.

Until Henry, Frances, and Lukas wake up on May 6, 2024, to an America ruled by Nazis. They changed history. And now it’s up to them to change it back.

My Review

The radio that connects kids from two different time periods sets up this novel’s unique approach to World War II historical fiction. It allows readers to compare and contrast differences in American suburban life in 1944 versus 2023, which I thought was pretty cool.

The story alternates between Henry’s perspective in 2023 and Alice’s point of view in 1944. These scenes remain pretty short, with sometimes three or so per chapter. While the plot requires a bit of willing suspension of disbelief (for example, the kids convince an adult to help them stage a poorly planned jailbreak), the story stays focused on the actions of its younger characters for the most part. The kids get to be the heroes faced with preserving the victory of the Allied forces and keeping the United States from falling into German control permanently.

I didn’t expect the book to be a series opener, so when the setup for the next book emerged in the final chapter, that took me a bit by surprise. I’m curious to see where the series goes and would love to see it explore other possible alternate histories in the same time periods.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Lukas is Jewish. Henry is biracial.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Henry sees evidence that someone beat up a child. Jewish people are forced to work and/or imprisoned.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

Lies We Conjure
Sarah Henning
Tor Teen
Published September 17, 2024

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About Lies We Conjure

Knives Out meets The Inheritance Games with magic in this standalone supernatural thriller by Sarah Henning: thirteen witches, a locked-room murder, and two non-magical sisters trapped in a deadly game of Clue

Ruby and her sister, Wren, are normal, middle-class Colorado high school students working a summer job at the local Renaissance Fest to supplement their meager college savings.

So when an eccentric old lady asks them to impersonate her long-absent grandchildren at a fancy dinner party at the jaw-dropping rate of two grand―each―for a single night… Wren insists it’s a no-brainer. Make some cash, have some fun, do a good deed.

But less than an hour into the evening at the mysterious Hegemony Manor, Ruby is sure she must have lost her mind to have agreed to this.

My Review

I’ve really enjoyed everything by Sarah Henning that I’ve read, and Lies We Conjure is no exception. I think it’s the darkest of her books so far, and I’d say ‘Knives Out plus magic’ is a pretty fair description of this one in a nutshell.

I loved the sisters, Wren and Ruby. Wren is impulsive and chipper while Ruby is the more methodical, quieter one. The story alternates between the perspectives of Ruby and Auden, one of the Hegemony cousins and grandson of the magical matriarch. I liked the tension of Ruby and Wren being imposters locked into the estate once the murder takes place.

I kind of expected there to be some hidden magical connection between their family and the other magical families, but that didn’t play out in the way I anticipated, which was fine. They do have a nostalgic connection to the estate.

The story has some great moments between characters and some scenes I didn’t predict at all. I loved the way things were pieced together and how the mystery resolved in the end.

I think reader who enjoy a murder mystery dripping with threatening magic will not be able to put this one down. If you like books by Mary Watson or Deep is the Fen by Lili Wilkinson, definitely check out Lies We Conjure.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Wren and Ruby are white. One of the magical families is BIPOC. One character is nonbinary.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs and profanity used fairly infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic and are called witches. There are four main types of magic: elemental, blood, star, and death. Death magic is pretty grisly. Blood magic allows someone to control others.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Apparent murder. Descriptions of fatal injuries.

Drug Content
A few characters drink alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Greta by J. S. Lemon

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Greta
J. S. Lemon
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Published September 10, 2024

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About Greta

J. S. Lemon’s middle grade debut is an utterly transformative, fiercely original, and surprisingly funny story about consent, friendship, healing, and a beauty that transcends all else. 

Greta Goodwin’s life is changing. On top of moving to a new neighborhood far away from her best friend, Lotti, she’s also starting middle school. Greta isn’t totally ready for boys, bras, and bad cafeteria food. She still feels like a little kid compared to those female classmates who have suddenly matured over the summer. Girls who are now objects of curiosity, scorn, and entertainment for everyone else. So Greta adopts a new “Do not call attention to yourself.”

But at her first-ever middle-school party, a boy does pay attention to Greta. At first it feels good. And then it feels awful. Aggressive. Abusive. In the aftermath, Greta can’t make sense of what’s happened, let alone talk about it—even to Lotti. Impossibly, Greta’s body starts to change, and in a vastly different way from everyone else’s.

What follows leads Greta to believe the world might finally see her as she truly ethereal, powerful, and free. Reminiscent of Kafka’s Metamorphosis and sensitively told, stunning modern classics like Fighting Words and The Thing About Jellyfish, Greta will transform readers just as Greta herself is transformed.

My Review

I feel like this is one of those books that will make people uncomfortable simply by existing. A middle grade book that discusses sexual assault? Pretty shocking, sure. Is it as shocking as how often this kind of thing happens, though?

One of the things I really appreciate about this book is that the attack is presented only briefly. It focuses primarily on what Greta feels and how she responds, keeping her experience centered.

I love the symbolism of her transformation. She’s beautiful, before and after, and it feels like an expression of her true self rather than some kind of punishment or harm done to her.

For me, one of the hard things about the book is that the harm doesn’t get directly addressed. That feels uncomfortable. (Too often true in real life, and that’s also uncomfortable.) It also feels uncomfortable to me that the transformation separates her from her friends and family. Greta is happy, so she doesn’t view this as a bad thing. But for them, it is a kind of change that means they give up the kind of relationship they had with Greta.

What’s interesting to me about that is that those other kinds of resolutions– the perpetrator being confronted, the family hearing Greta’s story, etc– are things that would satisfy us as readers and observers.

Instead, the outcome of the story centers Greta’s healing and wholeness in a way that isn’t beholden to anyone else in her life. Once I saw that, I couldn’t stop thinking about what a powerful experience that is for someone who has been harmed. To remain centered in their own story. To experience a healing transformation and feel more whole and more oneself. Wow.

Conclusion

Greta is an unusual, imaginative book that probably won’t appeal to everyone. What it does really well, though, is keep the assault survivor’s story centered in the narrative, allowing her to experience healing and wholeness. It’s a powerful story perfectly tempered for a younger audience.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Greta’s little brother has an unspecified learning disability.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to changing bodies because of puberty. Greta sees Lotti making out with a boy. Kissing between boy and girl. Brief description of forceful kissing and groping.

Spiritual Content
Greta senses something happening in her body, a transformation that feels more true to who she is.

Violent Content
See above.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1)
Melissa Albert
Flatiron Books
Published January 30, 2018

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About The Hazel Wood

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away-by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother’s tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

My Review

A friend gave me a copy of this book years ago, and I’ve been on the fence about reading it since then. I knew it was a popular title, but never really read a lot of reviews or saw specific coverage of it. I can’t believe it’s been six years since The Hazel Wood was published. That doesn’t feel possible. At any rate, my library has an audiobook version available, so I decided to listen to it while I was waiting for a book I had on hold.

For some reason, I expected the book to have more of an Irish or English folklore feel to it? More like Deep is the Fen by Lili Wilkinson or The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson. (It doesn’t.)

Some of the fairytales from Alice’s grandmother’s book are recorded in full in the text of the book. The narrative will introduce the story and then the next chapter tells the full tale. These fairytales are dark, grim tales of girls locked in a room to starve, or promised in marriage to men who plan to abuse them. They have a horror-esque feel to them.

The pacing of the book surprised me, too. I expected Alice to spend the majority of the book in the Hazel Wood, but she really only reaches it around the halfway point, I think.

One of the things I liked a lot is that this isn’t a romance. This story focuses on Alice, her identity, her connection with her grandmother’s stories, and her mission to rescue her mother from whoever has taken her. I loved that the author put together such a compelling tale that stands on those things.

As I read the book, I wasn’t sure how much I truly liked it, but as I think back on reading it, I think I like and appreciate it more each time I reflect. I looked up the second book, The Night Country, and based on the book description, I think I would read it. It’s hard for me to fit audiobooks in during the summer, but I’ll probably try to listen to it in the fall when school begins again.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Representation
Alice is white. Her friend Finch is biracial.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to do a kind of magic. The magic in the book is very dangerous, usually used to harm someone. Some characters live in an alternate world.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some brief but gory descriptions of harm and death. References to suicide. Some chapters tell the fairytales included in Alice’s grandmother’s book. They have a horror-esque quality to them, with dark, dangerous magic and often brief graphic violence.

Someone pulls a gun on Alice. She remembers being kidnapped as a child. Someone demands that Alice take her own life. Alice witnesses someone cut the throat of another person.

Drug Content
Some characters drink alcohol. Some characters smoke cigarettes.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Jaden Powers and the Inheritance Magic by Jamar J. Perry

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , ,

Jaden Powers and the Inheritance Magic
Jamar J. Perry
Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Published August 27, 2024

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About Jaden Powers and the Inheritance Magic

In this magical middle grade fantasy perfect for fans of The Marvellers and Amari and the Night Brothers, a shy boy must step up and become his own hero after his best friend disappears at a magical school. 

Jaden and Elijah have been best friends since they were born. They’re so close that Jaden doesn’t even mind that he’s constantly living in talented, high-achieving Elijah’s shadow-well, he doesn’t mind much.

But then Elijah disappears, leaving behind nothing but a cryptic note asking for Jaden’s help. The next day, Jaden is invited to attend Elijah’s fancy private boarding school. Only, it turns out it’s not a boarding school at all. It’s a school for magic! Somehow, before Elijah vanished, he used his note to transfer part of his own magic into Jaden, a feat that is supposed to be impossible.

Determined to find his friend, Jaden agrees to attend the school and learn to control his new powers. But a sinister force is threatening to destroy the whole magical world. And if Jaden doesn’t stop it, he’ll be the next to disappear.

My Review

The pacing of this story went differently than I expected. In some ways, that is a strength for the book because it’s a strong difference from books like Amari and the Night Brothers and other magic school stories. There were a couple of moments where the story started to feel too similar to another boy-with-magic story, so I appreciated the ways in which it diverged from other books.

I loved the friendship between Jaden and Elijah, which is at the center of the novel. Perry celebrates that deep friendship bond and brotherhood between the two boys without any qualifiers, and I found that refreshing and, frankly, beautiful.

The cast is heavily male. I would have enjoyed seeing a little more diversity here, though there’s some value in a story that leans heavily into exploring different kinds of relationships between boys or men. I think having at least one of the critical characters be female would have added a little more balance, though.

On the whole, I am glad to see this book added to the collection of magic school middle grade literature. Jaden Powers and the Inheritance Magic is a fun story that celebrates the power of friendship and trusting your heart.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Jaden and several other key characters are Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic. Some magic can be harmful and threaten the stability of the world.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Jaden hears his best friend has drowned and must attend his funeral. Someone asks permission to view Jaden’s thoughts. The spell is painful to him, but he is willing to endure it if it will help him find his best friend.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Once Upon a Broken Heart (Once Upon a Broken Heart #1)
Stephanie Garber
Flatiron Books
Published September 28, 2021

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About Once Upon a Broken Heart

How far would you go for happily ever after?

For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings… until she learns that the love of her life will marry another.

Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing.

But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy…

My Review

It’s been a while since I read the Caraval series, but I enjoyed them, so Once Upon a Broken Heart has been on my reading list since it came out. I hadn’t planned on waiting until the whole series was published before reading them, but I’m honestly not sorry I did. It took a few weeks to get the audiobook version of this one from my library, but they do have the whole series, so I’m now back in line for the second one.

I liked this book. It has some of the same things I liked about Caraval, but it has a more open world rather than the more closed-circle experience of that trilogy. It’s got unpredictable, sometimes brutal magic and a brooding, unattainable love interest. It’s got the sweet, starry-eyed girl at the center who has more power than she realizes but whose ability to believe in something may prove to be her greatest strength.

One of the things I liked best was the relationship between Evangeline and her step-sister, Marisol. I wish that a little more of the story had centered around them, actually. They have a tenuous relationship that, for a long time, Evangeline struggles to truly understand. She wants a relationship with her, but worries she can’t trust her, and her guilt over turning Marisol and her entire wedding party to stone definitely interferes.

Oh. So there’s a moment late in the book that I won’t spoil, but I literally sat there saying, “Don’t do it. Nope. Don’t!. You’re about to get Tess of the D’Urberville’d*. Don’t do it!”

Anyway. So I knew I was pretty invested in the story when I was literally shouting at the recording. Haha!

There were a couple of moments that I kind of just had to go with. For instance, at one point, a super-hungry vampire bites someone, but instead of feeding, they inject the person with venom. It seemed very bizarre that they didn’t try to feed since there had been this whole buildup about how hungry this vampire was. But nope. The bite just injected venom for some reason. Maybe that will be explained more later?

For the most part, though, I was absolutely carried away with this wild magical story. I’m looking forward to book two in the series.

*If you haven’t read Tess of the D’Urbervilles, there’s a part in the book in which someone confesses a dark secret to her. It’s a person she has been keeping her own awful secret from (something she feels terrible about, but which isn’t even her fault). So they confess, and Tess is like, oh, whew, you’ll understand my secret then. So she confesses, and nope. It’s not okay. Not at all. I really hated that book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Main characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Evangeline spends the night curled up in a boy’s lap as part of a medical recovery.

Spiritual Content
A group of immortal Fates have limited special abilities. If a human finds the chapel of a Fate, they can pray to them and make a bargain. The Fate may choose to help them but will ask for something in return.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Evangeline hears about a wolf attack that leaves a boy horribly scarred. A boy dies, apparently from some kind of poison. Someone poisons a girl. A large number of vampires bite people. Someone ties up another person and threatens to torture or kill them.

Drug Content
Evangeline drinks wine at a social event.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.