Category Archives: By Genre

Review: Born Scared by Kevin Brooks

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

Born Scared by Kevin BrooksBorn Scared
Kevin Brooks
Candlewick Press
Published on September 11, 2018

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About Born Scared
Elliot is terrified of almost everything.

From the moment he was born, his life has been governed by acute fear. The only thing that keeps his terrors in check are the pills that he takes every day.

It’s Christmas Eve, there’s a snowstorm and Elliot’s medication is almost gone. His mum nips out to collect his prescription. She’ll only be 10 minutes – but when she doesn’t come back, Elliot must face his fears and try to find her. She should only be 400 meters away. It might as well be 400 miles…

My Review
I wanted to read this book because the premise sounded really intriguing. Right away, there are high stakes and it has that man versus himself thing going on that I really love in stories.

Some of Elliot’s experiences made total sense with his fear issues and the way people would normally react in those situations. But as the story progressed, some of the experiences Elliot had got more and more extreme, and I couldn’t decide if he was hallucinating or imagining the worst-case outcome in a given situation and reporting it as if it happened, or if bad things really were happening to him.

Other characters have short scenes from their points of view, and those seemed to support Elliot’s version of events, so I guess that’s what happened? Unless those were imaginary people he created? I don’t know. That seems farfetched.

As Elliot continued the search for his mom, he found a boldness and courage that was inspiring. I liked the way the story followed multiple threads which converged in a single scene.

On the other hand, I struggled with some of the events. I feel like either Elliot must have imagined certain parts of the story (because his actions seemed so out of character and because so many things seemed like the worst-case scenario playing out) or they were real events that seem too farfetched for me to believe.

Fans of A. S. King would probably really like this story. While I found it really interesting and liked Elliot’s character, I find I’m left with this feeling that I didn’t really get the story somehow.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Elliot talks to his twin sister, Ellamay, who died during their mother’s pregnancy.

Violent Content
Strong fear-based images. Two men tie up two women. The women have bruised faces, like they fought their attackers. A man with a gun and knife threatens a kid. Someone attacks a man with a rock, hitting him in the head. A car accident startles several witnesses.

Drug Content
A man drinks alcohol at a bar, and a woman he met there drugs him without his knowledge. He experiences some hallucinations and behaves in a way out of his normal character while on the drugs.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Echo Room by Parker Peevyhouse

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

The Echo Room
Parker Peevyhouse
Tor Teen
Published on September 11, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Echo Room
Rett wakes on the floor of a cold, dark room. He doesn’t know how he got there, only that he’s locked in. He’s not alone—a girl named Bryn is trapped in the room with him. When she finds a mysterious bloodstain and decides she doesn’t trust Rett, he tries to escape on his own—

Rett wakes on the floor of the same cold, dark room. He doesn’t trust Bryn, but he’ll have to work with her if he ever hopes to escape. They try to break out of the room—

Rett and Bryn hide in a cold, dark room. Safe from what’s outside.

But they’re not alone.

My Review
I feel like this book should be an episode of Black Mirror. (Disclaimer: I’ve only seen two episodes of Black Mirror because I’m waaaaaay too much of a fraidy cat for things that qualify as horror-ish.). The Echo Room definitely had that otherworldly, spooky, outside-the-box feel to it. I loved that!

While some parts of the story are simple—a boy, a girl, a quest to find an item—other parts are not so simple. Rett and Bryn have really fractured memories. They make assumptions from the clues around them, but we start to piece things together almost before they do, which creates all sorts of interesting nail-biting tension.

The beginning has a kind of repetitive rhythm to it (on purpose), but the way it’s written, you notice different things each time a repetition happens, so it feels like peeling back layers of the mystery, and that feeling kept me reading page after page.

I found Rett and Bryn both really likeable. There’s a good balance between the plot with its sci-fi elements and the characters, which is a must for me when I read sci-fi. So The Echo Room definitely satisfied there.

Though this is a very different kind of story, I think The Echo Room would appeal to readers who like Hayley Stone or Claudia Gray. I highly recommend it.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Fewer than ten instances of profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. A man receives a head injury from another person. At one point, a boy discovers a mutilated dead body. Description is brief. A flare gun is used as a weapon.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

The Benefits of Being an Octopus
Ann Braden
Sky Pony Press
Published on September 4, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About The Benefits of Being an Octopus
Some people can do their homework. Some people get to have crushes on boys. Some people have other things they’ve got to do.

Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. Not that her mom seems to appreciate it. At least there’s Lenny, her mom’s boyfriend—they all get to live in his nice, clean trailer.

At school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. Her only friend Fuchsia has her own issues, and since they’re in an entirely different world than the rich kids, it’s best if no one notices them.

Zoey thinks how much easier everything would be if she were an octopus: eight arms to do eight things at once. Incredible camouflage ability and steady, unblinking vision. Powerful protective defenses.

Unfortunately, she’s not totally invisible, and one of her teachers forces her to join the debate club. Even though Zoey resists participating, debate ultimately leads her to see things in a new way: her mom’s relationship with Lenny, Fuchsia’s situation, and her own place in this town of people who think they’re better than her. Can Zoey find the courage to speak up, even if it means risking the most stable home she’s ever had?

My Review
This book has so many cool things about it. I loved that Zoey joins the debate club at school (even though at first she’s an unwilling participant). Her natural talent shows in the way she approaches problems and cares for her siblings, which made it so easy to cheer for her as she battled anxiety about speaking in front of her classmates. I loved her teacher, too. So many moments between Zoey and her teacher had me all teary-eyed. They share a kind of understanding that only someone who’s been through a similar thing can share, and it obviously changes Zoey’s life.

Zoey’s relationship with her mom also gripped me. Because her mom works, Zoey cares for her siblings a lot of the time, and sometimes relates to her mom more as a peer rather than as parent to child. Some of that is kind of sad, but it also showed the way that your relationship with a parent changes as you reach middle school age and start thinking about things differently. I loved the way Zoey’s debate club strategies became the tools she used at home, and the way those same lessons helped her uncover unhealthy patterns in her family.

In the acknowledgements, the author talks about how someone asked her to write about rural poverty so that kids growing up in those situations would have a chance to see themselves in a book. I’m so glad she did. This book made me think of so many kids.

One of the really fun things about the book is the way Zoey uses imagery about octopus behavior to describe how she feels at different times or things she wishes she could do (like have extra hands to manage her three small siblings). I loved those descriptions and how they appeared consistently through the book.

I actually picked up a copy of this book after reading another blogger’s review of it, and I’m so very glad I did. I need to go back and comment on the review say thanks! The Benefits of Being an Octopus definitely deserves a read.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Someone fires shots in a school parking lot near students. After the gun incident, students argue about whether guns are good or bad (Zoey believes guns are tools that can be used for good things like hunting while a few other students argue that no one should have guns.). A girl is physically threatened by a man. A man verbally abuses a woman.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Sadie by Courtney Summers

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

Sadie
Courtney Summers
Wednesday Books
Published on September 4, 2018

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Sadie

Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meagre clues to find him.

When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.

My Review

I was a little nervous about reading this book as I read reviews that mentioned how much it dealt with sexual abuse as I have a really low threshold for being able to read things like that. Details about those experiences really undo me.

Anyway, after my Q&A with Courtney Summers in which she talked about her reasons for writing this book, I wanted to try to read it anyway, and I’m honestly glad I did.

I feel like I’ve said this before, but I have so much respect for Summers and her commitment to be a voice for young women who are often forgotten. Lots of times stories like this, about missing girls, sensationalize the details of the disappearance. I’ve read books where I felt like the author almost revels in constructing the details of torture and graphic abuse.

You won’t find those gory details in Sadie. And you might think that would steal some of the horror or power of the story, but honestly, it doesn’t. Instead, it keeps the story focused on what matters: the humanity of the characters, the fact that they are so much more than abuse victims.

And that humanity coupled with the raw, high-intensity emotional responses of the characters punched straight into me as I read the darkest parts of the story. I felt horror at what happened to Sadie and the other victims of abuse. But I didn’t have to endure the details of what happened to them in order to feel that horror. Sharing in Sadie’s brokenness and horror were powerful enough, especially in the hands of a writer like Courtney Summers. Y’all, she is a force.

Conclusion

Sadie is probably not for everyone. It’s got some rough language, and it’s definitely a dark story. But it does remind us that these things happen to girls way too often. And that way too often we forget them once the glow of the news headlines dims. I’ll remember this one for a long time.

If you liked VANISHING GIRLS by Lauren Oliver, you definitely want to check out SADIE.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Major characters are white or not physically described. Sadie has a stutter and deals with a lot of judgment about it.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used regularly throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between two girls. References to sex. References to sexual abuse, including sex with children. None of those things are described in detail, though in one scene, a man stands in the bathroom watching a girl crouched naked in a tub. At another point, a character finds pictures depicting child sex abuse. The photos aren’t described, but they’re clearly horrifying to the characters who see them.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to sexual abuse and prostitution. A girl’s body is found in an orchard. We know she died from blunt force trauma to the head. Sadie leaves on a journey to find and kill a man she believes killed her sister. In another scene, a man attacks a girl, slamming her head into the steering wheel of her car and smashing her face on a concrete driveway. During one scene, a girl accidentally cuts her arm on window glass. At another point, a girl realizes she’s been hit in the back of the head and collapses. Several people find themselves threatened at knifepoint. One man is stabbed.

Drug Content
Sadie’s mom is an alcoholic and drug addict. She meets other addicts through the story. At one point, she and some teens order drinks at a bar. At least one of the teens drives home drunk.

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

Review: Meet the Sky by McCall Hoyle

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Meet the Sky
McCall Hoyle
Blink
Published on September 4, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Meet the Sky
It all started with the accident. The one that caused Sophie’s dad to walk out of her life. The one that left Sophie’s older sister, Meredith, barely able to walk at all.

With nothing but pain in her past, all Sophie wants is to plan for the future—keep the family business running, get accepted to veterinary school, and protect her mom and sister from another disaster. But when a hurricane forms off the coast of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and heads right toward their island, Sophie realizes nature is one thing she can’t control.

After she gets separated from her family during the evacuation, Sophie finds herself trapped on the island with the last person she’d have chosen—the reckless and wild Finn Sanders, who broke her heart freshman year. As they struggle to find safety, Sophie learns that Finn has suffered his own heartbreak; but instead of playing it safe, Finn’s become the kind of guy who goes surfing in the eye of the hurricane. He may be the perfect person to remind Sophie how to embrace life again, but only if their newfound friendship can survive the storm.

My Review

One of my favorite things about Hoyle’s debut novel, The Thing with Feathers (my review here)was the way she used Emily Dickinson’s poetry throughout the book. Which means one of my favorite parts of Meet the Sky was the way she used the Tennyson quotes at the beginning of each chapter and also at pivotal moments in the story itself. Honestly, I didn’t realize some of those quotes were written by Tennyson before reading this book. For example, “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” I’m not sure who I thought wrote that, but I didn’t realize it was Tennyson. So yay. Learned something new.

In addition, I liked Sophie’s character a lot. I kind of wanted to see more of her interaction with her sister and her mom. We know her sister is different since the accident, but I felt like I didn’t get to experience that firsthand, other than a very brief scene in the beginning of the book.

The story isn’t really about Sophie and Mere’s relationship, though. It’s much more about the hurricane mishaps that force Sophie to reconnect with her childhood crush/friend Finn. I liked Finn and the contrast between his character (risk-taking and adventurous) and Sophie’s (so many control issues).

I read another book recently (Even if the Sky Falls) in which characters are trapped together by a hurricane. I feel kind of funny about it because I live in Florida and have been through probably half a dozen hurricanes, so as I read both books, I kept comparing my experiences to what’s described in the book, and feeling really sensitive to whether something seemed realistic. Which might not be really fair, since one book took place in New Orleans and the other in North Carolina, which are really different areas than where I live.

At any rate, in this book, Sophie and Finn do a bunch of stuff during the hurricane that’s really dangerous, like going outside during the storm. For the story, it made things super dramatic, and I kept wanting to yell at them, like noooo, go back inside! This is bad! I had a hard time with that part – not because I thought it was unrealistic. People do impulsive, dangerous things during hurricanes all the time.

On the whole Meet the Sky is a sweet romance about learning to let go of fear in order to experience love and a full life. I think fans of Jennifer E. Smith and Jenn Bennett will like this one.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described. Sophie’s sister Mere has lost some mobility and has memory issues resulting from a traumatic brain injury. She’s a very minor character in the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple references to swearing—things like, thinking words that would make her mother angry.

Romance/Sexual Content
Finn makes a couple of vaguely suggestive comments. Sophie undresses a boy down to his underwear after he collapses in wet clothes and goes into shock. Sophie wakes up in a different shirt and realizes she was undressed and dressed again by someone else. She’s embarrassed, but neither of these instances are really sexual. She doesn’t linger on any details.
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Finn talks with Sophie about living deep and sucking all the marrow out of life. She has a lot of fears and dependence on control, whereas he seems to take a lot of risks and yet has a lot more peace than she has. She craves his contentment.

Violent Content
Descriptions of a car accident with injuries. Some injuries resulting from being outside during a hurricane.
Also a couple of times, characters break windows or steal things (medicine, food, etc) while they’re stranded during the hurricane.

Drug Content
Sophie’s dad became an alcoholic after the accident that injured her sister. At one point, Finn offers Sophie Jack Daniels (meaning for her to use the alcohol to sterilize a wound) and she recoils, thinking about her dad and how she doesn’t want to be anything like him.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: I Do Not Trust You by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz

Book Review and Content, Magical Realism, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

I Do Not Trust You
Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz
Wednesday Books
Published on September 11, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About I Do Not Trust You
Memphis “M” Engle is stubborn to a fault, graced with an almost absurd knowledge of long lost languages and cultures, and a heck of an opponent in a fight. In short: she’s awesome.

Ashwin Sood is a little too posh for her tastes, a member of an ancient cult (which she’s pretty sure counts for more than one strike against him), and has just informed Memphis that her father who she thought was dead isn’t and needs her help.

From the catacombs of Paris to lost temples in the sacred forests, together they crisscross the globe, searching for the pieces of the one thing that might save her father. But the closer they come to saving him—and the more they fall for one another—the closer they get to destroying the world.

My Review
Reading I Do Not Trust You was like reading an updated Indiana Jones style adventure. Archaeology and spirituality collide in the unlikely team of M and Ash. I loved the way they drew out the best parts of each other, and the way their relationship developed felt so organic to me. It had all these fits and starts and super funny moments but also super awkward moments. All the stuff a deep friendship is built from.

In addition, the tension between the two of them has a slow, steady burn. I loved that the story didn’t go down the impulsive-crazy-sex path, because so often those scenes feel really artificial and unnecessary. Instead, I felt like they had this natural attraction that grew out of their shared experiences, and I desperately wanted them to have that “I have to know if you like me” conversation to get things out in the open.

It reminded me a little bit of Protector by Jennifer Tubbiolo, which is also about hunting down ancient artifacts. I liked it a lot. Content information below.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Ashwin is described as having very dark hair and brown skin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent use of extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some romantic tension/attraction between a boy and girl.
At one point, Ash and M meet a girl who clearly has some sexual intentions toward Ash. Later, she performs a spiritual ritual naked. (We only see her because Ash tries to stop her.)

Spiritual Content
Ash is a member of a group who worship the ancient Egyptian god Horus. Ash himself possesses a power he refers to as being a god channeler. This means he can use some supernatural power to move objects or manipulate energy.
Another cult has kidnapped M’s father, believing he knows where pieces of their god, Set, are hidden. They believe if they find all the pieces of an idol of their god and bring them together, the god will resurrect. Horus followers believe if the god Set rises, he will destroy the world.

Other religious sites seem to impact the pieces of the idol. M wonders if this has a sort of “many paths to the divine” kind of explanation—maybe different religions are a sort of reimagining of each other. Her friend, a Catholic nun, says she recognizes that other spiritual things are happening which she doesn’t fully understand because they’re outside her own beliefs. She doesn’t offer further explanation, even when M asks whether her friend thinks this means the other gods are evil.

Violent Content
Some situations of peril. (Poison darts and snakes protect one piece of the idol, for instance.) M learns Ash was abused by his parents after seeing terrible scars on his back. Once scene shows a fierce battle between Ash and a spiritual creature in which he’s injured.

Drug Content
A guide tells M that Ash has a history of drug and alcohol use. To earn the guide’s trust, M drinks from a flask filled with alcohol possibly mixed with another drug. Later, M ingests a hallucinogenic powder as part of a spiritual ritual in pursuit of a piece of the idol.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.