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Review: Scythe by Neal Shusterman

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Scythe by Neal ShustermanScythe
Neal Shusterman
Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published on November 22, 2016

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About Scythe
Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

My Review
When Scythe first came out, it was pretty near the top of my reading list because of how much I loved the other Neal Shusterman books I’ve read. Somehow or other, I didn’t get to reading it very quickly, and here I am, almost two years later.

I really enjoyed this book. I’m often sensitive to violence in books, so I was a little nervous about that. But I found it to be a lot like the way The Hunger Games handles violence. The characters are disturbed by what’s happening and find ways to fight against it or call it out as wrong. Some things about it reminded me of Unwind, particularly the moral questions surrounding the Scythes’ role as killers.

My favorite thing about Scythe is the way the stakes just kept getting higher and higher. It felt like every few chapters, there would be some new intense twist making me sit straight up in my seat. Sometimes I suspected the twist a little bit before it happened, but even then, the revelation of it was so satisfying and the intensity ratcheted up so high that I had to keep going to find out how it all turned out.

Would I read the second one? Yes. Absolutely.

If you liked Unwind, I suspect you’ll love Scythe, too. It will also appeal to fans of Scorch by Gina Damico.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
In this futuristic story world, all races are pretty mixed. Certain characters are described as “leaning” toward a particular race or other. Scythes are mandated to kill across a diverse population or else face punishment.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used pretty infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. A couple of references to sex in suggestive comments.

Spiritual Content
Most religions appear not to exist anymore. One group remains, worshipping sound and living monastic lives in secluded communes.

Violent Content
Vivid descriptions of deaths. Some are painless or quick. Others are crueler. This is meant to show the difference in the ways Scythes carry out their jobs. Some use more compassionate means and others seem to revel in causing pain. Rowan struggles with these attitudes, realizing he could in fact become the kind of monster who enjoys killing.
Scythes are allowed to end their own lives, and some do in the course of the story. One suicide happens off-scene. Rowan witnesses another. Sensitive readers may find scenes like this too intense.

Drug Content
Some Scythes use poisons or drugs to end a life, usually as a way to do it painlessly.

Sadie Blog Tour Q&A with Courtney Summers

Author Interview, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, News and Fun, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Courtney Summers writes gripping stories that tend to stick with you long after the last page is closed. When I listened to her speak at YALLfest in 2016, her commitment to give girls a strong voice really stuck out to me. When I had the opportunity to participate in this blog tour with Wednesday Books, I jumped at the chance to talk more with Courtney Summers about her latest book, Sadie. I’ll introduce the book and then move straight into what I learned from the author.

About Sadie by Courtney Summers

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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.

Q&A with Courtney Summers

Do you have a favorite scene, quote, or moment from Sadie?

My favorite scene is a spoiler, but my favorite quote is this: “I wish this was a love story.”

What gave you the idea for Sadie?

One of the things that inspired Sadie was the way we consume violence against women and girls as a form of entertainment. When we do that, we reduce its victims to objects, which suggests a level of disposability–that a girl’s pain is only valuable to us if we’re being entertained by it. What is our responsibility to us? I really wanted to explore that and the way we dismiss missing girls and what the cost of that ultimately is.

Can you talk a little bit about how you created the setting for Sadie?

 Sadie is set in various fictional towns and cities across the state of Colorado and Sadie, as a character herself, was integral in creating those places. I had to make sure to put her in environments she could not only respond to, but would reveal her headspace and past to the reader.

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating your characters?

When I first started Sadie, I was extremely skeptical of West– he had to prove himself to readers over the course of his narrative and given the nature of his job, I was curious to see where writing him would take me. I really loved the way his arc unfolded. I wasn’t necessarily surprised by it, but more gratified by it than I realized I would be.

What was the hardest part of the story to write?

There wasn’t a particular part that was harder to write than any others—writing a book like Sadie requires occupying a dark emotional headspace all the way through, so it was all a bit tough to write in that sense.

Sadie is told through two points of view: Sadie, as she looks for her sister, and West’s podcasts as he follows her story. Did you experience more difficulty writing one or the other, or did you like writing in one form more? How much of the novel did you write in chronological order, and how much did you jump around?

I enjoyed both of them. Writing Sadie’s perspective was very familiar to me because all of my books feature an intensely close first person, female point-of-view. Writing West’s perspective, the podcast format, proved a little more challenging. Not so much because of the way it was written (scripts) but because each episode had to propel Sadie’s narrative forward and give us a different way of looking at the things she went through.

So far, I’ve only ever been able to write in chronological order!

Was this how you always envisioned the book or did it change as you wrote it?

Regina Spektor said something really interesting about writing songs that I’ve always loved and related to as an author. She said, “[A]s soon as you try and take a song from your mind into piano and voice and into the real world, something gets lost and it’s like a moment where, in that moment, you forget how it was and it’s this new way. And then when you make a record, even those ideas that you had, then those get all turned around and changed. So in the end, I think, it just becomes its own thing and really I think a song could be recorded a million different ways and so what my records are, it just happened like that, but it’s not like, this is how I planned it from the very beginning because I have no idea, I can’t remember.”

I feel something similar when writing– the heart of my idea remains intact, but the way it takes its ultimate form is always a little different (or even a lot different) than I might have been expecting, which makes it difficult to recall the starting point. But that’s okay as long as the heart is still there and you’re satisfied with and believe in what you’ve created.

About Courtney Summers

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Courtney Summers was born in Belleville, Ontario, 1986. At age 14, she dropped out of high school. At age 18, she wrote her first novel. Cracked Up to Be was published in 2008, when she was 22 and went on to win the 2009 CYBIL award in YA fiction. Since then, she’s published four more critically acclaimed books: Some Girls Are, Fall for Anything, This is Not a Test and All the Rage, as well as an e-novella, Please Remain Calm which is a sequel to This is Not a Test. Her new novel, Sadie, is available now wherever books are sold. #findsadie
In 2016, Courtney was named one of Flare Magazine’s 60 under 30.

Review and Blog Tour: The Third Mushroom by Jennifer L. Holm

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


I’m super excited to be part of my first ever Rockstar Blog Tour. Yay! When I saw the invitation to review The Third Mushroom by Jennifer L. Holm, I really couldn’t resist. I had so much fun reading the first book about Ellie and her grandfather-trapped-in-a-teenager’s-body that I absolutely had to find out what happens to them next in this book, The Third Mushroom. Read on for my review, some information about the author, other stops on the tour and a chance to win your very own copy of the book!

The Third Mushroom
Jennifer L. Holm
Random House
Published on September 4, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads  | Audible | iBooks | TBD

About The Third Mushroom
Ellie’s grandpa Melvin is a world-renowned scientist . . . in the body of a fourteen-year-old boy. His feet stink, and he eats everything in the refrigerator–and Ellie is so happy to have him around. Grandpa may not exactly fit in at middle school, but he certainly keeps things interesting. When he and Ellie team up for the county science fair, no one realizes just how groundbreaking their experiment will be. The formula for eternal youth may be within their reach! And when Ellie’s cat, Jonas Salk, gets sick, the stakes become even higher. But is the key to eternal life really the key to happiness? Sometimes even the most careful experiments yield unexpected–and wonderful–results.

My Review
I loved The Fourteenth Goldfish with its zany characters and love for science, so when I saw this sequel, The Third Mushroom, I pretty much HAD to read it. Ellie’s grandpa still cracked me up with his goofy blend of grandpa-slash-teenage-boy-ness. I loved the way he referred to hormonal issues as “The Puberty” and his cute relationship with the librarian.
There’s one part (I don’t want to give away what happens) that’s super sad. I wasn’t prepared for it, and it brought back the memories of my own similar experience. Those scenes were tough to read because they were so moving, but overall, there’s a positive message through it. (I’ll add a spoiler section to the end since it might be something you’d want to know about before reading if you’ve got a sensitive kid who’s just been through what Ellie’s experience.)
I also liked the way the story addressed the shifting relationships Ellie experiences. I so remember that stuff happening in middle school and how disconcerting it could be.
Science again plays a fun and interesting role in the story, as Ellie and her grandfather enter a science fair together and learn about various scientists who’ve made important contributions in the past. The end of the book includes a short list of resources to learn more about the scientists and discoveries mentioned in the book, which I thought was a nice touch as well.
Overall, if you enjoy spunky, fun stories, The Third Mushroom is a great pick. You can find my review of The Fourteenth Goldfish here.

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Cultural Elements
Ellie and her family are white. Her best friend is a boy named Raj, who dresses as a goth.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Ellie goes on a date with a boy and holds his hand. She feels a little disappointed that she’s not more excited about the whole thing, and the possible romance kind of fizzles out.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Ellie learns a bit about the invention of penicillin. She and her grandfather discover a compound that seems to have some regenerative capabilities. See spoiler section at the end of the post for more details.


Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Amazon links are affiliate links, meaning if you click the link and purchase items from Amazon.com, I will get a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. This helps cover the costs of running my blog.

About Jennifer L. Holm

Website | Twitter | Facebook |  Goodreads

Jennifer L. Holm is a NEW YORK TIMES bestselling children’s author and the recipient of three Newbery Honors for her novels OUR ONLY MAY AMELIA, PENNY FROM HEAVEN, and TURTLE IN PARADISE. Jennifer collaborates with her brother, Matthew Holm, on two graphic novel series — the Eisner Award-winning Babymouse series and the bestselling Squish series. Her new novel is THE FOURTEENTH GOLDFISH. She lives in California with her husband and two children.

Visit the Other Stop on The Third Mushroom Blog Tour

Week One:

9/3/2018- Beagles & Books– Review

9/4/2018- BookHounds YA– Excerpt

9/5/2018- The Story Sanctuary– Review

9/6/2018- Rhythmicbooktrovert – Review

9/7/2018- Here’s to Happy Endings– Review

Week Two:

9/10/2018- For the Love of KidLit– Interview

9/11/2018- YA Books Central– Interview

9/12/2018- The OWL– Review

9/13/2018- Book-Keeping– Review

9/14/2018- Two Points of Interest– Review

Enter to Win a Copy of The Third Mushroom

Three winners will each receive one copy of The Third Mushroom by Jennifer L. Holm.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spoiler Alert – super sad scenes

I mentioned above that something happens in the book that’s sad and was hard for me to read because I didn’t expect it and it brought back my own memories of a similar event. What happens is that Ellie’s cat gets seriously injured. The family isn’t sure what happened, but they suspect he was hit by a car. Desperate to help him, Ellie asks her grandfather to inject the formula they’ve discovered into the cat near his damaged spine. It’s too late for the poor furry little guy, and shortly after that, Ellie and her family make the difficult decision to put him to sleep. She grieves for the loss, feeling alternately lost, hurt, angry, etc. Ultimately, she ends up rescuing another cat who’s about to become homeless and realizes she still has love to share and another cat needs her.

It so reminded me of my own experience losing a cat – I particularly identified with feeling like the heart was missing from my home. I hated being home in an empty house without a cat. Which is how I started visiting an animal shelter just to see kitty faces. And how my next cat won me over. You can see a picture of both my rescue cats on my Instagram.

Anyway – normally I don’t post spoilers, but if you’ve been through the experience of losing a pet recently, this part of the book will either be healing or too much. It happens near the end of the book, and is only the focus of a few scenes, but like I said, it’s pretty moving.

Review: A Touch of Gold by Annie Sullivan

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

A Touch of Gold
Annie Sullivan
Blink
Published on August 14, 2018

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About A Touch of Gold
King Midas once had the ability to turn all he touched into gold. But after his gift—or curse—almost killed his daughter, Midas relinquished The Touch forever. Ten years later, Princess Kora still bears the consequences of her father’s wish: her skin shines golden, rumors follow her everywhere she goes, and she harbors secret powers that are getting harder to hide.

Kora spends her days locked in the palace, concealed behind gloves and veils, trying to ignore the stares and gossip of courtiers. It isn’t until a charming young duke arrives that Kora realizes there may be someone out there who doesn’t fear her or her curse. But their courtship is disrupted when a thief steals precious items from the kingdom, leaving the treasury depleted and King Midas vulnerable. Thanks to her unique ability to sense gold, Kora is the only one who can track the thief down. As she sails off on her quest, Kora learns that not everything is what it seems—not thieves, not pirates, and not even curses. She quickly discovers that gold—and the power it brings—is more dangerous than she’d ever believed.

Midas learned his lesson at a price. What will Kora’s journey cost?

My Review
I can never resist an unusual myth or fairytale retelling, so when A Touch of Gold caught my eye, I knew I needed to get ahold of a copy. I found it to be a cool reimagining of a familiar tale.

Right at the beginning, I wasn’t too sure about the book, though. The prologue is long and kind of confusing. It kind of sets up the story by recounting the story of Midas and introducing Kora, but I think a lot of that information could have been included in the early chapters instead. That would have made the opening read more smoothly for me.

Once I got into the story, though, I liked it a lot more. I wasn’t sure about Hettie, Kora’s lady-in-waiting, who at first seems super selfish and complains about EVERYTHING. Eventually she finds some things to be happy about and even stops seeming quite so selfish, which was great. She definitely grew on me as the story progressed.

I worried a little bit as I passed the halfway point, that A Touch of Gold was going to be a straightforward, boring story where it came to the romance. And then, boom! PLOT TWIST! Everything changed. It wasn’t an unpredictable move, but it was a really satisfying one. I loved the story even more after that point.

All in all, I’m glad I read this one. A Touch of Gold proved to be a quick read and an entertaining one at that. If you’re like me, and you can’t resist a retelling that’s a little more unusual, then resist no more – get you a copy of this book.
You might also be interested in A Touch of Gold if you liked Whisper of the Tide by Sarah Tolcser or Goddess Tithe by Anne Elisabeth Stengl.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Kora’s mother was Sunisan. (I’m not sure what ethnicity this maps to, but I didn’t look much beyond a quick Google search. The original story about King Midas would have taken place in Asia in what’s now Turkey.)

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between a young man and young woman.

Spiritual Content
Dionysus cursed Kora’s father so that everything he touched turned to gold. He was told he could reverse the curse by washing everything he’d turned in a river. He only partially completed this task and bears some consequences.
Violent Content
A ruthless pirate called Captain Skulls collects human skulls on his ship. A couple scenes show beheaded bodies. Kora and her friends start a brawl in a tavern to distract their enemies.
Pirates battle Kora’s companions. Some brief descriptions of peril, fighting, and injuries.

Drug Content
Kora and her friends go into a seedy tavern.

Review: Even if the Sky Falls by Mia Garcia

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

Even if the Sky Falls
Mia Garcia
Katherine Tegen Books
Published on May 10, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Even if the Sky Falls
All she needs is one night to be anyone she wants.

Julie is desperate for a change. So she heads to New Orleans with her youth group to rebuild houses and pretend her life isn’t a total mess. But between her super-clingy team leader and her way-too-chipper companions, Julie feels more trapped than ever.

In a moment of daring, she ditches her work clothes for DIY fairy wings and heads straight into the heart of Mid-Summer Mardi Gras, where she locks eyes with Miles, an utterly irresistible guy with a complicated story of his own. And for once, Julie isn’t looking back. She jumps at the chance to see the real New Orleans, and in one surreal night, they dance under the stars, share their most shameful secrets, and fall in love.

But their adventure takes an unexpected turn when an oncoming hurricane changes course. As the storm gains power and Julie is pulled back into chaos she finds pretending everything is fine is no longer an option.

My Review
I’m a little torn in how I feel about this book. On the one hand, Julie’s story drew me in immediately. Obviously she’s recovering from something intense, but we don’t learn right away what’s happened to wreck her so deeply.

Then she gets this opportunity to escape her past completely for a little while. I loved the characters in the band she meets and especially Miles. It only took like half a second for me to start hoping Miles and Julie would get together.

The hurricane descriptions were pretty wild. As a Floridian, I’ve weathered several storms. I’m not sure I buy that so much happened from a Category 2 storm, but I’m sure it depends on a lot of factors, like which side of the storm hit them and that sort of thing. Certainly no matter what category it is, being outside in a hurricane is really dangerous!

What I really struggled with, though, is the ending. The romance gets resolved, and that was great. But all the way along Julie flashes back to what happened at home before the mission trip, and I think I wanted those two worlds to collide more completely. I was hoping her family or her brother would make an appearance at the end and we’d know she’d turned a corner even in her ability to deal with things at home. Not that everything had to be fixed, just some kind of scene tying things together.

Other than that, I’m glad I read it. I hate that Julie had such a bad experience on her mission trip, because I have such fun memories of my own trips. But considering what was going on in her life, it made perfect sense that she would feel alienated and unable to connect with the enthusiasm of the rest of the group.

The descriptions of New Orleans were fun and vivid – I felt like I was there, and I’ve been craving beignets since reading about them. Yum!

Even if the Sky Falls is a great pick for fans of The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith or Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett.Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Julie is Latina and talks about visiting relatives in Puerto Rico.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent use of extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl. At one point a boy and girl go swimming in their underwear. References to sex. One scene shows some nudity and lets us know the characters have had sex without any graphic details.

Julie’s mission leader clearly wants a relationship with her. He’s clingy and clearly makes her uncomfortable, since he seems willfully blind to her “no” signals. He doesn’t assault her or anything like that, but he does make her feel gross.

Spiritual Content
Julie’s family is Catholic and she’s on a mission trip with a church group, but it’s clear she has a lot of doubts in terms of her own faith. She’s bitter and depressed and feels like the church people don’t understand her and are too happy-happy.

Violent Content
Someone tries to choke Julie. She escapes.

The storm beats Julie and her friend up pretty badly. There’s one scene where they battle the elements, and things look pretty grim. Some details about injuries. It’s definitely a perilous situation.

Drug Content
Julie and her companion drink beer at a party and later share a bottle of wine.

Review: Caraval by Stephanie Garber

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

Caraval
Stephanie Garber
Flatiron Books
Published on January 31, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Caraval
Remember, it’s only a game…

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval…beware of getting swept too far away.

My Review

The setting of both the game and Scarlett’s hometown felt very vivid in Caraval. The game itself definitely had a magical quality to it—that was one of my favorite things about the book. I also liked the sense of unspooling mystery. It’s like the story is constantly evolving and anything can happen. Caraval maintains a good balance between this plasticity and magic and having an organized plot where the stakes only get higher with every new revelation in the story.

I found Scarlett and Julian (the sailor who helps her and Tella escape) both super likeable. I wasn’t sure at first that I would like either of them. In the beginning, Scarlett is such a fraidy cat and so committed to her planned marriage that I kind of felt put off. But as she learns to unbend and find her way through a game based on her greatest fears (big risks and her sister missing), I grew to love her and respect her. By the end, not only did I want her to win the game, but I was totally rooting for the romance to have a happily ever after, too.

The story is a bit dark. The game master is rumored to have some pretty deep revenge issues and seems to have a really cavalier attitude about human life. Some of the magical elements (fortune telling, trading days of one’s life for a desired object) have a darkness to them, too. The epilogue might be the part with the most adult content because of a character being drunk and looking for a one night stand. See below for other content information.

I really enjoyed reading Caraval. I’m a little bit torn about reading the second book, though, because based on the epilogue, it looks like the story will be from another character’s point-of-view. While the plot looks really interesting, I’m not sure I’d enjoy this character’s viewpoint. So I’m not sure yet whether I’ll read the next one.

If you liked Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, make sure to check out Caraval.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Julian has brown skin and dark eyes. The story has some Spanish words for places.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Scarlett refuses to share a room with Julian, so they agree to take turns sleeping in the room they were assigned for the game. They do share the bed one night, but nothing sexual happens and they’re technically dead during that night. Scarlett’s father offers her to a man (intending for her to have sex with him), and she unwillingly goes with him but his attempts at seducing her get thwarted.

Spiritual Content
The players of Caraval warn Scarlett and others that nothing happening inside the game is real, but Scarlett experiences magic in various forms (trading time for a dress, dreams that reveal the past to her, having her fortune read to her.).

Violent Content
One scene shows Scarlett and Tella’s father physically abusing them. (He strikes one girl with his hand so that his rings will cut her face.) Other references to past abuses.

Drug Content
Scarlett looks for her companion in a bar. Scarlett participates in a ritual exchange, giving a drop of her blood, and immediately experiences an altered mental state. One scene shows Tella very drunk and hoping to go to bed with a stranger.