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Review: Greenwild: The World Behind the Door by Pari Thomson

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,
Greenwild: The World Behind the Door by Pari Thompson cover shows a girl in overalls, a long braid over her shoulder. A black and white cat sits on her shoulder. She holds a glowing ball in her right hand. A glowing doorway is behind her.

Greenwild: The World Behind the Door
Pari Thomson
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Published June 6, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Greenwild: The World Behind the Door

Open the door to a spellbinding world where the wilderness is alive and a deep magic rises from the earth itself . . .

Eleven-year-old Daisy Thistledown is on the run. Her mother has been keeping big, glittering secrets, and now she has vanished. Daisy knows it’s up to her to find Ma―but someone is hunting her across London. Someone determined to stop her from discovering the truth.

So when Daisy flees to safety through a mysterious hidden doorway, she can barely believe her eyes―she has stepped out of the city and into another world.

This is the Greenwild. Bursting with magic and full of amazing natural wonders, it seems too astonishing to be true. But not only is this land of green magic real, it holds the key to finding Daisy’s mother.

And someone wants to destroy it.

Daisy must band together with a botanical genius, a boy who can talk with animals, and a cat with an attitude to uncover the truth about who she really is. Only then can she channel the power that will change her whole world . . . and save the Greenwild itself.

My Review

One of my favorite middle grade series is the Storm Keeper series by Catherine Doyle. Since I read that series, I’ve been hoping to find something new that hits some of the same notes that I loved about those books. A magical adventure, really cool friendships, an urgent quest, and optional time travel/interesting use of a timeline. GREENWILD definitely hit those notes for me.

To start with, I immediately liked Daisy as a character. She’s in awe of her mom but also recognizes that she has some flaws. She’s determined, and loyal.

Also, this book has a cat! Napoleon, a cat who shows up very early in the book, becomes a constant companion/protector for Daisy, pointing her down the right path when she gets lost or taking on the bad guys when she’s in trouble. It’s so sweet. I loved that so much.

Another thing I think GREENWILD does really well is the way that it uses events that happen seemingly just in passing to help Daisy piece together the solutions she needs to confront the bad guys.

I mentioned already that there’s a way in which the book plays with its timeline, and I don’t want to spoil anything where that’s concerned other than to say that it was one of my favorite parts. I absolutely bawled when it’s revealed how that part connects to the larger story.

So, yep. I think this is gonna be one of my favorites for this year. If you love portal fantasies or magical adventures with a timeline/time travel subplot, definitely check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Daisy’s mother was born in Iran. Her dad is white. A minor character has two dads.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform green magic– magic involving plants.

Violent Content
Daisy overhears a couple of adults saying harsh/cruel things to children. Situations of peril. A man kills a parrot by slamming his fist down on it. Some characters die in a battle scene. (No graphic descriptions of injuries.)

Drug Content
None.

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

Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays

Check out other blogs posting about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story by Sarah Myer

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Memoir, Nonfiction, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , ,

Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story
Sarah Myer
First Second
Published June 27, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Monstrous

A poignant young adult graphic memoir about a Korean-American girl who uses fandom and art-making to overcome racist bullying. Perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and Almost American Girl!

Sarah has always struggled to fit in. Born in South Korea and adopted at birth by a white couple, she grows up in a rural community with few Asian neighbors. People whisper in the supermarket. Classmates bully her. She has trouble containing her anger in these moments―but through it all, she has her art. She’s always been a compulsive drawer, and when she discovers anime, her hobby becomes an obsession.

Though drawing and cosplay offer her an escape, she still struggles to connect with others. And in high school, the bullies are louder and meaner. Sarah’s bubbling rage is threatening to burst.

My Review

I loved this memoir, though parts of it were heartbreaking to read. No one should be treated the way the author was. The descriptions of early childhood and particularly the difficulty of telling the difference between anxiety and having a wild imagination made so much sense to me. I think back in the 80s and 90s in particular, we didn’t talk about fear and worry in terms of mental health. It was viewed more as personal quirkiness maybe? I definitely grew up thinking that a lot of my own struggles with anxiety were simply my overactive imagination. So reading about Sarah’s experience with that was both sad and very validating.

I think what’s truly brilliant about this book is the way that Myer uses concrete visual storytelling to tell the story of a really abstract idea. Because ultimately what the book is about is the journey Sarah takes to learn self-love and peace. I love that art is such a huge part of that story– the fact that the artist is telling their own story through art adds a whole extra layer to the message, too. Because not only has Sarah learned self-love through art, they’ve also found a way to use art to share their story and welcome others into an exploration of self-love, too.

I also love the relationships in the book and the way that each character in Sarah’s family isn’t perfect, but it’s clear that there’s love between them.

This is a great book for anyone struggling with anger, anxiety, or bullying.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Sarah and her sister are Korean American, adopted by white parents.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently. Racial and homophobic slurs used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Infrequent use of homophobic slurs. Sarah wonders about a couple of past friendships and whether those were also crushes.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some scenes include racist comments and stereotypes. Others bully Sarah. She sometimes reacts by name-calling or hitting them.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking beer.

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

Review: The Shadow Sister by Lily Meade

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

The Shadow Sister
Lily Meade
Sourcebooks Fire
Published June 27, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Shadow Sister

Sutton going missing is the worst thing to happen to Casey, to their family. She’s trying to help find her sister, but Casey is furious. And she can’t tell anyone about their argument before Sutton disappeared. Everyone paints a picture of Sutton’s perfection: the popular cheerleader with an entourage of friends, a doting boyfriend, and a limitless future. But Sutton manipulated everyone around her, even stole an heirloom bracelet from Casey. People don’t look for missing Black girls–or half-Black girls–without believing there is an angel to be saved.

When Sutton reappears, Casey knows she should be relieved. Except Sutton isn’t the same. She remembers nothing about while she was gone—or anything from her old life, including how she made Casey miserable. There’s something unsettling about the way she wants to spend time with Casey, the way she hums and watches her goldfish swim for hours.

What happened to Sutton? The more Casey starts uncovering her sister’s secrets, the more questions she has. Did she really know her sister? Why is no one talking about the other girls who have gone missing in their area? And what will it take to uncover the truth?

My Review

I love sister stories. I also love being part of the readership who discover a fantastic debut novel by an author who is sure to become a new favorite. It’s even better when those two things appear in the very same book.

First, let me say that the characters in this book are rich and layered. What they believe to be true isn’t always objectively true (happens to us all). I feel like writing a character who both comes across as genuine and genuinely wrong is really challenging, and Lily Meade makes it look absolutely effortless.

The rich themes of family, history, and reclaiming personal power are expertly threaded through the narrative of this book. I loved the way the characters explored family history and relationships. I also loved the elements of magical realism– again, something that I think is not easy to write in a way that feels believable and anchored in the real world. Yet it’s brilliantly done here.

I also really appreciated the author’s note and the care she takes in explaining her connection to some parts of the story. That only deepened my appreciation of the book, and I think added even more to the conversation within the text about intergenerational trauma and reclaiming power.

I’ve been super choosy about which books I’m adding to my shelves lately (my bookshelf runneth over!), but I will definitely be adding this one. I absolutely recommend this story for readers who, like me, love sister books or stories about family and the transformative power of love.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Casey and Sutton are biracial sisters. One minor character is a lesbian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used very sparingly.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Casey and Sutton’s family attends a local church that preaches, as one of the girls puts it, a “condescending prosperity gospel”.

Violent Content
Characters discover the decaying body of a murdered girl. A person admits to murdering someone and attempts to murder someone else.

Drug Content
Police suggest a recently missing girl was using drugs, even though her tests repeatedly show no drug use. An unconscious girl may have been drugged; it’s unclear.

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

Review: Ode to My First Car by Robin Gow

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

Ode to My First Car
Robin Gow
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Published June 20, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Ode to My First Car

By the critically praised author of A Million Quiet Revolutions , this YA contemporary sapphic romance told in verse is about a bisexual teen girl who falls in and out of love over the course of one fateful summer.

It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four.

Trying to pay off the fine from the crash that totals Lars, her beloved car, Claire takes a job at the local nursing home up the street from her house. There she meets Lena, an eighty-eight-year-old lesbian woman who tells her stories about what it was like growing up gay in the 1950s and ’60s.

As Claire spends more time with Lena and grows more confident of her identity, another girl, Pen, comes into the picture, and Claire is caught between two loves–one familiar and well-worn, the other new and untested.

My Review

Last year I read A MILLION QUIET REVOLUTIONS, which is also a novel in verse by Robin Gow. I really enjoyed the epistolary format in which the story is written. ODE TO MY FIRST CAR also has an epistolary feel to it since every poem is addressed to Claire’s first car, which she wrecks just before the story begins.

It felt really easy to understand Claire’s feelings and needs. Even though I didn’t always agree with her, I still totally understood where she was coming from and what led her to conclude certain things. I also really liked her brother and the relationship that develops between them.

Her relationship with Lena was really great, too. I feel like I have seen a lot more stories featuring mentorship lately, whether that comes in the form of a teen having a mentoring relationship with an adult, or a teen having a mentor relationship with an older teen. It’s a cool element to see in books, and those are often some of my favorite relationships. I liked that Lena isn’t a grouchy old lady (though I love the stories about those, too!). She’s a little bit closed up, and obviously has some wounds in her past, but I loved the gentleness in her approach to Claire and in the way Claire kept showing up for her, even though Lena didn’t want to intrude into her life.

All in all, I think I might like this one even better than A MILLION QUIET REVOLUTIONS, but I think they’re both really well done.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Claire is bisexual, but her family doesn’t know. Her best friend Sophie is transgender. Other characters are queer as well.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls. Two girls talk about wanting to have sex and challenge each other to have sex that summer. In one scene, two girls make out in the car, and Claire reports they also have sex (off-scene).

Spiritual Content
Claire is supposed to go to Mass with her family but hasn’t been going. After her car is wrecked, she has to ride with them to church, but she doesn’t enjoy it or feel connected to it in any spiritual way.

Violent Content
Brief descriptions of a car accident. References to homophobic or biphobic comments. One peripheral relationship has a lot of flags for toxic/abusive behavior. Claire doesn’t witness any of that happening, but she hears about it and is worried/unsure of what to do.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , ,

Amari and the Night Brothers (Supernatural Investigations #1)
B. B. Alston
Balzer + Bray
Published January 19, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Amari and the Night Brothers

Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal?

Then Amari discovers a ticking briefcase in her brother’s old closet. A briefcase meant for her eyes only. There was far more to Quinton, it seems, than she ever knew. He’s left her a nomination for a summer tryout at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Amari is certain the answer to finding out what happened to him lies somewhere inside, if only she can get her head around the idea of mermaids, dwarves, yetis and magicians all being real things, something she has to instantly confront when she is given a weredragon as a roommate.

If that all wasn’t enough, every Bureau trainee has a talent enhanced to supernatural levels to help them do their jobs – but Amari is given an illegal ability. As if she needed something else to make her stand out.

With an evil magician threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.

My Review

I remember hearing about this book before it came out, and my calendar was too full to fit in a release date review– which I have since regretted! Finally, I was able to read it, though.

From the very beginning, this book hooked me right in. I felt Amari’s pain at her brother’s disappearance. And her wonder at discovering the supernatural world. I loved the exploration of human rights and equality through the way that people saw her as a magician. As soon as people learned she was a magician, they made assumptions about her values and character. Being a magician wasn’t something she could control, but it also did not dictate her beliefs or her behavior.

There were a few moments in this book that reminded me so much of the movie MEN IN BLACK. When Amari did her training session where she had to identify which monsters/situations were a threat, that reminded me so much of Will Smith’s character’s similar experience in the movie, and I definitely grinned at that.

I really enjoyed the cast of characters, especially Amari’s roommate Elsie and Agents Fiona and Magnus. All in all, this was a really fun book to read, and a great start to the series.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Amari is Black and a born magician. In the supernatural world, being a magician, meaning someone has a high percentage of magic in their blood, is illegal.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
An Irish character says a British swear word a couple times.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Amari has the ability to create illusions. A friend has the ability to manipulate technology with magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Brief battle scenes. Some descriptions of injuries from monsters called hybrids, which are part animal and part human.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Sense and Second-degree Murder by Tirzah Price

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Sense and Second-Degree Murder (Jane Austen Murder Mystery #2)
Tirzah Price
HarperCollins
Published April 5, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Sense and Second-Degree Murder

When eighteen-year-old aspiring scientist Elinor Dashwood discovers her beloved father slumped over the desk of his office study, she knows his death means dire straits for the Dashwood women. To make matters worse, an outdated will entails his estate—including Norland & Company, the private investigation firm where her younger sister Marianne worked as her father’s partner and protégé—to their half-brother and his haughty wife, who waste no time in forcing the Dashwoods out of their home and into a cramped apartment on London’s Barton Street.

But before they go, the Dashwood sisters make a startling discovery that points to foul play, and the killer might be family.

Obviously, the girls must investigate. It could be dangerous; it could ruin their reputations; and most importantly, it won’t bring back their father. But if the Dashwood sisters can combine their talents and bring their father’s murderer to justice, it may bring them all some comfort—and it might even lead to love.

Three of Jane Austen’s classic novels receive a murder mystery makeover in this romantic and thrilling three-book series that’s perfect for fans of THE LADY’S GUIDE TO PETTICOATS AND PIRACY and STALKING JACK THE RIPPER. In SENSE AND SECOND-DEGREE MURDER, aspiring scientist Elinor Dashwood and her sister Marianne, a budding detective, work together to solve the mystery of their father’s murder.

My Review

From the first page, I was excited about the way the author captured the spirit of the characters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. I loved Marianne’s willfulness and passion and Elinor’s keep-it-together practicality. I found it easy to get carried away by the pursuit of the mystery of who murdered their father, especially in the midst of the Dashwoods being forced from their home and struggling to navigate their grief over their father’s sudden death.

The only character that I felt got really shortchanged in the story was Mr. Brandon (Colonel Brandon in the original). He doesn’t play much of a role at all other than as a past client of Marianne and Elinor’s father until late in the story. And even then, he doesn’t really play much of an active role in the story. He’s more of a convenient guy to have around? A good resource for the investigation. A guy who knows how to treat a bullet wound. So that was a bit disappointing, since he’s a favorite character of mine. I can understand why the story was told that way (the murder is really the central plot, not romance), and I like other things about the story enough that it wasn’t a deal breaker for me by any means.

SENSE AND SECOND-DEGREE MURDER is the first book in the Jane Austen Murder Mystery series that I’ve read so far. They definitely don’t have to be read in order, as the only connection that I noticed was a one line reference to the law office in PRIDE AND PREMEDITATION.

All in all, I think this is a clever remix of the classic story, and I loved reading it. I think readers who enjoyed MY LADY JANE or ONE FOR ALL by Lillie Lainoff should absolutely check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Elinor and Marianne believe their father was murdered. Before his death, he and Marianne investigated other murders. One scene shows a building catching fire. A woman shoots someone fleeing the scene.

Drug Content
Several characters use laudanum or similar substances.

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