Category Archives: Book Review and Content

Review: Victoria Grace the Jerkface by S. E. Clancy

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,
Victoria Grace the Jerkface

Victoria Grace the Jerkface
S. E. Clancy
WhiteSpark
Published May 15, 2020

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About Victoria Grace the Jerkface

Ever since Tori Weston and MamaBear were abandoned by her dad, finances have been tighter than a new pair of skinny jeans. As if keeping her grades up for scholarships and working every spare moment weren’t enough, Tori gets suckered into visiting a retirement home and paired with ancient resident Marigold Williams. After learning she’s the only one to visit Marigold in decades, Tori becomes a regular at Willow Springs. Besides, someone has to help with her history homework.

Corbin Dallas barges into Tori’s life with a prosthetic leg and a dimple, working his way into her hectic schedule. Though she tries to deny it, there’s something beyond his Texan drawl that gets Tori hoping she’s more than his sidekick. Together, they race to find Marigold’s missing family before she fades away. Tori ditches her soul-sucking job, along with her dreams of having a paint-peeled clunker to call her own, in order to help her friend one last time.

My Review

It took me a bit to get into this book, but by the end, I had laughed and cried right along with the characters.

Tori is kind of grumpy. Sometimes it can be cute, but especially at the beginning, she just seemed to complain about everything. I love her relationship with her mom, who’s a police officer. The things they talk about and their text message exchanges felt authentic and really endeared Tori to me.

I also love Marigold. She’s classy and sharp and really brings out the best in Tori. That relationship and its effect on Tori really made the whole book, for me. When I was in high school, I visited and befriended a woman in a nursing home, so in some ways, it reminded me of that, and made me miss her all over again.

There were a couple things I found problematic, though. One is that at one point, Tori and Marigold discuss the Japanese Internment camps in the US during World War II, which is where many of Marigold’s family members died. Tori makes a comment, like, “how horrible,” and Marigold responds with something like, “not really, no,” and goes on to defend the US for imprisoning Japanese citizens– it was a time of fear, Japanese soldiers had killed Americans, etc. I felt shocked, if I’m honest. It’s the only time anything like that happens (which doesn’t make it okay), and later when Tori learns more about the internment camps, she’s horrified and disturbed about it.

Later in the story, Tori’s love interest does something really out of character and then basically chalks it up to being inexperienced with girls, and she immediately forgives him. I had a hard time buying into that– both his misstep and the speed with which she forgives him. She’s got a history of men betraying her, so it seemed like this would take a lot more to get past.

On the whole, I enjoyed some things about the book, especially Tori’s relationships with her mom and Marigold, and the way her relationship with Marigold impacts her life.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Victoria befriends an elderly woman whose mother was Japanese. Her friend Corbin has a prosthetic leg.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple crude references to bodily functions.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
References to attending church and behaving in a Christian way.

Violent Content
References to the Japanese Internment camps in the US during World War II. References to wounded soldiers in hospitals where supplies and staff have run short during World War II, when Marigold was young.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: The Bone Thief by Breeana Shields

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

The Bone Thief (The Bone Charmer #2)
Breeana Shields
Page Street Kids
Published May 26, 2020

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About The Bone Thief

A deft exploration of the weight of grief and cost of revenge, Breeana Shields’s Bone Charmer duology reaches its spine-tingling conclusion in this high-octane fantasy-thriller.

Saskia returns to Ivory Hall to train in bone magic, determined to stop Latham from gaining the power of all three Sights—past, present, and future. But danger lurks within the fortress’s marrow. Trials are underway for the apprentices, and the tasks feel specifically engineered to torment Saskia, which is exactly what Latham wants.

As she grows increasingly more suspicious, her thirst for revenge becomes all-consuming. Together with the friends she can trust and the boy she loved in another lifetime, Saskia traces clues from Latham’s past to determine what he’ll do next. Their search leads them across Kastelia and brings them to a workshop housing a vast collection of horrors, including the bones Latham stole from Gran, and the knowledge that the future isn’t all that’s in jeopardy—but the past as well.

My Review

I have lots of feelings about this book. First, I loved the characters. Saskia and her friends are all great, and I loved following their stories. The choices that Saskia has to make were heartbreaking and I felt myself holding my breath so many times as she wrestled with which path to take and what the right thing truly was.

I’m a latecomer to this duology– I haven’t read the first book. I do this fairly often, and I don’t mind it. Occasionally the story is such that you really need to read the first book first. I could tell with THE BONE THIEF that there were references to things from the first book, but for the most part, I didn’t have trouble following the story or understanding what was happening. I think I’d have had a more emotional connection with Saskia’s memories if I’d read the first book, though. I felt deeply connected with her in this book, so I didn’t feel the loss as I read.

The one thing that I found challenging for me was that most of the bone magic centers around human bones. Who had possession of them and how they were used was really important. Saskia carries one of her grandmother’s bones with her through the story and is searching for her mother’s bones. It’s all very natural within the story world, but if I’m totally honest, every time something came up about using human bones for things, I felt my body physically recoil from the idea. I just found some of the traditions and magic rules in the story world to be really creepy and struggled to get past that. It’s totally a personal preference and not a reflection on the writing or storytelling, both of which I really enjoyed.

It’s definitely dark fantasy– I think fans of SHADOW MAGIC by Joshua Khan will really enjoy THE BONE THIEF.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
I don’t remember any prominent racial details.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Lots of magic involving the use of human bones, including their use to predict the future or access private memories of the past.

Violent Content
References to and brief scenes involving torture. At one point, someone has to break Saskia’s arm to complete a puzzle. Situations of peril. Magic battles to the death.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

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

The Henna Wars
Adiba Jaigirdar
Page Street Kids
Published on May 12, 2020

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About The Henna Wars

WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI meets SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA in this rom com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses.

When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.

Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.

My Review

I think this is my favorite f/f romance that I’ve read so far. I love the relationship between Nishat and her sister Priti. I’m a huge fan of sister books and sister relationships in books, so theirs was an easy win for me. It felt so much like my relationship with my sister in school– that tug-of-war between needing each other and needing to do things on your own or needing to find your own way.

If I struggled with anything (big IF!) it was feeling like Flávia didn’t deserve Nishat. The heart wants what it wants, but sometimes I struggle with a book where someone is in love with someone who just doesn’t seem worthy of them. As the story went on, however, it became clear that there was more to Flávia than I originally gave her credit for, and ultimately, she won me over.

I also loved the evolution of Nishat’s relationships with her parents. It obviously wasn’t an easy journey, and I don’t want to give anything more away. But there were some great moments there for me, too. (My favorite was her mom’s comment about someone being pansexual, but the way she said it sounded like someone who was in romantic love with paan. I definitely laughed out loud at that!)

On the whole, HENNA WARS was exactly the book I needed right when I read it. It’s funny and heartwarming (and at times, heartbreaking) and packed with the high of first love and the strength of a sister bond.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Nishat and her family are Bengali. Flávia is Brazilian and Irish. They all live in Ireland.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
Some references to Muslim faith and beliefs.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning
Some instances of bullying. Someone sends a hateful text message outing a lesbian. Some property destruction as bullying and references to cruel comments. When other girls find out that one character is a lesbian, they refuse to change in the locker room with her. There aren’t any descriptions of events when anyone directly attacks the bullying victim (which doesn’t make any of the things that happen better or okay, just thinking in terms of triggers).

Drug Content
References to alcohol at a teen party.

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

Review: The Elephant’s Girl by Celesta Rimington

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

The Elephant’s Girl
Celesta Rimington
Crown Books for Young Readers
Published May 19, 2020

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About The Elephant’s Girl

An elephant never forgets…but Lexington Willow can’t remember her past. When she was a toddler, a tornado swept her away from everyone and everything she knew and landed her near an enclosure in a Nebraska zoo, where an elephant named Nyah protected her from the storm. With no trace of her family, Lex grew up at the zoo with her foster father, Roger; her best friend, Fisher; and the wind whispering in her ear.

Now that she’s twelve, Lex is finally old enough to help with the elephants. But during their first training session, Nyah sends her a telepathic image of the woods outside the zoo. Despite the wind’s protests, Lex decides to investigate Nyah’s message and gets wrapped up in an adventure involving ghosts, lost treasure, and a puzzle that might be the key to finding her family. Can Lex summon the courage to hunt for who she really is–and why the tornado brought her here all those years ago?

My Review

I think magical realism is one of the toughest genres to write well, because there’s always the risk that instead of seeing magic, a reader will see something else– hallucinations? Inconsistent plot or world?

Lex has a special relationship with the elephant Nyah, who protected her after the tornado left her at the zoo. Nyah sends her messages– pictures in her mind– and Lex tries to send pictures back.

Ever since the tornado, Lex has been able to hear the wind speaking to her, too. This was the most difficult element in the story for me to get into. I liked that it gave voice to Lex’s fears, making them a sort of personified antagonist. I wondered if it diluted the power of Nyah being able to speak to her, though.

I loved Lex’s relationship with Roger and her best friend, Fisher– all of her zoo family, really, but especially those two. As Lex tries to help Nyah find her family, it makes her examine her feelings about living with Roger at the zoo, too. He’s patient and clearly loves her, though he never pushes her to accept him as family. She also learns a lot through her friendship with Fisher, who is really different than she is. He’s outgoing and loves baseball. She learns how to be a good friend to him even when it means stepping out of her comfort zone or doing things for him.

On the whole, I thought this book was a really sweet story about found families. I liked the characters and the relationships between them. If you liked FLORA & ULYSSES by Kate DiCamillo, you’ll want to check out THE ELEPHANT’S GIRL.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Fisher’s grandmother is from Thailand.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Lex meets a ghost and promises to help her solve a mystery so she can move on.

Violent Content
Situation of peril and some descriptions of a tornado.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of THE ELEPHANT’S GIRL in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: Queer: the Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teenagers by Kathy Belge and Marke Bieschke

Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, , , , , , , ,

Queer: the Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teenagers (2nd Edition)
Kathy Belge and Marke Bieschke
Zest Books
Published October 1, 2019

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About Queer: the Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teenagers (2nd Edition)

Teen life is hard enough with all of the pressures kids face, but for teens who are LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender), it’s even harder. When do you decide to come out? To whom? Will your friends accept you? And how on earth do you meet people to date?

Updated in 2018, Queer is a humorous, engaging, and honest guide that helps LGBT teens come out to friends and family, navigate their new LGBT social life, figure out if a crush is also queer, and rise up against bigotry and homophobia.

Queer also includes personal stories from the authors and sidebars on queer history. This updated and revised edition is a must-read for any teen who thinks they might be queer – or knows someone who is.

My Review

QUEER has a lot of personal stories from the authors about experiences they had that they learned from– either because they went well or badly. The authors are frank, funny, and warm. The overall message is that if you’re a person looking to better understand yourself, you’re not alone. Being comfortable in your own skin and learning to have healthy relationships part of a lifelong journey, and there are lots of great tips in the book on those things.

The book offers suggestions on topics like how to come out to your family, how to approach a crush and find out if they might be interested in you. I thought those tips in particular were great. The advice is practical and simple.

There were a couple of things that I wish QUEER had gone into more depth about. The great majority of the text refers to gay and lesbian issues– perhaps because those are the authors’ experiences? There are some moments where bisexual or transgender issues get a focus, but they don’t get the same focus or depth. Asexuality is mentioned only briefly as well, and again, I wish there had been more information about the spectrum of asexuality.

I would have especially liked to see tips and suggestions for how to come out to family members as nonbinary, asexual, or transgender. (There’s a mention of coming out as transgender in the chapter on coming out, but I wish there had been more, because it’s not the same as coming out as gay or lesbian.)

QUEER focuses on support and validation, so it’s a very permissive book. There’s no judgment toward non-monogamous relationships or one night stands. It leaves readers (and encourages them) to decide on moral values and relationship rules for themselves and with their partners.

One of the really great assets of this book is the resource section, which lists support websites for LGBT teens and sites that will help you connect to supportive groups and organizations in your area, including how to find religious organizations that are friendly to members of the LGBT community. I love that section and am anxious to explore more of those resources.

Overall, I think QUEER is warm and engaging, and a great resource particularly for lesbian and gay teens and support communities.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Written by and intended for members of the LGBT community.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief personal stories about romance (with hints at sex but not graphic descriptions). Some references to sexual acts.

Spiritual Content
The resources section lists ways to find religious groups that are friendly to the LGBT community.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of QUEER: THE ULTIMATE LGBTQ GUIDE FOR TEENAGERS (2nd Edition) in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Poisoned Water by Candy J. Cooper and Marc Arsonson

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

Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation
Candy J. Cooper and Marc Aronson
Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Published May 19, 2020

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About Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation

Based on original reporting by a Pulitzer Prize finalist and an industry veteran, the first book for young adults about the Flint water crisis.

In 2014, Flint, Michigan, was a cash-strapped city that had been built up, then abandoned by General Motors. As part of a plan to save money, government officials decided that Flint would temporarily switch its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Within months, many residents broke out in rashes. Then it got worse: children stopped growing. Some people were hospitalized with mysterious illnesses; others died. Citizens of Flint protested that the water was dangerous. Despite what seemed so apparent from the murky, foul-smelling liquid pouring from the city’s faucets, officials refused to listen. They treated the people of Flint as the problem, not the water, which was actually poisoning thousands.

Through interviews with residents and intensive research into legal records and news accounts, journalist Candy J. Cooper, assisted by writer-editor Marc Aronson, reveals the true story of Flint. Poisoned Water shows not just how the crisis unfolded in 2014, but also the history of racism and segregation that led up to it, the beliefs and attitudes that fueled it, and how the people of Flint fought-and are still fighting-for clean water and healthy lives.

My Review

I didn’t know much about what happened in Flint, Michigan with the water crisis. I remembered hearing something about lead in the pipes and seeing shocking footage of a resident turning on her tap and brown, gross water coming out of it. But that was about the extent of my knowledge.

Then I read POISONED WATER. And I kept thinking, this is happening in my country. I kept waiting for some leader somewhere within the government to take a stand for the rights of the citizens. For their children. Because having access to clean drinking water is such a basic human right that until reading this book, I had taken it completely for granted.

As the residents organized and raised alarm bells and continued to report problems, I kept thinking, surely this time it will bring about some change.

I can’t help admiring the citizens who continued to speak out, kept making phone calls, persisted in reaching out to anyone who would listen. The author makes it clear that those are the real heroes in the story of Flint.

I think this is a must-read book for teens and adults. It’s really accessible and straightforward, easy to read, but in no way dumbed-down. It’s packed with personal stories, facts, timelines, and references to other resources. I highly recommend POISONED WATER.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The author is white. The text contains many personal stories of people of color who make up the majority of the population of Flint.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used a couple times.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
References to church and religious organizations. Pastors played a significant role in organizing the citizens and protesting.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

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