Review: Spin Me Right Round by David Valdes

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Spin Me Right Round by David Valdes

Spin Me Right Round
David Valdes
Bloomsbury YA
Published December 7, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Spin Me Right Round

From lauded writer David Valdes, a sharp and funny YA novel that’s Back to the Future with a twist, as a gay teen travels back to his parents’ era to save a closeted classmate’s life.

All Luis Gonzalez wants is to go to prom with his boyfriend, something his “progressive” school still doesn’t allow. Not after what happened with Chaz Wilson. But that was ages ago, when Luis’s parents were in high school; it would never happen today, right? He’s determined to find a way to give his LGBTQ friends the respect they deserve (while also not risking his chance to be prom king, just saying…).

When a hit on the head knocks him back in time to 1985 and he meets the doomed young Chaz himself, Luis concocts a new plan-he’s going to give this guy his first real kiss. Though it turns out a conservative school in the ’80s isn’t the safest place to be a gay kid. Especially with homophobes running the campus, including Gordo (aka Luis’s estranged father). Luis is in over his head, trying not to make things worse-and hoping he makes it back to present day at all.

In a story that’s fresh, intersectional, and wickedly funny, David Valdes introduces a big-mouthed, big-hearted queer character that readers won’t soon forget.

My Review

Though it explores some heavy issues, SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND was a really fun story to read. I loved Luis’s indomitable personality and his ability to charm for days. Even though I felt like he has a tendency to go on about how pleased he is with himself, he also showed vulnerability in exactly the right places and absolutely had me cheering for him. I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat at all the right moments.

The whole Back to the Future, 80s vibe of the book was a lot of fun, too! I loved the celebration of the 80s in all its weird, glorious splendor. I loved the way music was included in the story. More than that, I found myself really drawn in to the way Luis’s life in his present-day and his struggles for acceptance and equality were contrasted against the prejudice and danger the students at his school in the 80s faced. I loved the way that experience impacted him, too.

On the whole, I’m really glad I read this book. There’s so much to enjoy here, and though it’s got some dark moments (trigger warning for homophobia), it’s a beautiful triumph celebrating finding the courage to be your true self and how those choices can impact others for the better.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Luis is gay and Latino. His best friend is nonbinary. Other minor characters are gay, too.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity and homophobic slurs. There are also some instances of crude humor.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boys. References to an affair between a teacher and a student. References to sex.

Spiritual Content
Luis time travels back to the 80s where he attends a Christian school. At that time, being gay is referred to as a sin. Other behaviors, like lying or hateful behavior toward others, are labeled as sins, too.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning for Homophobic Slurs and Homophobic Violence
The F slur is used several times in reference to Luis and another gay boy. Luis learns of a gay boy’s death that’s ruled a suicide, but which he thinks was actually murder. A group of boys hit two other boys with rocks and threaten to further hurt or kill them.

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 SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Spell Sweeper by Lee Edward Födi

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Spell Sweeper
Lee Edward Födi
HarperCollins
Published November 30, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Spell Sweeper

Magic is messy. A standalone middle grade fantasy featuring a failed young wizard and her chaotically fun cleanup crew.

Cara Moone is a wizard—and she’s basically flunked out of wizard school. Now she’s in training to be a MOP, a.k.a. Magical Occurrence Purger, a.k.a. it’s Cara’s job to sweep up the hazardous dust a real wizard’s spells leave behind.

A real wizard, that is, like Harlee Wu, the so-called “Chosen One” destined to save the magical world. But when one of Harlee’s spells goes awry and leaves behind a rift in the fabric of magic itself, it’ll take more than magic to clean up that mess. Luckily, messes are kind of Cara’s thing.

My Review

I feel like snarky books can be kind of a risk for me, because sometimes I love the quirkiness and confidence of the main character, and other times it kind of grates on my nerves and seems like the character can never be happy with anything. This book packs a lot of snark, but it brings an awful lot of fun, too, so I felt like the upbeat, quirky fun elements created the perfect balance.

I enjoyed the way the relationships developed and watching Cara learn new things about the magical world in which she lives as well as her journey toward finding her place in it. I really liked the idea that certain types of magic leave behind a residue that has to be cleaned by specialists like Cara. I’ve never seen anything like that before, and I loved that at the end of the story, there’s a note from the author about his family member who made his own brooms, too. How cool to be able to bring something so personal to life in a fantasy novel. I loved that it was part of the inspiration.

To be honest, I’m a little bit sad that SPELL SWEEPER is a standalone! I would definitely read another book about Cara, Harlee, Gusto and their friends. I feel like readers looking for stories about schools for wizard students will love this fresh, fun book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
There’s a magical hierarchy at Cara’s school. Wizards get additional privileges and access to certain coursework that Cara, as a Spell Sweeper, doesn’t get.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
There are some made up swears, like “dratch”.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic or can use objects to perform magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril.

Drug Content
Some teen characters vape or smoke cigarettes.

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 SPELL SWEEPER in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

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Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2)
Leigh Bardugo
Orion Children’s Books
March 30, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Rule of Wolves

The Demon King. As Fjerda’s massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm—and even the monster within—to win this fight. But a dark threat looms that cannot be defeated by a young king’s gift for the impossible.

The Stormwitch. Zoya Nazyalensky has lost too much to war. She saw her mentor die and her worst enemy resurrected, and she refuses to bury another friend. Now duty demands she embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs. No matter the cost.

The Queen of Mourning. Deep undercover, Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital. But her desire for revenge may cost her country its chance at freedom and Nina the chance to heal her grieving heart.

King. General. Spy. Together they must find a way to forge a future in the darkness. Or watch a nation fall.

My Review

It took me SO long to finish reading this book! I think because it’s the last book in the King of Scars duology, AND it’s the last book set in the Grisha universe, which means it feels like the end in a lot of big ways. I think I wasn’t ready for it to be over.

I’ve heard a lot of mixed feelings about both KING OF SCARS and RULE OF WOLVES. Zoya wasn’t my favorite character from the Shadow and Bone trilogy, so I was not really invested in reading more of her story. And Nina was maybe the character I was least invested in from SIX OF CROWS. Nikolai was absolutely my favorite character from the Shadow and Bone books, though, so I was in it for his story for sure. As I read, I came to invest in Zoya and Nina’s parts of the tale, too.

I love that this book continues that big, sweeping feeling that the other books had. I love that it builds on all that we knew about the saints and Nina’s plan to change Fjerda’s perception of the Grisha through recognition of saints.

Most of all, I love that the book wrapped up some plot elements and relationships that I was really invested in. I was surprised by some of the things that happened, for sure. But I definitely came away satisfied and loving that I’d made the time to read this mammoth book. (It’s almost 600 pages!)

On the whole, I think readers of the Grisha books will not be able to miss this one. SIX OF CROWS is still my favorite, but this duology, KING OF SCARS and RULE OF WOLVES are ranked just behind it as my next favorites.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Nina is pansexual. One minor character is transgender. Zoya is Suli, a race of travelers who are not given equal status or treatment in Ravka.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl, two girls, and a trans boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
In Ravka, the people worship the saints, Grisha who did remarkable deeds and were martyred. In Fjerda, they worship the god Djel and believe the Grisha are witches who must be executed.

Violent Content
Multiple scenes showing battle violence, situations of peril, and some graphic descriptions of death.

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 RULE OF WOLVES in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell
Kate Brauning
Page Street Publishing
Published November 23, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell

Seventeen-year-old Dinah runs her family’s farm in the Ozarks. When she finds her grief-stricken mother dead in the living room with wealthy rancher Gabriel Gates standing over her, Dinah’s life narrows to a single point: kill Gabriel Gates.

But Gates has built his wealth giving out bad loans and surrounds himself with bodyguards. Dinah’s mountains are now one giant foreclosure, including her own farm. It all belongs to him. Once he puts a ten-thousand-dollar reward on Dinah’s head, everyone in the starving county wants a piece of her.

Homeless and alone in the woods, all she has is Johnny, the moonshining bootlegger at home in the caves. He begs her to leave the mountains, to start over with a new life. But Dinah is hell-bent on sparking a county revolution. She’ll lose her life to see this killer dead.

My Review

From the very beginning, I was totally invested in this book. It has this gritty, gripping writing style that I absolutely love. And I love Dinah as a character. I loved watching her grow and figure out how to be on her own and what she wanted for her life.

The last few chapters were a bit rough for me, if I’m honest. I still love the book, but there were some things that happened differently than I hoped for, and I think that kind of meant that it ended on a bit of a down note for me. I’m still thinking about it, though, days after I’ve read it, which always means it’s a book that meant a lot to me to read and that I enjoyed reading, even if it ended differently than I expected.

On the whole, I liked the gritty feel of Dinah’s town and the connections between people. I loved her as a character. I think readers who like raw, post-apocalyptic types of books will like a lot of things about THE BALLAD OF DINAH CALDWELL.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Dinah is pansexual. Her best friend is Latina. Another character has two dads. Several characters are in a polyamorous relationship.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Kissing between two girls. There’s one long, descriptive scene of having sex.

Spiritual Content
Dinah doesn’t believe in any god. She believes she has deity inside herself.

Violent Content
Several scenes show graphic violence. Some descriptions are pretty gory.

Drug Content
A few characters make and run Moonshine. One man offers Dinah Moonshine to drink. She sips some but doesn’t finish her drink. A child drinks with her.

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 BALLAD OF DINAH CALDWELL in exchange for my honest review.

Review: King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

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King of Scars (King of Scars #1)
Leigh Bardugo
Imprint
Published on January 29, 2019

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About King of Scars

The dashing young king, Nikolai Lantsov, has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war–and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, Nikolai must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha general, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried–and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.

My Review

Okay. So. I went into this book with some big reservations. When I read SHADOW AND BONE, I was pretty solidly team Alina and Nikolai, so I kind of never got over the fact that they didn’t end up together. I also really didn’t feel like I had a deep connection to or understanding of Zoya, so I wasn’t sure how to feel about reading her perspective. I was looking forward to reading more of Nina’s story, but also not sure I was ready for the wall of grief she’d be experiencing.

So that’s where I was when I picked up the book. It took me a while to get into Zoya’s character. I’m kind of a fool for witty banter, so the back-and-forth between her and Nikolai or her and other members of their team definitely drew me in. Her backstory also deepened her a LOT.

That last quarter of the book, though. Like, I was enjoying reading and getting more into the story all the way through, but once I got to that last 25%, I was definitely hooked. The stakes went up SO much. Zoya and the dragon. Just. Wow. Nina and her plot to change the game in Fyerda. So amazing.

So yep. I pretty much went from finishing the last page of KING OF SCARS to immediately opening up to the first page of RULE OF WOLVES because now I need to see where this ultimately goes. I’m calling that a win.

I think the SIX OF CROWS duology is still my favorite of the Grisha books, but this one is a very close second.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Nina is bisexual.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. A soldier makes a comment that a girl looks like she’d be fun in bed. Nina admires another woman’s beauty in a romantic way.

Spiritual Content
References and some deference to the Fjerdan god, Djel. In Ravka, the people mainly worship saints. There’s some exploration of what it means to be a saint and who should qualify for sainthood.

Violent Content
A horse nearly tramples a soldier, injuring her head. Poison and drug addiction cause injury and death. Some scenes show battle violence. An assassin kills someone and injures someone else. An army of the dead attack a group of soldiers and others.

Drug Content
A highly addictive drug called Jurda Parem changes a Grisha’s power (it’s fatal to non-Grisha) and causes immediate, intense addiction. Nina has taken it before in a dire situation and now carries a sensitivity to it. Nikolai has a team studying the drug looking for a cure or a form that enhances power without creating an addiction.

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

Review: Girl, Unstrung by Claire Handscombe

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

Girl, Unstrung
Claire Handscombe
Published November 23, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Girl, Unstrung

You might think it’s fun to grow up around Hollywood with semi-famous parents.

You’d be wrong, and Clara Cassidy would be the first to tell you so.

She’s fourteen, figuring out life with three siblings and a new stepmom, and navigating her freshman year at a stupid high school where she doesn’t even want to be. She was supposed to be at arts school by now.

It’s fine, though, totally fine: she’s going to practice her viola extra hard and get into LACHSA next year. She’s definitely 100 percent focused and not even slightly going to get distracted by Tim, the sophomore Scrabble champion with the swoopy hair and the chin dimple. Nope. Not her.

My Review

I liked a lot of things about GIRL, UNSTRUNG, but I feel like overall my review is going to be mixed.

One of the elements I loved were Clara’s relationships with her family members, especially her stepmom, Ebba. It’s complicated, emotional, and I felt like Clara actually grew the most as a person in the context of that relationship. It felt really real and rich to me.

I found myself wishing that she experienced similar development in her other relationships, though. Clara tended to be highly critical, and while that totally tracked for an overachieving musician, I felt like there were some points where her behavior became toxic. I found myself wanting those moments to be addressed in more than a passing way.

In the story, Clara lists her age as fourteen and a half, but she seemed older than that. It made me wonder about the decision to set her age there instead of bumping her up to fifteen.

That said, I appreciate that this book steps into the sort of dead zone between middle grade and young adult fiction. There are a few books with main characters at fourteen, but not tons. I think the book just felt a little bit divided to me on which age group it belongs in. The family relationships and pursuit of music as well as the first crush elements felt more like upper middle grade. But the obsession with sexy underwear and when to have sex felt more like themes you’d see in young adult lit.

Conclusion

I did really enjoy the descriptions of Clara’s passion for music and her ability, and her foray into the world of competitive Scrabble.

Like I said, I liked a lot of things in the book, but overall, kind of a mixed bag for me. I think readers who enjoy stories about musicians or blended families could find a lot to love here.

Content Notes for Girl Unstrung

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Clara is super interested in having a boy kiss her. She shops for sexy underwear and discusses how far she’d be comfortable going with a boy with one of her friends. A friend relates her own experience making out with her boyfriend with no shirts or bra.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some stories of devastating injuries.

Drug Content
Clara sneaks into her parents’ bathroom and grabs a Percocet from her stepmother’s prescription bottle.

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 GIRL, UNSTRUNG in exchange for my honest review.

I loved some of the characters and relationships but struggled with other parts.