Fandom and first love collide for Iris on the film set for her grandmother’s famous high-fantasy trilogy.
Unlike the rest of the world, Iris doesn’t care about the famous high-fantasy Elementia books written by M. E. Thorne. So it’s just a little annoying that M. E. Thorne is her grandmother—and that Iris has to deal with the trilogy’s crazy fans.
When Iris gets dropped in Ireland for the movie adaptation, she sees her opportunity: if she can shut down production, the Elementia craze won’t grow any bigger, and she can finally have a normal life. Not even the rascally-cute actor Eamon O’Brien can get in her way.
But the crew’s passion is contagious, and as Iris begins to find herself in the very world she has avoided her whole life, she realizes that this movie might just be amazing…
My Review
Cory McCarthy is one of those authors who makes me want to read everything they write. So far I’ve read both YOU WERE HERE and NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, and I can’t wait to read more.
Both books feature characters who are recovering from trauma and trying to understand elements of their pasts. I found them so easy to connect with, and even though they wrestle with intense topics, the rest of the cast brings humor, wisdom, and banter, making the books a lot of fun to read in addition to being really moving.
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE has a little bit of a feminist vibe running through it, which I loved. The director of the movie is a young woman who’s very frank about the struggles women face in the arts industries. She encourages Iris with her own dreams, too. I loved her character. She felt so real and exactly like the kind of mentor I’d want to have and want to be.
Another theme that really resonated with me had to do with Iris’s family. She and her brother live with their dad, who refuses to talk about or read his mother’s books. As Iris wrestles with who her grandmother was to the community of fans, she begins to wonder about who she could have been as a grandmother, and why she wasn’t allowed to have that relationship.
I also loved the on-set scenes and descriptions of filming and all the behind-the-scenes stuff. I definitely think anyone who’s interested in the film industry would find this book fascinating. Fans of GEEKERELLA by Ashley Poston absolutely NEED to read this book.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Representation One minor character is a lesbian.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl. At one point a boy and girl spend the night together. Iris discusses a girl’s crush on another girl with her.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content Iris and her brother survived a kidnapping attempt that happened before the story begins. There are some references to that event, and it’s obvious that both are (understandably) still shaken.
Drug Content Some characters drink alcohol. (I think they’re of age.)
A must-read for fans of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse, transforming The Hunchback of Notre Dame into a powerful tundra-inspired epic.
Before the massacre at Nariin, Enebish was one of the greatest warriors in the Sky King’s Imperial Army: a rare and dangerous Night Spinner, blessed with the ability to control the threads of darkness. Now, she is known as Enebish the Destroyer―a monster and murderer, banished to a monastery for losing control of her power and annihilating a merchant caravan.
Guilt stricken and scarred, Enebish tries to be grateful for her sanctuary, until her adoptive sister, Imperial Army commander Ghoa, returns from the war front with a tantalizing offer. If Enebish can capture the notorious criminal, Temujin, whose band of rebels has been seizing army supply wagons, not only will her crimes be pardoned, she will be reinstated as a warrior.
Enebish eagerly accepts. But as she hunts Temujin across the tundra, she discovers the tides of war have shifted, and the supplies he’s stealing are the only thing keeping thousands of shepherds from starving. Torn between duty and conscience, Enebish must decide whether to put her trust in the charismatic rebel or her beloved sister. No matter who she chooses, an even greater enemy is advancing, ready to bring the empire to its knees.
My Review
I love that authors are re-imagining classic stories in really cool ways like this. I haven’t read the original story (I’ve seen a couple movie versions), but THE NIGHT SPINNER definitely made me want to. The gender-flipped characters made me view the story in a new way, too.
The only thing that seemed a little weird to me was the fact that Enebish’s physical deformity isn’t something she was born with but something that happened to punish her. It’s a pretty big departure from the original story, but so is the fantasy landscape and all the magical elements, too.
I liked Enebish as a character and her struggle to come to grips with her past as well as her relationship with Serik. I’m super excited to see where the second book goes and whether we get to see any of the story from Serik’s point-of-view?? Because that seems like it would be lots of fun!
Representation The Sky King has expanded his empire to include ethnic groups, which he wants to assimilate into a homogeneous people by outlawing their traditions, beliefs and rituals. Enebish (and some other central characters) view this as wrong and condemn it.
Profanity/Crude Language Content None.
Romance/Sexual Content Some romantic tension between characters.
Spiritual Content Polytheistic. Worshiping the old gods – the Lady of the Sky and the Father – have been forbidden. Now everyone is commanded to worship the king. Enebish and a few others remain secretly loyal to the old ways. She prays and communicates with the goddess through a sort of journal. It’s a very faith-positive story.
Violent Content Graphic descriptions of battle and the results of torture.
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 NIGHT SPINNER in exchange for my honest review.
When “Perfect” Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter’s High goes on alert. How has the cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, consummate teacher’s pet, and future valedictorian fallen so far from grace?
Parker doesn’t want to talk about it. She’d just like to be left alone, to disappear, to be ignored. But her parents have placed her on suicide watch and her conselors are demanding the truth. Worse, there’s a nice guy falling in love with her and he’s making her feel things again when she’d really rather not be feeling anything at all.
Nobody would have guessed she’d turn out like this. But nobody knows the truth.
Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault.
My Review
I’m a fan of Courtney Summers’ writing and the often heartbreaking stories she boldly tells of girls who are angry and sad and recovering from trauma.
It’s interesting to me that there’s so much emphasis on the characters as unlikeable. I totally see why people classify them that way. And there’s one of her books where I really struggled with liking the main character, but it’s definitely not this one.
Parker’s clearly a mess and in the midst of a pretty sharp downward spiral. There’s a constant tug of war in her over punishing herself for her past mistakes and yet still wanting to be loved despite them, even though she doesn’t feel like she deserves it.
I’m often really moved by the community element in the stories I read, and the community around Parker in CRACKED UP TO BE definitely moved me. Her friends and teachers aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But they care about Parker, and in their sometimes weird, sometimes broken, sometimes imperfect ways, they continue to reach out to her and try to help her in her recovery. That really got to me. And in a way I thought it showed other sides of Parker than she wanted to show us in her version of her story.
I saw other readers comment that they were driven to know what had happened to Parker. It remains a mystery through most of the book, but it drove me forward. Her behavior convinced me that something terrible had happened, and I knew that either she would have to face it or be destroyed by it.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Extreme profanity used pretty frequently. Some crude/sexual comments.
Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. Brief, disjointed description of a rape. It’s more a snapshot description of the scene and then the realization that it’s a rape.
Spiritual Content Parker and her friends attend a private Catholic school. One scene takes place in the school’s chapel.
Violent Content – Trigger Warning A couple very brief, violent moments. See romantic content. Also at one point a boy starts to attack a girl. References to two suicide attempts.
Drug Content Several scenes show teens drinking alcohol. There’s some reference to taking pills as part of a suicide attempt.
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 CRACKED UP TO BE in exchange for my honest review.
I love my sisters. I have two of them who live much too far away, and recently, when I watched the new movie Little Women, I ugly cried through scene after scene missing them both like crazy.
So, in honor of these two amazing, fierce, strong women, here’s a list of books in which the relationship between sisters is a driving force in the story. They may not always be on the same page or the same side, but ultimately, each wants to protect her sister. Each sees amazing things in her sister and shares a bond that no one outside it understands.
Note: Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This post contains affiliate links which don’t cost you anything to use but generate a small amount of support for this blog.
What if the Little Mermaid from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale had a twin sister determined to undo the deal she’d made with the sea witch? That’s pretty much the starting point of SEA WITCH RISING, and I really enjoyed that twist on the familiar story.
Henning creates characters that are somehow both hero and villain. They make dangerous promises, take huge risks, but always out of a desperate love for others. It adds a lot of layering and drama to the story. I think SEA WITCH is my favorite of the duology, but I enjoyed both.
I remember reading this book really fast and feeling like it was like being on a roller coaster as it pulls you up to the top of the highest point, and all the adrenaline and anticipation is building and building as you go higher and higher. It’s one of those books that takes you to the brink and then you unravel what will happen, and I loved it.
Watching Nell try to navigate through the change in her sister’s behavior is so heartbreaking and real. I loved that she wouldn’t give up on the relationship she had with her sister.
I can’t imagine the heartbreak of losing a sister, especially losing one in your teens. For Zara, it’s clearly left a giant hole in her heart, and she will not rest until she learns what happened to her sister.
Originally, Laila’s death is ruled an overdose, but Zara uncovers too many weird and suspicious things to accept that story at face value. But as she looks deeper, she stumbles onto a closed group of powerful and dangerous people, and soon she’s caught in a game where she doesn’t know the rules.
It’s a twisty, tingly crazy ride through this story, but Zara’s goal never wavers. She needs to know what happened to her sister, no matter what. I like to think I would feel the same. That if something strange happened to one of my sisters, I wouldn’t be able to rest until I knew what happened.
You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Twin sisters, total opposites in lots of ways, but one thing binds them together: the shared agony of watching their mother’s battle with Huntington’s disease. When both sisters are tested, the results only strain their relationship further. One girl tests positive, the other negative.
I found the sisters’ divergent ways of dealing with stress and anxiety really believable, and kept rooting for the bond of their sister relationship to be an anchor they could each come back to, no matter what.
You knew I was going to include this one, right? 🙂 Lia Mara has a tricky relationship with her family, particularly her sister, who has been chosen to rule after their mother. Actually, their relationship reminded me a lot of GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS by Rae Carson, which should be on this list as well.
Since the story has other viewpoints and other goals, you might think Lia Mara and her sister don’t factor in very heavily, but there are some critical moments when the dynamics between Lia Mara and her sister drive the story forward or become the hinge that changes its direction.
Sisters and secret, always a volatile combination, and never moreso than when two sister goddesses are involved. In THE NEVER TILTING WORLD, Haidee and Odessa must deal with the fallout of choices made by their mothers, two sisters, who split the world in two and stopped it from spinning on its axis. (If you’re already bothered by the science of what that would mean, all I can say is willing suspension of disbelief.)
I liked that the sisters were kind of the origin of the story and that basically everything hinged on choices they made.
The sisters in VANISHING GIRLS have a complex relationship. While Nick cares a lot about her sister, she also has some guilt and feelings of resentment toward her that she’s having a really hard time working through. There’s lots to unpack in terms of emotional and psychological elements.
While it wasn’t my favorite book, I enjoyed the dynamics between the sisters and watching Nick struggle to make sense of her feelings and Dara’s behavior. It’s definitely one of those books where you get to the end and have to think back through what’s happened before and factor in new information. I tend to love those types of stories, but I think the pieces never quite clicked into place for me with this one. I wonder if it would be different if I read it again knowing what to expect? Not sure.
Empress of Flames by Mimi Yu (which inspired this list)
In EMPRESS OF FLAMES, sisters Lu and Min, will face off, an army between them, each determined to rule the Empire of the First Flame. The sisters are really different from each other and want the throne for slightly different reasons. What’s going to be interesting will be the clash of their desire to rule versus their love for each other.
Note: I included this book in an earlier Top Ten list, which inspired me to create my sister books list.
Scarlett and Tella, Tella and Scarlett. Though this story is ultimately Scarlett’s tale, the thing that drives her forward is the search for her missing sister. Her whole life plan is to do whatever it takes to make sure Tella is safe and protected.
Of course, Tella herself often does everything possible to thwart those plans, but not because she doesn’t love Scarlett. More because she sees Scarlett as having a value beyond her role as caretaker and big sister, and she does what she does to challenge Scarlett to imagine a life for herself. To risk loving someone and being loved.
Which is, of course, just one of the things I love about this series.
If you haven’t read SADIE, it’s about a girl whose sister has been murdered. The driving force for Sadie is to find her sister’s killer– something the police don’t seem to be actually able to do. She’s willing to give up anything and everything in order to bring the murderer to justice.
It’s gritty and dark, but one of the things I love about it is that the author purposely excludes scenes depicting Mattie’s murder. Here’s a quote from my Q&A with Courtney Summers in which she talks about what inspired her to write the book:
“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.”
Do you have a favorite sister book?
What books have you read that feature an unforgettable sisterhood? Share them in the comments! I would love to read more books about sisters.
It has always been Eda’s dream to become empress, no matter the cost. Haunted by her ambition and selfishness, she’s convinced that the only way to achieve her goal is to barter with the gods. But all requests come with a price and Eda bargains away the soul of her best friend in exchange for the crown.
Years later, her hold on the empire begins to crumble and her best friend unexpectedly grows sick and dies. Gnawed by guilt and betrayal, Eda embarks on a harrowing journey to confront the very god who gave her the kingdom in the first place. However, she soon discovers that he’s trapped at the center of an otherworldly labyrinth and that her bargain with him is more complex than she ever could have imagined.
Set in the same universe as Joanna’s debut, BENEATH THE HAUNTING SEA, BEYOND THE SHADOWED EARTH combines her incredible world building and lush prose with a new, villainous lead.
My Review
So one of the things I love to find in books is a faith-positive atmosphere. It doesn’t have to be a story about faith or promoting faith, though I’m not opposed to that either. Like most people, it does bug me if the message feels pushy or preachy.
BEYOND THE SHADOWED EARTH definitely scratched that faith-positive-story itch for me. I liked that Eda wrestled a lot with her faith. She had very specific perceptions of who the gods were and what they were obligated to do for her. Yeah, that can’t possibly backfire. Ha.
So at the beginning of the book, Eda is this powerful, proud, sometimes cruel empress who, underneath her harsh exterior, is terrified of losing power. I had a harder time connecting with her at the beginning of the book. She does some ugly things.
But as the story progresses and she begins to understand what her bargain with her god means, she becomes a different person. As that change began to happen, I got much more deeply invested in the story.
The faith-positive theme and strong-willed heroine reminded me of GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS by Rae Carson. I think readers who enjoyed THE NEVER TILTING WORLD by Rin Chupeco, which also shows a lot of interaction between the gods and humankind, will like the way that BEYOND THE SHADOWED EARTH is told.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation There are some class and culture clashes between different countries and people of faiths.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing between boy and girl.
Spiritual Content Eda worships the god Tuer, and has made a bargain with him. She meets others who serve him and who serve other gods and goddesses. Supernatural things seem to follow her– guiding her in the direction of the god’s plan for her. There’s an interesting heirarchy– the One created the gods and spirits and seems to rule over them. Some spirits were banished for rebelling against the gods and the One, and not oppose them.
Violent Content Some references to torture. Some graphic battle violence and death. Situations of peril.
Drug Content Occasionally, Eda drinks wine to escape her problems.
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 BEYOND THE SHADOWED EARTH in exchange for my honest review.
Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.
Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.
But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.
Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.
My Review
Books that show graphic violence are always a struggle for me to read, and this one comes close to the edge for me. That said, I really enjoy the story and can’t stop rooting for the characters. I love the relationships between the major and minor characters so much. The cloaked woman who comes to Helene in the night. The leader of the desert tribe and her flirtatious brother.
I love the ways A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT surprised me. I feel like the story world got broader and deeper, and it made the story and the characters so much richer. I like that even though the story got bigger, it also continues to feel like that steady march toward an inevitable clash between good and evil.
Am I going to read the third book? Definitely. It’ll probably take me a little bit to get to it, because I’m worried I’ll read it and then be scrambling desperately for the fourth and final book, which won’t be out until possibly 2021. Long wait!
Representation Laia and her brother have bronze skin and dark eyes.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Mild profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content References to sex. Kissing between boy and girl. She invites him to undress her in one scene and indicates that she wants to have sex with him.
Spiritual Content Laia and Elias face opponents and allies which are mythical beings. Some try to destroy them while others seem to want to help them.
Violent Content Battle violence and some gore. Some scenes include references to and brief descriptions of torture.
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.
