Alicia’s hallucinations are only getting worse: more frequent and more intense. Despite that, she doesn’t want to give them up because the hallucinations are the only place she sees her father. Then he shows up in real life, warning Alicia of incredible danger, and suddenly everything shifts. The people Alicia trusted most have been lying to her, and now she’s on the run from them. The hallucinations are real. In them, Alicia journeys to other universes, ones where more than her life is at stake. She must find an atlas, a map to all of them and stop one critical universe from dying if she’s to save the people she loves and her own life in her home universe.
When I first started reading this book, I was worried it would be too confusing. I wasn’t really hooked by the whole hallucination bit—it seemed like asking a lot for me to invest in the most exciting parts of the story believing they were fake. But once I realized that they were real, I definitely wanted to keep reading. I loved Alicia and Hafeez. Jax, the boy from another universe that she meets, wasn’t my favorite—he’s kind of stubborn and I just didn’t really connect with him very well. I’m totally team Hafeez.
I liked how she had an opportunity to revisit the relationships in her life in other universes. Things were often different in other places than they were in her home universe, but often there was some lesson hiding in those moments or some kernel of truth she could grab onto. I also really liked the references to Sylvia Plath’s poetry and Alicia’s connection with her.
The only thing I really consistently struggled with is the fact that Alicia is so young—almost fifteen—which seems to place the story in the lower end of YA, yet there’s a LOT of profanity. I feel like aging Alicia up a little or reducing the profanity would have made it easier to recommend to readers.
The story ends with lots left unresolved, which hopefully means there will be a sequel. If you liked Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton or Life at the Speed of Us by Heather Sappenfield, you need to read this one. I think the characters are more even than Seeker, and I liked the way The Infinity of You and Me handled the multiverse better than the way it was in Life at the Speed of Us.
Recommended for Ages 15 up.
Cultural Elements
Alicia’s best friend Hafeez is Middle Eastern. Other characters appear to be white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used frequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief boy/girl kissing.
Spiritual Content Alicia jumps between universes to other realities similar and different to her own.
Violent Content In one reality, a man shoots Alicia and appears willing to hurt her further. Her mother discusses a surgery that could prevent Alicia from experiencing the jumps to other places. She intends to force Alicia to have the surgery without her consent.
A bully picks on Alicia and Hafeez at school. He punches Hafeez.
Drug Content
Alicia’s therapist tries to regulate her experiences with medication. Later, a therapist sedates her and restrains her. She believes her dad may be on drugs—maybe that’s why he’s gone from her life.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
From 1853 to 1929, The Children’s Aid Society and other organizations like it placed 250,000 orphaned children with families using trains to deliver the children to new families along railway lines. Sometimes children found loving homes and parents who brought them into their families and treated them as members of their household. The Children’s Aid Society sought to address the overwhelming poverty and difficulties placed on children in large cities whose parents abandoned them or died. It is the predecessor of the modern-day foster care system. Sometimes the children were seen as laborers or servants and treated far differently from a couple’s other children. The book focuses on the stories of seven orphans whose lives were transformed by their ride on an orphan train.
Reading this book made me think a little bit about the movie Newsies, specifically the parts where the characters talk about how the city thrives on child labor. This would have been around the same time in history as the orphan trains were beginning. I found it interesting (though heartbreaking) that at first the orphans were thought of primarily as laborers, and sent west because farm life would be a better life than city life for a child. The children were instructed to refer to their caretakers as employers rather than parents. It was certainly a different time then.
I found it heartwarming to read the stories of some of the orphans who grew up to become leaders and great men and women. Among them, two governors, a nun, and countless lawyers, doctors, and other professionals. Many of those children probably wouldn’t have survived to adulthood and certainly wouldn’t have been educated without the opportunity the orphan trains provided for a better life.
I liked that the book is broken down chapter by chapter into different stories. That made it easy to read in shorter sittings. It also gave the opportunity to explore some of the very different outcomes the children experienced in a deeply personal way.
Orphan Trains would make a great addition to a classroom history bookshelf or resource for research on this time period or the origins of the foster care system in America. The book contains a glossary of terms, extensive index, lists of sources and bibliography.
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Cultural Elements
The story follows several white children from orphanages in the East who ride a train west and find homes with farming families there.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content The Children’s Aid Society was founded by a minister named Charles Loring Brace. Orphan Trains relates the story of a nun who believed she’d been called by God to minister to children and opened an orphanage to care for abandoned infants and children. One orphan grew up to become a nun herself.
Some organizations attempted to match children born into Catholic families with new Catholic families and Protestant children with Protestant families.
Violent Content Some of the families were unkind to the orphans placed with them. If the child was able to communicate to an agent about his or her unhappiness, she could be removed and placed with a different family. No graphic details given of abuse or neglect.
Drug Content
One child was placed in a home in which the mother abused opium and the father was an alcoholic.
It starts with a book. A beloved teacher gives Nanette his copy of an out-of-print novel called The Bubblegum Reaper, about a Holden Caulfield-type boy who falls in love with a girl who shares her secrets with a turtle. As Nanette reads and rereads the novel, she becomes impassioned. She reaches out to the author and discovers another boy who loves the book, and in him, a potential soulmate. But when his vigilante attitude takes him too far, Nanette must learn find the courage to be herself despite the expectations of others on her own.
Part The Fault in Our Stars and part The Bell Jar, Nanette’s journey follows two misfits struggling to find a way out of the parts of life they find so smothering, a story sure to resonate with anyone who has ever been bullied or felt out of place. As Nanette slips closer to the edge of her own sanity, it’s easy to feel her fragility and desperation. Though not quite as dark as his earlier novel Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, this tale lacks none of the emotional punch and wry quirkiness that readers have come to expect from Quick.
While I’m kind of a sucker for this kind of story, I find I’m often left kind of wishing there was more of a triumph at the end of the tale. I did feel that way here, but in a way, it’s kind of the point that I think the author was trying to make. In life, we don’t always get those big moments where things snap neatly into place. Every Exquisite Thing isn’t without its victories. But it’s definitely one of those stories whose goal is to force you to think more deeply about situations in your life rather than to scratch the happily-ever-after itch.
Fans of Belzhar should give this one a try.
Recommended Age 17 up.
Cultural Elements
None.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency. Much of the profanity was in the latter half of the book. There’s also some crude language about sex and male genitals. In one instance, Nanette and her friends are talking about boys and her friends ask about the size of Nan’s boy’s parts. She responds with an exaggeration that’s meant to point out the stupidity of the conversation, but the joke goes over the girls’ heads.
Romance/Sexual Content Kissing. Nan invites a boy to touch her boob. (Afterward, her mom comments on the “nice show”.) At one point, Nan decides to have sex with a boy. It’s briefly described. At one point, Nan visits an adult friend only to discover that he and a lady appear to be in the middle of a romance. She doesn’t see anything wholly inappropriate. (I think one character wears a robe when answering the door.)
Spiritual Content Nanette and Alex talk at length about God. At one point they list reasons they don’t believe in God (disasters, pain, negative things like that) and reasons they do believe. Nanette comments that it’s clear they both wish the list of reasons to believe would outnumber the reasons not to.
Violent Content Alex tells Nanette (via his poetry) about being bullied at school. Later, he fights bullies picking on another kid and punches a man in the face.
Drug Content
Nanette goes to parties where her friends get drunk.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I’m not going to lie. November 2016 has been a tough month, and I’m not sorry that it’s over. On the upside, I was able to attend YALLFest in Charleston for the first time (also my first visit to the area– must go back!) AND I wore my amazing bookish costume. Sadly, all the other stuff has kind of crowded my time this month, so I haven’t really been as attentive to the blog and as quick about reading as I hoped to be. I still managed to review eight books, which is fewer than usual, but feels like a lot considering all the other hoopla that’s happened.
Thoughts on YALLFest
If you’re thinking about going next year, DO IT. I loved it, though there are, of course, things I’d do differently in the future. I keep meaning to be sneaky and write a YALLFest Tips post while it’s still relatively fresh in my mind and queue it up for a few weeks ahead of the festival next year.
The best part of the whole event, to me, was the way everyone seemed to pull together. For a lot of people, election week was pretty rough. Many people feel afraid about the future. Instead of dwelling on those things, YALLFest became a time when people rallied together and reminded each other about what freedom means and how powerful our voices can be. Who better to remind us of those things besides the writers whose stories change our lives? Just too cool.
Initially, I planned to go nuts and try to get a ton of books signed. I dragged a bunch to the festival but quickly abandoned that scheme. I loved the author panels. After the opening keynote, I was hooked. I felt like, I could stand in line for an hour (or more!) waiting for an autograph or I could go listen to what the authors had to say about a host of topics. I don’t regret that choice one bit.
Three kind of cool moments for me: When Sabaa Tahir talked about one of her favorite childhood books: Seven Daughters and Seven Sons, also one of my favorite childhood books. Yay! And when Jenny Han described her writing process and how she’s never talked to another writer who crafts a manuscript the way she does. From what she said, it sounds like she writes each scene as it comes to her, not in chronological order. Then at the end she stitches things all together how they go. Which sounds like a LOT of work and definitely sort of stressful. It’s like designing a puzzle one piece at a time and then assembling it afterward, right?
Funny story… that’s exactly how I’ve been writing my current manuscript. So that was a huge encouragement to me, because I’ve been thinking, like, is this even a reasonable way to attack this thing? But knowing someone else has done it successfully is a huge relief. I feel like it gave me permission to use the process and consider it a legit way of writing, which I didn’t realize I needed, but apparently I did.
Also, this happened– yay!
Moving on to review recaps…
Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz (A Descendants novel)
I liked the diversity in this cast of characters. It’s something you don’t always see in fairytale retellings. The story was cute– probably much like you’d expect. Overall, I enjoyed it.
I was super excited to read this book because it followed a minor character in Ramey’s previous novel, The Sister Pact. If you know me at all, you know I’m a huge sucker for a gritty guy trying to find the right path, and stories about family always get me, too. So this one was a win for me, even though it had some strong content.
Kottaras has to be one of my newer favorite authors. I love that she writes about smart girls, but they’re not those girls who have it all, you know? They have issues, but their issues aren’t always the focus of the story. Loved this story.
This one was an unexpected gem. Looking at the cover and description, I wasn’t expecting to be wowed. But Goldenrod charmed me pretty quickly. I loved the small town and its quirky characters and the mysterious house trying to communicate with its occupants.
The premise of this story totally intrigued me. I’m still fascinated by the idea that in a post-apocalyptic world, zombie-ism is a physical disease that reflects the state of one’s soul. I thought that was a really cool concept that kind of blended two genres, Christian fiction and thriller.
This one had been on my reading list for a long time, and one stressful night, I rewarded myself by finally cracking it open. I think I read it in one sitting. It’s an unusual read– I think magical realism is kind of hard to swallow sometimes, but again, winning characters and some surprising plot twists made me fall in love.
What about you?
Did you read anything this month that totally knocked your socks off? Any books at the top of your holiday wish list?
A young woman named Roza disappears from the small town of Bone Gap, and Finn, the only witness struggles to identify her captor. How do you describe someone who looks like everyone else? Everyone seems to believe Roza just up and left Finn and his brother Sean, the same way their mother did. But Finn knows Roza would never just leave on her own. Finn can’t give up. He’s as determined to find her as he is to win over the prickly bee girl with the strange eyes.
This is one of those books that I picked up expecting great writing, but having no idea what I was in for beyond that. As a Michael L. Printz Honor Book and a National Book Award Finalist, I figured it would be right up my alley. And it definitely is. Something about it reminded me of Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (even though there’s no race and the horse doesn’t eat anyone) and Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whalen.
I loved Finn right from the beginning. His complex relationship with his older brother and guardian really rang true, and the nurturing Roza totally drew me in. I was nervous about the magical-realism elements kind of throwing me out of the story. I think generally I like straight contemporary or straight fantasy, and magical realism seems to enjoy blurring those lines.
In this case, I think the fantasy elements were pretty well-grafted into the story. They were strange and a bit dark, but I loved the way Ruby tied everything together in the end, including the revelation about Finn—which I kind of saw coming but still thought was incredibly clever.
Overall, honestly, I felt like some of the sexual content was a little preachy. In one part, Petey, the girl Finn is interested in, recalls her mother giving her information about sex including conversation and an informative book. I liked the nod to parental involvement in sex education—I think that’s really important. I don’t know. Something about the way the relationship between Finn and Petey evolved felt a bit agenda-driven. It could be that I’m just be oversensitive. I like my literary fiction to read a little cleaner than this in terms of sexual content, so maybe it just felt out of place to me.
Despite all that, I loved the themes about love and about what it means to really see someone. The whole town is a bit blind to who Petey and Roza really are, but Finn, despite his other deficiencies, is the one who truly sees and knows them. I found that to be pretty powerful.
If you liked The Secret Life of Bees or the other books I mentioned above, you may want to add this one to your reading list. For more detailed content information, see below.
Recommended Age 16 up.
Cultural Elements
Roza is Polish. Other characters are more generic white, middle class people.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Kisses between a boy and girl. A girl invites a boy into her bedroom in the middle of the night. It’s clear she’s willing to engage with him. She briefly reflects on the book her mom gave her about sex. References to oral sex. In one scene, a boy intends to have a girl perform oral sex with him and she refuses. In another scene a boy performs oral sex with a girl after the couple kiss and remove some clothing. It’s about a page long, so there are some limited details.
Spiritual Content Things happen in the story that don’t make sense in the context of reality. (This is, after all, magical realism…) For instance, a horse flies. Gaps appear to connect the small town to another dimension of sorts.
Violent Content Roza appears in Finn and Sean’s barn with some serious injuries. Later we learn about the man who caused them while he kept her captive. He’s super creepy. At one point she tries to stab her attacker. A boy attacks a man when he says something cruel about the girl he loves.
Books are one of my favorite gifts to give (okay, and to receive!) because there’s something for everyone. There were years where we gave a book to each person on our Christmas list. I enjoyed my holiday shopping that year especially because it was a chance to take all that I knew about a person’s interests and try to match them up with a book. This year we’ve chosen to support a local charity organization for the majority of our gift purchases, but there are a few books that still made it onto our gift list. Here are my top picks for the readers on my Christmas list.
For the Fairy Tale Lover
Traitor’s Masque by Kenley Davidson
Page Nine Press
Published December 14, 2015
Traitor’s Masque isn’t a simple retelling of Cinderella. Here you’ll find spies and intrigue and not one, but two handsome princes. If you loved the movie Ever After you need to read this book.
From my review: When Trystan’s secret horse rides are interrupted by a handsome, intelligent stranger, she has no idea she’s just met the crown prince of Andari. To her, he’s just a lonely nobleman, seeking the same healing solitude as she is. So when her stepmother’s tyranny reaches new heights, Trystan leaps at an offer from a friend of her late father’s. The lady offers Trystan the freedom she desperately craves for one tiny favor: deliver a message. Not until she’s agreed does Trystan realize she’s just committed to betray the friend she met in the woods, the man she may be falling in love with: the Prince of Andari.
Goldheart by Kenley Davidson
Page Nine Press
Published May 2016
From my review: After recovering from a kidnapping, Elaine Westover wants nothing more than to live a quiet secluded life with her paints. But as her father’s home falls into disrepair and his business fails, she has little choice but to offer her services painting portraits. When a wealthy man hires her to paint an impossible portrait for a year’s income, Elaine considers accepting the job. At the interview, he makes it clear she has no choice but to accept, and he bundles her off to the attic against her will, promising to release and reward her when she completes his task. Her only friend and protector is Will, a young man she takes to be a servant. He vows to help her in any way he can, and soon she realizes she’s falling in love with him. Will feels drawn to Elaine as well, but when he discovers the connection between his family and hers, he knows he can never let her discover his name without ruining every moment they’ve shared together.
Pirouette by Kenley Davidson
Page Nine Press
Published May 2016
From my review: When twelve princesses of Caelan refuse to dance as commanded by their father, he imprisons them in their pavilion and offers a challenge. Anyone who discovers the princesses’ secret will marry his pick among them and choose the fate of the others. Anyone who tries and fails will be stripped of land and title or life. But it’s the forgotten thirteenth princess who holds the key to the princesses’ rebellion. Ilani may be crippled, but she is by no means powerless.
Into this standoff comes Lord Kyril Seagrave and his companions from Andar. They hunt an exiled, dangerous prince and the truth about whether Caelan means to invade their home. Kyril is supposed to lead the expedition, but near as he can tell, everyone else is more qualified for the job, and he begins to wonder if Prince Ramsey sent him simply to get him out of the way for a while. When Kyril meets Ilani, he feels a pull toward the girl he can’t explain, and he vows to right the grave injustice done when she was crippled at seven years old. But to right the wrongs of the past, the princesses’ secret must be revealed, and before exiled Prince Rowan can turn the situation to Andar’s ruin.
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends
Available November 8, 2016
Also on my list is Heartless by Marissa Meyer, which explores the story of Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts. I haven’t read it yet, so I don’t have a content review, but I hope to post one before the year’s end. If it’s like Cinder, then I expect it to be pretty clean with maybe some light, infrequent profanity. Her other villain origin story, Fairest, did have some sexual content.
From Goodreads: Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland and a favorite of the unmarried King, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, she wants to open a shop and create delectable pastries. But for her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for a woman who could be a queen.
At a royal ball where Cath is expected to receive the King’s marriage proposal, she meets handsome and mysterious Jest. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the King and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into a secret courtship.
Cath is determined to choose her own destiny. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.
For the Younger Christian Reader
In the Hall of the Dragon King by Stephen Lawhead (Dragon King Trilogy)
Thomas Nelson (reprint)
Published May 30, 2011 (originally published in 1982)
From Goodreads:In the dead of night, Quentin, a young acolyte, is unexpectedly summoned when a mortally wounded knight stumbles into the temple of Ariel. Determined to save the realm of the Dragon King, the dying knight makes a desperate plea for someone to continue his quest. Now Quentin must choose—a life of ease or a dangerous, unknown path.
I haven’t reviewed this series, but I remember reading it in seventh grade or so. The story has overt Christian themes. I liked the whole series. It’s a great choice for readers of high fantasy.
Knife by R. J. Anderson (Faery Rebels Series)
Orchard
Published January 8, 2009
From my review: Knife, a young faerie confined within her kingdom inside a large oak tree, is determined to escape to the outside world. As a girl, she came face to face with a human, and survived. Since that day, her curiosity about the house and the strange creatures who live inside it only grows. When Knife finds an opportunity to get a closer look, she takes it. But with every new discovery she makes about the outside world, the strict rules and strange customs of her people only feel stranger and well, wrong. Maybe Knife can save them. If she can find out why her people lost their magic to begin with, perhaps she can reverse the spell. But doing so will risk her place among her people, and it may force her to accept truths about herself, her queen, and her human friend that she’s not ready to face.
Curio by Evangeline Denmark
Blink YA/Zondervan
Published January 6, 2016
From my review: In a world in which women are of little value, Grey tries to remain beneath the notice of the ruling Chemists. To draw attention to herself risks her very life and the lives of her family and her best friend Whit. When Chemists punish Whit for protecting Grey, she abandons hope of hiding and vows to help others like Whit, no matter the cost to herself. When the Chemists realize what she’s done, her family protects her by spiriting her away to a world within her grandfather’s curio cabinet. There, among a strange world of clockwork people, Grey must find a hidden ally and a key that may bring an end to the Chemists’ tyranny.
Celebrate Diversity
Genius: The Game by Leopoldo Gout
Feiwel & Friends
Published May 3, 2016
From my review: As the clock counts down to Zero Hour, 200 of the best and brightest kids form teams competing to solve a challenge created by a young visionary with world-changing goals. For Rex, Tunde and Painted Wolf, the competition is only part of the challenge. Rex needs a supercomputer housed at the challenge site to locate his brother whose been missing for two years. A war lord threatens to wipe Tunde’s whole village off the map unless Tunde and his friends deliver a powerful weapon to him at the end of the contest. Painted Wolf will do anything to help her friends, but she must keep her identity a secret or her family’s lives are forfeit.
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten
Doubleday Canada
Published August 27, 2013
From my review: Almost-fifteen-year-old Adam meets Robyn at his group therapy session for teens with obsessive-compulsive issues. It’s hardly the setting for romance, but Adam can’t deny how he feels for her. Robyn seems drawn to him, too. Maybe. But while Robyn’s most troublesome days seem to be behind her, Adam’s life continues to spiral out of control. He’s at the mercy of his half-brother’s anxiety issues, and his mother refuses to get help though the threatening letters she receives only seem to be getting worse. As Adam desperately struggles to hold everyone together, he begins to split at the seams. But it may be the voices of his Group mates which bring him the strength and courage to face greater truths about his family, his condition, and himself.
Gifted by H. A. Swain
Feiwel & Friends
Published June 14, 2016
From Goodreads: In Orpheus Chanson’s world, geniuses and prodigies are no longer born or honed through hard work. Instead, procedures to induce Acquired Savant Abilities (ASAs) are now purchased by the privileged. And Orpheus’s father holds the copyright to the ASA procedure.
Zimri Robinson, a natural musical prodigy, is a “plebe”–a worker at the enormous warehouse that supplies an on-line marketplace that has supplanted all commerce. Her grueling schedule and her grandmother’s illness can’t keep her from making music–even if it is illegal.
Orpheus and Zimri are not supposed to meet. He is meant for greatness; she is not. But sometimes, rules are meant to be broken. Here is a thriller, love story, and social experiment that readers will find gripping–and terrifying.
Freedom’s Just Another Word by Caroline Stellings
Second Story Press
Published September 6, 2016
From Goodreads: The year Louisiana – Easy for short – meets Janis Joplin is the year everything changes. Easy is a car mechanic in her dad’s shop, but she can sing the blues like someone twice her age. So when she hears that Janis Joplin is passing through her small town of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Easy is there with her heart – and her voice – in hand. It’s 1970 and Janis Joplin is an electrifying blues-rock singer at the height of her fame – and of her addictions. Yet she recognizes Easy’s talent and asks her to meet her in Texas to sing. So Easy begins an unusual journey that will change everything.
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
Clarion Books
Published May 3, 2016
From my review: When Zomorod Yousefzadeh and her family move (again), she decides to take the opportunity to start fresh and try to fit in with her new California schoolmates. The first thing to go? Her name. She adopts the classic Brady Bunch Cindy as her identity. After a rough start, she begins to find true friends. But when unrest in Iran turns into an American hostage crisis, Cindy begins to catch glimpses of an uglier side of the Land of the Free. Cruel bumper stickers and slogans send chilling messages to Cindy and her family. Cindy tries to protect her parents from some of the cruelty, and her friends try to encourage her that not everyone feels so negatively about Iranians. Ultimately, Cindy has to navigate her own way through the crisis and find the balance between devotion to her family, pride in her heritage, and the freedom to pursue her own individual identity.
