Review: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Poetry, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , ,
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X
Elizabeth Acevedo
HarperTeen
Published March 6, 2018

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Poet X

Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.

With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

My Review

I’ve had a copy of this book for years, and somehow I hadn’t managed to read it before. When my youngest was little, I read WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH by Elizabeth Acevedo, and I loved the depth and descriptions in the book. Since then, I’ve been a huge fan of this author. So. Finally I read her award-winning, debut novel in verse.

And I loved it.

Which I suppose should not be a surprise.

As mentioned, it’s a novel in verse. Even though the lines are spare, the story is so rich with its descriptions, characters, and emotions. The relationship between Xiomara and her mom. Her brother. The priest. Her best friend, and a boy at school. They’re all so well-developed and described.

I also loved the way the story explored her feelings about her faith. It’s complicated. But Xio doesn’t really feel understood by or interested in church and the things the priest teaches in her confirmation class. Her mom has really specific expectations and beliefs about church and faith. Her brother has other beliefs and values as a devout person of faith. I liked that the story showed a spectrum of belief and experience without making the book really about those things.

Really, this is a story about a girl finding her voice. Believing in her value. Learning about love– how to love herself, how to love someone else, and how to receive love from others, too. It’s about the power of words.

So. Yeah. I feel like in a lot of ways, I’m still in awe of the story. I have a hard copy, but I also borrowed the audiobook (which is read by the author) from the library. As I read, I went back and forth between those two versions, and I really enjoyed both. I definitely recommend this book.

Content Notes on Poet X

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Xiomara is Dominican American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Brief description of masturbation. Xio sees two boys walking together and realizes they are a couple.

Spiritual Content
Xio’s mom is very religious and focused on Xiomara’s confirmation and piety. Xiomara attends confirmation classes but has so many questions about her faith and why they aren’t learning stories about girls like her. Her priest says it’s important to let her take time to find the answers to those questions.

Xio describes her brother as being very devout.

Violent Content
Xiomara has a reputation as a fighter. She will beat up anyone who picks on her twin brother or use her fists to defend herself.

Drug Content
References to smoking pot. In one scene, she drinks a beer with a boy.

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

Review: Betrayal by the Book by Michael D. Beil

Book Review and Content, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , , , , , , ,

Betrayal by the Book (The Swallowtail Legacy #2)
Michael D. Beil
Pixel+Ink
Published April 18, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Betrayal by the Book

A writer’s conference brings twelve-year-old Lark’s favorite writer–and a suspicious death–to Swallowtail Island, in the second book in this middle grade mystery series by an Edgar Award-nominated author.

Swallowtail Island is hosting the Swallowtales Writer’s Conference. Lark’s ecstatic to be chosen as a “page” for her favorite author, Ann E. Keyhart.

But they say you should never meet your idols. When Keyhart arrives with her personal assistant in tow, she is nothing but a terror. And within a few hours, the assistant is dead! But the explanation isn’t sitting well. Not when lots of people had reasons to want to be rid of Keyhart, and especially not after it’s revealed the assistant recently completed a hot new novel and the file’s vanished from her computer.

Then Lark finds out the assistant had a bird–the match to the one she found hidden in her mom’s book–and she needs answers. It looks like Swallowtail Island still has secrets to reveal, and Lark’s going to uncover them.

A gripping new chapter in the Swallowtail Legacy series, Mike D. Beil spins another clever clue hunt that seamlessly slips in alongside the best classics of middle grade mystery.

My Review

I read the first book in this series, WRECK AT ATA’S REEF last year, and really enjoyed it. So, I was excited to see that this second book was coming out this year. Like the first, it’s set on a small island, and features some of Lark’s many family members.

I really liked that the story takes place during a writer’s conference at which Lark is a volunteer helper to her favorite author. Though the conference itself stays more in the background, it still managed to hit a lot of key moments from a conference: panels, hurt feelings over harsh feedback, encouraging words from a beloved author, and disorganized statements from someone clearly underprepared.

I had very strong suspicions about who was responsible for the assistant’s death even before I read the first page of the story, and I was right. So, that made it a little difficult for me to enjoy Lark’s journey unraveling the clues.

I also expected the bird figurine to tie into the mystery somehow? It remained pretty separate, though. Because that thread began in the first book, I kind of wonder if it’s something that will be the center of a mystery in the next book in the series? I haven’t heard anything, so I don’t know.

All in all, I think I’d have enjoyed this one a bit more if I hadn’t figured out the mystery so quickly. I still enjoyed the island community and Lark’s role as a conference volunteer. I’m not sorry I read the book. The series still makes me think of the Northwoods Mysteries by Margi Preus.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Lark wonders whether she’s attracted to a boy on the island.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Lark responds to a scream and sees the dead body of a woman who has apparently died of an allergic reaction. (No blood, just open blank eyes, clearly not breathing, cold to the touch.)

Drug Content
Ann Keyheart gets drunk in several scenes and slurs her words or behaves rudely.

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 BETRAYAL BY THE BOOK in exchange for my honest review.

Middle Grade Mondays!

Greg at Always in the Middle does a Monday roundup of posts about middle grade books and news. Check out today’s Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays!

Review: Hunt for Eden’s Star by D. J. Williams

Book Review and Content, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

Hunt for Eden’s Star
D. J. Williams
Tyndale House
Published April 4, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

The Hunt for Eden’s Star

A coming-of-age teen is thrown into a world of ancient secrets when he discovers a supernatural compass that protects a weapon of mass destruction. With the help of a diverse group of friends, he embarks on a global adventure, seeking the truth about his sister’s death. He uncovers two clandestine, supernatural societies waging an epic, hidden war that threatens the future of civilization.

D. J. Williams’s suspenseful, page-turning style whisks readers into a wildly exciting, supernatural adventure that grabs hold of the imagination and never lets go. As Jack races to collect ancient artifacts critical to the survival of the world, readers are transported to incredible locales across Asia, including the lush jungles of the Philippines and the high-energy streets of Hong Kong. Themes of addiction, revenge, faith, and friendship emerge as Jack battles literal and psychological demons, and even his own friends and family members, on his quest to thwart the forces of evil.

My Review

This was a tough one for me. Suspense is always a bit of an iffy genre, so it could be that I’m generally less comfortable reading that type of story. I found myself struggling not only with some of the suspense elements, but also other elements of the story as well.

One of the things I wrestled with most was the portrayal of characters. I felt like a lot of the characters came across as kind of flat. Jack and his friends kind of acted a bit like frat boys, only interested in girls when they were attractive or could offer the boys a benefit of some kind (a key to an exclusive area, for example). Do high school boys act like that? Yeah, I’ve known some who did. But I found it to be an odd choice to cast those boys as the heroes of the story?

I also felt like Jack never really gained real forward momentum. There were a few scenes where he would make a grand statement about having a goal (one time this was about getting revenge for his sister’s death), and in the next scene, another character would basically tell him that was the wrong goal because reasons. And Jack would abandon his stated goal and kind of be back to trying to figure out his next move. I think I expected him to at some point become the character making things happen.

He does have moments where he accomplishes this. For example, he rescues a bunch of girls who are prisoners being trafficked by the bad guys. It’s a cool scene, but it didn’t really connect to the larger story other than to remind us that the bad guys are super bad.

Conclusion

HUNT FOR EDEN’S STAR has a lot of interesting elements in it. For example, Jack and his friends attend a coed, elite boarding school with four houses. Each house is identified with a particular set of virtues. Students are assigned to a house by a sort of magical process. Very reminiscent of a certain wizarding school. It was cool, and maybe the various houses are more involved in later books in the series, but I didn’t really catch much connection to the story in this first book.

Lots of the story takes place in Hong Kong, so I enjoyed the connection to history and politics/current events happening there. I kind of wish the story had featured that more in connection to the plot.

So, there were some really cool elements. I don’t know if the author just wanted to include all the things that will be relevant to later books to kind of garner reader interest for those things and set up some elements for later? It made the book kind of a long one for YA, especially for YA suspense, at almost 500 pages.

On the whole, I think this series really isn’t for me. Parts of it reminded me of the TIME ECHOES series by Bryan Davis which also has kind of a secret society, murder mystery thing going on. If you liked that one, then HUNT FOR EDEN’S STAR might be a good fit, too.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Jack is white. Some minor characters are BIPOC.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some comments by boys about girls being attractive. A man brings a girl who is bound and blindfolded to Jack’s room and hints that Jack is to have sex with the girl.

Spiritual Content
Some characters worship Elyon. It seems like this might be supposed to be a representation of Christianity. (The book is published by a Christian publisher.) The religion is pretty transactional. Characters earn supernatural gifts by fully committing to the faith. Jack must pass tests where he must master his fear and instead have faith. If a servant of Elyon goes to a forbidden place, they lose their supernatural abilities and eventually die. Jack’s sister made a kind of contract with Elyon– her life for his– and this means Jack must be the one to complete a mission she left unfinished.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some battle scenes involving gunfire. Jack witnesses a political protestor murdered by police in the street. Jack discovers a group of girls who are victims of human trafficking. All are bound and blindfolded.

Drug Content
Jack and his friends visit a club and drink alcohol. Jack takes a pill that a stranger hands him in passing. He reflects on his past as an addict and credits his sister with saving him.

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 HUNT FOR EDEN’S STAR in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Review: Going Dark by Melissa da la Cruz

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

Going Dark
Melissa de la Cruz
Union Square Co.
Published January 31, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Going Dark

“An intense rollercoaster of a thriller and a searing indictment of which victims get our attention and sympathy.”
–#1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Marie Lu

In this ripped-from-the-headlines GONE GIRL meets A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz weaves a white-knuckle YA thriller about a beautiful young influencer who vanishes after going on vacation with her boyfriend.

#WhereisAmeliaAshley

The Influencer
Amelia Ashley shares everything with her followers – her favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants, her best fashion tips, and her European trip-of-a-lifetime with her hot boyfriend.

The Boyfriend
Josh has no choice but to return home without Amelia after she abandons him in Rome. He has no clue where she went or how her blood got in his suitcase. Why won’t anyone believe him?

The Hacker
To Harper Delgado, Amelia Ashley is just another missing white girl whipping up a media frenzy. But with each digital knot she untangles about the influencer, Harper wonders: who is Amelia Ashley?

The Other Girl
Two years ago, another girl went missing, one who never made headlines or had a trending hashtag.

The Truth
Amelia’s disappearance has captured the world’s attention. What comes next? Watch this space…

Told through a mixture of social media posts, diary entries, and firsthand accounts, GOING DARK is a gripping, suspenseful thriller about all the missing girls who fall off the radar, perfect for true crime fans and readers of ONE OF US IS LYING by Karen M. McManus.

My Review

I read this book really, really fast. I think I read the first 150 pages in under two hours? That’s unbelievably fast for me. It’s not easy to write in a way that can be consumed so quickly, so I feel like that in and of itself shows some big storytelling ability.

I can definitely see the comparison to ONE OF US IS LYING. GOING DARK had that same kind of danger-around-every-corner, clues-dropping-any-minute intensity. It was so easy to get swept away in the mystery and in trying to piece together all the clues. I loved that part of it.

The only thing I can say in terms of anything I wish had been different is that I wish the story hadn’t begun with Josh’s point of view. I can see why it had to, though. Once the story began introducing other perspectives, I was totally hooked.

I liked the thoughtful way the story explored how some missing persons cases can become big headlines while others don’t get enough attention from media and police. I also loved the relationship between sisters in the book. (You know I love sister stories!)

All in all, I really enjoyed reading GOING DARK, and I definitely think fans of Karen McManus or Courtney Summers would enjoy this book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Harper is a Brown girl. Mignon and her sister are Chinese on their dad’s side.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
A girl sees and talks to another girl who isn’t there. She knows the other girl isn’t real but takes comfort in being able to speak with her.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of a boy acting possessively and in a controlling way. In one scene someone describes holding someone down against their will, killing them. A girl is stabbed in the stomach.

Drug Content
A group drinks wine at a house in Italy. They’re all of legal drinking age.

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 GOING DARK in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Author Q&A with Bookerlunds Taya and Nathan Okerlund

Author Interview, Book Review and Content, Middle Grade 8-12, News and Fun, , , , , ,

Author Q&A with Bookerlunds Taya and Nathan Okerlund

I knew from the moment that I first read about this book that I would request to review it. The book description and email from the author were so cleverly worded and in such a great voice! I couldn’t resist. So, I was even more thrilled when the authors offered to let me host them for a Q&A post.

If you haven’t checked out my review of NEVER LORE, please pop over there either before or after reading this post because if you like fantasy adventure middle grade books, you do NOT want to miss this one.

Let’s get to the Q&A with the Bookerlunds!

1. I find that a story was often inspired by a question. Was there a question that inspired you?

Never Lore is a spy story and spy stories are full of deceit. Early on in my career, after receiving my security clearance, I learned about people who could avoid detection in their lies by being strictly factual, without a hint of honesty. Honesty is a nuanced thing and the way adults typically model it for children, it can be kind of hard to crack. I raised a number of questions for kids to think about in this story. I hope I used enough restraint in not answering all of them for the reader. It’s a fact, I come down on the side of truth, but a story won’t really resonate when it lies to you. And I wouldn’t do that.

2. Who is your favorite character? Are there things about your favorite character which couldn’t be included in NEVER LORE?

Annabelle was partly inspired by my fearless niece. In fact, her name is Annabelle. She’s pretty grown up now, but wow was she a firecracker when she was nine! So many stories about that kid! So many broken bones! Is she up to eight or nine? I’m not sure I captured her with quite the same spirit, but I gave it a go!

3. What was the most difficult thing about writing NEVER LORE?

This book was at least six years in the making. While it is crucial to follow the rules of story craft and to accept feedback, an author can lose her way by caring too much about what someone else thinks of her book. This one took me time to find the all-important-element that no story expert can give a writer—Voice. 

4. Is there a scene or moment in your novel that really sticks with you? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

I still love the night hyena scene. My daughter was only four when I began writing Never. At the time, we watched quite a few nature documentaries together, and there was this episode where an injured mother hyena was turned out of her pack with her babies. The little exiles didn’t make it, and it gutted my little girl to see this, so she asked me to put hyenas in the story. I wrote up the scene, and thought it was pretty good, until my husband got hold of it and proceeded to set it on fire! It’s still my favorite scene, mostly because it’s the product of our whole family collaborating together.

5. What was the most challenging thing you had to overcome as a writing team in order to finish NEVER LORE?

I don’t like to talk about this, because it’s still tender to me, but I went through years of painful disability and a slow and painful healing process before I was able to both finish and see Never through to publication.

6. What do you most hope readers take away from your novel?

I hope readers have a great adventure! As a bonus, I hope they will sometimes think about hard questions like: what is a lie? What is the truth? And in either case—what happens next?

7. What is one question about your novel you are often asked by readers?

As I mentioned, Never was a bit of a family project, and so people might wonder what or who BOOKERLUNDS is. Our family name is Okerlund. So we added a couple of letters and thought we were being clever. In any case, we are definitely bookish people.

About Bookerlunds Taya and Nathan Okerlund

Facebook | Instagram | Website

The Bookerlunds are an author team composed of Taya and Nathan Okerlund and their daughter Mimi. (Mimi made meaningful contributions to this book by insisting that hyenas make it into the manuscript.) And we’re glad she did.

Nathan is a neuroscientist who works in a laboratory at the University of Utah, studying model organisms such as nematodes to try to unlock the mysteries of neuro degeneration, or declines in the functioning of the brain. He has published a lot of papers before in peer reviewed journals, but this is his first work of fiction.

Taya is a multi award-winning author of SHIN and other novels. NEVER LORE is her first middle-grade novel.

About Never Lore: Journey to Mt. Smolder

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

NOTICE: Explosive content contained within. (Rebel boys and indomitable girls have always been a combustible combination.)

All the signs of Fairy’s unraveling were there: a strict rationing of pixie dust; the disappearance of a magical species; a reckless reliance on spies plucked from human orphanages. Annabelle was no orphan. Her father was perhaps the most infamous man in Childerbridge-and she’d never live down the shame of it, though she’d also never accept that the charges against him were true-not most of the time. 

She’ll have to go to the end of Never to prove what is true…about Never itself, about her father, and her own work-worn self.

Review: The Paper Daughters of Chinatown (Adapted for Young Readers) by Heather B. Moore and Allison Hong Merrill

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Historical, Middle Grade 8-12, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

The Paper Daughters of Chinatown (Adapted for Young Readers)
Heather B. Moore and Allison Hong Merrill
Shadow Mountain
Published April 11, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Paper Daughters of Chinatown

Based on the true story of two friends who unite to help rescue immigrant women and girls in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the late 1890s.

When Tai Choi leaves her home in the Zhejiang province of China, she believes it’s to visit her grandmother. But despite her mother’s opposition, her father has sold her to pay his gambling debts. Alone and afraid, Tai Choi is put on a ship headed for “Gold Mountain” (San Francisco). When she arrives, she’s forced to go by the name on her forged papers: Tien Fu Wu.

Her new life as a servant is hard. She is told to stay hidden, stay silent, and perform an endless list of chores, or she will be punished or sold again. If she is to survive, Tien Fu must persevere, and learn who to trust. Her life changes when she’s rescued by the women at the Occidental Mission Home for Girls.

When Dolly Cameron arrives in San Francisco to teach sewing at the mission home, she meets Tien Fu, who is willful, defiant, and unwilling to trust anyone. Dolly quickly learns that all the girls at the home were freed from servitude and maltreatment, and enthusiastically accepts a role in rescuing more.

Despite challenges, Dolly and Tien Fu forge a powerful friendship as they mentor and help those in the mission home and work to win the freedom of enslaved immigrant women and girls.

My Review

First let me say that this was a really easy book to read. It took less than 24 hours to finish it, and I’d guess it took me something like two and a half hours to read.

I really liked that so much of the story is told from Tien Fu Wu’s perspective, even though her story is heartbreaking. I liked getting to follow her through her recovery to the point where she decided to help rescue other girls and where she was able to use her own experience to understand how to comfort other girls.

All I can say about Dolly Cameron is that she must have been truly a force to be reckoned with. I loved the way her friendship with Tien Fu Wu developed and the growth they both experienced along the way.

I haven’t read the adult version of this book, so I don’t know what content was removed. One of the things I wish this book had given a little more background information on was why the president and his wife visited the mission home. I wanted to understand how that happened. How did they know about the mission, and was there something that prompted them to visit?

Other than that, I thought the book did a great job describing the lives of girls like Tien Fu Wu and the obstacles that Dolly Cameron and the women at the mission faced in order to help them.

I think readers who enjoy books about history will definitely want to check this one out. The writing style seems more like narrative nonfiction, but it’s classified as a novel. Something about it reminded me of a book called LI JUN AND THE IRON ROAD by Anne Tait.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Tien Fu Wu and some other characters are Chinese. Dolly is white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Vague references to brothels. One scene discusses a girl forced to work as a prostitute. (The book doesn’t describe what this means.)

Spiritual Content
Dolly and other characters are Christian. Some of the Chinese women they rescue convert to Christianity, though they are not required to do so. Dolly and the other leaders also include traditional Chinese culture and language in the lessons at the school.

Violent Content
Brief descriptions of abuse. For example, Tien Fu Wu’s owner burned her face with a hot poker and pinched her arms, leaving bruises.

Drug Content
As they walk the streets, sometimes characters smell opium being smoked in the buildings nearby.

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 PAPER DAUGHTERS OF CHINATOWN in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.