Review: Brighter Than the Moon by David Valdes

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,
Brighter Than the Moon by David Valdes

Brighter Than the Moon
David Valdes
Bloomsbury YA
Published January 10, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Brighter Than the Moon

Shy foster kid Jonas and self-assured vlogger Shani met online, and so far, that’s where their relationship has stayed, sharing memes and baring their souls from behind their screens. Shani is eager to finally meet up, but Jonas isn’t so sure–he’s not confident Shani will like the real him . . . if he’s even sure who that is.

Jonas knows he’s trapped himself in a lie with Shani–and wants to dig himself out. But Shani, who’s been burned before, may not give him a chance: she talks her best friend Ash into playing spy and finding out the truth. When Ash falls for Jonas, too, he keeps that news from Shani, and soon they’re all keeping secrets. Will it matter that their hearts are in the right place? Coming clean will require them to figure out who they really are, which is no easy task when all the pieces of your identity go beyond easy boxes and labels.

Lauded writer David Valdes offers a heartfelt, clever, and thought-provoking story about how we figure out who we want to be–online and IRL–for fans of David Levithan and Adam Silvera.

My Review

It’s kind of rare for a story to be told in three points of view the way this one is. I love that it’s third person, present tense. That made everything feel close and immediate. I felt like the author did a great job balancing all three perspectives in the story, too. They all felt equally intimate even though they were three very different characters.

I read David Valdes’s debut, SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND, last year, and it was bursting with energy so much that I wasn’t sure how he would follow it up. BRIGHTER THAN THE MOON is a whole different story, and I love it just as much. The energy is different, but still really great. I love all three main characters.

The only thing that hit me weirdly was the way the online deception resolved. I’ve read a couple other catphishing type stories lately (NO FILTER AND OTHER LIES by Crystal Maldonado and TAKE A BOW, NOAH MITCHELL by Tobias Madden), so it might be that I’m worn on that trope right now? I don’t know. It seemed like Jonas and Shani both had big trust issues, and Ash seemed like he couldn’t help creating trust issues, so it was hard for me to imagine things working out quite the way they did?

Despite that, I really enjoyed so many things about this book, though. I loved the setting and all of the places mentioned– especially the coffee shop, Curious Liquids. I liked the community around each of the characters, too, especially Shani’s dad, and Ash’s friend from the coffee shop, Tee.

On the whole, I can totally see fans of Adam Silvera loving this book. If you love books about self-discovery and found family, BRIGHTER THAN THE MOON is one you should check out.

Content Notes for Brighter Than the Moon

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Jonas is a brown boy who is unsure of his background. He is in foster care. His foster mom is black. Shani’s mom was black and her dad is white. Ash is trans and his dad is Indian American and his mom is Iranian American. A minor character is also trans and another is a lesbian. Three characters are in a polyamorous relationship.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Characters experience attraction and think about kissing.

Spiritual Content
Shani attends church at Christmas. Characters attend a funeral service at a church. A singer performs “I Sing Because I’m Happy,” a song that deeply moves Shani, Ash, and Jonas.

Violent Content
None.

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 BRIGHTER THAN THE MOON in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Breakup From Hell by Ann Davila Cardinal

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Breakup From Hell
Ann Davila Cardinal
HarperTeen
Published January 3, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Breakup From Hell

Miguela Angeles is tired. Tired of her abuela keeping secrets, especially about her heritage. Tired of her small Vermont town and hanging out at the same places with the same friends she’s known forever. So when another boring Sunday trip to church turns into a run-in with Sam, a mysterious hottie in town on vacation, Mica seizes the opportunity to get closer to him.

It’s not long before she is under Sam’s spell and doing things she’s never done before, like winning all her martial arts sparring matches—and lying to her favorite people. The more time Mica spends with Sam, the more weird things start to happen, too. Like terrifying-visions-of-the-world-ending weird.

Mica’s gut instincts keep telling her something is off, yet Sam is the most exciting guy she’s ever met. But when Mica discovers his family’s roots, she realizes that instead of being in the typical high school relationship, she’s living in a horror novel.

She has to leave Sam, but will ending their relationship also bring an end to everything she knows and everyone she loves?

Clever, hilarious, and steeped in supernatural suspense, BREAKUP FROM HELL will keep you hooked until the last page.

My Review

This was a fun book to read. It’s got some suspense– the world may literally end if Mica and her friends can’t figure out how to stop it. But it’s also got a lot of fun banter between friends, a best friends to lovers thread, and a powerful main character with a strong connection to her mom and grandmother.

BREAKUP FROM HELL is set in a small Vermont town, which I also really liked. It feels very much like a small New England place, with a small downtown area filled with interesting shops and some surrounding farmland. I liked the way the story used the landscape at different points. It was kind of funny to see this quaint little town erupt with apocalyptic events.

I really liked the relationships between Mica and her friends, especially Zee and Rage. They were a loyal friend group with a very can-do approach to things. They stuck together and needed each other in order to piece everything together. I also loved Mica’s relationship with Abuela. They didn’t always see eye to eye, but they both loved each other so much, and ultimately wanted the best for one another. I thought Abuela’s notes on the fridge were fantastic.

All in all, I thought BREAKUP FROM HELL was a fun read, perfect for fans of paranormal books like BITTERWINE OATH by Hannah West.

Content Notes for Breakup From Hell

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Mica is Puerto Rican.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Mica learns that the boy she’s been dating has dark powers and dark spiritual connections. Some characters have supernatural abilities. Some items also have supernatural abilities. Evil creatures can’t come onto the sacred ground of a church or chapel. Mica and her friend witness an evil sacrifice.

Violent Content
Mica and her friend witness an evil sacrifice of a deer. Situations of peril. Brief battle violence. A powerful weapon vanquishes an evil character, turning them to ash.

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 BREAKUP FROM HELL in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Dark Testament: Blackout Poems by Crystal Simone Smith

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Dark Testament: Blackout Poems
Crystal Simone Smith
Henry Holt & Co/MacMillan
Published January 3, 2023

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About Dark Testament: Blackout Poems

In this extraordinary collection, the award-winning poet Crystal Simone Smith gives voice to the mournful dead, their lives unjustly lost to violence, and to the grieving chorus of protestors in today’s Black Lives Matter movement, in search of resilience and hope.

With poems found within the text of George Saunders’s LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, Crystal Simone Smith embarks on an uncompromising exploration of collective mourning and crafts a masterwork that resonates far beyond the page. These poems are visually stark, a gathering of gripping verses that unmasks a dialogue of tragic truths—the stories of lives taken unjustly and too soon.

Bold and deeply affecting, DARK TESTAMENT is a remarkable reckoning with our present moment, a call to action, and a plea for a more just future.

Along with the poems, DARK TESTAMENT includes a stirring introduction by the author that speaks to the content of the poetry, a Q&A with George Saunders, and a full-color photo-insert that commemorates victims of unlawful killings with photographs of memorials that have been created in their honor.

“I love this tremendously skillful, timely, and dazzling repurposing of passages of my novel, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. Crystal Simone Smith has, with her amazing ear and heart, found, in that earlier grief, a beautiful echo for our time.” —George Saunders, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO and TENTH OF DECEMBER.

My Review

I’m blown away by this book. Already, I feel like I need to read it again and let the words sit with me for a bit.

I’ve never read blackout poems before. For anyone also unfamiliar, these are poems that are made by removing some words from a page of text, leaving the words of the poem behind. Removed words are marked out with black boxes.

I also wasn’t familiar with the book that Crystal Simone Smith used to create her poems, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. I read the sample pages on Amazon and will probably buy the novel as well. It’s an unusual book and centers around grief, which made it a great book to create these poems from. I love the writing style.

So the poems. Each one is titled. Some titles are the names of Black victims of unlawful killings. Others refer to other individuals or groups. So many gripped me by the heart. The grief and shock come through so clearly.

I love the Q&A discussion between the poetry collection author and the author of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO that’s in the back of the book. I thought that conversation added a lot of context, and it was really cool to see one author support another’s work like that.

Another really cool thing about this collection is that the title was inspired by a poetry collection by Pauli Murray. Murray was an women’s rights and civil rights activist who did incredible work throughout her career. I’d never heard of her until this past year, and now it seems I see her name everywhere.

All in all, DARK TESTAMENT is an incredible tribute to the lives lost and to truth and justice. An incredible resource for school libraries and creative writing courses.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Primarily contains poems dedicated to Black victims of unlawful killing.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
References to death and dying. References to prayer, attending church, and to God.

Violent Content
References to death and dying.

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 DARK TESTAMENT in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel by Antonio Iturbe, Salva Rubio, and Loreto Aroca

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The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel
Antonio Iturbe
Illustrated by Loreto Aroca
Translated by Lilit Zekulin Thwaites
Adapted by Salva Rubio
Godwin Books/MacMillan
Published January 3, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Librarian of Auschwitz: The Graphic Novel

Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this graphic novel tells the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.

Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the librarian of Auschwitz.

Out of one of the darkest chapters of human history comes this extraordinary story of courage and hope.

My Review

From the very beginning, Dita is a brave, strong character. Her love for books runs from the first page to the last. She cares not only for the books during her time at Auschwitz, but also for her mother and her friends.

The illustrations in the book really bring the story to life. Several scenes got me all teared up. It was easy to feel Dita’s anguish over the death of her father and her friend. I also had chills as she acted quickly to hide books from Nazi soldiers during an inspection, an act that saved everyone in her block.

After the story finishes, there are some sections that explain more of the history and give facts about some of the important characters. I enjoyed reading that as well.

All in all, this is an incredibly inspiring story that makes me want to know more about Dita Kraus and her life. I noticed on Amazon that there’s an autobiography of her life, so I’ll probably pick that up and add it to my reading list, too.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Representation
The book is based on Dita Kraus, a Czechoslovakian Jewish woman who was imprisoned at Auschwitz as a teenager.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Nazi soldiers call a woman a slur.

Romance/Sexual Content
A couple panels show a crowd of people stripped naked waiting for showers. The images don’t really detail private areas. One panel shows a group of women (still naked from an inspection) hugging because their lives have been spared. A group of boys tease Dita and ask to touch her breasts.

Kiss between two men.

Spiritual Content
Inside Auschwitz, Dita and others celebrate Passover.

Violent Content
Some panels show soldiers abusing prisoners by hitting them. One soldier tattoos Dita’s arm with a series of numbers. Dita hears that nearly 4,000 prisoners, many of them children, are executed. Dita hears that a man she considered a friend has died by suicide. (She’s later told this isn’t true.)

Dita is forced to carry bodies of prisoners who’ve died. One panel shows her at a distance, standing next to a pit of the dead.

Drug Content
Dita hears rumors that a man overdosed on pills and died. Some people believed it was an accidental overdose from an addiction. Others believed he died by suicide.

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 LIBRARIAN OF AUSCHWITZ: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL in exchange for my honest review.

Review: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

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All My Rage
Sabaa Tahir
Razorbill
Published March 1, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About All My Rage

Lahore, Pakistan. Then.
Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Cloud’s Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start.

Juniper, California. Now.
Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding.

Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah’s health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever.

When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.

From one of today’s most cherished and bestselling young adult authors comes a breathtaking novel of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness—one that’s both tragic and poignant in its tender ferocity.

My Review

Well, if I thought Sabaa Tahir was going to go easier on her characters in a contemporary novel(versus fantasy), I was very much mistaken. Because, oh my gosh, the things Noor and Salahudin go through and have been through. Wow. I loved both of them right away. It took me longer to understand why Misbah’s point of view was part of the story. She begins in the long past and gives some context to some of Sal’s past and explains her husband’s alcoholism. But those sections continue into the present part of the story, too. Late in the book I realized how things connected and reading her point-of-view made a lot more sense then.

There’s one part, maybe roughly three quarters of the way through the book, where the story drops several big bombshells that I wasn’t prepared for. I mean, I wondered what the deal was with certain things, but didn’t know for sure that there was necessarily going to be more of an explanation. And then, bam. I felt like I was still reeling from that when another thing happened.

You know when you see a character doing something, and you’re like, “No. Bad idea. Stop!” Yeah, I definitely had that moment in this book. I’m like, this is a terrible idea, please do not do the thing you’re doing. This is going to go badly.

That only happens when I’m really invested in a book, though, so I feel like that’s clear evidence that ALL MY RAGE really hooked me. I think one of the most brilliant things about the book, besides its beautiful characters, is that the balance between rage and vulnerability is perfectly executed. I felt Noor’s rage with her. And it made perfect sense. She had every right to be angry. Also, I loved that she faced her anger, even when it was messy.

The ending of the story– no spoilers– really moved me, too. It resolved a lot of things in a way that felt both realistic and hopeful, and I love it for that.

All in all, I’m so glad I read this book. I was a big fan of AN EMBER IN THE ASHES, so I was really curious to see Sabaa Tahir write a contemporary story. The characters in EMBER are so strong, I had pretty high expectations for ALL MY RAGE. The book definitely exceeded my expectations. I loved it and definitely recommend it.

Content Notes

Content warning for reference to sexual assault, drug overdose, alcoholism, domestic violence, loss of a parent, earthquake, racism and Islamophobia.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Misbah and Noor were born in Pakistan and emigrated to the United States. Salahudin is Pakistani American. They are also Muslims.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Reference to arousal.

Reference to sexual assault, but without description.

Spiritual Content
Noor visits a mosque for prayer. Misbah and Salahudin reference prayer.

Violent Content
A man hits a teenager in the face. Brief description of a man and woman electrocuted to death. Graphic description of a man beating up a teenager.

Drug Content
A couple of characters sell drugs to other students. Sal’s dad is an alcoholic and is drunk in several scenes. Sal cares for him while he’s drunk and passed out. A girl overdoses on painkillers.

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

Review: Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell

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Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell
Tobias Madden
Page Street Kids
Published January 3, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell

There Are No Cheat Codes for Showmance

Seventeen-year-old gaymer Noah Mitchell only has one friend left: the wonderful, funny, strictly online-only MagePants69. After years playing RPGs together, they know everything about each other, except anything that would give away their real life identities. And Noah is certain that if they could just meet in person, they would be soulmates. Noah would do anything to make this happen—including finally leaving his gaming chair to join a community theater show that he’s only mostly sure MagePants69 is performing in. Noah has never done anything like theater—he can’t sing, he can’t dance, and he’s never willingly watched a musical—but he’ll have to go all in to have a chance at love.

With Noah’s mum performing in the lead role, and former friends waiting in the wings to sabotage his reputation, his plan to make MagePants69 fall in love with him might be a little more difficult than originally anticipated.

And the longer Noah waits to come clean, the more tangled his web of lies becomes. By opening night, he will have to decide if telling the truth is worth closing the curtain on his one shot at true love.

My Review

I absolutely loved Tobias Madden’s debut, ANYTHING BUT FINE, so I was really excited to read another of his books. ANYTHING BUT FINE had possibly the best frank and funny scenes about ballet that I’ve ever read. It also made me totally weep with grief. So good. (I’m pretty sure there’s an appearance by Luca, Amina and Jordan in this book, which was amazing.) Anyway.

So, TAKE A BOW, NOAH MITCHELL follows a reluctant theatre kid, and I have to say that one of my favorite things about the book was the way it celebrated but also poked loving fun at theatre and musicals. I loved that.

I also felt like the layering in the book was really good. Noah and his mom have a really rocky relationship. I thought the way that they sometimes miscommunicated or where their dramatic personalities clashed were really well done. Totally believable.

The relationship between Eli and Noah was cool, too. The timing of reading this book was a little awkward for me, since I just finished NO FILTER AND OTHER LIES by Crystal Maldonado not long before reading this one, and the plot has a lot of similarities to this one. I think that left me feeling like some of the tropes were not as fresh and interesting, but I think that’s probably just because I read both books so close together.

On the whole, I had a lot of fun reading this one, and I enjoyed the characters (especially Noah and Charly) and theatre scenes a lot.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Noah and some other characters are gay. BIPOC minor characters.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. References to sex. In one scene the boys plan to have sex and the scene follows the lead up to it. Noah walks in on a man and woman having sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Bullying. References to video game violence.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol. In one scene, a boy brings out a joint.

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 TAKE A BOW, NOAH MITCHELL in exchange for my honest review.