Tag Archives: amnesia

Review: Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,
Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho

Aisle Nine
Ian X. Cho
HarperCollins
Published September 24, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Aisle Nine

“It’s Black Friday—and the apocalypse is on sale!

Ever since the world filled with portals to hell and bloodthirsty demons started popping out on the reg, Jasper’s life has gotten worse and worse. A teenage nobody with no friends or family, he is plagued by the life he can’t remember and the person he’s sure he’s supposed to be.

Jasper spends his days working as a checkout clerk at the Here For You discount mart, where a hell portal in aisle nine means danger every shift. But at least here he can be near the girl he’s crushing on—Kyle Kuan, a junior member of the monster-fighting Vanguard—who seems to hate Jasper for reasons he can’t remember or understand.

But when Jasper and Kyle learn they both share a frightening vision of the impending apocalypse, they’re forced to team up and uncover the uncomfortable truth about the hell portals and the demons that haunt the world. Because the true monsters are not always what they seem, the past is not always what we wish, and like it or not, on Black Friday, all hell will break loose in aisle nine.

Perfect for fans of Grasshopper Jungle or The Last of Us comes Aisle Nine, the debut young adult novel from rising YA star lan X. Cho.

My Review

Reading a book about the apocalypse that’s weird and funny was a lot of fun. This isn’t the kind of book I’d normally find myself drawn to. The balance of humor and high-stakes drama of the apocalypse definitely had me intrigued.

Jasper’s amnesia made him an interesting character in that he continued to look for clues about his previous life. His nightmares about the portals, his relationship with Lara, the cat-who-is-not-a-cat, and his awkward connection to Kyle offer a lot of threads for him to unravel as the story progresses.

While some of the moments of tension resolve quickly, the story rockets Jasper into one dangerous situation after another. I found it easy to keep reading from one chapter to another. The book is also on the shorter side of young adult fantasy, at 260 pages.

I think readers who enjoy apocalyptic stories paired with humor, especially in the cast of goofy characters, will love this one. It reminds me of the end-of-the-world movies from the 90s.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Kyle’s parents are from Taiwan.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some f-bombs and profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Portals from the abyss have opened up at various points worldwide. These are often referred to as portals from hell, and the monsters that emerge are referred to as demons. Four powerful beings are referred to as the horsemen (a reference to the four horsemen of the apocalypse from the Bible.) Beyond the use of those names, there’s no real connection to Christian theology.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some scenes include graphic violence as monsters attack people and soldiers fight back. The monsters sometimes have an almost comical appearance. At other times, they more closely resemble nightmare material.

Drug Content
In one scene, a mercenary reports that soldiers are often required to take medication meant to combat narcolepsy when they work long shifts. Someone else takes it to stay awake while they work.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher

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

Never Never (Never Never 1-3)
Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher
Hoover Ink, Inc
Published July 25, 2016

Amazon | Goodreads

About Never Never

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Hopeless joins forces with the New York Times bestselling author of Mud Vein. Together, they have created a gripping, romantic tale unlike any other. “How odd to be made of flesh, balanced on bone, and filled with a soul you’ve never met.”

Charlize Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They’ve been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning…they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love…every memory has vanished. “I don’t care what our real first kiss was,” he says. “That’s the one I want to remember.”

Charlize and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be…the more they question why they were ever together to begin with.

“I want to remember what it feels like to love someone like that. And not just anyone. I want to know what it feels like to love Charlie.”

My Review

Originally this book was released as three individual novellas. I read at least the first one when it came out, but I’d never finished the rest of the series until now. I’d been feeling pretty worn out and just wanted an easy read, so I picked up the e-book of the complete series of NEVER NEVER.

While it’s an easy read, and I enjoyed that, I struggled with some elements of the story. I felt like the romance kind of glorifies a pushy guy who doesn’t listen to his girlfriend and rationalizes that behavior as evidence that he loves her so much. That tends to make me uncomfortable in a story because it’s a red flag for a possible abusive relationship.

I liked that Charlie and Silas both face this constant time deadline, where their memories will reset, so they have to figure out how to leave clues for themselves or how to build on what they learned the last time with higher tension as they get closer to a reset.

On the whole, I am glad I finished the series– it’s one that I would think about now and then because I’d left it unfinished. So I’m glad I know how it ends. I feel like the themes and some of the ways Silas and Charlie relate to each other may have been more common or idealized at the time the book came out. I felt like Silas’s pushiness interfered with my ability to invest in the romance, so it was a bit of a miss for me in that respect.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Brief racial slur. Strong profanity used frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Sex between a boy and girl. Kissing and sexual situations. In one scene, a school guidance counselor tries to kiss a student she’s been having an affair with. (No mention of this being abusive in terms of her position, even though she uses her job to get him alone with her, even when he doesn’t want to be.) In another scene, a girl tells a boy he can’t touch her a certain way and he proceeds to try to do it anyway. The text treats this as kind of a “boys will be boys” sort of activity.

Spiritual Content
List.

Violent Content
Silas gets into several fistfights. References to bullying behavior. Charlie calls a girl she has a history of picking on “objectively ugly”. Charlie is held in a small room she at first believes is a mental hospital where she’s drugged.

Drug Content
Charlie’s mom is an alcoholic and can’t take care of Charlie or her sister. Charlie is held in a small room she at first believes is a mental hospital where she’s drugged.

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

Review: The Lost City by Amanda Hocking

Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

The Lost City (The Omte Origins #1)
Amanda Hocking
Wednesday Books
Published July 7, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About The Lost City

Nestled along the bluffs of the forested coast lays the secret kingdom of the Omte—a realm filled with wonder…and as many secrets.

Ulla Tulin was left abandoned in an isolated Kanin city as a baby, taken in by strangers and raised hidden away like many of the trolls of mixed blood. Even knowing this truth, she’s never stopped wondering about her family.

When Ulla is offered an internship working alongside the handsome Pan Soriano at the Mimirin, a prestigious institution, she jumps at the chance to use this opportunity to hopefully find her parents. All she wants is to focus on her job and the search for her parents, but all of her attempts to find them are blocked when she learns her mother may be connected to the Omte royal family.

With little progress made, Ulla and Pan soon find themselves wrapped up in helping Eliana, an amnestic girl with abilities unlike any they have ever seen before—a girl who seems to be running from something. To figure out who she is they must leave the city, and possibly, along the way, they may learn more about Ulla’s parents.

My Review

The last books I read by Amanda Hocking were in her Watersong series, about a cursed group of Sirens, so this book is a lot different!

Ulla and her friends are trolls– which seem to be very much like humans except in skin color and some features. Some tribes also have magic. One tribe is characterized by asymmetrical facial features.

On her internship, Ulla learns lots about the history and lore of various troll tribes and some of the politics between them. She’s curious about her mother, and hopes the resources available during her internship will help Ulla find her.

Though it’s populated with mythical creatures, THE LOST CITY is set squarely in our world with mentions of cell phones, fashion, familiar food, etc. I think this is something this author does well. She creates a familiar landscape and then tells an otherworldly story in it. I find that I really like those two things juxtaposed together.

This is a bit of a slower story, though. There are lots of tribes, lots of history. Many descriptions of food and furniture. Lots of conversations about those things. And lots of troll politics.

I felt like Ulla’s goal (finding her mom) kind of gets diluted with helping Eliana and her feelings toward Pan. That kind of made the level of action in the story feel flat at times rather than rising.

Despite that, I really liked the cast of characters. Ulla is great, of course. Her roommate, Dagny, an aloof, highly intelligent warrior-type, might be my favorite. Pan is sweet and funny.

Ulla’s search for her mom in a fragmented, politically volatile landscape makes for an interesting story, peppered with a variety of great characters. I think readers who enjoyed THE GOBLIN EMPEROR by Katherine Addison or HAVENFALL by Sara Holland will want to check out this book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Ulla’s roommate is asexual. Most characters are trolls.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some feelings of attraction between Pan and Ulla.

Spiritual Content
Some reference to troll and Norse folklore.

Violent Content
Assailants knock a girl unconscious.

Drug Content
Ulla drinks too much peach wine at a festival.

Note: I received a free copy of THE LOST CITY in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Mini Reviews: Never Never Part 1 and Reprieve

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Fantasy, Lists, News and Fun, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Never, Never (Part 1) by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher / Hoover Ink

I stumbled across this series of novellas on Amazon. Of the three parts, I’ve only read Part 1. It basically seems like a novel broken into three pieces. The whole series is available as a bundle for $2.99, which is a pretty great deal.

In terms of the story, it was definitely a wild ride. There’s a lot of romantic tension and some sexual content (main characters watch a video that includes a sex scene, thought it’s dark and only sounds are described) and brief violence. I was really hooked by the idea that both characters have lost their memories and are scrambling both to pretend they’ve got things under control/run their lives as if nothing’s wrong but also figure out what made them lose their memories. It’s clear something sinister happened, and we don’t know if our protags are good guys or bad guys. Will I read part 2? Possibly. I’m definitely curious about the story. Not curious enough to bump it ahead of the rest of my TBR list, though, so for now it’ll have to wait.

Inherit the Stars: Reprieve by Tessa Elwood/Running Press

After falling face-first in love with Inherit the Stars (read my review), I HAD to read this short story featuring Asa and her sister Wren (who is unconscious in Inherit the Stars.) I’ve read short stories by authors whose novels I love and been disappointed by the lack of structure (short fiction is not as easy as you think), but this was not the case with Elwood’s tale. The writing was powerful and the characters really moving. I loved having that chance to see Wren and Asa interact with one another, to have that real-time look at how their relationship worked. It only strengthened my understanding of Asa’s motives in Inherit the Stars. If you liked the novel, I recommend the short story. If you haven’t read the novel, check out the short story. It’s free, and you’ll get a really good feel for the narrative in the full-length novel. Update: I can’t seem to find a good link for the short story online. I think I got it on Amazon, but I don’t see it there now. Check out the Goodreads page and see if maybe it gets updated to show it posted somewhere else?