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Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1)
Alan Bradley
Delacorte Press
Published April 24, 2009

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About The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.

For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

My Review

A long time ago, after I reviewed and enjoyed a mystery featuring a young narrator, someone suggested the Flavia de Luce series to me. I borrowed THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE from the library but only got maybe halfway through before having to return it. I liked what I’d read, but got sidetracked by other things and didn’t pick it up again until now.

Flavia is spunky and whip-smart. She has an interesting relationship with her two older sisters which mostly consists of giving each other a hard time and playing tricks on one another. There’s an undercurrent of protectiveness and caring in there, too. Sort of the only-I-can-mess-with-my-sister type of thing. It was kind of sweet.

I thought Flavia cleverly followed the thread of the mystery, having her own child-like moments here and there between highly analytical research, experiments and deductions. I feel like it should have been harder to believe that she’s eleven years old, but for some reason, I wasn’t really bothered by that as I was reading.

One section shows her listening to a long recounting of her father’s life at school. It’s interesting because it’s some of the only real interaction we see between them, but it goes on for a long time and sort of shifts the focus of the story to be about him from there on out.

Another thing to note is that there are a couple of racially insensitive (at best) situations or comments in the story. I’ve listed them below in the contents. To be honest, these are the kinds of things I have the most trouble with as a reviewer. This book is set in the 1950s and published in 2009 (which isn’t that long ago). I feel like the face-painting and Flavia’s comment could have been easily left out. They may have been historically accurate representations of ideas at the time, but including them feels insensitive to me, and none of them were critical to the story.

I enjoyed the mystery elements, and felt like the characters are believable and interesting. I wish it hadn’t included those few references.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Takes place in England.

Flavia’s father and a friend had a performance routine in which they dressed up as a Chinese man using make-up and an unflattering accent. Flavia later makes an off-hand comment about colonization “civilizing” the indigenous people– though it’s unclear if she says this sarcastically. These things may have been historically accurate representations of feelings and behavior at the time the story takes place, but are at the least racially insensitive and prejudiced.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Flavia sees a young man kiss a young woman.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content – Trigger warning for bullying, suicide and murder.
Flavia is the youngest of three sisters, and her older sisters boss her around and bully her sometimes. Flavia also commits pranks against her sisters. She also learns of a student her father knew who was bullied.

Description of a man throwing himself from a rooftop. Flavia discovers the body of a stranger in the garden who appears to have been murdered.

Contains situations of peril. Two scenes show Flavia tied up and locked away.

Drug Content
Adults drink alcohol socially.

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Review: A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

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A Reaper at the Gates (An Ember in the Ashes #3)
Sabaa Tahir
Razorbill
Published June 12, 2018

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About A Reaper at the Gates

Beyond the Empire and within it, the threat of war looms ever larger.

The Blood Shrike, Helene Aquilla, is assailed on all sides. Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable, while the Commandant capitalizes on his madness to bolster her own power. As Helene searches for a way to hold back the approaching darkness, her sister’s life and the lives of all those in the Empire hang in the balance.

Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court, but in stopping the Nightbringer. But while hunting for a way to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would aid her, and is drawn into a battle she never thought she’d have to fight.

And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that will stop at nothing to ensure Elias’s devotion–even at the cost of his humanity.

My Review

This might be my favorite book in the series. I loved Helene’s point-of-view. Of all the characters facing all the situations, I felt the most moved by her story– especially her love for her sister and Harper.

Which isn’t to say I loved Laia and Elias any less in this book. I think one of the things I like so much about the series as a whole is how much Laia has grown. At the beginning of the first book she could barely stand in the presence of soldiers. Now she’s about to lead the rebellion against the whole empire. And I find her transformation totally believable.

I also love that this is such a female-centric story. Yes, we have Elias and the Nightbringer and some other male characters here and there. But when you stop and think about the critical story characters, so many of them are female: Laia, Helene, Cook, the Commandant. Every single one of those is an absolute force. I love it so much.

The only truly difficult thing for me in these books is the level of violence. It’s a lot. There are references to and threats of rape (not so much in this book, but in the first for sure), some scenes showing torture and graphic battle violence. So it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.

On the whole, I’ve really enjoyed the first three books in the series (see the links to my earlier reviews below.), and I’m super anxious to read the final story, A SKY BEYOND THE STORM, which is supposed to come in December of this year.

An Ember in the Ashes Series Reviews

Book One: An Ember in the Ashes

Book Two: A Torch Against the Night

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Laia has bronze skin and dark hair and is from an oppressed and often enslaved people called Scholars.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. One scene shows two characters leading up to sex.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning
Emperor Marcus continues to abuse his wife, Helene’s sister, hurting her and threatening to hurt her if Helene doesn’t deliver the results he wants. Multiple graphic battle scenes. Scenes involving torture. A woman kills her husband and child to spare them from being tortured further.

Spiritual Content
The Nightbringer uses magic to heal or manipulate others. Another character uses magic to heal. Elias is tasked with helping ghosts pass through to another place. Some ghosts possess humans and attack others. Augers relay prophesies about certain characters. Other spirit creatures, ifrits and jinn, try to stop Laia and her allies. Another character uses spirits to spy for him.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer

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Heartless
Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends
Published November 8, 2016

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About Heartless

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.

Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. 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 an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

Long before she was the terror of Wonderland—the infamous Queen of Hearts—she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.

My Review

A couple people I know LOVE this book, but I’ve put off reading it for a long time, in part because I knew it would be sad. And it absolutely is a sad story.

But it’s also packed with amazing characters and loads of whimsy and hope for impossible things, and I so loved every moment of that. I loved Cath’s passion for baking and her inspiration with varying flavors, and the dreams that spawned lemon trees and roses in her room. The tea party and the ball and the ridiculous king and his court. Hatta and Haigha. Jest and Cath. There’s just so much to love.

So… yep. I’m a huge fan, even despite the fact that it’s a terrible time to read a sad book. The journey through the story was so much fun and so beautifully done that I would read it all over again.

If you liked CINDER, in that you liked a reimagined fairy tale world with vibrant characters and soaring adventure, I definitely recommend HEARTLESS.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
One brief reference to a man being in love with another man.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Some magic. Three sisters guard a well with healing powers and issue prophesies about the future.

Violent Content
Some situations of peril. A fierce monster attacks at a party. References to a war in the kingdom of Chess. Two characters are beheaded with an ax. (It’s not graphically described in either instance.)

Drug Content
None.

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Review: The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

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The Guinevere Deception (Camelot Rising #1)
Kiersten White
Delacorte Press
Published November 5, 2019

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About The Guinevere Deception

From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes a new fantasy series reimagining the Arthurian legend, set in the magical world of Camelot.

There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom’s borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution–send in Guinevere to be Arthur’s wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king’s idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere’s real name–and her true identity–is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old–including Arthur’s own family–demand things continue as they have been, and the new–those drawn by the dream of Camelot–fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land. Arthur’s knights believe they are strong enough to face any threat, but Guinevere knows it will take more than swords to keep Camelot free.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

My Review

THIS is the female-centered Arthur retelling that I’ve been waiting for. I remember loving the idea of taking the legend of King Arthur and retelling it from a female point-of-view when I first heard about the book CURSED by Thomas Wheeler. CURSED tells the story of Arthur’s rise from the point-of-view of a Druid woman who becomes the Lady of the Lake. It was a cool book, cool idea, but the level of violence and focus on battles were a struggle for me.

So I left that book feeling like I still hadn’t seen a female-centered retelling that appealed to me. And then I found this book. Oh. My. Gosh.

I feel like one thing the book does really well is to deliver the sense of magic and honor and awe that other tales of Camelot and King Arthur inspire. King Arthur, though he’s not the main character, retains that visionary, every-man’s-king-ness that I think of as really essential to his character. Camelot also has this shiny, fairy-tale quality to it that I didn’t realize I hoped for.

By far the most amazing thing about this book, to me, is the way the female characters own the story. It’s wholly Guinevere’s tale. She’s the hero, the one piecing things together to uncover threats to the kingdom. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that eventually, there will be a face-off between Guinevere and a Dark Queen, a force of evil magic. I loved that even in this, the story focuses on its ladies.

There are a couple of female side characters who added a lot to the story, too, but I don’t want to say too much about them, because I don’t want to give any spoilers. Just know that there is a lot to look forward to in the cast of this book.

This is the first book by Kiersten White that I’ve read, and I loved the storytelling and the writing enough that now I want to read everything she has ever written. I think this is going to be a series you need to read in order, so I do recommend starting with this book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Characters are mainly white/English. One side character is a lesbian. Another side character says that when she dresses as a woman, it feels like a lie, so she dresses as a man.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Brief strong profanity and crude language. Mainly it’s used to describe what Camelot was when Arthur became king. Sewage flowed in the streets and some of the street names reflected this fact. Then Arthur arranged for a group of kids to collect everyone’s chamber pots and empty them away from the streets.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Reference to a girl in love with another girl. Some vague reference to sex/pregnancy and how quickly Guinevere will provide Arthur an heir.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to do magic. Guinevere mainly uses what she calls knot magic, where she literally ties knots for protection and other purposes. She can also touch things and have a sense of their identity and where they’ve come from. A Dark Queen intends to use magic to destroy civilization. Magic is chaos. Arthur’s rule is order. The two cannot exist together.

Violent Content
Some battle violence. Guinevere meets a man who was accused of raping more than one woman. He suggests that he would like to do the same to her.

Drug Content
Social drinking at dinner and parties.

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Review: Into the Silent Land by Martin Laird

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Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplative Prayer
Martin Laird
Oxford University Press
Published July 1, 2006

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About Into the Silent Land

Sitting in stillness, the practice of meditation, and the cultivation of awareness are commonly thought to be the preserves of Hindus and Buddhists. Martin Laird shows that the Christian tradition of contemplation has its own refined teachings on using a prayer word to focus the mind, working with the breath to cultivate stillness, and the practice of inner vigilance or awareness. But this book is not a mere historical survey of these teachings. In Into the Silent Land, we see the ancient wisdom of both the Christian East and West brought sharply to bear on the modern-day longing for radical openness to God in the depths of the heart.

Laird’s book is not like the many presentations for beginners. While useful for those just starting out, this book serves especially as a guide for those who desire to journey yet deeper into the silence of God. The heart of the book focuses on negotiating key moments of struggle on the contemplative path, when the whirlwind of distractions or the brick wall of boredom makes it difficult to continue. Laird shows that these inner struggles, even wounds, that any person of prayer must face, are like riddles, trying to draw out of us our own inner silence. Ultimately Laird shows how the wounds we loathe become vehicles of the healing silence we seek, beyond technique and achievement.

Throughout the language is fresh, direct, and focused on real-life examples of people whose lives are incomparably enriched by the practice of contemplation.

My Review

If I had to name the one book that’s changed my life most this year, INTO THE SILENT LAND has to be it. More than any year before, I’ve struggled with anxiety. Sometimes I get amped up with worry or anger or fear and I can feel my body reacting– heart racing, head pounding, my breathing coming rapidly– and I feel stuck, like I can’t back myself down to a calmer state.

Which is why I looked into this book. I’ve read about and briefly practiced meditation before, but this time I wanted something that integrated with my faith beliefs and practice as well.

The book description says that the writing is fresh and direct. I’d add that it’s also a bit of a difficult read. Like, have your dictionary handy, o ye mortals. Ha. No, seriously, it’s not impossible to read, but you’re not going to skim through this text in an afternoon.

It’s so worth reading, though. I feel like this is a practice that’s made a huge amount of difference in my life. It’s been super helpful in terms of managing stress and anxiety and helping remind me that my faith is a source of comfort.

At any rate, if you’re looking for a Christian meditation practice, I highly recommend this book. It’s a bit structured, but that’s one of the things I really like about it. It feels like cutting away the frills of some religious practice and just going back to a very simple thing. I found that to be really beautiful and helpful, but as faith is a super personal experience, I’m sure it’s not going to be a good fit for everyone.

Please let me know if you’ve read this book or others on meditative prayer. (It looks like Martin Laird has two other books on the subject.) I’d love to read more or talk to someone else who’s read INTO THE SILENT LAND.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Written by an Augustinian friar (a mendicant order of the Catholic church).

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Discusses bible and historical references to the Christian practice of meditative prayer.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Mary Underwater by Shannon Doleski

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Mary Underwater
Shannon Doleski
Amulet
Published April 7, 2020

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

About Mary Underwater

Mary Murphy feels like she’s drowning. Her violent father is home from prison, and the social worker is suspicious of her new bruises. An aunt she’s never met keeps calling. And if she can’t get a good grade on her science project, she’ll fail her favorite class.

But Mary doesn’t want to be a victim anymore. She has a plan: build a real submarine, like the model she’s been making with Kip Dwyer, the secretly sweet class clown.

Gaining courage from her heroine, Joan of Arc, Mary vows to pilot a sub across the Chesapeake Bay, risking her life in a modern crusade to save herself.

Mary Underwater is an empowering tale of persistence, heroism, and hope from a luminous new voice in middle-grade fiction.

My Review

Special thanks to Dahlia Adler from LGBTQReads for inviting authors to list their debut novels in a thread on her Twitter account, which I think is how I learned about this book.

The cover and description of MARY UNDERWATER totally had me hooked. I am super interested in stories that show young women and STEM, and a girl building a submarine seemed too cool to pass up.

This book has so many things I love. I love Mary’s character. The way her timidity blossoms into confidence. The celebration of St. Joan of Arc both in her narrative and in biographical snippets between chapters. I love the relationships between Mary and her teachers, Sister Eu and Mr. Fen, and her mentor, Ford. I love the way her aunt steps into her life, building a safe relationship, and encouraging Mary, but also talking straight.

I read MARY UNDERWATER in one sitting because I couldn’t stop. Without meaning to, I pretty much one-more-chaptered myself all the way to the end and I have zero regrets about that. It’s a heartwarming, inspiring story, with a strong, positive representation of both women and faith. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that combination done so well before, and I really, truly loved it.

I think readers who enjoyed THE QUEEN BEE AND ME by Gillian McDunn or CHIRP by Kate Messner absolutely need to read this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Mary’s aunt has a female partner.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
References to cursing.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Mary attends a Catholic school and makes lots of references to the nuns praying. She also takes courage from the story of St. Joan of Arc and imagines herself being brave as she was. Mary prays the Hail Mary prayer while distressed.

Violent Content – Possible trigger warning for domestic violence
Mary and her mother have bruises from her father abusing them. The abuse happens off-scene. Her father also breaks something important to Mary and attacks one of her friends. (Both these incidents happen off-scene.)

Drug Content
Mary’s dad drinks a lot of alcohol.

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