Tag Archives: BIPOC

Review: HoverGirls by Geneva Bowers

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,
HoverGirls by Geneva Bowers

HoverGirls
Geneva Bowers
Bloomsbury
Published August 6, 2024

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About HoverGirls

The web comic sensation about magical girls by acclaimed illustrator Geneva Bowers, now in a beautiful print edition, featuring an expanded storyline and revised art!

Jalissa and Kim Vasquez are cousins who move to the city of Los Aguaceros together. Kim dreams of becoming a famous model and fashion designer, while Jalissa is just trying to hold herself together after a breakdown the year before.

When a curious incident on the beach leaves them with supernatural powers and monsters start attacking the city, Kim decides that using their powers to stop them is the perfect way for them to become famous. But being heroes isn’t as easy as it seems–and Los Aquaceros is in more danger than they imagine.

This beautifully illustrated and hilarious YA graphic novel began as a web comic and quickly became a WEBTOON sensation. This print edition features an expanded story and updated art, offering something for new and old fans alike!

My Review

The illustrations in this graphic novel definitely live up to the hype. The character expressions are great, and the color palette is warm and inviting.

Jalissa and Kim are a grumpy/sunshine pair. Kim dreams of being a famous fashion designer and sees the best possibilities in everyone around her. Jalissa is the more grounded, responsible cousin.

When the girls receive superpowers, Kim hopes that their adventures in saving the city will boost their notoriety and help her achieve her personal goals. Jalissa would rather stay on the couch in her comfy clothes and watch soap operas. She reluctantly gives the superhero life a try, though, if only to make sure Kim stays safe.

The story celebrates the life of girls getting out on their own for the first time and strong female superheroes. It’s a fun adventure for readers who enjoy stories like Karate Prom by Kyle Starks.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Main characters are Latine. Jalissa is romantically interested in another girl.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kim dates a boy who seems more interested in taking advantage of her than in her. Jalissa is romantically interested in another girl.

Spiritual Content
The girls develop magic powers after encountering an otherworldly creature.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battles between the girls and strange flying fish.

Drug Content
None.

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: It’s Only a Game by Kelsey Yu

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

It’s Only a Game
Kelsey Yu
Bloomsbury YA
Published July 9, 2024

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About It’s Only a Game

In this twisty, fast-paced YA thriller, a dangerous game becomes all too real when Marina and her friends are framed for murder.

When Marina Chan ran from her old life, she brought nothing with her-not even her real name. Now she lives in fear of her past being discovered. But when her online gaming team is offered a tour of their favorite game company, Marina can’t resist accepting, even though she knows it might put her fake identity at risk.

Then the creator of the game is murdered during their tour. Whoever killed him plans to frame Marina and her friends for the murder unless they win four rounds of a dangerous game. A game that requires them to lie, trespass, and steal. A game that could destroy everything Marina’s worked so hard to build…. A game that she might not survive.

My Review

The really interesting part of this book is that it mashes up what is essentially a video game contest with a murder mystery. Marina carries secrets that she worries could put her friends and teammates in danger, but she longs to have uncomplicated connections with people and values the closeness in those relationships.

The chapters alternate between two different timelines. In the present, Marina and her team attempt to complete challenging levels of a video game to meet the demands of an unidentified person who threatens to harm the people each teammate loves. The other timeline begins ten years earlier and shows glimpses of Marina’s past, where she lives with her mom. She tries to piece together why the two live such an isolated life.

The tension spikes as the two timelines intersect, and pieces of the mystery come together. The relationships between the characters impact the story in some interesting ways, and I found it easy to root for all of them.

While this isn’t my favorite style of book, I did enjoy reading it. It felt like a quick read with its short chapters, and I particularly liked the mash-up of video game conquests and murder mystery elements. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that done before, and it worked really well here.

Readers who enjoy books by Karen McManus or liked How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao should check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Marina is Chinese American and romantically interested in a girl. One of her friends is transgender. Another friend is Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Marina witnesses a shooting. Someone threatens Marina and her friends, effectively holding them hostage until they complete a series of tasks. A woman harms child repeatedly.

Drug Content
None.

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.

Spring 2024 Backlist Reading Check-In and Life Update

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Life Update: It’s Been Wild

Whew. It has been a tough few months, y’all. Wowza. I had to take an unplanned break from reading because things got too overwhelming. And the weird thing is, there wasn’t a gigantic, immediate crisis at any point.

My kids hit some big milestones and needed extra support. My partner was traveling for work. It meant additional output from me, but nothing that I would have called unmanageable.

Except that it was. Which, thankfully, prompted me to get medical advice. I’ve had some low-key, annoying, but not dangerous, issues going on for a while. I thought by now, I’d be getting relief from new meds and treatment. But that didn’t seem to be happening. In fact, I felt worse.

Anyway, thankfully, I spoke with a nurse who not only really heard what I was saying but also pretty easily connected the dots and asked me to immediately stop the meds I was on. It turns out the medicine made me feel worse. Fortunately, there are other medicines to try, so I’ll start something new this week and hopefully continue feeling better.

So, yeah. I’ve been feeling a lot less than myself since December, but it happened so gradually it was hard to notice until now, looking back. At any rate, I am starting to feel better (aside from this head cold I’ve picked up), and I hope to get caught up on my reading in the next few weeks.

Spring Backlist Reading Check-In

Let’s move on to why we’re all here: books!

Most of these backlist titles I listened to as audiobooks. The only exception is the graphic memoir by Colin Kaepernick. I’ve found audiobooks to be a great way for me to work through my backlist since I’ll listen while I’m driving or folding laundry.

One of my goals this year is to read classic literature by women and/or BIPOC. I’m counting The Color Purple by Alice Walker and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou toward that goal.

Another of my goals is to read some of the nonfiction titles I’ve had my eye on for a while. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann and The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater will count toward that goal– and they were both absolutely excellent!

Some of these books will appear on my Beat the Backlist and Read Harder challenge pages, too.

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Spring 2024 Backlist Reading

Colin Kaepernick: Change the Game by Colin Kaepernick, Eve L. Ewing, and Orlando Caicedo

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: I actually read this because I came across a pretty scathing review of the book that struck me as… well, problematic at best. I wanted to read the book and see if that context made the reviewer’s comments make more sense. It didn’t, but I enjoyed the book a lot. It’s nuanced and thoughtful and focuses on Kaepernick’s life as a middle school and high school student and the challenges he faced.

Published March 7, 2023 | My Review to Come

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Hunger Games #0) by Susanne Collins

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My thoughts: Oof. I am glad I read this one, but I struggled. It’s kind of President Snow’s origin story. Taking a character that people so despised and writing a story in which he appears sympathetic has to be a huge writing challenge. There were parts that I thought were great and characters I liked. Overall, I’m glad I read it, but not sure it is something I’d ever revisit. (Though I did reread WUTHERING HEIGHTS this year, so who knows!)

Published May 19, 2020 | My Review to Come

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: This is an absolute must-read. I loved the way the book is structured. Slater knows exactly when to zoom into the details and when to zoom out to show the system surrounding the people in the book. I’m still reeling from the book and can’t stop recommending it to everyone I can think of.

Published October 17, 2017 | My Review to Come

Vengeance of the Pirate Queen by Tricia Levenseller

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My Thoughts: It was fun to revisit Alosa’s pirate world again and follow a ship of mostly female sailors, but this one was kind of a miss for me overall. I couldn’t really get into the romance. It felt like he didn’t respect her boundaries because he knew what she needed better than she did. Could legitimately be my perception of the characters. I wish I’d connected with the story more.

Published November 7, 2023 | My Review to Come

Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Young Readers: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: I discovered this YA adaptation while browsing for a new audiobook from my library. As soon as I started listening, I was hooked. I knew only the vaguest bits of history around the edges of these events. I kinda remember the Teapot Dome scandal and J. Edgar Hoover’s rise to the head of the FBI, but I knew nothing about the shocking murders of the Osage people and the racist practices that not only led to them but often protected the wrongdoers rather than the people being harmed. This is an absolute must-read.

Published November 16, 2021 | My Review to Come

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

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My thoughts: This one has been on my reading list for a while, so I was excited to finally pick it up. I love the big city (Washington DC) to small town (Bardell, GA) vibes and the layers of mystery perfectly folded together in this book. It’s also an incredible intergenerational story about trauma, grief, and the way that we connect to our history. Some parts were hard for me to read, but the story as a whole really moved me. This book will stay with me a long time.

Published November 29, 2022 | My Review to Come

Once Upon a Broken Heart (#1) by Stephanie Garber

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My thoughts: It’s been a long time since I’ve read CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber, but I enjoyed it so much, that I knew I wanted to check out this series. Now that all the books in the series have been released, I think this is one I could seriously binge my way through. It’s got the same dangerous magical feel that CARAVAL had for me, and I think I like the forbidden love angle the story has going on. I’ll definitely read on for book two.

Published September 28, 2021 | My Review to Come

The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood #1) by Melissa Albert

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My thoughts: I can’t believe this came out in 2018! Have I really been saying I’m going to read it for six years?! Wowza. Anyway. It took me until probably the halfway mark of this book for me to decide that I really liked it. I think at the beginning, I kept waiting for the story to start? I expected Alice to spend 75% of the book in the Hazel Wood or Hinterland itself instead of the pace the actual story takes.

Published January 30, 2018 | My Review to Come

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: One of my goals for this year is to read some classic literature written by women and/or BIPOC, so this will be one on that list. It’s the first in a series of autobiographies that Angelou wrote, focusing on her life from the ages of three to sixteen. I think this is the first book I’ve read that talks about the experience of segregated life from a Black perspective. It’s haunting and beautiful.

Published April 21, 2009 (Orig. 1969) | My Review to Come

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

My thoughts: Some depictions of abuse in this book made it tough to read at times, but wow. Beyond those moments (and maybe also in spite of them?) it’s such a beautiful story about sisterhood and the strength women draw from relationships with one another. It’s about the power of community and the value of holding space for one another. Helping each other. I really enjoyed this book, and it’ll stay with me for a long time.

Published December 10, 2019 (Orig. 1982) | My Review to Come

Have you read any backlist titles lately?

If you’re participating in a backlist reading challenge this year, please let me know! If you have a page or post where you list the books you’ve read, please feel free to put a link to it in my comments. I’d love to check it out.

Have you read any of the books on my Spring 2024 Backlist Reading list? If so, please let me know what you think about them in the comments!

Review: One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome

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One Big Open Sky
Lesa Cline-Ransome
Holiday House
Published March 5, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About One Big Open Sky

Three women narrate a perilous wagon journey westward that could set them free—or cost them everything they have—in this intergenerational verse novel that explores the history of the Black homesteader movement.

1879, Mississippi. Young dreamer Lettie may have her head in the stars, but her body is on a covered wagon heading westward. Her father, Thomas, promises that Nebraska will be everything the family an opportunity to claim the independence they’ve strived for over generations on their very own plot of land.
But Thomas’ hopes—and mouth—are bigger than his ability to follow through. With few supplies and even less money, the only thing that feels certain is danger.

Right after the war ended/and we were free/we believed/all of us did/that couldn’t nothing hurt us/the way master had when we were slaves/Couldn’t no one tell us/how to live/how to die.

Lettie, her mother, Sylvia, and young teacher Philomena are free from slavery—but bound by poverty, access to opportunity, and patriarchal social structures. Will these women survive the hardships of their journey? And as Thomas’ desire for control overpowers his common sense, will they truly be free once they get there?

Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author Lesa Cline-Ransome’s striking verse masterfully portrays an underrepresented historical era. Tackling powerful themes of autonomy and Black self-emancipation, Cline-Ransome offers readers an intimate look into the lives of three women and an expansive portrait of generations striving for their promised freedom.

My Review

I had all these grand plans to read and talk about so many novels in verse this month, and instead, here I am, talking about the first one on the last day of April. Alas. It’s a book worth talking about, though, so I’m not sorry about that!

I picked up a copy of One Big Open Sky on Netgalley. After reading the description of the story, I was hooked. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book about the Black homesteader movement, so I love that this book explores that part of history.

Three women tell the story. First, we meet Lettie, the oldest daughter in her family, who has just learned about her parents’ plans to move from Mississippi to Nebraska, a journey of about 1500 miles. Lettie’s mom, Sylvia also shares her perspective, listening as her husband complains about the group’s leadership choices and dreams for the future. Philomena, a single woman on her way to Nebraska for a job as a teacher, joins the group, sharing space with Sylvia, Lettie, and their family.

It took me a few chapters to catch that Sylvia was Lettie’s mom. At first, I thought they were in two different families. Once I understood the relationship, though, the two perspectives on the same family gave me a more complete picture of what was going on and how each person felt about it.

Sylvia and Lettie have very different relationships with Thomas, Sylvia’s husband and Lettie’s dad, for example. They also have different fears and worries about leaving Mississippi.

The story takes place in 1879, meaning the Civil War and emancipation happened within the lifetimes of many characters. Sometimes they reference back to life as an enslaved person, their expectations for freedom and what turned out to be true, and their hopes for life in the West.

One of the sweet threads of the story is the relationship between Lettie and another group member’s dog, Sutter. He’s an old dog with a limp, but Lettie takes to him, and they form a sweet friendship. I loved the way that plays out.

Conclusion

I liked this book a lot. It made me remember playing Oregon Trail in school (I’m not sure I ever successfully forded a river or escaped dysentery) and long to know more about the Black homesteader movement. The character perspectives were obviously carefully chosen and each added a lot to the tale.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Major characters are Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A man appears interested in courting Philomena.

Spiritual Content
The group prays together and sings hymns sometimes. Several times the story references the story of Moses in the Bible, leading the Israelites to freedom.

Violent Content
A man accidentally shoots himself. A group of white men attack someone in the night, but are successfully chased off. A man drowns during a river crossing. A violent hail storm causes injuries to those caught in it.

Drug Content
None.

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: Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

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Dragonfruit
Makiia Lucier
Clarion Books
Published April 9, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Dragonfruit

From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology.

In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. An unwanted marriage, a painful illness, and unpaid debt … gone. But as with all things that promise the moon and the stars and offer hope when hope has gone, the tale comes with a warning.

Every wish demands a price.

Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong.

Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two choices: to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time – hope.

But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself.

My Review

I got lost in the world-building of this book– in only the best ways. The author perfectly balances the politics, traditions, and historical information of the setting, offering enough information to anchor the story in a specific, memorable place without distracting from the characters or plot of the story.

The chapters (and sometimes scenes within a chapter) alternate between Hanalei’s and Sam’s points of view. Both characters have distinct voices, so I never lost track of whose point of view I was in. I loved both characters pretty quickly. She has a complicated past and a lot of shame and grief, but she also has a pure love for seadragons. Sam feels the pressure of his position as a prince in a matriarchal society (a refreshing plight for a young male character), knowing a marital alliance would strengthen and protect his people, but holding out hope that he could marry for love instead of politics.

I like that the minor characters also have key roles, and in those, the author also demonstrates some pretty great balancing skills. I had no trouble keeping track of who each character was (not always easy with as many named characters as there are in DRAGONFRUIT), and these secondary characters contributed without stealing the scene or pulling the reader away from the central part of the story.

So much happens in this book. Adventures at sea with a dangerous dragon-hunting captain and his crew. Rescue attempts for a princess trapped in a poisoned sleep. Magic, mythology, and a splash of romance. DRAGONFRUIT has a lot to offer fantasy readers.

Readers who enjoyed SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo, or FOREST OF SOULS by Lori M. Lee will want to put this one on their reading lists immediately.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Inspired by Pacific Island mythology and set among islands.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of mild profanity used.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Several gods and goddesses mentioned. When someone uses a dragon egg to revive a dying person, terrible tragedies occur, and people believe this may represent vengeance by the god of the dragons for taking something sacred. More than one character questions whether the gods listen or can hear prayers or walk among them.

Some characters have a special mark. It’s a tattoo that appears on their bodies and moves over their skin. The mark can take physical form and serve as a helper to its host.

Violent Content
This isn’t actually violence, though this character does function as a weapon in one scene, but the queen has a tattoo of a spider on her body that moves and comes alive. If you’ve got spider fears, be aware.

Battle violence and situations of peril. One character uses children as labor, hostages, and sacrifices. Dragons are harmed on-scene in the book. Another animal is harmed off-scene.

Drug Content
Several characters are poisoned.

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: Disfigured: On Fairytales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc

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Disfigured: On Fairytales, Disability, and Making Space
Amanda Leduc
Coach House Books
Published March 3, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Disfigured

In fairy tales, happy endings are the norm—as long as you’re beautiful and walk on two legs. After all, the ogre never gets the princess. And since fairy tales are the foundational myths of our culture, how can a girl with a disability ever think she’ll have a happy ending?

By examining the ways that fairy tales have shaped our expectations of disability, DISFIGURED will point the way toward a new world where disability is no longer a punishment or impediment but operates, instead, as a way of centering a protagonist and helping them to cement their own place in a story, and from there, the world. Through the book, Leduc ruminates on the connections we make between fairy tale archetypes—the beautiful princess, the glass slipper, the maiden with long hair lost in the tower—and tries to make sense of them through a twenty-first-century disablist lens.

From examinations of disability in tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen through to modern interpretations ranging from Disney to Angela Carter, and the fight for disabled representation in today’s media, Leduc connects the fight for disability justice to the growth of modern, magical stories, and argues for increased awareness and acceptance of that which is other—helping us to see and celebrate the magic inherent in different bodies.

My Review

I heard about this book years ago from booktuber Jesse on YouTube, who read and recommended it. Sadly, it took me a long time to actually read the book myself, but I finally have! And I’m so glad I did.

This book explores fairytales through the lens of what it’s like to read them as a person with disabilities. The author not only shares her own experience as a girl with cerebral palsy, but she also quotes and shares stories of other writers and activists with disabilities as they share their own experiences as well.

One of the things I found the most impactful about DISFIGURED was seeing different fairytale characters and stories from this perspective. There were many things I hadn’t considered or was unaware of. It helped to break things down into tropes and themes and look at what those ideas say about the value or morality of those characters and through the characters the people represented.

For example, the author talks about how often in fairytales, characters with disabilities fall into two categories. Either they are noble characters whose disabilities become reversed because they were pure of heart or brave or noble. Or the disability is supposed to be evidence of an internal evil that remains a static part of the character’s nature.

There’s also some commentary about the differences in the roles of women versus men in fairytales, too. I enjoyed that a lot.

All in all, DISFIGURED is a really thoughtful book that explores familiar fairytales, where they came from, and what they teach us about who we are and what society should be. And asks whether we agree with those lessons and, if not, what we will do about it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The author has Cerebral Palsy. She quotes other disabled writers and activists.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Very infrequent extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to fairytale romance/weddings. Leduc recounts an early version of what became the Sleeping Beauty fairytale in which a maiden pricks her finger on a flax seed and falls into a magical sleep. A traveling king sees her and is so overcome with lust that he rapes her (not described in any detail). The author points out that the story never addresses the king’s behavior as problematic, wrong, or illegal.

The author references an essay written by a man with disabilities who openly talks about hiring sex workers to meet his personal needs. (No details beyond this.)

Spiritual Content
Discusses the origins of the fairy godmother/fairies in fairytales. Examines the Christian (Calvinist, in the case of the Grimm Brothers) roots or edits to many fairytales in subsequent editions. Mentions of magic in stories.

In one tale, the devil tricks a man into promising his daughter to him. The girl thwarts the bargain several times.

Violent Content
References to some gory elements of especially early fairytales. Cinderella’s stepsisters mutilate their feet to fit into her shoe. The evil queen in Snow White is forced to dance in red-hot metal shoes until she dies at the tale’s end. See romantic content.

The author also discusses the changeling myths and how people would leave their babies or young children in the snow to die of exposure if they believed the baby was a changeling. She briefly tells a story about a man who burned his wife to death. He claimed she’d been replaced by a changeling after an illness.

Drug Content
Mentions of magical potions or poisoned fruit.

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