Tag Archives: boarding school

Review: Moongarden: Plotting the Stars by Michelle A. Barry

Book Review and Content, Middle Grade 8-12, Sci-Fi, , , , , , , ,
Moongarden by Michelle A. Barry

Moongarden: Plotting the Stars
Michelle A. Barry
Pixel + Ink Books
Published November 1, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Moongarden

The Secret Garden meets The City of Ember as an unlikely heroine confronts loneliness and crippling parental expectations, finding her seed of courage to weed out an intergalactic government conspiracy tied to failed climate change policy in this STEM-inspired series starter.

Centuries ago, Earth’s plants turned toxic, rendering life on the planet impossible, and humanity took to space to cultivate new homes. Myra Porter is in her first year at an elite school on the Moon to train and develop her Creer in math as a Number Whisper—like her famous Number Whisperer parents. But she’s crumbling under the pressure, she doesn’t fit in, and worst of all, the tattoos that signal her Creer growing aren’t developing. In her heart, she knows she doesn’t have a Creer, and soon, everyone else will, too.

My Review

I can definitely see the comparison to THE SECRET GARDEN and CITY OF EMBER in this book. I think I kept wishing for more overlap with THE SECRET GARDEN, though. Like, I kept looking for or hoping for my favorite things about that story to be included in this book. There are a few things that made it into MOONGARDEN, though.

In THE SECRET GARDEN, the main character, Mary, follows a robin who leads her to the garden. In MOONGARDEN, a small robot Myra names Bin-ro, taken from the ID label on its underside, leads her to a hidden garden. I really enjoyed the parts with his character. There’s also an older man who was once a gardener who helps her, like Ben from the original story.

Just like in CITY OF EMBER, Myra and her friends discover a cover-up that could indicate their whole civilization is in danger. She also discovers forgotten and forbidden magic that could save everyone.

So there are a lot of really cool elements to the story, and I thought all of those elements worked well together.

I guess I kind of have mixed feelings about the main character, Myra. There were things I liked about her a lot. She doesn’t back down when she believes in something, even if the idea is unpopular. That stubbornness sometimes frustrated me, though. Maybe I wanted to see the garden have an effect on her the way it does Mary in THE SECRET GARDEN? I’m not sure what I hoped for there.

On the whole, I love that this is a middle grade sci-fi novel, and I think readers who liked CITY OF EMBER should check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
One character, Bernie, is a clone and has fewer rights/isn’t seen as truly human. Lila, Myra’s friend and roommate is described as having brown skin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Most characters have a certain affinity for magic.

Violent Content
Some instances of bullying.

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 MOONGARDEN in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Sevenfold Hunters by Rose Egal

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

The Sevenfold Hunters
Rose Egal
Page Street Press
Published October 25, 2022

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About The Sevenfold Hunters

Sci-fi fans will love this genre-bending debut full of cutthroat school politics and the speculative intrigue of alien contact.

There’s nothing hijabi alien hunter Abyan wants more than to graduate from Carlisle Academy and finally rid the Earth of the Nosaru, a species hidden in plain sight.

Everything is going to plan until the Nosaru kill one of Abyan’s squad mates, leaving the team devastated. To make matters worse, the school admins replace her elite squad member with a sub-par new recruit, Artemis. Despite Artemis failing every test—and bringing the team down with her—their cutthroat instructors refuse to kick her out.

Together Abyan, Artemis and the rest of the team unravel the mystery of why Artemis is actually there, what the Nosaru really want, and what Carlisle Academy has been hiding from them all.

My Review

An elite team of teens fighting vampire space aliens called Nosaru. A girl wrestling with the her boyfriend’s sudden death. A girl on the hunt for revenge for her family’s deaths. All that seemed like it would add up to a pretty compelling read.

For me, those elements just didn’t come together in THE SEVENFOLD HUNTERS. Artemis felt kind of flat. In a couple scenes she seemed motivated to learn more about her boyfriend’s death, but mostly she was so distracted about her own survival that her grief got really pushed to the side. Concern for her survival makes total sense, but it was weird that the story framed her as this grieving girl, and I didn’t feel like it delivered that.

Abyan, however. She’s complex. A girl from a poor family in a school of wealthy elites. A practicing Muslim. The top team’s driven leader, with a tragic, secret past and a desperate hope for revenge. I was all in on her.

At times, I felt pulled forward through the intense, action-packed scenes. They fight space vampires who’ve invaded earth. It’s super cool. But.

I didn’t understand some of the dynamics of the overall battle between the humans and aliens. Like, the operatives know there are a number of hives of Nosaru near the school, but they just sort of… let them be? I thought this was a kill or be killed kind of enemy?

After a Sevenfold mission goes badly because one team member turns on the others, everyone goes back to base for a debrief where they… worry about this team member’s feelings? They’re like, we can’t press this person to tell us why they did what they did because it involves secrets from their past. We need to wait for them to feel comfortable to tell us.

That didn’t add up for me. Most of the members of the team were (I think) in their last year at the school, very near to being able to graduate and work as paid operatives in the fight against the Nosaru. It seemed like the first concern should have been, is this team member going to get me killed? Is this team member capable of serving the needs of the team, or do they need to step back and deal with whatever past issues are interfering with them and risking everyone’s safety?

I don’t know, but that whole part read very strangely to me.

There were also a couple of reveals that came late in the story that I felt like didn’t really get explored. It’s possible that those were primarily supposed to be a setup for a sequel. I just didn’t see how they fit into this story and they were big things, so it was weird that they didn’t have more focus or weren’t revealed earlier.

On the whole… I struggled with this book. There were things I liked. Abyan’s character is at the top of that list. I loved her. I liked some of the other team members, too, especially Kade and Hank. The plot felt a bit unfocused and some parts didn’t make a lot of sense to me. So that made the book harder for me to read. I thought the story world was interesting and there are a lot of cool elements to explore if there are further books to come in the series.

Content Notes for The Sevenfold Hunters

Content warning for torture and violence.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Abyan is Somali and Muslim. Artemis is biracial and bisexual. Other characters identify as LGBTQIA+.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
References to Abyan practicing daily prayer and keeping to halal foods.

Violent Content
References to a brutal attack on a group of teenagers. Situations of peril and battle scenes. One scene shows a man torturing a captive.

Drug Content
One scene shows several teens drinking alcohol at a party. Another scene shows a teen vaping.

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 SEVENFOLD HUNTERS in exchange for my honest review.

Review: If You Could See the Sun by Anna Liang

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If You Could See the Sun
Anna Liang
Inkyard Press
Published October 11, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About If You Could See the Sun

Alice Sun has always felt invisible at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens. But then she starts uncontrollably turning invisible—actually invisible.

When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price.

But as the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if it’s worth losing her conscience—or even her life.

In this genre-bending YA debut, a Chinese American girl monetizes her strange new invisibility powers by discovering and selling her wealthy classmates’ most scandalous secrets.

My Review

I think one of my favorite things about this book is actually that Alice never learns to control or perfectly predict her ability to become invisible. She knows about how frequently it happens, so she can kind of hope and loosely plan, but that extra tension made every job she took risky because she couldn’t guarantee she’d become or stay invisible when she needed to.

In other teens-with-superpowers books that I’ve read, I’m pretty sure all of them learn to control their ability at least to a certain degree, so I also liked that Alice never having dominance over her ability set this book apart and made me feel like it added a new type of story to the supernatural ability book list.

Alice is driven and smart, but not in a prodigious way. I liked that though she is used to keeping to herself, her ability and decisions about it forced her to open herself up to others in a way she hadn’t before. It made her realize how lonely she’d been and that people weren’t always who she initially thought them to be. I really liked Henry and Chanel, and I was glad that she formed bonds with them.

IF YOU COULD SEE THE SUN explored a lot of themes that resonated with me, including friendship and family. I’m super glad I read it. I think readers who enjoyed HOW WE FALL APART by Katie Zhao or BOYS I KNOW by Anna Gracia definitely need to read this one.

Content Notes for If You Could See the Sun

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Main characters are Chinese.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Alice follows a man accused of having an affair to find out if he’s meeting another woman. Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Alice has an uncontrollable ability to turn invisible.

Violent Content
One student plots harm against another student and requests Alice’s help. A man injures a student.

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 IF YOU COULD SEE THE SUN in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Honestly Ben by Bill Konigsberg

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Honestly Ben (Openly Straight #2)
Bill Konigsberg
Arthur A. Levine Books
Published March 28, 2017

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Honestly Ben

Ben Carver is back to normal. He’s getting all As in his classes at the Natick School. He was just elected captain of the baseball team. He’s even won a big scholarship for college, if he can keep up his grades. All that foolishness with Rafe Goldberg last semester is over now, and he just needs to be a Carver, work hard, and stay focused.

Except…

There’s Hannah, a gorgeous girl who attracts him and distracts him. There’s his mother, whose quiet unhappiness he’s noticing for the first time. School is harder, the pressure higher, the scholarship almost slipping away. And there’s Rafe, funny, kind, dating someone else…and maybe the real normal that Ben needs.

My Review

I’ve had OPENLY STRAIGHT for years, but I finally read it recently. While I was looking up links for my review, I noticed that it had a sequel– HONESTLY BEN.

Lots of times when I finish the first book in a series, I’m super excited about the sequel, so I add it to my list, and even then it takes forever for me to read it. This time, though, I bought HONESTLY BEN right away and immediately started reading it. I finished it that same day.

I loved Ben’s character in OPENLY STRAIGHT, so I was really excited that not only was there a follow-up to the first book, but also that the story is told entirely from his point of view. As I read the book, though, I realized he’s kind of a hard character to write from. He spends a lot of time thinking about things, which didn’t always translate very well in a scene. Sometimes I found myself wishing there were more scenes that showed him interacting with someone else and learning stuff by doing it.

I feel like where Konigsberg’s writing really shines the brightest is in scenes with dialog. Those are always my favorite. The characters feel so real, and there’s always some deep thing being unearthed, and often it’s couched in lots of silliness and goofy fun. I love that. Same with scenes where there are arguments or conflict. I found those to be the most compelling.

That said, one of the things I liked about OPENLY STRAIGHT was that it waded into some thoughts about identity and how much or little that is a part of who someone is. How knowing someone’s sexual orientation can change how people treat that person.

In HONESTLY BEN, the story explores the tendency for people to immediately jump to a label for someone based on the current relationship they’re in and how hurtful that can be. I loved that exploration a lot, and I wish there were more books that honed in on that so well.

For Ben, sexual identity is a complex issue. He wrestles with homophobic ideas that come from his family. He wrestles with what his attraction to Rafe actually means. He’s uncomfortable rushing to a label for himself, and frustrated when people around him assume they know his identity better than he does.

I really identified with a lot of the things he went through in the story. I enjoyed it a lot.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Ben, the main character is unsure of his identity. He has dated mostly girls, but has romantic feelings for a boy. Rafe is gay and Jewish. Another friend is also gay and genderfluid.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. Kissing between two boys. Brief reference to oral sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Ben’s father is a domineering person who says things that cut Ben and his family members pretty deeply. Some of the boys on the baseball team make jokes about rape and say homophobic things. Ben challenges them.

Drug Content
Ben drinks alcohol and later regrets it.

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

Review: Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

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Openly Straight
Bill Konigsberg
Arthur A. Levine Books
Published May 28, 2013

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Openly Straight

Rafe is a normal teenager from Boulder, Colorado. He plays soccer. He’s won skiing prizes. He likes to write.

And, oh yeah, he’s gay. He’s been out since 8th grade, and he isn’t teased, and he goes to other high schools and talks about tolerance and stuff. And while that’s important, all Rafe really wants is to just be a regular guy. Not that GAY guy. To have it be a part of who he is, but not the headline, every single time.

So when he transfers to an all-boys’ boarding school in New England, he decides to keep his sexuality a secret — not so much going back in the closet as starting over with a clean slate. But then he sees a classmate break down. He meets a teacher who challenges him to write his story. And most of all, he falls in love with Ben . . . who doesn’t even know that love is possible.

This witty, smart, coming-out-again story will appeal to gay and straight kids alike as they watch Rafe navigate feeling different, fitting in, and what it means to be himself.

My Review

This book has been on my reading list for a LONG time, but once I realized it’s by the same author as THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS, I really wanted to read it.

OPENLY STRAIGHT explores elements of identity not often explored in the YA I’ve read. It’s not just about coming out or how we sometimes distill a person’s identity down to one thing. The idea that sometimes parts of us that feel incongruent with other parts of ourselves resonated with me. Like we can’t be both those things in the same room with people in the same way at the same time.

For Rafe, mainly this had to do with how he felt other guys perceived him as an out gay kid. When he had an opportunity to connect with other boys without them knowing he was gay, he had a different experience, one that had value in a different way. I liked that as he explored that, he realized while there was a barrier between him and other guys if they knew he was gay, not telling them also created a barrier, too. Anyway, there were a lot of great ideas in and around that conflict that were definitely worth reading.

I also, of course, loved Rafe and Ben. I loved the way their friendship developed, and the fact that they had this beautiful emotional closeness. Rafe’s roommate and his best friend were lots of fun, too. I really enjoyed the banter between them.

Rafe is a messy character who’s learning a lot about himself. He has some selfish attitudes and doesn’t always do right by his friends, but the way things play out shows he’s beginning to turn a corner and pursue healthier ways to relate to people. And healthier ways to think about himself.

Conclusion

All in all, I liked this book. As I put together the links for this review, I realized that OPENLY STRAIGHT has a sequel! And it’s Ben’s point-of-view! So, I will absolutely be reading that book which is called HONESTLY BEN.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Rafe is gay and Jewish. One minor character is Black. Rafe’s best friend, Claire Olivia is Latina. Other minor characters are gay or possibly bisexual.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. References to sex. References to sexual touching.

Spiritual Content
Brief references to Rafe being Jewish.

Violent Content – Content warning for homophobia.
At a PFLAG dance, Rafe sees some boys who repeatedly use a homophobic slur. He witnesses another closeted gay boy being harassed and mocked.

Drug Content
Rafe and his friends drink alcohol. Rafe mentions having been high on pot once.

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

Review: This May End Badly by Samantha Markum

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This May End Badly
Samantha Markum
Wednesday Books
Published April 12, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About This May End Badly

Pranking mastermind Doe and her motley band of Weston girls are determined to win the century-long war against Winfield Academy before the clock ticks down on their senior year. But when their headmistress announces that The Weston School will merge with its rival the following year, their longtime feud spirals into chaos.

To protect the school that has been her safe haven since her parents’ divorce, Doe puts together a plan to prove once and for all that Winfield boys and Weston girls just don’t mix, starting with a direct hit at Three, Winfield’s boy king and her nemesis. In a desperate move to win, Doe strikes a bargain with Three’s cousin, Wells: If he fake dates her to get under Three’s skin, she’ll help him get back his rightful family heirloom from Three.

As the pranks escalate, so do her feelings for her fake boyfriend, and Doe spins lie after lie to keep up her end of the deal. But when a teacher long suspected of inappropriate behavior messes with a younger Weston girl, Doe has to decide what’s more important: winning a rivalry, or joining forces to protect something far more critical than a prank war legacy.

THIS MAY END BADLY is a story about friendship, falling in love, and crossing pretty much every line presented to you—and how to atone when you do.

My Review

The cover copy on this book made me think of an older favorite: THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU by Lily Anderson. It’s also a boarding school story with an enemies to lovers arc and loads of banter and snark. I LOVED that book when I read it, so I as soon as I read about this book, I knew I wanted to read it.

And it totally delivered on all my hopes for it. I loved Doe’s character with her single-minded passion. I loved Wells with his mysterious sorrow peeking out beneath the “I don’t care” attitude he had going on. On top of that, I loved Doe’s friends, when they pushed her, made room for her, loved her despite her misguided or hurtful actions. I loved the way they operated as a team and protected one another.

I also loved the banter! The pranks. The teasing comments. The awkward, hilarious conversations. I laughed out loud more reading this book than I have in a long time. It was exactly the story I needed this week.

If you like fake dating, boarding school stories, or prank wars and banter, this book is one you won’t want to miss.

Content Notes for This May End Badly

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are white. Doe has a diverse friend group. Her dad is bisexual. Some discussion about how single gender schools exclude trans and nonbinary students.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. In one scene, a boy and girl take their shirts off.

A teacher is rumored to be a sexual predator. The girls try to warn new students and look out for each other. One girl comes forward with details about inappropriate behavior on the teacher’s part. The scene is brief, but the girl is obviously (understandably) traumatized when she describes what happened.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Two boys get into a fistfight.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol at a party and in other circumstances.

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 THIS MAY END BADLY in exchange for my honest review.