Wide-Eyed Reader

Before I get started, I did want to note that I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review! You'll also be able to find this review there. So, I was born in 1997. I was alive for the end of the 90's, but I don't recall any of it. Therefore, I know very little about 90's culture in general, much less 1991, the year this novel is set it. However, I was excited by the prospect of a book set entirely in a mall, which were a staple of my childhood, and to learn a little about the early 90's! And I have to say, I was not let down. This book is a treasure. Let's get into it! CHARACTERS The Mall  has a moderate cast of characters, told in the first-person perspective of Cassie Worthy, recent high school graduate and only child of two dentists. She suffered from a case of mono in her final month of high school, but she's set to work at America's Best Cookie in the local mall with her boyfriend Troy all summer, before both o...

A note before I get into this review: I got a copy of this book for free from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review! Thanks for this opportunity! Now, initial thoughts. I was interested in this book, and really wanted to dive into it. Post-apocalyptic stories interest me, and I'm always curious to see how different authors add their own spin on the genre. Therefore, I was looking forward to seeing what Anna Mocikat brought to the table. However, I was sadly disappointed. To be upfront, I dropped this book at about 51%, unable to put myself through not enjoying this book anymore. So, let's get into it! CHARACTERS Wow, this book has a lot of characters. Let's run through the list, shall we? -Jean and Louis, teenage siblings living with their elderly father. They're the first characters we meet, and hardly show up after the first chapter. -Colton, a stranger with no memory the teens meet in the wastes of LA. He seems to have superpowers, though ever...

Before I get started, I wanted to mention that I received an Advanced Copy of this book from William Morrow Books through Litsy. Thank you so much for this opportunity! Now, the review. First things first: I was excited to read this book because it was a post-apocalyptic story in which the main character was a middle-aged mother, not a teenage girl. I was interested to see the differences, and to explore the new world the characters live in. And I was pleased by it! I found the story powerful and compelling, and the characters to be real and driving forces of the plot. Let's get in-depth, shall we? CHARACTERS The main character of After the Flood is Myra, a mother of two daughters who is alone with her younger child on the boat her grandfather built. Myra's one goal? To find her older daughter, Row, who was taken from her so long ago by Myra's husband that the younger child, seven-year-old Pearl, doesn't even know Row. This goal is Myra's driving force, an...

While this is a middle-grade story, its magic and wonder really captured me, and I loved every minute of it. The main word I use to describe this book is "cute", and if you also like charming stories about the love between children and their pets, you'll think so too! CHARACTERS The story is mainly told from the perspective of Lin, and eleven-year-old girl who finds a magic key marked with the word "Twistrose". This means that she is special, and able to enter the magical world of Silver. Lin is a very good example of an eleven-year-old, in my opinion. She's sweet at times, insistent that she knows what she's doing, loves her pet dearly, and very determined. She has her share of flaws and strengths, and is a very believable character. I think she's great. Her narration is also very good, never giving the reader more than what Lin herself knows and being sure to sound like a girl of eleven. When not focused on Lin, the story occasionally takes...

That's right, yet another adventure in space brought to you by Andy Weir! This one has some interesting things going for it - a female protagonist and great diversity being among them - but there were some things I take issue with. CHARACTERS So, our main character, who also narrates the novel in first person, is Jazz Bashara, a twenty-something Saudi Arabian woman who lives on the moon. She is of the first generation of people to be raised on the moon, and hardly remembers anything about Earth. She works as a porter, delivering packages to others in the city of Artemis, the only city on the moon. She also is a smuggler on the side. Now Jazz is pretty cool, as a character, but there's some things that rubbed me the wrong way. Namely, about how good  she is at everything. It's made very clear throughout the novel that Jazz is practically a genius and could do basically anything - welding, chemical engineering, anything  - if she put her mind to it. But no. She's ...

I know I'm super behind the hype on this one, but I've wanted to read it since high school, I promise! And I'm so glad I was finally able to, because I think it totally lives up to the hype! CHARACTERS This book has so many characters, it was a little difficult to keep track of them. But the ones we need to really concern ourselves with are: Celia, her father, Marco, Mr. A. H---, Isobel, Chandresh, Tara, the clockmaker whose name I have difficulty spelling, Tsukiko, Bailey, and the twins Poppet and Widget. Now, even that's a lot, but Chandresh, Tara, the clockmaker, and Tsukiko are more minor - they just happen to have huge hands in the plot! And that's one thing I like about this novel - each character does something. They are not just set pieces for the plot to happen to, they move the plot forward. Some more than others, of course, but in general each character has something to do with the plot as a whole. Personally, my favorite character in The Night Ci...

This was the first book I read for  The Reading Frenzy's  "Run Away With the Circus" July challenge, fulfilling the "Menagerie" prompt. You can read about the challenge in my last post! I really loved this book - it was an absolute delight to read, and I find myself already craving more! I have plans to order the next book in the series very soon. CHARACTERS Each of the characters in this novel gets their chance to shine and share their perspective, but the main character is Vasilisa - Vasya for short - the youngest child of her parents and a rather odd girl, who is referred to as anything from a witch to a wood spirit. She is a bit of a wild girl in her connection to the nature surrounding her home, but it is quite clear that she loves her family and the villagers, and wants to protect them in any way she can - that just happens to be by talking to the house spirits and those of the woods. I love her so much, and would gladly read much more about her. ...

For the month of July, a Goodreads group I'm a part of ( The Reading Frenzy ) is doing a TBR challenge! The theme is "Run Away With the Circus". The above are my choices, designed to match the categories as follows: Menagerie: Read a book with an animal in the title - The Bear and the Nightingale  by Katherine Arden, which I've already started and am enjoying so far! Big Top: Read a book with red and white on the cover - The Night Circus  by Erin Morgenstern. I've not yet read this novel, despite a desire to for years, so I'm very excited to get started on it! Cotton Candy: Read a light and fluffy book - Grimm's Fairy Tales . I don't have many "fluffy" books, so I thought fairy tales were a good substitute! Flyers: Read a book about/set in space - Artemis  by Andy Weir. I love Weir's first novel, The Martian , so of course I bought this one when it came out. I hope it's just as good! Grandstand: Read a hyped b...

Now, I didn't finish this one. I only got about 20% through it, which is shockingly not far, for me. So, this review will be a little bit unlike my usual... The plot of this seemed interesting - a daughter of nobility forced by rebel kidnappers to betray her family and everything she's ever known, with the promise of complicated morality and the idea that neither side is right. I was intrigued by that, of course! What I got, though, was a group of petty teenagers sniping at each other while the "moral" rebel leader threatens innocent people and is - surprise! - behaving like a tyrant. I wasn't as happy as I expected to be with the premise at all, as I thought it was not utilized to its full potential. And the characters . God, the only likable ones were Celia and Darrow, and they almost died in the second chapter! Kestra, the noble's daughter, is a spoiled brat who has to get the upper hand in everything. She's selfish, irritating, and makes me want...

I'm not much of a nonfiction reader, really, but I just couldn't resist this one - history, Chicago (my favorite American city), and one of the most interesting murder stories I've ever heard of? Of course I had to read it! CHARACTERS As The Devil in the White City  is a history, and not a novel, this is a bit harder to talk about than in most of my reviews. As everyone discussed in the book was a real person and all of it is drawn from fact more heavily than in historical fiction, I cannot comment on how well-developed the characters were, but on the quality of writing. I felt that I understood the two characters Larson focused on, Daniel Burnham the architect and H. H. Holmes the murderer - as much as I could understand them, given the historical distance. Larson did an excellent job showing these people as rounded, and makes an effort to explore the depths of their minds. Even those who are not the focus of the book get plenty of room to seem like robust portrait...

I get the feeling that I'm in the minority where this novel is concerned. Now, I do not normally read in this genre, and only read this book as it was a gift from my mother's best friend - who is basically my aunt. This may have affected my reading on the book, but that does not diminish the fact that I didn't like it much. CHARACTERS While the main character of Divine Secrets  is Sidda Walker, the character that gets the most focus and development is her mother, Vivi. Marginal characters are Sidda's fiance Connor and Vivi's three best friends, Caro, Teensy, and Necie. And out of them, I liked Connor the best. Let's start with Vivi. I found her (and her friends, to be honest) to be self-centered, spoiled, and without a care for most people in her life. Vivi is one of those women who takes self-care to the extreme and stops believing that anyone but herself and her feelings matter. She and her three friends, who call themselves the Ya-Yas, believe themsel...

Things I learned from this novel: Margaret Beaufort was self-righteous and power-hungry; and the Cousin's War (the War of the Roses) was really long and drawn-out. Like, generations long and drawn-out. Let's talk about the novel, though! CHARACTERS The main character of The Red Queen  is Margaret Beaufort, daughter of John Beaufort, the Duke of Somerset, and an heiress to the Lancaster House of England - at the time of Margaret's birth, the royal house. As a young girl, she is married off to the king's half-brother, Edmund Tudor, who was some twelve or so years older than her. Through him, Margaret conceived her only child, Henry Tudor, who was royal through both parents and had a vast claim to the throne. Cue, the Cousin's War. At the start, Margaret is shown to be someone who thinks she is above others. She expects special treatment from her mother (see: begging to be a nun rather than marry, though she was her father's only child and as such, was exp...

DNF at a little less than halfway through.  I just...didn't like it. CHARACTERS There are three main characters in Wink Poppy Midnight: Wink, the quirky girl-next-door, Poppy, your standard mean girl but somehow worse, and Midnight, a sweet boy who needs to grow a spine. Poppy is a terrible person, honestly one of the worst characters I've read about. Reading her perspective just made me angry, which I am sure was somewhat intended, but I didn't like it even still. I found her to be, quite frankly, infuriating, and the closest thing to a psychopath (or someone with antisocial personality disorder, for those who like psychology like me) that I've ever seen in a novel. She manipulates others for fun, as well as her own gain, and doesn't seem to care that she's a terrible person...unless it's Leaf telling her so. Wink, on the other hand, is kind of cool on first read, but with some time away from the book, I came to realize that she is every manic pix...