…the bookish gifts on Amazon’s list of Oprah’s Favorite Things? There are a few!
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Ladies and gents, Pegasus is back! Look out for my review on Thursday!
Review: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
So lately I’ve been a bit burned out on dystopian/apocalyptic type stories. For awhile there I’d read any and every book of this genre I could get my hands on. And although the trend didn’t begin with The Hunger Games, for me it did. There were some very, very good ones. And there were some very, very not good ones. So as the market became oversaturated, I moved on to different types of stories.
But then this one caught my eye. Up until this point, I had not read anything by Margaret Atwood. Her stories have been on my TBR list, sure, but so are thousands of others. Can’t say exactly why I decided to read it, but that’s often the case with the books I choose.
Atwood’s tale follows the story of Offred, one of the handmaids in a new society. Stripped of all rights and privileges, they are at the mercy of the men in charge. Her only role in life is to help populate society by producing offspring. Puritanical in nature, the story is both scary and satirical at times. She finds herself without anything to live for, nothing to work for. But still she goes on, surviving day to day without any say in her life. She does find small moments of rebellion and somehow finds the strength to go on. And at the very end, we’re left wondering if her will to survive is enough.
Did this novel start the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it craze? Not likely. But it did come before modern stories that are much more well-known. And that’s a shame. Because this one is good, better even than many others I’ve read. It’s a cautionary tale of what might someday be in the far off or not so far off future.
A side note: I listened to the audio version of the book which in no way diminishes the power of the story. And the narration by Claire Danes is excellent, told with just the right blend of detachment and resignation.
~Thalia
Buy It Now: The Handmaid’s Tale
Review: Gathering Deep by Lisa Maxwell
As an avid reader, there’s nothing more rewarding than waiting, squirming with anticipation for a book to be released. You’ve read the first one, you know a sequel is in the works, now just to get your hands on it. And then you get that book. And you tear through it. But you go back and reread parts, slow down and savor it a bit. And the very best part comes at the end, when it’s just as good as you’d hoped. So what comes next? Spreading the love to other readers, of course!
This story picks up where Sweet Unrest left off. This time, however, the focus is on Chloe and her connection to her mother, Thisbe. While one series of killings is apparently over, the danger from dark and mysterious forces is not. Chloe and her friends must seek the help of Mama Legbe, a well-known voodoo queen, as well as the help of darker entities. Is Chloe destined to follow the wicked path of her mother? Or can her true spirit prevail as she fights to do the right thing? And there’s a love story, of course. Because after all, love is the root of all things good and bad. But unlike many other young adult stories, it’s a supporting character in this one. The real story lies in the mystery and suspense as well as the outstanding character development.
Along the way readers are given a mesmerizing description of the city that care forgot, a city that will weave its way into your very heart and soul. Lisa Maxwell’s debut novel, Sweet Unrest, stole my heart with its spot-on descriptions of a beautiful city. This follow-up does no less. She writes with a love for New Orleans that shows with every paragraph.
“Like a worn out madam who still has enough sparkle to keep the fellows knocking on her door, there’s something beautiful about the way this part of the city has stood, steadfast and sure, over the centuries.”
Her knowledge of local culture and folklore is apparent throughout the story, and every last word is entirely believable. Yes, that goes for even the supernatural aspects. And once again, she’s written a young adult book that truly is safe for young adults. Just scary enough to enthrall but not overly gruesome or mature. And yes, this cover is just as beautiful as the last one. Can we possibly hope for a third part in this story?!?
~Thalia
Buy It Now: Gathering Deep
Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Can I just tell you to read this book immediately? Seriously, if that was all the advice that I gave you and you followed it, you wouldn’t be disappointed. But since most readers want just a bit more before committing…
Madeleine is a typical seventeen-year-old girl with one exception. She can’t leave her house. In fact, she hasn’t been outside since she was a very small child. She’s allergic to basically everything, and basically everything could potentially end her life. So she’s stuck inside the bubble of her house. And if asked, she’d probably tell you that she’s pretty happy with her life as it is. After all, she’s never known anything different.
But then it happens. New neighbors move in next door. And as Madeleine watches from her upstairs window, her heart skips a beat when she sees Olly for the first time. His life is so different from hers, but he has his own set of troubles. Of course they fall for each other, at first from behind the safety of a computer screen. When that’s not enough, Madeleine realizes that her life wasn’t as happy and complete as she thought it was. All rewards, however, come with a certain amount of risk. And the risks for Madeleine could be her very life.
I’ve never read anything quite like this book. You could call it your typical teenage romance story. Girl finds boy, boy finds girl, they fall for each other, life interferes, and they live either happily ever after or NOT happily ever after. But the author does such an amazing job with this debut novel. It’s familiar and different at the same time. The characters are so real, and they evoke such emotion. Oh, and I won’t even mention the huge twist at the end of this story that I never for the life of me saw coming. This one will easily go down as one of my all-time favorites.
~Thalia
Buy It Now: Everything, Everything
Review: How to Say I Love You Out Loud by Karole Cozzo
Modern-day readers are very fortunate. No matter what situation-ailment-predicament-life event they find themselves in, there’s a book for it. Nonfiction if they’re after factual information, fiction if they want to simply lose themselves in a story. And it’s the same for young adult readers. Almost every possible scenario has been imagined, everything from bullying to living with a mental illness. It’s not as common, however, to find a book that tells the story from the perspective of a family member. This wonderful book from Karole Cozzo does just that.
The story is told from the point of view of Jordan, a young girl living with a secret. To her it’s a terrible secret, one that’s led to embarrassment and isolation in the past. But it’s not something she can control. Her younger brother Phillip has autism, and it pretty much governs everything that goes on in her family. From family outings to alone time spent with her mom, it all revolves around Phillip and his unpredictable, ever-changing moods.
She survives by keeping a definite separation between home and school. A student at an elite school, she gets by well enough. She’s active in sports and does well enough academically. But she keeps her friends at arms-length, never letting down that boundary between the outside world and her home life. While not an ideal solution, it works for Jordyn. Until Phillip is unexpectedly and unavoidably transferred to her school. Now all her worst fears come true as the lines between home and school are crossed. And Jordyn has to confront some hard truths about herself. Is she using Phillip as an excuse to not let others into her life?
It’s hard to like Jordyn at first because she’s so hard on herself and her family. She’s embarrassed of Phillip, even to the point of pretending to not even know him. Most of us would find that inexcusable. But she’s a teenage girl, and that says a lot. Being a teen is hard enough, especially in an elite school. It’s entirely understandable to see how she’d want a little bit of normalcy, one area of her life that isn’t ruled by Phillip.
This was an outstanding story. It’s plausible and realistically written, and the descriptions of Phillip’s behavior as a person with autism ring true. It will hit home for anyone affected by autism, but will have readers of all kinds hooked until the very end.
~Thalia
Buy It Now: How to Say I Love You Out Loud
Review: 40 Days Til 40RTY by TaJuan Mercer
Review: Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
So I read a lot of young adult books. Enough that there are times when I think that I’ve read every possible scenario involving teenage love-drama-angst-not fitting in-bullying-teasing-etc. And yes, the storylines can become stale and/or familiar from time to time. But books like this one are the reason I keep at it, the reason I keep reading almost anything I can get my hands on. Not all of them, however, reach the level of this one.
A teenager with OCD. That alone was enough to grab my attention. But that by itself is not enough to carry a story. This one has so much more.
On the outside, Samantha has it all. She’s part of the in-crowd, popular girls who have been friends since they were little. She has a good family, does well enough in school, and is a star swimmer. There’s more to Samantha than meets the eye, however. In addition to all these things, she has OCD. Her mind is consumed by obsessive thoughts-the number 3, questions she must find the answer to, people she can’t stop thinking about.
With the help of her family and excellent therapy, she does a good job of hiding it. Appearances can be deceiving, though. On the inside, she panics at the thought of losing the approval of her friends. Friends who, if she’s completely honest with herself, really aren’t that nice to begin with. But they provide her with a safety net, and that’s what she needs.
Then one day she meets Caroline, who is the complete opposite of what she’s used to. And more importantly, Caroline leads her to Poet’s Corner, a hidden little nook of people just like her. With Caroline’s encouragement, Samantha begins to branch out, to share parts of herself she’s never exposed to others.
And then there’s AJ. Because what would a young adult story be without a love interest? AJ is exactly what Samantha needs. He’s calming and comforting, and through his love she finds the courage to be herself. But the OCD is always there, lurking, threatening everything Samantha’s found. She can’t bring herself to tell AJ about her struggles because in his eyes she feels normal.
This book broke my heart. I cried inside thinking of everything that Samantha went through each and every day. And yes, I know that it’s fiction. But it’s truth for many young people. It’s full of sadness, and it’s full of hope. There’s friendship lost as well as friendship found. The inner struggle that Samantha faces is very real as are her feelings of loneliness. And at the end of the book is a story that you won’t soon forget.
~Thalia
Buy It Now: Every Last Word
Review – The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro.
I finished reading this book over a month ago, and honestly, I’m still not sure what to make of it. Is it a work of genius that layer upon layer of undiscovered insight? Or is it a bit of a failure? Well, after a month of letting it sink in, I think I can say it falls somewhere in the middle. Now, Ishiguro is one of my top 5 favourite authors – if I could ever write a novel even an 1/8 as good as The Remains of The Day, or Never Let Me Go, then my life would be complete – and so this review is hard for me to write as I really wanted to love this book.
I suppose I better tell you a bit about the plot. Set in the early years of the Saxons, we follow an elderly couple as they go on a journey to visit their son in a neighbouring village. There is however, a strange mist enveloping the land and this causes everyone to lose their long term memory, that the people believe is being caused by a dragon rumored to be living in a mountain. Throughout this journey, the couple are pitted against many obstacles, including a cantankerous old knight from the days of King Arthur, the above mentioned dragon, and various other people that wish to do them harm.
Hmm… this sounds like a fairy tale you may say? Well, it is certainly told in a similar fashion, except this one delves into much deeper issues. I don’t want to explain each metaphor or what I think the author is trying to say – that’s for you to decipher. However, what I will say is that I think Ishiguro had all of these themes and contemporary issues that he wanted to incorporate into his book, but yet he tended to over crowd it without offering context. Or maybe it was my mind making up these issues and themes?
Even though there were some weak points, two things that Ishiguro does really well are characters and depicting loss and acceptance. This is what ultimately drove up my rating of this novel. Ishiguro is a master at portraying long-term numbness, sorrow and pathetic hope, and this novel is full of that. If you’ve read any previous novels by Ishiguro, then I do recommend reading this one. Certainly not his best one, but a solid 4 stars nonetheless.
Pegasus.
Review: Huckleberry Spring by Jennifer Beckstrand
Huckleberry Harvest was released Tuesday! My review is coming soon, but you still have time to catch up on the earlier books in the series. 🙂
So, Book 4 in the Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill series. Oh that grandmother Anna can be sly. And grandfather Felty is definitely not on board with the deceit. But the matchmaking keeps succeeding, so they keep on doing it.
Spring brings Emma to the farm to help grow a pumpkin. Then Anna tells a few white lies to get her grandson Ben back to Wisconsin from Florida. He had escaped there after breaking off his engagement to … yes, Emma. And the re-matchmaking begins.
This time, it’s more than just hearts on the line. Ben has a medical issue he’s not willing to share. Emma has strength of spirit but also a will to not get her heart broken again.
I just love the innocence and Godly love in Beckstrand’s Huckleberry Hill books. I appreciate the family loyalty and the harmless jokes. And there’s always a sense of adventure!
I…
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Random Book Muses 