Review: Kissing Max Holden - Katy Upperman

Kissing Max Holden
Katy Upperman
Series: n/a
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Kissing Max Holden was a terrible idea...

After his father has a life-altering stroke, Max Holden isn't himself. As his long-time friend, Jillian Eldridge only wants to help him, but she doesn't know how. When Max climbs through her window one night, Jill knows that she shouldn't let him kiss her. But she can't resist, and when they're caught in the act by her dad, Jill swears it'll never happen again. Because kissing Max Holden is a terrible idea.

With a new baby sibling on the way, her parents fighting all the time, and her dream of culinary school up in the air, Jill starts spending more and more time with Max. And even though her father disapproves and Max still has a girlfriend, not kissing Max is easier said than done. Will Jill follow her heart and allow their friendship to blossom into something more, or will she listen to her head and stop kissing Max Holden once and for all?

Kissing Max Holden was one of my most anticipated reads for the second half of 2017, needless to say, I was ecstatic when Kiersten brought this one back from BEA. It was a wonderful boy next-door romance, that hit all the sweet spots for me.

These two had such a deep bond, which was cultivated through a decade of friendship. I always love when the MCs share a past, and Jillian and Max had such a wonderful and storied history. I really enjoyed those peeks Upperman gifted me of their past, because they helped me fully understand the depth of the hole left in both Jillian and Max's lives when they grew apart. It also helped me understand why they turned to each other as their lives were falling apart.

For all you out there who love a broken boy, Max totally fits the bill. In the beginning of the book, he was binge drinking and making many bad choices. Jillian and his friends were having a difficult time standing by and watching him as he fell deeper and deeper into his hole of despair, but I, along with Jillian, never lost hope. That was something Upperman did so well. There was so much going wrong in both Max and Jillian's lives, but there was always hope. There was always a bright spot, and the sun came out after the rain. I really appreciated that, because I need it in a story.

This story was built upon a lot of drama, but I really liked that most of the drama was outside of Max and Jillian's relationship. Yes, all these events affected the dynamic between Max and Jill, but it wasn't that typical, petty boy-girl drama.

There were a lot of broken relationships in this book, but the beautiful thing was that while some relationships were breaking, some were forming or becoming stronger. So, I got a little sad, but it was balanced out by me getting a little happy. Jillian in particular was forced to make some difficult choices, as she learned things she never wanted to know. My heart broke for her over and over again, and I was really proud of the choices she made.

Upperman gave Jill and Max a wonderful support system. They both had some really solid friends, who genuinely cared for them. Max's family may have been adjusting to his father's health issues, but they were still a rather cohesive group, who loved each other very much. Jillian did not have that same level of support from her father. In fact, he was a huge disappointment, but she grew to appreciate her step-mother and the Holden's continued to be her surrogate family when she needed them.

One piece of advice I must offer is to NOT read this on an empty stomach. Jillian was quite stressed out during this story, and her coping mechanism was baking. Upperman did not simply say, "She was baking." Oh, no. She describes smells, tastes, ingredients. I found my mouth watering quite a few times, and was sad that I could not climb into the book and share some snacks with them.

I enjoyed every page of this book. It was a wonderful story of family, love, and loss. A great romance, that warmed my heart, and left me with no doubt that I will be reading more of Katy Upperman's work.

**I would like to thank the awesome people at Swoon Reads for the advanced copy of this book.

Jill is an aspiring pastry chef and bakes a lot in this book. I don't like to cook or bake, but I love to eat home baked goods. My favorite being brownies. 

Do you like to bake or have a favorite baked good?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: Daughter of the Burning City - Amanda Foody

Daughter of the Burning City
Amanda Foody
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Mystery
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Thanks to Harlequin TEEN for the ARC I received at BookExpo!

When I read the blurb for Daughter of the Burning City, I knew that I needed to make it a priority to grab at BEA - having loved Caraval, an endorsement from Stephanie Garber really sold me on this carnival-centric book. After reading the book, I can say that it definitely did not disappoint me, and I loved every second of it.

"Wicked, wicked to the core, the city will burn forevermore."

Daughter of the Burning City follows Sorina and her Freak Show in the traveling city of Gomorrah's festival. Sorina is an illusion worker, which immediately intrigued me since I had just recently finished The Rose Society, but besides just projecting illusions into the minds of others, she can also create living illusions. These not-so-imaginary creations are Sorina's family and are a part of her show's act, but everything changes when one of her illusions ends up dead.

The city of Gomorrah is a fascinating setting for the story. I think the idea of a carnival always has two sides - the excitement of the performances paired with a sort of creepy undertone, a darkness behind the flashing lights. The city of Gomorrah is built in a similar way. The uphill area is family friendly, filled with fun performances, including Sorina's Freak Show. On the other hand, the downhill is a dark place filled with pickpockets, prettywomen, and assassins. As the proprietor's daughter, Sorina will someday inherit the job, but this story follows her as she is exploring the downhill for the first time as part of her investigation into her illusion's death.

I loved the layers that Amanda Foody built into Gomorrah as well as the surrounding cities. The cities outside of Gomorrah, in a way, mimic the city itself: there is the Upmountain, filled with religious zealots and wealth, and the Downmountain, a place seen by the Upmountainers as filth. Additionally, the Upmountain disciples of Ovren view jynx workers like Sorina as devil workers, unclean and unnatural. Now imagine the Upmountain and drop Gomorrah, a city of sin, in the middle. Besides the dynamic of the city itself, Amanda Foody was able to add in elements of the world around them while still crafting a mystery and romance and much more. IN UNDER 400 PAGES!!! Honestly, iconic. There was no point where I felt like the world building was forced or hard to follow - it was all laid out in a way that made it easy to understand and natural.

As for the characters, I was amazed by how vivid each of the characters were. Even though Sorina was the main character, her illusions and other secondary characters were still so real. Even a pickpocket who wasn't heavily involved in the story was still given layers, leaving me caring for him even though he was kind of a crook. Sorina's illusions' lives didn't revolve around her - they all had lives of their own.

Sorina was a really interesting character in that she had a lot of insecurity that she had to work past. Sorina was constantly second guessing herself, letting others who she viewed as smarter than her take the lead in situations where she was fully competent. I really enjoyed watching her grow throughout the book, finding her way and the confidence to ask the hard questions and find the hard answers.

And then there was the romance. I don't want to give too much away, but it was definitely unexpected in some ways. Regardless to the circumstances, it was super swoony and there was humor and support and basically it was an ideal, healthy relationship in the end, which is really nice to see in YA since I feel like a lot of romance focuses on the struggle rather than the support.

Overall, Daughter of the Burning City was a brilliantly crafted story filled with mystery, magic, and so much more. While I personally had a bit of a rocky start getting into it, this book quickly grabbed my attention and drove me crazy when there were pieces of the puzzle that I wasn't seeing. Filled with solid character building, flawless world building, a quick pace, and enticing mystery, this book will not disappoint.

If you had a circus act, what would it be?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: Gemina - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Gemina
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff 
Series: The Illuminae Files, #2
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance, Action
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads 

Thanks to Penguin Random House for the ARC I received at BEA!

Guys. GUYS. THIS BOOK. Gemina. GEMINA. IT WAS SO GOOD.

As I'm writing this review, it is the end of May and I have just finished reading Gemina because after receiving an ARC at BEA this year, I could not resist reading it as soon as possible. While I am so happy I didn't have to wait a long time to read this epic follow up to Illuminae, I also hate myself because now I'll have to wait extra long to read the next book, which is going to be torture considering how much I LOVED Gemina.

For those of you who haven't read Illuminae, you need to get on that ASAP, and you can read my review for more details on why that book is awesome. Continue on to find out why the sequel is equally awesome.

Like Illuminae, Gemina is told through a dossier, this one following Hanna Donnelly and Niklas Malikov as their home comes under attack. As if hostile invaders weren't bad enough, there are also alien predators and a broken wormhole to deal with. Basically, things are pretty messed up.

"The universe itself depends on you.

... No pressure."

I absolutely LOVED Hanna and Nik! I think I liked Kady a little bit better, but Hanna is still a really strong heroine - she kind of reminded me a little bit of Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson books. On the other hand, I liked Nik a little bit more than Ezra, which I think is, in part, because he is more present throughout Gemina than Ezra was throughout Illuminae. Nik's humor is so great, and I loved all his interactions with Hanna and his cousin Ella.

While in Illuminae Kady and Ezra knew each other and had a relationship before the book started, Hanna and Nik aren't really friends at the beginning of Gemina. It was really cool to see how the two are brought together throughout the book, despite the unfortunate circumstance. There were so many ups and downs for them - it was a wild ride.

I also really loved Nik's cousin Ella. While she isn't present for most of the action, she's an absolute riot whenever she interacts with anyone. She's the really cool background hacker who keeps everyone alive. It's great. AND KADY'S DAD! I actually screamed when he was introduced because I was so excited. It was fun hearing him talk about Kady after having read about her through Illuminae.

Gemina did not disappoint when it comes to the same thrilling action, romance, and humor readers of Illuminae will expect. All the twists and ~science things~ were so much fun to follow, and it was such a great second book that left me starving for book three. Readers of Illuminae will not be disappointed by Gemina, and if you haven't read Illuminae yet, you should get on that. This is definitely one of my favorite series, and I highly recommend it. Can't wait for book three!

Frobisher better watch her back.

- Kiersten

If your home was being invaded and you could only save one thing, what would it be?

Let us know in the comments!

Triple Review: Illuminae - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Illuminae
Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff 
Series: The Illuminae Files, #1
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance, Action
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads 

Thanks to Penguin Random House for the ARC I received at BEA!

Last year at BEA, I got one of those gorgeous Illuminae ARCs they were giving out but never got around to reading it. Going into Illuminae, I knew very little about it. I knew that it was written as a dossier, that it was supposedly really good, and that it was MASSIVE. After reading Illuminae, I am so happy that I did because it was absolutely incredible!

Illuminae follows Kady Grant and Ezra Mason the lives they know are torn apart. Their home has been attacked, there's something strange going on, and a heavily armed ship is coming to kill them. To say the stakes are high would be an understatement. 

The dossier style of Illuminae made the book go by a lot faster than I anticipated based on looking at it. With the plot broken up into these smaller documents, it made the "just one more chapter" complex even greater with "just one more file," and I just could not stop reading - I ended up finishing this book in a little over 24 hours. When going into this book, I think it's definitely necessary to give it a good, solid chunk of straight reading to get into the way the story is told and the plot, but once I was hooked, I couldn't stop.

Speaking of the style of Illuminae, I've heard that the audiobook narration is really great and I'm sure the ebook is fine as well; however, I think the visual element of this book is absolutely wonderful. From the layout to the different artwork, I don't think my reading experience would have been the same without the full experience of reading the physical book (which is not something I would usually say since I generally prefer to read ebooks).

Getting back to the book itself, I absolutely loved the characters. Kady is so cool, and Ezra is so sweet. I also really enjoyed a lot of the supporting characters, including Byron and Syra. I also really enjoyed AIDAN, who becomes a huge part of this book as it goes on (and it's kind of insane and will blow your mind like BOOM).

All in all, I have no complaints about Illuminae. I absolutely LOVED it, and I'm so happy that I was able to get an ARC of Gemina at BEA this year, although the wait for book three is going to be agonizingly long. Illuminae is an incredible science fiction story filled with humor, romance, humor, action, and did I mention it's funny? Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff absolutely nailed it with balancing all the elements in this story, and it's definitely a must read!

- Kiersten

Noor's Review of Illuminae

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Never have I seen such poetry in a dossier (except maybe in the word dossier, which happens to be my favorite word, but that's not what I meant).

When I picked up Illuminae at BEA 2015 I was really intimidated. It's a huge book and I'm not necessarily opposed to huge books but it was a huge ~sci-fi dossier book~ and I was really not sure what to expect, especially since I often find many science fiction books a bit much (wondering if taking a Science Fiction class next semester will make me hate the genre completely or appreciate it more...we shall see).

Anyway, like Kiersten mentioned in her review, the dossier format made the book a much faster read than I assumed it would be, and also had a nice rhythm of longer, more textual documents vs short ones you could flip through quickly. It made the pacing very unique because there would be parts where it was mostly instant messages and emails back and forth from characters and you were just getting info, figuring out what was going on, nothing too heart-racing, but then something big would happen and there would be short bursts of pages with like small sentence fragments on them and it really contributed to the sense of either urgency or safety.

Also, keeping with the discussion of the length, many longer books tend to slowly pace themselves because there's a lot of space for things to happen, and sometimes this can be a little boring, but I didn't think Illuminae was slowly paced at all. I agree with Kiersten in that I think you have to power through a chunk of it all at once in order to really get into the world and find yourself enraptured by the story. I actually tried to read this months ago but I was busy with life things so I would read one file and then hours later read another and then a day later read three more and I didn't get into it so I decided to just read it later. This time though, I read it in huge chunks (I'm pretty sure I read half in one sitting and half in another) and I felt like the book flew by. Every scene either someone was attacking or someone was learning secret ship information or someone was dying. It was a heart-racing book, truly.

I really loved all of the characterization and how even though the book wasn't traditionally written, you still learn so much about the people on the ships. Kady had the most focus and I thought her attitude was brilliant. She was the right amount of ~I'm gonna do what I want and not comply with your rules because screw that~ without becoming a shallow has-no-flaws Badass Girl Who Saves the World Despite Having No Talents. Kady is a total genius, but we know she can learn more because Byron (another computer hacker on board, like Kady) treats her like his protege. She's tough and sarcastic but also frazzled and vulnerable. She's a great character who I can't wait to explore in Gemina.

And on the flip side of Kady's antisocial computer-genius pink-haired glory is her ex, Ezra. Ezra was the sweetest, drawing hearts and roses through text for Kady via email, and teasing (and getting teased by) his fellow pilots, and just being so good-hearted and funny. The most interesting character, though, had to be AIDAN, the artificial intelligence running things on one of the ships. I know it's weird to treat an AI like a character, but we delved so much into AIDAN, and those parts were my favorite to read. I wanna go back and reread it just to experience the AIDAN parts again.

So the characters are great, the story is exciting, and one last thing: the writing was so wonderful. While I thought the book would probably be enjoyable because so many people were raving about it, I didn't expect eloquence from a dossier. I figured the book was good because of the content, not as much the way the content was relayed. However, there are documents where characters write things like incident reports and surveillance summaries and even journal entries, and some of the internal monologue is so gorgeously written it makes me wanna cry. Also, everything involving AIDAN was so spectacularly written I had to slow down and savor it. One of my favorite quotes in the book is actually from an IM conversation, so it's not even like only the more narrative-style documents are well-written: "You have me. Until every last star in the galaxy dies. You have me."

Anyway, as you can see, I thought the book was absolutely phenomenal and I'm still in my mourning period (I believe it's been two weeks) so hopefully I stop mourning sometime before Gemina comes out so I can experience the sequel in its glory.

- Noor

Amrutha's Review of Illuminae

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Wow guys, I've had this book sitting in my house since BEA LAST YEAR but I only read it this week. I don't even need to tell you guys how much I regret that choice because Illuminae is one of the books of the year. Decade. Whatever. The fact that this is a series with action and romance and everything means it has a really good shot at being famous world wide and I'm honestly really excited for when that happens, because Illuminae is the real deal. When they were giving it out last year they had hyped this book SO MUCH and literally we had gotten so many copies of this book that I thought it would be alright at best because why would they hype it up so much? Wrong. Like Noor said too, I was a little put off by the size of the book (I'm not like, afraid of reading large books) but the format and the Sci-Fi (which isn't really my style) seemed a little scary. If you're dumb like me, just put everything aside and go get this book. Okay now I'll stop rambling and actually talk about the story:

Noor & Kiersten both touched upon this so I won't spend too much time on it, but the dossier format was honestly really really cool and made the book go by a lot faster. I agree with Kiersten and Noor that you've got to commit to the book for a little bit so you can see how the book is constructed and really commit to it. But if I really enjoy a book I won't put it down and will read it in one shot, so that's what I did for this -- took me a good few hours even with the format being spaced with messages and designs and smaller documents.

Ya'll know I'm really character driven, and so is this book -- you wouldn't think it would be, seeing as it's in a file format, but honestly, it is. The construction of Kady and Byron and Ezra. I've griped so many times about how the female leads of books like this have to end up being basically perfect or a total bitch in order to accomplish whatever it is they need (there aren't many but that seems to be a flaw in a lot of them): NOT KADY THOUGH. Kady, like Noor said, doesn't seem to have any ~special~ talents or anything. She's written as an honest to goodness badass who is both really cool and really smart (REALLY REALLY SMART) but also like lowkey vulnerable. Byron and Ezra were really cool to read too what with Byron's knowledge and Ezra's romantic interest. AIDAN is an AI "character"? Don't know if it's appropriate to acknowledge AIDAN as one but totally agree with Noor that his parts were some of the best to read. Nothing beats a ballsy female protagonist for me though. I saw a different review talking about how so many of the people in charge in this novel are women, and how it took her a moment to notice that they were women because their voices weren't written differently. I just want to acknowledge how cool that is, and how I didn't notice how I also assumed the women in charge were men until I kept reading.

This is a story about corporations and love and computers and a virus and humor and is set in 2575 so there is ~all the technology~. This book didn't really seem like it was for me, but you might not necessarily think it's for you either. FORGET THAT and read this. I have an ARC of Gemina waiting for me and if I had known how much I loved Illuminae I'd have been all over it already. Look forward to a review of that soon.

- Amrutha

Have you ever read a book written as a file?

Let us know in the comments!

Recap: BEA + BookCon 2016

Hi, everyone! At the title of this post implies, I'm finally doing my BookExpo America and BookCon 2016 recap post! This year, BEA and BookCon were in Chicago rather than New York City and were earlier in the month than usual. This presented many problems for myself and my co-bloggers - NYC is less than an hour from where I live via the train, and with the date change, it was very close to when we were all taking finals. Traveling to Chicago instead made BEA more of a vacation than several day trips into the city.

BEA Day One

I actually had to take a final exam the day before BEA Day One, so I ended up taking an early flight that morning - I woke up at 4 a.m. and I was not a happy camper. I had been so tired from working on final projects, taking final exams, and planning for BEA, so it was a bit of a struggle - but I was headed to BEA, one of my favorite parts of the year.

Once I got there, I headed to the hotel for a little while before meeting my mom at the convention center. It was a strange feeling to get there because I'm so used to being able to walk a few blocks to Javits from Penn Station and then knowing how to get around the building. McCormick Place wasn't so different from Javits - it definitely had a similar look - but it took a second to get my bearings and figure out where I needed to go.

The layout of the show floor wasn't much different from the layout in New York - I had actually looked over the map beforehand, so I had a decent understanding of where things were - and it looked so much like Javits once we entered.

The biggest difference between BEA in Chicago and New York is that Chicago definitely had a calmer vibe from most of the people there. There were definitely less people on the show floor, and I couldn't help but notice that the people generally walked a lot slower than in New York, especially since I tend to be a pretty destination-oriented walker at BEA.

Day One ended up being a really successful day for books! I decided not to go to the Blogger's Conference this year because I had to fly into Chicago that morning, but I managed to make it to a ton of drops, particularly at HarperCollins.

BEA Day Two

It was nice going into Day Two because I was familiar with the show floor, and I had a more clear picture of what books I needed to get that day. Since I had gotten most of the Harper drops on Day One, I only had to make it to the very first one that morning to get Replica and some other gems.

The most intense part of this day was definitely getting signing tickets for Macmillan, also known as the MacMob (possibly only to me, but I will continue to use this name for this event because it is Accurate). If you've never been to BEA, the thing you have to understand about people is that they will wait hours to get a book they really want. Unfortunately, the location of Macmillan's booth didn't really allow for accommodating a line for hours before they handed out signing tickets. The tickets up for grabs were for some highly anticipated books: You Know Me Well, Vassa in the Night, 738 Days, and, arguably the biggest attraction for people, Heartless. I really wanted to get all of these books, so I was there pretty early, just "hanging out" until they started the line. Unfortunately, instead of just starting an official line early, a mob formed. It was chaos. There were 3 "lines", going in all different directions, blocking other books and the entire walkway near Macmillan's booth. People were getting so edgy and it was just all around Bad.

At the MacMob

I really think there should be "I Survived the MacMob at BEA 2016" t-shirts. It really did feel like an accomplishment. And not everyone survived. I mean, no one died, but the faint of heart gave up once the stampede began.

You might be wondering what I mean by stampede. Well, when Macmillan eventually made the official line (it was well over two hours after people started lining up), it was a stampede. Somehow, I ended up at the very front of that line - I'm still not entirely sure how that happened. At this point, I was super excited - I would get All The Books! Haha, no. Because of Fairness, everyone could only get up to two signing tickets. I'd like to just put in right here that I totally respected the rule, I just wish I had known earlier because I would have had my mother on line with me. So at this point, I had to make some Choices about which books I wanted to get. Given that Heartless was going to be available again on Day Three, I figured I could just get it then, so I opted for Vassa in the Night and You Know Me Well, which my mom really wanted to get because she wanted to see David Levithan. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about just getting a third ticket for Heartless as well, but knowing how there were people in line who probably wouldn't get any tickets, I decided to opt for good karma. This was the start of my path to not getting Heartless at BEA.

Overall, Day Two was super successful - by the end of it, I had very few books I still needed to pick up on Day Three.

BEA Day Three

Now, I shall continue my path to not getting Heartless at BEA. In New York, the WLABBers always went early to Javits to get on the line for autograph area signing tickets, and we always got the tickets we wanted. So I went early (granted, not as early as other people because we were relying on the BEA shuttle from the hotel) and got on the line. Little did I know, they, evidently, only had three Heartless tickets to give out. Three. It was extremely frustrating, especially because they always had way more to give out the day of the event in New York.

So Day Three was off to a disappointing start, but the rest of the day was very calm. I found myself just hanging out and wandering around most of the time, which was pretty nice. Most of my day was actually spent waiting on line for the Gemina drop at Penguin Random House.

On a side note, I'd like to take a moment to praise Penguin Random House - out of all the publishers at BEA this year, they definitely had the best set up and location to manage lines. They had a wonderful system going on. It was amazing.

Anyway, the Gemina line started about 3-4 hours ahead of time, but it was so calm. Everyone was just sitting down, hanging out, being calm. It was so refreshing in comparison to some of the other lines I had waited on the other days. I think it was partially due to how much space there was for us to have our line, but people were also a lot more calm since it was the end of the last day of BEA.

All in all, BEA 2016 was a success - I got almost every thing I wanted (insert sobs about Heartless here), and I had a great time!

BookCon

As always, BookCon was more disorganized than BEA. When I got to the convention center, there was a line wrapped throughout the entire convention center. Having purchased VIP passes, we were confused about there only being one line. Apparently, you had to wait on the line to get your bag checked so that you could get autographing wristbands. I was not about that. So we just chilled in the general area of the entrance to the show floor, and ended up in the VIP first access line.

From there, we headed over to the First in Line Red Carpet event because why not. After that, we mostly just went to panels, which was a lot of fun.

The first panel was with Melissa de la Cruz, Sabaa Tahir, Lauren Oliver, and Veronica Roth. It was weird at first because it was past when the panel should have started but the authors weren't coming out yet. Then, I saw on Twitter that Lauren Oliver's Uber driver actually got lost and couldn't find the convention center. Once she got there, the panel was really cool and all about good and evil in books.

Some other panels we went to were Friendship is Magic with Sarah J. Maas, Alexandra Bracken, Susan Dennard, and Victoria Aveyard, Reality Bites with David Levithan, Jennifer Niven, Nicola Yoon, David Arnold, and John Corey Whaley, and The Simon & Schuster Sisters with Siobhan Vivian, Jenny Han, and Morgan Matson.

The last, and most fun, panel we went to was #IReadYA Presents Book Besties with Maggie Stiefvater, Jeffery Self, Aimee Friedman, and Francisco X. Stork, moderated by David Levithan. Maggie Stiefvater is just so fun, and David Levithan did an amazing job of steering all the conversations in exciting directions, which is something some of the other panels missed due to lack of a moderator.

Overall, I was disappointed by BookCon in Chicago. Not only was it one day instead of two, it felt like there weren't as many big things to go to this year as in the past. Additionally, I was very disappointed by the "privileges" of the VIP pass - it kind of felt like I paid way more than everyone else for no reason. It was still fun, but I'm happy BEA and BookCon will be back in New York in 2017!

Sloth's Adventures

You were wondering about the lack of Sloth above, weren't you? Well, here are some of the fun photos Sloth took while adventuring at BEA and BookCon!

If you want to check out more of Sloth's adventures, you can follow him on Twitter: @SlothGoesPlaces!

- Kiersten

Did you go to BEA or BookCon this year?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: The King Slayer - Virginia Boecker

The King Slayer
Virginia Boecker 
Series: The Witch Hunter, #2
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Goodreads 

Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the eARC I received via NetGalley!

Last year when I read The Witch Hunter I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, the fact that I loved the book was the only thing I remembered about it when I approached its sequel. While some things came back to me as I was reading The King Slayer, I spent a lot of the time I was reading trying to grasp at vague memories from the previous book. I wish I could have remembered more or had reread The Witch Hunter before going into The King Slayer because I think it would have helped me to enjoy it more.

Since I remembered very little going into The King Slayer, I spent a lot of time trying to grasp onto the characters that I had loved, according to my review of The Witch Hunter. I enjoyed how much Elizabeth evolved throughout the book. After having her entire world view changed in The Witch Hunter, I didn't expect to see her change as much as she did, but given some of the events near the end of the previous book as well as some revelations in The King Slayer, Elizabeth and John had much to work through. I didn't find either of the characters super compelling, but I enjoyed their growth.

In The King Slayer, we also get our first real glimpse at Malcolm, the king. To be honest, I wasn't really satisfied with the way he was portrayed, particularly in regards to some things brought up in the previous book. Additionally, I wish George had been more present in this book. The one character I mentioned really enjoying and wanting more of in my The Witch Hunter review was George, and he was almost entirely absent from the book.

One thing I can say for certain is that The King Slayer did not disappoint when it comes to steady action and excitement. There were so many twists and turns throughout this book before it reached the end. However, despite all this excitement, I found that I wasn't particularly invested. The characters were not as interesting to me in this installment as they were in the previous, so I had trouble caring what happened to them, especially because, knowing this was the finale, I was pretty confident everything was going to work out.

Overall, The King Slayer is not a bad finale to the duology - it is action packed, and the magical element of the book becomes even more interesting as the plot progresses. I think the main thing that took away from the book for me was that the beginning of the book could have done more to support my memory of The Witch Hunter. The Witch Hunter series is definitely worth a read, but I highly recommend reading the books close together or rereading the first book before moving on to The King Slayer.

- Kiersten

Do you reread books before reading the sequel?

Let us know in the comments!

Review: The Loose Ends List - Carrie Firestone

The Loose Ends List
Carrie Firestone 
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Goodreads 

Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the ARC received at BEA!

Ya'll, I'm back. And as luck would have it, the first book I'm actually reviewing in a really long time ended up being a not so great one (sigh). I /promise/ I'll review something I really enjoyed soon but for now stick with me as we delve into The Loose Ends List, which Kiersten picked up as an ARC from this years BEA (which I sadly could not attend because finals and 1500 miles away). 

Alright, so I'm not going to lie to you and say that I was super excited to read this book at the start -- I wasn't, but I'm all about giving things chances because you never know what you might love, right? Wrong. So the premise of the book is that our main protagonist Maddie is a girl who lives a pretty cushy life and then one day before she makes her way to college, her Gram who is apparently on the brink of death, decides that her whole family should go on some cruise so that they might have the summer of their dreams and cope with the grief to come or something. This wasn't the issue I had with the book, it seemed kind of confusing but a lot of books have weird family backgrounds to make the plot work, so I genuinely thought that might be interesting. What concerned me was this:

Soon, Maddie is on the trip of a lifetime with her over-the-top family. As they travel the globe, Maddie bonds with other passengers and falls for Enzo, who is processing his own grief. But despite the laughter, headiness of first love, and excitement of glamorous destinations, Maddie knows she is on the brink of losing Gram. She struggles to find the strength to say good-bye in a whirlwind summer shaped by love, loss, and the power of forgiveness.

What is posted above is from the blurb. Read this and tell me right now that Maddie falling in her "first love" with Enzo on some death cruise doesn't scream insta-love to you. BUT NONETHELESS, I read the book.

Alright so you guys might have been confused about the death cruise -- don't worry, Gram didn't set them up for a depressing Carnival cruise while everyone else around them partied away happily. This is some sort of ominous cruise in which everyone can "die with dignity." I honestly still think its a pretty weird concept but unique enough, and it was honestly the most interesting thing about the book, so thats where this book's points come from.

Anyway, whilst dying with dignity, our characters travel the globe -- the descriptions of the actual countries were cool but the descriptions of the people who lived in the countries weren't. More on that later. But the actual discussion of death in all of this was done pretty well in my opinion; the book would've benefitted greatly if only death was more relevant and Enzo as a character was just completely cut out.

Okay now that I've sufficiently explained the only real perks about the book, let me tackle what I wasn't a fan of. I've read quite a few reviews of this book that discuss how funny it is and honestly, while I'm all for a well placed penis joke, this was just ridiculous. I am a person who laughs out loud at books when they are funny, and I promise you I didn't laugh even once during this book. Alright, moving past the humor, the characters: Maddie was honestly so annoying. Her instalove with Enzo was predictable and so quick that it didn't make any sense to be her "first love." Everything outside of the death conversation was just so /predictable/. Instalove. Maddie was a rich white girl from a rich white family who did rich things. Her friends and family are described through flat static descriptions -- slut. alcoholic. the nice one. overly honest grandma. the virgin. The humor was so centered around these stereotypical/archaic ideas of what people should be -- I'm not joking when I say 99% of the humor was about penises and poop (Maddie has IBS for literally no real reason other than to make some crude jokes). 

The plot was vaguely interesting but the characters were honestly written so statically that I had no interest in even trying to like them slowly over the course of the book. Overall, not a fan. However, this book has really great reviews and I only saw a few that saw the book from my point of view, so there's a pretty good chance you might like it! Let me know how you feel so I have someone to talk about this with :)

- Amrutha

How would you tie up your loose ends?

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ARC Review: Black Widow: Forever Red - Margaret Stohl

Black Widow: Forever Red
Margaret Stohl 
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Superhero, Action
Release Date: October 13th, 2015
Publisher: Marvel Press
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Natasha Romanov hates pierogies and that's more insight into her character than we've seen from all her scenes in every Marvel movie she's been in combined -- and that's from the first line of this book.

Black Widow is my heart and soul. I want her to pull a gun out of a cleverly concealed spot in her clothing and shoot me in the face. I welcome the sweet embrace of death if it's being delivered by a swift punch from Agent Romanov's gauntlet clad fists. So when I heard this book existed it was a big deal to me, because her on-screen scenes are not enough for me. Margaret Stohl was giving me a full length novel about the queen of my heart, and I could have it months in advance, signed and everything by arguably the sweetest author in existence? A dream come true.

The story Stohl tells in her book is of Ava Orvola, a girl Natasha Romanov saved eight years ago from Ivan Somodorov, the same man who ran the Red Room where Natasha became the Black Widow. Now, he's back and down to even shadier shenanigans and of course now only does Nat have to get Ava involved (whose just trying to live an innocent civilian life at this point) but another homie, Alex, gets mixed up in this business as well.

The book was full of action. From page one to the end, I don't feel like it ever lost its momentum or it pacing. It was a short book but because of the way it was paced, so many things happened one after the other (or all at once) that content-wise, nothing was lacking.

The characterization was the most interesting part to me. There were some scenes where I could see the Black Widow I had in my head saying and doing those things and there were some scenes where she seemed slightly out of character, like the dialogue didn't quite match up with the mouth of the person saying it. I wasn't sure if I just had a false perception of her or if Stohl's representation of her was a little off, but ultimately, she still displayed the signature Black Widow characteristics, and considering I have mostly the movies to go off of, my view of her is probably skewed as it is, so I don't want to knock Margaret Stohl for her characterization. I do think some of the lines read a little bit choppy/awkward, but I think that might have been a dialogue issue, not a character issue. Overall, I liked her imagining of Natasha: she had the sarcasm, -- especially evident in the bits of dialogue from the case files inserted after each chapter -- the closed-off nature, the intelligence.

The other two main characters, I totally loved. They were well-written and well developed and even though I wished there was slightly more Black Widow point of view compared to their point of views, I still loved their point of views. Ava had the same tormented past and her snark and loner lifestyle mirroring Natasha's was just too interesting not too be drawn into. And Alex was hilarious and endearing and once Black Widow starts digging deeper, a mystery. I did think they were a little insta-lovey (more from his side considering she saw him in her dreams so at least she thought she knew him kinda???) but they were cute and not obnoxious and not the point of the story so I'm willing to let it go. Also, on the topic of characters, I loved the appearances from Tony Stark and Phil Coulson and the references to the Avengers. Stohl did a great job tying everything to the universe.

Some of the writing was a little awkward, particularly the fight sequences. I enjoyed the parts about analyzing the scenes, but other than that, the fight scenes didn't really hold my attention and I didn't enjoy reading them, even the internal monologue-y parts. I don't know if that's just me or if they truly were awkward to read but throughout the book there were just bits and pieces of weird phrasing.

However, there were also beautifully phrased parts and most of the story was enjoyable enough that I plowed through, trying to figure out the next plot point. I liked all the directions the story took (speaking of directions, there was a One Direction joke in the book, which is automatic grounds for recommendation) and a lot of them I didn't see coming at all. It was cool how all the characters were interconnected and there was always a little more to the story.

I'm still waiting for that novel all about Nat's grueling Red Room training so that better be next, but until then, I totally liked the book, shortcomings and all, and would definitely suggest fans of Black Widow pick it up, if not for the story, for the sole fact that Alex Manor's longest inside joke is "Taylor Stark" -- a poster of Tony Stark with Taylor Swift's head taped on -- and if that doesn't inspire you, nothing can.

- Noor

Black Widow movie? Yes or Yes?
Let us know in the comments!

ARC Review: A Step Toward Falling - Cammie McGovern

A Step Toward Falling
Cammie McGovern
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary
Release Date: October 6th, 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

There's always a clear distinction between throwing in certain characters as an aside in a a story -- the token black girl, the sassy gay friend -- and truly creating a story with dynamic, diverse characters. Cammie McGovern does the latter, exploring different ways those with disabilities can function and interact, without reducing them to gimmicks. These characters are the heart and soul of the book, carrying the story.

The events of A Step Toward Falling begin when Belinda, a developmentally disabled senior, is being attacked behind the bleachers at a football game. Emily sees and freezes in panic mode, doesn't physically help her. She sees Lucas coming out from behind the bleachers too and figures he must have stopped it or said something, he figures the same and neither of them do anything. Belinda eventually saves herself by yelling and getting the attention of a janitor, who calls the cops. The guidance counselor makes Emily and Lucas volunteer at a Boundaries and Relationships class taught at a learning center for disabled adults as they are both responsible for not speaking out.

The story is told in alternating points of view: Emily's and Belinda's. Honestly, I'm glad we had Emily's and Belinda's and not Emily's and Lucas's because while I did really love Lucas as a character we got to learn so much more about Belinda this way than we would have from the scenes we would have seen if we only saw her through the other two's limited vision. Also, while I'm not really too sure Emily was a character I liked all that much, I feel like I appreciated her point of view, if that makes sense? I didn't hate her, I just felt like she could be a little full of herself sometimes and she didn't see the way her words affected others. In the beginning, she had this image that all football players are dumb and none of them need to go to college and blah blah blah and now she meets Lucas and he can hold a decent conversation and he's funny and decently smart and she knows those cracks get to him but she still makes them and doesn't realize it's rude? And she still has all her notions about her "smart" friends and the "popular" kids. Like, in one part Lucas is talking about what they do at parties and she's literally like "I think about how my friends and I talk about weightier issues. Usually it's through music and song lyrics that we analyze to death." Just think about a bunch of high school seniors sitting in a bedroom analyzing printouts of song lyrics. Think about it. She's a little off kilter but I think ultimately she has a good heart.

Belinda provides us with a stark contrast to Emily. She sees the world differently than her point-of-view counterpart. Where the audience understands things, Belinda doesn't. For example, when Ron, a football player, and his friends laugh at her attempts to ask him to watch Pride and Prejudice with her, the audience knows they are being rude, but Belinda thinks they are a group of people who laugh a lot and something funny has happened unrelated to her question. She's more well-adjusted than some of her classmates -- one is wheelchair-bound and cannot speak or move due to his cerebral palsy and her close friend with Down Syndrome is often hard to understand -- but still is struggling to find work once she finishes high school. Her main job in school was sorting mail, but clerical jobs like that are few and far between and the list of disabled people up for them is in the hundreds. Her grandmother refuses to let her do janitorial work, so she has few options. This dilemma of hers did well to highlight a huge real life problem for those with disabilities. Many are unable to find jobs that suit their needs and the waiting lists for jobs available are ridiculous.

As the story provides us with insight into these characters and more, not only does everyone grow on you, but the whole story just grows on your heart. Some of my favorite parts were reading about Lucas and Emily's volunteering sessions at the center. Cammie McGovern didn't write a classroom full of disabled characters like children who needed to be taught manners and discipline and control. She wrote them like the people they are who have a different set of rules for their lives. And Lucas and Emily talked to them like people, not awkward creatures to skirt around, which the discussion leader mentioned in one class as well. Speaking of Lucas, he was one of my favorite characters. I felt like he was the most compassionate, the most kind, and had the biggest heart. Without seeing his point of view, he had an air of mystery (maybe a little more mystery than I wanted but it happens), but we got to know him through dialogue, which Cammie McGovern did excellently. His character development was done beautifully, not too rushed or too slow, and I'm just in love with him as a person and as a character.

I feel like there is so much about this book and I've just spent all these words just talking about characters but there's a lot more and I don't want to bore you. Basically, the story is excellent and well done and equal parts funny and cute and sad and witty and all the YA things you could ask for. There are characters you will totally love, like Belinda and Anthony, and there are some really shitty characters like Ron and Richard (ok I know Richard is supposed to be redeemable but I really don't like him, he's Emily's "best friend" but he's pretentious and selfish and she can do better; actually all her friends kinda suck).

There was some of the actual writing that was a little iffy for me but not enough that I didn't like the general feel of the book, just a few lines here and there. Like, in the beginning, Emily is attracted to a boy so she thinks "I feel a tingle in my armpits." My armpits have never ever been a place that have tingled in any situation ever and I doubt they ever will so that was just weird. There were a few other random lines that just didn't fit but overall the book was well written. Also, some situations in the book felt a little unrealistic while some were done pretty well. Like, many of us know there's a big issue with rape culture and victim blaming and assailants getting off without many repercussions, so I wasn't sure if the backlash was something that would happen, but it wasn't something I disliked because it felt like a portrayal of how situations should go. Also, this could totally be how some school handle situations where they have proof of assault. Another thing was the whole trope where the football players are idolized and worshipped and are jerks and airheads mostly. I don't know many high schools where this was actually true. But it didn't detract from the story, so it's not a huge complaint.

I feel like I could probably talk about a decent amount more but, on an end note, it does an amazing job discussing the stories of people with disabilities, whose voices we definitely need more of. Cammie McGovern works with disabled children and young adults in a resource center and also has an autistic son so she has first hand experience connecting and interacting with those with disabilities which means she isn't just pulling their personalities and mannerisms from thin air, she's working from real-life experiences. This gives the book authenticity and makes it that much more important because these are positive, accurate portrayals of disabled people, which are lacking in novels and media.

- Noor

Have you ever not done something you should've (or vice versa)?
Let us know in the comments!

ARC Review: Zeroes - Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti

Zeroes
Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti
Series: Zeroes, #1
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy
Release Date: September 29th, 2015
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Subversion, superheroes, and Scott Westerfeld are three of my favorite S's, so I was looking forward to see how this book would play out (also before anyone says anything about the last S, I know there are three authors but I am not familiar with the other two and their names are not S names so do not start with me).

I love stories where the main characters aren't, well, the heroes. I find it so enamoring exploring the multifaceted nature of people and the way they can be so much. I absolutely am here for the concept of a superhero that isn't the typical "fly around in a mask, tight suit, and cape and save the city from imminent disaster day after day" and I am so about the idea that your superpower might not be all it's cracked up to be. Everyone wants to be an Avenger, but what if your lot in life is a "reject/crappy" superpower? I like that this is a book about the other superheroes, the ones that aren't living it up in Stark tower anytime soon.

The powers themselves were pretty cool. Like I said, I liked that they were fleshed out and were hindrances as much as they were helpful. We had Ethan, who had another voice in him that could say whatever one wanted to hear and charm his way places, but the voice didn't shut up when the situations seemed like they'd be trouble; Kelsie; who can control the energy of a crowd, which can go happy or anxious; Thibault, who's got the invisibility with a catch: everyone forgets him; Riley, who's blind but can see through other people's eyes; and the leader, Nate, who can make people follow him.

I wasn't sure if I liked that there was a clear-cut leader just appointed like that. I usually prefer when groups exist in books and leaders emerge through character development. Also speaking of character development, I feel like the book was so long but there was so little fleshing of the characters? I can see why because there was a rotating cast of first-person narrators to switch between and that forced the authors to make some sacrifices, and it wasn't like they were static characters by any means. I just wished some aspects of their selves came across a little bit more.

My only other real negative is the pacing. I'm not sure if I would call it slow exactly but it didn't work for me 100%. There was just a lot of switching between characters and they each told tiny bits of things happening and then back to another character and while it did pick up towards the middle it took me a lot longer to read it than I anticipated, even though I did like the story a lot. However, both the pace thing and the character thing are still only enough to knock one star off, although I'm still mulling the book over.

Now that we've got negatives out of the way, I was super into the story! Throughout the whole book, you could really see the characters struggling to come together as a team, and I loved that the authors highlighted the problems with trying to be heroes. The plot raised a lot of questions about who to trust, which characters would act which way, etc and I liked that it wasn't assumed that once the team got back together they'd just cooperate and be best friends.

The characters I mentioned before, although they might not have been 100% what I wanted developmentally personality wise, their stories were brought to life quite well. I was engaged reading about how they influenced one another and the world around them, as well as how their powers worked. These aspects of the story were definitely well-thought out and well executed.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I thought it was a new and refreshing concept and I can't wait to see more from these authors.

- Noor

Think carefully: if you had a superpower, what would it be?

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ARC Review: Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows
Leigh Bardugo
Series: Six of Crows #1
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Release Date: September 29nd, 2015
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Look, if that divinely morbid cover art isn't enough to convince you . . . then I'm pretty much at a loss.

I'll try anyway.

The incredible amount of hype for this book unsettled me, primarily because I've never read Leigh Bardugo's previous work. The line for this ARC copy (thanks Henry Holt and Company!) was excessive, and when I first picked it up, I had relatively indifferent thoughts towards it, even after the blurb.

However, after barely the first page, I was hooked. This, in itself, is really a feat. If you're on a a reading low, read this book. I haven't really been getting that interested in what I'm reading these days . . . but this book wrenched me right out of my slump. Bardugo blasts through the first chapter, guns blazing with clever, well-paced prose, lively and mysterious characters, a fitting and adaptive tone, an eerie and dangerous setting -- it's fantastic. The greatest achievement of this book, however, is in its totality: it is one hell of a series-starter. Bardugo is able to present six of the wildest and angstiest people I've had the pleasure of reading, with a twisted as hell plot, and she does this all while laying down un-finished story arcs, tiny Chekov guns, and a breathtaking finale that releases the major tension in the novel but piles on so many more questions.

In short, this book is probably smarter than all of us.

The characters are just incredible. Kaz, Inej, Nina, Matthias, Jesper, and Wylan. Each of the six main characters are utterly believable and interesting in their own rights. Now, this is hard enough to do with traditional narration. But Bardugo tackles the mountain of a challenge of using multiple-character narration in this piece, giving us five different persepctives. AND IT WORKS. So often, characters in such pieces are either reduced to caricatured language, or they all sound the same. In this piece, Bardugo really works herself hard to keep each of the characters distinct. It's not completely distinguishable, mind you, and there are a couple of instances of overlap -- but this is to be expected as six people should share some kind of similar thought.

Also . . . the characters. They're so good. They're handled so well. Kaz, for example, is nearly indestructible for much of the novel due to his level of forethought, intelligence, and utter emotional coldness . . . but Bardugo still imparts great suffering and hardship on Kaz and because of her ability to craft well-defined characters, we suffer as well. And it's weird that we suffer because all of the characters have the morals of a black hole.

Also, THE CHARACTERS. Their romances! Are! Not! Prioritized! The characters have emotional journies that are not entirely relative to the main plot of the novel, and this has the incredible effect of making the novel feel as though its characters are historical and actually real rather than fictional. All three of the main ships in this novel never interrupt the main storyline, and we are then able to actually watch how the ships affect characters in their decisions unrelated to romance. It's a work of art.

The prevalence of non-traditional morals, characters with disabilities, strong female friendships, and romances that back-grounded and developed . . . . it's good on the representational front. Not perfect, but good enough to keep me going.

The writing is just good. It's just so good. And its implemented to build a world that I want to live in after having read it. I want to be in Kerch and explore the whole of the city.

- Marlon

What is your weapon of choice? 
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ARC Review: I Crawl Through It - A.S. King

I Crawl Through It 
A. S. King
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Surreal
Release Date: September 22nd, 2015
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

This was the most unexpected book I have ever read.

Never having encountered a piece of fiction quite like this -- a YA novel surreal to the core, but still grounded in reality -- it took a few pages for me to get with the program and understand the way it was written. When Stanzi mentions the invisible red helicopter her friend Gustav is building that she can only see on Tuesdays, this does not mean he does not allow her to see it any other day or that it's merely a joke between them. It means he is truly building a helicopter that is invisible to most, and to Stanzi, it is visible on Tuesdays. When China Knowles says she has swallowed herself, turned herself inside out, this is not simply a metaphor for shrinking into herself after a traumatic event. She is genuinely seen as organs on legs by the characters in the book.

The best way to read this book is to take everything literally. In any other book, mentioning a character where her hair was so long you swear it grew a foot since the day before would be taken as exaggeration. Of course it didn't, but it seemed that way because it's just that long and the reader can piece this together. In I Crawl Through It, everything is so surreal, that nothing is exaggeration. Landsdale Cruise's hair grows a foot with each pathological lie she tells, and there is a dangerous man in a bush who gives out chains of letters that are infinitely long and there is an invisible island you can fly to in the invisible helicopter to escape the school where there are daily bomb threats and drills and practice tests.

And it all works so remarkably well. I finished the book not only mulling over what I just read but wondering why I'd never read anything by A.S. King before, resolving to put her at the top of my list of authors to be read soon.

Not only was the story so interestingly woven but it was well written and also had some important points about how we all cope with trauma/stress/bad-things-of-a-serious-nature in different ways. Whether that involves lying and baking or dissecting all the animals in the school or building something no one can see or writing poems about how inanimate objects have more self-esteem than you, this book showed teens compartmentalizing and avoiding their trauma and it also showed them dealing with it in important ways like standing up to an abuser, and it was cool that it wasn't just a weird book with inside out girls. Not that I wouldn't have read that book to be honest.

I briefly mentioned that it was well-written and I want to touch upon that as well. I absolutely loved A.S. King's voice in this novel. Every line seemed so purposeful, so powerful, and so many of them were so beautifully phrased. A lot of the book had an air of gloom and that was cool too because you could feel it coming from the character's words, not the author's, and it reinforced the fact that they were sad and stuck and looking for something.

When I picked up I Crawl Through It, I was expecting a regular realistic fiction YA book about sad, stressed kids in high school. I wasn't expecting anything bad, because regular realistic fiction YA books about sad stressed kids in high school are often books I like, but this was not like anything I've read before and I hope you read it too.

- Noor

Would you rather be inside out or hairnocchio? 
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Double ARC Review: Dumplin' - Julie Murphy

Dumplin'
Julie Murphy
Series: N/A
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Release Date:September 15th, 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Willowdean Dickson might have introduced herself to her coworker as "resident fat girl" (she also threw in cashier and Dolly Parton enthusiast) but one of the beauties of her character lies in the way she is not just pigeonholed into one type of fat representative -- she is not the timid, hates-her-body all the time girl who shrouds herself like some kind of villain but she is not the has-no-cares girl either who will remind you just how perfect her size makes her. She is a real character, not a trope.

Willowdean isn't the only character with any kind of "flaw" here. In fact, one of the main focuses of the novel is that Will competes is a local beauty pageant -- a pretty big, important local pageant which her mom is in charge of running and has been since I believe 1997 (or at least that was the year she won) -- and Will's decision to compete, as a not-typical looking competitor, prompts three other not-so-typical looking girls from her high school to emerge from the woodwork and compete, and they form this sort of band of misfits with Willowdean. One of these girls, Millie, is overweight to a much greater degree than Willowdean -- specifically "Millie is that girl, the one I am ashamed to admit that I've spent my whole life looking at and thinking, Thing could be worse. I'm fat, but Millie's the type of fat that requires elastic waist pants because they don't make pants with buttons and zippers in her size."

I thought this was a really important thought to showcase because even though Willowdean herself is one of the ostracized, she still has her own prejudices and throughout the book unlearns them. When she uses Millie to think that things could be worse, it's like assuming things are bad as they are, for either of them, even though Millie is the happiest, most optimistic character in the book. She also has the most confidence too. She sings a song on a ukulele to ask a boy to be her date for their schools Sadie Hawkins dance and when Willowdean hears her immediate reaction is to cringe but Millie's friend relays that he said yes in an "of course" sort of tone, because why should her appearance take precedence over the grandness of the gesture? Likewise, another girl in the group, Amanda, has uneven legs and wears corrective shoes and Will is surprised to learn she's very talented at soccer, and athletic enough to play for a team. Hannah, rounding out the group, has uneven teeth, and has been compared to a horse at school, and Will, in her internal monologue, even says to herself that if she doesn't want to fix them she shouldn't have to, but still eventually asks why she never did, out of curiosity.

None of these questions or reactions make her a bad person, just someone learning that people are more than meets the eye. In fact, I think this book does a wonderful job with body positivity. There's the fact that Murphy doesn't use the overweight characters as the comic relief or the inspirational speeches or the butt of the jokes or any of the tired tropes we've seen again and again. They're just friends girlfriends and characters and yes, their weight does affect their lives like when Will is so terrified to move forward with Private School Bo because the thought of him touching her fat terrifies her or when she has issues with her formal dress for the pageant but those are just realistic problems thrown in based on who the characters are and Will is fat so of course it's gonna have a little impact on her life. Like someone telling her that doing a pageant is "brave," to which she thinks

"But I don't want it to be brave. I want it to be normal."

Which is probably my favorite line in the book, honestly.

I felt like the characters were so realistic and the writing was genuine and the combination of the two things just made the book great. Murphy managed to create a great cast of characters; I'm so far down in the review and I haven't even mentioned Mitch or El, and I only barely mentioned Bo. The romance in this story was so well constructed and I didn't feel like I was reading a typical love triangle of "will she pick this boy or this boy" but a real life story of friendship and more than friendship and lines and love. I liked the personalities of both of them and they are honestly sweet people and that's all I'll say on the boys. As for El, the friendship relationship was one of my favorite aspects of the story because I was wondering, like Willowdean, whether they truly were growing apart as people and were destined not to be friends. It was a truly emotionally wrecking experience and I may or may not have shed many tears at the end of this book. I just felt like it was so relatable -- the jealousy of sharing your friend, the hurt when their friend who you hate gets information about their life before you do, the sense of encroachment when something was supposed to just be yours and now its theirs too but they'll do it better. Some of Willowdean's emotional outbursts felt so juvenile but they felt so unexplainably real. 

As for the writing, Julie Murphy truly captured the spirit of a small Texas town and put it into this book. It's a light read, you could 100% just sit and read it all at once, and you would probably want to. It's cute, it's fluffy, there's some deadpan humor, and one of the characters calls a boy Peachbutt consistently, so get yourselves a copy ASAP.

(Also, I find it fitting that last night was the Miss America pageant and 500% of me definitely watched it and 900% of me was definitely rooting for Miss Alabama because her nickname was Egg McMuffin and I deeply resonate with that)

- Noor

Marlon's Dumplin' Review

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Dumplin' is awesome. It's sweet, hilarious, provocative, and so well balanced.

The absolute best thing about the novel is its message, carried mainly by its protagonist, Willowdean. If for some reason you don't know what this book is about, it's a body positivity-book. Willowdean regards herself as a fat girl, and has the will and confidence to own that image in a society that actively tries to shame it, and through her the novel tries to lay out the nuanced world of body-positivity. 

What drove the novel, for me, was the characters. They felt, for the most part, honest. Willowdean, for example, is not pressed into the role of preacher for body-positivity, nor is she its perfect mascot. While she exudes confidence in herself and is often the one to help her friends (like, giving them advice about having sex) she has grown up with harsh beauty standards and can be problematic herself: she spends a lot of the book being thankful that she's at least not as fat as one of her peers, Millie. Really, none of the characters (except for maybe Mitch and to an extent Bo) are pressed into roles that lack nuance. Ellen, for example, is Will's best friend but she hardly fulfills the best girlfriend cliche, and they have a complex, realistic friendship like normal, real human females. Honestly, I felt their relationship was more important than ones with Bo and Mitch, but those, I guess, were necessary for the novel to show that any girl can fulfill the YA love triangle between hot muscular athletic guy and hot loner guy. And while those other relationships did feel real, they were stretched and made into such a huge part of the book that it was hard for me to get a good feeling for the other subplots, and contributed to an overall pacing issue. In the end, it just made me frustrated with Will and the boys, even though the main romance is built with an honest friendship and feels great.

As for the writing, this novel is hilarious. Will, when she turns up the sass, is probably one of my favorite protagonists to be in the head of. It's brilliant, because there are no moments when people's bodies are used for comedic effect, which, in a piece about bodies, would have been pretty simple for a less considerate author. The descriptions are good, the narrative voice is good, the dialogue is some of the best I've read all year . . . the writing is just very spot on. The plot is fluid and complex, focusing on dead aunts, boys, pageants, dying friendships, and so forth, and it is consistent.

The fault, for me, with the book is the nigh unholy pacing. The central action promised in the blurb happens in the second half of the book. While the book certainly can be read quickly, as the scenes transition fluidly and are generally concise, there is just so much before the pageant that it becomes confusing, and there are no real milestones because the novel deals with several subplots at once. Then the pageant happens quickly. The pacing felt rather awkward this way.

That said, I still highly recommend Dumplin'! 

- Marlon

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