Barriers
In 2079, Barrier domes shield the planet's wealthiest cities from destructive solar flares, and only the healthy elite are granted protection. That’s bad news for Barrier resident, Nathan Gallagher — his son’s untreatable medical condition has deemed him a non-compliant citizen.
Nathan sets out to rescue his son from a Sanctuary deep in the badlands and becomes entangled in a mission of global magnitude. With only days until another flare is due to strike Earth’s Sanctuary cities, not only does his son’s life rest on his shoulders, but the fate of a quarter billion people.
Barriers is a sci-fi thriller set in a dystopian future where a trillionaire tycoon decides who gets protection from the sun … and who doesn’t.
Author: Patrick Skelton | Self-Published
Rating: 3/5
Thanks to the author, Patrick Skelton, for the review copy of this book!
Fun fact about me: I read my Kindle on the treadmill at the gym. (Yes, people give me funny looks when I tell them that.) Barriers was a perfect treadmill read — the story was engaging and kept my attention held (away from my imminent cardiac arrest).
In the dystopian future of Barriers, the sun has started flaring, so it's unsafe to be outside unless you live inside a Barrier. They helps to block the rays and protect people. Problem is, Barrier technology is owned and controlled by some seriously evil dudes. The main character, Nathan, is desperately fighting to save his paraplegic son from euthanasia (because they essentially kill off people who can't work — saving the Barrier resources for healthy, productive people).
Aside from Nathan and his son's plight, the evil dudes are also planning other nefariously evil stuff, and eventually, Nathan gets tangled up in the resistance efforts enough for him to try to help save the world.
The writing style is straightforward and a little unrefined, but not bad. Some things that I had understood implicitly ended up being stated explicitly, which was a bit "Yeah, okay, I got that." Still, the story concept was good and quite exciting at the end. The twist definitely got me.
PSA: This book is available on Kindle Unlimited, if you have that!
A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
Rating: 3.5/5 | This book was, like, fine. The world-building was good and kept me intrigued, and there was just enough good to keep me hooked and willing to read the next story (which has so far proved to be totally worth 1/3 of the way into book two), but there were also some things that made me go *le sigh, YA fantasy, amiright?* (Click the post to read more.)
Feyre is a huntress.
She thinks nothing of slaughtering a wolf to capture its prey. But, like all mortals, she fears what lingers mercilessly beyond the forest. And she will learn that taking the life of a magical creature comes at a high price...
Imprisoned in an enchanted court in her enemy's kingdom, Feyre is free to roam but forbidden to escape. Her captor's body bears the scars of fighting, and his face is always masked — but his piercing stare draws her ever closer. As Feyre's feeling for Tamlin begin to burn through every warning she's been told about his kind, an ancient, wicked shadow grows.
Feyre must find a way to break a spell, or lose her heart forever.
Author: Sarah J. Maas | Publisher: Bloomsbury
Rating: 3.5/5
This book was, like, fine. The world-building was good and kept me intrigued, and there was just enough good to keep me hooked and willing to read the next story (which has so far proved to be totally worth 1/3 of the way into book two), but there were also some things that made me go *le sigh, YA fantasy, amiright?*
Rant time: Feyre is a complete idiot. See that thing in front of your face, Feyre? That's YOUR NOSE. She reminded me a lot of Katniss: "Oh, people are so mean, they totally think I'm dumb, jk maybe they're actually in love with me lol. Ugh, I'm so tortured. Let me go do this dumb thing that everyone has told me not to do just because I want to. Isn't my stubbornness endearing? Oh, hey, looks like it's time to save the world or something. Okay, I guess. But only if I get to act even more tortured afterward."
I have a big pet peeve for first-person narrators who notice everything but process absolutely nothing. This is frustrating for me as a reader, who can, in fact, put the pieces together. It's not suspenseful, it's exasperating.
Still, as I mentioned, I did pick up the next book. And it's already started moving along much better. I also have to applaud Sarah J. Maas for making some really brave choices as a storyteller, especially in the YA fantasy genre; she executed some big, traumatic plot points that other authors would have built up to but then figured out how to dissolve. Which makes for some great IRL problems and emotions in her characters. So definitely props for that.
Verdict? Read it, read the next book, but be prepared to want to chuck the book at the wall at least a little bit.
Mars
Rating: 4.5/5 | I'm not sure where they had me: "short stories," "speculative fiction," or "feminist lit." Because I love all of those things. And I was supremely ~not disappointed~. These were make-you-squint-and-think stories. I carried a pencil with me when I was reading it and underlined or circled a significant portion of the words on each page. (Click the post to read more.)
Mars showcases a series of unique and twisted universes, where every character is tasked with making sense of their strange reality. One woman will be freed from purgatory once she writes the perfect book; another abides in a world devoid of physical contact. With wry prose and skewed humor, an emerging feminist writer explores post-Soviet promises of knowledge, freedom, and power.
Author: Asja Bakić | Publisher: The Feminist Press
Rating: 4.5/5
Thank you to The Feminist Press for providing me with an advanced review copy of this book! It's out March 19th.
I'm not sure where they had me: "short stories," "speculative fiction," or "feminist lit." Because I love all of those things. And I was supremely ~not disappointed~. These were make-you-squint-and-think stories. I carried a pencil with me when I was reading it and underlined or circled a significant portion of the words on each page.
Short stories are one of my favorite formats because they can put an idea in your head and do something with it in such a short timeframe. Bakić is no different, and her prose is striking. What I especially loved was that she was straightforward enough that you got the theme she intended and some of the imagery, but you had to work a little harder for the details of her metaphor. She led you to it instead if giving it to you, which was incredibly fun and engaging (and intriguing).
I know it might be a dark horse, but don't miss this one!
A Spark of Light
Rating: 4/5 | This book spent quite a while on my to-read list, and I'm so glad that I finally picked it up. As always, Jodi Picoult gives us a brave, thorough, empathetic, well-rounded story about one of the most controversial topics of our time. The book's unique format makes it even more interesting to read, and I felt it was just so well done. (Click the post to read more.)
The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center — a women’s reproductive health services clinic — its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.
After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.
But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.
Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.
Author: Jodi Picoult | Publisher: Ballantine Books
Rating: 4/5
“She had come to the clinic because she didn't want to be a little girl anymore. But it wasn't having sex that made you a woman. It was having to make decisions, sometimes terrible ones. Children were told what to do. Adults made up their own minds, even when the options tore them apart.”
This book spent quite a while on my to-read list, and I'm so glad that I finally picked it up. As always, Jodi Picoult gives us a brave, thorough, empathetic, well-rounded story about one of the most controversial topics of our time. The book's unique format makes it even more interesting to read, and I felt it was just so well done.
A Spark of Light is told backward; the first chapter starts at 5pm, the second chapter starts at 4pm, and so on and so forth. I loved how this was almost a play on how some people love to read the last page of a book first (I am not one of them, lol). You start out knowing what's going to happen, and then you slowly pull back the layers of how we got there.
The story has a cast of characters, each of whom has a very different, rich background that has led them to a woman's health clinic. There's a 15-year-old girl looking to get her first birth control prescription, a woman who grew up in foster care who's just had an abortion, a pregnant nurse unsure if she wants to keep her pregnancy, the doctor at the clinic whose mother died from an unsafe illegal abortion, an undercover pro-life protester looking for condemning information, and a few others.
There's also the 15-year-old girl's father, who is the hostage negotiator outside, and of course the shooter, whose teenage daughter just had an abortion.
I can't stress enough how well-rounded this story is; every person has such a unique path that led them to this moment, and so many sides of the issue are explored with empathy and research. The book reads fast and keeps you engaged, with some classic Jodi Picoult discoveries/plot twists at the end. I really enjoyed it.
Living on the Borderlines
Rating: 4/5 | I was very excited to read Living on the Borderlines because I grew up in upstate New York, not far from where many of these stories take place. I know a lot of the small towns, highways, and landmarks referenced. That always makes for a fun reading experience. But beyond that, I loved the stories themselves. (Click the post to read more.)
For the loosely connected Seneca community members living in Upstate New York, intergenerational memory slips into everyday life: a teenager struggles to understand her grandmother's silences, a family seeks to reconnect with a lost sibling, and a young woman searches for a cave that's called to her family for generations. With these stories, debut writer Melissa Michal weaves together an understated and contemplative collection exploring what it means to be Native.
Author: Melissa Michal | Publisher: Feminist Press
Rating: 4/5
Thank you so much to the Feminist Press for sending me an advanced copy of this collection of stories.
I was very excited to read Living on the Borderlines because I grew up in upstate New York, not far from where many of these stories take place. I know a lot of the small towns, highways, and landmarks referenced. That always makes for a fun reading experience.
But beyond that, I loved the stories themselves. I especially appreciated how so many common themes wound through each of them: cultural and personal change, turning inward in the face of strife, a strong sense of identity. It tied all the stories together and made them a true set, and it reinforced the feeling of authenticity that came through on every page.
Melissa Michal writes in a way that is simultaneously straightforward and lyrical; light and impactful. A beautiful debut.
Such Good Work
Rating: 5/5 | Such Good Work was really, really good. Lichtman's writing is introspectively profound and yet straightforward and simple. It made for a lot of underlined passages and a hard-hitting story. There's also some sort of story-ception going on here, which was a delightful surprise and still has me mulling this whole thing over. (Click the post to read more.)
Jonas Anderson wants a fresh start.
He’s made plenty of bad decisions in his life, and at age twenty-eight he’s been fired from yet another teaching position after assigning homework like, Visit a stranger’s funeral and write about it. But, he’s sure a move to Sweden, the country of his mother’s birth, will be just the thing to kick-start a new and improved — and newly sober — Jonas.
When he arrives in Malmo in 2015, the city is struggling with the influx of tens of thousands of Middle Eastern refugees. Driven by an existential need to “do good,” Jonas begins volunteering with an organization that teaches Swedish to young migrants. The connections he makes there, and one student in particular, might send him down the right path toward fulfillment — if he could just get out of his own way.
Such Good Work is a darkly comic novel, brought to life with funny, wry observations and searing questions about our modern world, told with equal measures of grace and wit.
Author: Johannes Lichtman | Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Rating: 5/5
Big thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me a review copy of this book! It will be published on 2/5/19.
Such Good Work was really, really good. Lichtman's writing is introspectively profound and yet straightforward and simple. It made for a lot of underlined passages and a hard-hitting story. There's also some sort of story-ception going on here, which was a delightful surprise and still has me mulling this whole thing over.
I wish I could share some quotes with you, but I read an advanced uncorrected proof, so I don't have the final. But I'm telling you — so many great passages.
The story follows a man named Jonas. He's a writer, adjunct professor, and recovering addict. He struggles to feel comfortable in his own skin and in the world at large, and he struggles with his addiction. He decides to move to Sweden, where he's a citizen thanks to his Swedish mother, and searches for himself and a way to feel like he's doing something important. He finds his way to a group that helps young refugee boys learn to speak Swedish.
This book is not too long; 300 pages or so. I read it in two days. Lichtman's style is probably my favorite to read, I can tell it's going to be one of those books that just stays with me — the words are going to bounce around in my head, and I'm going to think about it often.
The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy, #2)
Rating: 5/5 | I. Love. This. Trilogy. Chakraborty has built an impressively intricate universe with a terrifying political climate, deep characters, a rich history, and a suspenseful storyline. (Click the post to read more.)
***Description is spoiler for The City of Brass***
Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad — and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there.
Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of the battle that saw Dara slain at Prince Ali’s hand, Nahri must forge a new path for herself, without the protection of the guardian who stole her heart or the counsel of the prince she considered a friend. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family — and one misstep will doom her tribe.
Meanwhile, Ali has been exiled for daring to defy his father. Hunted by assassins, adrift on the unforgiving copper sands of his ancestral land, he is forced to rely on the frightening abilities the marid — the unpredictable water spirits — have gifted him. But in doing so, he threatens to unearth a terrible secret his family has long kept buried.
And as a new century approaches and the djinn gather within Daevabad's towering brass walls for celebrations, a threat brews unseen in the desolate north. It’s a force that would bring a storm of fire straight to the city’s gates ... and one that seeks the aid of a warrior trapped between worlds, torn between a violent duty he can never escape and a peace he fears he will never deserve.
Author: S.A. Chakraborty | Publisher: Harper Voyager
Rating: 5/5
Thank you so much to Harper Voyager for sending me a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
I. Love. This. Trilogy. Chakraborty has built an impressively intricate universe with a terrifying political climate, deep characters, a rich history, and a suspenseful storyline.
The prologue takes place right after the first book ended, and it doesn't waste ANY TIME drawing you in. You finish it, and you're like, omg. Then chapter one picks up five years later. You get three POVs: Nahri, Alizayd, and Dara. (Now there's a trio of voices if I ever saw one!)
The ways Chakraborty keeps you hung in suspense are really effective — she drops hints and nuggets all the time, but the characters always allow the subject to be changed or get distracted before you get too much. I found myself wishing that they would just ASK MORE ABOUT THAT, PLEASE. It makes the story un-put-down-able.
I was also really impressed by the political tangle Chakraborty has spun this world into. No one is clearly ever right, both sides of the fight have noble causes and corrupt causes, and I'm really not even sure who I want to come out on top at the end. I want the good guys from each side to band together against all the bad guys, but because those good guys don't know that they're all good, I don't know if that will ever really happen. Arghh.
Can I have book three, like ... now, please? Please?
Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)
Rating: 5/5 | Wow. Wowowow. This is exactly the kind of exciting, beautiful, diverse, badass fantasy novel I want in my life. It kept me humming and hawing about what was going to happen, and the ending was so well done — the perfect amount of excitement, heartbreak, answers, and new mysteries. (Click the post to read more.)
Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.
Author: Tomi Adeyemi | Publisher: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers
Rating: 5/5
“On earth, Sky Mother created humans, her children of blood and bone. In the heavens she gave birth to the gods and goddesses. Each would come to embody a different fragment of her soul.”
Wow. Wowowow. This is exactly the kind of exciting, beautiful, diverse, badass fantasy novel I want in my life. It kept me humming and hawing about what was going to happen, and the ending was so well done — the perfect amount of excitement, heartbreak, answers, and new mysteries.
Zélie is a devîner, aka someone who has the genetics to become a magi. The magi are people who can wield one of the gods' powers — things like fire, water, healing, and (in Zélie's mother's case), death.
“Courage does not always roar. Valor does not always shine.”
When Zélie was a child, the king severed the magis' connection to the gods, stopped magic, and executed every single one. He left their children (the devîners) alive. They're marked by their white hair and treated pretty much like vermin by the rest of the population.
One day Zélie is in the capital attempting to sell a valuable fish to pay her family's bills when Amari, the princess, crashes into her. Amari had stolen a magical scroll from the king — a scroll that has the power to bring back magic. They flee and, joined by Zélie's brother, begin a journey to restore magic permanently. All the while, they're being chased by Amari's brother, Inan. He's the prince, the captain of the guard ... and a new devîner?
If you liked Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, you'll love this book. (And if you loved this book, you'll love Who Fears Death.) So much strength, beauty, and power flow through the women at the center of both books.
The story really dives into the themes of oppression and discrimination, of course. But I loved the way Adeyemi made the central characters polar opposites in terms of their place in society — devîner vs royal children of the oppressor. It opened up a lot of opportunities to examine the extent to which we can have empathy for one another's experiences. That worked both ways: Amari and Inan could never understand Zélie and her struggles, but Zélie couldn't understand them and their struggles, either. This tension was really, really well done.
I can't wait for the next one of these books to come out later this year.
The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1)
Rating: 4/5 | The Gilded Wolves is an exciting, pull-off-an-impossible-heist-to-save-the-world story with multiple POVs. So, basically, if you liked Six of Crows, this is for you. (Click the post to read more.)
Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.
To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can't yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.
Together, they'll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.
Author: Roshani Chokshi | Publisher: Wednesday Books
Rating: 4/5
“Make yourself a myth and live within it, so that you belong to no one but yourself.”
The Gilded Wolves is an exciting, pull-off-an-impossible-heist-to-save-the-world story with multiple POVs. So, basically, if you liked Six of Crows, this is for you.
The premise is the Order of Babel, an organization that has existed throughout history and protected the world's Babel fragments, which give society the power to Forge (basically, create via magic). It's said that the Babel fragments originated with the biblical Tower of Babel, give a piece of God's creation powers to those who possess an affinity for it, and pretty much allow society as they know it to exist. Threaten the fragments, and you threaten society.
In the book's present-day, there are two families belonging to the Order who protect the West's Babel fragment — but there used to be four. The "fallen house" tried to get too close to God, too powerful, and so they were pretty much taken down by the rest of the families as punishment. And then there's Severin's house, which was taken from him and declared heirless when he was a kid.
Now, along with four others, Severin needs to get his house/status back and pretty much save the world from an unknown enemy who's apparently after the West's Babel fragment.
I loved that all the characters were so diverse, including in nationality, religion, and orientation. They all have rich backstories and important plots. The writing truly made you care about them, which is also what's so great about Six of Crows.
I did feel like there were some things in this book that were explained a little too conveniently, discoveries that were played off as natural conclusions but felt kind of like a long shot, and a bit of a rushed climax. It also came with alllllll the cheesy YA lines, my favorite being that Severin's eyes were "the color of sleep" with the ability to recall "nightmares or dreams." (I still love it though.) So not the best writing I've ever read, but still really exciting and engaging, and I can't wait to read the next one!
The Night Tiger
Rating: 3.75/5 | The Night Tiger was my January 2019 BOTM pick. It was an intriguing, magical look at colonial Malaya (now Malaysia) with a little bit of something for everyone. An innocent little hero? A mind-itching mystery? Themes of destiny, fate family, and love? You got it. (Click the post to read more.)
When 11-year-old Ren's master dies, he makes one last request of his Chinese houseboy: that Ren find his severed finger, lost years ago in an accident, and reunite it with his body. Ren has 49 days, or else his master's soul will roam the earth, unable to rest in peace.
Ji Lin always wanted to be a doctor, but as a girl in 1930s Malaysia, apprentice dressmaker is a more suitable occupation. Secretly, though, Ji Lin also moonlights as a dancehall girl to help pay off her beloved mother's Mahjong debts. One night, Ji Lin's dance partner leaves her with a gruesome souvenir: a severed finger. Convinced the finger is bad luck, Ji Lin enlists the help of her erstwhile stepbrother to return it to its rightful owner.
As the 49 days tick down, and a prowling tiger wreaks havoc on the town, Ji Lin and Ren's lives intertwine in ways they could never have imagined. Propulsive and lushly written, The Night Tiger explores colonialism and independence, ancient superstition and modern ambition, sibling rivalry and first love. Braided through with Chinese folklore and a tantalizing mystery, this novel is a page-turner of the highest order.
Author: Yangsze Choo
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Rating: 3.75/5
The Night Tiger was my January 2019 BOTM pick. It's out February 12, 2019!
This was an intriguing, magical look at colonial Malaya (now Malaysia) with a little bit of something for everyone. An innocent little hero? A mind-itching mystery? Themes of destiny, fate family, and love? You got it.
While I didn't find myself blown away, per se, I definitely enjoyed the story and would recommend it as a literary read. I felt that a few of the themes and metaphors were more overtly stated for fear that we, as readers, wouldn't pick up on them. I also wasn't totally convinced by the love story — it left me with misgivings. But stepping back, that could have more to do with the setting (1930s Malaya, aka strict traditional gender roles). I'm also not completely sure that I feel like there was closure on the "bad guy."
Still, as I mentioned, I did enjoy it. My heart squeezes at the thought of Ren — he's so pure! Also, I thought the way Choo used the timeline for each of the two narratives (one moving faster than the other) had a really intriguing effect that added to the mystery and helped keep me guessing.
If you like historical fiction, especially focusing on Asian cultures, this one is for you.
The Immortalists
Rating: 4/5 | I read this book because it was the Girls' Night In January book club selection, and I was not disappointed. This is the perfect book for a book club — there's a ton to digest, to ruminate about, to discuss. Themes of siblinghood, death, destiny, magic, and love. (Click the post to read more.)
If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?
It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children — four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness — sneak out to hear their fortunes.
The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.
A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.
Author: Chloe Benjamin | Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Rating: 4/5
“They began together: before any of them were people, they were eggs, four out of their mother’s millions. Astonishing, that they could diverge so dramatically in their temperaments, their fatal flaws — like strangers caught for seconds in the same elevator.”
I read this book because it was the Girls' Night In January book club selection, and I was not disappointed. This is the perfect book for a book club — there's a ton to digest, to ruminate about, to discuss. Themes of siblinghood, death, destiny, magic, and love.
The book opens on four siblings: Varya, Daniel, Klara, and Simon. They go visit a gypsy woman who tells them each the day they'll die. The following four sections of the book follow each of them, in reverse order of age (Simon, then Klara, then Daniel, then Varya) as we wait to see if and how that prophecy will come true.
The resulting story is poignant and really makes you wonder whether these events are destined, or whether by knowing about them the siblings bring them about. But it's a little too perfect to be entirely in their hands. I don't know — I can't wait to discuss.
The characters were beautiful and rich, and I appreciated the in-depth look we got into each of them, one by one. I think Simon was my favorite. But truly, this book moved along well and made me think, and I definitely recommend.
Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices, #3)
Rating: 5/5 | That was...intense. There's no other word for it. I read the second half of this book alone on my couch on New Year's Eve, and I couldn't have had it any other way; if my husband had tried to talk to me during that time, I might have blown up. Literally. At one point my Apple Watch told me that my heart rate had been "over 100 bpm when you appeared to be inactive for 10 minutes." LOL. (Click the post to read more.)
***Description is spoiler for Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows***
What if damnation is the price of true love?
Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the blight that is destroying the race of warlocks.
Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of the parabatai curse destroys them and everyone they love.
Author: Cassandra Clare
Rating: 5/5
“Once you dissolve dye in water, you can’t take it back out. It’s like that. I can’t take you out of me. It means cutting out my heart, and I don’t like myself without my heart.”
That was...intense. There's no other word for it. I read the second half of this book alone on my couch on New Year's Eve, and I couldn't have had it any other way; if my husband had tried to talk to me during that time, I might have blown up. Literally. At one point my Apple Watch told me that my heart rate had been "over 100 bpm when you appeared to be inactive for 10 minutes." LOL.
I know that there are people out there who don't like Cassandra Clare's books very much; I know that they are very hyped and very YA. And I know that if you pull yourself out of it, some of it can seem cheesy. But here's the thing: If you don't pull yourself out of it, if you let yourself get swept into this world, then you will be a puddle. A puddle who is extremely invested in this world and these characters. And isn't that what fiction is for?
“People were made up of all sorts of different bits, Dru thought. Funny bits and romantic bits and selfish bits and brave bits. Sometimes you saw only a few of them. Maybe it was when you saw them all that you realized you knew someone really well.”
It's obvious that this trilogy is about one thing only: Love. But not just romantic love; parental love and sibling love and friendship love and nontraditional love and literally every single kind of love there is. It's so complete and touching and worthy of your time.
I must say, though, that after nine published books and more prequels promised, part of me thought this would be the end of the timeline. I don't know why I thought that, lol. But it's obvious that Cassie isn't done with our hearts yet. The question is: Can we take any more???
Well, whether we can or not ... we will. That much is for sure.
One Day in December
Rating: 4/5 | I picked this book up because in case you haven't noticed, everybody and their mother read it this month. It was catchy and sweet and surprisingly relatable. I sandwiched it between a couple of heavier books. It was a great lightweight read for winter. (Click the post to read more.)
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away.
Certain they're fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn't find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It's Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.
What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.
Author: Josie Silver
Rating: 4/5
I picked this book up because in case you haven't noticed, everybody and their mother read it this month. It was catchy and sweet and surprisingly relatable. I sandwiched it between a couple of heavier books. It was a great lightweight read for winter.
We start with Laurie, who lives with her best friend Sarah in London and is working part time at a hotel while she works toward a career in magazines. She's on the way home, sitting on the upper level of one of London's red busses, when she spots a guy waiting below. They make eye contact and it's electric, but he can't get on before it pulls away.
She and Sarah search for him everywhere they go, but to no avail. Then Sarah starts dating a guy, and by the time Laurie finally meets him, Sarah is head over heels and has half-jokingly declared that she fully expects to marry him someday. Yep, it's the guy from the bus. Jack.
Now Laurie has to try to not be in love with him, because she wants to be a good friend. But she is in love with him. And he's in love with Sarah, to be sure, but he also kind of loves Laurie without quite knowing it. We get ten years of their story, flipping between Laurie and Jack's perspectives. During those ten years, all three characters go through major life events, love, loss, the whole nine yards.
Now Jack is a little bit of a jerk, especially in the beginning, and I'm not sure that Josie Silver goes quite far enough to convince us that he's not a jerk anymore. But the feeling that he's heading in the right direction is there, at least. And I'm not one for love triangles, ever, but she somehow did a great job of getting me to root for all three characters and really feel invested in the outcome. I wasn't sure how I was going to possibly be satisfied with the ending, but I was. (Well, almost. I could have done with another chapter or two to revel in the happiness.)
This was a fun, light, feel-good read. Perfect if you're in a reading slump or looking for something that feels watching a rom-com movie: Not the world's greatest piece of art, but a fun escape from reality that leaves you feeling good.
Our Dried Voices
Rating: 4/5 | This was a fast read, but it was really engaging. When he sent it to me, Greg compared it to The Giver. I was skeptical of that statement, but it was actually a pretty good comparison, at least in style and subject matter. (Click the post to read more.)
In 2153, cancer was cured. In 2189, AIDS. And in 2235, the last members of the human race traveled to a far distant planet called Pearl to begin the next chapter of humanity.
Several hundred years after their arrival, the remainder of humanity lives in a utopian colony in which every want is satisfied automatically, and there is no need for human labor, struggle or thought. But when the machines that regulate the colony begin to malfunction, the colonists are faced with a test for the first time in their existence.
With the lives of the colonists at stake, it is left to a young man named Samuel to repair these breakdowns and save the colony. Aided by his friend Penny, Samuel rises to meet each challenge. But he soon discovers a mysterious group of people behind each of these problems, and he must somehow find and defeat these saboteurs in order to rescue his colony.
Author: Greg Hickey
Rating: 4/5
Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of this book!
This was a fast read, but it was really engaging. When he sent it to me, Greg compared it to The Giver. I was skeptical of that statement, but it was actually a pretty good comparison, at least in style and subject matter.
Our Dried Voices is the story of Samuel, who is a colonist on a distant planet. In this future, people are almost brain dead; they literally spend their days lounging around in fields and eating when food is given to them. It rains on Mondays, and only on Mondays. They speak mechanically and don't understand (or sometimes even notice) discrepancies in their environment.
One day, Samuel notices that things are starting to go wrong, one by one. The sleeping halls are locked, the meal halls stop giving out food, the bridges become broken, etc. And one by one, he starts to wake up and use his mind to solve the problems. But they keep coming. As the book goes on, he has to figure out who's doing these things and how to stop them, for the good of his fellow colonists (who cannot help themselves).
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The writing is very matter-of-fact, with very little dialogue, but that makes it really engaging. What's going on here? Who's doing these things? When will Samuel understand these things that people have long forgotten? It's like reading about a child learning how to navigate the world, but with higher stakes.
I didn't read this in a single day, but I could have. And it made me think. Give this one a chance.
The Silence of the Girls
Rating: 5/5 | Full disclosure: Books like this were made for me. I love feminist fiction, and I really love retellings — especially Greek mythology. Madeline Miller is my jam. This book is also my jam. I loved every page. (Click the post to read more.)
The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, which continues to wage bloody war over a stolen woman—Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman—Briseis—watches and waits for the war's outcome. She was queen of one of Troy's neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army.
When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position, able to observe the two men driving the Greek army in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate not only of Briseis's people but also of the ancient world at large.
Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war—the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead—all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives—and it is nothing short of magnificent.
Author: Pat Barker
Rating: 5/5
“Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles … How the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things; we called him ‘the butcher’.”
Full disclosure: Books like this were made for me. I love feminist fiction, and I really love retellings — especially Greek mythology. Madeline Miller is my jam. This book is also my jam. I loved every page.
The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of parts of the Illiad, the Trojan War, from the point of view of Briseis. She was Queen of Lyrnessus before Achilles et al sacked the city. Then she was given to Achilles to be his bed slave as a war prize. She also develops a friendship with Patroclus and many of the other women who were slaves.
"Yes, I watched him. Every waking minute — and there weren't many minutes I allowed myself to sleep in his presence. It's strange, but just then, when I said 'I watched him' I very nearly added 'like a hawk,' because that's what people say, isn't it? That's how you describe an intent, unblinking stare. But it was nothing like that. Achilles was the hawk. I was his slave to do what he liked with; I was completely in his power. If he'd woken up one morning and decided to beat me to death, nobody would have intervened. Oh, I watched him all right, I watched him like a mouse."
Part I of the book takes us through the events from the sacking of Lyrnessus until Agamemnon decides that he wants to take Briseis from Achilles. (The last sentence of Part I gave me literal chills.) Then Part II takes us from that point until Achilles' death, with special attention paid to the time after Patroclus died.
Throughout, the prose whacks you in the stomach again and again, giving voice and character and depth to the women of the Illiad. The women who either chose death before their cities were sacked or suffered afterward. Those women were there, in the story, but how often do we allow ourselves to pause and think about what they suffered?
Briseis' narration is really powerful. She holds no punches; her description is told with the same cold and detached feeling that she experiences daily. It's chilling.
This was also a really interesting look at Achilles. He's cold and distant and ruthless but also somewhat childish and also hungry for warmth and affection. It makes you not quite like him, but also not quite dislike him either.
All in all, this book was gripping and begs to be pondered. Read it.
“We’re going to survive — our songs, our stories. They’ll never be able to forget us. Decades after the last man who fought at Troy is dead, their sons will remember the songs their Trojan mothers sang to them. We’ll be in their dreams–and in their worst nightmares too.”
Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices, #2)
Rating: 4.5/5 | This will be a quick review as it's a book two, and obviously I loved the first one and just can't wait to get to book three. And also I'm dying and was totally crushed by that ending and WHY JUST WHY. (Click the post to read more.)
***Summary is spoiler for Lady Midnight***
A Shadowhunter’s life is bound by duty. Constrained by honor. The word of a Shadowhunter is a solemn pledge, and no vow is more sacred than the vow that binds parabatai, warrior partners—sworn to fight together, die together, but never to fall in love.
Emma Carstairs has learned that the love she shares with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, isn’t just forbidden—it could destroy them both. She knows she should run from Julian. But how can she when the Blackthorns are threatened by enemies on all sides?
Their only hope is the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of terrible power. Everyone wants it. Only the Blackthorns can find it. Spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend, Cristina; and Mark and Julian Blackthorn journey into the Courts of Faerie, where glittering revels hide bloody danger and no promise can be trusted. Meanwhile, rising tension between Shadowhunters and Downworlders has produced the Cohort, an extremist group of Shadowhunters dedicated to registering Downworlders and “unsuitable” Nephilim. They’ll do anything in their power to expose Julian’s secrets and take the Los Angeles Institute for their own.
When Downworlders turn against the Clave, a new threat rises in the form of the Lord of Shadows—the Unseelie King, who sends his greatest warriors to slaughter those with Blackthorn blood and seize the Black Volume. As dangers close in, Julian devises a risky scheme that depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. But success may come with a price he and Emma cannot even imagine, one that will bring with it a reckoning of blood that could have repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear.
Author: Cassandra Clare
Rating: 4.5/5
“Everyone is afraid of something. We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don't wish you didn't fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn't feel anything.”
This will be a quick review as it's a book two, and obviously I loved the first one and just can't wait to get to book three. And also I'm dying and was totally crushed by that ending and WHY JUST WHY. Thanking Past Deedi for making Future Deedi wait to read these books until Queen of Air and Darkness came out!!!
First of all, I think a better title for this book would have been "Everyone Loves Everyone and Somehow That's Okay." I'm not usually one for stories with competing love interests or love triangles, but somehow I'm rooting for everyone all at once here. Which is very confusing. I can only place my faith in Cassandra Clare and trust that it will all work out in the end. (Please, God, let it all work out in the end?)
Also, as expected, I both couldn't put this book down and wanted to throw it at the wall at the same time. It just couldn't move fast enough for me. Is that always the case with the second book of a trilogy? Does anyone know of any book twos that aren't torturous???
Finally, Julian 4ever. That is all.
Rice Girls
Rating: 3.5/5 | Thank you to the author, Emily Kim, for providing me with a copy of this book so that I could review it! Rice Girls was a really unique (for me) and engaging story, once I fell into the rhythm of the writing style. (Click the post to read more.)
A tale of two Korean sisters over thirty years period, and their search for reconciliation and forgiveness. The older sister, who tries to turn her trauma into art, and the younger sister, who tries to make up their painful past and find her new home in a foreign land.
Sally Lee Grant is a below-the-radar Asian American actress in Los Angeles who lives day-to-day with her fiancé Jason Deluca, a struggling screenwriter. Sally toils at a bikini strip bar as a waitress to support Jason. Sally’s life spirals out of control when one day Jinhee Lee, her long lost younger sister from Korea from whom she was separated 16 years before shows up on her doorstep. This sudden shock forces her to confront her dark past as her reality gradually unravels in the coming months.
Jason is surprised to learn Sally was formerly “Mehee Lee” in Busan, a South Korean port city. She grew up on the outskirts of an U.S. army camptown during the post-Vietnam era. Sally swears to shield Jinhee from their deprived childhood, but eventually takes refuge in a fantasy world - disco, American pop culture, and Hollywood movies. Her only hope of escape comes from American solider George Grant and two bar girls. When her father’s addictions take a fatal turn, Sally makes the ultimate sacrifice by leaving Korea and her family behind at the age of ten.
Now pushing 30, Sally’s overdue promise with Jinhee is about to become reality… but not in the way she hoped. Sally has to find a way to balance the foibles of the Hollywood dream, her self-absorbed fiancé, and the heavy burden of Korean guilt.
Author: Emily A. Kim
Rating: 3.5/5
Thank you to the author, Emily Kim, for providing me with a copy of this book so that I could review it!
Rice Girls was a really unique (for me) and engaging story, once I fell into the rhythm of the writing style. It's very different from books I'm used to reading; it's actually a lot more like storytelling than anything else. Almost like Emily is telling me the story out loud.
For that reason, when I first started reading, everything felt very abrupt and shallow. I was looking for more description, more detail, longer conversation exchanges. But I'm actually glad that I didn't find it; once I got a few chapters in, I realized that the storytelling style really complemented the authentic feeling of the book. It felt almost cultural. For that reason alone, I recommend that you read it!
There were some topics and moments that felt pretty uncomfortable, but I think that was a product of the story being set at the turn of the century; society's attitudes toward women, LGBTQ+ people, and racism were very different at that time.
All in all, I'm really glad I read this one. Thanks again, Emily!
Bonfire
Rating: 4/5 | This was an impressive debut novel for Krysten Ritter! I'm not always a fan of thrillers (they're such a rollercoaster ride), but this one was fun to read. She gives you just enough information to know that you have all the pieces of the puzzle, if only you could figure out how they fit together. I listened to the audiobook during my Thanksgiving car rides, and I really enjoyed it. (Click the post to read more.)
It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.
But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town's most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens' biggest scandal from more than a decade ago involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends—just before Kaycee disappeared for good.
Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in the weak spots, the unanswered questions. But as Abby tries to find out what really happened to Kaycee, she unearths an even more disturbing secret—a ritual called The Game—which will threaten the reputations and lives of the community, and risk exposing a darkness that may consume her.
Author: Krysten Ritter
Rating: 4/5
“Memories are like fire, and need only a little oxygen to grow.”
This was an impressive debut novel for Krysten Ritter! I'm not always a fan of thrillers (they're such a rollercoaster ride), but this one was fun to read. She gives you just enough information to know that you have all the pieces of the puzzle, if only you could figure out how they fit together. I listened to the audiobook during my Thanksgiving car rides, and I really enjoyed it.
That's how the main character, Abby, feels too. I liked that. A lot of the time with mystery books written in the first person, you end up with a narrator who has to notice everything (so that you, as the reader, will be exposed to it) but not actually think about anything. Not so here.
So the book, as I mentioned, is about a woman named Abby who comes from a super small town. Her experiences there had been terrible: a mother who passed away from cancer, a father who was emotionally distant and abusive, and a group of teenage classmates who literally terrorized her with their cruel bullying.
At the end of their senior year of high school, the school Queen Bee (and Abby's childhood best friend), Kaycee, disappeared. She'd been sick — seizures, vomiting blood, etc. — but after she left, all the other "sick" girls had said they'd been faking for attention, and it all went away. No one heard from Kaycee again.
Now, it looks like Optimal, the plastics manufacturer that literally is the entire town, is poisoning the town's water supply. Abby is an environmental lawyer, so she and her team return to investigate. But once she's back, she can't let go of her nagging suspicions about Kaycee, and an environmental investigation turns into a dangerous and exciting whodunnit.
I was a little disappointed that there were some unresolved questions at the end of this book. I won't give away spoilers, but basically, there were some theories put forth that were never proven or disproven, and it wasn't exactly clear how two of the book's mysteries related to one another.
Still, though, it was an enjoyable story that drew me in and made me want to know how it ended. Impressive first book for Ritter! I hope she writes more.
Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1)
Rating: 4.5/5 | Cassandra Clare has done it again. There's a reason she's sold so many books: She's really great at writing characters you absolutely love and putting them through adventures you can't ignore. (Click the post to read more.)
In a secret world where half-angel warriors are sworn to fight demons, parabatai is a sacred word.
A parabatai is your partner in battle. A parabatai is your best friend. Parabatai can be everything to each other—but they can never fall in love.
Emma Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhunter, and the best in her generation. She lives for battle. Shoulder to shoulder with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries—the most powerful of supernatural creatures—teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries turn up murdered in the same way Emma’s parents were when she was a child, an uneasy alliance is formed. This is Emma’s chance for revenge—and Julian’s chance to get back his brother Mark, who is being held prisoner by the faerie Courts. All Emma, Mark, and Julian have to do is solve the murders within three weeks…and before the murderer targets them.
Their search takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery where death is dispensed. And each clue she unravels uncovers more secrets. What has Julian been hiding from her all these years? Why does Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai to fall in love? Who really killed her parents—and can she bear to know the truth?
Author: Cassandra Clare
Rating: 4.5/5
“There was beauty in the idea of freedom, but it was an illusion. Every human heart was chained by love.”
Cassandra Clare has done it again. There's a reason she's sold so many books: She's really great at writing characters you absolutely love and putting them through adventures you can't ignore.
In Lady Midnight, we are reunited with Emma Carstairs, whom we first met as a child in City of Heavenly Fire, the sixth and final book in The Mortal Instruments. She and her parabatai, Jules, live in the Los Angeles Institute with Jules' four younger siblings and mentally distant uncle.
Emma has built herself into quite a Shadowhunter, which is unsurprising considering her characterization in Heavenly Fire. She's still bent on finding out who killed her parents. Jules has taken over the job of raising his siblings since his two older half-siblings have been either exiled or kidnapped by the faeries' Wild Hunt. They're also joined by Cristina, a Shadowhunter from Mexico who becomes close friends with Emma and has her own past that we get to learn about.
Soon, as is inevitable in a book such as this, Emma and Jules and the crew are roped into solving a mystery. It will lead them to the answer of who killed Emma's parents, but it will also kick off what promises to be even more danger and intrigue before they can all live happily ever after.
“Everyone is more than one thing,” said Kieran. “We are more than single actions we undertake, whether they be good or evil.”
Allow me to just say that Jules is a TOTAL heartthrob. He paints, cooks, cleans, takes care of kids, shoots a freaking crossbow while standing on the hood of a moving car, and will die for the ones he loves in literally half a second. I actually cannot think of a way to make him dreamier. And yet he is also humanized and relatable.
As is pretty common with protagonists, Emma can be frustrating at times, but she also inspires fierce loyalty in us as readers. I also really, really loved Cristina and Mark
Cassandra Clare also does a fantastic job of building a rich, diverse cast. I love that you cannot assume any of her characters' sexuality! It adds a whole new dynamic to the puzzle of guessing where a story's going, and I was definitely surprised by at least one romantic moment in this book — not because it seemed out of character for that person, but because I shamefully hadn't even considered that they might make that choice. I'm always glad to be shaken out of my biases and assumptions!
I saved this book until now so that I can read the whole trilogy straight through (since Queen of Air and Darkness comes out next week). Hey Past Deedi: Future Deedi thanks you.
The Female Persuasion
Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman when she meets the woman she hopes will change her life. Faith Frank, dazzlingly persuasive and elegant at sixty-three, has been a central pillar of the women's movement for decades, a figure who inspires others to influence the world. Upon hearing Faith speak for the first time, Greer—madly in love with her boyfriend, Cory, but still full of longing for an ambition that she can't quite place—feels her inner world light up. Then, astonishingly, Faith invites Greer to make something out of that sense of purpose, leading Greer down the most exciting path of her life as it winds toward and away from her meant-to-be love story with Cory and the future she'd always imagined.
Author: Meg Wolitzer
Rating: 5/5
“Greer had noticed, when she was very young, how, looking straight ahead, you could sort of always see the side of your own nose. Once she realized this it began to trouble her. Nothing was wrong with her nose, but she knew it would always be part of her view of the world. Greer had understood it was hard to escape yourself, and to escape the way it felt being you.”
I really, really enjoyed this one. The prose was musical and purposeful and hit you right in the feels, as they say. I thought it was great when I was reading it, but then I switched to audiobook and was even more blown away; the voice acting was a perfect match.
“Your twenties were a time when you still felt young, but the groundwork was being laid in a serious way, crisscrossing beneath the surface. It was being laid even while you slept. What you did, where you lived, who you loved, all of it was like pieces of track being put down in the middle of the night by stealth workers.”
Greer Kadetsky, at the beginning of the novel, is a new college freshman with a legitimate reason to have a grudge against her parents and a boyfriend, Cory, living the life she should have had (or rather, that they should have had together). She has big ideas, but hasn't quite found her voice. But she does find friendship.
She also finds the beginnings of a purpose after meeting Faith Frank, a former feminist figurehead. Then, after college, she finds her way into Faith's employment and on a path that skyrockets her through her 20s.
Along the way, tragedy strikes, mistakes are made, money talks, love hurts, and the world changes. And people change. And Greer changes. And it's really, really beautiful.
“There are some people who have such a strong effect on you, even if you’ve spent very little time with them, that they become embossed inside you, and any hint of them, any casual mention, creates a sudden stir in you.”
I really loved the examination of the power of women's relationships with one another. About how they lift each other up, and how they sometimes tear each other down a little. How they love each other, and how they sometimes don't. But we need each other.
Also, the characters were complex, and Wolitzer gave us everyone's perspectives at least once. It painted a more complete picture of Greer's world and everyone's motivations. For example, at first I loved Cory, and then I kinda disliked him, and then I loved him again, and then I realized that this is how real people are.
If you are big on really literary stories, especially those that involve women and the relationships between them, then this one is for you.