Tess Sharpe delivers again, I wasn't sure it would be possible to make a compelling sequel to The Girls I've Been but she really pulls it off. Raises Tess Sharpe delivers again, I wasn't sure it would be possible to make a compelling sequel to The Girls I've Been but she really pulls it off. Raises the stakes, has plenty of twists and discoveries, gets us deeper with these characters, and does it all at a relentless pace.
These books are actually very character driven despite all the action, and here we get to dig down not just into Nora but into Iris and Wes. They are all people who can't help taking action, people who will take big risks for the people they care about, but it comes from different places and for different reasons.
Big feelings, big action, and also this book is very funny. High marks all around. Once again I did the audio, which Sharpe reads herself, and she delivers there, too....more
A lovely and sad book about belonging and processing grief. I like how focused and simple this is, how it gets rid of any excess. It gives us Mila andA lovely and sad book about belonging and processing grief. I like how focused and simple this is, how it gets rid of any excess. It gives us Mila and her longing and her insecurity and her joy. A lot of novels, particularly YA, can use some of these same tropes in ways that feel cliched but LaCour has everything feel real and grounded. Even when it's set in a surreal world where ghosts are an accepted part of the background....more
This book has so many very delicate plots and themes that it feels inevitable that it will mess it all up but somehow it doesn't. Perhaps Joel, our naThis book has so many very delicate plots and themes that it feels inevitable that it will mess it all up but somehow it doesn't. Perhaps Joel, our narrator, is a little too wise for his age. But you're willing to give it to him, and he will keep reminding you that he learned not to do this or that in Group Therapy back when he was in the mental hospital and you are willing to give it to him. It also helps that sometimes Joel is very stupid in the way teenage boys can be, so it balances out.
There are things Joel doesn't want to tell us and some of them will not come out until nearly the end of the book. The thing is that you have a pretty good idea of exactly what it is before you get there. It is not a secret, exactly, the signs have all been there along the way. And nothing about it is supposed to feel like a big reveal. It's just hard for Joel to talk about. And we get it.
I enjoyed the 90's throwback of this (the characters were my age, so extra enjoyed) and there were only a handful of times when the dialogue felt not quite accurate to the time.
This book grapples with very big things so there are very big content warnings. None of these are just little, they are all major plot points and themes, some of which play out in different ways, and that contrast is part of the story. So be aware of suicide, attempted suicide, something approximately schizophrenia-ish (we never get an actual diagnosis), hallucinations, teen pregnancy, abortion, adoption, homophobia, and conversion therapy.
It's a real balancing act of the book. Both fun to read and smart on big issues, frank about life and choices in a way that isn't quite as starry-eyed. I really enjoyed it....more
3.5 stars. An In Cold Blood-esque crime novel with a supernatural twist based on a real killing spree in the nidwest committed by two teenagers in the3.5 stars. An In Cold Blood-esque crime novel with a supernatural twist based on a real killing spree in the nidwest committed by two teenagers in the 50's. After one of them is found at a crime scene, she chooses to tell her story only to Michael, a high school student and aspiring journalist.
I knew from the beginning that this one would frustrate me a little, that I would want to know Marie's full story and not get everything through someone else's eyes, but Blake really convinced me that she knows what she's doing and it's surprisingly satisfying. By making Marie the center of the story but not the protagonist we follow, we get to see all the ways in which other people impose their own narratives on Marie. She is a bad girl who will lie about everything and stop at nothing, she is young and innocent and incapable of committing such horrible crimes, these two ends of the spectrum repeat often, never letting her be a full person rather than a figure of girlhood or womanhood. She is framed whatever way suits the speaker to make their point, sometimes shifting within the same argument.
And, at the end of the day, do we need Marie to tell us all of it? We have enough of the pieces to understand. And we see much more than Michael does. It's also interesting to watch Michael himself, the ways he is vulnerable to Marie's charms, the stories he tells himself about her. I also liked the supernatural elements, making things feel spooky but you're never 100% sure if there is something spooky going on.
The weaknesses for me really came down to the time frame and pacing of the story. It claims to take place over the course of several months, but it's hard to imagine how there could be any of Marie's story left to tell when we know there are still large gaps. It would have worked much better for me condensed to a few weeks, and I think it could have added some elements of tension.
I read the audiobook and it has one of those narrators I don't much care for, who keeps getting cast as a teenager despite not sounding like one in the slightest.
Content warnings mostly around violence (there is a lot) as well as sexual assault of a child. ...more
This felt somewhat unfinished. And even though it's much longer than the graphic novels & comics I've read by Tamaki it didn't feel like nearly as fulThis felt somewhat unfinished. And even though it's much longer than the graphic novels & comics I've read by Tamaki it didn't feel like nearly as full of a world.
It feels like we're only just getting to know Georgia by the time we're finished, and going back and forth between a ghost--who is a mostly unfeeling observer--and a real person means we don't get a lot of time to let things develop for the live characters who do feel things.
This has a lot of queer characters, which I love. But I do wonder when people create a mystery novel with a gay cop, for example, if they've figured out why this guy is a cop to begin with because, idk, seems like something he probably would not want to do actually. ...more
I enjoyed this so much, it's not your standard horror (should work for thriller readers, I think!) but it was hugely satisfying and a nice step up in I enjoyed this so much, it's not your standard horror (should work for thriller readers, I think!) but it was hugely satisfying and a nice step up in almost every way from Perkins' previous just-fine YA slasher SOMEONE IS INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.
I have seen people call this a slow burn because it takes a while for the horror elements to get going but honestly I loved the buildup more than anything else. (In many respects this reminded me of the horror movie BACKCOUNTRY, which also spends most of its time with character-setup-tension, though this is better.) I deeply love horror (or thrillers!) that understand that having a deep knowledge of your characters and a deep-seeded tension only ramps up the stakes even higher once the thrills show up.
Neena and Josie are best friends. Not the kind that fight, the kind that do everything together with low drama. Except that Neena is about to leave their home of Asheville, NC for college in LA. This has created a new tension between them that they have yet to acknowledge. They decide to finish the summer with a backpacking trip together even though neither of the girls has much experience with camping. I loved getting to see Neena and Josie spend time together and oh how I deeply related to their difficulties with the trip. If you camp all the time maybe this will not work for you, but for me, someone who thinks that anything going wrong on a camping trip is a major catastrophe, well we will be constantly horrified as just about everything that can go wrong does. But more than that, the obstacles exacerbate the unspoken tension between the two girls. Neena is afraid of other people they could run into on the trail, Josie is afraid of bears, and the two of them arguing about their fears only makes them even more fearful. All this and we still don't even know what exactly the scare is going to be, which I honestly loved.
When we get to the Thrills, I was truly impressed at how hard Perkins goes. This is gorier than most horror I can recall, she has no qualms about getting into the grisly details. And I honestly was amazed at how much the girls deal with. It feels shocking, it feels like more than they can possibly deal with, which is why it delivers so effectively. I love a horror that doesn't feel like it's playing by the rules, where I can't necessarily anticipate where it'll go. I also love symmetry and Perkins plays with the theme of tension between friends at the end of the book in a way I will not spoil.
I also felt like Perkins did an excellent job with the concept of these final girls, these girls who are going to fight for survival, and what the effects of that can be in the long run. This is a theme in a lot of recent horror (done well also in this year's MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW and not so well in THE FINAL GIRLS SUPPORT GROUP) and Perkins brings a real understanding of how women grapple with fear in the world that I appreciated without hitting you over the head with it too hard.
There were a couple places where Perkins could have made the book more about twists and reveals and chose not to, another way this book stands out. It's rooted in Neena and Josie and she keeps us so grounded in these characters.
I did this on audio, which was just fine, but I think you can go either way. ...more
2.5 stars. This was... fine. It just didn't deliver all that much of what I'm looking for in a good horror novel. Wasn't scary, but also didn't really2.5 stars. This was... fine. It just didn't deliver all that much of what I'm looking for in a good horror novel. Wasn't scary, but also didn't really give me much by way of atmosphere. There's not much happening plot-wise and I found the character beats pretty basic. It was nice to have so many queer characters, but somehow this book is both about bigotry against queer people and yet never seems to really address it at all? I was hoping the ending would elevate it but it neither explained things nor provided any closure. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There is a feeling that this is not quite a real reality, which I think is intentional, but a lot of the time I found it distracting. The criminal justice system makes no sense. The way the town works makes no sense. And given that it's set in a specific state during a specific time, it must be an alternate reality for any of it to be true. (In 2001 gay people couldn't get married or adopt children in Oregon, where it's set, and yet here they do both as if it's nbd???)
I thought the initial setup of the TV ghost-hunter dads was great but they did so little with it, felt like a missed opportunity. ...more
There are good bones here, a solid concept and two multi-faceted protagonists, but it lost me in the details and in some elements of the execution, paThere are good bones here, a solid concept and two multi-faceted protagonists, but it lost me in the details and in some elements of the execution, particularly in the third act.
Get Out is being overused as a comp to mean any thriller where racism is involved but here the Get Out meets Gossip Girl comp is actually a good one. You've got Black protagonists in a white environment where they are welcomed outwardly but clearly something else is going on. And you've got anonymous texts sharing people's deepest secrets in a rich-kids private school setting. Chiamaka and Devon are both interesting, particularly in their contrasts to each other's circumstances and personalities, and the fullness given to their queer storylines.
I was pretty with it most of the way, though it was clear by halfway through that this scheme was so deep that it was starting to push the boundaries of believability. And as we continued into the last half it only leaned even farther in that direction. In a way it is once again a good use of that Get Out comp, where the final third of that film seems to take a harder turn than you expect, and whether it worked or not is up for debate. I think you can go that big, but you have to be able to back up this kind of plot element by being willing to turn everything up to 11 (which I think Get Out does) or by having a really fully fleshed out set of reveals. To me, this book did neither. The eventual reveals of the conspiracy are both too big and somehow too small, elaborate without making much sense. And when our protagonists are ready to fight back, we don't get anything resembling a normal climax, we don't get payoffs for the characters or for the central mystery. It felt a little bit like it was trying to do too much, and I suspect many readers will be too savvy for the climax to really land.
I did the audio and thought the readers were well suited to the material. (The female reader in particular has an A+ Gossip Girl voice.) ...more
3.5 stars. Historical stories about queer characters are important to fill in all the gaps in the stories people have been allowed to tell. But they c3.5 stars. Historical stories about queer characters are important to fill in all the gaps in the stories people have been allowed to tell. But they can also take a toll on the reader, since they are often centered around queer suffering or being closeted. This novel manages to have a lot of queer joy in this coming-of-age story, and it isn't as painful in the hard parts. They are mostly saved for the end of the book, and it's both realistic and optimistic, which I appreciated. For me it was just the right balance.
The best parts of the book are the ones at the Telegraph Club, where our protagonist Lily gets to see queer women being out and comfortable and happy. But Lo really builds a whole world for you here, especially of 1950's Chinatown. Make sure you stay for the author's note with all Lo's research at the end.
I did the audiobook, it has a traditional style of reader (they tend to be more monotone for the narration but have a variety of voices) and while I don't always love a traditional reader this was a good match of reader to material. Her voices were rarely distracting, she had great variety, and she was particularly good at the characters speaking English with a Chinese accent or speaking Chinese. ...more
I am so torn about this one. There is a good book in here, but there's a lot of other stuff piled on that, for me, detracted from what made it good. II am so torn about this one. There is a good book in here, but there's a lot of other stuff piled on that, for me, detracted from what made it good. I think it needed a stronger edit to remove a plot thread or two, and take down the page count, to get it to really shine and be what it could be. I'll be following Boulley after this, hoping that's what comes next. It has been optioned for a series and I think that is where all these extra plots could work really well! It's just a bit much for a standalone novel.
This book wants very much to present you a full picture of Indigenous life in Michigan's Upper Peninusla, specifically around the Ojibwe tribe and Sugar Island. It does a great job of capturing culture and setting, of showing the tensions within the tribal community and the tensions coming from outside of it. Daunis has a deep respect for her tribe's religion, and I particularly liked how her belief is given so much weight, it's unusual for any religious character in any novel, but particularly around Native religions, which are often treated more like myths and fantasy.
On the crime novel side, I have some notes. (And things will get mildly spoiler-y here, although they're the same spoilers as the jacket copy.) Having a CI as a protagonist is a great approach. Lets you have the point of view of an amateur, where it also makes sense that they're investigating and poking around and potentially putting themselves in dangerous situations. Having the CI fake-date her handler is okay I guess, but because it's obvious from the beginning that Daunis and Jamie really like each other, this puts us in a constant back and forth that never moves the plot forward and often pulls away from what's actually interesting.
Lately I am also approaching crime novels paying attention at how they manage violence and trauma. This is an even bigger question when we consider the violence and trauma towards marginalized communities. There are a lot of Native women who die in this book. And yes, this is the reality of the world, but also it's something I think readers should know going in. For better or worse, Daunis is deeply traumatized, so we get to see how trauma can play out, but also Daunis's trauma isn't the center of the book really, it's a subplot, and that feels weird a lot of the time. There is also a sexual assault that occurs in the book, which I was not expecting, and which happens right as the plot picks up. It is, obviously, a tightrope walk to want to bring attention to the ongoing violence against Native women, and the way the justice system overlooks and devalues them. But it's tricky to do those things in a crime novel, where they can seem like plot devices. Boulley doesn't get it totally wrong here, but there were some parts that felt like missteps to me. For all Daunis's worries about her community, we don't actually get a good look at how the broader community problems play out.
I think if Boulley had slowed down her plot it could have made these elements gel better. The thing is, this is a LOT of plot. So much! I can't remember a crime novel I've read recently that had this much going on. Daunis is being pulled in like 50 different directions. Boulley is trying to do so much with this one person, and in the end it's spread rather thin. There is Daunis's biracial identity, her sick grandmother, her recently overdosed uncle, her troubled mother, her dead father, her charismatic brother, her efforts to find info at the senior center, her college transfer, her suddenly ended hockey career, her best friend, her best friend's addict boyfriend, her aunt's part in a "blanket party", her struggle with her fake boyfriend's lies about his identity, her interest in science and botany, her infiltrating of the hockey club, a teammate's creepy dad, her conflicted feelings about not being an enrolled member of the tribe, and the list goes on. It's a lot! To her credit, Boulley keeps you feeling up to speed, I was mostly able to keep track of the many characters. But not only do we have all these issues, but Daunis can get rather stuck on them, repeating the same things over and over again.
There is a lot of explaining that happens here, early chapters are almost eye-rolling as Daunis explains everything about how the local community runs to new-guy Jamie, and things are better when Daunis doesn't explain things. But when she does explain, we often get the same thing explained to us again a few chapters later when it circles back in the plot. Less explaining could have made this more efficient, and now that I look over everything I think inefficiency is the chief issue.
As always, when I nitpick this heavily it is because there's a lot to like here and that makes the things that held it back more obvious. ...more
I am friends with the author through our work at Book Riot so it doesn't feel terribly fair for me to give an official star rating.
For me, a retellinI am friends with the author through our work at Book Riot so it doesn't feel terribly fair for me to give an official star rating.
For me, a retelling needs to walk a pretty fine line. If it just retells the same story in the same way, it is no fun even if you've moved the setting or time period. You need to give me something new to invest in. Tirzah uses a very Austen-y voice, and she's quite good at it, so I got to have those nice familiar feels. But her story is quite different, even if you recognize the characters. For me, this meant it worked quite well. But some who like more strict retelling styles may find it is so far from the norm that it's not their cup of tea. (Although I don't know how they'd expect a P&P retelling with murder to stay all that close to the original.) I liked that I generally knew if a character would be good or bad but didn't know how they fit into this mystery, a good balance.
I liked very much how we focused on aspiring solicitor Lizzie's continual frustrations with the way men are able to co-opt her work, that helped it feel true to the time but has more similar stakes to the way women feel today than Lizzie's feelings about marriage.
The solution to the mystery was a bit too complex for my tastes, though it's certainly accurate to the period. Just a personal preference thing, I also get annoyed with Agatha Christie when a motive turns out to be on the fussy side. But I liked that the balance was more towards mystery than romance, which is also my personal preference. I like to keep the romance in the B-plot and make sure it moves forward with the plot, Tirzah is great at this....more
I liked the twist on the slasher concept here, when you're about halfway through you wonder what could possibly happen for the rest of the book but itI liked the twist on the slasher concept here, when you're about halfway through you wonder what could possibly happen for the rest of the book but it does an impressive reveal that gives it a whole lot more runway. I wanted more from it, though. Having Quinn, an outsider, as a narrator means we get to skip tons of backstory and just get thrown into the action, but I found myself wanting the backstory! I wanted more about these teens, and the stakes weren't quite so high coming from a character who has just barely met everyone. Would make a great movie....more
If you are one of those people who doesn't read YA crime fiction, first of all you should sit with that for a while. Second of all, if you need to seeIf you are one of those people who doesn't read YA crime fiction, first of all you should sit with that for a while. Second of all, if you need to see just how great the genre can be, this is a great place to start. If you have been reading YA crime, know that this is more like the heavy books of Tiffany D. Jackson than some of the lighter entries in the genre.
I was willing to start out accepting the premise, that our protagonist Nora is caught in a bank heist and that she is also a practiced con artist. It started off rather bouncy and I was willing to go along for the ride. But by the end, this was as deep a consideration of trauma as any adult crime novel (more than most!) and really, it's just YA because we are spending time with teenagers and there is YA-ish friendship and love drama. (Although, again, I'd argue that adult crime novels are pretty bad at friendship and love drama, so this may even be better.) I, for one, would happily see more love interests with perfect vintage dresses and poofy crinolines, and former-love-interests-now-best-friends in my serious adult crime fiction, thank you.
If at first you have to suspend some disbelief to believe that a 17-year-old could be a con artist, you don't have to suspend it for long. Along with taking us through the bank robbery minute by minute, Nora also takes us through her history, the different girls she's been in her mother's long grifts. As time passes, the circumstances of the robbery get more complicated and the story of Nora's history gets darker. By the end, you believe in her ability to do just about anything, it's impressive work by Sharpe. We also get a real and involving emotional journey as Nora confronts serious danger to herself and those she loves, and is able to channel the survival skills from her previous lives to finally go to something good.
Solid ending, though it does leave you hankering for a sequel. I would certainly not be opposed. Also more casually bisexual characters. Here we had three queer women included in our central characters, and while one is closeted, there's not a lot of emphasis on queer suffering here.
I did the audiobook, read by the author, and she's fantastic.
Some pretty serious content warnings, including physical and sexual abuse of a child, though it's generally not on the page, there's enough detail to be difficult for readers that have those particular triggers....more
If this book didn't have the word "Charming" already sitting in the title just asking you to use it, you would have to use it anyway because it is simIf this book didn't have the word "Charming" already sitting in the title just asking you to use it, you would have to use it anyway because it is simply the best word. This book is so charming. Halti is so charming. I would have honestly been just fine if this book hadn't really had a plot and we just bopped along through all the charmingness of it.
But since there is a plot, this one gets it pretty right. It doesn't follow the traditional beats a lot of the time, I like YA that doesn't feel the need to hit all those right on queue. It has a romance at its center even though I probably wouldn't characterize it as a romance, and it's sweet and adorable. Halti as the popular, well-liked, hyper-confident kid doesn't remove stakes, it just changes them. And as much as I liked Philippe's snark in his debut, I liked this even better.
My only real quibbles here are that this book has a big college plotline that does not do what I hoped. I am SO OVER all the Ivy League fawning in YA. Just beyond over it. Ivies are terrible and insufferable and stupid and so are the other just-below-Ivies that are basically just the same thing. When I was 16 I did not care about Harvard or any of the others. I did not think of them as practical and they were not presented to me as real options. Give me more kids going to random liberal arts colleges and, for heaven's sakes, give me some perfectly good state schools! This book looks like it's really going to take on this kind of thinking, as Halti is hung up on Columbia to a very unhealthy degree. In the end, it does and it doesn't. It opts for a more dramatic plot that basically sidelines the issue and I was very bummed about that. I was also bummed because this dramatic plot, which comes with inevitable dramatic consequences, didn't really go for it. A few spoilery thoughts. (view spoiler)[I'm sorry but I do not believe for even five seconds that our beloved Halti, despite being so beloved, is gonna escape with just the single rescinded acceptance for falsifying a recommendation. That kid would've been expelled so fast. And basically blacklisted. It is the one thing here that feels completely false. And yes it does create some higher stakes stuff and it builds on our theme that Halti is too unscrupulous, but it also means we don't get to really deal with the "the system is unfair so why should I be?" argument either, which is a real bummer. I wanted more of that. (hide spoiler)] I get why Philippe made this choice but I do not agree with it and it was the only downside of an otherwise really enjoyable book.
I did the audio and I liked the reader a lot, though I didn't really like his Corinne, but it's a quibble....more
4.5 stars. Saving all of Elizabeth Acevedo's audiobooks for quarantine was a gift I didn't know I was giving myself. I like this one just a little les4.5 stars. Saving all of Elizabeth Acevedo's audiobooks for quarantine was a gift I didn't know I was giving myself. I like this one just a little less than her other two, but in part that's because it's shorter and more specific, which is actually one of its real strengths.
I don't know how Acevedo does so much with so little, how much detail she gives her characters in such a small space. The only real critique I have here is that it wraps up too quickly, but that's certainly not uncommon for YA. And I've seen the way her other books open up, so I know it's a skill she has put to good use since.
Listened to it in one day, which is as it should be....more
From the cover and title I was expecting something soft and sweet. And we get there eventually, but before that there is a whole lot of tough reality.From the cover and title I was expecting something soft and sweet. And we get there eventually, but before that there is a whole lot of tough reality. I am of two minds about books like this. They are important and necessary and the more of them we have the better. But it's still hard when basically every book you read about a trans character involves them having to go through or relive a lot of trauma.
On the excellent representation side, this is truly excellent. Felix is a Black bisexual trans guy who has had top surgery, whose scars are visible regularly in the book (and on the cover!!), but he is starting to question whether this is his most authentic identity. I love that we get to dive into the murky details of it, because so many stories we hear tend to come from people who knew they were trans very young and knew exactly what they were. But many people, like Felix, either come to their identity later or realize that the initial identity they jumped to is not exactly right. It doesn't mean they made the wrong choice, but it's definitely a part of growing up and a reflection of the fluidity that can exist around gender and sexuality. Felix's parents split up and his Mom has a new family now and has stopped all contact with him. Felix's dad has been supportive of Felix's transition, except that he still seems to have to try so hard to see Felix as he is. (This was another really subtle thing that I loved, that outward support doesn't absolve friends and family from still causing harm.) Felix is also acutely aware of class. He and his dad have been priced out of their Brooklyn neighborhood, while several of Felix's classmates at the art school where he's on scholarship, including his best friend, come from significant wealth. As they get ready for college, Felix feels defensive and under enormous pressure to get into an ivy league school and prove himself, but this pressure also has his art stalled, which threatens to endanger his application.
Now for the things that may be difficult for some readers, which I think are good to know going in. Felix's deadname and pre-transition pictures are shared publicly at his school, which he started after transitioning so had been absent from his identity for all his friends and acquaintances. He is deadnamed by his father. He is accused of misogyny for transitioning. And he is bullied by a transphobic classmate through anonymous messages. That's a lot. Felix himself is mostly quite confident, but he doesn't have a full support system that he feels safe around, even if overall his community is outwardly supportive of his identity.
The book brings in several of the classic YA tropes in a group of diverse characters. You have the best friend who's maybe too close and the enemy who maybe isn't such a bad person underneath. Instead of the big school dance, there's the big Pride Parade. For me it was still hard because I had so much anxiety about Felix and even though I knew from the title that he would be okay, I just wanted to wrap him up in bubble wrap and keep him safe. He's a really well drawn teenager, both sure of himself and constantly insecure. He is often secretive and often responds exactly the wrong way to things. I would LOVE if I never saw a teen wanting to go to an ivy league school ever again like seriously can we put a moratorium on that even if they learn by the end of the book that it isn't everything it still perpetuates the whole stupid cycle.
I sped through this in less than 24 hours, a compliment indeed....more
I started this in print and didn't hate it but wasn't sucked in. I knew Acevedo has big fans of her books on audio, and I love an author-read book, soI started this in print and didn't hate it but wasn't sucked in. I knew Acevedo has big fans of her books on audio, and I love an author-read book, so I decided to come back to it. I am so glad I did. I'm sure there are some people out there who just cannot tolerate audiobooks, and in that case go for print, but I think Acevedo is so good on audio that I have to recommend you use that medium even if it may not be your favorite. This isn't a novel with poetry in it, like her others, but there's still just such a rhythm to the way Acevedo shows us Emoni's world.
I loved everything about this book. I love how clear-eyed Acevedo is about Emoni, never oversimplifying her life, always aware of all the little things that she has to balance, always aware of how the world sees her. And I love how Emoni sees herself, the way she embraces being a mother and isn't ashamed of it, the way she cares about her daughter and enjoys being with her, but doesn't romanticize it either. Emoni is practical and she's let her brain shift into that mode where she has to put someone else's needs above her own, where caring for her family and keeping them steady is above typical teenage cares. I also love how none of this stops Emoni from exploring her talent with cooking, especially given the stereotypes that exist about class and food. And I love how despite her need to act like a grown-up, Emoni is still a teenager. The way she bristles when there is a problem in her Culinary Arts class is so accurate and you know she's going to figure it out but you have to wait for the teenager to get through to learning the lesson.
By the end, I cared so much about Emoni that any time anything good happened to her, any time someone saw her depth of skill and character, I cried. I cried a lot that last hour or so. ...more
I have been saving Elizabeth Acevedo's books, particularly saving them on audio. I felt like now was the time to finally start and I have no regrets. I have been saving Elizabeth Acevedo's books, particularly saving them on audio. I felt like now was the time to finally start and I have no regrets. I love the spoken word style of the reading, I love the two narrators. They did an excellent job of finding someone who complements Acevedo's style both in the text and in her reading. The story was so intimate and nuanced, letting you really understand both girls' worlds while also recognizing the vast differences in who they've been and who they're allowed to be. A basically perfect listening experience....more
This is the most stressful book I've ever read. You could call this a "thriller" but in normally thrillers I don't find the thrills themselves all thaThis is the most stressful book I've ever read. You could call this a "thriller" but in normally thrillers I don't find the thrills themselves all that suspenseful. They often are larger than life, in a way that doesn't feel connected to reality. ALLEGEDLY is so firmly set in the real world, though, and every new twist of the plot is not just another way to make that clear, it's also a reminder of how stacked the world is against kids like Mary. Normal thriller thrills don't have that much weight because you know your good guy will be okay. In this story, nothing about Mary's life gives you reason for optimism.
This book is so smart, I am mad at it. A good thriller manipulates you, it tells you how to feel and can heighten your responses. It almost never works on me, but this time, wow, it did. And not only that, I am amazed at how Jackson had me in the palm of her hand. She gives the reader so much information but she's also so adept at getting you to interpret it all just so. She knows exactly how to portray each character, and lets you really see how Mary is a product of all the traumas that have come before.
The plot is solid and the stakes are high, and it's also a crime novel that isn't glorifying cops or law enforcement, a rarity. It's a story with a poor, Black teenage girl at its center, also a rarity. As people consider how they can write about crime in ways that aren't exploitative or problematic, here is a great example.
I used to be a Juvenile Public Defender, and while there were a few elements of Jackson's story that felt not quite true-to-life, they were relatively mild inflations of reality, all of them still made sense with the story and are still nowhere near the kind of tricks crime writers pull with their characters or plots. I suspect some people will find it to be unrealistic, like it's all too much, but it was a lot of the worst stuff that to me seemed the most accurate.
I am definitely going to read more Tiffany D. Jackson. And for readers who don't venture into YA often, you can definitely go for it with this one. It may be about a teenager, but that's actually a major part of what Jackson is doing here. Mary's powerlessness is key to the whole story. And it's as expertly done as any crime novel I can think of.
I did the audio, which probably contributed to how intense it was for me. Phew. As usual, Bahni Turpin is great, especially at first person. But I did find that she gave most of the "bad" adults almost the exact same voice. This could definitely have been a conscious choice, there's a way in which they are all the same to Mary. It's just not my personal preference as a reader....more
3.5 stars. I don't read that many books about coming out/transitioning anymore. They're important, but they tend to be the only thing queer writers ar3.5 stars. I don't read that many books about coming out/transitioning anymore. They're important, but they tend to be the only thing queer writers are allowed to write about. But SASHA MASHA won me over, especially because I realized after a while that this isn't a book about a character dealing with transition. This is a story of what happens before that. It took me a little while to get a rhythm in this book, so I recommend sticking with it for a few chapters.
While many trans people knew their gender identity from an early age, it isn't true of all of them. And the stories we hear are so often about the group that knew that it starts to create the idea that there is only one kind of trans story.
It's difficult to use my typical rules to talk about this book because so much of it is about the early stages of understanding trans identity. The main character uses he/him pronouns throughout the book and it's unclear if they will change later. I don't love using deadnames and I generally don't love it when books use them but there are certain stories it's hard to tell without them while following typical conventions. But I'll refer to him as Sasha Masha because the name is the crucial part of his identity that he constantly is able to affirm.
Sasha Masha's story isn't clear. It's murky. It doesn't start with Sasha Masha being sure that he is in the wrong body or longing to be a woman. He has an opportunity for reinvention after his best friend Mabel moves away and he needs to find a new social group. Mabel is an out lesbian and it's clear that her queerness has always made Sasha Masha feel safe even if he doesn't exactly understand that yet. His sexuality is something he isn't entirely sure of yet, which is just another piece of his identity that feels unclear to him. He starts dating Tracy and is happy in the relationship until his questions about his own identity start to leave him feeling distant from everyone.
Sasha Masha's lack of clarity is what makes this book so important. He is a teenager and his whole self is something he doesn't understand yet. His feeling that something is not quite right is something he's always attributed to a typical lack of self-esteem. There is nothing about him that makes the reader think they know what's coming. Instead, he gets stuck on the idea of this new name. He isn't able to verbalize to anyone what exactly it is about it that gets him. And there is no moment where he has an epiphany and now knows who he is. I loved that about it.
Everything about his frustration at himself and the others in his life feels real. He doesn't think his parents will throw him out of the house, but his timid attempts to try and talk about his identity are met with amusement and condescension from his parents and just about everyone else. Except for a new friend. Sasha Masha's feelings of being lost send him to one place he feels comfortable: a queer youth center he used to go to with Mabel. And it's unsurprising that there he is able to find some space to explore who he is.
There is SO MUCH for cis people, especially those who work with kids and teens, to learn from this book and this type of story. The way Sasha Masha is able to relax and learn more about himself with people who are willing to accept him however he presents himself is striking. It's not that other people in his life are unsupportive or unloving. But they demand that he be a certain person. They do not make room for him to try on something else or to withdraw while he struggles to work through it. His choice of name as "Sasha Masha" doesn't help his situation, but whenever he introduces himself this way to a queer person, they do not question it. They often recognize it as a sign to be more gentle rather than a sign to be defensive. Because of that, I forgive the book for being a little precious with its use of a queer mentor figure. So much of the book is not instructive and Sasha Masha is so in need of some help or at least some welcome space that it is something of a relief.
If you, like me, have been pulling back somewhat on Trans 101 and other books about coming out, I would make an exception for this book. It is much less focused on the logistics of coming out and much more focused on how questioning your identity can feel. Especially since we have so few books for the Questioning community, this is a great one to add to Queer Teen Lit....more
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