TW: parent with cancer, panic attack, depression & self hatred
I love this Halloween-y aesthetic and the "Over the Garden Wall but queer and YA" viTW: parent with cancer, panic attack, depression & self hatred
I love this Halloween-y aesthetic and the "Over the Garden Wall but queer and YA" vibe. The character designs are top tier and everything manages to be genuinely spooky and whimsically charming at the same time. While the interpersonal drama does come a bit out of left field and feel a little overplayed in the scheme of things, I do also appreciate this inclusion of grief, friend break ups, and nonbinary identity, all alongside the great unknown. What a world to be a part of!...more
I received an ARC from Edelweiss TW: biphobia, forced outing 5
I... love this book. So much. Thinking of it makes me kind of weepy. I usually don’t coI received an ARC from Edelweiss TW: biphobia, forced outing 5
I... love this book. So much. Thinking of it makes me kind of weepy. I usually don’t consider the author themself when reading and reviewing, but the fact that Becky Albertalli got to write this book made me so inordinately happy I can’t not mention it. After everything she had to go through, being forced to come out by fans and then having her identity questioned, I am thrilled she got to write this and share it with the world. And maybe that’s one of the reasons it feels so genuine, so true, so much like a beating heart.
But even beyond how right this feels on its own, it’s written so well! Imogen is such a relatable character, her moments of confusion and the subtle ways she talked herself around exceptions and curiosity to put herself back in “her place” was so well done. There are so many moments in this that I had in some way lived too, even as a person with a different identity and history, and I know anyone out there who has ever questioned their own validity as a queer person is going to get it.
And the romance- oh my god. It’s adorable. The chemistry is perfect, the banter made me want to tuck into bed and read through the night. These character work just so well together. I haven’t been this immediately invested in a romance in probably years.
And what’s lovely about it, is that these are characters that stand alone too. Imogen is fantastic, in her love story and outside of it. Tessa is a genuinely fun and likable character that feels solidly fleshed out, and Lili is a darn beacon of light. I love these people. They all feel like people.
I also really appreciate that for a story hinging on lies and being closeted there isn’t really any dragged out miscommunication! Things sometimes take a little while to come out into the open, things are not always clear, but it never feels dragged out or pushed to the breaking point. Everything is earned and everything makes sense.
My only complaint at all was that the narration and conversations on queer discourse and being politically correct did at times get to be a lot, and I personally really hate when it seems like authors are trying to prove their characters are morally correct by beseeching the reader like that- but I genuinely don’t think that’s what was happening here. This kind of thinking and the conversations had make total sense with Imogen’s character, and the people she surrounds herself with. It just crosses over into bogging down the text a few times, and I fear that’ll stop some people from pushing through.
This book is the light of my life, I cannot wait to physically own it (of course it’s been preordered since I finished my ARC), and I definitely cannot wait for more people to get to experience Imogen and her story.
Pre-review comments below I don't know why the thought of this book makes my heart hurt but the cover is pretty and I think it's going to damage me when it comes out
Update post-reading BECKY I AM SO HAPPY YOU GOT TO WRITE THIS...more
I received an ARC from Edelweiss TW: parental death, cancer 4.6
This is the book of my asexual, A-Cinderella-Story loving, messy characters who snarkily I received an ARC from Edelweiss TW: parental death, cancer 4.6
This is the book of my asexual, A-Cinderella-Story loving, messy characters who snarkily protect their vulnerabilities/heart obsessing over self dreams. I love this book so much- I love Wren Martin, I love Buddy, I love the one-sided rivalry, the Valentine's theme, I love it all.
Wren Martin is an absolute brat, he reads in that way like one of my favorite characters (Eliot from In Other Lands) mixed with some charm of Alex Claremont-Diaz with his own unique spin keeping him very much himself. He is bitchy and frigid and defensive and he is also a secretly soft chicken owner, so that is all to say that he is a layered character of contradictions and hidden feelings, and he is, in his imperfections, completely perfect.
Wren also gives me something incredibly important- good, well written, relatable asexual rep! I mean, DeWitt does this well in general, but I really have never felt so seen as I have through Wren Martin. I love that this book isn't all about him being ace, but that his asexuality is still so inherent. It's important to the journey, and to Wren's point of view, and it always rings true.
Not only is Wren a wonderfully written, 3-dimmensional character, but I feel I can say that about all of the characters within this story. They are all real and interesting, and it's insanely easy to care about even the most background character. I feel invested in Wren, yes, but Archer? Ryan? Not a single person felt like a place filler or a flat cliche with legs. That's remarkable.
I also, as a fan of hidden identity, adored the Buddy part of things. It really did remind me of A Cinderella Story, and I can see the Love is Blind comparison, but beyond all of that, it's also a very clever way of framing and setting out this story!
I did not see the twist of this coming (well, not the... main one), which was a good and a bad thing for me. It keeps things interesting and added a new layer, but it also came a bit out of the blue and seemed to make things just a little too neat.
Personally, I really would've enjoyed having Leo's point of view as well. Knowing why he's interested and getting a full love confession really would have cinched this and put the romance over the top for me. I'm genuinely disappointed that there are two love confession scenes and we get basically no details for both.
I also am not the biggest fan of Ryan, and the whole phone stealing scene made me enjoy this and their friendship just a tick less.
All in all, though, I love this book! It's lived happily in my head since I read it, and will be living there rent free for many years more.
Pre-review comments below Excuse me while I go flail about this ...more
I received a ARC from Edelweiss TW:homophobia, bugs & entomophagaphobia, sleep paralysis, racism & conolization, toxic parent & abandonment, car crI received a ARC from Edelweiss TW:homophobia, bugs & entomophagaphobia, sleep paralysis, racism & conolization, toxic parent & abandonment, car crash (off page), knife violence, hanging, fire & immolation 4.5
This book was so good! It is truly impossible to go through this journey and come out of it not feeling like you're either losing your mind or in desperate need to start yelling. The characters, the emotion, the horror, the beautiful writing- it all strikes such a chord.
This book is visceral and gross. The horror is truly horrific, and the descriptions are full of dread and weight. There is absolutely no doubt at any point that this is horror, every crevice of it is lined with a promise of not just danger but the kind of danger that wants you to simmer first, the kind of violence that watches you before it pounces and then wants to see you realize you're trapped. And yet- and yet the writing itself is also so poetic and beautiful! There are so many quotable phrases, so many moments in text that feel as fragile as lace. There is breathing room for Jade to figure out who she is, what she fears, without letting the tension drop. There is space for careful wording and foreshadowing with the elegance of a tea service, and it's done perfectly enough to be balanced completely with the other side of the coin, the disgusting danger.
Poetic language and foreshadowing- and metaphor- aside, I also love the way the dialogue is written. The characters manage to feel fun and alive, even in an oppressive atmosphere, and we're allowed organic flirtation and genuine familial pain and frustration, and even some truly hilarious and vindicating one liners. Again, the balance is so fantastic!
This is really just an amazing story of diaspora and questioned identities- so many identities. I love the way Jade's desires to be wanted are played into the horror, held up against and fighting with the very real wound of having been left. The way she holds these different versions of her, even as that makes her struggle further, is so well done, and the layers at play blend beautifully.
For me, the only real let downs were where things didn't feel like they had as much time to be fleshed out. I liked the romance in theory, for example, and I thought the bittersweet quality worked, but it never really lined up to the power of the other pieces. The back and forth there also felt more like teen melodrama than any other part of the story, which threw it off. The Alma plot line also felt like it dropped out in the middle, and disrupted the flow, which made the ending a bit abrupt. Lastly, I was hoping for good representation with intrusive thoughts, but that- and the mental health in general- got left to the wayside after establishing it in the very beginning.
This is a well crafted and engrossing story with very real danger and a misleading beauty to it. There's no doubt that this is one of my favorite haunted house stories I've ever read.
Pre-review comments below Marginalized horror & haunted houses have a GRIP on me
I received an ARC from Edelweiss TW: verbal & physical abuse, abandonment & bad family dynamics, mentioned animal death, cult, body image issues 4.5I received an ARC from Edelweiss TW: verbal & physical abuse, abandonment & bad family dynamics, mentioned animal death, cult, body image issues 4.5
Ah, Margaret Owen. There's a reason I preordered this book as soon as it hit the market- and it's because Margaret Owen lives in my brain and can rarely, if ever, let me down. Now, this book was kind of a mixed bag for me, and not the instant obsession I had expected- but that is 99% for one very specific reason, so for now let's ignore it.
This book was FUN. The energy in this is unparalleled. Margaret Owen managed to make so many meme references so flawlessly that I wasn't even bothered. I got more than my necessary dose of Vanja, I may be in danger of too much Vanja. And, actually, this book is even more Vanja-centric than the first one, and that's because you get to see far more of Vanja than you even knew was there for the majority of Little Thieves. This book is either a massive therapy session or the prelude to one. And that means plenty of character growth and also plenty of the snark, moral ambiguity, and hidden wounds of our favorite girl.
I also really appreciated the additions of the lore! I feel like I know so much more of the world, and I'm even more enamored with it now. And the cultish energy in this just doubled that. The atmosphere of this is top tier.
Here's my issue- all of that is great, but it wasn't the act ending sequel I was gearing up for. I wanted weight and adventure and answers and magic- all things that would bookend a great first book. But that's not this book- literally! Had I known from the start that this was a middle book I think I would've gone into it with much different expectations. It is a textbook second book in a trilogy, and it nails the ups and downs of one.
That aside, it did mean it took me a lot longer to get into the story and the misunderstanding of the scope of story and the stakes at play made it difficult to get invested. I was also hoping for more Death and Fortune and general low god magic, and having that more or less replaced with a lot of relationship drama did feel disappointing.
I also hate that ending. But, yeah, second book. So that's not a bad thing.
This is a fantastic continuation of Little Thieves, planting us firmly in the middle of the story. I really can't wait to see where the final book brings us!
Pre-review comments below EXCUSE ME WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE GET A SEQUEL
Dear God, thank you for listening to my prayers I just want more Vanja!! (and everyone else too, let's be real)
Update 12/6 THIS IS IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD ON EDELWEISS RIGHT NOW AND I'M LOSING IT
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