Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.76 Stars Content Rating: R @doctorfusionbebop: Some 17 y. o. chick named Dee Guerrera was just sent to Alcatraz 2.0 for killing her stepsister. So, how long do you think she'll last? @morrisdavis72195: I hope she meets justice! She'll get what's coming to her! BWAHAHA! @EltonJohnForevzz: Me? I think Dee's innocent. And I hope she can survive. Welcome to the new future, where good and honest citizens can enjoy watching the executions of society's most infamous convicted felons, streaming live on The Postman app from the suburbanized prison island Alcatraz 2.0. When seventeen-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up in a haze, lying on the ground of a dimly lit warehouse, she realizes she's about to be the next victim of the app. Knowing hardened criminals are getting a taste of their own medicine in this place is one thing, but Dee refuses to roll over and die for a heinous crime she didn't commit. Can Dee and her newly formed posse, the Death Row Breakfast Club, prove she's innocent before she ends up wrongfully murdered for the world to see? Or will The Postman's cast of executioners kill them off one by one? (goodreads.com) During a particularly slow day of work (yesterday), I was at the front desk of the library I work at, waiting for patrons to come check out books. There were very few patrons in the library and so I could either stare at the shelves or look at bookish websites online to pass the time. As I was looking at the library’s collection of eBooks and eAudiobooks I happened to see the cover for #Murdertrending in the teen category. You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t at least be interested by the premise. I know I was. So I read the first chapter in snatches during my shift and then downloaded the rest of the eBook as soon as I got home. I just finished reading this book and I felt like I needed to collect and summarize my thoughts on it. And lucky you, you get to read them! Unless you leave this review right now. But please don’t, I’ll try to make this worth your while. First, I feel like I should explain the R rating in case my mom ever reads this review. (HI MOM!) I give it that rating for two reasons: the language and the violence. Because oh boy is there a lot of both in this book. The characters are to F-bombs like flower girls are to flowers at a wedding. From reading the synopsis you could probably already guess that this was going to be gory so I don’t really need to explain to you much about that. Except… it was way bloodier than I was expecting so maybe I do need to explain. Do not get attached to the characters in this book because something horrible will befall them. And when I say horrible I mean horrible. Every death is explained in great detail, making sure to note how body parts fall all over the place when explosions happen and what skin looks like when it’s melting off of someone. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you dislike violence then do not read this book because there won’t be much left for you to read if you skip all of the deaths. With that being said, I actually really did enjoy #Murdertrending. It was a bizarre mix of The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Caraval by Stephanie Graber, Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake, and reality TV. These things are all pretty similar to each other (and some of them probably influenced each other) so it’s no surprise that this book reminded me of all of them, but they all have very distinct vibes, if you’ll allow my use of the word “vibes”, and #Murdertrending kind of captured all of those vibes. I’ll stop saying “vibes” now. The characters were pretty one dimensional, sure, and the plot was (hopefully) completely convoluted, but there was something about it that kept me reading, excited to see what happened next. It did a really good job of sucking me in and making me what to know how everything turned out in the end. The writing style wasn’t anything new or elaborate, but it was so easy to get into and understand. Like I said, the characters weren’t great. We didn’t even get to know most of them all that well, even though I did, foolishly, get attached to some of them. Though we got to know some of Dee’s (the MC) backstory, it was mostly only stuff that was relevant to the plot. And the things we learned were vague enough that she could have been anyone. This is something I saw a lot back in ye olden days when I read tons of fanfiction (haha, not like I do that anymore, ha... ha). It’s an interesting “technique” (can I call it that even though it’s probably unintentional?) that makes it hard to see the MC as a whole person, but it makes it very easy to get immersed in the story. To say it simply, you don’t know enough about the character to see them as someone else so you fill in the blanks of the character with your own personality. Generally this is frowned upon (I believe they call it a form of "self insertion"), but in this case I think it actually worked. That’s just my opinion though. Was this story realistic? No. Not in the slightest. I don’t think so many people would be so gleefully watching violent executions in this day and age. Even if it was easily streamed from a smartphone. Someone would have put a stop to the whole idea before it got far in the real world and there would be protests against it. People aren’t completely heartless even toward convicted murderers. So, it wasn’t scary to me because I know something like this isn’t going to happen. But it was interesting to imagine and that’s what books are for, right? Setting up scenarios that we’ll never be in so we can imagine. And this book managed to do that with flare and gruesome descriptions. I’ve heard there will be a sequel coming out this year, but I’m not sure if I’ll read it or not. It’s not about the same characters, which always annoys me about sequels. Plus, I don’t know how many more gory deaths I can read about. That being said, I’m sure the sequel will be just as entertaining as the first one if you are interested. Well, I’d better go run for my life now before a government hired serial killer gets me! Until next time, friends! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34521785-murdertrending Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.53 Content Rating: Strong PG-13 Leave it to the heroes to save the world--villains just want to rule the world. In this unique YA anthology, thirteen acclaimed, bestselling authors team up with thirteen influential BookTubers to reimagine fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains' points of view. These fractured, unconventional spins on classics like "Medusa," Sherlock Holmes, and "Jack and the Beanstalk" provide a behind-the-curtain look at villains' acts of vengeance, defiance, and rage--and the pain, heartbreak, and sorrow that spurned them on. No fairy tale will ever seem quite the same again! (goodreads.com) As you might have gathered from the synopsis, this is an anthology of short stories by different authors all with a common subject of villainy. Each of the stories also has a bit of commentary at the end of them from some of the most well known BookTubers (YouTubers who primarily talk about books). It was published last year and I remember there being a big buzz about it for a bit. I think everyone was excited because there are so many good authors smooshed into this book and most people had that one author out of the bunch that they were reading this book for. For me it was definitely Marissa Meyer. I probably would not have cared one way or another about this book if she had not written a story for it and I’m sure a lot of people who read it felt similarly. Also… I like watching BookTubers’ channels so that was kind of fun to see some of their thoughts on the stories as well. The hype for this book has died down since last year and usually when I hear people mention it now I only hear negative things about it. Apparently a lot of people really do love to hate this book. I’m not entirely sure why, to be honest. While it wasn’t my favorite book in the whole world, I loved it and thought most of the stories were captivating (and some of them a little disconcerting). So I’m not really sure why people are so mad/upset/annoyed with this book (although some of the other reviews I’ve seen are irritated that the BookTubers are featured because it seems like a marketing ploy, which okay, maybe it is, but whatever), especially since there were thirteen whole stories in it. I mean, how can you not have found one that you liked out of thirteen? Like, you knew that this book was about villains going into it so you can’t be mad that all of the stories are about bad people doing not so nice things because that’s literally all this book is claiming to be. Anyway… I’m not normally a person who likes to read about the bad guys getting away with things and I find villain origin stories sad most of the time since even if it’s tragic we know they just go on to become a bad guy and possibly get beaten by the hero later on. However, I had fun reading these little tales of terribleness and after I got over wanting to scold the characters (yes, I’m that kind of person) I liked watching them paint the town red. Since there are thirteen individual stories, I thought I’d give a brief, spoiler-free review of each of them and just tell you what I, personally, liked and disliked about them. The Blood of the Imuriv by Reneé Ahdieh: This was one of the ones I didn’t enjoy quite as much. It didn’t seem like it had much of a point to it and since it wasn’t a retelling or an origin for a villain we already know, it didn’t interest me as much as the other ones. I did think the world building was interesting and the MC seemed like he had stuff going on that I would like to know more about. I think this one might have been better if it were the first chapter of a book. Jack by Ameriie: Oooooh boy. This one was a wild ride. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I liked this one. It is a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk from the perspective of a giant. It wasn’t very exciting for the first part and I was kind of bored for a while, but that end, man, that was a good ending. It almost felt like something that I would have read in my Analytical Lit class that I took in high school. Gwen and Art and Lance by Soman Chaini: I have never really cared for the part of the legend of King Arthur in which Guinevere cheats on Arthur for Lancelot. (I mean, does anyone like it when characters cheat on each other? I hate it when that happens and I lose respect for the characters that are doing the cheating.) This is a modern retelling of that part of the legend told through text communications or instant messaging or something. It was easy enough to read and it flowed well, plus since it was all in text messages my mind decided to add a typing sound to each sentence, which was kind of fun/annoying. But, I still don’t like this part of Arthurian legend. Lance is a jerk. Arthur is a jerk. Gwen is a big jerk. And yet, none of them seemed all that villainous, just like spiteful kids making bad decisions. Shirley & Jim by Susan Dennard: As a fan of the Sherlock television show I was excited for this one because it is about a young Professor Moriarty and a young, female Sherlock. It wasn’t as good as I was expecting, but it wasn’t terrible. I don’t think it did a good job of showing how smart Shirley is, as we are supposed to believe it based off of her remarks since the story is told as an email to Watson. Shirley mentions a few times how much of a know-it-all she is and that she’s really good at chess, but that’s all the information we have about how clever she is, which ends up making her seem very naive in comparison to Jim. Still, it was fun to read about the chess matches between them and I liked it well enough. The Blessing of Little Wants by Sarah Enni: Another one that reminded me of Lit class, except this one is similar to the stories I read in class because I’m not sure I quite understood it. This was another one that wasn’t inspired by a character already in existence so perhaps that was why I couldn’t quite grasp the concept of it. I liked the characters in it and the world it was set in was cool (wish I could have seen more of it), but the twist at the ending… I don’t think I understood it. From what I could gather it was a cool twist, but I think it went over my head. The Sea Witch by Marissa Meyer: Predictably, the story by one of my favorite authors of all time was one of my favorite stories in the book. This was an origin story for the witch in the story of The Little Mermaid. It was definitely dark and gruesome, but it was still fun to read. It was sort of sad, but also satisfying in a way that the original story was not (I don’t want to say how because of spoilers). It did kind of feel like Hans Christian Andersen did most of the leg work on this one and Marissa Meyer just added her own sinister and entertaining touches. Beautiful Venom by Cindy Pon: Ugh, this one made me sad. It was a gripping read and the emotion in it was strong in it, but it was not really a fun read. Retelling the story of Medusa, this story covers some of the stuff in Greek mythology that I, admittedly, would rather forget. Like the fact that Medusa was raped by Poseidon and then turned into a monster after that by Athena as a punishment (which kinda makes me hate Athena). This story looks at that part of the myth in more depth and the fact that Medusa was not at fault for her monsterous form. It was showing us why she was a “villain”. Even though it was not as mischievous or fun as the rest of the villain stories in this anthology, it was one of my favorites because it was so emotional. Death Knell by Victoria Schwab: Another one that would have been at home in the Analytical Lit class and another one that was sad, but a good read. In this one the personification of Death wakes up in spring and climbs out of this mysterious well in order to go escort someone to the afterlife/kill them. There seemed to be strong symbols in this story (the well, a red flower crown, graves, dying grass, a glove) which made it feel like something I was supposed to analyze - in a fun nostalgic way. I didn’t actually take the time to analyze it (apologies to my dear Lit teacher), but it felt like I could have written a short paper/reflection on it. I don’t know why that made me happy with it, but it did. Marigold by Samantha Shannon: Even though this one felt a tad predictable, I really liked it. The story is about a Fae queen who lives in the wooded parts of England during the reign of Queen Victoria. This Fae lady has a tendency to kidnap girls and take them to live in the woods in her magical court, which sounds really creepy. And it sort of is... until you get reading the story more. I liked the setting for the story and the characters were interesting and there really wasn’t much I didn’t enjoy about this read. You, You, It’s All About You by Adam Silvera: In this story (which is written in second person interestingly enough) we meet a teenaged supervillan/crime boss. And she is not very nice. She deals drugs that can make you forget or remember things (which is kindling for a good book, methinks) and also uses one that somehow makes you do whatever she says. I’m not sure how I feel about this story. I think I wanted more of it. I wanted more backstory for the MC and more information on her boyfriend guy. More story all around. And then I might have been happy with it. That, or if the ending of this one was more final. Julian Breaks Every Rule by Andrew Smith: This was a weird one, especially for me since the main character, Julian, lives in Iowa and I live in Iowa. Not many stories take place in Iowa (except, of course, Bridges of Madison County, but I’ve never read that) so when one does come along all of the Iowan readers are on edge. I was a little bit annoyed at this story because Julian, the narrator, makes it seem like Iowa is not a great place at all *scoffs in indignation*, but he did paint a fairly accurate picture of several aspects of my state so… I guess I have to let it go. As a whole, I didn’t really like this story, but it did make me laugh a few times (like the quote “Iowans like to name their schools after prominent politicians who came from Iowa, as if to assert to the rest of the world that Iowa exists” (pg. 278) because it stings how true that is). I did not like Julian or is narrating voice, mostly because he had some weird obsession with foreshadowing and he kept mentioning when things were and weren’t foreshadowing. The plot was kind of bizarre and entertaining though, so I don’t rate it too low. Indigo and Shade by April Genevieve Tucholke: This one was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast from the suitor’s perspective (the suitor is the guy who Gaston is in the Disney version). The narrator/MC of this story is Brahm Valois, the golden boy of a ski resort town in Colorado. I kind of love how he is the narrator, honestly. Normally in first person stories the protagonist doesn’t tell you how awesome they are. They are more likely to talk about parts of themselves that they don’t like and that they think no one else will like either, but our man Brahm loves talking about how he is super handsome and super skilled. I’m sure if he were a real person I would have been annoyed with him, but it was a refreshing change from the characters who look in the mirror and describe to us how beautiful they are and then state that no one could ever love them. Brahm would probably look in the mirror and blow a kiss while proceeding to describe how no one's slick as Brahm, no one’s quick as Brahm, no one’s neck is incredibly thick as Brahm’s neck and how there is no one in town half as manly... I’m not sure that I actually liked the story because it was too fast paced and Indigo was pretty boring, but I thought Brahm was great. Sera by Nicola Yoon: Oof. This one was weird. Interesting, but weird. It kind of felt like when you drive past a two smashed up cars on the side of the road and you feel bad, but you keep staring because you are curious about how bad the damage is and if everyone is still alive. Apparently, this story is supposed to be a “genderbent God of War”, but I’m not sure what that means. Is God of War a book? A movie? Are they just referring to a mythological god who’s in charge of wars? Like Ares, Montu, or Tyr? I dunno. Whatever it is supposed to be, it was about a girl named Sera and her mother and sister. And Sera is a weirdy. A violent weirdy. I didn’t particularly like this story, but I couldn’t stop reading it and sort of wish I could see what happened after the end of it. So those are the stories. The thirteen tales of villainy and my thoughts on them. If any of them sound interesting to you then I would recommend checking out this book from your local library if they have it. Like I said, there are a lot of low ratings for this book, but there are a lot of high ones too so it seems like there is no way to tell if you would actually like it or not. I thought it was fun and I would probably reread some of the stories in it. Thank you for reading this really long review! I hope you were entertained! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to rule the world. Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450752-because-you-love-to-hate-me Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.72 Stars Content Rating: Strong PG Parallel stories set in different times, one told in prose and one in pictures, converge as a Ella unravels the mystery of the girl next door. 1982: Mary is a lonely orphan at the Thornhill Institute for Children at the very moment that it's shutting its doors. When her few friends are all adopted or re-homed and she is left to face a volatile bully alone, her revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself. 2017: Ella has just moved to a new town where she knows no one. From her room on the top floor of her new home, she has a perfect view of the dilapidated, abandoned Thornhill Institute across the way, where she glimpses a girl in the window. Determined to befriend the girl, Ella resolves to unravel Thornhill's shadowy past. Told in alternating, interwoven plotlines—Mary's through intimate diary entries and Ella's in bold, striking art—Pam Smy's Thornhill is a haunting exploration of human connection, and a suspense-filled story. (goodreads.com) In honor of this book being halfway told by beautiful illustrations, I’ve decided to share how I came across this book and part of my reaction to it in picture form. Enjoy my fantastic art skills: After that you probably don’t even need me to give my usual kind of remarks on the book, but since Thornhill is also told with words I’d better use some too. Let me say that I have mixed feelings about this book. So if I seem a bit back and forth about whether I liked it or not it’s because I’m not sure. For one thing, I thought the story telling was very well done and the illustrations were amazing. I loved that it was a different format from your typical novel and I love the dark lack-of-color scheme. It just looks so enticing and spooky and wonderful. It is a visually appealing book and I love that. But the story, man! It was well told and I was interested all the way through. I was fully invested in the characters. And I can’t say much without spoilers, but yeesh! That ending made me made, sad, frustrated, oddly happy, and satisfied all at the same time (I had similar feelings after Avengers: Infinity War). I don’t know how that happened but I kind of like a book that leaves me reeling, you know? It makes the excitement more authentic I think. Basically, this book was about two girls with thirty-five years that separate them who both just want to fit in and have friends, but are having a hard time of it. The girl in 1982, Mary, tells her story in the form of a diary. She describes the horrors the other girls living at her girls’ home put her through and how she deals with that (not in a healthy way, I’m going to be honest). The girl in the present, Ella, has her story told through gorgeous illustrations. She is facing life without her mother and with her father absent most of the time. She just moved into a house right by Thornhill and she keeps seeing a girl on the grounds of the old school who she wants to befriend. And this was a really interesting story. This novel was meant to be spooky, I think, and I know a lot of other people who read it are complaining that it wasn’t actually that scary. Okay, but… try reading it at midnight with all the lights in the house off except your reading lamp. That’s when you get scared to look up from the book because you’re afraid of what you’ll see (or won’t see) in the shadows. At least, that’s how I read all scary things to maximize the creepiness. And it really worked for the illustrations toward the end of the book. Yikes. I will admit that it could have been a lot creepier, but I think part of it is that sometimes print isn’t the best format for a scary story. A movie of Thornhill probs would have had me cowering behind a pillow. I don’t do scary movies. The creepiness level of this book was like a mild version of Neil Gaiman, I think. It kind of reminded me of The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and Coraline a little. Anyway, it’s a really interesting book, for sure. It’s just odd. And sad. I don’t know if I recommend it or not. I would give you a warning for potential triggers for bullying and possibly suicide, so be wary of that. Otherwise, I mostly enjoyed this novel I think. Of course, you could flash beautiful covers and illustrations in my face and I’d probably say I liked nearly anything. Heck, if they made math books pretty enough I might have ended up doing something math related with my life. Eh, actually, I don’t think even books can be that persuasive. Thanks for reading my review! I hope you enjoyed it! What do you think of telling stories through illustrations? Have you read any other books told in this format, like maybe The Invention of Hugo Cabret or Wonderstruck (both by Brian Selznick)? I haven’t, but I’d be willing to try some more because I really liked it in Thornhill. Well, I am off to go make some creepy puppets and leave them around the grounds of an abandoned school. Ta-ta! Book cover source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33163379-thornhill Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.58 Stars For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home—all because her mother believes that monsters are hunting them. Now these delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. The only saving grace is her best friend, Olivia, who’s coming with them for the summer. But when Gwen and Olivia are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and taken to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey, Gwen realizes her mom might have been sane all along. The world Gwen finds herself in is called Neverland, yet it’s nothing like the stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through her fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the roguish young pirate who promises to keep her safe. With time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But will she be able to save Neverland without losing herself? (goodreads.com) Something you should probably know about me is that I love Neverland stories. I love the island, I love the mystery, I love the characters, I love the warnings, I love the fairies, the mermaids, the flying, the pirates - everything about Neverland I hold in high esteem. So, don’t be surprised if you see a great many more Peter Pan retellings reviewed on this site. I might even make a list of my favorites at some point. Okay, about today’s book: I was somewhat disappointed in this novel. When I started reading it I got really excited because “yay, a book about Neverland!”, but as I read through it I found it to be lacking in the wow factor. It did redeem itself a teensy bit with the heartbreaking, but lovely ending, but overall, not one of my favorite reads this summer. One thing I didn’t like was that this is, as the tagline says, not the Neverland I knew. Sure, the island was very much the same as it has always been with it’s changing geography, magic, and flying boy, but it was many shades darker than I was expecting. The island itself is almost a character in many retellings and it was sort of like that in this, but evil. Way, mega, creepy evil. And so were some of my favorite aspects of the story. The mermaids have always been nasty to everyone but Peter, so that didn’t surprise me. Tinker Bell, however, bothered me. For one thing, she could talk, for another, she was an irritating character. On top of all that, she wasn’t even named Tinker Bell. Captain Hook was pretty much everything I expected him to be in a YA novel, and I was anticipating many of Pan’s new traits as well, but - my word! Peter Pan has never been so disturbing. Not even in ABC’s Once Upon a Time, where some weird stuff happens. He was vile and gross and I wanted to slap him. Yuck. Something I did like was the “other story” at the beginning of each chapter. This was a story told in brief tidbits right before each chapter started and it was poetic and interesting, as well as extremely sad. It is about a boy during World War I and what he goes through as a soldier. At first it doesn’t seem to connect to the rest of the book, but it does and it was more interesting than the actual novel, I think. Even though I was entertained by this book and the writing was decent, I really can’t think of many complements to give to it. I’m sorry, book. I really wanted to like you, but Peter was a creeper and Hook was way off the original book. The main character, Gwen, wasn’t so terrible, but she was kind of an idiot. And she needed a lot of rescuing. And I couldn’t connect to her at all. So… y’know, she wasn’t great. Part of why I didn’t like this, might have been because of all the darkness. I’m used to Neverland being portrayed darkly, but this was nearly pitch. The creatures, the tone, the complete lack of any humor, and the many, many deaths. Like I said, I’m used to a darker Neverland, but this was too much for me. All together, it was entertaining to some extent, but it was hard to read at a lot of parts. It wasn’t what I was expecting. I only recommend it if you are a die-hard Peter Pan fan and even then, I’m not sure you’d like it. Thanks for reading, be sure to tell me what you think in the comments below. Do you have any good books you think I should read/review? How about terrible books you think I should read/review? To get off the computer would be an awfully big adventure, but I suppose I must… Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21518344-unhooked?ac=1&from_search=true |
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