Subscribe to get a little Fury in your inbox!

Join 2,978 other subscribers.

Paper Fury

Book Reviews

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating – Another Amazing Read from Adiba Jaigirdar!

by 2 Comments

Another absolutely excellent read from Adiba Jaigirdar!!

I loved The Henna Wars, and Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating was equally good. 🥺💛 It’s about two Bengali queer teens fake-dating amongst pressure from school and parents, add in some complicated family dynamics, plus your-existence-annoys-me to I’d-do-anything-for-you romance dynamics and you have this most amazing book.

It is so so easy to love both the characters. It’s narrated by both Hani and Ishu, and the stakes are quiet but super important to them, so every failure or lovely moment the girls go through hits so hard while you’re reading.

Meet Hani • She’s the youngest daughter of super loving and accepting parents. She’s bisexual and out to her family. But when she comes out to her white friends…they are snarky and toxic about it. Basically her friends are awful but she’s known them forever and can’t accept the reality that: they suck. It HURT watching her accept and internalise how they treat her. (Also utterly painful flashbacks and teeth-clenching grimacing to my teen friendships too lolol ouch.) Basically Hani ends up needing to fake-date Ishu to PROVE to her friends she is bisexual. Hani is really sweet and lovely and friendly, but zero skills in the confrontation department.

Meet Ishu • She is a study machine, super intense and serious and focused. (Hobbies? No. Ishu studies.) She’s not out to her parents and while they’re loving and caring, they’re set in their ways and have some toxic tendencies. Like when her older sister Nik announces she’s getting married and dropping out of uni, her parents are furious and cannot forgive this. So Ishu suddenly decides to be the Good Child that everyone respects for once. She wants to be Head Girl at school and please her parents’ high expectations since Nik is failing them. But to achieve THAT Ishu needs Hani’s smiles and connections and sociability to help her get popular enough for their classmates to vote for her.

Let the fake dating commence.

Okay these two are AWKWARD together. Their relationship is absolutely slow burn, with the most tentative friendship first before those inevitable feelings catch. But seriously these two couldn’t be more different. I loved the contrast of their personalities and by the end you are like 😩🙌🏻 just kiss.

Things I Also Enjoyed

  • the way it unpacked that parents aren’t usually “good or evil”. Ishu’s parents were caught somewhere in that place of love for their daughters, but also trapped in the toxicity of unaccepting queerness or mental health struggles. I just thought it was really well written.
  • I loved the dynamics between Ishu and Nik’s sister-relationship and their sad but sweet arc 😩 Adiba Jaigirdar writes the BEST sister duos. Complex and messy and relatable.
  • the writing is engaging and easy to devour
  • book made me utterly hungry and I protest
  • toxic friendship dealt with nuance amongst the agony
  • the stakes of the finale really made me ache for Ishu 🥺 and it calls out micro-aggressions and white feminism
  • the audiobook is so so good (I really loved the Irish narrators) and made reading all the more enjoyable.

Overall a thoroughly perfect read of finding a way to live for yourself, call out toxicity, and learn to be vulnerable and loyal to the right people. With amazing character arcs and relationships, this story is so full of heart.

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for the review-copy! It’s out August 2021.

Everyone likes Humaira “Hani” Khan—she’s easy going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with a girl her friends absolutely hate—Ishita “Ishu” Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl.
Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after.

Goodreads | Book Depository | Booktopia

 

Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn – South African Contemporary Not To Be Missed!

by Leave a Comment

Talk about an absolutely amazing read! 😍

Sugar Town Queens is the kind of story that’s easy to fall in love with and hard to put down. It has such complex and fiercely loveable characters — which is what I crave in a good book. And if you’re looking for complicated messy family drama, with ugly secrets hidden, and regrets and love and tragic backstory all tumbling out: THIS is the book for you.

The story follows Amandla who lives in a makeshift town/slum called Sugar Town in South Africa. Her mother has a mental illness that Amandla has to manage, even though she’s only 15 and just trying to survive school and get by in their tiny one-room home. Also her mother is white and Amandla is brown (her Black father a mystery in her life) and Amandla is often ostracized at school for not being “Black enough” OR “white enough”. But life gets a whole lot more complicated when Amandla learns the truth: her mother is the disinherited daughter of an extremely rich and powerful white family, the Bollards. Amandla’s grandma wants to reconnect, but her grandfather is a huge bigot, and there are SO many dark family skeletons in the closet. You just !! Are not ready for what Amandla discovers. I ached for what she goes through; she has so many mixed feelings and hopes and hurt to absorb.

I adored Amandla. 😩🙌🏻 She has such a fantastic voice that leaps off the page, and she’s not ashamed of who she is or where she comes from, while also wanting to know the family secrets and dreaming of a better life for her and her mum. I also loved her friends, especially Lil Bit, who has a great sense of humour, and is just such a loyal and stubborn best friend. They also end up making friends with Sugar Town’s resident “princess”, named Goodness, who they used to think was stuck up but actually she’s amazing. There is also a smidge of romance for Amandla AND there’s a side queer romance which I loved!!

The book unpacks so many themes, and discusses poverty vs gross wealth with keen precision. There’s community love and pride in Amandla’s neighbourhood, as well as shifty people and danger. I found it really hard to forgive the Bollards though…like, the book handles the themes of second chances well while also refusing to let hate and bigotry get a free pass. And OH there are tense scenes and some massive plot twists.

The writing is engaging and captivating, and you will fall in love with Amandla’s voice as you tumble into this story of family drama, trauma, and redemption. I’m so so glad I got to read this one!

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for the review-copy! It’s out August 2021.

Fifteen-year-old Amandla’s mother has always been strange. For starters, she’s a white woman living in Sugar Town, one of South Africa’s infamous shanty towns. She won’t tell anyone, not even Amandla, about her past. And she has visions, including ones that promise the return of Amandla’s father as if he were a prince in a fairytale, but their hardscrabble life is no fairytale.
Amandla knows her father is long gone – since before Amandla was born – and she’s pretty sure he’s not a prince. He’s just another mystery and missing piece of her mother’s past, and one of the many reasons people in Sugar Town give them strange looks – that and the fact that Amandla is black and her mother is not.
Lately, her mother has been acting even more strangely, so when Amandla finds a mysterious address at the bottom of her mother’s purse along with a large amount of cash, she decides it’s finally time to get answers about her mother’s life. With her best friends by her side, Amandla is ready to take on the devil himself, and as she confronts devastating family secrets and pain that has lasted a generation, taking on the devil is exactly what she must do.

Goodreads | Allen & Unwin | Book Depository | Booktopia

 

The Other Side of Perfect by Mariko Turk – An Exquisite Story of Ballet, Agony & Healing

by 2 Comments

This book was just so excellent.

I was keen to start it because of the disability rep and ballerinas, but it only took a few chapters before I knew this would be a book to remember. The characters! The themes! The writing! I loved it all?!? It unpacked a lot of really difficult and messy themes, too, and gave us conversations that are really important and that I don’t see enough of in YA. Things like jealousy, losing your purpose in life, knowing when to stand up for yourself, making horrible friendship mistakes and yet finding a way forward. It had a huge theme of forgiveness. Not just forgiving others, but forgiving yourself. And honestly I got emotional in several parts. 🥺💛 You know when even a scene or a line of a book jumps out at you and you feel SEEN? That hit here. As an artist, I just connected a lot to Alina.

First we have to talk about the characters!! I LOVED them so much. Lately I haven’t been connecting to the characters in my recent reads, but I just fell into this book and adored everyone immediately. They’re all dimensional. Complex. Messy and loving and proud and funny and broken and beautiful. After Alina shatters her leg in a fall, she can never go up on pointe again. So her dream of a professional ballet career is over. She’s back to normal high-school and the “real world”. Her grief and rage is so so palpable. Like why her?!? She was so focused on ballet that literally nothing else mattered. Now ballet things trigger her grief, she’s wretchedly jealous of her old ballet friends. She gets angry and isolates herself and I felt for her down to my soul. We feel Alina’s excruciating pain and we wince with her as she hates the world and we melt with happiness as she starts to find friends. You go on such a journey with Alina as she tentatively tries out for the high school musical when she thought she’d never dance again.

I still loved ballet, but it didn’t love me back. All I could do was linger on, like a sad, rejected ghost, hurting people who didn’t deserve it.

And the secondary cast is AMAZING. I loved Jude, the absolute softest Soft Boi, who knits and does musicals and purposefully deconstructs toxic masculinity. Then there’s Ethan, his BFF, who is gay and a photographer and so lovely. And Margot!! Who is terrifying and sharp and stabby, and she and Alina collide when they most needed each other. And Colleen, Alina’s ex-BFF from ballet school, who she can’t bear to talk to but Colleen doesn’t give up on Alina 🥺 They were the only two girls of colour in the school too, so they went through a lot together.And I cannot forget Josie! Alina’s younger sister, a modern dancer, and they have this fractious relationship but the arc there is [chef’s kiss] relatable and so well done. Alina and Josie are also biracial Japanese and their parents are from Hawaii.

Friendship-group dynamics that are complex and beautiful but sometimes hurt? We gotcha.

A huge theme of the book is jealousy, and it’s a hard topic to tackle because jealous can make you into a nasty person. But it happens in real life a lot? And actually reading about Alina going through being broken by jealousy and learning to face her feelings was so good. It also talks about racism in ballet, how Alina accepted a lot of it in order not to “rock the boat” or risk being purposefully overlooked for a part. She wanted the top parts so she thought she had to accept a side-dish of racism — which she comes to realise is gross and unacceptable.

I just loved how the book gave us real-life messy issues full of strife and ugliness — and TALKED ABOUT THEM. Unpacked them. Talked about the difference between thinking horrible things and being a horrible person. Life isn’t fixed and tied up into a neat-little-bow in the book either, but it definitely tackled everything fantastically.

I could pretty much go on forever about how much I adored this book! It was so perfectly crafted, with characters who literally danced off the page and writing that swept you up and kept you hooked on every word. A beautiful and emotional story about being broken and being beautiful.

Maybe ballet was like beautiful dynamite. Stunning and dangerous at the same time, so you couldn’t love it simply. You had to figure out how to handle it. How to love the beautiful parts and defuse the dangerous ones.

Thanks Allen & Unwin for the review copy! Published May 2021.

A stunning and unique story about healing that offers a gentle hand to anyone who struggles with perfectionism, competition and an all-or-nothing mindset, as well as those who don’t understand ambition.Alina Keeler was destined to dance, but one terrifying fall shatters her leg – and her dreams of a ballet career along with it. After a summer spent healing (translation: eating vast amounts of Cool Ranch Doritos and bingeing ballet videos on YouTube), she must trade her preprofessional dance classes for normal high school, where she reluctantly joins the musical. Rehearsals are nothing compared to Alina’s past life at the acclaimed Kira Dobrow Ballet School. But the stage does offer more than she expected – namely her castmate Jude. He’s annoyingly attractive, ridiculously optimistic and, worst of all, Alina just might be falling for him. However, finding a new normal means making peace with her past and acknowledging the racism she faced. Deep down, Alina still yearns for the world of ballet she left behind. But what does it mean to love something beautiful, yet broken? And as broken as she feels, can she ever open her heart to someone else?
Lyrical, romantic and peppered with humour, this debut novel explores the tenuousness of perfectionism, the possibilities of change and the importance of raising your voice.

Goodreads | Allen & Unwin | Book Depository | Booktopia

Into The Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer – Soft Boys & Monster Tree Girls

by 7 Comments

You know the books that just come at the perfect time for you?

This was one for me!! It is such a lovely and perfect mix of whimsical and cozy, but also packed tight with inner darkness and all things monstrous and bloody. I truly love books about monster girls and soft boys 😩👌🏻 and this did it perfectly. It also felt like a fairytale, both in style and in plot. I love love how the story unravelled. It begins with the softness of a brother caring for his baby  sister and baking bread and mapping the stars — against the backdrop of a vicious wood that kills all who enters with the song of tree sirens who hunt souls.

Owen was precious. The ultimate softest of soft boys, and he is 17 and spends his day caring for his 2-year-old wild little sister, baking bread and tending the garden, playing cello and then at night mapping the stars with his father. He gives people chances and he’s vulnerable, but also a little awkward. And it broke me!! when the book!!! decided to harden him up. He actually doesn’t have a whole lot of direction to start, and I think I appreciated that? He was content — and then the world stepped in to ruin his life. (Owen and I both say thanks for that 🤨)

And then there is Seren! She is a tree siren, created by her mother (witch of the wood) to kill people and gather their souls. When she meets Owen (by, you know, nearly killing him) it awakens this craving to connect with her humanity. She hates that she’s been created to be a monster. But she’s powerless against her mother’s ultimate power. I loved the contrast of their purposes in life — but also how, under the layers, they really are similar people.

Their collision is violent and then gentle, it’s tentative, then lovely. It really is a gentle romance and I loved how it blossomed — and also suffered.

Other things I loved:

  • complex villains
  • the contrast of gentle people in absolutely brutal situations
  • it was dark but not written in a gory way? more fairytale style the entire time
  • both Seren and Owen never never quitting 🥺 despite the brutality they face
  • the creepy forest and the darkness of the trees! I LOVED how sentient it became.
  • the ending is to make us 😙👌🏻suffer beautifully

I’m so glad I read this one and it really fit my heart just right.

It’s a slower paced fantasy, caught up in sensory details and lovely writing (a bit repetitious at times was my only drawback). It’s both whimsical and lovely, and packed with heartache and war and bloodshed. It contrasts loveliness and violence in a thoughtful way and the ending was so perfect.

(Side note: Audiobook was amazing too! Loved the narrators.)

The forest is a dangerous place, where siren song lures men and women to their deaths. For centuries, a witch has harvested souls to feed the heartless tree, using its power to grow her domain.
When Owen Merrick is lured into the witch’s wood, one of her tree-siren daughters, Seren, saves his life instead of ending it. Every night, he climbs over the garden wall to see her, and every night her longing to become human deepens. But a shift in the stars foretells a dangerous curse, and Seren’s quest to become human will lead them into an ancient war raging between the witch and the king who is trying to stop her.

Goodreads | Book Depository | Booktopia | Blackwell’s

Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters — Haunted Music, Messed Up Families, & Murder Mysteries!

by 3 Comments

This is exactly the kind of book I’d been craving!

I’m currently on a creepy-forest-and-low-key-horror reading kick lately, and I had preordered this ages ago (fun story 😂it took like 4 months to arrive despite preordering) so I was like NOW IS THE TIME. I ended up listening to the audiobook and it was so fantastically narrated. Sometimes heavy Southern accents are hard for me (an Australian) to understand, but this worked out! I absolutely sank into the story and it entirely stole my heart.

It’s so deeply about grief. I think the audiobook narrator enhanced this but…my heart broke several times over. Generational grief, suffering, self-torture, and secrets. It’s about a family whose pain runs layers deep, but their avoidance of it just poisons themselves. I kind of love books about dysfunctional families and their secrets, so this captivated me.

Shady Grove’s family falls apart when her step-father is murdered and her brother, Jesse, is jailed for it. She’s not even over her father’s death and his legacy of playing a magic fiddle that can raise ghosts haunts her. She wants the fiddle back. Even more so now, because she needs it to figure out who really killed her step-father so she can get her brother out of jail. She’s always winced at being seen as “white trailer trash” but her family is such a mess. Reclusive aunt. Dead father. Haunted ex-family home. Magic in their bones. Angry brother. A Shadow Man that haunts her sleep. I loved her absolute determination, but also her softness. She is a vulnerable girl keeping herself together through sheer grit. Music owns her soul — but not always in healthy ways.

THINGS I LOVED

  • The music aspect! The haunted fiddle is amazing and creepy and all-consuming. Althooooough…Shady does start a bluegrass band with her friends and I 💀 cannot deal with country music. I will look passed this. 😪
  • Big friend groups! It actually deals with toxic friendships (I do think Sarah was thoroughly toxic to Shady).
  • Shady is bisexual!! She has a crush on Sarah (who is closed off and cold to her) and ends up also crushing on Cedar (who is a soft but smug cowboy and a real sweetheart).
  • JESSEEEEEE. Okay to be absolutely honest, he’s my favourite character. He doesn’t have a lot of page-time, but he is obviously a huge catalyst to the story and the driving force behind Shady’s actions. His backstory BROKE me when it all comes out. He’s angry and stuffed with survivor’s guilt and he’s absolutely thoroughly alone 🥺I am in pieces for Jesse and this kid really deserves a hug. When he broke down crying near the end just….me too, son. (The way Shady was angry at him…no 😭)
  • It was so emotional and it truly made me FEEL that.
  • Loved that it had creepy magic and superstition but it was still rooted in our world. It’s not so much set IN a forest, but there’s a woods that plays a good part.
  • Also loved little toddler Honey 🥺👌🏻

It’s a highly emotional story with a riveting murder mystery and ghosts with sharp teeth and anguished tears. It’s full of grief, but also healing. I totally loved the characters and I wanted nothing more than for Shady to face her past and find a way to face the future.  

If I could have a fiddle made of Daddy’s bones, I’d play it. I’d learn all the secrets he kept.
Shady Grove inherited her father’s ability to call ghosts from the grave with his fiddle, but she also knows the fiddle’s tunes bring nothing but trouble and darkness.
But when her brother is accused of murder, she can’t let the dead keep their secrets.
In order to clear his name, she’s going to have to make those ghosts sing.
Family secrets, a gorgeously resonant LGBTQ love triangle, and just the right amount of creepiness make this young adult debut a haunting and hopeful story about facing everything that haunts us in the dark.

Goodreads | Book Depository | Booktopia | Blackwell’s

Please Don’t Hug Me by Kay Kerr – The Ownvoices Autism Book I’ve Been Craving!

by 9 Comments

The way this book was so real and raw and beautiful!!

It is exceptional. I am struggling with words for how much it means to me. It’s the kind of book you pick up when you want to see autism truthfully captured on page, the hard parts but also not turning it into a tragedy to be fixed. Erin is ERIN and, as Rudy says, she’s limited edition. She should never want to change that. This is the kind of #ownvoices story I wish more people could read so they’d understand autism.

I’m just tired of hearing all the ways I’m getting stuff wrong. I’m always ‘miscommunicating’ or ‘misunderstanding’ or ‘overreacting’ or ‘underreacting’. Maybe other people should put as much consideration into their communications with me as I do with them. It’s all I freaking think about sometimes. Did I say the wrong thing? Did I misread the situation? Should I have asked that person more about the thing they are upset about, or do they not want to talk? Is sharing my experience of a similar thing helpful or making it all about me? It’s exhausting. I am exhausted.

The way it talked about autism burnout, how we lose sense of self due to masking so hard, how we are trained to cater for the neurotypical world while they don’t cater for us. The longing to belong, but constantly standing on the outside looking in. The moment when Erin describes that watching social situations is like seeing them through a glass wall — like YES.

It’s told in letters, and it’s also a story of dysfunctional families, grief, finishing school, and the future.
It’s very coming-of-age. Erin’s navigating some intense things, but in a roundabout and also suppressed way, so we as the reader don’t know all that’s happening up front. I do love letter formats! I missed that it didn’t have much dialogue (Erin is writing to her older brother, Rudy) but the stream-of-consciousness style was perfect for the story.

It had so many neurodiverse teen feels. Erin is scared and dreading Schoolies (this is such an Aussie thing omg) and figuring out her future. There’s friendships deteriorating and confusing feels about romance. It’s definitely a slice of life sort of story, and I loved that about it. My heart also got solidly hit, and it’s impossible to leave without feeling emotional.

This story is introspective, utterly realistic, and full of heart.
It’s everything I hoped it would be. And now I want a donut and NOT a hug and I love that Erin would understand.

I’ve got rocks in my stomach and I’m only half-tuned in all the time. Things seem to be happening behind a pan of glass, so I can see them but I can’t reach out and touch them.

A funny-serious own-voices story about what happens when you stop trying to be the person other people expect you to be and give yourself a go.
Erin is looking forward to Schoolies, at least she thinks she is. But things are not going to plan. Life is getting messy, and for Erin, who is autistic, that’s a big problem. She’s lost her job at Surf Zone after an incident that clearly was not her fault. Her driving test went badly even though she followed the instructions perfectly. Her boyfriend is not turning out to be the romantic type. And she’s missing her brother, Rudy, who left almost a year ago.
But now that she’s writing letters to him, some things are beginning to make just a tiny bit of sense. 

goodreads | book depository | booktopia

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black (#3.5) — Illustrated, Whimsical Perfection

by 11 Comments

Being back in Holly Black’s Cruel Prince world was absolutely everything I needed right now.

I’ve always said I craved Cardan’s perspective for this series. We get slivers of his backstory, his making, so slowly that we are left gloriously starved for it. So being gifted a novella purely from his perspective? A TREAT. We thank the faerie queen so deeply. 😭

What To Expect…
This is a novella (I always wish novellas were longer 😪) and it’s several stories told by Cardan ranging from when he is small, right up till post-Queen of Nothing timeline. So no, don’t read this before The Cruel Prince trilogy! It’s also illustrated and must admit the art is just gorgeously stunning (done by Rovina Cai). They are just that little bit ethereal and whimsical and smoky and exactly how I pictured both Cardan and Jude. From their faces to their body language.

“Why didn’t you hate everyone?” he asks. “Everyone, all the time.”
“I hated you,” Jude reassures him, bringing her mouth to his.

Do you ever just read something and sigh because it’s so perfect…
This was exactly what I wanted (EXCEPT I NEED MORE) and had those snippets of Cardan in our world (him trying to interact with mortals is hilarious 😂) to some of his childhood backstory. More insight to how he became the feral, toothy beautiful little villain he was so proud to be…until he wasn’t proud. Until it wasn’t enough and he wanted more. It also had all the lines that made me soft-happy-sigh.

And Cardan was just in PEAK CARDAN MODE, so dramatic and very self-satisfied at how beautiful he is 😌 But also glimpses into his lonesome life and jealousy longing for love.

It also is told in a thoroughly whimsical style. It feels like the trilogy’s writing plus a fairy tale all in its own.

“It is a mere nothing. No need for dramatics.”
“I am nothing,” Cardan said, “if not dramatic.”

I throughly loved this…
Whimsical and lovely, full of anger and sharp edges. Just that little bit of indulgent “what happened after” feels that makes my  reader/fan heart so happy and satisfied. I’m so glad it exists. Gorgeous inside and out.

An illustrated addition to the New York Times bestselling Folk of Air trilogy, that started with The Cruel Prince, from award-winning author Holly Black.
An irresistible return to the captivating world of Elfhame.
Once upon a time, there was a boy with a wicked tongue.
Before he was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone . #1 New York Times bestselling author, Holly Black reveals a deeper look into the dramatic life of Elfhame’s enigmatic high king, Cardan. This tale includes delicious details of life before The Cruel Prince, an adventure beyond The Queen of Nothing, and familiar moments from The Folk of the Air trilogy, told wholly from Cardan’s perspective.
This new installment in the Folk of the Air series is a return to the heart-racing romance, danger, humor, and drama that enchanted readers everywhere. Each chapter is paired with lavish and luminous full-color art, making this the perfect collector’s item to be enjoyed by both new audiences and old.

goodreads | publisher | book depository | booktopia

thank you to the publisher for the free copy

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger [Lipan Apache Magical Realism of Ghosts, Magic And Murder]

by 11 Comments

You know when you read a blurb and think, “Oh this is going to be the best”…and then IT IS!!

I just had that moment. I’m very pleased. Elatsoe is such a brilliant delight of a book, that is both whimsical and lovely, and also has darkness and thoughtful themes to untangle. It has #ownvoices Lipan Apache rep and Ellie is also asexual (the book doesn’t talk about being aromantic but seems likely too!). My little ace heart just leaped for joy at just having casual ace rep on page. The book is full of magic and ghosts and a super sweet (ghost) dog and pistachio ice cream and deep family love and ties and…oh a murder mystery to solve.

It has it ALL.

PS. I did edit the cover into my photo as I read an eARC!

let’s tell a story of magic

I really loved the emphasis on storytelling throughout the pages. The book is packed with love for indigenous traditions, and a lot of Ellie’s life lessons come in the form of stories from her parents. Ellie is also a huge fan of her Six Great Grandma, who had the same power as Ellie: the ability to ask ghosts of animals to return from the afterlife. This magic is super fascinating (and Ellie sort of toes the line between using it safely and not). Ellie’s companion the whole way through is her little ghost dog Kirby, who died of old age but she brought him back so she’d never have to miss him. 🥺💛💛 My heart just got soft and flopped all over the place.

The world is also our world but…not. It’s this slightly alternate reality where there’s magic and vampires and ghosts and all sorts of mythology. Ellie’s still dealing with racism and white men who think they’re better than everyone else. But there’s dark magical secrets and mysteries to unravel. And sometimes Ellie sort of wakens a thousand year old trillobite too. Just everyday things you know!! This is such deft and beautifully crafted magical realism. I loved the world.

what goes down

So the premise is that Ellie’s cousin dies unexpectedly, but the facts about his “car accident” don’t add up, and Ellie knows it’s foul play. She ends up investigating this odd little town where people don’t stop staring at strangers, and when her cousin’s ghost names his murderer in a dream, Ellie will stop at nothing to figure out WHAT happened. The have the culprit, but not the why or how.

It did get creepy in one stage and I was reading at night and was just sort of shivering. The writing is excellent like that. Total fan. Freak me out, little book, I approve.

the  characters are everything!

So Ellie is amazing!! She has such a dry, wry voice and humour, and she’s so sure of herself. She’s confident about being ace and she cracks jokes about it. Her family is her anchor, and she’s definitely a little anxious too.  There’s no romance! Her best friend is Jay who is, look I’m going to say it, a himbo. 😂 He is a tall blonde cheerleader dumbass and he’s just lovely?! The whole way through he is LOVELY. Supportive of Ellie and there to help her look into the mystery of her cousin’s murder. Ellie’s family is amazing (she loves her parents!! talks to her parents!!) and there’s such a motley of side characters who are interesting and strange and dynamic. And Kirby is THE BEST GHOST  DOG I WILL CRY tHIS ALWAYS.

So you know what?! Just read this.

It’s brilliant. The whole world felt fresh and different, catching my attention from the first page with its engaging writing and characters I just want to adore forever. (There are also little illustrations!!) It has heart-aching moments, and also funny humorous parts. The BEST combination.

Thanks Levine Querido Publishing for the eARC! Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger came out in August 25, 2020.

Imagine an America very similar to our own. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream.
There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.
Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.

Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon | Publisher

would you actually like to talk to ghosts or is that a pass? 👀and is this on your TBR, because it should be!!

 

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko [Best YA Fantasy of 2020!!! Can I say?!]

by 20 Comments

This book is just a RAY of excellence.

….And I will not apologise for using a completely appropriate title pun just now 😌 I just absolutely adored every page of Raybearer. (Well I listened to the audiobook, which was also incredible and I can’t recommend enough!!) It felt fresh and powerful, creative but also gives that comfort of a good sprawling fantasy world that you can just lose yourself in.

I suspect this will be the best YA fantasy I’ll read this year and I am here, in awe.

the characters were everything

This is generally what sells a book for me, and oh I love the cast of Raybearer so much. Tarisai is cunning and clever, soft and vulnerable. She just wants a family and to be loveeeeed. Her voice is spectacular; she has the kind of narration that makes every scene a delight to be in. She also has a very specific gift: she can see the memories of a person or object just by touching them. She can also erase or dull memories, and she actually uses this for good to take away her childhood friends’ bad dreams. 🥺

The side characters also stole my heart too. I loved Dayo (the prince) and his and Tarisai’s really tight friendship. Then there’s Kirah who was practical and clever but also that mothering friend. And Sanjeet! The one who is too tol, too intimidating…but secretly an utter marshmallow. (Also can we take a second of deep appreciation that a YA book exists where the first boy Tarisai meets isn’t the love interest 😂👌🏻 thank you.)

The complexities of the villains (are they villains 👀) were also thoroughly captivating. I also loved the coming-of-age bent to this. The prince and his Eleven are still only growing up, so while they learn politics, the adults are still busy controlling the world. Their backstory was both layered and dark and fascinating too.

This is also #ownvoices Black fantasy and all the characters (I think!) are Black too!

let’s talk about the plot

The world is so deliciously complex and huge, it had so many layers. It felt REAL. Vast and unmappable. You don’t have to remember or understand every people group or country, because it reminds you of who is who until you fall into the rhythm of the story. I genuinely appreciate a complex world and history! The backstory is amazing too. Like you could easily want a prequel following The Lady’s life?! (Or am I just craving more from this author…also that.)

The story starts when Tarisai is young: it follows her growing up under tutors and being taught to be terrifically smart. But all she wants is the love and affection of her distant mother, known only as The Lady. At 12 years old, Tarisai is taken to the palace to join the contest to become one of the prince’s sacred 11. This is how the kingdom is ruled: the king (the Raybearer) has a council of 11 and they are all completely interwoven and close and can talk through their minds and all linked by deep deep love.

Of course there are SO many twists and backstories and I’m not even going to go into it too deeply because just read it!!!! But least to say Tarisai gets chosen by the prince and the world unravels and changes from there.

It isn’t action packed and fast, which isn’t a downside, just something to know!

list of other things I loved

  • there is an ace side character!!
  • it talks intricately about culture, what the loss of it means, how controlling people so often backfires
  • it has SO MUCH FOUND FAMILY LOVE
  • friends to lovers 🥰
  • gorgeous writing on every page
  • also very morally grey 👀👌🏻
  • the ending has phenomenal twists
  • magic! so many kinds with so many impacts

Raybearer really captured my heart and imagination, and I can’t properly articulate just how exquisite this story is. It was creative and nuanced, beautiful and layered. I’m still thinking about it days later and aching with need for the sequel — because w o w that ending has left me both whole and wrecked. I love.

Thanks Netgalley, Blackstone and AMulet Books for the audiobook! Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko is out August 18th, 2020.

Nothing is more important than loyalty.
But what if you’ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?
Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself? With extraordinary world-building and breathtaking prose, Raybearer is the story of loyalty, fate, and the lengths we’re willing to go for the ones we love.

Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon | Publisher

tell me some of your favourite 2020 YA releases so far!! 😍is this on your TBR? do you like epic fantasy?