A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

 

From the publisher: From the New York Times bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic.

The Scholomance is a legendary school from folklore that author Naomi Novik has claimed for her own in A Deadly Education, the first book in a new series. I love Novik’s Temeraire series and enjoyed her two fairy tales Uprooted and Spinning Silver as well.

It took me about 80 pages to get into A Deadly Education. I was asking myself who wrote it, as Novik normally captivates me from page 1, and that did not happen with A Deadly Education. However, it finally clicked in, and I enjoyed the last two thirds of the book. I feel I need to start over and see what I think of the first third the second time through.

The world building is amazing if at times a little too detailed. There are definitely info dump passages. There are new vocabulary words that are a little too similar and I could have done with a glossary. The character development is surface level – hopefully we will get to know these characters better in book two. The protagonist Galadriel is a little too stereotypically an anti-hero; the hero Orion is a little too stereotypically a hero.

There is a fun obligatory Lord of the Rings reference for Ringers, and the ending is a shock and a slam dunk and makes me wonder how I can wait a year for book two.

My one big issue with A Deadly Education is that Novik’s main character, Galadriel aka El, is a mean bully. She’s smart, talented, powerful, and resourceful. But she’s also throwing herself a lifelong pity party, which got old with her as the first person narrator, and she is a mean, rude, bully. Especially right now, that strikes a very wrong note with me.

I will read book two for the action and wonder, but I hope El shows some serious growth as a person, and I hope we see character development in the rest of the cast. If you enjoyed Harry Potter and might enjoy reading another series about a magical high school, I recommend A Deadly Education. It’s available at the Galesburg Public Library as a print book and an ebook.

I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley, but I did check the final copy to make sure there was no glossary. 

Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith

From the publisher: Debut author Tobly McSmith delivers a coming-of-age teen love story about a transgender boy who’s going stealth at his new Texas high school and a cisgender girl who is drawn to him, even as she’s counting down the days until graduation. Perfect for fans of David Levithan, Becky Albertalli, and Jenny Han.

Pony just wants to fly under the radar during senior year. Tired from all the attention he got at his old school after coming out as transgender, he’s looking for a fresh start at Hillcrest High. But it’s hard to live your best life when the threat of exposure lurks down every hallway and in every bathroom.

Georgia is beginning to think there’s more to life than cheerleading. She plans on keeping a low profile until graduation…which is why she promised herself that dating was officially a no-go this year.

Then, on the very first day of school, the new guy and the cheerleader lock eyes. How is Pony supposed to stay stealth when he wants to get close to a girl like Georgia? How is Georgia supposed to keep her promise when sparks start flying with a boy like Pony?

Funny and poignant, clear-eyed and hopeful, Stay Gold is a story about finding love—and finding yourself.

Please note that this review is coming from a middle aged cisgender woman. 

This is a book I'd been looking forward to for awhile now, and I was happy to see it show up in a pandemic-delayed delivery of ARCs (advanced reading copies). While the basic premise is as described in the publisher's blurb above, this is much less of a fluffy rom-com than indicated. Those aspects and tropes are definitely present, and wonderfully done, but this is an #ownvoices story, and current reality is unfortunately very present in the form of transphobia, homophobia, slurs, dead naming, dysphoria, violent bullying, suicidal thoughts, and public outing, among other content and trigger warnings. Two of the characters closest to Pony, Georgia and his friend Max, react negatively to him going stealth in different but hurtful ways. Readers should definitely be aware of what they're getting into before starting this one.

That being said, I really did enjoy this story and some of the characters. I absolutely adore Pony and was very much cheering for him. I also enjoyed the dialog between him and Georgia. Unfortunately, I just couldn't like Georgia all that much. I felt she was written rather one-dimensionally; when we do get to see more of her than the facade she's erected for herself, you see the potential for character development. Regrettably, this comes only in the latter half of the book. The ending does come together a bit too neatly, but certainly fits within the rom-com format. In fact, most of the criticisms I have with Stay Gold would be par for the course if it were more firmly rooted in that genre. Despite my critiques, this book had me turning pages to see what happened next, and I'm very glad to see more #ownvoices stories out there. I definitely recommend Stay Gold with the warnings mentioned earlier, and I look forward to reading Tobly's next book.

Galesburg Public Library will be obtaining a copy of Stay Gold in the near future.   

The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke

From the Publisher: An outcast teenage lesbian witch finds her coven hidden amongst the popular girls in her school, and performs some seriously badass magic in the process.

Skulking near the bottom of West High’s social pyramid, Sideways Pike lurks under the bleachers doing magic tricks for Coke bottles. As a witch, lesbian, and lifelong outsider, she’s had a hard time making friends. But when the three most popular girls pay her $40 to cast a spell at their Halloween party, Sideways gets swept into a new clique. The unholy trinity are dangerous angels, sugar-coated rattlesnakes, and now–unbelievably–Sideways’ best friends.

Together, the four bond to form a ferocious and powerful coven. They plan parties, cast curses on dudebros, try to find Sideways a girlfriend, and elude the fundamentalist witch hunters hellbent on stealing their magic. But for Sideways, the hardest part is the whole ‘having friends’ thing. Who knew that balancing human interaction with supernatural peril could be so complicated?

Rich with the urgency of feral youth, The Scapegracers explores growing up and complex female friendship with all the rage of a teenage girl. It subverts the trope of competitive mean girls and instead portrays a mercilessly supportive clique of diverse and vivid characters. It is an atmospheric, voice-driven novel of the occult, and the first of a three-book series. 

I know The Scapegracers was suggested to me at some point on NetGalley, but the description above from the publisher just sounded too fluffy cliched high school-y to me (especially the second paragraph), despite an awesome phrase like 'sugar-coated rattlesnakes' and a gorgeous cover. Then I came across the author's article on queer visibility and coding in The Last Unicorn (my favorite movie for over 35 years) and...oh. They can write and they're making me look at a movie I can quote from memory in new ways. Yes, I will definitely request your book. I'm so very glad I did.

As described above, the book follows Sideways and her new friends as they discover their powers. It leaves out the dead deer, the mysterious auction house, and some very interesting spell books. As the first volume in a trilogy, The Scapegracers does end with some pretty big plot points unanswered, and I'm very much hoping that more focus will be on these in future books, especially the witch hunters. 

I loved this book. I devoured it in 24 hours, which has been par for the course during these Trying Times. Either all at once or abandoned half way through. No in between. This is the very best of The Craft but queer and without the betrayal (which as someone who was never popular I kept bracing myself for). It made me want to hug my female friends and braid their hair.

I'm including this quote because I think it gives a far better feel to the book than the summary that was provided. 'She and Jing and Yates were all feliform angels. They laughed and sneered and drank pink lemonade. They were vain, self-centered, overconfident. They ran riot and wrecked the world. Who was I, comparing myself to one of them? Daisy could murder someone with a glance. Holy hell, I wanted that. I wanted to be gorgeous and reckless and legendary, or at least somebody people liked. I wanted the privilege of being mistaken for someone like her. I wanted to be her.'

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for the ARC. The Scapegracers will be out on September 15, and Galesburg Public Library will have a print copy.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston

I will be honest - I read this book because of the cover. I was intrigued by it from the first time I saw it. Realistic fictional YA novels, especially those narrated in the first person, are not high on my preferred reading list. But this is one of the best I've read lately.

I liked the book. It had a strong main character and good narrative flow. I think this could be a fine reading choice for any young woman feeling judged. There were many good secondary characters who helped Hermione through her trauma.  When Hermione tells her minister that she is scheduled for an abortion, for example, he says, “If someone starts throwing around stupid words like ‘It’s a gift,’ or ‘It’s in God’s plan,’ you come right here, and I’ll find you ten ways in which it isn’t.” (p. 129) 

The cover photo turned out to be a perfect choice for the book as well. It's an excellent representation of the story inside. The cheerleader on the cover is both at the top of her game and extremely vulnerable, partly in sunlight and partly in shadow.

The publisher description is misleading, I think. The thing I would emphasize most when describing this book is not the relationship between Hermione and Polly but how Hermione stays strong, grows into adulthood, and capably handles her traumatic experience.

A “reveal” about three fifths of the way in was hinted at from the first chapter and didn't come as a surprise, nor did I think it really added to the story. It's not enough to write an issue book these days, you must write an issues book. 

I originally thought it was too soon to have a teen heroine named Hermione, but that didn't end up bothering me at all. One thing I didn't feel was the connection to Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, aside from the character names. It’s cute that the team name is the Golden Bears, but some of the language trying to tie this book to the plot of The Winter’s Tale is quite belabored.

That aside, I recommend this to readers of realistic young adult fiction, especially readers looking for empowering messages for young women about rape and choice.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Genres: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Release Date: October 22nd, 1999

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Source: Checked out book from GPL

Add on Goodreads

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

When Speak came out over a decade ago, it was ground breaking because of the way it dealt with teen sexuality. 16 years later, it is still relevant and continues to change lives because it isn’t afraid to tell the story of a teenager who had real problems and real reactions to them.

Melinda doesn’t have a whole cast of friends to rely on. She doesn’t have parents to rely on. When she called the police at the party at the end of the summer, she lost her friends and she is stuck all by herself not knowing how to deal with what happened.

In that way, Melinda’s character is heartbreakingly realistic. But, Melinda also has a certain wit that makes her more than just a character to which a ‘bad thing’ happened. It makes Melinda a character worth knowing and someone you want to cheer for.

This book also deals with rape in a way that I think is realistic. It doesn’t dramatize it (this may be the wrong word to use but I don't know how to better express myself) but rather approaches it in a way that shows the reality of it. There are some things that were a little iffy but I am not going to go into detail because SPOILERS.

This book wasn’t perfect, though. I did think there were things that happened towards the end that were perhaps too easy but at the same time, worked. I also wished that we weren’t cut off from one scene towards the end of the book because it was the most important in my opinion.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I am so glad I finally read it after having it on my to-be-read list for ages.

Joyride by Anna Banks

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult

Release Date: June 2nd, 2015
Publisher: Fewiel & Friends
Source: ARC from Publisher

Add on Goodreads

A popular guy and a shy girl with a secret become unlikely accomplices for midnight pranking, and are soon in over their heads—with the law and with each other—in this sparkling standalone from NYT-bestselling author Anna Banks.

It’s been years since Carly Vega’s parents were deported. She lives with her brother, studies hard, and works at a convenience store to contribute to getting her parents back from Mexico.

Arden Moss used to be the star quarterback at school. He dated popular blondes and had fun with his older sister, Amber. But now Amber’s dead, and Arden blames his father, the town sheriff who wouldn’t acknowledge Amber's mental illness. Arden refuses to fulfill whatever his conservative father expects.

All Carly wants is to stay under the radar and do what her family expects. All Arden wants is to NOT do what his family expects. When their paths cross, they each realize they’ve been living according to others. Carly and Arden’s journey toward their true hearts—and one another—is funny, romantic, and sometimes harsh.

It's been SO SO long since I felt this bothered by a book. 2015 seemed to be a good year for me book wise and then this book came along. I think this is my first DNF of the year?

Now I don't usually get ranty but here are just a couple of my thoughts because I am SO FRUSTRATED.

• Why does this book vomit a bunch of stereotypes on us? Don't get me wrong, I ADORE diversity but I feel like it's cheating if the characters are such basic caricatures. 
• I could get over the stereotypes though; what really bothers me is that there doesn't seem to be enough focus on the VERY IMPORTANT issue of immigration that the book claims to deal with.
• THE CHARACTERS. I CANNOT EVEN. Carla reminds me of those cliched female leads in PNRs that try to stay under the radar until they meet 'the guy', except this is all happening in a very contemporary and real setting. Also ARDEN. Her reasons for not liking him are so pathetic and basically revolve around her trying not to feel attracted to him. We don't know if she really noticed him before the magical moment of him noticing her! I definitely have more reasons for not liking him than she seems to. For starters, he obviously doesn't take anything seriously and thinks it's funny to prank people (AND THERE WERE GUNS INVOLVED). *shudders* 

That's basically how far I managed to get. Maybe if I had given this book more of a chance I could have seen it bloom into something I might have liked but.... THIS ISN'T GOING TO WORK. BYE BOOK. Maybe a while from now you may get another chance but today isn't that day.