otherworldly reads

Welcome to my book reviews. I'm Lizy and I'm an indy bookseller for Copperfish Books in FL. This is a sideblog, so I can't like/follow, but feel free to send asks/messages!

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Blitzed by Alexa Martin

Note: I received this as an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Secondary note: this book comes out December 3rd. To preorder, click here.

This book is 6 out of 5 stars. Brynn, our leading lady, is a strong female who runs a bar for women and is an actual, certified badass. Her hunk is a shy, quiet, super sensitive guy who also just happens to be a professional football player. That's right: this is not your mamma's trope romance. There are so many supportive and uplifting female characters, so much positive masculinity, so many shared successes, and so much general wholesomeness I could explode. I almost want to apologize to myself for not reading her sooner, because Alexa Martin is the contemporary romance author you've gotta read.

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So... that's me. This is the proudest day of my bookish career. Orpheus Girl is the most amazing book. It tells the story of two teenage girls who are sent to a reeducation camp. The message is really about what happens when homophobia is left unchecked and allowed to wear the cloak of religion, more than attacking religion itself. I absolutely loved it. If you'd like to order a copy, check out copperfishbooks.com

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Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

Note: I received this ARC via netgalley. It comes out in late October but you can pre-order a copy here

Sisters of the Vast Black has space nuns, deadly plagues, dementia and romance, and, oh yeah, living spaceships that can get pregnant and have baby spaceships. Need I say more? It's everything I didn't know I needed in a sci/fi novella. Every page is perfectly crafted. I'm absolutely astounded. This novella is so quality, it should be curriculum for creative writing classes. Wow.

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Mumbo Gumbo Murder by Laura Childs and Terrie Farley Moran

Note: Special thanks to Laura Childs for mailing an ARC to Copperfish Books for us! I greatly appreciated having a chance to read this. Secondary note: Mumbo Gumbo Murder comes out in October, but you can pre-order a copy here Mumbo Gumbo Murder is light-hearted cozy with a heavy dose of suspense. When a local antique dealer is apparently murdered during the week of Jazz Fest, Carmela and her best fried Ava simply have to investigate. There's lots of wine, food, and romance, too-- everything you could want! I loved how atmospheric it was; it really felt like I was in New Orleans. But be warned: this book will make you hungry. From the gumbo cookoff to the takeout po boys, my mouth was watering on every page. The mystery itself was also a page-turner. I truly couldn't have guessed the ending! This fantastic book was such a joy to read and I already can’t wait for the next book in the series.

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The Seep, by Chana Porter

Note: I received this ARC through one of the ABA White Boxes through my place of employment, Copperfish Books. It hits shelves this January, and it’s available for preorder here: 

The Seep is a story about Trina, a middle aged trans woman trying to live through an alien invasion where these parasitic, omniscient, bodiless aliens are attempting to turn Earth - and humanity - into a utopia-- whether the humans like it or not. It wouldn't be so bad, except thatthat Trina's wife of 25 years has decided to use the aliens to be reborn. As a baby. In France. This touches off a severe cycle of suffering and grief, and it's Trina's quest to find a place for herself in this bizarrely changing world which sets the tone for The Seep.

Love is an understatement for this book. I'm admittedly biased: I saw the Soho logo on this ARC and went "yup I'm gonna like this." I literally couldn't finish reading the blurb on the back because I saw "fifty year old trans woman" and "alien invasion" in one sentence and upped it to "this is mine. This is for me. None of you can have it."But make no mistake: this book is wonderful. It's funky, it's off-beat, it's crazy liberal and it questions so many things, and it's absolutely devourable. I know that's not a word, but this is the sort of book you invent new words for.

What I love most about The Seep is that it’s two parts questions to one part answers. It does a great job of clearing up certain gray areas, and it actually gives some answers to the hard questions it asks--but it also leaves area for speculation and thought. The Seep will leave you begging for more, and I can’t wait to see what Chana Porter whips up next.

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I’m Not Dying with You Tonight

Note: I received an ARC of this book from an ABA white box through my place of employment, Copperfish Books. Special thanks both to Sourcebooks Fire and the ABA for getting this gem into my hands.

Secondary Note: this book comes out next month. You can pre-order a copy here

Bear with me, because this is going to be a messy review and I have a lot of feelings about it. It's everything. It's race issues and varying perspectives and problems that are deeper than they appear, it's calling out nice-guy racism on both sides of the aisle and it's issues that don't have solutions, it's so much.

Let me back up. I'M NOT DYING WITH YOU TONIGHT is the story of a night gone terribly wrong and the two girls who have to team up to try and survive both a school shooting and a race-fueled riot. Lena is a fashionista African-American who just wants to spend the night with her boo, who keeps ditching her. Campbell is a white girl who just moved to town, is very... un-woke, I would say, and didn't even really want to leave her house that night. They're polar opposites, but when fighting breaks out, suddenly they're all they have with each other. Their story of struggle and instant friendship is one of the most powerful things I've ever read.

This belongs up there with The Hate U Give. It's powerful, moving, and wildly accurate. The pacing is so good and every page shines with good writing. I loved, loved, loved the characters. The content itself is amazing, right, but even beyond that, this is an amazing book just because of the writing craftsmanship. This isn't one of those YAs that tries to get away with subpar writing or passive characters--no no no no no. This book is wonderfully crafted. The characters are built so well. The action is so perfectly portrayed. I'M NOT DYING WITH YOU TONIGHT is the kind of book that will inspire fanfic because once you're done, you're left wanting so much more. It's just. Ugh.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, I'm losing my mind over how good this book was, and I'm gonna need these authors to please write more books so I can have them. Cuz I need more. A lot more.

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Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebele-Henry

Note: special thanks to Soho Teen and the ABA for sending an ARC of this book to Copperfish. I was utterly delighted to be on the receiving end for this.

Secondary note: this book hits shelves in October. You can preorder a copy here

ORPHEUS GIRL is an astounding, whistle-blowing YA about two teenage lesbians in a small, overly-conservative town who get found out and are sent away to a re-education camp, where the main character, Raya, vows to descend like Orpheus into hell to save her beloved and get them out.

To be perfectly blunt, this is the LGBT novel I have waited my entire life to read.

It's inclusive. It actually spotlights lesbians (which is rare in and of itself, sorry to fire some shots), but there are transsexuals and gays in the book as well. It perfectly, perfectly highlights the millennial/gen-z experience of being gay when it's not OK (aka living in the rural south), of struggling with identity, and of living in constant fear. But most of all, this is the loud-mouthed, homophobia-exposing book that should have come out decades ago.

I cannot put in words how much I loved this book. A lot of the experience isn't mine - I'm straight enough that most of the concerns in this book aren't things I personally went through - but as someone who's not entirely straight and has way more experience with conservative Christian America than anyone should ever have, this cut to the core. This was the book I've wanted to see.

ORPHEUS GIRL is aggressive, ok? It doesn't care about coddling homophobes, or pretending that the Bible is right but gay is also OK, or trying to appease people who will never be appeased. It calls the kettle black like no other book I've seen so far. It's like the anger that the LGBT has on Twitter against, say, Chik-Fil-A, but in an official novel that directly calls out re-education camps, and I could wax poetic all night about how someone finally freaking did it. The disgusting underbelly of religiously-fueled homophobia has been exposed to the light of day. Halle-friggin-lujah!

On that same note, what I like about this book is that it doesn't try to get religious. It doesn't quote the Bible, it's not interested in talking theology--because theology isn't significant when you talk to Christian conservatives, really (and I say this from experience. It's a tricky time, and they will let you think it's theology all day--it's not). And it's not about trying to offend every Christian who exists, which is the other thing that can happen if you get too into the theology and Biblical interpretation. Instead, ORPHEUS GIRL is about what happens when you allow homophobia to run unchecked. It's about what happens if you so fully believe that gayness is wrong that you'd rather let someone be dead to you than to accept them. It's about how hatred disguised as religion can completely and utterly destroy families. It's powerful, it's moving, and it's arguably the most important book I've had my hands on this year.

So in conclusion, god bless ORPHEUS GIRL, god bless Brynne Rebele-Henry for writing this, and god bless Soho Teen for putting this book out. I can't wait to watch this get big.

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ABA White Box haul for the month. Currently 100ish pages deep into FULL THROTTLE, its amazing.

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A bit of light reading at my favorite coffee shop

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Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin

Note: I received this book as an ARC in one of the ABA white boxes through my place of employment, Copperfish Books. It hits shelves September 3rd and you can preorder it here.

I want you to know I was fully planning on writing a normal, heartfelt review for this book. It's highly anticipated and it honestly touched me so much and there's so many things I want to say...

And then that ending hit me like a semi truck of bricks and I'm SCREAMING.

Oh, my god, y'all. Holy hell. This is... This book is incredible. Absolutely blew me away. It's amazing. I am shaking a little. I might also be yelling at the author directly on IG about how much I love it. It's phenomenal and I'm literally going to be saving the debut date on my calendar to make sure we have copies in store so I can start hand-selling it at work day of. In fact, I may have already talked it up at work today like "ok so remember this for when you're back in September."

I'm rambling. I can't handle how good this book was, being entirely honest.

SERPENT & DOVE is primarily a romance, but hear me out on this. The main female lead is a former witch who's fleeing her coven and living as a street rat. The main male lead is a religious zealot slash captain of the witch hunters--someone who's literally sworn oaths to kill all witches. Basically, Reid starts tracking Lou without realizing she's a witch, she tricks him into a very uncompromising situation, and the only way for him to save his honor and his career is for him to marry her and say he was disciplining his wife.

It's so incredibly well-done. When I read the blurb about this book, I figured it could go one of two ways. Either it'd be painfully offensive and full of tropes and not make any sense, or it'd be everything I've ever wanted to read in a fantasy that directly pulls from conservative Christianity. It's the second category, and it's SO GOOD. There's direct references to the Bible, but it's not directly bashing Christianity as a whole. The magic representation is properly explained without bashing that side, either. And the way that Mahurin weaves the two sides together could bring me to tears if I focused on it long enough.

See, this book really hits home for me. Bear with me while I get a little bit personal for a second. Once upon a time about eight years ago, my best friends and I got involved with an ultra-conservative Christian group--the kind that you could certainly make an argument for being a Christian cult. I got out of it relatively unscathed compared to my friends and have since rejected the religion as a whole in favor of other forms of spirituality because of it. My best friends didn't (although neither of them are currently directly involved with this specific group anymore, thankfully), and to this day there's a lot of conversations that we cannot have and things we absolutely cannot discuss. For a long time, I honestly thought I'd never speak to any of them again, and it stung. These women were once my sisters, and now we can only have shallow conversations because of that rift, because of what "all or nothing" Christianity creates in its wake. There is an actual, palpable wall between us.

So for me, what I loved most about SERPENT & DOVE was seeing that exact dynamic played out so realistically. I cannot explain how strongly I identified with Lou's fear of Reid, of knowing that "don't ask, don't tell" kind of scenario, that "you love me but only if I'm x and not y" mentality. The secrets. The pain of keeping the secrets. The yearning to come clean and tell the truth, but the constant reminders that you can't come clean, you can't tell the truth, unless that other person has actively changed first. Mahurin captures this real-life scenario in such a spot-on way that it gives me goosebumps. It rings true. Every line, every sentence of this book rings so true. I cannot wait to see this hit shelves. It's going to be an amazing debut.

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The Name of All Things: Jenn Lyons

Note: I requested this ARC directly from Tor on the first day I saw it was available through Edelweiss (I just wanted a hard copy so I didn't get it directly through Edelweiss and had to wait a few days longer). A ridiculously huge thank you to the publisher & the author. 

More important note: I am fully aware that I am probably the first person to finish this book who isn't a personal friend of Jenn Lyons or an employee at Tor--at the very least I am the first person to put out a written review and I would never, ever forgive myself for spoiling a single thing in this book so have no fear, I will not tell you a single plot thing or any specifics at all. That said, if this is a convoluted, crazy sounding review... that's why. I don't think it's fair to mention anything specific when this book doesn't hit shelves until October. By the same token, I have no intentions of trying to remember what I felt about this book in May when it's October.

So.

To catch up, this book is the sequel to THE RUIN OF KINGS, aka the best book I have ever read in my life. A book so good that writing the review for it had me shaking. A book that literally had me in tears because I knew that no other book would ever possibly compare to it and that I wanted to reread again and again and again - think Harry Potter level obsession - but that I couldn't allow myself to do, because I'm a bookseller and it's my job to talk shop about every book in my store and 2019 is an amazing year for publishing.

If you haven't read THE RUIN OF KINGS, by the way, like if you're just seeing this review cuz you’re a follower or it just randomly popped up in the tags, stop what you're doing. Right now. Go get it. Go read. And reread.

Anyway. I genuinely thought THE RUIN OF KINGS would be the best thing I read all year. I was wrong. This was.

I can't go into too much detail and I apologize for how vague this is going to sound, but I’m going to try to explain. The first chapter literally had my jaw on the floor. This book has so many things I never even considered. Fanged, talking horses. Epic cons. So many dragons. So many plot twists. Women's rights. Love triangles I did not see coming. The best narrator I have ever seen in my entire life--Thurvishar ain't shit, y'all. Senera is a savage.

The sass literally had me cracking up in waiting rooms and looking like a crazy person cuz I'm clearly reading A Very Serious High Fantasy (non-essential spoiler, she refers to someone as a librarian getting dropped into a gladiator tournament, ok?? If this phrasing doesn't make the final cut I will cry)

But THE NAME OF ALL THINGS is so much more than that laundry list. This book is a piece of art. Jenn Lyons took the very idea of storytelling and made it into a freaking masterpiece. I have never seen such an appreciation, such an understanding of storytelling in and of itself, as I have while reading this ARC. Ever. Hands down. It was absolutely magnificent. If I think about it too much I will probably cry. It's... it's everything.

It's THE RUIN OF KINGS but times ten. And it's... I can't explain it in words and I obviously can't give any specific examples but dear lord almighty this series as a whole is the best thing I've ever read and I cannot wait for it to hit shelves. It’s going to rock your world.

@jennlyons

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question: if i did a book giveaway (probably of recently released ARCs, I have ton of them), would anyone be interested?

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Book haul from yesterday. It was ABA day and the box had some goodies.

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Fierce Woman: Rhoda Shapiro

Note: I received this note courtesy of Llewellyn Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. A huge thank you to both organizations for giving me a copy of this book.

Secondary Note: this book comes out in August and you can pre-order it here

I gotta warn y'all before we even start, this is going to be another gushy review that's more about my experience than about the book itself. I know I've just written like 10 of that kind of review in a row. Bear with me for another one.

Honestly, I'm having trouble finding the words that properly express what I want to say about FIERCE WOMAN. This book is so important. It's so good. It's going to be big and it's a book that truly cannot be read by enough women. Powerful doesn't begin to describe it. Reading it felt like someone had dipped into my brain, pulled out everything I've been trying to do already, cleaned it up and polished it into something that made 10x more sense, and handed it back to me as a book.

And I'm so thankful that this book exists and that I got a chance to read it and that other people are also going to have a chance to read it. That's my mood, while I review this. Overwhelming thankfulness.

FIERCE WOMAN is essentially a self-help book for the modern woman. Which sounds kinda boring, and possibly overdone, I know--self-help books for women are doing really well right now (which, tangent, I think is amazing. Like. Go us for collectively deciding to not be OK with our status quos and choosing to read more self-help books and improve ourselves. That's a pretty cool thing). But. This is a really good one and this is the one you should read. The advice is amazing. Rhoda writes with such a fervent, confident conviction that as you're reading, you can't help sitting there like "girl, preach, hell yes we all goddesses, keep talking."

I was really sad when this book ended, actually, which I can't say for a whole lot of books.

I took my time reading it, too. This wasn't a book where I was like, "ok let me get this done in 3 days." It took a solid two weeks--and even after crawling through at a snail’s pace (for me) I’m still bummed that it’s over now.

Actually, to properly talk about this book I feel like I need to discuss the week I just had, right? Cuz I've been reading through FIERCE WOMAN and it's the kind of book that gives you a lot to think about, and you can't really help but follow the advice she gives because it'll stay on your mind through the day. I don't want to go too into detail on the advice - it seems like a spoiler to say too much, especially when the book isn't out until July - but suffice it to say I started following the advice.

Specifically, when this week started (so, Sunday, and as I write this review it’s Thursday night), I decided to just try on being a fierce woman. Because of this book, I challenged myself to do one week at my goal self, right? And it was kind of a no harm, no foul situation to see what would happen, more than anything. Let me tell y'all. I worked out 5 days in a row for the first time since October. My word counts for the week (I do freelance writing & I'm working on my first novel) are the highest they've been since March 2018, when I was trying to buy a new laptop. I actually learned that if I have my crap together when I wake up, I can have my writing day completely done by 10:15 AM, when I was literally under the impression that I could not get a full day of writing done before noon. My diet has been controlled, when normally it's all over the place. I feel like I'm in control and like I'm a confident person who could do literally anything right now. By spending just one week practicing what this book talks about, I've already learned that everything I thought was my limit on what I could do was a lie. It was a complete lie. I literally only added half an hour onto my writing time, but my word counts per day have doubled just because my mindset was challenged and changed.

And I know that obviously, that's all personal experience and it might just be in my head. But honestly, this book is a powerhouse. It's so good. So enlightening. So... important. This is the book you absolutely have to read this summer. I honestly can't wait to see it in stores. It's so well done. It has so much to say. It’s going to be big.

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ITS HERE ITS HERE ITS HERE ITS HERE

GOODBYE WORLD

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Review: The Southern Side of Paradise by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Rating: 5/5

Release Date: 5/7/19

Note: I received this as a free ARC from my place of employment, Copperfish Books.

Secondary note: this is the 3rd and final book in the Peachtree Bluff series, and if you’re new to this series, I’d recommend starting with Slightly South of Simple. This series is best read in order, and if you just randomly jump in with the third book you will be completely lost.

Tertiary note: Before I get into the review proper, I just want to say, I have had the worst book burnout and this is the book that fixed it. That’s how good it is. I normally read 3 books a week, I have read a grand total of 3 books so far this year, and it is March. I’m not kidding. The Southern Side of Paradise has been a balm to my weary, bookish soul and I’m so thankful that I snagged this book when I did. So if it seems like I’m singing an exuberant number of praises for Kristy Woodson Harvey and this book… it literally felt like a breath of life for me, personally, after 3 months of book purgatory. If you read nothing else in this review, take my personal anecdote. This book is amazing.

All of that said, the official review is below the cut for post length:

Keep reading

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With the Fire on High: Elizabeth Acevedo

@acevedowrites 

Note: I received this ARC from an ABA box through my place of employment, Copperfish Books.

Secondary note: WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH doesn’t come out until next Tuesday (5/7/19). You can pre-order it here. 

Listen. If you haven't read Elizabeth Acevedo yet, you are missing out. She absolutely blew me away with Poet X. I hadn't expected that book to be so profound, but I read it over two years ago and I still have specific scenes from that powerful book stuck in my mind, right?

She did it again. No, actually, I take that back. She did it even better. And like. Listen. I'm biased for my girl, right? When I opened what I call the "Christmas box" - basically this big white box of ARCs that comes in from the ABA every month, it is the best perk of my job - and saw WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH right on the top, I may have immediately run up to my boss and started yelling in her office about how Elizabeth Acevedo had a new book and it was mine and I was taking it home and put it on order cuz we need to have it (I'm a passionate employee, ok).

So like. I had really high expectations--until I opened it up and saw it was prose, not poetry. And then I immediately got worried, because there's a lot of authors that don't make good poets, and a lot of poets that don't make good authors, and I had loved POET X so, so dearly. I was literally thinking like, "if this book isn't good I'm going to cry."

I'm here to tell you WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH is absolutely one of the most powerful YAs of 2019. The plot is amazing. It's about a black/Puetro Rican/Philadelphian teen mom dreaming of being an executive chef but wondering how she'll pay her bills just during senior year. It's so original. It's so fresh. It reads at a really quick, YA pace and follows a teen character and does everything a YA should--but I would argue that adults who don't even read YA would love this book just as much as a teenager. Yes, it's coming of age--but it doesn't read like a well-beaten drum. It's original. It's innovative.

It's also just insanely well done. The writing is above and beyond what she needed to do. Every sentence is perfectly crafted. The food writing, specifically, is amazing. The characters are insanely well developed and their character arcs perfectly executed. I know I'm gushing at this point, but seriously. Elizabeth Acevedo took all the precision word-crafting she knew from poetry and whipped it out full-blast with this novel and my god, it shines on every page. I could not put this book down and literally read 300 pages in one sitting because of it.

There is one thing I want to specifically talk about, though. My very favorite thing (out of many) is how culture is infused into every page in this perfectly authentic blend of a true American melting pot scenario. Emoni can whip up pernil like a boss, yes, but she can also write to her family in North Carolina for southern pound cake recipes, talk about who has the best cheesesteaks in Philly, and be open about her "blackness"--all at once. She confronts this weird race history that's prevalent for so many and ask questions about why Columbus is so revered in the same sentence that she talks about seeing the influence of the Moors in Spain. It's so realistic to how race really is. 

And I know that this may sound bizarre coming from ya white bread girl, but I lived in a really Latin part of Miami for 2 years and this book reminded me of that on almost every page. It rang true not necessarily for my own story, but all of the stories I heard when I was there. Race isn't always as simple as "my parents were Puerto Rican, I'm Puerto Rican." For so many, there's so much more to it--but that’s a story you don’t always see portrayed. I was really happy to see Acevedo write a story that included this idea that cultural identification is more than just a box you tick off on a survey--it's more like a fusion. A paragraph. A whole story.

Also, this review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the food writing. Y’all. Acevedo’s gonna make you hungry. There are recipes inside this book. There is the best food writing. I can’t even with it. I love books with food in them and this one takes the cake--no pun intended.

So, honestly, I highly recommend this book. I think it's an incredible read both for teenagers and for adults - even those who don't normally read YA. It's touching like Chicken Soup for the Soul, it's heartwarming like Elizabeth Berg, it's just... you just gotta read it, y'all. Wow.