Books SecretGetaway

Book addict of YA fantasy and manga. Aspiring author with more ideas than I can handle. Currently Reading: A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

[books-secretgetaway]

Girls Made of Snow and Glass Review

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashashardoust is a 2017 retelling of the classic Grimm’s fairytale, Snow White. It follows the stories of Mina, the stepmother to Lynet, the only daughter of the king and how they shape their lives. It takes the original tale and reconstructs it for modern audiences while still keeping what made the tale so endearing for generations.

This novel was a decent read. It wasn’t terrible enough to give up on, but it wasn’t good enough to have me wholly engrossed. It wasn’t until the last 70 pages or so that I was fully invested and unable to put it down. I stayed up late just to finish it, but it took a very long time to get to that point.

Would I read this again? Probably not. Would I recommend it to someone looking for a retelling of a classic fairytale, full of magic and LGBT representation? Absolutely. It can be a fun read for many people, and it is highly rated on Goodreads. I can be harsh when it comes to lackluster character development and plot points, but if this book sounds anything like something that interests you, please go read it.

There are elements that I absolutely love in this story and I think it’s such a compelling idea, but it’s dragged down by a lack of tension and action. It feels like it takes forever for the story to truly start and I’ll explain more as we cross into the spoiler part of the review. So if you haven’t read Girls Made of Snow and Glass yet and it’s on your TBR, pick it up before reading on.

My biggest complaint is the lack of tension. The synopsis itself spoils the biggest intrigue of the novel; Mina has a heart made of glass and Lynet is made of snow. Even if you skip over the synopsis, this information is given very early on in the novel. I wish this had been kept a secret from the reader. I want to wonder about the novel’s title. Is Lynet the girl of snow because she is the reinterpretation of Snow White?  Or is she the girl of glass because she’s continuously called ‘delicate’ and is Mina snow because she is cold and unfeeling? Let me theorize and figure it out for myself. Don’t just exposition dump by page 54 of a 372-page book.

“Cold as snow, sharp as glass.”

Girls Made of Snow and Glass, p. 205

I think what also contributes to this lack of tension is that Mina’s past is told alongside Lynet’s present. It’s an interesting choice that doesn’t quite work for me. I would rather we got Mina’s past later on in the story. Show the reader the cold stepmother who cannot love but then show us why she can’t love after we have an established idea of who she is. The way the story is told, the reader gets Mina’s past in the beginning of the novel and she’s incredibly sympathetic. There’s no chance to mistrust her. We are constantly told that she cannot love but she seems to be very affectionate towards Lynet and I just could not feel any suspense about what was going to happen.

One of my favorite lines references the original fairy tale in a sort of fourth wall breaking quote.

“All she would remember was the story that would be passed down by those watching: the cruel stepmother, and the wronged princess who had returned from the dead to strike her down and take back what was hers.”

Girls Made of Snow and Glass, p. 357

I love when retellings do this. It acknowledges that it’s a retelling in an almost meta way while telling the reader that the fairy tale isn’t the whole truth and that this story is. It’s one of my favorite types of storytelling devices.

The plotline from Snow White in which the evil stepmother tries to kill Snow White simply because she was more beautiful seems like it’s tacked onto this story, like it’s a plot point that needs to be hit. The rest of the story creates such interesting reinterpretations of other elements so I was disappointed with how this was thrown in there. I love how the mirror was also the Huntsman, Mina’s father being the one to want Lynet’s heart, and the poisoned item being the bracelet instead of an apple. It reminded me of the poisoned comb from the original story and it was nice to see a change that utilized a lesser-known storyline. When it came to Mina’s jealousy of Lynet’s beauty, this is where it fell flat. I absolutely love the quote,

“If they love you for anything, it will be for your beauty.”

Girls Made of Snow and Glass, p. 11

This quote is instilled in Mina at a young age by her own father. She is nothing without her beauty and that becomes apparent when she has to rely on it to get the king’s attention. Her beauty serves her many times and I wish that the jealousy she felt was more emphasized. I know this is a feminist retelling of Snow White and that Mina is meant to be more than the vain stepmother, but the vanity part is repeated over and over again. Mina is obsessed with her beauty, as she pulls out her gray hairs and often ruminates on Lynet’s beauty. It absolutely seems like it’s supposed to be an important plot line but it all felt surface level and like Bashardoust didn’t really delve into the theme.

I wish she had given it the same layers as she did with the theme of mirrors.

“She’d only ever seen the world through her mirrors, surrounding herself with distorted images and believing that they were real.”

Girls Made of Snow and Glass, p. 333

I wanted more jealousy and resentment to build up between her and Lynet. We have the perfect set up for it, as Lynet is an exact copy of the Queen Emilia that the king lost to illness. When Mina realizes that her marriage with Nicholas is merely for show, it would’ve been great for her to feel anger towards Emilia, and subsequently Lynet for looking identical to her. Mina realizes that her beauty is all she has and not even that would fully win the king’s affection. So when her beauty starts to falter, it would be interesting to see her crack more. Mina uses manipulation to win people over and I would’ve liked to see more of this after she married the king.

“A queen had the power to make people love her.”

Girls Made of Snow and Glass, p. 65

Or if when Nicholas forced Mina not to act like Lynet’s mother, her glass heart started to harden and Lynet would have to help it soften again. I just wish Mina had been at least somewhat cruel and was given a proper redemption. We can sympathize a character who does the wrong thing but then atones for it later ona. I think this would’ve made not only the stepmother a stronger character, but it would’ve made the story as a whole much stronger as well.

“She said that if my heart was racing too quickly, I could borrow hers for a while, until my own was calm again.”

Girls Made of Snow and Glass, p. 297

I enjoyed the strong female characters in this retelling. In the classic, Snow White is pretty helpless and has to be saved by true love’s kiss.

“There are worse things in the world to be than delicate. If you’re delicate, it means no one has tried to break you.”

Girls Made of Snow and Glass

In this story, she fights back to get her crown. It was cool to see the two women’s command over the elements that brought them life. I really wish we had seen more of Lynet’s power though. She uses it so sparsely, with the most attention given to the coins she makes and remakes from snow. I love how she used it to create a corpse in her image when she faked her death and we were teased with an army of snow solders vs glass soldiers, but this barely amounted to anything. I would’ve liked to see this war.

I like the tragedy of misunderstanding, which is often utilized by Shakespeare in his tragedies. It would’ve been interesting to see the misunderstanding between stepmother and stepdaughter escalate to something bigger so that their reunion would feel all the more powerful. Let the readers fear that there won’t be a happy ending for both women.

Alongside the lack of tension, there’s a huge lack of action. It feels like the story is bogged down by inner thoughts that are repeated endlessly. The first half of the book is nonstop Mina thinking she can’t love and vying for the crown, and Lynet fearing becoming her mother, then having a crisis over the truth of her creation. No one does anything throughout the first half and it’s not until page 216 that Nicholas dies and we finally kickstart the plot. This should’ve happened way sooner and then we’d have more time for Lynet and Mina to do something.

I wish we had seen Lynet outside of the walls for longer and with more to do than just find Gregory and Nadia. She contemplates helping the people and I would’ve loved to see more of that. It would give greater meaning to her returning to the castle to retake her throne from Mina. Unfortunately, all we see is Lynet handing off her cloak to one girl who had none. It was like she magically wanted to be queen after trying to run from it for so long. If we had been allowed to stay in the moment with her longer during her refuge, this would make more sense and bring greater depth to her character.

One of my favorite elements is that the Looking Glass is also the Hunstman. I thought he brought an interesting plot point to the story and Mina’s character. He is brought to life from the mirror Mina had from her mother. He has been looking at her all these years, adoring her. When he is first created, he is nothing more than a mirror. He mimics others but then he learns and eventually thinks for himself. I liked his progression of humanity alongside the loss of Mina’s. This was definitely an area where Bashardoust clearly put a lot of care into and it was so captivating.

“He copied her movements, bringing his head forward to return her kiss. His adoration, his yearning, nourished her, and she understood now why the gods were always said to be jealous.”

Girls Made of Snow and Glass, p. 90

I also appreciate the LGBT representation in the novel. It could’ve been more prominent, but I do enjoy novels set in a world where two women can be in a relationship, and it isn’t considered a crime or strange. They can just be themselves. I love Lynet’s immediate fascination with Nadia, how she stalks her through the castle and gets a crush on her. Their moments together were great and were some of the strongest parts of the novel. It never felt forced or like it was trying to make a point. They just were in love and I wanted them to be together.

Again, this is not a terrible book by any means, but it’s not perfect either. It felt like a chore at times to keep pushing through and finish it, which is never how a book should feel. And of course, everything I wish would’ve happened is purely my opinion. I love the idea of this book, just the execution fell flat for the most part.

If you find yourself interested in this book, I recommend giving it a try. You may find it more captivating than I and enjoy the story.

[books-secretgetaway]

Mister Impossible Review

Mister Impossible is the second book of The Dreamer Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater. This series follows the dreamer, Ronan Lynch, from The Raven Cycle after high school as he navigates his place in the world. In the second book, Ronan and Hennessy have joined with the mysterious Bryde to learn how to control their dreams, leaving behind the dreams they manifested, Matthew and Jordan. Declan, the oldest of the Lynch brothers, searches for a way to keep his youngest brother awake, should anything happen to Ronan. All the while, the Moderators do everything they can to stop Ronan and Hennessy from bringing about the end of the world.

The irascible storm from the eyedropper didn’t bother him; he was just another piece of it.

I could barely put this book down. Every time I found myself with time to read, I was racing through this book, eager to know what happens. Maggie Stiefvater has long been a favorite author of mine. I fell in love with The Raven Boys when I read it almost seven years ago. She has a way of writing compelling characters that you just can’t help but be completely enamored by. When I saw that she was writing a spin-off, following one of these amazing characters, I immediately pre-ordered the first book. I was lucky to get the Owlcrate box made exclusively for Call Down the Hawk, then the Owlcrate exclusive edition of Mister Impossible. I have travelled many miles to meet Stiefvater twice, once in Houston, Texas, and once in Edinburgh, UK at one of her speaking events. It’s safe to say that she is in my top three favorite authors.

Mister Impossible did not disappoint. It sat on my TBR pile for many months simply because this last year was a hard year, and I wasn’t able to read anything. Finally dragging myself out of my reading slump, I breezed through this book. Call Down the Hawk had a much slower start than this one and it took me longer to get hooked, but Mister Impossible wasted no time drawing me in. It throws you into the action immediately and there are no slow moments that made the story drag on. We follow several characters, jumping between them in each chapter, but Stiefvater is so great at crafting interconnected storylines that I never got lost. I knew who I was following and what was happening with ease. Every character had me captivated. Stiefvater even manages to make characters that you love to hate. Our villain, Farooq-Lane, is someone you want to fail but don’t want something bad to happen to her along the way.

There were a few times when it felt like the sections didn’t belong. Stiefvater has an incredibly distinct voice and I can tell something is hers instantly and she’s great at keeping it consistent for the most part. But these little sections don’t quite fit and I’ll go into explanation in the spoiler part of my review. Because of how distinct the author’s voice is, when it strays, it’s unfortunately quite noticeable. It’s not enough to ruin the book but it did draw me out of my immersion.

I am still in awe with how Stiefvater brings this story to life. Ronan is a dreamer and he brings things out of the dream world and into reality. Dreams, as we know, are so abstract and often times not even in our own dreams do we understand what is happening. The idea of putting these strange and remarkable things to the page is something that seems impossible but Stiefvater crafts it so excellently, with vivid details that make it easy to follow along. Ronan not only dreams entire people into existence, like his younger brother Matthew which he dreamt when he was a child, but extraordinary things. Sundogs that move as fast as a sunbeam, a sword made of the sunlit sky, and a menagerie of impossible creatures that call the Barns their home. Everything is so vivid and detailed, no matter how strange the dream was. I couldn’t imagine putting the things she puts into words and it’s one of the reasons why I am so drawn to The Dreamer Trilogy.

The rest of the review will be filled with spoilers as I go into more detail about why I love this book and the characters so much.

Golden Matthew, charming the city. Rebellious Ronan, finally grown into something useful. Cunning Declan, trafficking in art and stories. The Brothers Lynch.

Ronan Lynch was first introduced to readers in The Raven Boys. In that series of books, he landed as my third favorite, behind Gansey and Noah, but this doesn’t mean that Ronan is a weak character by any means. I just love Gansey and Noah far too much for all their endearing quirks and personalities. Ronan is a solid third for me and I absolutely love following him as his story continues. Gansey and Blue’s stories came to a conclusion in the final book of The Raven Cycle, Noah’s spirit moved on, and the continuation of Adam’s story coincided with Ronan’s as they began a relationship, though his story was mostly finished as well.

He was not dating Ronan; he was living in Ronan’s life with him.

Ronan is a dreamer, someone who can do incredible things, a Mister Impossible. Ordinary life is not in the cards for him. We saw a glimpse of what his future could possibly hold with his father, who was killed after shady business dealings using his dreamt materials. What future does a dreamer hold, especially one as volatile as Ronan Lynch?

People would either want Ronan’s ability or stop him from using it. So it makes sense that we see his life after high school. I do miss Gansey but I understand why we don’t have him in this series, and we really don’t need him. I love getting to know Declan more and more and Matthew fills that hole that Noah left when he moved on.

I like both Hennessy and Jordan, though I am more drawn to Jordan. Hennessy suits Ronan with her extreme pessimism and hardness. She’s someone that Ronan needs to save, and I enjoy their moments together, how he’s trying to show her all the things she can do with her dreams. She did get frustrating at times, and I’m so upset that she teamed up with Farooq-Lane and Liliana. I’m convinced that Liliana has bad intentions and I’m so angry and distressed that the ley line has been shut off. Hennessy is definitely that love to hate character in this novel.

One dreamer was feeling I need this to stop everything and the other dreamer was feeling I need this to start something.

In book three, I’m really hoping that they’re able to help Matthew and I’m scared to see the aftermath of the dreams falling asleep. It sounded really bad, with planes falling from the sky so I’m wondering if this was the apocalypse all the Moderators were so afraid of. Realizing just how much of the world had been dreamt opens endless consequences to Hennessy’s actions. I don’t see any good out of the ley line being turned off, but I also wonder what would’ve happened if Ronan had succeeded in destroying the dam. So many questions and so many possibilities. I need the third book now so I can see what happens.

These days, lots of people are trying to stay awake.

Jordan, on the other hand, was much more enjoyable. I loved seeing her with Declan, bringing him out of his carefully crafted self and into his real self. Seeing him fall into the art world of Jordan brings a whole new side to him.

Funny how opposites make each other look brighter.

In The Raven Cycle, he was this strict and intentionally boring character that we barely got to know, but you wanted to. He had these adorable quirks, like the way he texts and the way he cares for his brothers, so he was definitely a character that you just knew had so much more to him that we couldn’t see. I really appreciate that we get to see more to him and that he’s another well-rounded character that Stiefvater is fantastic at bringing to life.

Mister Impossible is yet another strong piece of writing from Stiefvater, but as mentioned before, there were some sections that felt like they didn’t belong to the rest of the book, and both involved the Moderators. Most noticeably, in chapter 13, the Moderators attack the Zeds – Ronan, Hennessy, and Bryde – and it’s a very chaotic and hard to follow sequence. It feels like the Moderators came out of nowhere and were suddenly attacking them. A new Zed, Rhiannon, is killed in the sequence but it’s so hard to follow that the emotional impact isn’t as strong as it could be. There’s a significant lack of Moderators in this book compared to the previous so when they show up, it feels out of place. We followed them much more closely in the previous book so we were more keen to their movements. Here, they just show up to confront the Zeds, then they’re off again. I like seeing Farooq-Lane realizing that the Moderators aren’t the good guys and I wish we had more chapters following them. Mister Impossible is considerably shorter than Call Down the Hawk so we could’ve used more chapters for them. After learning that most of the Moderators are dreams, I really wish we had seen more of them in this novel as perhaps desperation sets in or frustration.

Ronan is tough and he can be a hard character to love. He is often cruel and pushes people away, but we saw throughout The Raven Cycle that he is deeply loyal and caring about those he loves. He is incredibly complicated but that makes him such a compelling character.

Ronan’s sin was immediacy, not villainy.

“But his head didn’t seem built to hold the future. He could imagine it for just a few seconds until, like a weak muscle, his thoughts collapsed back to the present.”

One of the reasons I enjoy reading about Ronan so much is the relatability I feel with him. Throughout the novel, Bryde asks him “What do you feel?” and Ronan struggles to answer. As someone who struggles to express what they’re feeling, I could completely empathize how he didn’t understand what was happening to him or want to share it with the others. But as the book progresses and his lessons with Bryde continue, we see him begin to open up. Ronan finds his place and what he was born for as he opens the ley line and helps other dreamers who are too far away and are suffering. In the end, when we learn that Bryde is a dream dreamt by Ronan, it makes sense. The only one who could understand Ronan is Ronan himself. He desperately needed a teacher, but Ronan is such a fireball that getting one who would get through to him would be near impossible. Only a teacher that comes from his own mind could help him.

Thinking back over the book, it starts making more and more sense that Bryde is a dream of Ronan’s. Of course, there were all the hints that he wasn’t like anyone else and I got the sense that he was a dream, but whose I did not know. He was very birdlike and Ronan has an affinity for birds. His closest companion is Chainsaw, the raven, and we got to see his best day in which he wished he had an army of birds. Bryde is so much like Ronan if Ronan were able to be true to himself and allow himself to be honest.

“Ronan was beginning to understand that Bryde’s first instinct was always to play with his enemies’ heads. He would fight if he must, but he always preferred having his opponents defeat themselves.”

Bryde could’ve only come from one mind, the mind of Ronan Lynch. And now that he’s gotten what he wanted – a way to stay awake – I wonder what’s next for him.

“He was an enigma before and an enigma after.”

I was really worried when I picked up this book that I would be completely lost. I read Call Down the Hawk all the way back in late 2019, so it was a considerable amount of time between books one and two, but I had absolutely no trouble picking up where we left off. It was easy to resume the story and the things I didn’t remember as well as others were filled in without bogging down the story. A good sequel is able to stand on its own without losing the reader and I think Stiefvater accomplished this with ease.

I really enjoyed this sequel to Call Down the Hawk. The continuation of Ronan’s story is so compelling and interesting and I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens next. Stiefvater is an incredible author who writes characters so beautifully. I don’t ever want Ronan’s story to end and I would love read more about the other Raven Boys, but I know that the story will end. I can only hope that the ending doesn’t rip out my heart.

[books-secretgetaway]

"Don't get a complex. I know that's what Lynch brothers seem to do, but try to avoid it."

-Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater

The 52 Book Club's 2022 Reading Challenge, prompt no. 8: Involving the art world.

I finally got around to reading book two of Maggie Stiefvater's The Dreamer Trilogy, Mister Impossible. I've been in love with Stiefvater's work and these characters since The Raven Boys and I'm in love with this continuation of Ronan's story. I was hooked from start to finish and it was very hard to out this book down. The third book is set to release in October this year and it can't get here soon enough.

[books-secretgetaway]

"New lesson, class. Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze sword. This change is perfectly normal, and will happen to you right now if you don't BACK OFF!"

-The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

.

The 52 Book Club's 2022 Reading Challenge, prompt no. 5: Chapters have titles.

My first book of 2022 is Rick Riordan's The Battle of the Labyrinth. The fourth installment of the Percy Jackson series was quite the thrill from start to finish. It's all been leading up to the big battle in the final book that's sitting atop my 2022 TBR pile.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Books-SecretGetaway (@books_secretgetaway)

[books-secretgetaway]

Cemetery Boys Review

Yadriel is a transgender boy who wants nothing more than to prove to his traditional Latinx family that he is a brujo. When he accidentally summons the spirit of Julian Diaz, he has to race against time to release his spirit before Día de los Muertos, but Yadriel quickly learns just how stubborn Julian really is.

Cemetery Boys is a strong representation of what it means to be a trans boy who wants to prove himself to a family that refuses to break from tradition. For the most part, I think it’s a strong story. Even though it faltered at the end, and my rating dipped down a bit, but it didn’t make me hate it. I do wish it was done differently but as it is, I give this a strong 3.7 out of 5. It’s definitely worth the read and should be on everyone’s bookshelf if you enjoy YA fiction filled with magic and the paranormal, but more importantly, endearing characters.

I have been trying to read this book for about a year now and I finally managed to finish it. This is in no way a reflection of the book, but rather myself, who struggled to get any reading done in 2021. I reread the first 50 pages about three times which means it was a strong opening. I usually don’t torture myself so if a book isn’t grabbing my attention, I put it down. I wanted to read it, so I was very willing to read those pages again each time I attempted to finally finish a book. I kept going back to it over and over again, determined to read something. And finally, I got myself to focus and stick with the book, and I’m so glad I did.

Character is the most important thing in a novel for me and I fell in love with Yadriel, Martiza, and Julian. For the most part, there was good pacing, the writing was strong, and it was a really lovely story. The last quarter of the novel was drastically weaker though, and I’ll discuss that in the spoiler portion of the review.

Cemetery Boys centers on a Latinx family and I love the liveliness and the strong familial bonds depicted. Often times when a novel has a large cast of characters, the secondary and tertiary characters feel flat and unrealized. They often lack a substance and feel as if they’re an afterthought. Here, for the most part, I didn't feel like any of the characters were there for the sake of being there. I got a clear sense of the large family Yadriel was a part of without needing to have them running around in every scene. There were some characters I wish we had spent more time with, but the world of Cemetery Boys felt realized and lived in.

This is the first novel about a transgender character that I’ve ever read. It’s not that I actively avoided such a topic, I just simply hadn’t found the right book that spoke to me. I’m drawn more to the fantasy and sci-fi genres than contemporary which is more often the genre that tells transgender stories. When I found Cemetery Boys, I was immediately intrigued by the premise, and I was excited to find a novel about a topic that I know very little about but want to learn more. I have met only a few openly transgender people before, none of whom I knew beyond acquaintance. I am ignorant to a lot of the issues that transgender people go through and I often felt like Yadriel’s family. Though I was speaking more from ignorance than willful refusal to acknowledge one’s gender, reading about Yadriel’s frustration showed me how frustrating and disheartening it can be for the transgender community when people like me slip up and make mistakes.

Novels like this are powerful. They allow people who are like Yadriel to see themselves portrayed and it gives them a character to bond with. It also allows people outside of the trans community to have empathy for trans people. Ignorance hinders progress and the more novels we have about the LGBTQIA+ community, the easier it is to tackle ignorance. I am so glad that I found this novel and that it was even featured on the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club, which is the gorgeous edition that I got. We need to continue highlighting these stories, not only for the youth that this book is largely targeted to, but for adults as well. I have always been an advocate for people to support media that depicts people different from them. We have far too many CIS white men and women in leading roles, and any time these roles deviate, the biggest argument is ‘I can’t relate to this character’. I am not a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, but I relate to Yadriel feeling alone in his school. Obviously not to the extent that he did, but I did struggle with bullying and feeling isolated in middle school and high school so I can empathize. But I also empathized with his struggle that I myself will never face. I don’t have to relate to every aspect of a character to be invested in their story and it seems a lot of people have yet to learn that.

Now, onto spoilers.

I absolutely love the way Yadriel describes Julian, especially as he’s falling in love with him. In the beginning, Julian’s stubbornness threatens to expose Yadriel’s secret and he has to put up with him until he finds Julian’s friends. By the end, Julian’s stubbornness becomes endearing, a trait that Yadriel falls in love with. I think that the progression of their affection for one another is well paced and feels organic. Many times, when you have a story that takes place over just a few days, the romance can feel rushed and unbelievable, but in Cemetery Boys, I can believe it.

“He didn’t see how anyone could get a clean break from Julian once they entered his orbit […] He was a bit of an ass. Headstrong, impulsive, and definitely obnoxious. But Yadriel could see how ferociously he cared about the people who were important to him.”

“He was so…visceral. He was so real. Even with his blurry edges and chilling touch, he was a force of nature. He was loud, he was stubborn, he was determined, and he was reckless.”

One of the things that Yadriel loves about Julian is how confident he is about who he is. When Yadriel assumes that Julian is straight, Julian corrects him instantly, stating that he is actually gay without any hesitation. Yadriel has struggled with his sexuality and gender identity, not having the confidence that he envies in Julian.

“He’d said it so… ’casually’ wasn’t the right word, but maybe ‘easily’ was. Whenever Yadriel came out to anyone, it was always an ordeal that he overthought and dragged out. It was nerve-racking, waiting to see someone’s reaction, whether they would reject him, or even understand what it meant when a trans boy said he was gay. But not for Julian.

He’d said it as almost a challenge. In a way that said he didn’t care what you thought.”

We see Julian rub off on Yadriel as he becomes more and more comfortable with who he is. He gets the courage to use the boy’s restroom at school. This feels like such a small step but is actually a huge leap for Yadriel and I love seeing him become who he truly is.

“But he was a boy, and if this was what they bathrooms were like, then he’d get used to it.”

We see why Julian is so good with helping Yadriel be truer to himself when we finally meet his friends. They are truly a band of ‘misfits’, people who are rejected by everyone else and have formed their own family. We have Luca who was abused and subsequently joined a gang, Rocky who lives in a group home, Flaca, a trans girl who was thrown out of her home, and Omar whose parents were deported. Julian lives with his older brother, Rio, as their mother abandoned them, and their dad was killed in street violence. I appreciate that Thomas touched on other subjects that the Latinx community faces, bringing these kids together in a support system that no one else shows them. When Julian is missing, none of them call the police because of their fear of deportation which is a very real and very terrifying issue that Latinx people face every day. I do wish this, and the other issues facing Julian's friends, were touched on a little bit more since this is such a topical issue and feels like it could really add to the story.

This leads to my biggest problem with the book, the last quarter of the novel. We had been building up the mystery of what happened to Julian and finding his friends, but then we just leave them and don’t see them until a brief moment at the end. I wish we had spent more time with them and bring them in on the search. Luca helps for a brief moment but then is gone as well. I wanted to see more of Yadriel and Flaca interacting as they have that shared trait of being trans. Flaca has more confidence in who she is, using the girl’s restroom without fear, even as she gets in trouble for doing so. I wanted to see some bonding between them. They could be the friends that Yadriel desperately needs, as he seems to really have no one except for his cousin Martiza.

The final day before Yadriel releases Julian takes a sudden turn in tone and all of a sudden, Yadriel is skipping school and stealing Julian and Rio’s’ car. They go to the Halloween bonfire, and all of this adds nothing to the story. It severely weakened the pacing and all the buildup we had been leading to. I also want to know what happened to the whole day. One moment, Yadriel is buying all of Julian’s favorite foods, then they’re stealing the car, then they’re all of a sudden at the bonfire? Where did the day go? This was such a huge waste that could've been much better utilized.

I wish instead they had kept on track with finding Julian’s body. Maybe Yadriel skips school and finds Julian’s friends to get their help. He can still get Julian’s foods for his ofrenda, but the grand theft auto storyline needs to go. I wanted to feel the building tension as they run out of time to find Julian’s body. Maybe one of his friends is in danger of being killed like Julian or goes missing as well and they have to find them. I picked up on Tío Catriz being the villain about halfway through and I absolutely loved the potential of this. You have him being an outsider like Yadriel, as he was born without the powers of a brujo but then he chooses a very dangerous path to be acknowledged by his family. The juxtaposition of this would’ve been incredible but unfortunately, it’s rushed through. The fight between Yadriel and Catriz ends much too soon. It’s resolved almost as quickly as it’s revealed and that really weakened it. I wish that Catriz had shown some more hints to being the bad guy or that we got to see him spiraling into desperation and anger. Maybe he says something that raises Yadriel’s suspicion. His character is definitely the weakest of the cast. He needed more time to be more realized and so we could feel his anger and frustration that would lead him to such a horrid crime. I would’ve liked to see him come unhinged slowly.

I’m not sure how I feel about the end, with Yadriel bringing Julian back to life. I almost wish that Julian had died, and Yadriel released his spirit, so that we have a more unpredictable ending. Another part of me is glad they get to be together because Julian is such an endearing character. Although, I really hated how he was acting in the end. He was almost animalistic in how he held onto Yadriel, not even letting his family help him. It was excessive and eye rolling. I know we have built up Julian to be an incredibly protective person, but this just wasn’t done right to me.

I do love the ending though. Seeing Yadriel be accepted into his family, becoming a brujo with his mom there to see is so wonderful. The final line shows that not everything is resolved with a neat little bow in one day.  

“No, it wasn’t the end. It was a better beginning”

But it is progress. His family has made a huge first step in understanding who Yadriel is and accepting him. Yadriel’s father’s speech really moved me and is something that I wish so many more people understood.

“Growth isn’t a deviation from what we’ve done before, but a natural progression to honor all those who make this community strong.”

People are so afraid of growth when it means accepting something they don’t understand. Seeing Yadriel’s incredibly traditional family accepting Yadriel’s identity is a powerful message that I truly hope that one day everyone will achieve. This novel relied on Yadriel proving himself in a literal sense, summoning a spirit which only a brujo could do, but in real life, it isn’t so simple. It is still possible, and stories like this help in educating people about trans people. As we have more and more visibility in media, one day perhaps trans stories will be more accepted and we learn to understand those who identify as a trans person.

I really did enjoy this book despite the dislike I have for the last 80 or so pages. I want to read more stories about trans characters because I have so much to learn. I love that the LGBTQIA+ community is given a stronger voice and that we are starting to listen. Cemetery Boys is a wonderful novel and I loved reading Yadriel’s journey. I know that there are a few other fantasy novels about trans characters, and I will definitely keep my eyes out for them.

[books-secretgetaway]

Passing the time with my nose in another book

[books-secretgetaway]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge || March 2020 || Day 19: Hello, Spring

And hello new releases.

[books-secretgetaway]

Accumulated book hauls over the last couple of months means I'm ready for any amount of time in isolation.

[books-secretgetaway]

[books-secretgetaway]

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff Book Review

Star Rating

On the day that Kady Grant breaks up with her boyfriend, Ezra Mason, BeiTech launches an assault to wipe out the people of Kerenza IV. They barely escape, each taken aboard separate ships, but they’re far from safe. With the final BeiTech battleship closing in on them and the outbreak of a violent plague, Kady uses her hacking skills to find out what’s really happening with the ship that’s supposed to be protecting them.

Illuminae is one of the most uniquely constructed stories I’ve ever read. Instead of the traditional narrative structure, the story is told through a compilation of files and data, assembled for the reader to follow the progress of events. We have interview logs, IM chats, emails, written summaries of surveillance footage, data directly from the AI’s system, and even some cheeky flyers tagged with graffiti. This makes for a truly exceptional piece of storytelling that I simply couldn’t put down. I didn’t find myself struggling to follow along and I love that we as the reader slowly learn what is truly happening as we sift through all the files. I’m usually a person who loves to delve into details and descriptions, especially in sci-fi stories, but the way Illuminae is written doesn’t allow for real in-depth descriptions. Instead, everything is told to use by the characters and we have to rely on how they describe things. In doing so, we get several perspectives. We get both Kady and Ezra’s experience in their escape from Kerenza IV, the comedic description of surveillance footage, and my favorite, the AI known as AIDAN’s perspective.

Illuminae is not the first story to explore the repercussions of AI but I loved the way it was done in this novel. There are pages of absolutely beautiful lines that create a painting on the page. The words exchanged by the Cyclone pilots are arranged into a triangle formation, then they’re used to make their trajectory path, they shatter and collapse, etc. This book ceaselessly impressed me, always presenting something new that I wasn’t expecting, not only in visuals but in plot. I found it so difficult to put the book down and was quite often on the edge of my seat.

The plague that breaks out is so unsettling and disturbing and my heart was racing up until the end. Though it’s not an entirely unique sort of plague, as it does resemble a disease in another popular novel (which I will not say so as to avoid spoilers), it does have its own chilling characteristics. I especially got goosebumps when I caught a single line of dialogue that indicated that someone was infected. Subtle details make me as the reader feel like I truly understand just what this plague is and I love when authors let me figure things out.

I only have two real criticisms for this book. The first is that it was somewhat difficult to keep track of time in the story. This sounds weird because of the fact that pretty much every file has a date and time on it, but as I was reading, I would skim past that. There were times when I felt like weeks had passed between one event and the next, when in fact it was less than days. This may be due to the fact that we do have some long time skips, at one point jumping about five or six months. We continuously jump around different files and different characters so feeling grounded in the timeline was a bit tricky.

The second critique is the way that the CommTech Zhang was described. So many times, characters would talk about his body and his weight, always finding something to say about him that just felt so unnecessary. It’s such a shame that such an important character who does so much for the protagonist, and the refugees, is constantly degraded because he’s an overweight techy guy. No other character is treated like this, so it may have been an attempt at humor, but I really didn’t see the need for it.

Other than that, I found very little to really complain about. This novel is filled with so many twists and turns and doesn’t shy away from the brutality. There is a lot of death and a lot of heartbreak but it’s definitely worth the read. The last series I read by Amie Kaufman was her Starbound Trilogy with Meagan Spooner and those are some of my favorite books. I’m happy to say that she’s created another amazing sci-fi series, this time with Jay Kristoff, and I can’t recommend this enough.

[books-secretgetaway]

“Second Lieutenant Ezra Mason Moves through shells and burning plasma Like a needle through silk. He sees the patterns before they form. Knows the end before it begins. Flowing across lightless black as action transcends thought. He presses his triggers, And like roses in his hands Death Blooms”

. Illuminae is one of the most uniquely constructed stories I’ve ever read. Instead of the traditional narrative structure, the story is told through a compilation of files and data, assembled for the reader to follow the progress of events. We have interview logs, IM chats, emails, written summaries of surveillance footage, data directly from the AI’s system, and even some cheeky flyers tagged with graffiti. This makes for a truly exceptional piece of storytelling that I simply couldn’t put down. I didn’t find myself struggling to follow along and I love that we as the reader slowly learn what is truly happening as we sift through all the files. I’m usually a person who loves to delve into details and descriptions, especially in sci-fi stories, but the way Illuminae is written doesn’t allow for real in-depth descriptions. Instead, everything is told to use by the characters and we have to rely on how they describe things. In doing so, we get several perspectives. We get both Kady and Ezra’s experience in their escape from Kerenza IV, the comedic description of surveillance footage, and my favorite, the AI known as AIDAN’s perspective.

[like-fairy-tales]

By: Anna | imjustahuman

[books-secretgetaway]

Me: *screams at fictional characters to just tell each other how they feel to make their lives easier*

Also me: *represses every emotion, thereby making my life more difficult*

[bookwormungandr]

IG: twinklingchapters

[triflingthing]

a paper shop and a bookshop (queen st. west, toronto)

[books-secretgetaway]

I’m at such a low point right now that even reading is too much of a struggle. Even though I’m rereading The Dream Thieves which has my favorite moments with Ronan and Noah. 

[novelknight]

What is the most uniquely written book you’ve read?

I used to think The Night Circus was special and while I love it nearly, it has nothing on the Illuminae Files. The combination of different kinds of text and illustrations make reading these books so interesting! Highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t already!

Illuminae-inspired pin designed by Felfira Moon Designs!

Find Me On: Blog | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter | Facebook