dirt enthusiast
occasionally subtle
Three Goblin Art
Claire Keane
Keni
cherry valley forever
Sade Olutola
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Sweet Seals For You, Always
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
Not today Justin
art blog(derogatory)
tannertan36
Mike Driver
taylor price
trying on a metaphor
shark vs the universe
styofa doing anything
Origami Around
ojovivo
seen from Türkiye
seen from Netherlands
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Spain
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Sweden
seen from Singapore
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from South Korea
seen from Singapore
seen from Maldives
seen from Germany
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seen from Singapore
seen from Sweden
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@bookswritinghappiness
Hi everyone!
I haven't been writing book reviews regularly in a very long time, so I am officially archiving this blog as of October 2025. I'm leaving the blog up as a bit of a time capsule of sorts for myself, but I will no longer be actively posting here.
If you'd like to keep in touch, feel free to follow me over at my main blog staystrange, on my Goodreads, or on my StoryGraph.
Thank you for all of the support you've all given me over the years : )
January 2023 Reading Recap!
Hi everyone!
First of all, in case you didn't hear the news, the Harper Collins union voted to ratify a contract which means that the strike is finally over! I'm so happy for them, and so glad I can finally talk about all of the incredible Harper Collins books I've read recently. So... that means reviews coming soon - there's a lot to catch up on : )
In the meantime, this year I want to start posting monthly reading recaps, both to keep myself accountable and because I think stats are fun. January got away from me a little bit (where did the time go???) but I'm finally compiling this post to share with you all : )
January was mostly the month of Alice Oseman for me, and I had the best time reading through their bibliography. I still have one more book to go, and I'm so excited to read it, but also so sad that I'm almost finished reading all of her books!! If you haven't read any of Alice's books yet, I highly highly recommend - they're all brilliant.
How have you all been? Did you read anything especially noteworthy last month? Let me know : )
And now, for the stats:
This month, I read six books, totaling 1,620 pages:
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Solitaire by Alice Oseman
This Winter by Alice Oseman
Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman
The Heartstopper Yearbook by Alice Oseman
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
Out of these six, Radio Silence was definitely my favorite - I was truly blown away and I still cannot stop thinking about that ending!!
(I just love these colorful charts - they're all from Storygraph, which is similar to Goodreads but a) not owned by Amazon, and b) it has more real-time statistics that I think are really fun. You can find me on that site here.)
I'm back in school now, so I don't know if I'll be able to read as much in February, but I'm trying my best.
Thanks for sticking with me - I'll be back with some reviews soon : )
in distress. stuck in universe city. send help.
last drawing for ace awareness week! i always say that aled last is so gender but i am also enthralled by their hints of demisexuality throughout heartstopper/radio silence and the fruition of it in his coming out scene with daniel. love aspec representation in the osemanverse, ty alice <3
5 SECOND REVIEW
* sigh
* okay, listen, it pains me that i can't give this 5 stars
* because oh my gods, was it thoroughly researched and i would have this book taught in every english class ever
* from a linguistic pov, it's absolutely brilliant
* it also touches heavily on issues like colonialism, racism, privilege, ethics and morality in a way that i've very rarely seen (and by that, i mean bloody amazing)
* but
* buuuuuut
* 2/3 of the book dragged. and by dragged, i mean *dragged*
* which made the last 3rd feel rushed, a bit weirdly thought out at times, and a bit anticlimactic
* it's very much a character driven novel, which isn't a bad thing, but pacing is a huge issue with character driven novels
* idk i'm sad i didn't love this
* 3 ⭐️
The only thing I can say about writing right now is that you don’t need to polish or even finish everything you write. Unfinished works hold value just as intrinsically as finished ones; if finishing a project holds no appeal, move on. Maybe one day you’ll return to it, find an idea to nurture and raise. Maybe you’ll never look at it again, but the words were still written. The sentences were crafted. This unfinished thing is a sketch, then, forgotten in the depths of your sketchbook; why should we hold writers to different standards than other artists? Play around and have fun. Finish projects if you want to; move on if you don’t. Don’t guilt yourself over something with no moral bearing. Just write.
I hope this is okay to ask here (please ignore if not) -- I'm Jewish and I'd really like to read more books that have a Jewish main character/s or that feature Jewish life. I'm finding it really hard to find books that feature day to day Jewish life without them dissecting Judaism or being in some way about the Shoah, if that makes sense. I guess I was mostly looking for books that normalise being Jewish somehow and I wondered if you had any recommendations?
A Wide Variety of Jewish Fiction Not Set in 1940′s Europe
It’s more than okay because I totally feel this. And it can be hard to find ourselves in contemporary lit because if the story isn’t about Jewishness or a character isn’t terribly observant, the book’s blurb and keywords often give us no hints. Meanwhile, gentile authors love to plop us down in the middle of our most famous mass tragedy, when there’s so much more to us.
So I am really glad that I can help. All of the following links go directly to my reviews, which are pretty detailed and should give you an idea if the book sounds like something you’d like.
Starting with YA, I recommend Playing with Matches (Modern Orthodox setting, about a girl trying to repair her relationship with her older sister and accidentally starting a matchmaking service) and My Year Zero (all girl love triangle.) Additionally, one of the two main characters in Gone, Gone Gone (all boy love triangle, but also about the trauma of living through the 2002 sniper crisis in Maryland) is Jewish.
Leading characters, although not the MC, of YA superstars Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda and The Rest of Us Just Live Here, are Jewish. All of those have a contemporary setting; for historical f/f YA there is the short story The Fire-Eater’s Daughter, which is set in the 1950′s in a circus and has a Jewish lead. (With that time setting: her mom is a survivor but that’s not what the story is about.)
For graphic novels, I highly recommend the Rabbi Harvey books (philosophical/funny, setting some of our legends in the American Old West),The Rabbi’s Cat (philosophical/dark; this one kinda has some of that dissection you were trying to avoid), and the Mirka books (children’s fantasy about a lot of female characters in an Orthodox setting.) And I loved the two Jewish stories in the Dates LGBTQ+ comics anthology, both of which had trans characters.
Libi Astaire’s written a number of Regency mysteries set in London’s Jewish community, both short stories and full length. My favorite was The Doppelganger’s Dance, about a violinist being gaslit by a mysterious anonymous rival, and here’s a review of one of the shorts, “What’s in a Flame?” Speaking of historicals, Heather Rose Jones’s 1800′s lesbian fantasy series introduced well-rounded Jewish characters in its second book, The Mystic Marriage, which is about lesbian scientists creating magic rocks (the Jewish characters are the alchemist’s young apprentice and her father.)
Romance can be a minefield for us but here are some books I can endorse:True Pretenses (Regency m/f, Jewish author), Think of England (Edwardian m/m suspense, gentile author.)
For short, free Jewish sci-fi online I recommend Three Partitions (nonbinary, Orthodox) and Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land. Grand Jeté also fits these categories but is much darker (so not as much my personal preference.)
Finally, I hope you will consider checking out my own series, which is fluffy queer fantasy set in a made-up Jewish kingdom based on South Florida where I grew up. There are three novels and two short stories published so far with @torquerepress, with a fourth book and five more shorts coming this July. A good place to start is the two Tales from Outer Lands (the shorts), because they make a good intro and focus the most on the Jewishness. This free five-panel comic I wrote with @theloserfish makes another good preview; it’s about the queen’s girlfriend trying to bake gluten-free challah with the help of the palace wizard.
–Shira
Hello Mr gaiman. How old were you when you started writing stories ? I'm 14 and I try and try but they are all awful. I always give up in the middle and I can never finish what I wanted to write.
I know. I found a pile of papers of mine from my teen years and into my early twenties recently, and there were so many stories begun, so many first pages of novels never written. I’d start them, and then I’d give up because they weren’t as brilliant as Ursula K Le Guin, or Roger Zelazny, or Samuel R Delany, and anyway I wasn’t actually sure what happened next.
I was around 22 when I started finishing things. They weren’t actually very good, and they all sounded like other people, but the finishing was the important bit. I kept going. A dozen stories and a book, and then I sold one (it wasn’t very good, and I had to cut it from 8,000 words to 4,000 to sell it, but I sold it). I probably wrote another half-dozen stories over the next year, and sold three. But now they were starting to sound like me.
Think of it this way: if you wanted to become a juggler, or a painter, you wouldn’t start jugggling, drop something and give up because you couldn’t juggle broken bottles like Penn Jillette, or start a few paintings then give up because the thing in your head was better than what your hands were getting onto the paper. You carry on. You learn. You drop things. You learn about form and shape and shade and colour and how to draw hands without the fingers looking like noodles. You finish things, learn from what you got right and what you got wrong, and then you do the next thing.
And one day you realise you got good. It takes as long as it takes. So keep writing. And all you need to do right now is try to finish things.
Lots of questions coming in right now feel like this one, so I thought I’d reblog my answer to it, in the hope that it would help lots of you…
What makes JKR's shitshow even harder to process is that she didn't just ruin a book series. Harry Potter was an entire subculture. Like Star Wars and Star Trek fans, Harry Potter fans dedicated their lives and careers to the series. I don't know if I'd call it "underground," but liking Harry Potter got you beaten up when I was in school, so it was more of a dedicated indie culture than a mass-appeal fanbase.
Harry Potter was so huge that fan works developed their own followings. Potter Puppet Pals racked up hundreds of thousands of followers and was nearly as relevant as the series itself. For fanfiction, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality got so big that it has a Wikipedia page. The band Harry and the Potters spawned the wizard rock music genre. A Very Potter Musical developed a fanbase and launched Darren Criss's career.
Harry Potter also has extensive ties to fandom history. Everyone in my generation (millennials) remembers coming home from school to read Harry Potter fanfiction on the Internet. Today, most people just post their stories on Wattpad or Archive of Our Own. But at the time, the fanbase was splintered between fanfiction.net and dozens of individual websites and forums, some made for specific ships. Since they all had individual hosts, a lot of those sites have been lost to time.
And there's the infamous My Immortal fanfiction, which is an Internet legend with people still searching for the author. Everybody read that one (and laughed at it) in middle school.
Pre-social media, fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet had massive followings because they were one of few sources for news, theories, essays and fan content. Some of these sites still exist after being around for over a decade and building their own legacy.
Before Deathly Hallows came out, fans were so desperate to know what happened that Mugglenet published a book called What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End? Yep...Harry Potter was so big that people wrote separate books about what would happen in an upcoming book.
And that's not mentioning all the book release parties, Harry Potter-themed events, monuments, fan films, restaurants and even a theme park. A lot of fandoms have those, but Harry Potter infiltrated every aspect of popular culture.
Today, there's a thriving culture of "Harry Potter adults" with themed weddings, baby showers and Etsy stores. Putting your Hogwarts house in your Instagram bio is pretty much a prerequisite for joining the "bookish" community. Warner still produces new content, like the Fantastic Beasts series, although we've all seen what a disaster that's been.
Everyone has at least a few memories associated with Harry Potter even if it's just watching the movies. I had great memories associated with Harry Potter. But looking back at the subculture, history and thousands of fan works, it doesn't seem fun anymore. Studying the fandom or being part of it comes with an awkward tension because you don't want to seem like you're condoning JKR's bigotry but can't divorce her from the series. This subculture was spawned by a woman who turned her legacy of magic and wonder into one of abuse and hatred.
I don't expect people to write paragraphs about how much they hate JKR every time they post about Harry Potter, but it's still uncomfortable to see people make new content or wear their Harry Potter Etsy tote bags like nothing happened. Even if they clarify that they don't support her, it's just a weird, tense situation for everybody.
People dedicated years of their lives to running Harry Potter fan sites, writing fanfiction, cosplaying characters and making fan movies. If I were in that situation, I'd have a mild identity crisis. I'd ask myself "Did I waste all those years? Should I delete my content? Where do I go from here?"
So ultimately, JKR didn't ruin "just" a book series or even "just" a fandom. She tanked an entire culture, which inspired people to look at Harry Potter more critically. The issues that people brought to the light tainted the series's legacy even without JKR's personal issues.
Once, Harry Potter was a series for generations. Now, former fans hope that the series fades into irrelevancy. Unfortunately, JKR didn't just tarnish her legacy--she took decades of history, millions of fans and a worldwide subculture along with her.
hi everyone!! it’s been a very long time since i’ve been online here and i’ve really missed you all!! i had so many plans for all three of my blogs when i started grad school last fall and then i ended up working two jobs in addition to being a full-time student and haven’t had a real break in a long time and it turns out that’s really exhausting lol. i still have one more semester left but for now i’m on winter break and my schedule’s a little lighter so i want to try and add tumblr/fanfic/writing/reviewing back into my life again. it’s probably going to be a slow process so i don’t immediately burn myself out, but i’m looking forward to catching up on everything i’ve missed and creating some new content for y’all soon. feel free to let me know if there’s anything specific you want to see from me! as always, thanks for your patience - i hope you all are doing well and that you’re having a lovely holiday season, however you celebrate (or not) :)
Title: Always and Forever, Lara Jean • Author: Jenny Han Series: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (#3) • Number of Pages: 325 • Rating: 3.5/5 Published: May 2, 2017 • Read: May 5, 2021 - October 16, 2021
Content Warnings: death of parent, sexual content, alcohol
Goodreads Synopsis: Lara Jean is having the best senior year. And there’s still so much to look forward to: a class trip to New York City, prom with her boyfriend Peter, Beach Week after graduation, and her dad’s wedding to Ms. Rothschild. Then she’ll be off to college with Peter, at a school close enough for her to come home and bake chocolate chip cookies on the weekends. Life couldn’t be more perfect! At least, that’s what Lara Jean thinks . . . until she gets some unexpected news. Now the girl who dreads change must rethink all her plans—but when your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?
My Review: I’m not sure whether it’s because of my reading slump or because I just really love John Ambrose McClaren, but I didn’t like this one quite as much as I liked P.S. I Still Love You. Regardless, I’m glad I read it this past summer in particular - even though I was going into grad school rather than undergrad, I felt like I was right back in my senior year of high school, trying to figure out what the heck my future’s supposed to look like; my version of events didn’t involve a boyfriend or planning a family wedding, but I could still relate to Lara Jean’s fears and indecision, even four years out of high school. It was also quite fitting that I just happened to bring this book with me when I visited Colonial Williamsburg, where Lara Jean considers going to school, with my family this past August - I’m not gonna lie, I was taking note of places that I should visit!
It’s kind of difficult to put my finger on exactly what makes me like this book less than the others. It really did have all of the right ingredients for a great finale, but I think it needed to focus on a couple major conflicts rather than introducing multiple conflicts from every which way. The stuff with Margo, Kitty, and the wedding, and the stuff with not getting into UVA and Lara Jean establishing her own journey were most important to giving Lara Jean the ending she deserves, and everything else just felt like a distraction from that to me.
Despite that, though, there was so much to like! I’ve started reading with audiobooks alongside print books recently, and the narrator for this series did a phenomenal job. I have so much respect for actors and voice actors because I felt so immersed in the story and the dialogue and I felt like I was really in a room with Lara Jean, Kitty, Chris, Margo, and Peter - it added so much to my experience of the book as a whole, and I wish I’d read the first two books with audio as well. I also loved watching Lara Jean find her own sense of independence and discover her own identity separate from Peter, even though he certainly doesn’t make that easy for her and acts like an asshole about it. And, of course, I’m a sucker for a happy ending, especially when it involves sappy reconciliation at a family wedding : )
This was such a soft and sweet read, and although it’s not my favorite of the series, I’m looking forward to watching the movie!
PS: I realized after finishing the book that I saw the actor who narrates the audiobook in an Off-Broadway play in October - small world, huh?
Always and Forever, Lara Jean on Goodreads This Review on Goodreads My Goodreads Always and Forever, Lara Jean on Storygraph This Review on Storygraph My Storygraph
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How to Set Up Your Writing Analytics Project for NaNoWriMo
✨ Huge thank you to everyone who signed up to write their NaNo novel with Writing Analytics! I’ve been overwhelmed with how many people are interested in the app. I hope that it helps you get words on the page and reach your writing goals.
Writing Analytics is an editor and writing tracker designed to help you create a sustainable writing routine. November will be all about getting words on the page — that’s where Writing Analytics shines.
The app is free to try for NaNoWriMo this year — until 4 December 2021. Use *this link* to sign up to make sure you get the extended trial.
If you win NaNoWriMo this year, send your winner’s certificate to [email protected] to receive 50% off your subscription for a year!
Here are a few things to do before you start working on your book and a few tips to make the most of the app.
1: Set Up a Project
Before you start working on your NaNo novel, make sure to create a new project to keep all your sessions and data related to it in one place.
TKIMG /assets/blog/how-to-win-nanowrimo-with-writing-analytics/01-buttons.png
Click on the Projects button in the main menu in the top-right corner of the screen. Then click the New Projects button that appears just below it.
In the New Project form, choose a name, stage and colour. Then, you’ll be able to set a goal, the initial word count and status.
Set the goal to 50,000 and leave the initial word count and status unchanged.
Use the toggle on the right to enable scheduling for this project. Here, you’ll be able to choose which days of the week you want to write and set a deadline. If you know you won’t be able to write on the weekend, uncheck those days. Writing Analytics will schedule more words for you during the week.
Finally, set the deadline to 30 November 2021 when NaNoWriMo ends.
2: Week Overview
Click on the Overview button in the main menu. The chart at the top of the page shows you your schedule and how well you’re doing against it this week.
There are two columns for each day — words written and scheduled. Note that your words will only appear on this chart when you finish a session. Sessions in progress or paused ones aren’t included here.
3: Start a Session
A major difference between Writing Analytics and other editors are Sessions. To write in Writing Analytics, you have to start a session. During the session, Writing Analytics will track several metrics behind the scenes, such as how many words you write and delete, how long each writing session takes, how focused you are and how much time you spend typing.
To start a new session, click on one of the New Session buttons in the app.
Set a title, select your NaNo project from the dropdown and set a goal for the session. Writing Analytics supports both word and time goals if you prefer writing for a set period rather than aiming for a specific number of words.
Clicking Create Session will take you to the editor. The session will start as soon as you start typing. You can pause it or end it using the buttons in the top-right corner.
4: Share Your Dashboard with Friends
Doing NaNoWriMo with a group of friends? You can share your dashboard with them to keep each other accountable. They’ll be able to see your progress and how many words you’re getting done each day, but they won’t get access to any of your drafts.
To share your progress with someone, navigate to your NaNoWriMo project’s dashboard in Writing Analytics. Click the three dots in the top-right corner and select Make Public.
Writing Analytics will generate a unique URL for your project that you can send to your friends! They don’t need to have a Writing Analytics account to be able to access it.
5: Set up Writing Analytics on Your Phone
Sometimes, the only way to reach your goal for the day is to take advantage of every spare moment that you have. Writing Analytics makes this super easy.
The app works well on both your computer and your phone. It syncs your sessions between all your devices. You can start a writing session on your laptop while having breakfast, pause it and continue writing on your phone while on the train to work.
Here’s how you can save the app to the home screen on your phone and have your drafts always with you.
6: Backup your drafts
Although the app has multiple levels of redundancy and backups built-in, you’ll get the ultimate peace of mind from backing up your writing in several places yourself.
Writing Analytics has two features to help you with this. At the end of each writing session, you can email the draft to yourself.
Click the three dots at the top of your draft and select Email to Yourself.
Hit Continue to confirm, and your draft will be dispatched instantly.
You can also export an archive of all your drafts. Click on Account in the main menu, scroll all the way down. Then, click Download to export a copy of all your drafts in an archive.
Have a question?
Don’t hesitate to get in touch at [email protected]!
Title: One Last Stop • Author: Casey McQuiston • Number of Pages: 422 • Rating: 5/5 Published: June 1, 2021 • Read: June 11, 2021 - July 30, 2021
Content Warnings: sexual content, homophobia, racism, death
Goodreads Synopsis: For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures. But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train. Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.
My Review: In case reading Red, White and Royal Blue four times wasn’t enough of an indication, Casey McQuiston is without a doubt one of my favorite authors. I’ve been so excited for this book since just the barest of details about it were released, and I’m so glad it’s finally out in the world!! I had very high expectations for this book, and of course this book met, if not surpassed, every single one of them. I have a feeling I’m going to have as tough a time translating joyous yelling into words for this review as I did when I reviewed RWRB, but I will do my very best : )
I’ll start with August. She’s just the most chaotic bisexual which is wonderful in itself, but when I saw the cover for the first time and found out that August is plus-sized as well, I only loved her more - the little things really do mean a lot!! Our personalities are nothing alike, but I loved going on this journey with her as she breaks out of her cynical shell and figures out how to let herself experience joy. As soon as her roommates and coworkers were introduced, I knew that I was going to fall in love with every single one of them too - Casey has this wonderful talent for writing characters that are so specific while also being so widely relatable, and I think the OLS characters are the epitome of that. They’re so completely unlike anyone else, and they’re the exact kind of semi-organized chaos that New Yorkers in their 20s are. Most importantly, though, they each have their own significant presence in the book, something that can’t be said about quite a few other ensemble casts of characters.
Jane was the character that surprised me most, though. I think going into the book, I expected her to be the tougher one, the one with more emotional walls built up after everything she’s gone through. And she has those, don’t get me wrong, but she’s also so open to loving and being in love with everything around her; even when her whole world consists of the Q train, she finds joy in the little things. A lot of that reminds me of myself, and I loved being able to relate to her so much, even though she’s displaced out of time.
Speaking of the time travel, One Last Stop would have been wonderful even without the added sci-fi component — and in the hands of another author, trying to fit all of that in one book may have just been too much, but that is absolutely not the case here. The sci-fi perfectly fits alongside the contemporary, the lines so blurred between them that for a moment I almost forgot that people don’t get displaced out of time on the Q train in real life. Without spoiling, I’ll say that I was anticipating a very different ending, but this one was perfect and everything these characters deserve. Casey’s writing is like magic; of course I knew that after RWRB, but OLS proved once again that Casey is a romcom legend.
I could go on about this book forever to be honest, but I’ll spare you all by ending this review here. If you take one thing away from this review, let it be this: One Last Stop is absolutely fantastic, and it should be at the top of your to-read list. I am so beyond excited for whatever Casey McQuiston does next!!
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Title: Some Faraway Place • Author: Lauren Shippen Series: The Bright Sessions (#3) • Number of Pages: 352 • Rating: 5/5 Published: September 28, 2021 • Read: May 18, 2021 - June 9, 2021
Content Warnings: family illness, death, imprisonment, injury, violence, manipulation
Goodreads Synopsis: Rose Atkinson’s mother can see the future. Her father can move things he doesn't touch. Her brother Aaron can read minds. And Rose, well, she makes a mean spaghetti bolognese. Everyone else in her family is Atypical, which means they manifested an ability that defies the limits of the human experience. At nineteen, well past the average age of manifestation, Rose is stuck defending her decision not to go to college and instead working in the kitchen of a local restaurant, hoping to gain the experience she needs to become a chef. When a rollerblading accident sends her to the hospital, she meets a girl she can't forget and she starts to feel like maybe her life isn't quite so small. But when she starts falling asleep mid-conversation, she thinks, then again maybe I’m doomed to never have good things. Rose should be happy to learn that she’s Atypical after all—that diving into dreams makes her a part of her family in the way she always wanted. But the more time she spends in the dreamworld, the more complicated her ability becomes. Trying to balance her work, her power, and a girlfriend who doesn’t know about Atypicals, Rose seeks help. But she soon discovers that being Atypical comes with dangers she never could have imagined. Even her carefully constructed dreamworld isn’t safe. This is the story of Atypical Rose, who discovers that your dreams coming true isn’t always a good thing.
My Review: I received a digital ARC of this book from Tor Teen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I had the honor of getting a physical ARC of the first book in the series from Lauren herself back in 2019, and I’m a huge fan of the original The Bright Sessions podcast and its spinoffs, so I was super super excited to read Some Faraway Place early!! This one is extra special to me - there aren’t many queer Jewish characters in YA (let alone plus-sized queer Jewish characters), and they definitely don’t have many opportunities to be on the book cover, so when I heard Rose was getting her own book and then later saw the cover, I was just so happy. Needless to say, I was just as happy (if not more so) when I read it : )
Rose doesn’t get a lot of “screen” time in the original podcast, so getting a more in-depth look into her story and her ability was awesome!! It was especially cool getting to see her gradual discovery of her ability and how her relationship with her family changes as a result. Out of the three TBS novels, this one is definitely the most jam packed - not only does it include Rose, her dreamworlds, and her developing relationship with Emily, but it also includes characters from the previous two novels, some more significantly than others. But, because everything in this universe is connected in more ways than we will ever realize, it all works together well. There is a lot of grey morality in Some Faraway Place, and it definitely got darker at times than I was expecting, but all of those moments were perfectly balanced with the lighter aspects of the book - Rose’s relationship with Emily, her love for her cooking, her humor, her pleasant dreamscapes, etc.
Another aspect I loved was the variety of narration - most of the book is standard prose, but there are also social media posts and letters sprinkled throughout as well. They reveal important pieces of the characters and allow the reader to see some of the novel’s events from other perspectives… and they have so many easter eggs and fandom references, which was super fun for me since I know the podcast so well : ) But do not fear - people will still be able to enjoy and understand everything even without having listened to the podcast.
Lauren Shippen is one of the most incredible writers, and Some Faraway Place is a perfect sendoff and love letter to the TBS universe. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to read it early, and I’m so excited for everyone to get to read it in September : )
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Title: Lost in the Never Woods • Author: Aiden Thomas • Number of Pages: 384 • Rating: 2/5 Published: March 23, 2021 • Read: February 8, 2021 - May 18, 2021
Content Warnings: child death, kidnapping, grief, gun violence, alcoholism, car accident
Goodreads Synopsis: It's been five years since Wendy and her two brothers went missing in the woods, but when the town’s children start to disappear, the questions surrounding her brothers’ mysterious circumstances are brought back into light. Attempting to flee her past, Wendy almost runs over an unconscious boy lying in the middle of the road, and gets pulled into the mystery haunting the town. Peter, a boy she thought lived only in her stories, claims that if they don't do something, the missing children will meet the same fate as her brothers. In order to find them and rescue the missing kids, Wendy must confront what's waiting for her in the woods.
My Review: I received a digital ARC of this book from Swoon Reads via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve heard such great things about Aiden Thomas from my friends who have read Cemetery Boys (so much so that I bought a copy for myself, but haven’t gotten to it yet), so I was super excited to receive a digital ARC of this one. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed.
I was looking forward to the Peter Pan retelling aspect, but a lot of it was confusing and/or inconsistent. It made sense to me that by leaving Neverland, Peter’s power weakened, but the growing up really really quickly part felt unnecessary to me, and the romantic tension between him and Wendy weirded me out a lot. Also, since everyone could actually see Peter, how did no one figure out that Barry was just Peter in disguise? I thought that maybe eventually someone would put two and two together, especially Wendy’s mother, but no one ever did. I will say, though, I did really like the shadow as an evil alter ego of Peter, that was cool.
Aside from all of this, I found the book to be incredibly slow-paced, which is why it took me so long to finish it. I did want to finish it though, because in my experience, sometimes the slowest books have the biggest unexpected surprise endings, and this was certainly true for Lost in the Never Woods. I certainly did not expect this ending - the reveal of what happened to John and Michael and what Neverland really is and what it represents in this retelling - and that was when I finally was on the edge of my seat, turning and turning the pages until I reached the end. I’m not sure the rest of the book was worth the ending, but I’m personally glad I stuck it out until the end.
Overall, this book really wasn’t for me and I wouldn’t recommend it, though I think people who like slow-paced atmospheric mystery will appreciate it more. I do still want to read Cemetery Boys because I have seen so much love for it, and I hope that I enjoy it more than I did Lost in the Never Woods.
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Title: Kate in Waiting • Author: Becky Albertalli • Number of Pages: 400 • Rating: 5/5 Published: April 20, 2021 • Read: April 30, 2021 - May 5, 2021
Content Warnings: bullying, minor fatphobia, minor homophobia/transphobia
Goodreads Synopsis: Contrary to popular belief, best friends Kate Garfield and Anderson Walker are not codependent. Carpooling to and from theater rehearsals? Environmentally sound and efficient. Consulting each other on every single life decision? Basic good judgment. Pining for the same guys from afar? Shared crushes are more fun anyway. But when Kate and Andy’s latest long-distance crush shows up at their school, everything goes off script. Matt Olsson is talented and sweet, and Kate likes him. She really likes him. The only problem? So does Anderson. Turns out, communal crushes aren’t so fun when real feelings are involved. This one might even bring the curtains down on Kate and Anderson’s friendship.
My Review: A new Becky book? In my birthday month? A dream come true. It’s honestly wild to read a Becky Albertalli book that isn’t in the Simonverse, but don’t worry, I loved it just as much : )
I’m always excited for anything Becky publishes because it’s a guarantee of more Jewish characters in YA, which means the absolute world to me and I don’t see enough of it. Kate in Waiting certainly didn’t disappoint - Kate, Matt, and Noah’s Jewish identities show through in the perfect amounts and I could not stop smiling (and laughing)! I certainly expected to relate to Kate in that way, but I ended up relating to her and what she experiences throughout the book so much more and on a much deeper level. But despite all of that being a lot for me personally, the lighthearted moments more than balanced that out, so no worries there : )
I also especially appreciated Rayna’s character and how the fact that she’s trans is such an important part of who she is without it being a huge thing or a major part of the plotline of the book. Representation like that is fantastic, and she’s just a wonderful character in general. And, of course, as a past, present, and future theatre dork (I’m literally going to grad school for it), I love whenever the unique energy and chaos of working on something as ephemeral as a high school production is captured in book form like this. I feel like theatre finds its way into a lot of Becky’s books, so I’m glad it got to play more of a main role (haha, pun intended) in this one. I loved seeing Kate get her happy ending, even if it wasn’t quite in the way she expected, and the scenes towards the end had me smiling so much because they were so soft and cute!!
This book felt like a signature Becky Albertalli book while also feeling totally new and different from her other books, and that’s exactly what I was hoping for : ) I highly recommend giving it a read, especially if you liked The Upside of Unrequited (one of my favorite books ever) - they have similar energy to me!!
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Title: You Should See Me In a Crown • Author: Leah Johnson Number of Pages: 336 • Rating: 4.5/5 Published: June 2, 2020 • Read: March 26, 2021 - April 30, 2021
Content Warnings: homophobia, racism, panic disorder, chronic illness, death of parent
Goodreads Synopsis: Liz Lighty has always believed she's too black, too poor, too awkward to shine in her small, rich, prom-obsessed midwestern town. But it's okay -- Liz has a plan that will get her out of Campbell, Indiana, forever: attend the uber-elite Pennington College, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor. But when the financial aid she was counting on unexpectedly falls through, Liz's plans come crashing down . . . until she's reminded of her school's scholarship for prom king and queen. There's nothing Liz wants to do less than endure a gauntlet of social media trolls, catty competitors, and humiliating public events, but despite her devastating fear of the spotlight she's willing to do whatever it takes to get to Pennington. The only thing that makes it halfway bearable is the new girl in school, Mack. She's smart, funny, and just as much of an outsider as Liz. But Mack is also in the running for queen. Will falling for the competition keep Liz from her dreams . . . or make them come true?
My Review: I only went to an hour of my high school senior prom, and even so, I don’t think we even had a prom king and queen, but I wish I’d had a prom night like Liz Lighty’s. I certainly wouldn’t have run for queen, though, especially with that kind of pressure associated with it. Regardless, I’ve been hearing such incredible hype for this book over the last year, so I picked up a copy myself, and oh my gosh, this book is the lesbian high school romance we all deserve but never get. I immediately loved Liz and her personality and I couldn’t stop smiling as she falls in love with Mack and, in a bit of a convoluted way, gets the happily ever after she DESERVES!! I really appreciated all of the rep in this book - a black girl!! on the cover!! we love to see it!! - and I especially loved that Liz owns every single part of who she is and refuses to compromise it for anyone. She’s someone I really cared about and rooted for and I’m so proud of her.
I honestly have no complaints about this book - it’s joy and badassery in 336 pages, what’s not to like? - but I didn’t love it quite enough to give it the full five stars. Still, I need this to be a cheesy rom-com movie ASAP because I’m going to watch it over and over again forever. This is one of the best debut novels I’ve read, and I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye out for more of Leah Johnson’s books : )
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