Memo Andrade

Book enthusiastic

[memoandradee]

Hi, how are you? I'm *back*

Hi everyone, my name is Memo Andrade, it's been years since I've been on Tumblr, on the regular basis I'm a college librarian and also a small book content creator. I have a Spanish Booktube Channel and a bilingual Bookstagram (Instagram account kinda dedicated to books).

I've been toying with the idea of opening a book blog but it's on the works, in the meantime I'm gonna dedicate my Tumblr (Booklr?) to only English reviews, as I do read mainly in English.

Hope you like my reviews, I tried to read widely and diverse. You may see tons of middle grade, young adult and a splash of adult book in here. Also mostly fantasy but I do try to read other genres too.

I'm gonna leave my Instagram and YouTube channel in the case anyone here speaks Spanish and if you wanna see my older reviews they are on Instagram.

Enjoy,

Memo.

Guillermo Andrade

Bibliotecario que le encanta hablar acerca de libros en internet

[memoandradee]

The second review:

Under the streets of London is a world full of monsters and saints, knights and assassins, angels and mysterious things. When, through an act of kindness, Richard Mayhew falls into this other London, and loses the life that he previously knew, he is going to have to face the reality that his world is more mysterious than he thought.

People I am very sad, this book ended up disappointing me a bit, and it had everything to make me love it. The way Neil Gaiman writes is incredible, his prose, his metaphors and how he can create such a rich, environmental world that captivates and intrigues you.

I can't say exactly why I didn't connect with the book. I don't know if because I read it at the wrong time, or if I had a lot on my mind and forced myself to read it. The book, at first glance and objectively speaking, must have enchanted me.

I think my problem was the characters, I feel like I couldn't connect with them, Richard, Door, Marqui (the one that I care the most was Anasthesia, I feel like sometimes the story felt chopped, I couldn't follow the thread of the story.

I feel like I owe the book another chance, the author is one of my favorites, I have a quote from another of his books tattooed on me, hopefully in the future I can click with the story. But today, it wasn't for me.

Title: Neverhwere

Author: Neil Gaiman

Illustrator: Chris Riddell

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Publisher: William Morrow

Spanish Editorial Roca

Cover Illustration: Chris Riddell

(2.5/5 ⭐️)

My Instagram: @memoandradee

[memoandradee]

Hi everyone! Sorry for being away, I tested positive to covid but I'm good! So here's one of the two reviews I forgot to post last week! Hope you enjoy them!

This book came to me thanks to the book club of two of my favorite booktubers @alexandra_roselyn and @kalynabridged, when I got to reading it I was enchanted and surprise at how much this story meant to me. This is one of my favorite middle grade books ever. And my favorite book of the year.

In When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller we follow Lily’s journey back to her Halmoni (grandmother). She doesn’t know the reason her and her mom and sister have to go live with her, but she is happy, her Halmoni is the one person that gets her and loves her, with all her perkiness.

On the road she sees a Tiger, but only she sees it. The Tiger offers her a deal, bring back the story jars her Halmoni stole from the sky and she will get better. But you can’t trust a Tiger. But this might be her only option to save her Halmoni.

I was captured by this book from the start, the way it is written it is beautiful and lyrical. I love seeing how we can see the parallel of the stories go hand-in-hand with Lily’s family history. How there are things, that as adults, we bury and refuse to talk to. To avoid others from pain and more suffering.

This book brought lots of emotions in me, from happiness, sadness, crying, remembering and it brought (once again) the magic of stories, the magic of words and that, sometimes, asking for help, letting go of the stories we have inside is the best way to give ourselves to others. Love and understanding are never a burden to people who truly loves us.

I would 100% would recommend this book, I’m in debt to Lexie and Kalyn for bringing this book into my life, and also, the author for making me feel things too deeply. Can’t wait to read more from Tae Keller.

Title: When You Trap a Tiger

Author: Tae Keller @tae_keller

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers @penguinkids

Jacket Art: Jedit

Cover Design: Katrina Damkoehler @katrinadamkoehler

Rating: 5/5

Instagram: @memoandradee

[memoandradee]

So Jade City is one of the most talked about books in the few past years. This an excellent start of a complex and detailed fantasy series by incredible author Fonda Lee.

In Jade City we follow the Kaul family, head of the clan of No Peak. In the city of Kekon there are two main clans who rule the streets and control the flow of Jade.

Jade is a precious stone that makes the worthy incredible more powerful. The Green Bones are people who’ve trained for years to control this power, in incapable hands this power would lead to dead.

So when there’s this new drug, SN1 that makes the consumption of Jade able for everyone the No Peak clans goes into a frenzy, because the Mountain is behind this.

A war takes the streets of the city and ruthlessness would reign. I adored this books, it intimidated me a lot, and in the beginning it was kinda hard learning all the details of this world, but by the 2/3 of the novel I was enthralled.

The world building of this world it is intriguing and admirable. There’s no detailed left behind, such an exquisite tale and I can’t wait to continue with the series. If you’re a fantasy fan you’re gonna love this. (Also Anden it is a precious boy that needs all the protection).

I’m a fan.

Title: Jade City

Author: Fonda Lee @fonda.lee

Publisher: Orbit US @orbitbooks_us

Cover Design: Lisa Marie Pompilio @von_brooklyn

Rating: 5/5

[memoandradee]

A year after her brother's death, Prue Haywood and her family continue to mourn the loss. But when a stranger from the town of Medlock comes to her farm and offers a position at the Ghost Guild academy, for her deceased’s brother. But she takes the opportunity.

In Medlock they’d achieved the technology to capture the spirits of the deceased and put them in animal-look machines, an opportunity to a second life without memory. Prue is willing to do her best to make a machine that will make them remember their past life and get her brother back.

For my first Vashti Hardy book I was delighted by the book's imagination, the author's writing, and the exploration of loss in a fantastic/sci-fi setting. The technology of this world was intriguing and well explained.

It took a large part in reality but gave the freedom to the author to make a world of her own. Likewise, what struck me the most was the exploration of grief and the loss of a loved one. Seeing how Prue and her family, after a year, continued to feel the hole left by her brother was very emotional.

Being a children's book the feelings were completely pure and easy to assimilate. But that does not take away the complexity that this leads to the exploration of them. I really liked it and I am dying to read more of the author's books in the future.

Title: Wildspark

Author: Vashti Hardy @vashtihardyauthor

Publisher: Scholastic UK @scholastic_uk

Cover Illustration: George Ermos @george_ermo

(4/5 ⭐️)

[reads-moon]

Such a cute book! I loved it so much. ❤️

I gave it 🌟🌟🌟🌟 / 5

[memoandradee]

Hi everyone, how you doing? Hope you’re doing amazing. On this beautiful day I’ll bring a book review of “Foul is Fair” by Hannah Capin a retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth”. In this one we follow a young woman, Jade, who’s seeking revenge against a group of boys who in a party drugged her and committed sexual assault on her.

Jade and her three friends come out with a plan, use the purest of them all, the one did not attend the party and take each and every single one of the boys who have committed a crime against any girl. Slowly Jade infiltraste into the group of friends and the new school, fulfilling her revenge.

This book was amazingly writing, its prose reminisced Shakespeare’s. The story was a smart, powerful story filled with such a female power and strength. Seeing how with each page Jade and her friends gather together to show boys and men that there’s no way they’re gonna get away with hurting, damaging people with no consequence.

This books is brutal and doesn’t shy away of its repercussions and how men uses their privilages and abuse their power against all. But also that women are not damsels and they have a fight in them to reckon with.

This book is such a masterpiece and if you like feminist stories this book is for you.

Title: Foul is Fair

Author: Hannah Capin @tldaaollf

Publisher: Wednesday Books @wednesdaybooks

Cover Illustration: Ada Buchholc @adabuchholc

Cover Design: Olga Grlic @bookcoversbyoj

Rating: 4/5

https://youtu.be/7pYOywSkXrA

[memoandradee]

Pretty people, I hope everyone is okay after what happened yesterday. Today I am suffering the effects of the Astra (and I am half dead). Today I bring you a review of a book that I read a few months ago.

In Emma Lord's “Tweet Cute” we follow two characters Pepper and Jack, do you get the joke? Pepper-Jack, the cheese, amazing.

Pepper runs the Twitter account for his family's hamburger chain, and it's a success. Jack is working at his family's deli. When Pepper's food chain steals Jack's recipe for grilled cheese, a tweet sparks a war between the two companies.

This book was extremely fun, and with deeper themes than I expected. It was a fun and light book, but also seeing how both characters struggled to get to the university they want, family problems and managing their family's expectations.

Both characters carry a family legacy but they have dreams of their own, dreams that they want to fulfill and see how they both start out as enemies, but they see that they had more in common than they thought, was wonderful.

If you want a book that is funny, lighthearted but with an excellent coming of age, this book is the one I recommend.

Title: Tweet Cute

Author: Emma Lord @dilemmalord

Publisher: Wednesday Books @wednesdaybooks

Cover Illustration: Kristen Solecki @kristensolecki

Cover Design: Kerri Resnick @kerriresnick

(4/5 ⭐️)

[memoandradee]

Hello pretty people, how are you? I hope very well, today is Wednesday and I bring yet another review. I read this book a few months ago and I was very surprised.

In “A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow” by Laura Taylor Namey we follow Lila Reyes, a girl from Miami with her whole life planned. But when three things happen, her best friend and her boyfriend leave her and the worst, her abuelita passes away, everything changes and she has to face her new reality.

Her parents are worried about her so they send her for a few months with her aunt to London, Winchester. Depressed and without her family panadería "La Paloma", Lila has to find a new home outside her home. And that's when she meets Orion, a boy with a passion for tea. He decides to be her tour guide and help her feel better.

This book really surprised me, I read it in the middle of a pandemic and to be able to see Winchester through Lila and the passion of Orion for his hometown was beautiful.

Equally I loved the exploration of loss and grief. The figure of the abuelita in the Latinx culture is extremely important and seeing how much it hurried Lila was so real.

Also seeing Lila's passion for Cuban reposteria was extremely admirable, seeing how she always struggled to improve and how food brings people together (also something very Latinx).

If you want something light, with a lot of heart, many feelings, Cuban pastelitos and tea, this is your book.

Title: A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

Author: Laura Taylor Namey @laura_namey

English Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers / Simon Teen @simonteen

Cover Illustration: Andrea Porretta @ andi.porretta

Cover Design: Karyn Lee @karynslee

(4/5 ⭐️)

[memoandradee]

So finally I’ve read the prequel of the Hunger Games THE book in which we follow Coriolanus Snow, the future president of Panem in the 10º Hunger Games. The first time there will be mentors.

The irony of it all, us that know what happens in the future, is that he is the mentor of Lucy Gray the tribute of District 12. This book was SO HYPED before and when it came out. So I waited over a year to read it.

This books is so polarizing, either you hate it or love it. I felt in the middle, I actually enjoyed the two first parts to the novel. Getting to know and see a semi-historical period of the world was so interesting.

Like getting to know the aftermath of the war the created the vile event that is The Hunger Games, how they worked and how they were seen I loved that. Also watching the actual games it is always fun. The book falls in the third part, I found the change of the arc abrupt and unnecessary. Like it be edited 150-200 less and the book would’ve been fine.

The characters are super interesting and rich, I never felt empathy for Snow, he is as power-hungry/selfish as in the main trilogy, just now he has less power and he would do whatever it takes to get it.

In the end I end up liking the reading experience, like it was necessary? No, did I enjoy it? Yes, mostly. If you love the world of the hunger games you’ll probably like (at least the fist two parts).

Title: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic @scholasticinc

Editorial México: Océano @oceanomexico

Cover Illustration: Tim O’Brien @obrienillustration

Cover Design: Elizabeth Parisi @elizapar

Rating: 3.5/5

[memoandradee]

Hey guys, how are you? I hope very well, welcome to another Wednesday review. Today we are going to review the third book in a trilogy, and the book I read in the midst of Hurricane Grace.

In Michelle Harrison's “A Tangle of Spells” we return to the Widdershins sisters in a new town, a town where magic is rejected, since magic and trouble go hand in hand.

When the three of them arrive, happy to leave their life in Crowstone behind, they arrive in Pendlewick but quickly they find that the people of the town act strange, as if they are in a spell. Not to mention that their new house is some how terrifying. When they find a secret room with a painting that appears to be following them, the three sisters find themselves in the middle of a new dark adventure.

This book really surprised me, it was darker and scarier than the previous two books. There were times when I felt terror run through me, and the stakes were high.

This novel is different to the structure of the previous 2, where we visited various places in the world of the sisters. The gloomy atmosphere of the town was extremely well crafted, you could imagine everything and the lyrical way, fairytale-esc, of the author was fantastic.

Being a novel "different" from the previous ones, it took me about 100 pages to feel into the novel, but when everything begins to happen, the novel holds no stops and it is difficult to put down.

Friends this series of novels I feel that they can be read as stand-alones, nothing more than a few small references to previous books. I recommend reading them as the publication order. But the masterful way that Michelle Harrison structures the novel means that they can be enjoyed separately.

Title: A Tangle of Spells

Author: Michelle Harrison

Rating: 4/5

English Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

Cover Illustration: Melissa Castrilón

(4/5 ⭐️)

[memoandradee]

Also sorry for being away, there was a hurricane in my city.

*New review*

So let me tell you something funny, when I was in school history was my nightmare. Like I would fail and be upset about taking the class. Now historical fiction is one of my favorite genres.

In We Are Not Free by Traci Chee we follow 14 young perspectives of Japanese heritage after the 1941 bombed of Pearl Harbor. After their country declared them “aliens” and not humans.

Little by little the Japanese community was sent to determent camps where they had to wait for their fate to be declared by a country that has turned their backs on them.

A heartbreaking story full of twists, turns, gaman, fate, heartbreak, hope and memory. The masterful craft of plot and writing that Traci Chee brings into this novel it is to be admire.

You can distinctly identify each of the voices, you get to know each of the characters thanks to the bond they share together. The friendship they carry through out camps, wars and countries.

By the end of the book I was turned into pieces, I felt everything the characters felt and the writing is so vivid I felt I was with them.

This book tackles on different and overlooked topics that (most of the time) history books deny. The oppression, unfair treatment of minority communities. But thanks fo the amazing work of authors like Traci Chee the world remembers the treatment that is mostly deny, the stories that history tries to bury.

Brave stories like this are worthwhile, stories of bravery, courage and gaman.

Thanks Traci Chee for such a powerful book (and to Hailey of @haileyinbookland for recommend this book)

Title: We Are Not Free

Author: Traci Chee @tracicheeauthor

Publisher: Mariner Books @marinerbooks Harper Collins @epicreads

Cover Illustration: John Lee @johnleedraws

Cover Design: Jessica Handelman @jrhandelman

Rating: 5/5

[memoandradee]

Good afternoon everyone, how are you all doing? I hope the week is being excellent. Today I bring you a review of one of the books that’s been a huge surprised to me this year.

In Akwaeke Emezi's “Pet” we follow Jam who lives in Lucille, a city in which monsters no longer exist. Her reality changes when Pet comes into her life, all of this thanks to a painting of her mother and a drop of her blood.

Pet is hunter and it’s hunting a monster, but how can they see them if everyone denies their existence?

This book surprised me a lot, it talks about what it is to be a human and a monster, how a city that has conquered human evil can be blinded by recognizing human nature.

The lyrical way of how it’s written is a beauty, the representation in this book is even more impressive. Jam is a trans girl, one of her best friends has 3 parents and seeing the acceptance and coexistence was beautiful.

Do not get confused, this book touches on very difficult, issues from the point of view of a social critique, on how we can be blind to seeing warnings and how they can be harmful and destroy everything.

I can't wait for the second novel in which we'll follow Jam's mom, Akwaeke Emezi I'm a fan.

I hope you give it a try!

Title: Pet

Author: Akwaeke Emezi @azemezi

Rating: 5/5

Publisher: Make Me a World / Penguin Random House @penguinteen

Cover Illustration: Shyama Golden @shyamagolden

Cover Design: Angela Carlino

(5/5 ⭐️)

Instagram: @memoandradee