Most schools are about being the best. This school? It’s about being the worst. Calder Academy is where the rogue paranormals go. The ones who break the rules or lose control. And when that happens for vamps, werewolves, witches, and dark fae? It gets pretty freaking scary.
I should know. Because I’m trapped here.
Look, every seventeen-year-old girl thinks their mom is a tyrant. But mine just happens to run Calder Academy, which paints a giant target on my back. The way I make it through these dark halls is by steering clear of the things―and kids―who go bump in the night.
Especially Jude Abernathy-Lee.
But when a freak storm hits our isolated island, I’m stuck without a backup plan. The power is gone. The lights are out. And our worst nightmares are suddenly real―and out for blood.
Now the only way to survive is to align myself with one evil to avoid the other.
And the only thing worse than the idea of getting close to Jude? Secretly loving every minute of it.
Thoughts: i really enjoyed the premise of this book. i really liked the idea of a reform school where students aren't allowed access to their abilities and then sent out into the world as adults. "student at a school for fuck ups only there because their parent runs it" is such a good trope when done well, and i think this book hits the mark there.
i liked that "paranormals" really did include every type of mythical creature you could think of. normally this genre only includes weres, vamps, and fae, and i thought the diversity of paranormals was helpful to the world building and just interesting to read.
i thought the mating aspect was unnecessary, everyone already knew that clementine and jude were going to be end game. the addition of the fated mates trope seemed like overkill to me, esp with everything else that was going on in the story.
Shooting For Stars
Author: Christine Webb
Genre: fiction, young adult, romance
Summary:
High schooler Skyler Davidson spends most of her time with her pet rat, Five. The daughter of scientists, she’s determined to finish her late mother’s research on neutron stars. So she teams up with aspiring videographer, Cooper, to film a submission for a NASA internship—all while keeping it a secret from her dad, who doesn’t expect any trouble from his obviously college-bound daughter. As Skyler and Cooper grow closer, it turns out that Skyler’s dad has a new love interest as well: a hot makeup influencer who likes to put her nose where it doesn’t belong. She’ll keep hush on Skyler’s NASA plans, if Skyler agrees to get to know her. Now Skyler’s tangled up in a budding romance, an unexpected friendship, and the stress of having to retake her SATs. Will Skyler’s dream of stars collapse and explode, or can dad and daughter reconcile and change their trajectory?
Thoughts: overall, i enjoyed this book. if you like flawed main characters, this is the book for you. skylar does grow and learn in the end, but boy is it a journey to get there.
i enjoyed the absolutely unnecessary fake dating trope, i thought it made the angst that much better. it is such a messy, but imo real, portrayal of high school romance. skylar and cooper having to battle their desire to be near each other while having absolutely nothing in common felt a lot more realistic than the vast majority of high school romance you see in books.
i loved charli's character a lot. something abt a make-up influencer that secretly has a masters degree in communication and is an expert at making people like her is just, ahh, it's so good.
there were times were i was extremely annoyed with skylar, but its hard to judge her due to the nuance of her situation. she is very socially unaware and that is the main cause of a lot of the problems that arise in her life, but she was also "raised" by a parent who was never home and she didn't get a lot of that social experience growing up.
Trespass Against Us
Author: Leon Kemp
Genre: fiction, horror, lgbtqia+, young adult, thriller
Summary:
Two years ago, four friends went into the abandoned religious reform school Dominic House.
Only three came out.
Riley still bears horrific scars from that night. He doesn’t speak to his friends anymore. And he’s haunted by the truth: Riley’s boyfriend, Ethan, didn’t disappear...Something in that house took him.
Now, alongside TV’s most famous ghost hunter, Jordan Jones, Riley is returning, determined to find out what happened to Ethan.
But as the night wears on, Riley realizes he isn’t just revisiting the most terrifying night of his life—he’s reliving it. And this time, whatever lives in Dominic House will make sure they all stay.
Thoughts: i normally don't read much horror, but i enjoyed this book. it wasn't scary, but that might be because i was raised on ghost hunting shows. i was constantly waiting to see what would happen next, and never wanted to put the book down.
i liked the complicated relationship dynamics between all of the characters. obviously the three friends have some intense shit going on after what they went through, and then you add in the three members of the ghost hunting show, and shit gets messy.
the story is told in dual timelines, so as you are experiencing what is currently happening, there are flashbacks to the night two years ago that help to put events and character reactions into context.
In the Finnish wilderness, more than wolves roam the dark forests. For Siiri and Aina, summer’s fading light is a harbinger of unwelcome change. Land-hungry Swedes venture north, threatening the peace; a zealous Christian priest denounces the old ways; and young women have begun to disappear.
Siiri vows to protect Aina from danger. But even Siiri cannot stop a death goddess from dragging her friend to Tuonela, the mythical underworld. Determined to save Aina, Siiri braves a dangerous journey north to seek the greatest shaman of legend, the only person to venture to the realm of death and return alive.
In Tuonela, the cruel Witch Queen turns Aina’s every waking moment into a living nightmare. But armed with compassion and cleverness, Aina learns the truth of her capture: the king of the underworld himself has plans for her. To return home, Aina must bargain her heart—as Siiri plots a daring rescue of the woman she loves the most.
In Tuonela, the cruel Witch Queen turns Aina's every waking moment into a living nightmare. But armed with compassion and cleverness, Aina learns the truth of her the king of the underworld himself has plans for her. To return home, Aina must make a costly bargain—even as Siiri plots a daring rescue.
Thoughts: ough. i am obsessed with this book. be warned though, it is not the saphic love story you are expecting. i want to add a content warning for attempted rape.
this book is told in split pov between siiri and aina, as they are having two Very Different Times.
siiri's journey takes her through the forest, where she meets a few goddesses and befriends a bear. she gets put through some very intense situations on her way to find väinämöinen and force him to teach her how to get to tuonela. i am obsessed with the relationship between siiri and väinämöinen. it's giving disgruntled middle aged man and the sixteen year old girl he reluctantly adopted. i fucking love them so much.
aina is having a much different time in tuonela. tuonetar is fucking insane and is playing a fucked up game with mortal girls in order to torture tuoni. aina befriends the goddess loviatar and eventually frees tuoni. she has to marry him in order to free him and boy howdy do i have Opinions on their relationship. he hates siiri on principle because aina is in love with her. there are a couple of interesting sex scenes and aina does end up pregnant (surprise! there was a prophesy no one told her about!).
it has a satisfying conclusion, but it is a wild ride to get there. i cannot recommend it enough, it's so good.
Five Broken Blades
Author: Mai Coland
Genre: fiction, fantasy, lgbtqia+, romance
Summary:
The king of Yusan must die.
The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.
He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.
And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness―from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.
They can agree on murder.
They can agree on treachery.
But for these five killers―each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal―it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.
Let the best liar win.
Thoughts: it took me a little bit to warm up to this book, but once i did, i was all in. you just get dropped right into the middle of the world, and world building context is only given as its required, so it took me a minute to get my bearings in this world.
i had strong opinions on all of the characters, that kept changing constantly as new information would come to light. naturally the characters ended up pairing into three romantic pairings.
i think my favorite characters were sora, royo, and mikail. aeri, ty, and euyn grew on me as the book progressed though. ty for sure raised through the ranks throughout the book, he's so pathetic and i love him so much.
the plot twist at the end truly fucked me up. i had been doing pretty good at using the little hints to see things coming, but boy i did not foresee the Big Thing. in hindsight it makes so much sense though.
Four Ruined Realms
Author: Mai Corland
Genre: fiction, fantasy, lgbtqia+, romance
Summary:
The King of Yusan may be the greatest liar of them all.
His sister’s ring is in his sights, and he will do anything to get what he wants. Even manipulating the five blades to steal it...
Bonded by a common enemy, then divided by deceit, the blades must rely on their skills to pull off King Joon’s pursuit or risk his legendary wrath.
A foreign rule of law stands between them and Quilimar, the Queen of Khitan. Now they have one month to steal the powerful Golden Ring of the Dragon Lord. But that impossible task might be easier than trusting one another, even though their lives, their families, and the realms depend on it.
They can all agree on one thing: the king can’t win. But can they beat him at his own game?
Because for the blades, this time it’s not just personal, it’s revenge. Lies may have torn them apart, but now vengeance will bring them together.
Thoughts: this one was somehow more insane than the first. tension was at an all time high all of the time.
i think my top three in this one were sora, ty, and mikail. it feels wrong to do that to royo, but ty. he's just so good. royo is great, but he just doesn't have the layers of anguish and torment that the rest of them do. aeri was on thin ice on account of the nuance. euyn however, man i fucking hated him in this one. i wouldn't say that im glad [redacted] happened, but im not mad about it either.
the twists and turns just kept twisting and turning. there is another twist revealed to the audience, that never gets revealed to the characters on account of the [redacted], which i felt the story blew past way too quickly.
the ending of this one sets up very well for the third book, which is set to come out later this year, so we'll see how our ragtag group of criminals gets out of this one.
The Greek myths are among the world's most important cultural building blocks and they have been retold many times, but rarely do they focus on the remarkable women at the heart of these ancient stories.
Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, from the Trojan War to Jason and the Argonauts. And still, today, a wealth of novels, plays and films draw their inspiration from stories first told almost three thousand years ago. But modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men, and have routinely shown little interest in telling women’s stories. And when they do, those women are often painted as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil. But Pandora – the first woman, who according to legend unloosed chaos upon the world – was not a villain, and even Medea and Phaedra have more nuanced stories than generations of retellings might indicate.
Now, in Pandora’s Jar, Natalie Haynes – broadcaster, writer and passionate classicist – redresses this imbalance. Taking Pandora and her jar (the box came later) as the starting point, she puts the women of the Greek myths on equal footing with the menfolk. After millennia of stories telling of gods and men, be they Zeus or Agamemnon, Paris or Odysseus, Oedipus or Jason, the voices that sing from these pages are those of Hera, Athena and Artemis, and of Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Eurydice and Penelope.
Thoughts: i thought this book raised a lot of really good points. i wasn't super familiar with all of the myths haynes talked about, but she did a good job explaining the stories, their context in society, and the ways the women were fucked over.
i enjoyed her humor throughout the book, and loved how much she hates freud, which came up more than you would have expected.
i will say, i didn't completely agree with her take on penelope and odysseus. maybe it's because im used to the way penelope is portrayed today, but ive never seen any version portray her as anything less than an absolute badass.
all in all though, i thought it was very insightful and made me think about a lot of things.
There Is A Door In This Darkness
Author: Kristin Cashore
Genre: fiction, contemporary, young adult
Summary:
Wilhelmina Hart is part of the infamous class of 2020. Her high school years began with a shocking presidential election and ended with a pandemic. In the midst of this global turmoil, she also lost one of her beloved aunts, a loss she still feels keenly. Having deferred college, Wilhelmina now lives in a limbo she can see no way out of, like so many of her peers. Wilhelmina’s personal darkness would be unbearable (especially with another monumental election looming) but for the inexplicable and seemingly magical clues that have begun to intrude on her life—flashes of bizarre, ecstatic whimsy that seem to add up to a message she can’t quite grasp. But something tells her she should follow their lead. Maybe a trail of elephants, birds, angels, and stale doughnuts will lead Wilhelmina to a door?
Thoughts: i have mixed feeling on this one. it was good, and i enjoyed a lot of the things it was trying to do and say, but it felt unrealistic for contemporary fiction to me.
as someone who was in high school in 2020, and had to deal with all of the same things the characters in this book did, i can say with absolute certainty, that not a single eighteen year old is that self aware. maybe some are more self aware than others, but it felt too on the nose to me personally. although, i did go to school in a very red state, so that might have influenced my experiences.
i did really like the aunts and the mystery that wilhelmina had to solve though. i thought the magic and whimsy and attempting to explain away the weird shit was a lot of fun. i also liked the portrayal of realistic emotions. being eighteen is hard and sometimes you're mad that you're mad and aware that being mad doesn't solve your problem but you also can't stop being mad.
i thought this book did a lot of things well, but it also felt self indulgent in a way that felt too unrealistic to me.
Eleanor & Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: fiction, contemporary, romance, young adult
Summary:
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, Eleanor & Park is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.
Thoughts: ough. i blew through this book so fast, and the only reason it wasn't faster was because i had adult responsibilities to attend to. rainbow rowell is a master at taking a wonderful concept and putting those motherfuckers in the worst possible situations. and i eat that shit up every time.
this book is told in dual pov between eleanor and park over the course of the school year. the book has a "not suitable for young audiences" warning that i would defo heed.
i dont rly know what to say. for me, it was one of those books that leaves you with such a specific feeling that's hard to put into words. but its So Good.
The Art Of Crash Landing
Author: Melissa DeCarlo
Genre: fiction, contemporary, mystery
Summary:
Mattie Wallace has really screwed up this time. Broke and knocked up, she’s got all her worldly possessions crammed into six giant trash bags, and nowhere to go. Try as she might, Mattie can no longer deny that she really is turning into her mother, a broken alcoholic who never met a bad choice she didn’t make.
When Mattie gets news of a possible inheritance left by a grandmother she’s never met, she jumps at this one last chance to turn things around. Leaving the Florida Panhandle, she drives eight hundred miles to her mother’s birthplace—the tiny town of Gandy, Oklahoma. There, she soon learns that her mother remains a local mystery—a happy, talented teenager who inexplicably skipped town thirty-five years ago with nothing but the clothes on her back. But the girl they describe bears little resemblance to the damaged woman Mattie knew, and before long it becomes clear that something terrible happened to her mother, and it happened here. The harder Mattie digs for answers, the more obstacles she encounters. Giving up, however, isn’t an option. Uncovering what started her mother’s downward spiral might be the only way to stop her own.
Thoughts: i though this book was good. maybe not great or outstanding, but good. i dont necessarily see myself rereading it, but i did enjoy it enough.
it was fun to play in the mind of an older mc (early 30s). i feel like so many books are from the prospective of younger ppl (at least the books i read tend to be) so it was refreshing to have a mc w life experience.
mattie does make a lot of interesting choices that make you wonder abt the state of her frontal lobe and its development, but honestly i get it, sometimes you do stupid shit for the plot.
i was surprisingly unprepared for the plot twist at the end, and i wonder how that knowledge would effect a reread.
Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession
In this poignant collection, Alice Bolin examines iconic American works from the essays of Joan Didion and James Baldwin to Twin Peaks, Britney Spears, and Serial, illuminating the widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster men’s stories. Smart and accessible, thoughtful and heartfelt, Bolin investigates the implications of our cultural fixations, and her own role as a consumer and creator.
Bolin chronicles her life in Los Angeles, dissects the Noir, revisits her own coming of age, and analyzes stories of witches and werewolves, both appreciating and challenging the narratives we construct and absorb every day. Dead Girls begins by exploring the trope of dead women in fiction, and ends by interrogating the more complex dilemma of living women – both the persistent injustices they suffer and the oppression that white women help perpetrate.
Reminiscent of the piercing insight of Rebecca Solnit and the critical skill of Hilton Als, Bolin constructs a sharp, perceptive, and revelatory dialogue on the portrayal of women in media and their roles in our culture.
Thoughts: i thought this book was interesting. i wasn't 100% sure what i was getting into, and i felt like the author lost the plot a few times, but im coming to learn that that's just how non-fiction, esp essay collections, work.
i thought Bolin raised a lot of really good points, most of which i had never considered. it was interesting to break down the tropes and ideas that im so used to seeing in media and literature and how they harm women.
i dont know if i would add this to my recommend to everyone list, but defo to ppl that are interested in feminist literature.
The Book Collectors: A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War
Daraya is a town outside Damascus, the very spot where the Syrian Civil War began. Long a site of peaceful resistance to the Assad regimes, Daraya fell under siege in 2012. For four years, no one entered or left, and aid was blocked. Every single day, bombs fell on this place--a place of homes and families, schools and children, now emptied and broken into bits. And then a group searching for survivors stumbled upon a cache of books in the rubble. In a week, they had six thousand volumes; in a month, fifteen thousand. A sanctuary was born: a library where people could escape the blockade, a paper fortress to protect their humanity. The library offered a marvelous range of books--from Arabic poetry to American self-help, Shakespearean plays to stories of war in other times and places. The visitors shared photos and tales of their lives before the war, planned how to build a democracy, and tended the roots of their community despite shell-shocked soil. In the midst of the siege, the journalist Delphine Minoui tracked down one of the library's founders, twenty-three-year-old Ahmad. Over text messages, WhatsApp, and Facebook, Minoui came to know the young men who gathered in the library, exchanged ideas, learned English, and imagined how to shape the future, even as bombs kept falling from above. By telling their stories, Minoui makes a far-off, complicated war immediate and reveals these young men to be everyday heroes as inspiring as thebooks they read. The Book Collectors is a testament to their bravery and a celebration of the power of words
Thoughts: oh my fucking god. i feel pretty confident in saying that this is absolutely making the top five best non-fiction books i read this year. holy shit. this was the first book to make me cry this year, which deserves an award in and of itself.
i had to stop reading this book several times to just sit with the biases that i held during the time frame of this book (2013-2016). it is a painful, but necessary, thing to confront the harmful views you used to hold, and this book forced me to do such.
this book wasn't just sad and heartbreaking though, it was also funny at times, and insanely hopeful. the phrase "despite everything" has been permanently etched into my brain.
the book is originally in french, but i did read the english translation.
Just as for the murderers, for the detectives in True Detective and Twin Peaks, the victim's body is a neutral arena on which to work out male problems.
Alice Bolin, excerpt from Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession
dead girls: essays on surviving an american obsession by alice bolin
A collection of poignant, perceptive essays that expertly blends the personal and political in an exploration of American culture through the lens of our obsession with dead women. In her debut collection, Alice Bolin turns a critical eye to literature and pop culture, the way media consumption reflects American society, and her own place within it. From essays on Joan Didion and James Baldwin to Twin Peaks, Britney Spears, and Serial, Bolin illuminates our widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster a man’s story. From chronicling life in Los Angeles to dissecting the “Dead Girl Show” to analyzing literary witches and werewolves, this collection challenges the narratives we create and tell ourselves, delving into the hazards of toxic masculinity and those of white womanhood. Beginning with the problem of dead women in fiction, it expands to the larger problems of living women—both the persistent injustices they suffer and the oppression that white women help perpetrate. Sharp, incisive, and revelatory, Dead Girls is a much-needed dialogue on women’s role in the media and in our culture.
When [Nick Dunne's] issues with women do leak through, like when he becomes momentarily furious that a female detective is telling him what to do in his own home, he blames it on being raised by his father and thinks his self-awareness will absolve him. He is the classic male victim. Even his misogyny is something that was done to him.
Alice Bolin, “The Husband Did It,” Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession
It’s clear we love the Dead Girl, enough to rehash and reproduce her story, to kill her again and again, but not enough to see a pattern. She is always singular, an anomaly, the juicy new mystery.
