#danielle page

[eunoiareview]

Uprooted

There’s a camp song that goes like this: Little cabin in the woods Little man by the window stood Saw a rabbit hopping by, Knocking at his door. “Help me, help me, help,” he said, Before the hunter shoots me dead! Little rabbit, come inside Safely to abide. We lived in that cabin: It was cheaply painted gray and The ground around it was all rock So much so our garden failed to thrive And we broke…

[carveredlunds]

just finished reading the “dorothy must die stories volume 1″, and “heart of tin” by danielle page, and i wanted to share my thoughts, because i’ve thought about them constantly since. i don’t want to read “the straw king” or “king of the beasts”, because i was a little disturbed by the body horror at the end of “heart of tin”, but i might read them someday. anyway, thoughts:

danielle page had a really interesting idea, and it’s a shame that the main series focused on amy gumm as the protagonist. i literally stopped reading “dorothy must die” because of the boring romance subplot

the series would have been much more interesting if she’d focused on the original book/movie characters (dorothy, the wizard, the tin woodsman, the scarecrow, the lion) and really explored their various declines at length, instead of just making them all evil in short novellas

she really didn’t give any of the eventual villains any development, huh? it’s just “red magic mist and now they’re evil because magic corrupted them”. i don’t know if they’re fleshed out more in the main series, but from what i’ve read, i don’t think so

wow the body horror was a lot. that final description of what happened to norbert the winkie was horrible. page seemed to really revel in the grotesque description, and the suffering. i’ve read online from people who read the main series that the whole series is full of gore and body horror. i vaguely remember some from “dorothy must die”, but something about the horror at the end of “heart of tin” just hit me

i want to know glinda’s deal. i checked the other prequel novellas, and i don’t think she gets an origin story, which is a shame. she’s clearly the main villain, controlling all the others. what’s up with her? does the mains series explain?

oddly, the wizard’s narrative voice was my favourite. i was really fond of him by the end of his story, and didn’t want to stop reading. it would have been so much better if he’d had a true change of heart, and he’d been the “prophesied” one from the other place who was supposed to defeat dorothy, instead of amy

again, it feels like there’s just a better story hidden inside this series. i may one day try the main series again, but for now, i think i need a break from the grimdark of it all

[astralbooks]

The Ravens by Kass Morgan & Danielle Paige

Read: 28/12/2020 - 30/12/2020

Rating: 4/5

Rep: black main character, latina side character, east asian (likely japanese-american) side character, south asian side character, sapphic minor characters

CW: kidnapping, murder, memory manipulation

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book! It was a fun time, and when the plot kicks in in earnest in the second half it was very compelling! I did have some issues with this book, however, and these issues have made this review harder to write than I usually find them to be. They require a bit of unpacking. 

Something that I really liked about this book was its magic system. It’s based heavily on tarot cards. Each witch has an affinity for a different ‘suit’, meaning that they’ll have a natural strength in different kinds of spells. For example, some witches are skilled at glamours and illusions, while others are skilled in manipulating the elements. In addition to this the coven regularly pools their magic together so that they’re all able to perform minor spells across all suits regardless of their natural affinity. This was a neat way of showing that they really are stronger together! However, it’s mentioned early on in a throwaway line that all girls have magic within them, but many of them don’t have strong enough magic to be able to do anything with it. As a genderqueer reader, this raised some questions in my mind. Namely: what exactly was meant by ‘girls’? Where do non-cis people fit into this? Why is witchcraft being limited to one gender in the first place?

The handling of representation in this book is a mixed bag. One of the two pov characters, Scarlett, is Black. The authors also made a point of describing all the characters, even if they were white, which I think is something that more authors should do. Whiteness shouldn’t be the assumed default, and I liked that in this book it was treated as a physical descriptor that merits mentioning just like anything else! But I don’t think that the handling of any of the non-white characters ethnicities was done very well. Mei is described only as ‘Asian’, and my saying that she’s likely Japanese is through a guess based on her name alone. Sonali is described only as ‘South Asian’, at no point is the reader given any further information about which South Asian country she’s from, and which one she’s from would’ve likely had a huge impact on her background and on her approach to magic. Except if Sonali is anything to go by, it appears that the approach to magic is exactly the same in every culture all across the world. I don’t buy that. The necessary depth just wasn’t there, and the diversity felt more like tokenism than it being actually genuine.

I really liked the strong focus on female friendship and sisterhood! I’ve never been a part of a sorority, they’re not a thing in the UK, so I haven’t had any personal experience with what it’s like to be part of a sorority and can’t speak for its realism in that regard. But these girls all genuinely love each other and would tear the world apart for each other, and it was such a lovely thing to see! I even liked seeing Scarlett warm up to and become close with Vivi after her initial dislike of her. Sometimes people just don’t like someone upon meeting them, without any real reason for it, and it was interesting to see them not be best friends right away. Not-quite-enemies to friends is a dynamic that doesn’t get explored very much, so it was cool to see it here!

There’s a scene near the end of the book that I really didn’t like. Boy drama is a barely tolerable plotline as it is. When the boy drama leads to characters doing things that are frankly out of character and putting each other in danger, it’s not even barely tolerable anymore. Maybe it’s the arospec in me, but I simply do not understand why the situation even happened, let alone how it got reacted to like it did. I can’t go into more detail without explaining the whole plot, so I’m just going to leave this point as the vague mess that it is, but if you’ve read this book already then you know what I’m talking about.

I rated this book four stars immediately upon finishing because I did enjoy it and wouldn’t actively discourage people from reading it if they’re interested in doing so! But it did have its issues, some of them serious, and these may understandably be a dealbreaker for some people. I’m unsure whether I’ll be picking up the sequel. This book works perfectly as a standalone, so I don’t feel any strong need to anyway. I recieved an e-arc through Edelweiss in return for an honest review

[theawkwardadorable]

Shelfconfidence BPC

Day 18- Crossroads

[authorrachelm]

A Book I’ve flung across the Room I would have to say the Theory of Everything. I thought it was going to be more like an autobiography rather than the other side of a relationship. I thought it was too science inclined and I'm not great at science and maths...

[thecomicon]

NYCC 2019: Getting Inside The Teenage Mind In Super-Powered YA Panel

NYCC 2019: Getting Inside The Teenage Mind In Super-Powered YA Panel

Michele Wells, VP, Executive Editor at DC Entertainment opened the Super-Powered YA: DC Teen Reads for Your #TBR Pile panel by introducing the guests including Danielle Page, Steven Bryne, Gabriel Picolo, Stuart Moore, Chris Wildgoose, Nicole Goux, Sarah Kuhn, Isaac Goodheart, and Kami Garcia. They represent the bulk of the creators behind the current DC young adult books like Batman: Nightwalker

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[aranell18]

So I recently finished Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Page and I quite enjoyed it, however some things felt off. I may do a review via podcast but I'm not sure yet.

[lakecountylibrary]

Get in line now for these popular YA books coming out this year! (Recs from Christina W.)

Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer: (January 31st 2017) Return to the world of The Lunar Chronicles with this new graphic novel all about Iko and her adventures taking out rogue packs of wolf soldiers - with the help of a handsome royal guard.

Wintersong by S Jae-Jones: (February 7, 2017) On the last night of the year, the beautiful Goblin King rides forth in search of a bride. When he chooses Liesl’s sister, she has no choice but to journey to the Underground herself to change her sister’s fate.

King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard: (February 7th 2017) The latest installment in the story of Mare Barrow - one full of rebellion, betrayal, and a kingdom on the brink of ruin.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber: (January 31st 2017) Caravel comes but once a year. It is a distant, elaborate performance and game in which the audience is invited to participate. Scarlett has all but given up on attending now that her father has arranged a marriage for her - but at the last moment, she is whisked away to the show... only to find that she herself is the game this year. The Futures by Anna Pitoniak: (January 17th 2017) Evan and Julia fit neatly into each others lives. Upon graduating from Yale in 2008, they both go on to do exactly what they want; Julia, hailing from a life of privilege, takes a low-paying job at a nonprofit. Evan, from small-town Canada, follows his ambition to a hedge fund. But when the recession hits, they both find themselves questioning their world and each other.

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth: (January 17th 2017) From the author of Divergent comes a story of those blessed with a currentgift; a unique power to shape the future. But Akos and Cyra’s gifts are all too easy to take advantage of in their violent world. Can they regain control over their own lives and survive?

Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare: (May 23rd 2017) The next installment in the Dark Artifices series, a shadowhunters novel. Emma and Julian continue to struggle with their forbidden desire while the Fae become restless and challenge the Cold Peace.

The End of Oz by Danielle Paige: (March 14th 2017) The fourth book in the Dorothy Must Die series. Amy Gumm, the other girl from Kansas, travels the Yellow Brick Road to Ev and the Nome King’s domain in order to save Oz from Dorothy’s revenge.

See more of Christina W.’s recs!