Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee is a superb, readable, well-written story about bullying and harassment—specifically gendered harassment, the kind that groups of young teenage boys do to girls. When the boys in the band first start messing with Mila, she thinks she's overreacting with how badly it makes her feel. But when it keeps happening, she doesn't know what to do, and her friends, teachers, and even the guidance counselor don't seem to help. It feels like whenever she tries to defend herself, she just ends up getting in trouble. So…now what?
I'm a huge fan of middle-grade and YA books that talk about issues that adults are uncomfortable to admit are relevant and necessary to those audiences. This book was intensely familiar to me, and I think it will be to just about everyone. In 7th grade, I actually got in trouble for bullying. I was confused by it. For years, he and his friends had been harassing and bothering my friends and I. Adults kept telling us "maybe they just like you" or "that's just how boys are" or "just ignore them." Since I couldn't ignore them, I internalized it instead, and started giving them their energy back. But now, he was so upset, he'd gone to the guidance counselor. I realized three things: One, that what I was doing wasn't ok. Two, if it wasn't ok now, it wasn't ok when they did it to us. And three, that unlike when we had told adults, when /he/ had told an adult, they had believed him, and there were actually consequences.
The gendered politics of bullying and harassment are a huge problem. From a friend being persistently cyberbullied to my 6th grade obsession with hiding my body under the baggiest clothes I could find, the internalized shame and fear that girls have to deal with is unacceptable. Dee's book is massively important as well as compelling and well-written. It should be in every library and on every young kid's bookshelf. It covers what isn't ok, what it feels like to go through it, shows how to handle it, and will empower people dealing with it—as well as the young boys feeling like it's ok to do it—to challenge and speak out against it.
Content warnings for sexual harassment, misogyny, bullying.
Do you enjoy twisted sibling dynamics, wonderfully disturbing writing styles, and complex morality? Do you like to get creeped out? Are you looking for something that won't take long to read but will have a profound mental effect?
If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, please read House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland. It's so good and gripping and I read this sucker in one sitting and was still hungry for more.
Side note: the ending might disappoint you but what in life doesn't
Spoiler Alert: A man with 10th-grade English teacher energy and a man with slightly baffled substitute science teacher fall in love while taking care of the son of Lucifer and other very normal children (and they get ice cream!).
hello guys! i haven’t used tumblr in a while, so i hope i tag this correctly, but i really needed to write this post to promote a book i think many, many people will enjoy reading for a number of reasons, and i figured i should give it a shot.
the heartless divine is varsha ravi’s debut novel, self-published last november through amazon. it is a ya fantasy romance inspired by mythology and sangam era india, and you can purchase it as an ebook or as a physical copy on amazon.
i 100% recommend it to anyone who enjoys mythology, reincarnation/soulmates, tragic but tender star-crossed romance (and not in a generic ya way either), or just anything with complex plot, character, and relationships—which, i realize, basically means everyone, but in my defence it is really good and worth a read no matter who you are.
what’s it about?
the heartless divine follows two paralleling narratives. the first is set in the distant past, and follows suri, a princess forced into being an assassin by her warlike family, as she is betrothed to the boy king of a neighbouring land after being assigned the task to kill him once the wedding is complete, only to find her plans going off-kilter when she encounters kiran, a strange prophet who predicts his own incoming death and the catastrophe soon to occur. the second is set in modern-day, and follows a reincarnated suri, with no memories of her past life, who finds her life inexplicably tied to a changed kiran, who she does not remember but who remembers her.
the plot is a bit more complex than this, and this is really just a quick summary, but more than that it’s a story about humans and our relationships to each other, to mortality, and to fate.
i highly recommend it - it can be a little slow to start off with, but once the historical plot starts going i found it pretty much impossible to put down. even though it’s been a few months since i read it, i find myself going back to it pretty much constantly. it’s fantastic both as a ya novel to read for fun, and as something far more complex with so many themes, characters, and dynamics to unpack.
but if you need a bit more encouragement:
why should i read it?
as i mentioned, the plot is incredibly engaging. unlike a lot of ya, as well, the heartless divine is super character-based and has incredibly strong characters in its protagonists. the past storyline also has a running mystery - and the reveal at the end as to who is the real villain definitely caught me off-guard on my first read. the past storyline is also deeply tragic in many ways, hitting you emotionally to great effect, and the climax is absolutely one of the most impactful climaxes of any ya book i’ve ever read—i’m making an effort not to spoil anything while writing this, because the pure emotional punch of the climax should be read completely blind.
ravi’s writing is absolutely gorgeous. she has an incredible command over the written word and wrote some incredibly amazing prose in this book. her writing is at once poetic and also incredibly versatile, fitting into beautiful romantic declarations and sharp dialogue and tense scenes of conflict. i won’t include any massive chunks, but here are some of my favourite lines:
Where does the divinity go, then? he had asked her. She had shrugged. To the sky. That is where all divinity goes after it is dead. But the sky was too far away, and there was not enough left of him, divine or not, to guarantee safe passage on a trip so long.
She had always been afraid of hope, in the same way she figured most people were afraid of black holes. Desire was something that consumed, she knew, and to desire impossibility was to let it consume you entirely. hearts splintered with love and splintered with loss, and to fear one was to fear both—it was safer to resist them both, to draw thick, black demarcations in shining permanent marker, explicit, clear lines that gently reminded her of what could and could not be desired.
“You live as though you are already dead,” she whispered. each word sunk into him, cut through his heart with clean, sharp blades. “You live as though your life is nothing but a prerequisite for death, for true purpose. Have you ever fought to stay alive? Have you ever allowed yourself to think of life as something to love?”
They had the same fine boned face, hollow-cheeked and haunted, the same air of a saint that had burnt away to nothing and held the ashes himself. And yet, they were not the same. It was a twisted, imperfect projection—it was him, but not all of him. This was his savage divinity laid bare.
What were love stories but dreams of worlds where the sun and moon could linger beside one another long enough to learn the language of the other’s heart?
ravi also has an incredible grasp on the themes that she’s writing with. above all, the heartless divine is about humanity and what makes people human—our relationships with each other and with our own place in the world. and in my opinion, she expresses these ideas with great maturity and wisdom.
however, for the most part, the heartless divine’s greatest strength is its characters. kiran is a deeply complex character, a prophet caught between his duty to die as a martyr and his desire to make his own choices and follow what he truly loves. he has a complicated relationship to humanity, but no human more than himself, as he struggles to understand the parameters of his own humanity—the place where his mortality ends and his divinity begins. at first, the kiran of the past and the kiran of the present seem deeply separated from each other, but as the story progresses you begin to understand the tragedy of how kiran became who he is in the modern-day.
at first, suri seems like a typical ya female protagonist, but as the story progresses and she begins to let her guard down a bit more, you really start to see how interesting and complicated she is as a character. she doesn’t believe in gods or fate at the beginning of either storyline, but by the end she slowly starts to accept hope into her heart—ending in two very different ways—and advocates for ignoring fate and following the life you want, desperately searching for the happy ending that you deserve. she also has a deeply captivating character voice, and was, certainly at the beginning, my favourite of the three pov characters.
but my personal favourite character is viro, the primary antagonist of the past plotline (though—no major spoilers—he finally makes an appearance in the modern plotline very close to the end). most people i know who have read the heartless divine feel similarly about viro. ravi makes him a deeply compelling character, fleshing out his motivations and reasoning and in turn writing one of my favourite relationships in the book in his complex brotherly relationship with kiran. i don’t want to spoil much about him, but he is a really interesting character and, though technically the antagonist, is just as compelling as the protagonists.
on the same note, before i talk about the romance in the book, i have to mention viro and kiran’s dynamic, as i feel it drives the past plot in many ways and is deeply interesting. the two are adoptive brothers, and find themselves butting heads almost constantly over their different ideological stances; and though it’s clear they love each other, soon enough you start to worry if love is enough.
onto the romance, and of course i have to talk about suri and kiran, because—how could i not. they’re literal soulmates! two souls who find each other in every lifetime! they’re kindred spirits no matter what, in both past and present, two people who understand each other deeply on a metaphysical level, and no matter what their scenes together were a great joy. they’re a romance where both of them help each other grow, even when surrounded by chaos and catastrophe. here’s one of my favourite lines in the book in case you need some more explanation. this is romance.
“‘Love is dangerous, blinding,’” he quoted, voice soft against her cheeks in an empty semblance of amusement. He pulled back slightly, just enough that she could see the gentleness, the raw warmth in his gaze. The clean lack of regret. “And yet, I see you so clearly.”
it’s perhaps less explicit—but bear in mind this is the first book in a series—but ravi also sets up the dynamic between viro and his guard, companion, and best friend tarak in a way that...is practically impossible not to read as romantic. i won’t spoil it because it is something you have to see in person, but some of the most emotionally charged scenes in the novel deal with their dynamic. here’s another line for good measure. they really said we do it for the girls and the tenderyearning gays that’s it.
Tarak let out a ragged sigh, lost and despairing. Viro reached up and put a hand on his, traced the lines of his fingers. he watched him do it, entranced by the movement and saddened by it as well. Finally, he asked, “If I begged, would you stay?” Viro’s fingers stilled in their movement, suddenly hyper-aware of the way Tarak’s hands shook upon the embroidered fabric of his tunic. as if he couldn’t bear to hold him tighter, as if the mere action would wrench him away.
the world building is also incredibly well done, as is the mythology ravi sets up and the folk stories she tells. also, for good measure, ravi is an indian writer and her story is, as aforementioned, deeply inspired by sangam india. i don’t necessarily have the cultural context to interact with the worldbuilding completely, but from where i stand it’s immensely well done.
the second book in the series is currently being written, and i recommend picking up your copy of the heartless divine soon before the series continues. once again, it’s available on amazon, and here is its page on goodreads and thestorygraph in case you want to add it to your tbr!
also, for good measure, shoot me a message here or on twitter (where i normally am) if you do decide to read it and want to discuss it! for good measure, here’s one of my favourite lines from the book—just as a closing statement.
“I want to hear all of your stories,” she said, fierce as fire. “Every single one. I don’t care whether they have happy endings or not.”
BEN BARNES😍😍 URGH SOOO AMAZING!! Honestly the darkling was the main reason why I kept reading the books he was the first “villainous” character I really sympathised and agreed with, some of his actions are definitely bad tho lol. But yeah I really hated Alina’s ending, she’s not a great protag but she deserves better😤 For me S&B was a pretty depressing series with the whole power is bad I mean that’s not why I read a fantasy series!!! I love power😂😂 I also love Nikolai (who doesn’t 😚) and after seeing spoilers I am gonna pretend like his duology doesn’t exist. Some of the plot points are really disappointing. Honestly I think LB should stop with the grishaverse like please don’t make it worse😭😭 Also it surprises me that ANYONE can be a dany anti like how?? She’s too fucking amazing. The only reason I read ASOIAF is for her I literally skip the rest of the pov’s😂😂 For YA recommendations you should try The Young Elites by Marie Lu and An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
He's honestly the only reason I picked up the books because Ben Barnes's Darkling stole the show and I just wanted more darkling content. The books really disappointed me though in all the cool stuff going on with the darkling OFFSCREEN! And the story was so whatever. I wouldn't have been able to read if it wasn't for Nikolai.
The Demon in the woods is hands down the best thing in this whole series. And yes. He is a sympathetic and intriguing "villain" because he seems to be the only one that's grounded in the storyworld and is actively doing SOMETHING. All other characters are just so...pointless and out of place.
As for the bad actions, most of them made no sense logically or politically or as military strategies and don't align at all with the 'he's super old, manipulative, and made/toppled multiple kings' at all. It's just dumb spectacle. Very cartoonish. How can I take any of that seriously? How can anyone!? Had the author committed to writing him as evil, made him more diabolical, his plans more calculated, and written some gothic heroine like manipulation, I could take those logical bad actions seriously, but what's there in the books just reads like pre planned "villainous actions" from an early outline being forced on the character unfolding organically while writing. It's very fragmented. Back and forth. Wishy washy.
I love power too! And Nikolai! And Dany!!! Would reread asoiaf for dany only povs like she's too cool for her creators too.
What happens in the duology? It's the only reason I'm reading the crows duo...to get to Nick's duo...just spoil me I don't care. I need to know if that's going to be disappointing too.
Read Ember (loved the first but not later installments) and I'm found to check out Young Elites. Thanks for that.
It’s already time for a monthly wrap up! Dang! I didn’t finish as many books as I had hoped, but that’s ok. There’s always November. *shrug*
I don’t actually have a lot to say about this months books. Most were very “meh” to me, but I have reviews coming out soon for the following books that I ADORED. So be on the lookout for them (oddly they both deal with nine houses):
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Gideon the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir
The only other book that really stood out to me was There There by Tommy Orange. It’s incredibly well written and I know it received a lot of positive feedback when it was originally released. I just now got around to it though (so happy I did) and now I understand why it received so much praise!.
As for looking forward to November? I have a lot of books on my TBR pile (*sigh*) but a few favorite authors/series have new books coming out that I’m looking forward to reading!
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater (Release: November 5, 2019)
The Toll by Neal Shusterman (Release: November 5, 2019)
Supernova by Marissa Meyer (Release: November 5, 2019)
Hey guys! Happy Saturday 🙂
I have been doing a lot of reviews lately since I’ve been in uni I pre-wrote a lot of posts before I started and most of them were reviews; I thought I’d change it up today.
I finally had a little time to write so I thought I’d give some recommendations!
If I have reviews for any of the books mentioned they’ll be linked! If you click on the title it will take you to…
I’m obsessed with Sarina Bowen and I’m so excited that she’s releasing a YA book! More info below! Accidentals by Sarina Bowen Coming July 10th SUMMARY A YA novel from USA Today bestselling author Sarina Bowen. Never ask a question unless you’re sure you want the truth. I’ve been listening to my father sing for my whole life. I carry him in my pocket on my mp3 player. It’s just that we’ve never met face to face. My mother would never tell me how I came to be, or why my rock star father and I have never met. I thought it was her only secret. I was wrong. When she dies, he finally appears. Suddenly I have a first class ticket into my father’s exclusive world. A world I don’t want any part of – not at this cost. Only three things keep me going: my a cappella singing group, a swoony blue-eyed boy named Jake, and the burning questions in my soul. There’s a secret shame that comes from being an unwanted child. It drags me down, and puts distance between me and the boy I love. My father is the only one alive who knows my history. I need the truth, even if it scares me. LINKS Amazon Global Link: http://geni.us/ACCAmazon Audio: http://geni.us/ACCaudio Paperback: http://geni.us/ACCpaperback iBooks: http://geni.us/ACCibooks Kobo: http://geni.us/ACCkobo Nook: http://geni.us/ACCnook SARINA LINKS https://www.sarinabowen.com/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7737308.Sarina_Bowen https://www.facebook.com/authorsarinabowen https://twitter.com/SarinaBowen https://www.pinterest.com/sarinabowen/ https://www.instagram.com/sarina.bowen/ H
