City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: YA lit/Thriller
Features: African culture, gangs, revenge
Quotes:

“Question: what is worth more than diamonds and gold? What is the most stable currency? What thing, when stolen, becomes most dangerous and precious of all? Answer: a secret.”

“People are complicated creatures, my dear. The ways they find of explaining the bad things that happen in the world are not always the right ones. Sometimes they are the easy ones. They are the ones that give them enough comfort to sleep at night, the ones that let them take the blame off themselves.”

After reading the synopsis on the book jacket, I was really interested in this book. Set in Kenya, Tina must solve the case of her mother’s murder and then avenge her death. It sounded like an interesting thriller set in a unique culture, and I love reading books about other cultures so I had high hopes for it. In the end, I decided it was a 3.5 star (not quite a 3, but not a 4). 

I liked the immersion in Tina’s world. She’s become an expert thief and member of a dangerous gang in Kenya after her mother’s death in order to provide for her and her sister, and the whole world of crime and gangs in Africa is super fascinating. The character of Tina reminds me a bit of Inej in Six of Crows, and the Goonda gang in City of Saints and Thieves is reminiscent of Kaz’s gang The Dregs. I enjoyed those similarities. 

Natalie Anderson incorporates Swahili words in italics throughout the novel which gives it a sense of authenticity, and she provides an appendix in the back to explain them. I loved that. She reveals the situation of the people in the Congo through her characters, and shows how the strife and violence affects the individual. But I found myself wanting more about Africa, about the Congo and Kenya. I wanted more immersion in the culture, further details. 

Ultimately, this book didn’t earn a higher rating because it felt too much like YA lit. “Well, that’s ridiculous, that's because it is YA lit!” you say. Yes, but YA lit is often guilty of certain clichés and shallow dialogue/characters/story lines/etc. And this book was guilty of some of those things. I wanted more depth, and I think that if the book had been a little longer, this could have been better developed. 

Overall, it was a super intriguing read, and it makes me want to read more books set in Africa. I’m glad to see a culturally diverse book like this in YA lit and I hope it’s the beginning of many more to come.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Rating: 4/5 stars
Genre: Post-apocalyptic/Speculative fiction
Features: Plague, survival, humanity
Quotes:

“Because survival is insufficient.”

“This is my soul and the world unwinding, this is my heart in the still winter air. Finally whispering the same two words over and over: ‘Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking.’”

 “What was lost in the collapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty.”



I'm always drawn to books like this, books about humanity after a cataclysmic event, after an "apocalypse." You might think this is terribly morbid, but actually, I love books like this because they strip aside everything but the core of what humanity is, the beautiful and horrific. Station Eleven is different than other post-apocalyptic books I've read in that it's not really sci-fi. It's in the future, but it's not about technology or aliens or space travel. It's an utterly fascinating look at a very terrible "what-if": What if a strand of a flu virus wiped out nearly all of the human population? And beyond that, it's a look at the strength, determination, character, and ingenuity of man in the face of unspeakable tribulation. 

What really sets this book apart is the writing style. It's poetic, full of imagery, yet flows effortlessly from the very first page. The author also rotates the narrative from the perspective of a couple of main characters, and moves back and forth along the timeline (pre- and post-apocalypse). The effect is a feeling of transcendent timelessness, as if the reader has stepped outside of the chronological order of things and can see the ephemeral lives of people from above, from outside earthly constraints. And from that perspective, the reader has a unique view into each character's struggles and victories.

I also love that this book puts on original twist on the post-apocalyptic genre. One of the main characters is part of a traveling group of musicians and actors that migrates from town to town, performing for the people in an effort to preserve beauty and entertainment. Additionally, this book (unlike other post-apocalyptics) looks at the world two decades after the collapse, not just a few weeks or months. Pockets of people have survived and the human spirit, though trodden upon, is not crushed. They have redefined what is important and shed all useless possessions because they have no choice, but in doing so, they have tapped into something far greater.

I enjoyed the questions that this book brought to mind: What would life be like without the internet? What would we do, if all our gadgets and technology failed us?

If you enjoy an artistically written end-of-the-world novel with a glimmer of hope, this book is right up your alley.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Rating: 4/5 stars
Genre: YA fantasy

"Whatever you've heard of Caraval, it doesn't compare to the reality. It's more than just a game or a performance. It's the closest you'll ever find to magic in this world."

"Every person has the power to change their fate if they are brave enough to fight for what they desire more than anything."

"They didn't travel here for truth, they came for an adventure."


I'm so excited to be giving this book a positive review! When you hear such great things about a book, you hope that it measures up to the hype, and I do love when debut authors have a killer awesome start to their published book careers. And I'm pleased to say that Stephanie Garber's has gone off with a bang.

This book was so engaging, so riveting, that I debated giving it 5 stars. If you follow my reviews, you'll see that I'm really stingy with 5 stars, so the fact that I was contemplating awarding 5 stars to Caraval is saying a lot. In the end, I decided it was somewhere between 4 and 4.5.

This book has a riveting plot, and once I was halfway, there was no putting it down until I was finished. I read the majority of the book in two days, it was that good. It has plot twists and surprising moments that kept me flipping the pages as fast as my fingers could turn them. There was so much suspense and questions I had to have the answers to that were more important than sleep. I had to solve the puzzle.

The premise of Caraval reminds me of other high-stakes games in YA books like Hunger Games, Panic (Lauren Oliver), and Nerve, but the similarities end there. This book feels fresh, original. I love that! If you can imagine characters being trapped in a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater with carnival and Alice in Wonderland vibes, that's close to Caraval in a nutshell.

Other things I loved: the writing style, the characters, the relationships.

YA lit can sometimes be written very simply with little description or freshly written passages. But Stephanie Garber does an amazing job of appealing to the senses in surprising ways. Scarlett, for instance, sees emotions as colors: "She could see the sting of her rejection in shades of stormy blue, ghosting over his heart like sad morning mist," and "She felt ochre shades of uneasy." And another example of her well-crafted descriptions: "Then she stopped in front of a dress shop . . . the color of late-night laughter, early-morning sunshine, and waves crashing around ankles."

The characters were all well-developed and dynamic. They go through a process of self-discovery and growth. I particularly liked Scarlett because I can relate to her. She's logical and cautious, whereas her sister is impulsive and reckless. Over time, Scarlett has to learn to risk, and I can connect to her personal struggle. Julian is such a fascinating mystery, and I can't say much about him without there being spoilers, so I'll just say read the book and you won't be disappointed with his character!

Lastly, the relationships: yes, this book has romance, but that's not the key element of the book. It's about sisterly love, and what lengths a girl will go to in order to protect her sister. And the romance aspect of the book is handled very well. So many YA lit books ruin the attraction and tension between the characters by writing sex scenes (I also don't think sex scenes should be in YA lit anyways). But I'm pleased to say that there is none of that but still a riveting and scintillating romance. Imagine that? It is possible, folks.

Go read this book. It's a wild ride of amazing imagery, great characters, and surprising plot twists. Just don't forget: "It's only a game."

I can't wait to read the sequel she's writing!

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 3/5 stars
Genre: YA fantasy
Features: Fairies, fairy tale retellings, romance
Quotes:

"Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don't feel anything at all."

"'I love you,' he whispered, and kissed my brow. 'Thorns and all.'"

"When you look at it—when you acknowledge it—that's when it becomes real. That's when it can kill you."



I had to read this book because I just had to know what the hype was about. Everybody is swooning about Rhysand all over social media, so my curiosity kicked into high gear. After reading it for myself, I don't think this book is as amazing as the hype, but, it was better than I anticipated (I was expecting to have to give it a 2-star rating).

Let's talk about the plot first. The plot drags for nearly half the book, in my opinion. I realize that the "in" thing in YA lit these days is to throw the reader into the main "problem" of the story right away, to hook them from the beginning. But I didn't feel like this book did that. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the pace was a little slow for me. I did like that it was a sort of retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

So, the writing style: I was not a huge fan of it. The author uses ellipses and other punctuation to show the character drifting in thought or an interruption of thought far too much. She also loves to use dashes. It distracts from the story. (This is probably just a personal pet peeve, but I wasn't a fan of it.) There were other things, like the author using "smirk" in exorbitant amounts to describe Lucien and saying dozens of times that Rhsyand "purred" (just in case you forgot that he's attractive and feline in nature).

I really enjoyed the author's world building of Prithian, especially with the different Courts and different kinds of fairies. I liked that she challenged the typical view of fairies as tiny, female characters with a lot of sass (aka Tinkerbell). These fairies were much more like Tolkien's elves.

Now I need to talk about my biggest issue with the book, probably the issue that kept it from earning a 4-star rating. I do not think the amount of sexually explicit material in the story belongs in a book marketed towards teens. I am a married woman, and a number of scenes made me uncomfortable. I don't like this kind of material in any book (personal opinion), but especially not a YA lit book. Maybe New Adult, but not YA. One of the scenes felt particularly disturbing in that it was more like the female main character was assaulted, and it seemed like the author didn't speak against it enough. That's not okay. I don't think teens should read this stuff and think this is what healthy relationships look like. *stepping off my soapbox now*

The story was engaging once the pace picked up halfway in, and I want to know what happens with the main characters. I want to know why everyone is in love with Rhysand, because I still think he's kinda a jerk. But, considering the fact that ACOMAF has even more explicit material (from what I've heard), I may just call it a day and not finish the series.