Mini-Reviews: Netgalley

I got all of these books from netgalley for my honest review.

Saints and Misfits

Saints, Misfits, Monsters, and Mayhem is an unforgettable debut novel that feels like a modern day My So-Called Life…starring a Muslim teen.

How much can you tell about a person just by looking at them?

Janna Yusuf knows a lot of people can’t figure out what to make of her…an Arab Indian-American hijabi teenager who is a Flannery O’Connor obsessed book nerd, aspiring photographer, and sometime graphic novelist is not exactly easy to put into a box.

And Janna suddenly finds herself caring what people think. Or at least what a certain boy named Jeremy thinks. Not that she would ever date him—Muslim girls don’t date. Or they shouldn’t date. Or won’t? Janna is still working all this out.

While her heart might be leading her in one direction, her mind is spinning in others. She is trying to decide what kind of person she wants to be, and what it means to be a saint, a misfit, or a monster. Except she knows a monster…one who happens to be parading around as a saint…Will she be the one to call him out on it? What will people in her tightknit Muslim community think of her then?

Pub: 6/13/17

(this is an arc so it may be different from the finished novel)

Pros: Getting the viewpoint of one arab-indian muslim teen girls life which is important to mention because throughout the story you see that her identity is important. It is something that is apart of her everyday. One of the things that I had to think about is that this is probably the only book that shows a teen (or adult) whose religion is prominent in their life.

Another thing that surprised me out the gate is how dark this book is (which would not if I had really read the synopsis…). It brought up some Muslim intra-faith and interfaith conversations up (liking these contemporaries bringing up issues in a way that many poc deal with them. Not everyday is a heavy day). It is an everyday contemporary dealing with her everyday issues being a teen: school, dating, and etc.

Cons: I did not like this story as much as I expected/wanted to. Part of it is possibly because I did not like My So Called Life.

Meh: (disclaimer all things that I did not like can probably be attributed to this being from point of view of a teen so yeah) Janna- I did not like her most of the time and her evolution felt out of nowhere. She was so judgmental, selfish, and mean. It felt like she kept people at a distance from her (probably because of the event that happened at beginning of book) but it felt like she was just there at times and nobody was actually her friend.

Linden Hills (DNF)

Pub: 3/14/17

-20%

Pros:  From what I read so far it does bring up a lot of black racial topics (colorism, assimilation, respectability, and the problematic bits of affluent black neighborhood)

Why DNF? This sounded so good I thought this is going to be a literal or more direct Dante’s Inferno with black folks. In my head it was going to be sci-fi, I think.

What about black women? I can’t tell if it is a good representation of how black men view women during this time period (or in general) or another book with black women as set pieces. Or I did not read it far enough to get to the nuanced women. Overall, I just was not enjoying it and felt it was a conversation that has been had a lot already in more reachable/non-black women exclusionary ways.

Cinderella and the Furry Slippers

Handsome princes, fancy castles, extravagant balls . . . in this girl-power fractured fairy tale, Cinderella learns that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is, and it’s better to create your own happy ending.

Cinderella is dying to go to the ball. She’s seen pictures of the fancy castle and the handsome prince, she’s heard the fairy tales about true love, she’s found the perfect dress in Princess magazine and she’s even found an ad for a Fairy Godmother. She’s all set.

Except the fairy godmother doesn’t look like the one in the ad. And the castle doesn’t look like the picture. And the prince . . . well, Cinderella decides her fairy-tale ending is going to look different–and be a whole lot more fun.

Pub: 8/10/17

Pros:   It is a unique Cinderella retelling, fantasy world built-in the story (my favorite part of the story), the last three pages of this book which makes me wish that it would have started with Cinderella leaving Prince Charming. Then the rest of the story could have been her discovering herself in the fantasy world  around her.

Cons: I found the last three pages of  this book more interesting than the all the pages before it.

Tobor

After receiving a special gift, Ben comes to understand that friends come in all shapes, sizes – and types. Ben receives a very special present for his fifth birthday. Unlike Ben’s stuffed animals who can’t move on their own or talk, Tobor is different; with a press of his square nose, Tobor comes alive, suggesting and playing games, talking and asking questions and soon he becomes Ben’s best friend. Sometimes friendship develops where you least expect it.

Pub: 8/11/17

Pros: Art, Idea (toy robot)

Cons:  It does not feel like it has a middle point where problem happens (or that much of) to have a conclusion

 

 

Prom Queen Review

 

Synopsis

A spring night, soft moonlight, five beautiful Prom Queen candidates, dancing couples at the Shadyside High prom—these should be the ingredients for romance. But instead they’re a recipe for terror…

The Good

I could pretend that I did not read Prom Queen in October of 2016 but I will not.

I liked that it was small and short. I miss the small mass market paperbacks that you can put in your purse. I miss the artsy cover arts of the 90s. I miss feeling like there was an expansive world out there in horror *sigh*

The Bad

I like the idea of Fear Street, the nostalgia, more than what the story is today.

Book version of jump scares (ugh)

feeling detached/underwhelmed by it all

There was seriously a point where I was like I do not actually like this book. I wanted to put it down which is never a good sign.

characters mesh together/they are not distinct. Did not like any of the characters because they were all mean. I am not into this thing where people are mean to each other and call themselves friends (unless it is fun which it was not in this case)

Kind of guessed who did it early on (which probably was easy because I read almost all of the Fear Street books as a kid)

I wish I liked it because the books are old enough to be easily and cheaply accessible in used book market. I just did not feel any excitement while reading it. Overall it was blah.

I need some good (diverse) horror books in my life.

(image and synopsis are from goodreads)

21 Days of Comics: #1-7

Introductory Post

(Discontinue) Welcome to Showside #1

I was not feeling this  so I discontinued it. My mood, underwhelmed by novels aka five seconds from a reading slump, so my first 21 Day comic book had to be good/amazing. I could not suffer through something I did not like.

Jem #10-13

Neg: Feeling  underwhelmed by Dark Jem because they are not bad enough for my tastes.

Pros: Seeing Rio p.o.v (he was talking about how good a journalist he is but not good enough to know Jem=Jerica which makes me laugh). Number 13 in the series is what I have been waiting for since the entire Dark Jem happened. It made me realize not only was the true ummhm but also the fun of the series was missing in this Dark Jem thing. I only have one (well, two but it is #19 so can’t read it) comic left that I do not want to read it until I get the other ones.

Red Wolf #1-2

This is all I have in the series so far. I enjoyed this the most out of the comics I have read(before I read Jem #13). I can admit that the plot is something you see a lot but it felt like they are doing something interesting with it so far.

I do not know about the horror of disfigured man being the villain but have to read further to see if that is where they are going with his character.

All New All Different Avengers #1

Neg: The stories were mostly bad/eh so it was not necessarily tough to get through but at points not really fun to sit through.

Pos: Funny moments (most of the writing was bad!!!), commentary about fan fiction, nerd culture, misogyny in fan culture, the good bad of fanfic writing.

Where is my momentum?

I just feel that I do not have something propelling me to read comics. I go on twitter, booktube, and etc most of the focus is novels. This is not a new problem or realization for me but it is still unresolved. It has not been helped by the fact that I read 3 out of 4 good novels in 2017.  I was not facing the really horrible stinkers/underwhelming until recently. Being underwhelmed brought me back to the thought of you are not a resident. I am a guest in fiction so I should not be unpacking (really getting into reading fiction). Originally I was supposed to only read 12 novels this year which actually with the way my reading is going I am staying true to this goal. Also, I think since I know I have to work harder to find good novels I put a lot of space into that.

I cannot put all the blame on novels without acknowledging the fact that there is also a feeling of underwhelming in comics too.  I need comics that excite/amaze so I can want to read more. If anything I hope that doing this 21 days of comics will make me get back into reading comics more.

(all images are from comicvine)