CIRCE

 

I was excited to find this book in one of the local antique malls, though I didn't buy it there. They tend to be a bit pricey, so I plug the info into Amazon and yep, almost $6 cheaper. 

I love the format of this series. Each volume opens with an introduction and then a non-fiction essay about the title character. Then there are several fiction short stories for the latter part of the book. Sounds pretty great, right?

I started with Circe's book, because she's the one who found me that day. At first, I enjoyed the essay, but ended up annoyed by it. It was a rambling, unorganized mess, divided into nonsensical sections that sometimes were just the literal continuation of what came before with no needed break for a new heading. It was extremely repetitive. I felt like I read the same sections and topics multiple times. My biggest issue though was the author's constant reference to Madeline Miller's Circe novel. It's fine to devote a section of your essay to Miller's novel, but there were so many repeated references to the novel that it felt like the author was treating it on the same level as ancient sources. You couldn't tell where she was talking about the book and where she was talking about ancient myths. 

Thankfully, the short stories were mostly fun. I liked a lot of them, though there were some that took a darker turn on things. There are always going to be those authors that want every interaction in ancient myth to become a rape story. Sometimes that's definitely the take from the ancient sources, but not always, and it does get as repetitive as the opening essay. Sometimes it's handled well and I'm sure there are audiences that enjoy this sort of viewpoint. I'm not here for mopey, weak Circe though. My favorites were the ones with a different take on her relationship with Scylla, the one where she was a badass in modern times, and the one where she's younger and sculpting animals out of clay. 

I'm looking forward to the other nine volumes in this series, which I'll be tackling in alphabetical order. In late October, we're getting Helen of Troy (Can we move away from Troy then, please? Achilles and Odysseus already have books in the series and now Helen.) and...drumroll...GILGAMESH. I hope to see Egyptian, Hindu, East Asian, more West Asian, and American mythology take the spotlight in future volumes, but I'm sure we've got plenty of Greeks left to go, as they've mostly done mortals so far. 

The History of Everything

There will be spoilers here.

This popped up on Amazon and I ordered it immediately. A YA graphic novel with goths on the cover? TWO goths? Unheard of. 

You see, goth characters tend to be either side characters or part of a bigger ensemble cast. One of the few exceptions is Esther from Giant Days. You could make an argument for Wednesday, but I feel she's less representative of goth and more just an Addams. They're their own animal.

Anyway, I was thrilled to see two goth characters on the cover and the summary made it clear they were both main characters. 

Agnes is the red-themed one with shorter hair. 

Daisy has a purple and then blue color scheme. 

The plot is that these two are basically each other's only friend. Not unusual for goths in high school. We tend to find each other. Not that I had that experience, but I would have liked it. On the last day of school, Agnes is devastated to learn she's moving at the end of the summer, so the two locate a scrapbook (The History of Everything) they made when they were eight. They make a whole plan for a bucket list of sorts that they want to do during their last summer together. 

The problems begin when Daisy meets Noah, a new guy in their school, on the first day the list begins. He gets woven into their plans because Daisy is smitten, Agnes doesn't get it and feels rejected, they fight, then there's your typical makeup scene at the end, and they part smiling tearfully. 

The characters are flawed but likeable. 

Daisy is a sweet girl, but I didn't like how she folded Noah into their plans, then didn't understand when he was disrupting their last summer together. I feel like there could have been a note about how you don't have to change yourself for a guy. At the fair, Daisy, who is terrified of heights, chooses to go on the roller coasters with Noah and his friend Ian, leaving Agnes all alone. While she does end up having fun, I think there could have been a nod to "I'm glad I tried something new, but I shouldn't have done it to impress a guy." 

Noah doesn't care for a band the girls love or their favorite show. He's kind of an ass about the latter. But overall, he's a good guy, and he got major points for offering to finish the bucket list with Daisy, and for doing things he wouldn't have done otherwise, like visiting the cemetery to "meet" Daisy's grandma. I like him. 

Agnes is obviously going through it. She's mad at her mom for springing this all on her. I would be, too. Don't blame her a bit. I don't think an age is mentioned anywhere, but neither girl drives, so I'm thinking 15ish. No matter her age, she's definitely old enough to have her mom treat her like more of an adult and include her in this life-changing decision. I also don't blame her for being upset about Daisy pushing her aside for Noah, especially when she lied the day of their big fight. 

I do still like Daisy. It's impossible not to like her. She's a kid with her first boyfriend. But they could very easily have just split time. It's a whole summer with only a few events on the list. So spend a day doing something with Agnes and the next with Noah. But then again, I guess you wouldn't have a plot if you used that sort of logic. 

So yeah, I liked both girls, but they're both flawed characters. Daisy's the easier to like one, but she behaves worse, in my opinion. But there's something about Agnes where I felt like she was holding me at arm's length. I understood her better than Daisy, but that didn't endear her to me for some reason. She's more closed off with her emotions and that somehow translated to feeling that way with the reader, too. 

I did love all the pop culture nods. They rename everything, but there are nods to Keanu Reeves, the Matrix, Constantine, Saw, and Buffy. My favorite was them going to the mall to visit...TOMB. The goth store. 

One thing to note, no one ever uses the word "goth" in this, but there are definitely signs. Tomb. Dyeing their hair. The clothes. Horror. Mean girls laughing at them. Both of them have Puppie band shirts, which has to be Skinny Puppy. They like an 80s new wave band called Fast Fashion, which is definitely Depeche Mode. 80s new wave is very much interwoven into the goth scene. 

I really liked the scene with Daisy and Noah in the cemetery, visiting her grandma. While I think a lot of people do this, it's a nice depiction of a goth in a cemetery that is actually there for a good reason. I think it's a lot of why I ended up liking Daisy best, despite her poor priorities. 

I definitely recommend this. It's imperfect but it's still fantastic. Put on some Depeche Mode while you're reading. 

24 HOURS IN THE VIKING WORLD

 

I realize I skipped over the volume before this, which was Ancient China. I think that one was the most dry so far, but still a good read. 

So I finally got around to reading the Viking book,  because one set in "Shogun's Japan" just came out. 

I have mixed feelings on this. 

It's a great read. I learned a lot. I like how she ends several chapters with what happened to the person after the chapter ended. The balance of characters was good. 

My biggest problem is that this author completely ignored the theme of this series. All the others took place over the course of ONE 24-hour time period. These chapters are all over the place, so this is not "a day in the life of the people who lived there," as the cover says. Some of these chapters are years apart! There is no real connect to any of them. A few have linked characters, which I like, but the Rome book especially showed how that should be done. This wasn't like that. I get that the author wanted to be in different locations, as the Viking World is far larger than Rome or Athens, but why ignore the hour theme? The other authors made the hour part of the story. She doesn't. 

All in all, this is an excellent book on Vikings and I loved aspects of it, but I would really like to know both why the author felt she was too good to keep to the point of the series and why the makers of this series even let her do that in the first place. It's the worst book in the series for that reason. 

Deer Hill

All sorts of spoilers ahead. 

Amazon suggested the second book in this semi-series to me and I liked the sound of it, so I grabbed this one, too. 

Bye Forever, I Guess is set in a small mountain town in Virginia named Deer Hill. It's your typical small town. 

The main character has the fabulous name of Ingrid Ant. She's the redhead on the cover, though you'd never know it from the text. Pretty much my only critique of this book is that the author only describes two of the characters. The boy on the left and his twin, who isn't on the cover. You just have to guess that the girl in the middle is Ingrid and the one on the right is her online friend Lorren, based on their personalities. Like there's no way Ingrid would wear that upper right outfit. 

Anyway, Ingrid is a shy girl who goes along with her popular best friend Rachel, though the friendship is getting more and more uncomfortable. After meeting twins that are new to town (Oliver there on the cover and his sister Alyx), Ingrid is mortified at lunch when Rachel not only introduces them to the larger friend group, despite knowing Ingrid already met them, but mentions Ingrid's deceased parents in a way that really upsets her. Ingrid cuts ties and there's drama stemming from that.

While shy in person, Ingrid is actually famous online and runs a popular Scrollr (I love this take on Tumblr) account in which she shares wrong number texts she's received. The original ended with "Bye forever, I guess," hence the name of her Scroll and the book. She runs the account anonymously. (She's thirteen, so that's for the best.) Rachel is one of only three other people who knows that Ingrid is "Anony Mouse" and she's constantly bugging Ingrid to tell others, just so she can seem cooler. 

So the main plot of the book is that Ingrid gets a wrong number text that turns into a friendship. This boy joins her and her online friend Lorren in playing a video game. Those are their characters on the lower part of the cover. As the story progresses, Ingrid develops feelings for Traveler, the wrong number boy. While in real life, she's friendless, having been ostracized due to her treatment of Rachel, who's one of those bitchy popular girls. She has a few encounters with Oliver, though she doesn't trust him, thinking he's still in the Rachel friend group. It eventually comes out that he thinks she left the group because she doesn't like his sister Alyx, but Ingrid corrects that. 

I'm sure you can guess that Oliver and Traveler end up being the same person. Ingrid already is interested in Traveler, but she also has growing feelings for Oliver, so it all works out well that they're the same person. And there's a showdown with Rachel in which the truth comes out and Alyx ends up switching to Team Ingrid. 

The world-building here is really good. I already said how I love Scrollr and the video game is worked in a lot, too. There's also a fantasy book series that Ingrid, Lorren and then Oliver are huge fans of. The book culminates in Ingrid going to a book-signing in DC and that's when the Oliver truth comes out. 

I loved all these characters so much. Definitely highly recommend this one! It's a quick, cute, just plain fun read. 

This book also takes place in Deer Hill, also with eighth graders. I knew that going into it. What I was shocked by though are the many similar elements to the first book. 

The main character escapes a toxic friend group. She begins texting with an anonymous boy who turns out to be someone she has feelings for in real life. There's even a repeat of her being banned from two separate lunch tables and ending up eating in the library. These two on the cover even look a little bit like Ingrid and Oliver. And she's a weaver, while Ingrid was a knitter. 

There are definitely major differences. Mainly, Virginia was a popular girl. So popular that there was a group chat with her and three other friends that also acted like a burn book. Ingrid was never popular herself. She was just part of Rachel's group and not even paid attention to by the rest of the group. And unlike Ingrid, Virginia had a crush on the boy before the texting began. 

Basically, there's the group leader, rich girl Mary Heather, and then there's the actual mean girl of the group, Kat. Kat loves to target people and Mary Heather plays both sides of things. When Kat begins to pick on Virginia for liking Grayson, a once popular boy who's now ostracized, she denies it and says a bunch of mean stuff on their group chat. The next day at lunch, she's done with the subject though and with Mary Heather's constantly changing sides. She goes off on them, then also the fourth girl, quiet photographer Jess, who she's annoyed with because she never says anything in anyone's defense. The entire school witnesses this fight and now Virginia is friendless. 

Later, there's a new Scrollr account called Deer Hill Dirt, which is screenshots from the group chat of Virginia saying mean things. She freaks out and is consoled by her perfect older sister, Victoria. She also begins a friendship with her "text-door neighbor," who calls himself Knight Errant for a code name. Virginia calls herself Cardinal. These books are loaded with safety stuff for younger kids being online and I think that's pretty great. Like in both books, their parents are in contact and know who both parties are. And actually keep it a secret. Virginia starts getting into photography and sends Knight Errant photos, while he's a writer and shares his book progress with her. She also includes him in her weaving, which she's getting back into after her friends had deemed it uncool. The texting makes the pair develop crushes on each other, though it is revealed at the end that they both liked each other before the texting. Virginia stands up for herself and turns the tables on the mean girls, though they end up getting her back by posting her mean comments about Grayson. He's devastated but they end up making up in real life. She also puts the mean girls on public blast on the school steps and it's pretty awesome. She and Jess find their way back to being friends and are excited about their new shared love of photography. Her next problem is that she couldn't reveal to Grayson that she's Cardinal, even though she realized he was Knight Errant. But everything finally comes out and they get together at the end. 

I liked the overlapping elements. Scrollr is in both books. Virginia's sister Victoria plays a game that I'm positive is the one Ingrid and her friends play. There's a hint at a fantasy series that Grayson references that I'm sure is the same one Ingrid loves.   

I am a bit surprised that the author went so close to her first book though. Is it a fun read? Absolutely. Did I like the characters? Yes, though I love Ingrid and crew more. But there are so many elements that are so very similar that it feels like a strange choice to have made. It's definitely still a good book. It didn't make me happy as much as the first did, but I do recommend it if you enjoy the first one. 

And again, there are no character descriptions except for Grayson and then you know Mary Heather is the blonde on the cover. You have no idea which of the two on the right is Kat and which is Jess. Considering Mary Heather and Kat were the evil duo, they should have been drawn together and Jess left standing alone. But it's such an odd choice to not describe your characters. Like how is the love interest practically the only one that gets described? 

That said, I'd definitely read more Deer Hill books. 

Oh, and if anyone has read My Lady Jane and the others in that series, this is the same author! I have almost all the Lady Janies books, though I've only ever read the first one. She also writes fantasy stuff, so I may check that out but I'm finishing the Lady Janies first.

The Invite

 

Irina Shapiro's latest caught my eye, so I ordered it and finished it in one day. 

Does it kind of look like an adult YA Point Horror from the 90s to anyone else? 

Yeah, that's exactly what it's like. 

Seven college friends who are now 26 are invited to a lake house by one of their number that hasn't been seen for I think it was three years. 

The once missing girl is Lexie. She was Serena's best friend in college and Noah's girlfriend...until she dumped Noah over text and disappeared. 

Noah is a pretty straightforward character. So boring that I can't even remember his profession. After Lexie's disappearance, he ended up with Serena and they're married. Serena wants kids right away. He does not, which he mentions right before they get to the lake house. She's pissy about it but pretends to be okay with it. What he doesn't know is that she's pregnant already. 

Serena is a Raging Bitch. And she's racist. Very insecure and that turns into sheer nastiness. I hate her. She's of course very upset at Lexie's return because she's sure Noah still wants Lexie. (And he does.)

Richie is a criminal attorney, works for the DA, typical player. 

Remy is a fashion photographer, works with some high profile people, also a typical player. (Though maybe not typical because a lot of the fashion industry is gay and he's not.) 

Angelina is a nurse with a long-time thing for Richie. She's the mom friend. 

Mia is an elementary school teacher. Can't say much about her that isn't a spoiler.  

Vince is The Black Guy. Yes, this is seriously his role. He's Angelina's ex and hoping to get back with her, but the others aren't close to him at all. Serena makes some racist comments towards him and doesn't understand why he was even invited. She felt the same way when Noah invited him to their wedding. See what I mean about racist bitch? Vince is a very likeable character, his only flaw being that he's a little too moony over Angelina when she's clearly into Richie. He and Mia are the only two I actually liked. While Angelina has a black grandmother, everyone else is mayo white, so Vince feels like he's the guy added for variety like they'd do in 90s YA horror or horror movies. I'm really not sure what Shapiro was going for with him. Was she mimicking that trope? You could take him out of the entire book and it wouldn't change much. 

So friends at the lake house. Lexie doesn't show. A body turns up in the lake the next morning. Cops are called. No one trusts anyone else. And it just spirals from there. 

I enjoyed it, mostly because it really did feel like grown up Point Horror. But I'd never reread it. Hated the ending. If you liked those books in the 90s, maybe check this out, but I wouldn't spend money on it.

Guardians of Dawn 2

 

I'm sure I've mentioned before how weird I can be with books sometimes. If I love a book, I either devour it as fast as I can or I can read a bit and then set it aside for months, then devour it when I finally pick it up again. I did that with the first book in this series and now I've done it again with the second. 

I finally finished this tonight and I'm still feeling into the story, so I'll likely start the third soon. 

The first book introduced us to the Guardians of Dawn, elemental spirits reborn into the bodies of teenage girls. We met Zhara, the Guardian of Fire. Ami is the Guardian of Wood and she's quite different than Zhara. I'm pretty sure she's autistic-coded, as she spends a lot of time thinking about how she does things so differently than others. She's othered herself based on how she thinks, how she handles feelings, being touched, and repeatedly says she has trouble understanding figurative language. She learns to be more comfortable with herself by the end, but I'm also sure she'd still think of herself as different. It's never taken in a bad way by anyone but herself. Zhara even describes it all as charming, which pleases Ami. 

Ami and her father, once the court astronomer, ran away from Zhara's kingdom after Ami was outed as a magician. Her father's mind is described as broken, so he requires a lot of care. Ami is a scrivener, so she writes letters and things for people, reads, etc. 

Ami meets Gaden, a character referred to as the Beast, quite early on. She's also described as very beautiful, so where Zhara was Cinderella, Ami is Belle. 

I'm not going to get into the complexities of it all, but there's a lot of travel in this book. Ami and Gaden eventually team up with Zhara, Han and Sajah, and they try to find the Root of the World, which is where they think another demon portal is. 

Yuli, my favorite, makes a few appearances in her spirit form. She's the Guardian of Wind we met in Zhara's book and her main power is astral travel. 

Like Zhara's book, this one is also really good. I couldn't put it down when I just picked it back up again, so I definitely recommend this series. 

Catching Up

Okay, I've gotten woefully behind on a lot of reviews. I always intend to write about things and then don't, so here are quick blurbs on some of the things I've read in the past almost year or so. 

Second book in the Against All Gods trilogy. Just as good as the first. I'm partway through the third, but I put it down two months ago and haven't picked it back up. I need to, but I also don't want it to be over. 

A girl who's missing her best friend (she's away at camp) meets a new girl that's only in town for a carousel revival project. It's basically a coming of age story and very good. 

Same author only with adult, enemies-to-lovers lesbians.

I really love this author. She's the one behind the updated Anne and Jo graphic novels that I may or may not have reviewed. 

Just look up Kathleen Gros and enjoy her stuff. 

  

Parachute Kids and its sequel Outsider Kids are about three young immigrant kids who are trying to live on their own hiding in the US while their parents work to get over here legally. 

This one is an excellent read, but definitely some serious themes. Highly recommend them both. 

Sea Legs is about a girl that lives on a boat with her parents and their cat. They travel from place to place, sometimes staying a while to earn money and then the girl can go to regular school. Otherwise, she's homeschooled. This one is mostly light-hearted with some serious moments, but those moments get VERY serious. 

I think I've reviewed Peapod Farm here before. Very cute series about a city girl whose Mom gets divorced and they move to the country to live on a farm with her new boyfriend. His two daughters come stay with them on the weekends. He's an asshole in the first one, but improves as the series goes on. This is the third volume. I was disappointed Summer, who they teased last time as not being as mean as she seems, didn't play a role in this volume. I mean, she's there, but not in the capacity I expected. 

I've also read the newest in the Click and Sunny Side Up series. Those are always good. 

Switching back to regular novels. 

This thing is amazing. 

It flips between 1936, when the older main character is a teen, and 1978, when she's a curator at the Met. The second main character is about that age in the 1978 sections. 

It involves Egypt, fashion, the Met Gala, and a stolen artifact. 

HIGHLY recommend. I need to check out more of her books when I've done my TBR pile some justice. 

Flipping back to YA. I don't usually do YA romance unless it's tied in with some historical or fantasy theme, but this one caught my eye. 

Sadie Wen is a model student, fighting for the spot of valedictorian, and her mortal enemy is Julius Gong. For a bit of therapy, Sadie writes emails where she says exactly what she wants to say, mostly to Julius but also to other classmates and teachers. Well, in this book, they get sent out and she's got to deal with the consequences. 

There's a novella sequel to this that just came out and I'm looking forward to reading it, even though I usually don't do digital. 

The newest book from the same author. 

Former model Leah Zhang is on a guided trip through China that's supposed to immerse her in her culture. 

Naturally, the guy that ruined her life with a lie is along for the ride. 

I really enjoy this author. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on her. 

I have two more by her in my TBR that I need to get to. 

And finally, I've gotten back around to Irina Shapiro. I was rereading The Clique series and then started on Alphas, and I needed to also read something that wasn't so teen fluffy. 

Echoes from the Past is a Shapiro series that comes before the Nicole Rayburn ones I started with. But I need to read all nine of these before getting back to Nicole, as she's teaming up with Quinn, the main character of this series. 

They're very similar to the Nicole books. Half is set in the past. Half is in the present and deals with the main character's personal drama. The main difference is that Quinn is an archaeologist who has the power to see the lives of the people who owned the artifacts she finds. They have to be dead for her to see anything, but you can imagine how this would be useful to an archaeologist. She seems to not like it, and I get that you could never use it for anything academic, but I'd still love that ability to really see into the past. 

Okay, that catches me up. I'm planning on working through the Echoes from the Past series, while finishing my Alphas reread, then probably getting back to the final book in the Against All Gods trilogy. I need to also finish Ami, the second Guardians of the Dawn book, as the third comes out on the 19th and it's featuring my favorite character.