Head Like a Hole

I can't remember how this one appeared in my Amazon suggestions, but they were dead on. 

The cover is striking and the Nine Inch Nails title was obviously appealing. 

Then I read the blurb and a horror novel set partially in the 90s with pop culture references? Yeah, I'll give it a shot. 

I'm not sure I can give it a higher recommendation than it was delivered yesterday evening and I stayed up until 3:15am finishing it. 

So once you open the cover, the first thing you see is an illustration that was definitely inspired by Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Another point in this book's favor. 

Then it's divided up into sections and each is named after a 90s song. More points. 

The book begins with a true crime podcast guy doing a sneak interview attack on a 46-year-old woman who lives in a tract housing development. She begrudgingly begins to tell her story and thus come the flashbacks to 1996. She and her friends graduated in 1994, so this is set two years after. 

Main character Megan is an artist who failed out of a Philly art school. She works in a bar with her booty call dude, who wants to have an actual relationship but she's hesitant. Megan is a rich girl or at least semi-rich. Her parents send her off to a boarding high school that's mostly for the wealthy. That's where she meets our flashback cast. There's her boyfriend Adam, who basically ghosted her after graduation. There are Tom and Desi, the stoner journalist and the semi-gothy New Agey girl. And there's Chunhee, the Chinese girl who was bullied by the rich white kids, because of course she was. There's also Oksana, Megan's Ukrainian dancer roommate, who none of them can seem to remember. 

The flashbacks aren't exactly Megan telling the podcast guy her story, because they're written from the PoVs of multiple characters. They begin with a fisherman making a very grisly discovery. When he pulls up one of his crab traps, along comes the head of a woman with a little tiny set of lungs and a heart dangling beneath her. When she opens her eye and begins trying to speak, he freaks out, but she soon is able to control him. 

There is body horror in this, mostly having to do with Oksana there trying to regrow herself. She needs blood and flesh to begin the process, but eventually is able to reconstruct herself using parts from people the fisherman has killed for her. 

So the fisherman is being controlled by her. She's able to get into people's heads. His taking the neighbor's dog leads to the introduction of Detective Nolan, the uncle of the podcast guy in the present. He mailed his investigation notebook to a family member before the big finale and podcast guy eventually finds it. 

Then we begin to follow the fisherman and Oksana on their little killing spree, while Megan is alerted to problems by the reappearance of Adam. She's still mad at him, but she is having the weird dreams he mentioned, so she begins by going to her old high school. She eventually realizes someone is after the five of them. She calls Chunhee and heads there but arrives too late. She and Nolan are always a couple steps behind Oksana. 

I'm going to stop there because I want people to read this book. There's the mystery of what happened to Megan in the past. Her parents died in a fire and she drove off a cliff and was in a coma for two weeks. It's clear something also happened to Oksana in the past, which feels delightfully like some Point Horror stuff. It's also fun to discover the extent of Oksana's abilities and learn the story of how they developed. The ending is just a series of big reveals while the final battle versus Oksana is happening. 

Then we get back to the present and the podcast guy...well, you need to read to find out what happens to him. I had a suspicion thanks to one character's name. 

If you're not squeamish about what I'd call minor body horror, then definitely give this one a read. The 90s references are really fun if you lived during that time. The characters are two years older than me, so I knew every song and trend mentioned. 

My only criticism is that the author needs to be careful if he's going to do a book mostly set in flashbacks. He used versions of the phrase "catch feelings" not once but twice and we most definitely did not say that in the mid-90s. It's a more modern (and somehow childish-sounding) phrase that doesn't belong in the past chapters. According to Urban Dictionary, it originated in 90s hip hop, but I never heard it until much, much later. There's no way a bunch of mostly white boarding school kids would use that phrase in the 90s. Urban Dictionary says it became popular in the 2010s. So yeah, reading that early on took me right out of the book and made me cringe momentarily. But a very minor criticism. The majority of the book was excellent. 

Witchlings 1

I finally got around to reading the first Witchlings book, now that I have the sequel in hand. 

Witchlings was definitely enjoyable, though not without minor flaws. I see some clear Harry Potter influence here. Mainly in that the concept seems to be "What would happen if witches weren't sorted?" The Twelve Towns sort their witches into houses (the houses even have personality traits like in HP), which each get one new coven of five per year. Any extra kids are called Spares. This seems pretty silly honestly. Just make some covens a little bigger. Instead, this entire lower class of witch is created and they're treated horribly. The treatment of Spares is so antiquated compared to the otherwise modern setting. It's kind of a bizarre setup. The other main HP thing is that the witch world is separate from the non-magical, though it isn't explained how. Non-magical humans are called humdrums. Heh. While the name is funny, I think the worldbuilding would have been just fine as a magical world. It didn't have to also connect to the human world like HP does. 

Anyway, Seven in the middle there is our main character. She wants to be sorted into a particular house alongside her BFF, Poppy. Poppy makes it, but Seven doesn't. She becomes a Spare. The one with the bob is named Thorn. She's new to town and seems on the fearful side. The pink-haired girl is a rich kid named Valley, who bullied Seven for years. When their mini-coven of three fails to seal, Seven invokes the Impossible Task. If they can perform the task, they'll be a coven. If they can't...they'll be turned into toads. (Not a normal punishment. This is noted.) The girls' task is to kill a Nightbeast, a huge, wolf-like monster that likes to eat witch kids. 

The story twists and turns with the girls getting to know one another and getting over old grievances (Valley and Seven). They try many different things to find the Nightbeast, and they end up uncovering a huge evil plot along the way. Each girl has somewhat decent character development, though honestly, I felt Thorn's was a bit weak. We know her a little, but not as well as Seven and Valley. I felt that way about a lot of the side characters. There could have been more development on most of the parents for sure. The book is definitely very plot and action heavy and lighter on developing the large cast of characters. I'm hoping future volumes work on that. 

I enjoyed most of the world the author built. I love the Spanish-influenced terms for things. Luz is a light spell and Veneno is a poison spell. Monsters are monstruo. I know very little Spanish, so I think this would be even more enjoyable for someone that knew more and could more easily see the origins behind the words. 

Overall, this is a fun book and a quick read. I cared about the characters and wanted to know how the story would end. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes some good witchy fantasy.

W.I.T.C.H. Part 8: Teach 2B W.I.T.C.H.

Ah, it's been a while, but I was finally called back to the world of W.I.T.C.H.

Last time was the new powers and some changes and new characterizations for the girls. 

This time, they're discovering their new mission and that there's a new big bad out there. 

FIRST ISSUE: We meet Takeda, who's the new bad guy. The company he works for (owns?) does stuff with technology involving the cold. Somehow in the recent past, he used the cold to open a portal into another world. A being from that world fell in love with his daughter, who is now in some sort of "endless sleep." Takeda keeps her in stasis there in the company until he can figure out how to help her. He's angry with everything magical, which of course includes W.I.T.C.H. The frozen being who loves the girl is also there and is given a human form thanks to some sort of formula Takeda created. They seem to be assessing the girls and looking for a weakness. 

Meanwhile, Hay has taken up babysitting, only the second client she meets turns out to be a magical kid. The girls think helping magical children might be their new mission and they consult Yan about this. She gives them a guy named Kandor who will help them with their new magical school. 

Takeda sends a naiad after the girls and she finds Will. The naiad looks like a snake but it's a parasite that takes over the body of her host and drains all their magic and other energies. At home, Takeda ignores his other daughter. 

SECOND ISSUE: Will is feeling ill thanks to the naiad, while Hay finds a boy in her closet. How did he get in her closet? Who knows? But it's the human form of the frozen guy and he calls himself Liam. Hay brings Liam to meet the other girls and he helps them with the naiad. She's drawn out of Will's body by the presence of the strong magic of the other girls. They try to fight, but Liam says only Will's best friend can do it. Thanks to a little flashback at the beginning of the issue, we know this is Taranee. She defeats the naiad and Will is saved, then there's an amusing scene where the girls all bring her gifts to prove they're her friends, too. After this, Hay visits Yan, who gives her the key to the magic school, but doesn't tell her where it is. 

THIRD ISSUE: The girls are on vacation with Taranee's family. They've got their own bungalow, as do Peter and his friends, while Taranee's parents are in a third. So they're in a beachy resort place. I'd forgotten the girls were given new magical weapons to go with their new powers. Cornelia practices with her ribbon, while Taranee's magical volleyball is found by a beach dude. She and Hay are forced to play volleyball with it. Then Hay accidentally uses her fan weapon as a fan and instead it creates a huge wind, which causes a wave that knocks Cornelia and Peter underwater, interrupting their surf lesson. Underwater, they kiss. Will keeps trying to fit the magic school key into everything, gets into some trouble, and then tries out her magic clackers, which have some weird magical effect on the world nearby. At lunch, the girls decide they need to practice with their objects. Irma's is a tambourine. They sound silly, but there's a training sequence that shows what they can actually do as weapons and it's pretty cool. Later, the girls are hiding behind a van and Will tries the key out...and it works. Kandor is inside and he shows them their new magic school, which is a huge pink tour bus that's got all sorts of cool shit inside. 

FOURTH ISSUE: The one has Matt meeting both Liam (he doesn't trust him) and Kandor (apparently Matt was his captain back on Kandrakar). Matt still won't say much about who he really is. A lot of the issue is taken up by Kandor showing the girls their individual classrooms, then Matt fights Liam in the gym, wanting to prove to the girls that he can't be trusted. Instead, Will gets annoyed with Matt. We the magical creature also makes an appearance and he's going to live on the bus with Kandor, much to Kandor's displeasure. He's allergic. 

At Cornelia's house, there's an old man that she keeps seeing. He gives her a note that she takes to her dad and he rips it up. Bitch Grandma is staying in Cornelia's room because this has upset her so much. Talking with her dad, Corny learns that the man is her grandfather, who left the family a very long time ago. He's not sure he wants to see him. 

In the school, Kandor shows the girls the magical power source that creates the school itself. It's called the lumien and it's basically a bunch of elemental energy ribbons. They send out several end pieces of the ribbons and follow them to find more magical kids. Heatherfield is apparently so magical that a lot of younger children and babies are being born with magic. 

Cornelia makes a quick trip home to tape up the note from her grandfather and leave it for her dad, who goes to see him after all. 

This one was interesting, but nothing too special. After so many issues of them hiding magic, the idea of a bunch of magical kids just out there practically in the open is unusual. And all the parents are going to end up knowing about W.I.T.C.H. The villain is a bit lackluster, but I'm also intrigued to learn more about this frozen hidden world and what exactly happened between Liam and Mariko. 

Order of Favorite Guardians: Cornelia, Hay/Taranee, Irma, Will.

The same. Cornelia is still way out in front and now she's done yet another cool thing by helping her dad. Taranee's helping Will was awesome, but I also just really loved Hay in this volume. 

FIRST ISSUE: At Takeshita, Mrs. Takeda visits her husband and eventually forces him to take her to Mariko, their eldest daughter. he explains about her being trapped in whatever state she's in thanks to her contact with the parallel world that he calls "fast world." 

Cornelia follows a lumien strand to a girl that looks a little bit older than W.I.T.C.H. Leah is a model who can shapeshift into whatever the person she's around needs most, but she's upset because she's forgotten her original face. There's this whole modelling storyline that's not very interesting. It's not Cornelia's best work after her awesome family story last time. I mean, she doesn't do anything wrong. It's just a boring storyline. The other girls take Leah to meet Yan, who helps her rediscover her true self. 

SECOND ISSUE: Taranee's mom senses that she feels lonely without Peter in the house, so they go pick out a dog. Mrs. Cook is thinking a nice, cute, little puppy, but Taranee picks out this huge black dog named Flea. While at the shelter, Taranee meets twins Luna and Sun and realizes Sun is magical. Liam sends monsters to the shelter to kidnap Sun, but she's rescued and recruited by W.I.T.C.H. She has a hand in her own rescue though, as her ability to talk to animals includes ones not of this world. Sun is a bit grumpy, but I like her. At the end, Taranee and her family go back and pick up the little puppy Taranee also liked, so Flea has a friend. 

In a brief side story, Irma attempts to befriend the younger Takeda daughter, Shinobu, but nothing comes of it. 

THIRD ISSUE: Hay notices her parents are having some marital issues, and her mom finally tells her the story of how they got together. Her mom was quite wealthy and her dad was a waiter in their household. Her mom, confronted with a marriage proposal she didn't want, realized she loved Hay's dad and they left to be together. Her father disowned her, but every year he sends a man with divorce papers, because if she signs them, he'll give her his entire fortune. So when he comes this year, Hay's dad says they're all going back with him. They basically go to China just so Hay's dad can have Hay's mom see everything she's given up and she once again declares her love for him and they leave happy. 

Meanwhile, Liam came to stay at Will's house in a ruse to get closer to baby William, who apparently is super magical. Matt follows him back to Takeshita, where he's caught and Takeda freezes him. 

FOURTH ISSUE: Shinobu is wandering around Takeshita. Takeda forces Liam to go kidnap baby William. W.I.T.C.H. has some comic relief teaching scenes. Liam visits Hay to semi-apologize for what he's about to do, then goes to Will's, where he knocks out Susan and kidnaps baby William. Takeda forces him to take William through the portal back into Liam's "fast world." William handles the entire trip just fine because he's just that magical. W.I.T.C.H., led by a furious Will, attack Takeshita. Will knows William is through the portal, so she doesn't listen to the others and goes right in. They follow and then Takeda freezes the entrance shut so they're trapped. His mission was to get the girls and William into the portal so they'd be out of our world and he'd have an easier time ridding Heatherfield of magic. Shinobu confronts her father and injects herself with his formula. He tells her the only way to save herself is to go to fast world. Takeda's robots freeze him while he's trying to protect Shinobu and she creeps into the frozen passage. 

Pretty exciting! The first issue was a bit of a dud, but the other three made up for it. I like the family backstories we're getting for the girls, though it does seem odd that first Cornelia's and now Hay's family have some old secret family drama that's revealed. And it hasn't been that long since the same happened to Taranee. 

Order of Favorite Guardians: Cornelia, Hay/Taranee, Irma, Will.

Taranee's issue had her creeping a little ahead of Hay, but then it was followed by Hay's issue, so they're right back to being tied. I hope Irma gets something to do soon. 

FIRST ISSUE: The girls find themselves in fast world, where they meet the White Queen, who tells them of her war with the Shadow Queen. She tricks them into fighting for her, but the girls realize the White Queen is actually the bad guy in fast world. The Shadow Queen turns out to be Mariko, though she's not always corporeal, her body being back on Earth. Shinobu had found William and both were then found by Mariko, so all three were imprisoned after the battle. W.I.T.C.H. and Liam free them, though Liam sacrifices himself to save Mariko. Everyone escapes and heads back to the portal. 

SECOND ISSUE: They make it through the portal and Mariko's spirit is reunited with her body. But everyone has to flee because the White Queen is on her way, somehow using a scrap of Irma's lamia (how could that even tear?) to track them. The fast worlders are using their speed to suck parts of Heatherfield back into fast world. Hay uses an old lullaby to magically transport all the citizens into an airport bunker. I have no idea how. Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay all sing together to fight the White Queen, who's attacked the bunker. Will isn't with them because she got the people out just in time. Matt breaks free of his icy prison and his voice joins them. Somehow it's his additional voice that conquers the White Queen and breaks the connection between Earth and fast world. Takeda is also freed from ice and reunited with his daughters. W.I.T.C.H. kindly lets him go. Too kindly. 

So these two issues wrap up this storyline. While I didn't hate it, I found the ending very unsatisfying. Liam sacrifices himself to save Mariko and she just briefly cries. Nothing more. Takeda is forgiven way too easily without even thanking W.I.T.C.H. or realizing there's nothing wrong with magic after all. And I have no idea how any of that singing stuff worked. But anyway, it's over. 

THIRD ISSUE: Now it's time for the filler issues. Irma becomes suspicious of Kandor and what he does in his free time, so the girls stow away on the bus and spend all of their Sunday travelling all over the world. It's a fun issue with a lot of comedy. Turns out Kandor likes knitting, so he buys yarn from all over, but he tells the girls he's collecting rare books to hide his secret. 

FOURTH ISSUE: It feels like they just started back up again, but it's apparently the end of the school year. A pianist named Francis is worried about his grades. Taranee knows him and even gives him a kiss on the cheek. I honestly can't remember if we've ever met this guy before. Cornelia and a girl named Sandra were never friends, though they're quite similar, and they decide to walk home together. This is Sandra's last day because she's moving so it's bittersweet for the pair to realize they had so much in common too late for them to be more active friends. Hay isn't in school, as she has chicken pox. The others visit her later. Irma and Stephen attend a party with his friends and Irma feels out of place. Then they have their goodbye moment, as Stephen is going off to college. Will's mom goes to a high school reunion and is reunited with her old boyfriend. Then Dean turns up in time to dance with her. It's cute. Will takes William to a day care for the first time and he totally does not even try to control his magic. He's a hit with the other kids, but I have no idea how that's going to work when Will isn't there to make everything disappear. The girls end the day hanging with Yan in Kandrakar. This was a fun issue with all sorts of storylines going on. 

FIFTH ISSUE: Will is practicing for a swimming competition and then all sorts of weird shit starts happening. It turns out because Will loves swimming so much, she gives the water all her emotions and memories and such, and it's kind of giving them back to her. W.I.T.C.H. steps in and sorts things out. 

Order of Favorite Guardians: Cornelia, Hay/Taranee, Irma, Will.

Still the same! And that wraps up this story arc.

Terri Libenson's Emmie & Friends

The newest book in Terri Libenson's Emmie & Friends graphic novel series came out today, and after finishing it, I wanted to reread the older ones. I did reviews for the first four, but never got around to the fifth or sixth. The newest is the seventh. So instead of full reviews, I'm going to hit the highlights, which for me are Libenson's twists, so this whole post is spoilers.

These books blend graphic novel style with prose. They're typically split into two different PoVs that alternate. 

Invisible Emmie is the first and shortest of the books. 

PoV #1: Emmie

Format: Prose with some illustrations

Emmie is an incredibly shy girl. She was a surprise baby for her parents, so her two older siblings are already in college when she's still in middle school. Her parents work a lot, so she's quiet at home, too, though she mostly likes it that way. Emmie is an excellent artist. Her best friend Brianna is one of the class brains. One day, they decide to write goof love letters to their crushes, only Emmie drops hers and it's found by the school asshole. She endures a few class periods of teasing because he's shown it to a bunch of people. Brianna is mad at her because Emmie had both notes and Brianna freaks because what if Emmie had dropped hers? (Brianna is kind of a shit.) Emmie ends up snapping at asshole Joe and telling him to shut up at the same time Tyler, her crush and the subject of the love letter, does the same. Tyler and Emmie head down to art together and start to become friends. She also befriends a girl named Sarah who's also in art class. Emmie started the day with only one friend and ended it with three, as Brianna comes to apologize before the day is over. 

PoV #2: Katie

Format: Typical graphic novel panels

Katie is super popular and has the perfect life. She's not horrible, but she's pretty boring.

TWIST: Katie isn't real. She's a comic drawn by Emmie to depict a character that showed what she wanted to be more like. There's a hint early on when asshole Joe sees what she's drawing and says "Katie" but the assumption is that Emmie is drawing Katie. I love the end because Katie is standing outside Emmie's bus and she slowly turns invisible as Emmie, who's been slightly gray-toned for almost the entire comic, gains more color. Emmie's realized she can be how she wants to be or at least, she can take steps to be somewhat more like that. 

PoV #1: Izzy

Format: Illustrated prose

Izzy has trouble in school but loves drama. She's excited about performing in the talent show. She lives with her single mother, an overworked nurse, and her two sisters. The older one basically takes on the mom roles and the younger one is the charmer. When Izzy forgets to do a take home test, she's grounded by her mom, meaning she can't perform in the talent show. With help from her younger sis, she sneaks out. She ends up being caught but thanks to some well-timed family admissions, her mom lets her do the show. 

PoV #2: Brianna

Format: Comic panels

Brianna is Emmie's smart BFF from the first book. Her mom is the new drama teacher and she asks Bri to fill in for a sick student, giving her only a few hours to learn her scene. Her scene partner is a boy in some of her advanced classes and they end up bonding. Brianna comes out of her comfort zone to perform the scene with only minor bumps in the road. 

TWIST: Izzy is Brianna's mom. Izzy's chapters are set in the past. Some tidbits were added in to make this work, like Bri's dad saying they had teacher conferences on the same day since the 70s. The drama teachers past and present are both called Mrs. D, though you never see the past one, of course. It would give it away. Izzy has spot #5 in the performance list and Brianna is #6. Bri comments that the girl in spot #5 is really good and has props, which is just like Izzy. I really did not see this coming the first time I read it. 

PoV #1: Jaime

Format: Illustrated prose

Jaime is one of the gossip girls shown in the background of the first two graphic novels. She and the other one shown, who turns out to be Maya, don't exhibit much personality, aside from gossiping and singing poorly at the talent show. In her own story, Jaime is dumped by her friend group because she isn't "mature" enough for them. She deals with this over the span of a day, meets some new friends, realizes thing about herself both good and bad, and makes amends for her past behavior. 

PoV #2: Maya

Format: Comic panels

Maya is the blonde gossip girl and she's the one forced to dump Jaime by Celia, the bitchy group leader. Maya and Jaime were the two best friends, along with a third friend named Grace, who took Celia in when she was new. Celia is basically a Regina George. She's nasty and doesn't seem to have any redeeming qualities, so it's very hard to understand why Maya and Grace want her approval so badly. Part of the reason she wanted Jaime out was because Jaime always wanted to be "just Jaime" and didn't let her friends (namely Celia) force her to do anything she didn't want to. Basically, Celia couldn't control Jaime and she couldn't handle that. She was also interested in Anthony (Brianna's former crush), who was friends with Jaime but not Celia. So Maya dumps Jaime and then watches Celia still make comments about her ex-BFF behind her back. She calls Celia on it a few times and then Celia turns her attention to Grace, ignoring Maya. Maya eventually realizes she was wrong to want Celia's approval. Celia isn't a good person. And she was wrong to be mean to Jaime. She ends up going to Jaime's house at the end of the day to apologize. Jaime accepts, though she says it will take time. After summer, the girls are shown with Emmie, Brianna and Sarah, plus Anthony and Tyler. Anthony and Jaime seem to be a couple now and everyone is getting along well. 

TWIST: There really isn't one. The French teacher who helped Jaime when she was most upset told her a story about how she ghosted a friend because that friend made joking comments that were cruel. At the end, it turns out Jaime's mother was that friend and the two women meet in the same place as all the kids to reconnect. 

PoV #1: Brianna in the Past

Format: Illustrated prose

This section tells the story of how Bri's mom talks her into having a bat mitzvah. It begins eight months before the present day section and counts down until right before the day of the bat mitzvah. I'm not a big fan of Brianna and I remember being annoyed she got a book before Sarah. Sarah only just now got a book. She's the star of the most recent one. So yeah, still a little annoyed. Izzy's book was about Brianna's mom and Brianna, and now this one is the same because Izzy is in this a lot. Brianna struggles with learning Hebrew, with not wanting to be in the spotlight, with wondering why she's doing all this, and with a fight with Emmie. Emmie thinks Brianna's new cool girl friend Zoe is just using Bri for a bat mitzvah invite. Brianna stays mad at her for over a month until she finally sees that Emmie is right. With some help from Dev, who's my fave of the boys. Maybe he'll get a book next. 

PoV #2: Brianna in the Present

Format: Comic panels

This is the day of the bat mitzvah. Despite turmoil, Brianna gets through it all. The two cool girls show up after the service and then seem to suddenly realize how shitty that was and sit at the party uncomfortably until Brianna invites them to dance with her and her friends. I like Bri better after this book, but she's still far from my favorite and I don't think she needed two books practically to herself. What I like most about this one is that it takes place during the entire time period of the first three books. 

TWIST: There is none. 

PoV #1: Tyler

Format: Illustrated prose

The first book from a boy's point of view. This one takes place after winter break. Tyler and Emmie want to work on the art class comic book project together because they have fun in class, but balancing working on the comic with basketball practice before the big game becomes too much for Tyler to handle. His friends don't help much either. Anthony picks on him for his slacking on practice, while Joe and others tease him about Emmie. He works to improve his relationships with his dad and his older brother (the high school basketball star) while figuring out what to do about Emmie and how to balance his newfound love of art with his love of basketball. 

PoV #2: Emmie

Format: Comic panels

Emmie is thrilled Tyler still wants to be friends with her after not seeing each other over break. When she starts seeing Sarah picked on and then herself targeted as some sort of "downgrade" for Tyler, who formerly dated bitchy Celia, she decides to improve herself. I had hoped for something better for Emmie's second PoV, but she was kinda sheltered before so I guess she had to learn the "be yourself" lesson. I was very annoyed when she pushed Sarah away for her own self-preservation and I don't think she apologized to her enough. 

This one seems a bit out of place. Brianna's book covers the same time period the first three books cover, but Tyler's goes backward to before Jaime's. 

TWIST: Sadly none. This one had an added bonus of the comic pages drawn by Tyler and the pages drawn by Emmie. At the end, there are pages drawn by both of them. So I guess I'll take a fun comic over a twist this time, but it's sad to be twistless so many times in a row.

PoV #1: Ruby

Format: Illustrated prose

Ruby has been in the background of every previous book. I think. I'm pretty sure anyway. She's known for some IBS issues that have her always bolting to the bathroom and has only been referred to as Baked Bean Girl before. She's in seventh grade like the rest of the characters and is a bit of a failure at social skills. She ends up joining the brand new poetry club after winning the prize at the Student Showcase (as seen in Tyler's book). There, she meets Leah, who becomes a new friend. I liked Leah a lot and she kinda disappears midway through the story, which is disappointing. Ruby also makes friends with Juan, a comical boy who loves both art and poetry. At the talent show, he reveals his crush on a boy and she realizes that if he shared that big a secret with her that he must trust her and consider her a friend. Ruby performs her poem about missing Mia, an eighth-grader she used to be friends with for a long time. 

PoV #2: Mia

Format: Comic panels

Meanwhile, Mia is a rather annoying Type A. She's running for class president and is so obsessed with it that she basically loses both her friends and her boyfriend. Ruby is mentioned a few times in her section and she's clearly exasperated by her. During the talent show, Mia hears the start of the poem and flees. The girls later get into a fight in the school halls and both their parents are called. So far we've seen Mia with her dad and Ruby with her mom. Instead of detention, the girls have to work together volunteering with their favorite English teacher who works with younger kids after school. They both love it and find a way past their differences with Mia getting Ruby's help in what you think is her campaign speech but actually ends up being her explaining why her competitor will be the better president. She makes up with both her friends and her boyfriend. 

TWIST: Near the end when Mia texts Ruby and asks if she wants to watch Phineas and Ferb and Ruby says yes, they emerge from two rooms...right beside each other. Ruby and Mia are SISTERS. Definitely a good one in the twist department. I didn't see it coming at all. 

PoV #1: Sarah

Format: Illustrated prose

This one works a little differently. Not only is it split by character, but the stories do not run on the same timeline. Sarah is a character we've seen many times. She's BFFs with Emmie and Brianna. Her other best friend (Best Boy Friend) is her neighbor Leo, who goes to a private school. The big issue is will Sarah ask her crush Ben to the dance? In Sarah's section, she DOES ask Ben. He says yes, but practically ghosts her after. Not the behavior of someone who wants to go to a dance. Leo is upset about this so he kind of abandons her, too. Ben ends up saying he's sick and bowing out of the dance, so Leo offers to take his place. While at the dance, Sarah overhears two boys talking and learns that Ben never wanted to go with her. She just caught him by surprise and he didn't want to hurt her feelings because they're both friends with Leo. Afterward, Leo ends up confessing that the reason he abandoned her for a bit is because when she told him she asked Ben to the dance, Leo realized he liked Sarah. She's freaked out and avoids him for a while, but then they finally talk. 

PoV #2: Leo

Format: Comic panels

In Leo's story, Sarah does NOT ask Ben to the dance. Leo is dealing with convincing his two dads to let him switch from private school to Sarah's school. His parents want him to do better and focus more, which is why they tried the private school. Leo is deliberately avoiding making friends there just to try to prove how much he hates it. When Sarah reveals her crush on Ben and her failure to ask him, Leo offers to go with her. Leo doesn't like being around both of his friends at the same time. Sarah is goofy around Ben and tries too hard, so Leo starts hanging out with Ben at his house. All Ben wants to do is play video games while Leo is more the athletic type, so he's always bored. So in this version of the story, Leo is at Ben's and Ben goes on about how weird Sarah is. Leo lets it slip that she's weird because she likes Ben and Ben is unreasonably pissed. He does end up at the dance and this time Sarah overhears him talking about how he'll hide from her if she still has a crush on him. Knowing Leo told, Sarah is rightfully furious. Leo realizes Ben is a shitty friend. In this version, Leo also comes out as having a crush on Sarah and again, she can't take it. 

So now we're at the final shared chapter, which is the same ending for both versions of the story. Leo is finally happier at his private school because he's made friends and he decides to stay there. Sarah is over Ben, because he's an asshole in both versions, though way moreso in the Leo's PoV version. They agree to start over and concentrate on being friends. Joe appears a little bit in this one, as he does have a crush on Sarah, which was discussed in Tyler's book. 

TWIST: There is none. After one as good as Ruby's, I don't mind not getting one. I wasn't a fan of the format this time. These books are more realistically-written so having two different versions of the same story and you don't know which actually happened is annoying. I liked Sarah better in the other books and I'm disappointed that this was her plotline. 

So that's that! The timeline of this series really is all over the place. Emmie and Izzy come first. Ruby's runs around the same time as both of those, I think. It ends shortly after the talent show. Tyler's is after that and then Sarah's. Sarah's is set in May, which puts it right before Jaime's, which is at the end of the school year. Then Brianna's covers that entire time period. 

Character-wise, I actually really love Ruby. I think she might be my favorite. She seemed the most loveable character. I liked Sarah before her own book. I still like her, but definitely not as much. Emmie I liked more in her own book than in Tyler's, but overall, I like her a lot. 

I'm not sure who I'd like to see get a book next. I'd love to see more of Leah. Nikki Lourde actually interests me, even though she doesn't have the best rep. She's Anthony's ex and the girl who got him to stop spitting. The one with the purple hair. We've not seen anything with her friend group, so she could use some depth. Joe could definitely use a book. It'll be interesting to see who's next!