This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

"And which am I?" Asked August, pulling away. "Your weakness, or your strength?" 

Emily's warm brown eyes went wide and flat as the truth spilled out. "Both."

MONSTERS.

Amiright?

Monsters.

There's some books that stride into your life and then beat the crap out of you. This is that book. And if
 you stay tuned, I can show you just how this book found all my weakness and left me in a little puddle of nothingness.

This book releases on July 5th, 2016

Genre:  Post apocalyptic paranormal horror

Feelings: Did I mention this book slapped me in the face repeatedly? 

Cuteness: -clear throat- This ship. I will go down with it. [Insert that captain jack sparrow gif. you know the one]

Fast pacing: Yes. Things keep happening, even if this is a plot-light book

Series: Two book series

Read if you like: Supernatural. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Tuchlocke. Shallow Graves. The setting of Legend.

Content: Violence, mainly. There blood. The killings of monsters and humans. Blooood. That's all I remember.

Trigger warning? Family members loss. Touches of abusive relationships. 

In summary... He's a monster. She hunts them. They both are monstrous, they both live in a monstrous world. And it's crumbling. 

Thoughts: The pluck of violin strings. Hard stone and flickering lights.

Messages: Differences between two humans, identity not defining identity.

Rating: 4.75/5 Very close five stars. PRACTICALLY five stars

-The Characters-

I'm calm. I'm calm. I will calmly express my love fore these characters. Oh who am I kidding. I will screech it from the rooftops. 

AUGUST! KATE! 

First punch to the face: Identity. I love characters who struggle with their very identity. I love characters who want something even if they're aware that something is probably not good for them. I love characters with good hearts but bad experiences that have turned them cold.

August and Kate were those characters who were so similar even though they were so different. They each struggled with the same things more or less, but from their different lifestyles and personalities they went about it so differently. But worked so well together. 

Reactions to the first meeting of Kate: Yes. Yes yes, go burn down that church lil' anger bean

Reactions to the first meeting of August: Little rapunzel music-bean. 

Kate. How she tries so hard to be tough, cruel, and pulls it off but at a cost. And August. August is a little violin playing doughnut. 'Nuff said.

Swift kick in the shin: THEY WERE SO SAD. They hated and loved and wanted to be so much better.

Oooh my. And side characters. No one seemed underdeveloped to me. There were some we didn't see enough of to see their souls, but everyone was clearly depicted. I'm so excited to see where this story goes.

-Plot and Writing-

Aggressive pummeling to the nose: AESTHETICS.

Can we just talk about the aesthetics of the story? The violin strings, the metal nails, the darkness, street lights, stone steps, charcoal eyes and shadows. Everything fit together, everything melded into it's own song. 

I do wish there had been a bit more explanation early on. It was confusing, seeing as Chapter one made it seem like modern day, kinda supernatural-like, but then chapter two was clearly a different world. The world is clearly well-developed, but I didn't get it explained soon enough. And while sometimes that's done on purpose, in this case I was left confused. I had to go back to the blurb a few times, check the genres on goodreads, to kinda place myself a bit more so I didn't get too out of it. 

I don't have much to say about the plot. Partly because there wasn't much? Like, there was plot. But all the "OH THIS IS A PROBLEM" type things came much later in the book. In this case, this is a duology and I think it works, but if it hadn't been for my love for the characters right at page one, there wouldn't have been much for me to keep reading for.

Elbow straight to the stomach: Writing. Victoria can write. Her words fit this setting so well, painting this picture of blood and stone and claws. Writing was on point. Setting was on point, I just wanted to see more of it. Visuals were so clearly depicted I wanted to paint them on my walls.

-Messages and Others-

This book took a lot of tropes that I adore, smooshed them into a book with the types of aesthetics and moods I adore and baked it on high for a couple hours to make this beautiful song that I thoroughly enjoyed.

 It also got in a couple punches, left a few bruises, but I forgive it.

Good books that beat you up are easy to forgive. 


Overall, this is another solid book, another to go on the list of favorites, another to anticipate the release of, another to fling at all my horror-lovers. 

Wow look at this handy dandy link to it's amazon page. Only 10 dollars to preorder the hardback? Wow! You see that add-to-cart button?

Click it. Do the thing. 

Did you do it? Good. 

Outrun The Moon by Stacey Lee

I don't believe in fate or destiny, but somehow, I will change ours for the better, even my inauspicious Ma's. I simply must catch the phoenix feather

I'll scream it from the rooftops. READ THIS BOOK. 

Sometimes you just find that book, that you feel like you should find something wrong with. You know it's probably not perfect, and you don't feel the need to curl up in a ball in a bout of reading slump depression, but somehow THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THE BOOK.

And so then you just stare at that last page for way too long, then flip back to the first because "Noooo it's not over it's not it's too good to have an ending." 

That's this book. 

This book releases on May 24th, 2016

Genre:  Historical Fiction 

Feelings: .......I have a lot of rage

Cuteness: YES. There's barely any romance, but when there is, it's adorable, and also siblings.

Fast pacing: Slower style of pacing but it worked

Series: Nope

Read if you like: History, bro. San Francisco? 1900's. Fancy prep schools. Racial issues, Chinese culture in america. Friendships. It's got some vague A Little Princess vibes somehow, even though the stories couldn't be more different. 

Content: Nothing I really remember. Some b a r e l y suggestive things, but this book would be completely safe to hand to younger readers.

Trigger warning? Loss of family members for various characters 

In summary...Through much bargaining and some slight bribery, Mercy has gotten herself in one of the best most prestigious schools in San Francisco. Except, the school is for rich white girls, and she is a poor chinatown girl. It's gonna take a lot of sneaking to survive....but the earthquake could potentially get in the way.

Thoughts: Creaking floors, and crumbled bricks
Messages: Forgiveness, dedication, resilience.

Rating: 5/5 

-The Characters-

Once more I will reference that little fact about Me: I have a Insane amount of trouble relating to first person characters. It's a struggle.

Well, here comes Mercy. Mercy made me care. Why? I think it's because Mercy was a real person. And that stands out to me among the Females of Fantasy Badassary that I have become accustomed to. 

She kicked butt, but in her own way. She said things that she then regretted, she acted on impulse, but the entire time she tried. She was relate-able. Now, she's a Chinese born in america, treated cruelly by everyone. I'm biracial, so I can begin to relate, but unless you've been in a similar situation, it's challenging to get someone to connect to a character in such a different situation. 

Stacey Lee nailed it.

And the side characters. I could write long paragraphs on the side characters. They made me care even more. This whole cast, no matter how few pages some characters got, they came to life on the page. All the threads and characters just came together, weaving into something magnificent. 

ALSO A QUICK NOTE. Can I just say how pleased I am that Stacey had the cutest romance ever but she didn't even have a romance. They were a vague thing from page one, they skipped all the dumb angst, he wasn't even there for half the book, but somehow you still loved them.

-Plot and Writing-

I started Stacey's other book, Under a Painted Sky, but I never was able to finish it due to chaotic life things. That being said, I got far enough into it to be able to see the contrast of voices in these two books. This style of writing worked so well, but what I'm most impressed with was how unique Mercy's voice is. Everything fit together, like you were getting to know the way someone thought. And I loved it.

I'm a description lover, so I do wish there had been some more descriptions of certain places, but that being said there were so many good sensory details in everything that each scene I could place so well in my brain. I could feel everything that was happening to these characters and I loved it. 

This isn't a book with a Huge Overwhelming Villain of Death. This book starts out with the big Question of "Will Mercy make it in this school?" And then once the earthquake happens, it's more of a string of events. That style still worked really well for me though. That's because, that first chunk of the book where there wasn't and earthquake, and you were reading to find out if Mercy could survive a school, that was necessary. Because then in the latter half, you're already attached.

A+ plotting. Can I write like Stacey Lee please and thank? Can I MEET Stacey Lee please and thank?

-Messages and Other-

Alright. So. Stacey wrote this amazing authors note that I want to discuss further here, especially for those who tend not to read authors notes. This is something I think is important. 

In this note, Stacey points out some of the unrealistic things in her book, some of the things I was noticing. Things like the fact that a Chinese girl could probably not actually get into an american school, or that Chinese girl most likely would not have a boyfriend in a hot air balloon and so forth. But then she says this:

"However, history is a general overview, and overlooks the story, the possibility of the individual. If we are confined by the strict margins of what is "known" to be true, we would never explore the possibility of what could be true. We would deny our ability to create our own stories, to make our own magic."

This is a solid point in regards to historical fiction. I've had this discussion with my mom countless times. When it comes to historical non-fiction, or pieces like Downton Abbey which are made to accurately show lifestyles in a certain era, I think historical accuracy and realism are vital. But, I also do like that books like Outrun The Moon can exist, books where stories you wouldn't hear about in history books can happen. 

I think there should be some stretching of what is truly known in historical fiction. As long as those things are written with accuracy, then why not have a boy come save you in a hot air balloon. Stacey takes some unlikely events, but she makes the realistic enough that you're siting there thinking.. "Why Not?" 

And that, I think is the most important thing for writers and readers. Why not write the story you want to write?

Overall, this was a delightful book, and an author I will return to. And, at the end of it, I was left a bit starry-eyed, not quaking in my boots in the style of some books, but somehow...enchanted.