Furthermore by Taherah Mafi

Alice lived in a time before proper maps, before street signs and numbered homes. She lived in a time when leaving home meant saying good-bye and hoping you'd be able to find your way back. 

Hope, you see, was all she had, and she would hold on to it, come hills or high water.

Middle grade is hard. Growing up it was all I read, seeing as I was in the (surprise!)...middle grade. But as I drifted over into young adult, it became harder and harder to go back to middle grade. The concepts never were delved into enough. The characters seeming more like cartoons, or cutouts. 

I went into Furthermore with high hopes. I haven't read much of Taherah Mafi's work, but from what I heard about her writing, I knew that if anyone could make middle grade amazing, it would be her. 

This book is released on August 30th, 2016

Stats:

Genre:  Middle grade fantasy

Feelings: I felt, but this isn't written to be an emotional disaster

Cuteness: ...middle grade. so like. no romance 

Fast pacing: Not quite an action filled book but I personally never got bored.

Series: .............yes. 

Read if you like: Alice in Wonderland, quirky writing styles, bizarre worlds 

Content: Very limited. Middle grade perks!

Trigger warning? Um. Aggresive paper animals? Missing father, harsh mother, prejudice and vague themes of discrimination.

In summary... Alice wants few things in life: Her father back, and to have a true talent like all the other kids. Instead what she gets is some weird boy showing up and dragging her into another world completely, where hopefully....the truth about her and her father will lie.

Thoughts: Thickly embroidered fabric, layers upon layers of threa and stitching until it's almost too heavy to wear

Messages: Purpose

Overall

Rating: 4/5

FURTHERMORE: A recipe

1: One cup of The Phantom Toolbooth for the aesthetics

The Phantom Toolbooth remains one of my favorite middle grade novels. It's witty, clever, full of odd tidbits and things that are taken Very Literally. When you "jump to conclusions" in this world you literally go flying over to the island of conclusions. 

Furhtermore has that element. Everything has that vibrant feel, the colors and cleverness in simply the way things are named and done. It's very different then The Phantom Toolbooth, but reading it gave me that nostalgic feel. 

2: A pinch of Harry Potter and The Sorcerors Stone, (be sure to remove the Wizard schools) for the story worlds.

The first Harry Potter book has this magic feel to it. The way everyone interacts with eachother at the train station and specifaclally on hogwarts express and diagon alley sucks you in and leaves you smiling simply because it feels so real and so magical. Harry Potter is written in a way that never feels like a book, but a recording of actual places, actual events.

Reading the pages of Furhtermore was like boarding that train one more time because everything felt like a real place. Never did this feel like a poorly developed middle grade book of Concepts. It was a real place. Real people. 

3. A few slices of Alice in Wonderland  for the characters

Lewis Caroll was a crazy maniac. Everyone tries to pick apart Alice in Wonderland but let's be real it's basically just the equivelant of a bunch of random ramblings that were made artsy and clever. Furhtermore's characters specifically made me think of Wonderland. 

Furthermore's Alice has a whole lot more of a personality than Wonderland Alice, but all the characters in Furhtermore had this almost ultra-color sheen over them. Like they all represented odd traits and concepts of a child's imagination. Like Wonderland, all the character's weren't just there as characters, they were there as concepts in and of themselves. They set new definitons and examples for fiction. Every character you met in Furthermore was Big and Bright and had a Reason for being there. And I really appreciated that. 

Everything in Furthermore was strange. And slightly disturbing. Like Wonderland. But better and brighter.

4:  A generous sprinkling of Terry Pratchett  for the writing

Terry Pratchett is pretty much one of the greatest writers I have yet to discver simply because of his prose-work. 

The voice in Furthermore was so distinct and witty, that while it wasn't a Terry Pratcheet exact voice, it was the perfect voice for the story. Just as Terry's dry prose was perfect for the Discworld books, Taherah's prose and voice is so perfect for the world of Furthermore. Her random inerjecations and comments as the narrator make you grin, her descriptions make you swoon, her humor makes you love every second you spend in these pages. Basically, Taherah has acheived something Terry acheived and I, as a writer, deeply wish I could acheive. She has made a voice her own and made it work so impossibly well for a story and concept that you couldn't imagine the story told my anyone else.


Combine these elements and bake over a multicolored fire, add in a few sprinkles and measure with a yard stick to make sure the product is exactly the size it needs to be. If you followed this recipe correctly, it will have been much too short. Which means, you'll have to tune in next time for the second addition to this recipe. (hint: there is a sequel)



In short, Furthermore is one of the more fun books I've read this year. It's defintely the best middle grade I've read in a long time. It's rich, colorful, dakr, distburning and whimsical all at once. I don't have a whole lot to complain about it, to be perfectly honest. If you're a fan of middle grade or a fan of any of the books listed above, check this one out. 

Get lost in Furthermore. Never come out, if you so please.

The Crowns Game by Evelyn Skye

"Are you afraid of her?" Pasha asked.

More than you'll ever know, Nikolai thought.

If you had seen me at the bookstore on Wednesday, as I sat waiting for my dad to come get me, you may have wondered "Why is that small little human sitting on the floor crying?"

Ha.

Here is the answer:

Warning: There is much talk of Food in this review

This book is released on May 17th, 2016

Genre:  Fantasy

Feelings: For me, yes. I mean I almost cried in a bookstore. What can I say, I'm a sucker for friendships. 

Cuteness: -quietly sings- I will go down with this sh iii i ipppp

Fast pacing: Steady pace throughout

Series: Yep

Read if you like: The Grisha Trilogy, or just Russia in general. MAGIC. It's basically what happens if you cross Shadow and Bone, The Hunger Games, and The Red Queen, and a little smidge of Throne of Glass.

Content: A bit of action, a bit of violence, but clean pretty much throughout. 

Trigger warning? Loss of parents. 

In summary...She thought she was the only enchanter. He thought he was the only enchanter. The governments known all along, and unfortunately....-dundunduuunnn- THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!!

Thoughts: Wooden boxes and leaves. Painted buildings. A knife,
Messages: Friendships and differences. 

Rating: 4/5 

Geez. This book. I read it in one day, on buses and before and after work, eager to finish the whole thing. It started out kind of typical YA fashion, but then went on to blow minds. All of them. All of the minds just blown to oblivious. 

-The Characters-

Here is a lesson on How To Get Into Mariesa's Heart:

Friendships. Especially good old fashion bromances
More friendships.
Just good relationships. 
Bro's 

I really like those. And so, as you might guess, my favorite parts of this book were the parts with Pasha and Nikolai. The parts with Sergei and Galina, the Self Proclaimed Siblings of Much Spite™ 

Granted there were some other weird love interests thrown in that made no sense but we'll push those aside. A+ characters.

Vika can be shelved with most of the other fantasy main characters. With Mare and Sharzhad and Amani. That being said. I still really liked her. She's not my favorite, not a character I think I'd gush about, but she was a likable little wasabi chip. 

Nikolai, however. N i k o l a i.

Confession: I may have loved him from page one because he's got the same name as one of my Absolute Favorite Characters in YA history, Nikolai Lanstov. BUT. He went on to be his own little golden nugget of melted pepper jack cheese. A sweetheart. But with a KICK. It's funny because after reading his physical descriptions it's like wow you must be super broody but then he's like flowers and strawberries. If you know what I mean.

Pasha. The little...jelly bean. Of adorableness and and AHHH I can't spoil anything but he's precious and we love him. 

Evelyn has this way of building the relationships layer by layer, that just made sense. And there was never any "oh but mAybE i Do LOVe Him" between the main romance. Vika and Nikolai were intrigued by each other, but they never fawned or gushed any more than was realistic. So when the "time" came for realizing there may be actual feelings, it went exactly as it should for these two. Out of the blue.

All the characters were just well shaped little loaves of bread and I adore them all. 

In case you were wondering, I am writing this instead of eating my breakfast. Hence the food. 

-Plot and Writing-

This was a very well structured book. The way things were arranged worked really well. There were a few minuscule things that bugged me. This book kind of did that thing where it needs to have EVERYONES point of view, but one character will only get like o n e chapter. That always has bugged me because it's seems too easy.

Tiny thing, though. 

Other then that I do really love the way this story is told. The writing's good. I think this is the biggest area for growth. While good in some areas, some of the dialogue and action felt a bit flat. BUT, Evelyn definitely has a knack for descriptions. I could see everything so clearly, which I think is what made this setting so strong.

Goodness, did she do her research. Everything made sense. Having story set in another country is hard. And this was done phenomenally. 

I honestly still can't get over descriptions. Everything was so lovely. It was like when you have a bunch of little viles of food coloring and macaron batter. So you drop a few drops in, a few different colors, then they SWIRL together and create this vibrant shade never before seen to the macaron world.

Now I really want macarons. 

Messages and Other-

I love relationships. I love friendships. I love betrayals and mistakes made and anger and discovery. I love seeing them grow. I love seeing the little loaves of bread slowly rise by the power of yeast and science, slowly grow until they're something different. A little malformed, but stronger.

It's hard to take a world that we don't live in and make you relate, but this book did that, and I appreciate that. And here I am, insanely excited to see where this series grows. 

Growth is so important. That's what I loved so much about the Grisha Trilogy. For all of its flaws, that trilogy showed growth. In Alina, the way she transformed.

And I'm so excited to see that for Vika. 


Overall, this was a solid book. It had some flaws, some writing things that irked me, but I truly think this was a solid debut. The story was sound, and I'm excited to see this series and Skye's writing grow. 

Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan

Presenting, the fabulous co-written review of Reign of Shadows, done with my bookish-soulsister and eternal Kazlingsppey

I was quite excited for this book. And I had quite a fun time reading it with Linnea. So, we decided to write a review together. Down below are my stats then her review. If you go to her blog, you can see her stats and stuff and then my review. Fun, right? Go visit her at R E A C H

Genre:  Fantasy

Feelings: Naw

Cuteness: KISSING

Fast pacing: Not quite, but it was small enough that I didn’t notice

Series: Evidently yes

Read if you like: Rapunzel retellings. Creepy bats that may or may not eat people

Content: Some aggressive kissy action. A bit of violence? Nothing graphic enough for me to remember.

Trigger warning? Nothing I can recall 

In summary...She’s stuck in a tower. He’s grumpy. They get stuck in the woods. Things happen. It’s intense.

Thoughts: Pine needles.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

And here's Linnea's review. Check out her blog to see mine! 

This book is quite the wild ride. There are bats that are large, but supposedly do not eat humans. There are Dwellers. There are super-hot men. There’s a completely bad ass female lead that is somehow not annoying to me, the Biggest Critiquer of Female Leads.

In short, this book kind of rocked. While I couldn’t quite take the entire thing in one sitting, it went down easy and then kind of left me with a hangover. I wasn’t expecting a cliffhanger ending and then all of a sudden–I got one.

Which was unsettling, considering I was hoping for a standalone, but useful, because a mere two-hundred and ninety-two pages wasn’t long enough for me to appreciate the full scope of these characters.

Fowler is Tall, Dark-humored, and Handsome. What’s not to like?

This book seemed a bit like that friend that, at 3 AM, is at their most delighted with the world, and will do just about anything they please. It’s fun to watch, participate in in small amounts, and also put to sleep  before too long…and then repeat the whole endeavor the next night.

Which is to say: I am so glad I read this book with a friend, and I can’t wait to do it with the sequel.

The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

"Tell me, my queen, are you ready to play with fate?"

Do you know how hard it was to pick a quote to start this out?

So many quotes. 

So many things.

I swear I'll be eloquent about this book in this review, even though my current emotion is OHMYGODMYHEARTICANNOTBYEILOVETHISBOOK. 

You know how it goes.

This review will be possibly long but. I have a lot to say about this book. SO I AM GOING TO SAY IT.

This book is released on April 26th, 2016

Genre:  Fantasy

Feelings: Not as many WOW I'M SAD feelings but there are some.

Cuteness: Yes with a capital Y.

Fast pacing: Nawww but after I got into it and got to the Things I didn't care.

Series: ?????????????????

Read if you like: Indian folklore. The sort of setting that books like "The Forbidden Wish" That like sandy feel. And the sari and silk and !!!! 

Content: Kissy kissy. Some potential aggressive cuddling but it never goes that far.

Trigger warning? Some verbal abuse type situations. Family and parents are distant and unloving. Loss of family members.

In summary...She has been cursed with a horoscope that promised death and destruction everywhere she goes. There's no escape, or so it seems. A mysterious stranger, a lot of magical power, horses, and intrigue ensue. 

Thoughts: Blood on sand. Parchment, and thread

Rating: 5/5 stars

This Review is Spoiler Free

How does one begin with this novel. I don’t even know where to begin. I started it with much excitement, which then started to fade. I’ll admit, I wasn’t as wowed as it continued. The beginning was gorgeous, the setting flawless, the story intriguing. But then, the romance started, and the excitement died down. I loved the romance. But where was the big kabams I wanted? The big bang pow? 

I’ve never been so glad that I stuck with a novel. It blew me away.

-The Characters-

Maya.  Maya is the main character I have been itching for. Strong. Bitter. Determined. Not so unrealistically strong that she turns aside the temptation of power. She makes so many mistakes but never lets those stop her. Her voice was steady, struggling. I never once got bored of her narrating. Except those times I wanted the horse to narrate.

Amar. Oh, Amar. His good and bad. And more bad and a lot of good. The little grumpy brood bean. With the hair. And the poeticness that makes me laugh. And the darkness that settles in. He was such a fascinating character. Subconsciously I kept trying to “trope” him. Label him as “Evil Bad Guy Love Interest.” Or “Brooding Bad Boy” or “Looks like Could Kill You But Is Cinnamon Roll”. But he never fit any. Because there was none.

He was Amar.

He was him.

Him was Amar.

I like Amar.

Moving on. Other character. The other’s weren’t quite as intriguing, although many of the characters we meet are quite lovable. There just wasn’t enough of them to explode off the page.

Except Kamala. Kamala guys. The horse. Who may or may not plan on eating you but you love anyway. I want one.

-Plot And Writing-

I need about 4000 of Roshani’s books asap. Like. Roshani. YOUR WORDS. THEY MAKE ME SO HAPPY. I’m not a huge writer of fantasy, given the disaster my fantasy novel was. But after reading this it’s all I want to write.

Roshani has this way of words.  They fit this aesthetic of the story so wonderfully. They feel like sand, soft and flowing from a distance, until you pick up a handful and the grit gets everywhere and sticks to you. But then you bury yourself into it and it’s quite comfortable.

Prose goals.

(Also like we’ve totally talked back and forth on twitter so we’re PRACTICALLY besties. Coolest author ever. Go follow her)

Plotwise, this one is a slowburn. It could be that I was in a slump when I picked it up, but as soon as the initial inciting incident was over, I wasn’t as excited. I even told Linnea that. “Nothing Big is happening??”

But then.

It did.

Things started getting creepy and weird and making me put down the book and whisper “what the crap” to myself.

Then The Thing happened which I won’t talk about. But The Thing happened. Then the Other Thing happened. And One More Things.

So many Things happened in the latter half of this book, that I realized just how important and good that slowburn start was.  Granted, some of the Things didn’t get discussed as much as I thought? Who knows, perhaps there is plan for a sequel. The ending was so sudden and fast there could be. (I hope there is.) But that’s my one complaint. I will obsess over these Things till the day I die.

-Messages and Other-

My favorite types of books are books that don’t take so much time to tell you Lots of Important Things and Messages and yet still just say things.

This is one of those books.

There’s never any EMBRACE YOURSELF !!!!! or UR BEUATIFUL themes flung at you. And yet this story is what it is. A story of two people who will do everything for each other even though it takes them a while to see it. A story of a girl who has been cast aside and told she was the cause of every problem her entire life who finally got up and said “No. I am my own queen. My own person. And you cannot define me like that.”

It’s a story about not being controlled or defined by labels or mistakes, but it never needs to rub it in your face and say it outright for you to see it.

And I love books like that.

Overall…

I don’t even know what to say overall.

OVERALL JUST GO PREORDER IT.

Go.

Open amazon.

Have you done it yet?

….

Did you preorder?

Yes?

Good.

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

And then all I could see was the sand and I forgot about everything. About fear. About bombs. About Jin. The desert reached out for us all with huge open arms. The churning mass that was chaos in the streets became order in the sand, welcoming us home.

 I started this book at my friends beach house, simply planning on getting it done for the review. I actually went into it with no expectations. I'd heard about it, but I hadn't really put it high on my anticipated list. But of course, I am so lucky to have received an ARC from my local bookstore, so I went into it with much excitement. (I'm very lucky for this bookstore)

And then I read it.

Goodness gracious.

Guys. 

Stats:

Genre:  High fantasy

Feelings: Eh? Sort of?

Cuteness: oh my go s h

Fast pacing: A bit slow in the middle, but every chapter it seemed there was a reason for me to keep reading

Series: THANK GOODNESS, YES

Read if you like: Fantasy westerns. Westerns in general. The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. Horses!!! Magic!!! DESERTS. And sass.

Content: I made the mistake of waiting to write this, so I don't completely remember. I know there's some shooting. Some removal of bullets. But nothing bad enough for me to remember a week later.

Trigger warning? Loss of siblings, friends. Death??

In summary...Amani, the girl with the killer shot needs to get out of Dustwalk, her dumpy little town. And if it means joining impossible shooting contests, stealing magical horses, bribing, drugging or robbing mysterious foreigners and hitching a ride on some train, she'll do it. Until everything goes south and she realizes what she's gotten herself into....all thanks to that awfully sassy foreigner guy. (At least he's cute)

Thoughts: S a n d. And gunpowder.

Messages: Bravery.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Right of the bat, I loved this book. From the first few chapters I loved the characters, the sass...all of it. Overall a satisfying read, flaws and all.

-The characters-

Amani. Ah, Amani. As stated in previous reviews, I have the hardest time liking main characters. No matter how well done they are, I never can seem to really care enough to be worried about what happens to them. And here come Amani, and somehow I cared. A lot.

She’s realistic. She was well shaped. I mean, she’s another snarky-stubborn-impulsive female character in a fantasy series. It’s easy to expect her to kind of fade away upon finishing the book. But I liked her. She was stubborn. She was snarky, but it never once felt forced. Her sass never felt like a shoved in character trait, but an actual part of her story.

And boy was she far from perfect. She made so many mistakes in this book. Or missed things that seemed so obvious. I appreciated her not being too much of anything.

Side characters. Jin. Um, Jin. Jin! Jin was adorable. Again, another snarky male love interest, and yet I didn’t care. I didn’t even once notice anything stereotypical in these characters, even if there was some, because Alwyn Hamilton did just such a good job of making you care.

Character interactions were on point. The side characters, the characters there for only a few pages were marvelous. All in all, this was a success in the character department. I loved all the side characters that came along later. But honestly I don’t remember their names. Or who was who. But I did like them.

-Plot and Writing-

Ahh. Goodness, this story. Worldbuilding is hard. Okay, it’s so hard. And a novel under 400 pages, I can only imagine how tricky it is to make a story world fit. But Alwyn nailed it. This story world was interesting, unique, and in depth, and all in 350 pages.

In the opening chapters, I could picture the scenes and setting so well, and that’s always the best feeling. I could taste the dust and the feel the coarse sand and feel the sun. It was wonderful.

My one complaint, is there are info dumps. That I will admit to sort of skimming. I just liked the story too much. And honestly during Amani’s character arc, when she stopped shooting and sassing, it was saddening. But I got over it.

Pretty much all of the plot twists were predictable. I mean, I didn’t see them coming, but I wouldn’t have seen them coming if they were dangled in front of my face. I’m that oblivious. But, looking back, it’s pretty easy to see what’s going on.

The ending did feel a bit…rushed? And confusing? It might be that there were so many characters that I lost track of who was shooting who and who was bad and all of that. But oh my god, that ending. That…showdown. The MAGIC. AMANI KICKING ASS.

Okay this book is just very cool.

Looking at the plotline itself, there was this huge switch somewhere in the middle, in which it went into a direction I wasn’t expecting. At first I immediately missed the excitement of the first half, but once it got magicky I was okay with it.

-Messages and other-

Amani started out as a nobody. A girl, struggling to just get enough money to get out of her crappy little town. And somehow, she gets caught up in mayhem and chaos and magic.

And she doesn’t lose her head. She doesn’t cry, freak out, and fall apart. Well, she does fall apart. But internally. She’s brave. She’s incredibly brave. And I like that.

I really like underdog stories, but what I liked about this one is even though Amani could be classified as one, she never acted like one. She didn’t buy anyone’s crap, didn’t care about marriage or the sexism or the things she faced. She just wanted to get out of that town. And even when things got so intense, she didn’t give up.

And I can stand by that.

Overall, this was a great book. If you’re looking for a well done fantasy western, then this one should definitely be on your tbr list. Like now.