Book Review: The Sandcastle Empire

TITLE: The Sandcastle Empire
AUTHOR: Kayla Olson
PUBLISHED: June 6th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Dystopian
PREMISE: A group of girls from different backgrounds escape their hellish prison to a mysterious island that is supposed to be a safe haven...
MY REVIEW: Oh this book...I have so many issues with this book I honestly don't know where to begin. I'm sad about it too, because if I could base my score on the author's writing style: four stars. The prose here are great. Unfortunately everything else from the plot, to the characters, to the pacing, and honestly just to what even the author was trying to say with this dystopian....needed a LOT of work.
This started out very promising. The first hundred or so pages are wild ride and we get to see four girls grouping together and being badass. Then it all just falls apart when the author brings in the world-building, brings in the main plot and just ugh. First she felt the need to do what I call the Disney Channel thing: have as many guys for as many girls and pair all of them up regardless of if there's actually any chemistry there (there isn't chemistry, FYI). The characters are all stock characters who are never go beyond their main purpose in the plot. Oh and diversity in this book is pretty much non-existent. Everyone is apparently straight in the future. There is one token Asian character who is treated like crap by the narrative.
But the real kicker for me is the dystopian set up. Essentially, this is a world where poor people decided to take over and throw all rich people into prison. That's right: it's a "stop being mean to rich people!" pearl-clutch.  The author basically tries to use this book as a cautionary tale to talk about privilege politics, but she very clearly has done no research on even what privilege is.
She seems to think privilege just refers to rich people. It doesn't. Everyone has some sort of privilege. I'm poor as dirt, but I still have privilege of some sort because I'm white. She also seems to do that thing that a lot of privileged people do, which is assume calling out privilege means we hate privileged people. WE DO NOT. I cannot emphasize this enough. No one hates you, okay? Seriously, get over yourselves. All people are doing when they point out your privilege, is saying you have an advantage over someone. Therefore, your experiences are more then a little skewed. So maybe stop trying to tell poor people that they're just being lazy or whatever and maybe just LISTEN to them when they tell you there's an issue with the system. I do not care if you grew up with a silver spoon in your mouth. I DO care if you use that silver spoon to deny that there are serious issues in the world right now.
This book....it just bugs me so much. It had so much potential, but the author wasted it with poor research and poor world-building/characters/pacing/and many other things. It was just a disappointment all over. It's a shame, because Olson again has great prose. She just needs to work on...pretty much everything else.
WHO SHOULD READ: Eh...those who don't mind bland and poorly thought out dystopians?
MY RATING: Two out of Five sad sighs

Book Review: A Conjuring of Light

TITLE: A Conjuring of Light
Book 3 in Shades of Magic Trilogy
AUTHOR: V. E. Schwab
PUBLISHED: February 21rst, 2017
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: Things come to a head in the final book of the Shades of Magic series.
MY REVIEW: As you all know, I'm a big Victoria Schwab fan. Or V. E. Schwab as she's known in the adult fiction section. This trilogy has been a fun ride from beginning to end.
I will say my one issue with this is...it kind of ended predictably. There wasn't really much in here that I wasn't expecting to happen. There were one or two surprises, dealing with side characters that I didn't expect. I also am really pleased with how the author handled the Kell/Lila romance at the end. It was a very realistic ending for their characters. No forced happy ending marriage plus babies.
But even though it was kind of a predictable ending, it was still a satisfying ending. I'm very pleased with it. It looks like we might be getting a new trilogy set in this world (no release date yet though, so will probably be awhile) and I have to say...I'm for it. She also has a few more books in YA coming so it looks like we'll be getting lots of Schwab in our future and that makes me very happy.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read the first two books, Victoria Schwab fans, fantasy fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five solid endings
RATING FOR TRILOGY: Four out of Five

August Wrap-Up

Going to try a new idea here. A lot of people do monthly wrap-ups and I thought I'd try it out for these past few months. So here's a round-up of what I've read this month. You'll notice I don't do reviews of all of these. That's because some, such as with Dresden Files, are long series I plan on doing a series review of. Others I just don't have much to say about it so I don't feel compelled to review it:

Books:
Started in July, finished in August
The Star-Touched Queen Book 2: A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi
Strange The Dreamer Book 1 by Laini Taylor
Dresden Files 11: Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
The Girl From Everywhere Book 2: The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig

Started and finished in August
Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith
Saints and Misfits by S. K. Ali
Because You Love to Hate Me short story collection by various authors
Darker Shade of Magic Book 3: A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olsen
More Than This by Patrick Ness
The Meaning of Michelle essay collection by various authors
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Library of Fates by Aditi Khorana
Trials of Apollo Book 2: The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan
Olympus Bound 2: Winter of the Gods by Jordanna Max Brodsky
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Rest in Power by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin

Started in August but haven't finished:
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Dark Artifices Book 1: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis
Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Plays/Novellas:
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
Theban Plays Parts 2 and 3
Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2
Henry V

Graphic Novels:
Squirrel-Girl Volume 5: Like I"m the Only Squirrel in the World
Gotham Academy Second Semester Vol. 1
Moon-Girl Vol. 2: Cosmic Cuties
Hawkeye, Kate Bishop Vol. 1: Anchor Points

DNFs of the Month aka, books I had to ditch for various reasons:
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez-This book isn't hard or anything like that. It's just really tedious. It also perpetuates rape culture myths and the Nice Guy narrative. No thanks.
Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza-I see what the author was going for, but there was so little time spent developing characters and the world that I realized that half way through the extremely rushed plot...I just didn't care.
The Cage Book 2: The Hunt by Megan Shepherd-Sequel started out meh and I realized a bit of the way through I didn't particularly care about the story anymore.

Before anyone calls me a liar, here's how I read so much:
1) a lot of these books are actually kind of short. We Are Okay for instance is less then 250 pages.
2) I read multiple books at a time (usually three) The minute I'm done with one, I pick up another. It adds up.
3)I do audiobooks. It's the best hack. Highly recommend, especially for getting classics out of the way.
4) Not to brag, but I read fast. It's always been a thing with me.

Notable Releases: 8/27-9/2

Here are this past week's notable releases. Kind of a quiet week compared to last week, but that's probably due to all the September releases. So many big books in September guys.

MG/YA

DC Icons Book 1: Wonder Woman-Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

First in a new series about DC heroes as teenagers. As someone still riding on that Wonder Woman movie high, I can't wait to get my hands on this.

Magisterium Book 4: The Silver Mask by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Yeah yeah, I know, Harry Potter rip-off, Clare is a horrible being blah blah blah. I don't care, I'm hooked on this series. I have no defense for it. I will say I've been seeing conflicting release dates for this. Everywhere I know has been saying it released this week, but for some reason Goodreads is saying it's October 10th. So...yeah ;shrugs;

Backfield Boys: A Football Mystery in Black and White by John Feinstein

A sports book tackling race that looks like it has the potential to be interesting. We'll see how it works out.

Word Book 1: All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis

This sounds like it has the potential to be a very timely dystopian where you are literally charged for every word you say.

Mask of Shadows Book 1 by Linsey Miller

Fantasy series with a gender-fluid main character. The low rating on goodreads doesn't give me much hope, but I've read books that are actually pretty damn good that have low ratings on goodreads so...





Comics/Manga

Archie Vol. 4 TP (new series)
Aquaman Vol. 3: The Crown of Atlantis TP
Batman Vol. 3: I Am Bane TP
Deadpool VS The Punisher TP
Unstoppable Wasp Vol. 1: Unstoppable TP

Book Review: Saints and Misfits

TITLE: Saints and Misfits
AUTHOR: S. K. Ali
PUBLISHED: June 13th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: A girl tries to figure herself out as her life gets more and more complicated.
MY REVIEW: This book billed itself as My So-Called Life with a Muslim teen and...I don't particularly think that's accurate. It's more along the lines of a more cheerful Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. It has a lot to say about rape culture and things like who we see ourselves as versus who others see us as etc.
I will say the writing here is very good. If I could rate this on the writing alone, it would get five stars. Ali delivers great dialogue, fully fleshed out characters, and there's a competent plot. This is very good debut. I just have some issues with some stuff here and there. For instance there's one scene where Janna's friend basically shames rape survivors who don't speak up about about their rapist. Just...don't do that people, okay? A lot of times rape survivors are not in position to speak up because the rapist is in a position of power or like in this case a beloved member of the community. If they speak up, harm will come to them in various forms. That's not even going into the amount of times people just straight up don't believe you if you say you were raped and will call you a liar (which spoiler, does happen to the main character). To the author's credit, she does have Janna call the friend out on how that wasn't okay, but the friend is quickly forgiven so...yeah. I'm really not okay with that scene.
Other then that big issue, I mostly liked this book. It's a solid read. As I mentioned, it reminds me a lot of Speak, but doesn't have the over-the-top bullying aspect of that novel. I love Speak, but sometimes it felt like the author piling on problems for the main character. This novel avoids that but also doesn't make light of what happened. It's a very nice balance. I'll be on the lookout for more books from this author.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Speak, contemporary fiction fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five solid debuts

Book Review: Because You Love to Hate Me

TITLE: Because You Love to Hate Me
AUTHOR: Various
PUBLISHED: July 11th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: A bunch of popular YA authors write stories featuring villains based on prompts given to them by popular Booktubers.
MY REVIEW: If you're part of the YA community, you've likely heard about this one. There's a big stink (yes, another one!) being raised because apparently people don't like Booktubers getting involved with this for whatever reason. A majority of it being, they just don't like Booktubers. For those that don't know what Booktube is, it's basically the corner of Youtube where people just talk about the books they read. For more context: some people think Booktubers are too involved with publishers are lying to them for...reasons, I guess (no one seems to know what exactly they're lying to us about...), and so on and so forth.
Me...I watch Booktube, I won't lie. Including some of the people involved with this book. I...have issues with it (it's too YA focused, there needs to be more variety in the reviewers/books talked about, the way they handle issues within the community leaves a lot to be desired, there's too much snobbery towards certain things, etc. etc). But I also kind of can't help but notice the people complaining about Booktube don't have any actual evidence of any wrong doing in the community, it mostly just seems to be people who are salty their own Booktube channel didn't take off overnight or whatever. So yeah...I've got issues, but I also think this idea that they somehow are doing something bad....is a little ridiculous.
Now, onto the book itself. It was...okay. It's like most short story collections: some are better then others. Some, I think calling them villain stories is....stretching it  to say the least. But there are some really interesting ones in here. For me, the favorites were the ones by Renee Ahdieh, Cindy Pon, and Victoria Schwab. The rest were all a little meh for me. I think I honestly liked the concept of this book more then the actual book itself. Because I love the whole practice of just taking a prompt and running with it. It's always so interesting to see what authors come up with.
WHO SHOULD READ: YA fans, Retelling fans, Once Upon a Time fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five

Book Review: Windfall

TITLE: Windfall
AUTHOR: Jennifer E. Smith
PUBLISHED: May 2nd, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Realistic Fiction, Romance
PREMISE: A girl's life becomes complicated when her best friend/person she's in love with wins the lottery...
MY REVIEW: Full disclosure: I've never read any of Jennifer E. Smith's books before. I know she's pretty popular. Her Statistical Probability book is on like a ton of recommendation lists. So I have no real idea if this story is typical of her writing or not. This mostly came on my radar because apparently it's already been optioned for a movie.
Personally...it was just okay for me. It's a pretty typical contemporary romance. There's just an added commentary on how money doesn't solve all problems and whatnot. The writing was passable, the characters were okay. I didn't really think much of the romance, but it didn't tick me off. Basically...this book was just kind of there.
I can see this doing well as a cute romantic movie for February, which is what I imagine Hollywood has planned. If you're in the mood for a sweet romance, this will probably suit you. Me, I just kind of can't help but shrug at it.
WHO SHOULD READ: Jennifer E. Smith fans, Romance fans, Kasie West fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five cute romances but that's about it

Book Review: Strange the Dreamer

TITLE: Strange the Dreamer
Book 1 in a new series
AUTHOR: Laini Taylor
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: March 28th, 2017
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: A librarian joins a quest to find a mysterious town called Weep...
MY REVIEW: I confess I'm not terribly sure how to go about reviewing this book. I can tell you for sure: I loved it. It's the best kind of absorbing fantasy. But it's rather unlike anything I've read so I can't really do my usual "if you like this and this, definitely pick it up" thing. All I can say for sure is, if you liked Taylor's Daughter of the Smoke and Bone trilogy, you'll love this.
The writing is beautiful. The characters are all interesting and the plot and setting are all very unusual. I will warn: it's very slow to start. I promise, the payoff is worth it.
This is one of my favorite books that I read this year. I admit, I had high expectations because I adored the first trilogy Taylor did. But, Taylor met all the expectations. Again, this is an unusual book, so I imagine it's not one that would be to everyone's taste, but it was to mine. I can't wait to read the next book. About the only issue with this I have is...I think it should be marketed and sold as adult fiction instead of YA, as a majority of the plot centers on Lazlo, who is an adult and it has adult themes. But I'm not in charge of these things, so what can you do?
WHO SHOULD READ: Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy fans, fantasy fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five unusual fantasy books

Notable Releases: 8/20-8/26

Here are this past week's notable releases that you can expect a review of from me at some point in the future:

MG/YA

Ashes of Gold Book 1: The Tiger's Watch by Julia Ember

Fantasy series that looks really interesting. I'm intrigued that it has a gender-fluid main character.

The Rattled Bones by S. M. Parker

This one just sounds very interesting to me.

The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez

Cute looking middle-grade contemporary that's been getting some buzz.

Jackaby Book 4: The Dire King by William Ritter

One of my favorite series these past few years sadly comes to end.

Dress Codes For Small Towns by Courtney Stevens

Contemporary LGBTQA book that's been getting some buzz.







Adult Fiction

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo

Literary fiction debut that's been getting some buzz.

Girl Meets Duke Book 1: The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare

If you're into romance at all, you know Dare is pretty big deal so this book will likely wind up being very popular. I'm still making my way through the romance reads and haven't read her yet, but I've heard good things.

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin

Lit book that's been making the rounds. It's Zevin so I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot about it in the future.







Comics/Manga

Clueless Vol. 1: Senior Year
Wonder Woman Vol. 3: The Truth
Beauty Vol. 3
xxxHolic Rei Vol. 4
X-Men Gold Vol. 1: Back to Basics

Book Review: A Crown of Wishes

TITLE: A Crown of Wishes
Book 2 in the Star-Touched Queen series
AUTHOR: Roshani Chokshi
PUBLISHED: March 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: A young princess and prince with nothing to lose enter a tournament where the prize is you get a wish granted...
MY REVIEW: I'm going to be honest: a year later...I don't remember much about Star-Touched Queen. I remember some things like there was an amazing fantasy world in it, but like actual plot and characters? I've got nothing. So I frankly had to rack my brain trying to remember who Gauri even was at the beginning of this book. Luckily the book tells you, so it wasn't a big deal. But I do think it's rather telling that I can't remember many details from the book. Granted, I read a lot...but I usually at least remember basic ideas and plots of books I read awhile ago.
But stuff did eventually start to come back to me. It does help that this is more of a companion book then a continuation. So in the long run, my not remembering much didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book any. This still has the beautiful imagination of the world. I liked the relationship between Gauri and Vikram. It was very insta-lovey but at least it was a tolerable insta-love. The plot was fast-paced, the imagination of the world is as fantastic as I remember it.
So it was good. It looks like this is the last of the series and that's probably for the best. The author has some new books coming next year (including a new middle-grade series!) that sound very interesting. I'll definitely be giving them a look.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Star-Touched Queen, fairy-tale fans,
MY RATING: Four out of Five amazing fantasy worlds