Author | Editor | Photographer | Slayer of Dragons
Magic abilities, a traveling performance troupe and a monstrous secret that could kill everyone sounds like the perfect recipe for a great story. That's exactly what Amanda Hocking's Freeks delivers! Welcome to Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Sideshow, where necromancy, magical visions, and pyrokinesis are more than just part of the act… Mara has always longed for a … Continue reading Review: Freeks ★★★★☆
Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give blew up the book community when it released in February 2017, and for good reasons. The Hate U Give is an intense look into the lives of black kids living in a racist society that's trying to keep them down. It was not only an incredibly well written story that had … Continue reading Review: The Hate U Give ★★★★★
I've got so many emotions about this one guys, I was a wreck reading it from start to finish. I loved Windwitch, and it definitely lived up to the high bar Truthwitch set up. Sometimes our enemies are also our only allies… After an explosion destroys his ship, the world believes Prince Merik, Windwitch, is dead. Scarred … Continue reading Review: Windwitch ★★★★☆
If there's anything I love in my YA books, it's feels and queer pirates. And The Edge of the Abyss threw my feelings through the mouth of a vicious Reckoner, chopped it up and spit it back out to have Emily Skrutskie stomp on it. The point I'm trying to make is that The Edge of the Abyss … Continue reading Review: The Edge of the Abyss ★★★★★
Can someone love a book more than I loved Truthwitch by Susan Dennard? Can anyone love anything more than I loved that book? Probably not. I loved Truthwitch (and Susan Dennard. I nearly cried when I saw her in the hallway at BookCon Chigaco) so much. In a continent on the edge of war, two witches hold its fate … Continue reading Review: Truthwitch ★★★★★
If there's anything that can be said for me, is that I love my fiction to have a hearty dosage of pirates. And queer girls. And queer pirate girls. The Abyss Surrounds Us is that, and more. So much more. For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. She’s been a Reckoner … Continue reading Review: The Abyss Surrounds Us ★★★★★
Sequels are hard; sequels in trilogies are even harder. So many of them suffer through Sagging Middle Syndrome™ that some people aren't even able to finish them. I read and reviewed The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey last year, and I fell head over heels and finished it in one go. It's sequel, The Shadow Hour, … Continue reading Review: The Shadow Hour ★★★★☆
Magic is my favorite thing in a story. I get to see how it works in the universe and how it affects the characters. Magic in a modern day world, like the one in A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic, where cell phones and blogs make a regular appearance, always intrigues me. How will magic and technology … Continue reading Review: A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic ★★★★★
Graphic novels have always had a special place in my heart, and Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier has taken my heart in its adorable fist and crushed it to smithereens. Catrina and her family are moving to the coast of Northern California because her little sister, Maya, is sick. Cat isn't happy about leaving her friends for … Continue reading Review: Ghosts ★★★★★
Jessamine works with her mother pretending to be spiritualists—until the day where the pretending becomes real and she finds out she has mysterious powers. Ronald L. Smith has made a dark and memorable middle-grade story in The Mesmerist. Thirteen-year-old Jessamine Grace and her mother make a living as sham spiritualists—until they discover that Jess is a … Continue reading Review: The Mesmerist ★★★★☆