2018 mid-year review


Happy Fourth of July to my fellow American readers...and happy Wednesday to those of you overseas! (You're more than halfway through the week—yay!) For this mid-week holiday I thought something fluffy and filled with pretty book covers would be a welcome treat, so I'm looking back over all of the books I've read and reviewed so far this year. The first half of 2018 has seen some amazing new and new-to-me books. While there are some duds sprinkled throughout the months, it's been such fun discovering new favorites to add to my shelves and discuss with friends!

For some additional context, these are my basic reading stats so far this year:

Goodreads Challenge: 64 out of 50 books completed
Total pages read: 24,183 pp.
Pages per day: 134 pp.
Average rating: 3.52 (out of 5)

For every title that has a review posted I've included a link, excerpt, and the star rating. For those that haven't been published (or written...) yet, I've copied my preliminary Goodreads blurb instead. I've also noted my 5-star reviews with a little star beside each title if you're most interested in the greatest hits! Please feel free to explore, discover, and enjoy ♥♥

JANUARY


The Book of Dust Vol. 1: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman | "Say the word "prequel" and devoted fans of a series may rightly shiver in fear. Too often creators use them as cheap money-grabs or worse, to revise errors that their followers may instead see as treasured details. In La Belle Sauvage, Pullman uses this dubious mechanism to instead deepen a segment of the world containing Lyra's Oxford not touched upon in the original trilogy. Some familiar characters drift on and off the page, yet for much of the novel's 500+ pages they remain on the fringes in favor of new faces. These new characters are as richly realized as those who preceded them; in time, they'll be just as loved too." ( )

A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong | "Miller and Armstrong treat the material with a perfect balance of tact and detail. They explain their methods further in an afterword, outlining how much thought went into how they would handle such a sensitive topic. Any reader concerned at seeing two men as the authors of a book on sexual assault should rest assured that they have done a diligent and respectful job." ( )

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel | "The Roanoke Girls is best described as the pulpy cousin of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. It has the makings of a neo-Southern Gothic, but gets too caught up in its own sordid details to reach its full potential." ( )



Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward | "These three voices join together in an alternating chorus, related to one another by the biased attitudes and institutions that have doggedly persisted in spite of all common decency demanding otherwise. Together they show not only the singular struggles of the Black community in the Gulf Coast region, but also bring out the universally human responses we may have to hardship. All three are changed by their shared journey and the individuals encountered along the way, just as we are changed by reading of it." ( )

The Storm King by Brendan Duffy | "Nate McHale, the central figure whose perspective dominates the narrative, is monotonously unlikable. I don't need the main character of every book I read to be a Good PersonTM. In fact, characters who never struggle with doing the right thing are often boring, particularly when playing a central role, because that kind of conviction just isn't realistic to me. Yet for the majority of The Storm King Nate remains a self-centered, callous, and emotionally distant man whose attitude is primarily justified by a childhood tragedy." ( )

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman | "What failed to improve for me was the overall plotting in Thunderhead. Several new concepts and places are introduced which become crucial to the story, yet despite their importance in this new world order, they never merited a mention during the extensive training detailed in the first book. This expansion comes across less as world-building and more like ret-conning, a cheat instead of growth." ( )


FEBRUARY


The Bad Daughter by Joy Fielding | "Perhaps its obvious from the previous paragraphs, but books as thoroughly average as The Bad Daughter present the unique problem of having neither particularly good nor bad qualities to single out in a review. None of the faults I found in it were egregious enough to warrant a DNF and none of the positives were compelling enough that I would seek out another of Ms. Fielding's novels." ( )

The Balcony by Jane Delury | "Ms. Delury writes with an appealing frankness. Her prose avoids frivolity, yet by capturing the raw truth of actions and their consequences it achieves an appealing lyricism. Wry observations pepper each chapter, again written with a simple elegance that achieves beauty without pretension. Women comprise the majority of her first-person narrators, who span a wide range of ages and circumstances. Readers will doubtless find at least one relatable voice amongst the crowd, alongside many other sympathetic ones." ( )

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer | "While the four central characters enjoy varying degrees of development—thanks to a rapidly dwindling survival rate—none of them function as cliches or placeholders. Each woman is framed with a depth of possibility made artificially shallow by the precautions of the shadowy Southern Reach organization and the limitations of our narrator, the Biologist. Her introspection on the other three team members helps solidify them as characters, while still keeping them at such a distance that a sense of isolation gradually builds." ( )

Circe by Madeline Miller | "Miller's prose once again soars in service to the familiar myths. She ventures where the ancient poets did not, finding the blood and gristle beneath the smooth, polished skin of their verses. The untouchable world of immortals and demi-gods often feels close, accessible even, until a moment of shocking cruelty or violence dispels the notion. Many names and places will feel familiar enough that you might find yourself unwittingly skimming ahead: don't. Circe's voice carries a dry wit and aching vulnerability that leaves each sentence ripe with possibility." ( )



The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw | "The Wicked Deep is much darker than I had expected, perhaps even darker than it acknowledges within the text. Sparrow and its inhabitants treat their circumstances with a chilling degree of resignation; that they manage to profit off an annual flood of tourists for 'Swan season' only compounds the frightful effect. Ernshaw's writing brings out the warring atmospheres of terror and nonchalance. Eschewing any sly winks toward the fantastical, it keeps the curse firmly grounded in reality. The coastal Pacific Northwest is almost a character unto itself, populated with grey drizzle and choppy waves that set a foreboding tone." ( )

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier | "The use of multiple perspectives further grounds this usually adult tale in a child's world. While the audience only gains insight into the inner workings of the villain Iago's mind in the play, New Boy shifts between Osei (Othello), Dee (Desdamona), Mimi (Emilia), and Ian (Iago). So many different reflections on the same events made their progression more natural, even when compared to the source material and taken in the context of rising pubescent turmoil." ( )

The Strange Bird by Jeff VanderMeer | "There is quite a lot to unpack in the Strange Bird's journey. Some of my favorite themes threaded heavily through her odyssey: immortality and free will, in particular. And 'odyssey' is, perhaps, the best descriptor of her travels. For while not as voluminous as the account of Odysseus' adventures, The Strange Bird flits between places and creatures and humans in much the same manner. Each encounter feels like a way-station—an opportunity for education or tribulation that drives her onward to some final destination." ( )

My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie | "Despite some fiddling with the historical timeline, My Dear Hamilton remains steadfastly true to the character and spirit of Eliza and her contemporaries. Those who delight in Hamilton's pop culture comeback will easily lose themselves in his wife's perspective. For the girls and young women, in particular, who admire a certain musical, My Dear Hamilton goes where Broadway did not." ( )



To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo | "Perspectives alternate between Lira and Elian. The siren princess is undoubtedly the more compelling of the two; a simpler reading might describe her character arc as the difference between good and evil, although I believe the core of it actually concerns subservience and independence. The curse of a human body may banish Lira from her aquatic home, but it also removes her from the tyranny of her mother's reign. Any moral developments are secondary to the journey of a girl discovering her voice, developing the strength to form and express her own opinions about the world." ( )

Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence | "For all of its detail, though, Seven Pillars reads best as the portrait of a man caught between two disparate cultures. He claims (and I believe him) that the unity and independence of a fledgling Arab nation matter to him personally. Lawrence often speaks disdainfully of British soldiers who cannot acknowledge the strength and character of their local allies, yet his own assessments of his Arab counterparts are littered with derogatory stereotypes. He's a product of his upbringing (the illegitimate son of an Irish nobleman) and his era: the lack of self-awareness in a man whose gaze pierces through others so readily is notable, though not entirely unexpected." ( )

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi | "Beneath its fantastical surface, Blood and Bone touches on contemporary topics like discrimination and oppression with a deft touch. The power differential between divîners and kosidán immediately reminded me of one of the Rwandan genocide's underlying causes, although one hardly requires an understanding of world history to recognize the chilling absurdity of racial prejudice. There's a depth of thought to this world-building that requires multiple readings: partly because I raced through my first read, partly because my personal life experience undoubtedly has gaps of understanding." ( )


MARCH


The Beloveds by Maureen Lindley | "The Beloveds' greatest strength sadly became its downfall about a third of the way through. Elizabeth's plotting, when divorced from any action, turns into a droning series of repeated complaints. When one scheme to reclaim Pipits—the family home—fails and another doesn't soon materialize, Elizabeth is revealed to the reader as a monotone, raving lunatic. I don't require that a main character be likable for me to read their story, but I do expect them to be consistently engaging throughout a book. For a significant chunk of The Beloveds' middle, Elizabeth commits the one cardinal sin: she bored me." ( )

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff | "A dichotomy of a book, I nearly gave up on Fates and Furies. It received a lot of attention from critics upon its release, ultimately garnering a National Book Award nomination, and I can see why. It's written in a style I like to refer to as "artistic prose": incomplete sentences and run-ons mix together in a tumble of words meant to approximate stream of consciousness. In the best passages this lends urgency, but more often it's a confusing and sophomoric illusion of depth." ( )

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline | "From start to (nearly) finish, unwieldy chunks of exposition clog the narrative. Cline displays little to no grace in world-building, from the biographies of key historical figures, to the backstory of the OASIS, to the cut-and-dried summaries of vintage video games, movies, and other flotsam. It feels as though at least two-thirds of Ready Player One is devoted to uninspired info dumping. By comparison, Wade regularly skims over moments of action that are more likely to captivate. I can't fathom why Cline would choose to abandon the actual story in favor of showing off how deep he is into nerd culture..." ( )

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison | "Most colorfully rendered, though, are the girls held alongside Maya in the Garden. With only beauty as a common denominator, each young woman reacts to and copes with her abuse differently. I don't believe The Butterfly Garden is trying to make any kind of point—I think it's meant as entertainment, not a statement—but I appreciate how the diversity of reactions to unequivocally evil behavior in some small way validates that there is no right or wrong way to respond to trauma." ( )



Liar's Candle by August Thomas | "The compressed time frame helped keep the action at a fever pitch throughout Liar's Candle. Characters race from Ankara to the Syrian border to Istanbul, all over little more than a day. Between Penny's search for Zach and the truth about the embassy bombing, and the frantic damage control by conspirators at home and abroad, there's barely a moment to breathe. Compulsively readable, Liar's Candle shapes up as the perfect vacation read, whether you're stuck at the airport or lounging on the beach!" ( )

The Gold-Son by Carrie Anne Noble | "A little more than halfway through The Gold-Son, a significant time jump brings the story into the modern day. The focus shifts almost entirely onto Tommin and much of what I loved about the faerie world-building disappears as he tries to survive in the mortal world above. More generally, the plot completely derails, losing whatever momentum it had from Eve's scheme for freedom. This marked the point of no return for me; even though the action picks back up a little near the end—accompanied by some head-scratching faerie "technology"—it's far from enough to undo the damage." ( )

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody | "Foody evokes a gilded decay in New Reynes, split into the prosperous South Side and dingy, crime-riddled North Side. Her writing captures the unique blend of excess and corruption that shapes many of the conflicts in Ace of Shades. Most important for a continuing series, she's crafted a vibrant world that I look forward to returning to with plenty of unexplored corners to reveal in future books." ( )

Warcross by Marie Lu | "As the titular game, and the larger VR built up around it, Warcross exists as a natural extension of the technology we've become accustomed to today. It enhances and simplifies a user's life, in exchange for increasing access to their personal data and habits. What started as a futuristic landscape for a simple mystery—find and apprehend whoever intends to disrupt that year's championship—evolves into a nuanced examination of the increasing tension between privacy and convenience." ( )



Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne | "My expectations for Brightly Burning definitely left me wanting a spookier, more foreboding atmosphere. Some of this disappointment might unavoidably stem from already knowing what surprises lie ahead; I'm not willing to put all the blame for my feeling underwhelmed on knowing the story, though. Even when the late-developing twists no longer shock, the atmosphere should still have a noticeable effect. With so much focus on the budding attraction between Stella and Hugo, the story takes on a softer tone that forgoes much of Jane Eyre's creepiness." ( )

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young | "Sky in the Deep fails to meet the expectations set by its synopsis. In a year already ripe with excellent YA heroines, Eelyn disappoints thanks to a wealth of unfulfilled potential. The writing style and content feel mismatched, which may alienate some readers. A tepid plot aggravates both problems, unnecessarily challenging the reader to navigate scene after scene of domestic submission with little reward at the end. The battles themselves provide some momentary excitement, yet they happen too infrequently to salvage the book as a whole." ( )

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer | "VanderMeer expands the mystery of Area X, but readers hungering for more solid leads won't find themselves entirely bereft by the sequel's conclusion. The questions he answers are small, at times only deepening our understand of what we don't know about the anomaly. As Control battles against the assistant director's antagonism and the clothes-rending vagueness of his faceless superior, frustration builds. For much of Authority the anxiety wrought centers on helplessness and a growing sense of being trapped in a system designed to obfuscate rather than enlighten." ( )

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik | "Referring to Spinning Silver as a re-telling of Rumpelstiltskin does it an immense disservice. While recognizable elements linger—the power of names and greed, the danger of boasting, and villains who throw shrieking tantrums—Novik fashions all of them into a wholly unique fairy tale of her own. A re-telling might consider familiar stories from a new angle; what Novik achieves in her new novel transcends simple archetypes and childhood lessons, plumbing the depths of duty, love, and humanity in a way that its inspiration did not." ( )



Onyx & Ivory by Mindee Arnett | "Kate, the heroine with hidden talents, feels immensely relatable. Even as she gets drawn into an expanding conspiracy, a desire to protect her friends and learn the truth about her father's drastic and fatal choice remains her main driving force. A tough exterior forged after her father's execution belies an empathetic heart, her prickliness offset by a protective instinct that sometimes places her in danger's path. She's sometimes reminiscent of Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games trilogy, albeit with less romantic brooding and more direct control over her fate." ( )

Caraval by Stephanie Garber | "Trippy and fantastical, Caraval will leave you guessing long after the back cover falls closed. Again and again the players in the game insist nothing that happens is real, yet from the outset we know that to be a lie. Even if our surroundings are an illusion, the feelings they elicit are not. In this way Caraval looms large, a gilded trap for those who dare to play: you cannot win without risking personal involvement and you cannot become involved without believing the fable is fact. The experience is just as disorienting for the reader as it is for Scarlett, the eldest sister swept away by its deceit." ( )

Legendary by Stephanie Garber | "The setting is no less magical for taking place in the "real" world, though. Garber introduces more of the realm beyond Caraval in her sophomore novel, expanding on the political and religious history of the Empire. Most important of all are the Fates, a group of god-like beings with the power to influence human lives, and who were once said to hold dominion over mankind." ( )


APRIL


The Pisces by Melissa Broder | "How often in a day or a week do you notice an outrageous thought crossing your mind? Something so personal, so inappropriate, or even so rude that you would never share it out loud? It happens to all of us. Lucy's shameless inner monologue is relatable even in its more shocking moments; while I may never have thought about sauteing a merman's tail while kissing him, I've certainly had some non sequitur thoughts pop into my head at inappropriate moments." ( )

Furyborn by Claire Legrand | "Where His Dark Materials had a certain snowy softness to it, Furyborn replaces it with flame and metallic edges. The expansive scale of time and mythology bestows a grandeur on Furyborn that promises greater—and darker—developments in the sequels to come. Claire Legrand has something superb on her hands and I cannot wait to see what she has in store for us next!" ( )

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson | "Fans of zombies and other horrors should find their tastes sated in this teenage drama quite well. Fleshy mushrooms sprout from a suspect's back and, while the three reanimated girls look normal when standing near Mila, after a certain distance they appear as they otherwise would in death: broken necks, rotting flesh, white eyes. Most of this plays for humor, though. When a stereotypical self-absorbed teenage girl discovers a problem with her appearance that cosmetics can't repair, the outrage is swift and hilarious." ( )

What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine | "All Maisie's kin, these women—and, in one instance, a child—lived on the estate at different points over the course of 1,500 years. Each behaved in some way contrary to societal expectations at the time: premarital sex, poor manners, failure to marry before a certain age. These alleged failings endangered their well-being and so each woman found shelter in a kind of arboreal purgatory, never aging or falling ill. Such stasis draws pointed attention not only to enduring backwards attitudes about the role and capabilities of women, but a similarly abiding rebellion by the afflicted parties." ( )



Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall | "Hall nimbly toys with reader expectations throughout. In one moment Verity's victimhood is unassailable, only for a strange gesture or reaction to disrupt it and feed Mike's—and perhaps the reader's—belief in a consensual game. This oscillation targets a double-standard deployed against abuse victims when they take their accusations public. Strange behavior and sexual preferences are used as ammunition; symptoms of shock can be twisted into evidence of low cunning. Once the 'game' between Verity and Mike escalates into a situation with legal ramifications, testimony by friends, family, and even Verity herself illuminates a comprehensive truth of events leading up to the trial." ( )

Sunburn by Laura Lippman | "Lippman does write in an engaging, swift-flowing prose. It often makes her characters seem cleverer or deeper than their actions support; with its quick pacing and promise of a more earth-shattering revelation, I read Sunburn in nearly one sitting hoping for a stronger ending than it gave." ( )

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt | This was a buddy read with Evelina of Avalinah's Books and in my review I answer some of her questions about my experience with the book. Be sure to check out her answers to my questions too!



Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco | "Given its hearty posturing as a 'girl power' narrative, Stalking Jack the Ripper has a disappointing lack of developed female characters beyond Audrey Rose. Though she reflects charitably on the Ripper's victims, in action they are nothing more than future victims glimpsed at a distance or bloody corpses ready for examination. Her relatives never break loose from their lazy stereotypes: a nagging aunt preoccupied with propriety; a gossipy cousin with whom Audrey claims a close relationship, yet interacts with only at large social gatherings. In a story that centers around violence towards women, their relegation to the fringes of the narrative puzzles." ( )

All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella's Stepmother by Danielle Teller | "To call All the Ever Afters a re-telling does it a disservice. Although it revisits a familiar fairy tale, there is no interesting tweak or modern update as impetus. Teller seems to look on Cinderella the same way we might ponder gods and their myths from ancient civilizations: as rationalizations for the unexplained. The slippers, the carriage, the romance: all of these narrative touchstones are grounded in recognizable adolescence and the small battles fought within families every day. To outsiders those explanations are either too banal or too inscrutable to survive multiple tellings: hence, Cinderella." ( )

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas | "In a beautifully written and scarily prescient novel, Zumas parallels the life of a little-known female Arctic explorer with the lives of five women entrapped by different versions of the "modern woman" myth. The story is too on the nose at times, yet each woman is a rewarding window into the pysche and struggles of those around us."



The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden | "n this stunning debut, Arden has written an ode not just to a little-documented period of Russian history, but also to the very spirit of great fairy tales everywhere. Like Naomi Novik and Catherynne Valente before her, she did more than entertain me: she made me believe again. While I may not peep into ovens and bathrooms looking for domovoi and banniks, the world feels a little more magical for having Vasya and her companions in it." ( )

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden | "Arden has cemented herself as a master storyteller and a bright new talent in the fantasy genre. The Girl in the Tower transitions smoothly from the wild woods of rural Russia to the glittering halls and stuffy towers of Moscow. Vasya's journey continues to entrance as it leads her closer to the final confrontation that will determine her future, as well as that of all those whom she loves." ( )

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn | "I'm not a fan of the alcoholic and unreliable main character used with more frequency (it seems) in recent thrillers. The device feels like a crutch to wring out tension from a situation that would otherwise be fairly straightforward. I did enjoy Finn's writing style, however, so I would consider giving his next thriller a try."


MAY


Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton | "Burton deploys a squirmy mix of condescension and desperate adoration towards the idle rich that populate Social Creature. Told through Louise's outsider perspective, the lifestyle of well-funded unemployment, heavy drinking, and an endless string of unhinged parties takes on a hallucinogenic patina. Burton's prose continues the dream-like sensation, simultaneously casting Louise as a grounded every(wo)man and a victim of the same rot at the center of her patrician friends." ( )

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows | "Much of the novel is spent simply rehashing Jane Eyre, with the insertion of new characters and the ghost hunting society; only after more than two-thirds of the story has passed does any new conflict enter the picture. For readers captivated by the conversational tone and modern references, this may not feel like much of a wait. It can seem interminable, however, when struggling through an uncomfortable style to reach the plot beyond." ( )

Lies You Never Told Me by Jennifer Donaldson | "Most of the thrillers I read are not geared towards a YA audience because many teens-in-peril situations come across as too outlandish or improbable to hold my attention. Donaldson sidesteps this issue by finding tension and uncertainty in scenarios more plausible in an average teenager's life. Unhealthy relationships, emotional manipulation, and absent parents all contribute to a growing crisis that feels disturbingly possible." ( )

Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer | "VanderMeer's stylistic approach captivates as thoroughly as it did in the opening novel, elevating material that is, at times, disappointingly mediocre to something more fitting in an otherwise excellent series. It is unfortunate that the mysteries he deemed to solve were, for me as a reader, those that could have stood to remain unanswered. Some of the lingering gaps and grey areas in Area X's mythology make one question whether the omissions are intentional or a shortfall of world-building as the series drew to a close." ( )



Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand | "This moody and vibrant horror story comes alive with Gothic flare from the very beginning. Some of its girl power moments can feel a little on the nose, but Legrand's prose and knack for telling beautiful tales keeps it engrossing from start to finish."

The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross | "The Queen's Rising delivered everything I expect and enjoy in a classic fantasy tale: a richly realized world, an comprehensible and impactful system of magic, well-developed characters, and lush writing to bring each component to life. Where it distinguishes itself from other genre offerings is in its narrative focus: rather than honing in on a character predestined as ruler or savior, its gaze falls on a young woman instrumental to the victory of the "chosen one"." ( )

Enchantée by Gita Trelease | "Practically nothing differentiates Trelease's Paris and Versailles from those of history, except a fine thread of magic that runs through all manner of places, people, and things. Camille, if you'll pardon the expression, enchants. A perfectly ordinary girl, she must learn quickly to survive and thrive in Marie Antoinette's court. She and Lazare have wonderful chemistry together that stretches through the entire book, but ultimately this is a story about every part of Camille's life. Enchantée will immerse you in the contradictions of France during the waning days of Marie Antoinette's reign: the luxury and poverty, the manners that gloss over all manner of cruelty. It's a lovely and indulgent story that soars just like Lazare's hot air balloon!"

JUNE


The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry | "Not only a novel on the equally compelling draws of faith and science, it also explores the gravity of love, friendship, and the inevitable imbalance they sometimes cause. Cora and hey companions are all flawed in an honest sort of way; deal the Victorian setting each feels as relatable as anyone living today. This quintessentially British story is quiet, unassuming, and all the more powerful for it."

Contagion by Erin Bowman | "The plot races forward with some genuine scares, although I'd hoped for a more character-driven core to the story. As the first part in a new series though, there's plenty of room to develop those who survived Achlys. Contagion clearly serves as a set-up for the larger conflict to come and does so in a mostly entertaining fashion."

Fawkes by Nadine Brandes | "Thomas is selfish and immature; Emma would have made a much more interesting main character. The color powers are just weird and never feel very organic to the world, with the masks tacked on as a nod to the Guy Fawkes costume. The writing also mixed more "old timey" words with modern slang, which kept pulling me out of the story. I just wish such unique inspiration could have produced something I was more able to enjoy."

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas | "The two smart and (sometimes) unscrupulous high school girls who take it upon themselves to investigate what really happened to Sunnyvale's cheerleaders elevate this above your average teen thriller fare. There are a couple of minor plot holes that I expect will get cleared up in the final edits, but overall Thomas displays a sparkling knack for writing authentic and relatable young women, with a good mystery to go along with them."



The Cruel Prince by Holly Black | "While far from bad, I fail to see where the hype for this comes from. The story and characters were both quite dull until the last third and I decided to make my overall rating reflect the average between the two parts. Jude does have the potential to be a great character in the next two books, but Cardan never felt fully developed. I may be curious about what happens next, though I'm hardly panting with anxiety over it."

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart | "I thought this was a stand-alone, so the ending was a disappointment. There's also a word contrast between the very modern ideas of gender equality and feminism at play and how both girls still get tied up with love interests. It's not that you can't have both, but in this particular instance they didn't complement one another well. The plot and characters were fine but not compelling enough for me to pick up the inevitable sequel."

Sanctuary by Caryn Lix | "Its thrills rely too heavily on a convenient mix of luck and inexperience, but Sanctuary manages to function fine as a standard sci-fi thriller. Trimming down on some of the superfluous romance would have lightened the page count and upped the tension. A thoroughly average read."

Wildcard by Marie Lu | "IT. WAS. PERFECT."



Sea Witch by Sarah Henning | "An average re-telling that works best when it dips below the waves. Unfortunately it spends most of it's time on land trundling through the usual tropes. While it does expand on the little mermaid story we all know, it doesn't add much in the way of spice or interest."

Mirage by Somaiya Daud | "Mirage places much more emphasis on relationships and how they develop, rather than action and danger. This gave it a slower pace than I was expecting, especially for a relatively slim novel, but the character development and world-building have me looking forward to the sequel. I get the sense that my appreciation for this first book will grow after its sequels come out."

Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood | "Greenwood handles the sensitive subject matter with grace, never delving into sensationalism or pulp fiction, and expands the narrative to both real and fictional figures whose lives intersected with Sally's. It's a difficult read at times, with little light punctuating the darkness, but in the end is a spot of hope to serve as a counterpoint to Nabokov's famous novel."

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage | "A very creepy and creative twist on the crowded psychological thriller genre. Stage touches on a lot of the fears parents have and the way that children can demand a rational response but sometimes bring out an irrational one. The plot might follow some expected paths, but the character development is excellent."


What have been some of your favorite books so far this year? Have you mostly been reading review copies or backlist titles? Any DNFs? Let me know how your reading year is going, or link your own mid-year review, in the comments below! ♥

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