What a busy month! September flew by, probably at least in part because I read seventeen books this month. That...has to be a personal record. The nice thing is, I enjoyed almost all of them! Here are some brief thoughts.
1) Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Out of all of the Earthsea books, I admit I struggled the most with this one. It felt like a bit of a chore to have to read about Earthsea history when I really wanted to know what would happen next with Tehanu, Tenar, and Ged. But ultimately this book is definitely worth the effort. I think I was just a little too impatient on the first reading. In future I'll be able to savor the stories more. If, like me, you're impatient to pick up with The Other Wind, I would recommend reading at least the first and last story out of Tales.
2) The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin
A really enjoyable and lovely conclusion to the books of Earthsea. Now that I've read it, I can't imagine the series feeling complete without it. I definitely recommend this book and the series as a whole.
3) A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos
I will need to write another post about this series, because it's my new...obsession? My new favorite book series? Yes. And yes. This book follows Ophelia, a citizen of the ark Anima, when she is betrothed to a man from the Pole ark. Compared to Anima, the Pole is cold, cutthroat, and overwhelming. But Ophelia is determined to survive, even if no one thinks that she will - even her fiance. Christelle Dabos definitely knows how to slowly unfold a story in a complex and satisfying way. I really like Ophelia as a protagonist. She has some traits that can be executed poorly (clumsiness, supposed "plainness," bookishness) but luckily they're done well here and don't get on my nerves! In particular I like the explanation for her clumsiness. She has the ability to walk through mirrors and got stuck between several mirrors as a child when it was first manifesting. As a result, even after physical therapy the different parts of her body have remained out of sync with each other. Details like that make the world of A Winter's Promise feel very real and satisfying to read about.
4) Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
This one was recommended to me at work. YA Mysteries aren't what I usually read, but I liked this one. The mystery was intriguing and I thought the main character Stevie's anxiety was well-written and portrayed realistically. I have now read the rest of the series, and I wish there had been a little more meat to the mystery if it was going to be spread out over three books, but it's still a good series.
5) Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
A fun YA fantasy vilification arc about a character destined to become Snow White's evil stepmother, although I feel like the main character's descent into evil could have gone a little harder. I wanted her to kill people personally. What does that say about me? Not important.
6) The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
Book 2 of Truly Devious and unfortunately the one that feels most extraneous. This trilogy might have been better as a duology followed by standalone mysteries like The Box in the Woods.
7) Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore
I really enjoyed this, although tonally it's quite different from the other Graceling books. Especially with how many POVs there were! I have since read it a second time, and I think it suffers from a few too many POVs and uneven pacing. Also, while I love Kristin Cashore's writing, I don't think her political intrigue is very good.
8) Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
I support women's wrongs! This book is very flawed, but I had a lot of fun reading it. It's refreshing to read about a YA protagonist who is so unapologetically vengeful and never softens that about herself. I plan to read the next book when it comes out.
9) The Other Side of Perfect by Mariko Turk
A YA contemporary about a girl struggling to come to terms with the loss of her potential ballet career. The romance in this book was sweet, but what I was most intrigued by were actually the friendships. The main character has been avoiding her former best friend who still dances and her new friends in theatre make fun of another girl for being too committed to acting. Later on there's a reveal that they also made fun of the main character for being so committed to ballet, which was really interesting and I actually would have liked to see that explored more. A good read.
My Goodreads review
10) How to Become a Planet by Nicole Melleby
A middle grade coming-of-age story about a girl who has recently been diagnosed with depression and is struggling to cope with the help of a checklist that she needs to complete by the end of the summer. Not always the lightest read, but it has a hopeful ending and I think it's good for books like this to exist to help teach kids about these issues (and to let them know they're not alone).
11) Fireborn by Aisling Fowler
A middle grade fantasy. I think it's the first in a series? I enjoyed it, but of course all the details have completely slipped my mind. I would recommend it to fans of Ranger's Apprentice.
12) Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach
This was so much fun! A YA contemporary romance filled with conversations about feminism and the many forms it takes. The main character, Eliza, is part of her high school's newspaper staff and loses the role of editor-in-chief to a newcomer that she doesn't think is as qualified. The rant she writes somehow gets posted to the newspaper's website and then to instagram, where it is seen by a lot of other students. Eliza ends up at the center of the ensuing conversations about feminism that happen at her school. This book isn't inventing groundbreaking new feminist theories, but the conversations about it felt realistic and nuanced, and the romance was super charming. Michelle Quach did a great job capturing the butterflies-in-your-stomach excitement of staying up late to text someone you really like.
13) The Accursed Vampire by Madeline McGrane
I liked this a lot! It's a charming graphic novel about vampire children trying to recover a witch's grimoire, but the witch kind of sucks so they don't actually want to help her. I would read more about these characters for sure.
14) The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos
Book two of the Mirror Visitor series. Even better than book one, but the cliffhanger pretty much killed me. This series has the slowest slow burn of all time, I swear.
15) The Memory of Babel by Christelle Dabos
This was quite a change from the first two books, because we enter an entirely new setting. I feel like it's hard to talk details of the plot without spoilers, but know that I devoured this book.
16) Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
A Wild Swans retelling with a gorgeous cover. Unfortunately, I didn't like it. I feel like this book maybe shouldn't have been a retelling at all, given how every plot point it borrows from the fairy tale it seems to kind of fight against or undermine. It's not a terrible YA fantasy, but it's really not what I generally want from a fairytale retelling. I don't plan to read the sequel.
17) Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar
I don't think this book is that bad, but reading it so soon after The Missing of Clairdelune andThe Memory of Babel definitely gave me less patience for the flaws of other books. This book can be described as a mix of Stardust and Indian mythology, where the half-star main character goes to visit the stars in the sky in order to get a cure for her sick father. Unfortunately, I found the competition that she's part of while in the sky deadly boring, and I wanted more political intrigue and scheming from the stars that just didn't happen. I also truly did not care about the love interest. He got on my nerves.
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