It’s that time of the week again! Let’s talk about what I read between October 22nd and 28th, shall we?
Books read: 9
Pages read: 3,272
#1: The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud
Audience: YA
Genre: Paranormal
Plot summary: The final volume in the Lockwood & Co series features the gang – unsurprisingly – chasing ghosts and generally creating mayhem all over London.
Thoughts: I was sliiiiightly hesitant to read this one when it came out. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the series. Then the third one was…not great. The fourth one was fabulous. So I was afraid to see which way this final volume was going to go.
But it turned out to be pretty damned great! It was creepy, there was plenty of risk to characters that we know and love, there are hints at certain ships sailing (FINALLY), and it was generally really really enjoyable.
That said, I felt like the ending was ever so slightly more abrupt than I wanted it to be. Like, it just needed one or two more chapters to wrap things up a liiiiittle more than they were. You know?
Rating: 4.5 stars
#2: These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
Audience: YA
Genre: Historical fiction/crime
Plot summary: Jo’s father has just been found dead. She’s determined to find out the truth. In doing so, she finds herself wandering through the seedy underbelly of 1890s New York with the assistance of a handsome young journalist.
Thoughts: I bought this approximately a million years ago on my Kindle and then promptly forgot to read it. I think part of the problem was that I bought Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace at the same time and so when I read that one, I thought I’d read this one?? Or something?
Anyway. I ended up being hooked from basically the first page. Jo is the society girl who wants more from life than being a wife and mother. Eddie is the boy who grew up in the gutter and wants to prove to everyone that he can be more. Together, they uncover all kinds of drama.
Donnelly did a fabulous job of painting 1890s New York, and how dramatically different things were between Jo’s elite neighbourhood, the docks, and Five Points. I loved that it was historical fiction that shows poverty and that gave a voice to characters living in extreme poverty.
So the characters were great, the writing was compelling, and the setting worked brilliantly. However. I did find it to be more than a little predictable. I guessed who the villain was pretty early on. I guessed a lot of the big reveals well before they happened, and I think at least in part, it’s because no viable alternatives to those outcomes were presented.
So it was definitely an enjoyable read. I just wish there’d been a little more mystery to the mystery…
Rating: 4 stars
#3: Because of You by Pip Harry
Audience: YA
Genre: Contemporary
Plot summary: A seventeen year old girl from an elite private school meets an eighteen year old homeless girl when she’s forced to do community service at a homeless shelter. A friendship blossoms between them.
Thoughts: This book blew me away. I totally judged it by its (fairly boring) cover and was hesitant that it would rapidly turn into an Issues Book and be a little too “homeless people are people too!” for my liking.
But it was absolutely phenomenal. Nola’s dealing with family, relationship, and friendship dramas after something she’s kept a secret for years was finally revealed. Tiny’s struggling with mental health problems on top of worrying about things like where she’s going to sleep. Both protagonists were wonderful and I felt very strongly for both of them. It was compelling and heartbreaking and generally a fabulous LoveOzYA read.
Rating: 5 stars
#4: It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne
Audience: YA
Genre: Contemporary
Plot summary: Audrey no longer believes in love as it’s portrayed in movies. Not after her dad left them for a new family, not after her boyfriend dumped her, not after her mum became a complete wreck. But between a project for school and the cute boy at her new job, she’s being forced to confront the movie version of love head-on.
Thoughts: I had incredibly high hopes for this, because Holly Bourne’s Spinster Club trilogy is one of the most wonderful YA contemporary trilogies out there. And perhaps my hopes were a little TOO high, but this just…didn’t quite hit the mark for me.
I think part of the problem was that there weren’t enough female friendships in it. That’s what I loved most about the Spinster Club trilogy. And yet here, we get Audrey struggling to maintain her friendships at school and struggling to be friendly to the cute boy’s one and only female friend who clearly doesn’t like her.
Add in the fact that the love interest was…kind of a monumental dickhead, and I wasn’t a huge fan of the romantic relationship that crops up in the course of the story. Frankly, the most interesting part for me was the family drama, and there wasn’t as much of that as I would have liked.
Still, the idea of a feminist zombie bride is A+ and the ending was pretty great, so I came out of this feeling more positive than I anticipated at times.
Rating: 3.75 stars
#5: Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray (reread)
Audience: YA
Genre: Paranormal
Plot summary: The sequel to The Diviners, this one features the gang dealing with a mysterious illness all over Chinatown that means people won’t wake up.
Thoughts: I love The Diviners series a HELL of a lot. It’s incredibly diverse, the time period works perfectly, and the dialogue is delightful. This one adds even more diversity to the story with the addition of Ling, whose father is Chinese and whose mother is Irish, and who walks with crutches and a brace after a recent bout of polio.
It’s creepy and full of great friendships and there’s a Gemma Doyle cameo that I didn’t spot last time around but which made me want to scream on the tram when I noticed it. Basically? I love this world and these characters a lot and I just want them all to be happy.
Rating: 5 stars
(Trigger warning for racism)
#6: Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray
Audience: YA
Genre: Paranormal
Plot summary: The brand new third volume of The Diviners series featuring more ghostly mayhem in 1920s New York.
Thoughts: I’ve been dying to read this book for at least a year now. And then when it came out at the beginning of October? I had to put off reading it for several weeks because a) I hadn’t yet reread Lair of Dreams and b) I had to marathon all of Harry Potter in preparation for that trivia night I talked about last week. But I finally read it. AND I LOVED IT SO MUCH OMG.
The stakes have really started to climb for our intrepid gang of misfits. Romances are happening left and right, the popularity of Diviners is wavering, and there are nefarious plots afoot.
I don’t want to say too much for risk of spoiling it for those of you who haven’t yet read it, but OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. It was amazing and heartbreaking and I need book 4 immediately. Also, there’s even MORE diversity than there was in Lair of Dreams with some reveals about a couple of key characters!
Rating: 5 stars
(Trigger warnings for racism and attempted rape)
#7: The Tulip Virus by Danielle Hermans
Audience: Adult
Genre: Crime/Thriller
Plot summary: Split between seventeenth century Holland and present day London, people are being murdered because of tulips. Yup, you read that correctly. Tulips.
Thoughts: I’ve seen this one on the shelves at work a bunch of times, and the title was intriguing enough for me to pick it up. But this one proved to be more disappointment than anything. It’s translated from Dutch and I’m not sure if it lost something in translation, but it felt very stilted. It’s constantly jumping between characters and time periods, and the chapters are often only 3-4 pages long before you’re changing perspectives and locations yet again.
It was definitely an interesting look at an historical event I knew nothing about – the seventeenth-century Tulip Mania that saw the price of tulips skyrocket very briefly before the bubble burst and everything came tumbling down – but I feel like it could have been stronger if it had been told in a…less concise?…fashion.
Rating: 2.5 stars
#8: Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik
Audience: YA
Genre: Contemporary
Plot summary: A contemporary YA retelling of Pride and Prejudice, set at a snooty California prep school.
Thoughts: I’ve had this one on my radar for a while now. This should probably come as no surprise, because I’m complete trash for P&P retellings of any sort. But unfortunately, this one proved to be not what I’d anticipated.
I ended up DNFing this one very early on after reading the following on page 7: “Everyone at Coral Tree Prep was good-looking. Really. Everyone. I didn’t see a single fat or ugly kid all morning. Maybe they just locked them up at registration and didn’t let them out again until graduation.”
Uh. Really?? I mean, Lizzie Bennet is pretty judgemental in the original, it’s true. But Elise Benton is basically a raging bitch and even though I made it as far as page 22, I wasn’t interested in being in her head for the remaining 270 pages of the book. So LOL NOPE BYE.
Rating: DNF
#9: The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
Audience: Adult
Genre: Historical romance
Plot summary: The Duke of Ashbury needs a wife. He doesn’t much care who, as long as she produces an heir and they can get it over with, like, NOW. So when Emma, the seamstress who sewed his ex-fiancee’s wedding dress, turns up on his doorstep wearing said wedding dress, it seems like a sign. Emma’s basically broke, and marrying a duke will help with that, so…why not get married 24 hours after meeting someone?!
Thoughts: After the aforementioned DNF debacle, I needed something that was going to be a guaranteed hit. And thankfully, Tessa Dare delivered in fine form. This was utterly ridiculous from start to finish, but also laugh-out-loud funny and thoroughly enjoyable.
As is always the case with Tessa Dare’s books, there’s great female friendships, plenty of swoon, a hero who’s afraid of love, and a fiesty young woman who stands up for herself and is determined to burst through the walls around his heart like Kool-aid Man. Or something.
Here, Ash’s fear of love stems from the scars he has on his face and the right side of his body after a rocket exploded too close to him at Waterloo. People stare and scream and run away from him in the streets, so it’s perhaps not surprising that he’s shut himself away from the world. And initially, he shies away from the emotions Emma ignites in him. But he’s got a houseful of servants who are determined to see him fall in love and who’ll go to any lengths to make it happen.
So yeah. Totally ridiculous. Largely predictable. But a hell of a lot of fun. I sped through it in an hour and a half. And sometimes, that’s exactly what you need!
Rating: 4 stars
What did you read this week?
The Tea is Also Cursed 