Eve: The Awakening

Eve: The Awakening is a 2015 young adult science fiction novel by Jenna Moreci. It was the author's debut novel. She self-published the novel and her follow-up was the acclaimed fantasy novel, The Savior's Champion. I became aware of this novel due to the author having a YouTube channel where she discusses writing and gives out writing advice.

The novel follows a teenager named Eve who is a chimera, meaning she has telekinetic abilities, along with a few other physical attributes, which separates her from the rest of humanity. After years of being an outcast and hated due to her abilities, Eve begins college at the esteemed Billington University, fully-prepared to reinvent herself and live as an ordinary human being. But things at Billington aren’t as they seem. In a school filled with prodigies, socialites, and the leaders of tomorrow, Eve finds that the complex social hierarchy makes passing as a human much harder than she had anticipated. Even worse, Billington is harboring a secret of its own: Interlopers have infiltrated the university, and their sinister plans are targeted at chimeras—like Eve. She must decide if she's going to stay in the shadows or rise up and fight.

I feel like I should start off this review by discussing the characters within the story. There is Eve, the title character and protagonist. I felt so-so about her to be honest. She had personality, and attitude, but at times, it just didn't make sense to me. She would easily brush off some things people said or did to her, but become enraged over other, less serious, events. Speaking of the way she was treated, all chimeras are feared by most of humanity because they aren't understood and because they have this innate power. Eve is no exception and, after her status as a chimera is revealed, people at the college start treating her poorly and for the most part she does nothing about it. She doesn't argue back, she doesn't fight back, she just lets it happen. While I can understand the "don't sink to their level" argument, it made me start to dislike her character. On her journey, Eve makes a number of quirky and interesting friends. The thing about them though, is that they have exactly one thing about them that makes them unique. Sancho is a pyromaniac. Percy is flamboyantly gay. JJ is a hacker extraordinaire. They're all quirky but one-dimensional. There are Madison, Heather and Hayden, the stereotypical mean girls who serve as Eve's "friends" early in the story, only to turn on her later. Lastly, there are the Interlopers, who serves as a faceless army of evil aliens and don't have much personality. They have an evil plan, details about that plan don't really seem to matter, but they're evil and they need to be stopped. 

I love science fiction. I especially love sci-fi that takes place on Earth rather than on some far-off planet. When I read the blurb for this book, I thought it would be right up my alley. It turned out that I was wrong. While the story had potential, it was bogged down by a number of problems. One issue I had was with the amount of filler within this book. There was a lot more filler than was needed, which led to side storylines never going anywhere or not having a real conclusion. In a story about people with superpowers being targeted by aliens, Eve dealing with a math teacher who hates her feels out of place. There's also a storyline that's problematic, for lack of a better term, because a character is nearly assaulted and nothing ever comes of it. There are no repercussions, no consequences, the assault is stopped and that's it. The fact that these plotlines are in the story and don't really have a purpose indicates that maybe, they should've been omitted entirely. Another issue that I had was with the way the plot progresses. This novel isn't a character-driven story, but I wouldn't say it's plot driven either. It kind of straddles both methods and it suffers because of it. It feels like Eve is being dragged through the story half the time and pulling it along the other half. I didn't hate the novel, but the filler and lack of clear direction made it difficult for me to fully enjoy.

Finally. let's discuss the plot itself. Due to some of the filler element, it does move rather slowly. Once the plot starts, important events come in fits and spurts. As with most novels, there's more action and activity in the second half of the story than in the first half, and once the plot starts moving, in earnest, it moves rather quickly. Some of the fight scenes I found engaging, while others didn't really excite me due to the pacing being a little inconsistent. There's a romantic subplot that takes place, which to be honest didn't interest me, but it also didn't detract from the story. It was just sort of there, kind of like Eve's love interest to be honest. Then, comes the plot twist, which I won't fully delve into but I do want to mention. Some stories have very obvious or heavy-handed plot twists; some have more subtle or "gotcha" ones. The plot twist in Eve:The Awakening is neither, but it's supposed to feel like the second one in an attempt to not be the first. The issue is that there isn't any kind of foreshadowing for the twist to make sense and the world's own internal rules are broken in order to make it work. There was a lot of potential here, but the potential wasn't met.

I don't want to make it sound like I completely hated this novel, because I didn't. The core idea Moreci had is fascinating. The detail she put into the world-building and explanation of chimeras was fantastic, it just got bogged down by the college drama and filler. This book does more showing than telling, which is good. I liked her writing style overall, and good for a first novel. She clearly has talent as a writer and some of the mistakes she made in this novel, she learned from and remembered while writing The Savior's Champion. She had a lot of talent, but fell into some of the pitfalls plenty of debut authors do. The only solution to that issue is to keep writing and improve her skills, which she has done. 

I wanted to like Eve: The Awakening, but to be honest, it just wasn't right for me. It's not a terrible book, but I didn't really enjoy very much of it. There were too many extra elements that weren't needed, too many side plots which took me out of the story. Considering this is Jenna Moreci's debut novel, I wouldn't say that it was bad, just a bit disappointing. Perhaps I set my expectations too high going into this novel.

Rating: 2.3 stars

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Children of Dune

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Children of Dune is a 1976 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. It's the sequel to Dune Messiah and is the third book in the Dune saga. It was the first hardcover science fiction book to become a bestseller. It was nominated for the 1977 Hugo Award. Dune Messiah and Children of Dune were adapted into a Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, titled Children of Dune, in 2003 and received positive reviews.  This novel was the last of Frank Herbert's novels to be serialized prior to publication. My reviews for Dune and Dune Messiah are linked here. Children of Dune can be purchased here from Bookshop.org or here from Amazon. 

Children of Dune takes place nine years after the ending of Dune Messiah and its story centers around twins Leto and Ghanima Atredies. They are the children of  the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, who disappeared into the desert wastelands of Arrakis shortly after their birth. Like their father, the twins possess supernormal abilities—making them valuable to their manipulative aunt Alia, who rules the Empire in the name of House Atreides. Facing treason and rebellion on two fronts, Alia’s rule is not absolute. The displaced House Corrino is plotting to regain the throne while the fanatical Fremen are being provoked into open revolt by the enigmatic figure known only as The Preacher. Alia believes that by obtaining the secrets of the twins’ prophetic visions, she can maintain control over her dynasty. But Leto and Ghanima have their own plans for their visions—and their destinies.

I feel like I should start off by saying that I liked this novel a lot more than the book that preceded it. I found the twins, Leto and Ghanima, to be fascinating characters. With Muad'Dib dead, one of them will lead the Imperium when they reach adulthood. The enemies of House Atredies don't want this to happen. Alia doesn't want this to happen and the twins don't even want it to happen. Yet, they know that nothing they do can change the fact that one of them will become the next emperor; they can only change the circumstances of their ascension. A common question in the story revolves around whether or not they're completely human. They were "pre-born" as Alia was and can access the memories of past generations. The twins are also aware of the future, much as their father was, and know the outcome of events that haven't happened yet. This means that, much like with Paul in the first book, they know what's coming and have to wait for everyone else to catch up. This means that, rather than Children of Dune focusing on the twins' attempts to achieve a goal, it depicts them trying to create the ideal environment for the inevitable outcome to occur in. Neither child seems like a normal kid, but they aren't supposed to. Some readers might find it hard to connect with them, but I didn't and this is mostly because I've come to the conclusion that the Dune series should be read for the plot and world first and the characters second.

Not counting the twins, there are three characters that really shape the plot of this book: Alia, Jessica and the mysterious Preacher. In the nine years between Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, Alia has served as Regent for her niece and nephew, running the empire until they come of age. She has gotten used to the power she wields and feels threatened by anything that could interfere with her ruling. She also struggles with an addiction to the spice melange and her exposure to the Water of Life while in the womb and that giving her too much knowledge and memory for any person to reasonably handle. These factors all combine to create a brilliant spiral into insanity and devolution into the very thing she fears becoming. Jessica left Arrakis after the events of Dune and has returned at the behest of the Bene Gesserit to test if Paul's twins are human. Any sympathy I had for Jessica in Dune was erased over the course of this book. She's conceited, conniving and has this holier-than-thou attitude despite being responsible for numerous events that led to the events in this book happening. I'd be fine with that if she seemed to have a shred of self-awareness or guilt, but she doesn't and continues to act as if she's done nothing wrong. Lastly, there is The Preacher. By Dune Messiah, Muad-Dib was already seen as a god  and deified. He's the focal point of his own religion. The Preacher appears, walking out of the deep desert, and lectures the waiting pilgrims about all of the failings of Muad'Dib's religion. The meanings of Paul's teachings have been forgotten, the people he sought to protect and empower have lost their way. It seems like The Preacher's sole mission is to tear down the religion and empire Paul had built before his demise. The Preacher's character arc, and his connection to the overall story, is tied heavily with the themes about religion, mob mentality and loss of narrative control I mentioned when discussing Dune Messiah. The Preacher is by far the most nuanced character I've read in this series and once his motivations become clear, it's difficult not to agree with him.

One of my major complaints about Dune Messiah was that there isn't much plot for the length of the novel. I referred to it as being a very transitional book. The scope of the story is bigger in Children of Dune, Herbert was willing to take more risks and the plot is a lot more cohesive. Much like the original novel, all of the plotlines converge together towards the end of the book. There was also a much larger degree of world-building in Children of Dune although the aspects that are expanded upon appear to be about minutiae at first. With all of that being said, there were still some pacing issues. All three books in this series that I've read so far have the same problem: great beginnings, great endings, but middles where not a lot happens. This story did drag in the middle as events needed to happen to bring characters together that were separated and push the plot along. When I was discussing this book with my dad, the only person I know has read the whole series, he admitted that the middle of the book is somewhat of a bore. While I wanted to see more of the Dune universe, including other planets, most of what happened off of Arrakis was boring. People talking about events happening on Arrakis or scheming about future events to happen there. Pages of conversations and plotting with no action slowed the story down.

As I mentioned above, my dad is the only person I know who's read the entire series. When I told him I was about to start Children of Dune, he said he was jealous because I was about to experience the story for the first time. You can read a book several times, but you can only read it for the first time once. He told me, without giving anything away, that some of the events of the book are "completely insane". Obviously, this intrigued me and the story had a lot to live up to. It certainly fit his description, as anyone who's read Children of Dune knows. As a rule, I don't spoil books. I bring that up whenever there's a big plot twist or reveal I want to talk about, but can't. I'm not going to spoil what happens in this book and anyone who's thinking of reading it absolutely should fight the urge to search it on Wikipedia. All I will say is this: as I was reading, I was trying to figure out where the plot was going. (I feel like most readers do that, but just stick with me for a second.) There were a few plot elements that I guessed, or had an idea about. There was one that I didn't see coming at all. Never in a million years did I see that particular plot twist coming. I thought the relevant foreshadowing was moving in a completely different direction and I was wrong. The twist surprised me in a way no other twist has. Every other plot twist will be measured against this one. Now, I need to read the next book God Emperor of Dune, because the twist in Children of Dune makes me want to know where the story is going to go from there.

Children of Dune is overall a good book. It built upon its universe in a new and unique way. It had a number of surprises within its story and set up a sequel with nearly endless possibilities. There are some pacing issues and some characterization problems. As mentioned above, I've figured out that what I like about the Dune saga is the overarching plot and universe, not necessarily the characters. This book might not be for everyone, I know some people who claim the series is a little too "out there" for their tastes, but I think anyone who likes the original Dune should definitely read Children of Dune, even though it does mean having to push through the second book. I liked the book overall and because of how this one ended, and the plot twist that completely floored me, I'm definitely going to read the next book in the series.

Rating: 3.9 stars

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Until All Curses Are Lifted

Until All Curses Are Lifted is a 2019 young adult epic fantasy novel by Tim Frankovich. It was released in August of 2019 and published by Warpsteel Press. The author provided me with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The novel takes place in a fantasy world where the law is imposed by magic. If a person breaks the law, they’re cursed in one way or another. The only exception to this rule are the reigning six Lords of the world, Antises, who figured out a way centuries ago to bypass that particular rule. The story follows two protagonists: Marshal and Seri. Marshal was born cursed as punishment for the crimes of his father. He discovers that he’s heir to immense magical power and this leads him to flee for his life because his half-brother wants the power for himself and hires an assassin to pursue him. No one has ever escaped a curse, but Marshal, his mother Aelia and another boy from their village named Victor, journey to lift Marshal’s curse so that he can truly be safe. Seri, meanwhile, wants to become the first female mage and the most powerful mage in history. The magic that holds Antises together is failing and no one knows why. While the ground itself shakes, someone starts murdering mages. In danger from all directions, Seri must learn how to use her unique abilities before everything falls apart. As both Marshal and Seri go on their respective journeys, neither knows they’re being watched from another realm.

Marshal might be the first main character of his kind that I’ve read. As explained above, Marshal is cursed due to the actions of his father. His curse is that he’s unable to communicate. He can’t speak, or make any type of sound, he can’t use a form of sign language and the only way he can get any information across is by nodding or shaking his head, and that’s only if he remembers what each gesture means. This means that, while the reader sees things from Marshal’s perspective through his narration and thoughts, we’re the only ones who know what he’s thinking, the other characters do not. Since he can’t speak, many characters believe he isn’t aware of what’s going on or doesn’t fully understand things happening around him, but he does, he just can’t express that. At the beginning of the novel, Aelia, Marshal’s mother, is the only person who seems to care about him. Everyone in the village, and the world at large, loathe people who are cursed, even children who were born that way. Aelia is the driving force behind Marshal’s story and one of the strongest, most complex characters I’ve read in a while. She doesn’t care where she has to go or what she has to do, she’s going to get Marshal’s curse lifted. At the same time, she’s never willing to tell anyone much about her plans, keeping things very close to her chest. Seri is the other main character and she is committed to not only being the first female mage, but also the greatest mage of all time. She arrives at Zes Sivas, where mages are trained, to learn magic as magic is causing the world to fall apart. Seri and her fellow acolytes are the highlights of the chapters taking place at Zes Sivas. They’re dripping with personality and agency. One of my favorite traits of Seri’s is how curious she is about what’s going on around her and how tenacious she is about finding answers. Everyone else just wants to stop the world from falling apart, while she wants to understand why it’s falling apart to begin with. There’s a whole host of other characters, both good and bad, that I enjoyed in this story, and it would take me forever to run through all of them. Frankovich did an excellent job writing interesting and unique characters.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is the way the alternating POVs is used to tell the story. Marshal’s journey shows the reader the world in the way an average person would see it. His group travels to different lands, meets people of different cultures and gives a more down-to-earth perspective of things. Seri’s story, meanwhile, reveals information about Antises in a broader sense. Through her studying magic, the reader learns how magic works in this world. Through Zes Sivas preparing for an annual ritual, the six different lands are explained, including current tensions between the lands. Seri and Marshal’s stories do overlap, but not until close to the end of the novel, which I liked because it gave both storylines a chance to breathe and develop without the plots contriving to bring them together. The story ends exactly where it needs to, and concludes enough of the story to be satisfying while providing the framework for the sequel, which according to the excerpt at the end, is titled Until All Bonds Are Broken.

This book surprised me. I feel like a lot of young adult fantasy, including young adult epic fantasy, tends to shy away from some of the more nitty-gritty aspects of life.  While there isn’t gratuitous violence, Until All Curses Are Lifted doesn’t shy away from it either. There’s a fair amount of violence, bloodshed and death. The same is true for discussions of sex and other topics some books like to gloss over or pretend don’t exist. While I found those aspects of the story refreshing, what really surprised me was the themes of this story and how deep some of those themes run. One of the major themes is about power and how it corrupts those who wield it when left unchecked. That theme isn’t uncommon, but here it’s shown, both literally and figuratively, and runs through multiple storylines, not just one. There’s also something to be said for its message about fear of the unknown or unfamiliar. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

While I enjoyed Until All Curses Are Lifted, I do have some criticism to share. The pacing is a little strange. Obviously, a fight scene or scene with a lot of tension is going to feel more fast-paced than just two people talking, but there were parts of this story where the pacing of a scene didn’t make sense for what was happening within a scene. Likewise, the way the story is broken up into chapters felt weird to me. There were a few instances where two consecutive chapters could’ve been one single chapter instead. There are 430 pages in the book, and it’s 83 chapters when it could’ve been closer to around 50 if some of the chapters had been combined. I know it’s not a huge deal, but I did find that choice to be a little odd. While I enjoyed the story overall, and the ending, I do think there could’ve been a little bit more foreshadowing about some of the revelations at the end, but I can understand why Frankovich might be holding off until the sequel to delve into some of those things. I have some complaints about the novel, but they didn’t distract from my enjoyment of the book.

Until All Curses Are Lifted is a solid epic YA fantasy. The characters are well-written, the world is fascinating and the story is refreshing. I look forward to seeing more of it in the sequel when it’s released. I would recommend it to any epic fantasy fan, both teenagers and adults. It would be especially enjoyable for readers that like hybrid magic systems.

Rating: 3.9 stars

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Odriel's Heirs

Odriel's Heirs is a 2020 young adult high fantasy novel by Hayley Reese Chow. It is being self-published by the author and is scheduled for release on March 1, 2020. The e-book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and you can purchase it here.  The author provided me with an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The novel's blurb reads as follows:  As the Dragon Heir, seventeen-year-old Kaia inherited the power of flame to protect her homeland from a godlike necromancer’s undead army. But after centuries of peace, the necromancer has faded to myth, and the Dragon Heir is feared by the people. Persecuted and cast out, Kaia struggles to embrace and control her seemingly useless gift while confined to her family’s farm. But when the necromancer’s undead terrorize the land once again, Kaia runs away to join the battle. With the help of her childhood rival, the handsome Shadow Heir, and a snarky, cursed cat, Kaia must figure out how to control both her fire and her confidence in time to save Okarria. If she fails, she will sacrifice her family, her new friends, and the enchanting world she has only just begun to see. And time is running out.

Before I discuss what I think of the story overall, I'd like to talk about the characters within the story. Kaia is the main character, and our point-of-view character, for the novel. I liked her character, I enjoyed her growth as a character from a girl who's unsure of herself and her powers to a confident and powerful fighter. She had fears and doubts and agency which made her story compelling. Even when she did things that frustrated me, it didn't make me stop liking the character, I just didn't like the choice she made. Best of all, she's a seventeen-year-old character that reads as being a seventeen-year-old. Along her journey, Kaia encounters, and the reader is introduced to, an array of colorful and interesting characters. There is Klaus, the Shadow Heir, and Kaia's childhood rival. At the beginning, he mostly serves as a foil to Kaia as she struggles to gain control. She's unsure of her abilities, while he's confident in his. She's optimistic while he's most pessimistic. Their relationship at the beginning can best be described as "playfully antagonistic"; they aren't friends but for the most part, their fighting isn't serious. Klaus is a well-rounded character in his own right, having needed to come to terms with his own abilities long before the current crisis arose. I liked Kaia and Klaus, but my favorite character by far is Gus, Kaia's ragehound, who serves as a quasi-therapy dog making sure that Kaia keeps her emotions in check. Because as the Dragon Heir, Kaia sometimes experiences something called Dragon Rage, which is pretty self-explanatory. Gus is a good boy and deserves nice things. There are a number of side characters that I could discuss, but it would take me a long time to say what I need to say about all of them. Overall, I liked the diversity with these characters. I liked the fact that characters didn't drop out of the story entirely after they served the initial purpose they seemed to have. I enjoyed the simplicity of the main villain, the necromancer Nifras, as well. He didn't have some complicated motivation where he thought he was doing the right thing. He wanted to use his Lost, the term for the undead in this world, to overrun the world and cover the planet in darkness. Villains that are evil, simply to be evil, are great when utilized properly and Chow did that here. This novel had excellent characters.

Now that I've finished gushing about the characters, let's talk about the story itself. Reading Odriel's Heirs, it's easy to see what works inspired this world and this story, and there's a great deal of variety within that pool. At the same time, while the author took inspiration from Tolkien and others, the story is its own and not an attempt to retread old grounds. I liked the world-building overall, in that there was some information given about specific groups and races, but not everything was spelled out. The reader was able to fill in the blanks and create their own vision of parts of this world. I enjoyed the plot of this novel because things escalated in a way that makes sense. Kaia leaves home to save a handful of people, which turns into needing to save a village and that snowballs into needing to save the world from the undead. The stakes keep getting raised, but they aren't going from very low stakes to extremely high stakes right away. I appreciated that all fight and battle scenes were giving an appropriate number of pages to take place. Short fight scenes didn't run as long as the battle that's going to have more lasting and widespread consequences which is exactly how it should be. Most stories have several plot twists, with some being smaller than others, and this story is no different. I don't spoil books as a rule, and I'm definitely not going to ruin the plot twists of a book that, at the time that I'm writing this, hasn't been released yet. What I will say is that the twist that happens towards the end of the book surprised me in the best way. I didn't see it coming, but on reflection, I could see the hints and pieces of foreshadowing that preceded it. Overall, the novel has a good, solid plot with some fun surprises thrown in.

One of my favorite parts of this book relates to Kaia's character arc, but I wanted to discuss it on its own. That is the focus on problems Kaia faces due to her being the Dragon Heir. Inwardly, there's a great deal of self-doubt and struggle she faces with her role as the Dragon Heir. In-universe it's explained that only the first-born child of the Dragon Heir will inherit his or her parent's gift. Kaia's father is the Dragon Heir and she is also the Dragon Heir because she was born six minutes before her twin brother. One of her biggest struggles is dealing with the fact that, maybe, her brother should be the one with this gift. She wonders if she's going to be enough to stop Nifras. Is she able to live up to the destiny she's supposed to fulfill? At the beginning of the story, she's not sure that she can. She messes up, she fails and she has to learn not only how to use her gifts, but why she's meant to be the Dragon Heir. Aside from Kaia's inner struggle, there's also a degree of outer conflict around her gifts. Normal people are scared of Kaia, scared of what she can do. Even as a child, people were wary and cruel to her. Through a few short interactions, the reader gets to see what the downside to being a Chosen One is. Or what it's like when the people you're meant to defend and protect don't actually want you around to do that. I found the focus on Kaia needing to accept, but internally and externally, that she is the Dragon Heir and that she isn't meant to be normal, to be interesting.

While I enjoyed the book overall, there are a few pieces of criticism I need to share.While the novel has a good, solid plot, the pacing needs a little bit of work. It's a bit too fast-paced in certain parts, making it easy for a reader to get lost or need to go back and reread to figure out what's going on. I liked Chow's writing style overall, but there were some aspects that are indicative of this being a debut novel. Mostly, this was when she told the reader things rather than showing it. This is her first novel, and as a debut, it's excellent, but occasionally, I came across things that reminded me of it being her first novel. The third, and final, criticism I have is about the romance in the story. I didn't think that the romance was bad, but it was a bit predictable. It was predictable, which isn't necessarily bad, and it somewhat relied on a trope that I don't enjoy reading. However, the romance didn't overshadow the rest of the story, so while I'm so-so about that, it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment. 


I loved this book more than I expected to. It told an amazing story and it doesn't read like an author's first novel. While not perfect, it's a solid, enjoyable story. I recommend it to any fantasy reader that finds the premise intriguing. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel's release, which doesn't have a release date, but the author has announced that there will be one. I'd like to thank Hayley Reese Chow again for providing me with an advance copy of novel so that I could write this review.

Rating: 4.7 stars

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I'm Fine and Neither Are You

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I’m Fine and Neither Are You is a 2019 literary fiction novel by Camille Pagan. It was released in April  by Lake Union Press. I stumbled upon it while browsing Amazon one day and the title intrigued me. It’s a Washington Post best selling novel. It can be purchased here from Bookshop.org.

The novel follows Penelope Ruiz-Kar, a married mother of two who seems to be doing it all and barely keeping it together. Her best friend Jenny, meanwhile, seems to have the perfect life and marriage. Jenny’s shocking death reveals that her life was far from perfect, leading Penelope to decide to truly confront the problems in her life, starting with her and her husband Sanjay committing to complete and total honesty. As Penelope’s vow to stop keeping the peace turns her life upside down, she begins to wonder if honesty really is the best policy.

First, I feel like I should say that I probably wasn’t the target demographic for this story. While this is adult fiction, and I am an adult, a 26-year-old single woman with no kids is going to have different tastes than a married woman, a parent or someone who is a little older. I didn’t find tis book to be terrible, but it also wasn’t especially interesting to me. The story started off interestingly enough, but it honestly began to feel like it was going anywhere special. The story centers around a woman trying to fix her semi-broken marriage, which isn’t especially interesting to read and didn’t leave me feeling much of anything.

Penelope spends most of the novel thinking about the way her marriage used to be and how happy she once was with Sanjay. Or contemplating how her job makes her a decent living, but its not really what she’s passionate about. Or how confused and frustrated she is about the secrets Jenny was keeping from her that she learned after her death.  It’s a story where the main character thinks about a lot of things, but very little plot happens. Additionally, Penelope isn’t a main character that I enjoyed. I felt like she didn’t have much personality and the most prevalent personality trait that she did have was whininess. Both before and after Jenny’s death, which serves as the inciting incident of the story, Penelope does a lot of thinking about how she wishes her life were different, she thinks about the problems she’s just been ignoring, but it takes an exceptionally long time for her to say or do anything about it. Some of her actions, which are supposed to feel selfless, read as very selfish or self-obsessed to me, especially where Jenny’s family are involved. Scenes that are meant to be read as empathetic instead feel like an excuse for her to talk about herself and problems she’s had in the past. Between a plot that crawled along and a main character I didn’t like, the book was very hard for me to stick with and enjoy.

I think the most frustrating aspect of this novel is that it did have potential. Jenny’s death, and the cause was the reader learns later, was a good opening to talk about an issue that’s very topical in 2019. I’m Fine and Neither Are You could’ve used the set-up to actually discuss the current issue and show it from many different sides. It could’ve focused on the grieving process itself and how to struggle with grieving someone while also being angry at the secrets they kept. These elements feature in the story, but end up taking a backseat to the marriage melodrama. (As an aside, perhaps I’ve read too many thrillers, but I half expected Jenny’s death to have actually been a murder and thus add something to the story). A story doesn’t have to be a sweeping epic to keep my attention, but the story does need to go somewhere. Something needs to happen, and for the most part, nothing really happened here other than Penelope thinking a lot and her talking to other people a little bit.

This review has been negative so far, but there are some aspects I think the story does well. Penelope and Sanjay’s relationship is one of the most realistic ones I’ve read in a while. I know plenty of people in real life whose marriages look an awful lot like theirs. They don’t hate each other, but clearly a lot of the romance has gone and they’re in the stage where things have become routine. The conclusion of the story is also realistic. Some changes take place, but no one’s life has become drastically different. It’s frustratingly mundane. The author isn’t a bad writer, but the story being told is far from interesting or exciting in my opinion.

I’m Fine and Neither Are You is just as its title says. It’s fine. It’s not great, but it’s also not the worst book I’ve ever read. If I had to assign it a color, the color would be beige. Boring, safe and doesn’t stand out in any way. I think my experience with this book shows that I need to pay a little bit less attention to how highly-recommended a book is on the internet as a whole. This book is a best-seller and the composite rating is high, but just because 20k+ people like it doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for me. It’s a short read. You can easily pass time reading it, but I don’t agree with the reviews saying that this book is interesting or deep or life-changing.

Rating: 2.4 stars

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Ankerita

Ankerita: Seasons Out of Time is a 2013 Gothic horror young adult novel by Robert Wingfield. It was published by The Inca Project and released in November 2013. It is the first book in the The Seventh House series. The author’s website can be found here. I was provided with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The novel follows Ankerita, later called Anna, a woman from the Tudor era who escapes the grave she’s been imprisoned in for over five hundred years after her resting place is unintentionally disturbed. She takes on the life of one of the vandals who released her and finds herself thrust into the modern world. She is able to see restless spirits and is forced to intervene in order to put them to rest. As a woman without identity, Anna must also dodge the attention of the authorities and prevent her return to the grave and succumbing to the plans of demons attempting to claim her soul.

Ankerita, or Anna as I will refer to her for the rest of this review, was my favorite character in this story. She’s incredibly complex and just when I’d start to think I knew everything about her character, there’d be a new facet to her revealed. I won’t lie, when I started reading, I thought Anna was going to be an antihero. Early on, the reader learns that she was imprisoned at an abbey, and later cursed with living death, because she killed her husband. Her first act in the story is to trick Tox, a graffiti artist, into taking her place at the abbey so that she can escape. Yet, Anna isn’t quite an antihero, but instead a young woman trying to recapture the life she was robbed of. in addition to that, when Anna gets into trouble, which happens quite a bit, she doesn’t wait around to be rescued, but in most cases, manages to get herself out of danger. She meets too many people on her journey to list, but there are a handful that left a big impression. Captain Slash, the ghost of a highwayman, she meets early on. He was the character I found to be the most entertaining, especially on the few occasions where he comes to her aid. She is also followed by a demon named Didiubas and its not clear whether he’s helping her or just getting Anna into more trouble. It depends on what exactly she’s doing at the time. While this book had some heavy and dark moments, the characters helped the story feel balanced.

This novel tells the story of a woman out of time, and one of the things that I enjoy about it is the author’s commitment to that idea. Anna is thrown five hundred years into the future and the alien-ness of the world around her shows. She retains some knowledge of the modern world from the body she’s inhabiting, but there are many moments where her actions or behavior shows that she’s brand new to this world. Many times, this takes the form of her wording things in a way that no one else understands, she sounds a bit like Shakespeare at times, but her inner monologue also reveals aspects of that. I enjoyed reading her struggles to understand and live in the modern world and adapt to things. Many stories where a character is thrown forward in time, or backwards in some cases, depict a short adjustment period and no longer-lasting implications beyond that which tends to annoy me because it glosses over how much things change over a few centuries. Ankerita’s depiction of a woman out of time is the most realistic one I’ve read, possibly ever.

The pacing of Ankerita isn’t as structured as some other novels, but that works in the novel’s favor. Rather than having a strict progression of events that lead from beginning to end, the novel is a series of adventures that Anna experiences as she moves throughout the United Kingdom, sometimes by her own volition, and sometimes because of the actions of others. She’s trapped between the real world and the afterlife, allowing her to see ghosts around her with unfinished business. As she moves through the country, and searches for her place in this strange new world, she’s slowly being nudged towards her destiny, which she doesn’t want to accept, but everything she does only pulls her closer to it. it’s a story as much about exploring the world as it is about self-discovery.

I tend to avoid spoiling things in my reviews as a rule. I’m going to abide by that rule in this review, but that makes it a bit difficult to discuss the end of the story, especially given that this is the first book in a series. I enjoyed the ending a lot, especially the twist that came in the last few pages to set up the sequel and make the reader reevaluate everything that had happened previously. Wingfield did an excellent job of bringing the story almost full circle, but not completely in order to deliver a great ending. I finished Ankerita and wanted to read the next book.

I enjoyed Ankerita overall, but unfortunately, no book is perfect. There are a few things I need to address that I wasn’t as thrilled about as most of the story. Wingfield was able to combine humor into the horror aspects of the story pretty well for the most part, but there were a few scenes where it didn’t quite fit in my opinion. The humor in those moments just felt a little off.  There were a few things that happened that were confusing and didn’t really make much sense or weren’t explained enough to make sense. I was able to understand most of the events in the story, but the few that confused me took me out of the story.

Ankerita was a book that surprised me. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It starts with a great premise and uses that premise to tell an engaging and unique story. The author’s writing style is one that I enjoy and its an easy book to lose oneself in.  As this is the second book I’ve read and enjoyed by Robert Wingfield, the first being Countdown to Omega, its clear that he’s talented at writing in more than one genre. I’d recommend it to any Gothic literature fans out there and I can’t wait to read the sequel.

Rating: 4.3 Stars

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Dorothy Must Die

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Dorothy Must Die is a 2014 young adult fantasy adventure novel by Danielle Paige. It was published by Harper Collins. It was the author's debut novel and is the first book in the series, also titled Dorothy Must Die. The author has written a number of prequels since the series debuted, explaining some events that set-up the world of the story in addition to the main series. The novel can be purchased here from Bookshop.org.

The novel tells the story of a teenager named Amy Gumm from Kansas. She's neglected by her mother and bullied at school. One day, their trailer is swept up in a tornado and Amy wakes up in Oz. Except, the Land of Oz is very different from what the books and film portray. Instead of a beautiful, bright, happy place, it's a grim dystopia with the facade of being a dreamland. Good witches are bad, Wicked witches appear to be good and even the Yellow Brick Road is crumbling. It turns out that Dorothy found her way back to Oz after returning to Kansas and decided to seize power for herself. Amy is recruited by a resistance within Oz to help rid the land of Dorothy.

I'm very skeptical of retellings, continuations or re-imaginings of popular and beloved stories. While there have been many good ones, there have also been an untold number of ones that don't quite work. I was pleasantly surprised by how well this one worked and fit into the existing world of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Now, just to be clear, I didn't hate Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, but the explanation that was given about why Dorothy returns to Oz (Kansas was too dull after experiencing Oz) and how Oz fell into its current state (Dorothy was given an immense amount of power and its gone to her head) make sense. It's easy to understand, in that context, how Dorothy, Glinda, the Scarecrow, Tinman and Cowardly Lion became dark perversions of themselves. The book had a great hook, but a so-so execution of that idea.

Let's discuss the characters first. Amy is the main character, and she has a lot of personality. She's three-dimensional, she has a goal driving her forward throughout the story. The other characters aren't as well fleshed out. The characters we know from The Wizard of Oz's characterization begins and ends with "what if they were evil and their admirable traits are taken to a dark extreme". They're evil now, but one-dimensional evil. As for Amy's allies, they're meant to seem complex, but for the most part, they all fit into the categories of "I'm your ally because your enemy is also my enemy" and "trust me, but don't trust me too much" which was refreshing to begin with, but after the third or fourth character basically said those exact things, it got annoying. There were also a few characters who only appear in a handful of scenes who were a little too fake-edgy for me. Maybe the trope of "tough guy/girl" just didn't translate well in my opinion,  but there were some lines of dialogue that just read as overkill to me. I wanted to like these characters, and hate the ones I'm supposed to hate, but the only character I liked was Amy and I couldn't connect with any of the others.

The pacing of Dorothy Must Die is a bit slow. The beginning tells us a bit about Amy's life and her problems. We see enough to get a feel for the character, but too much, since what really matters is Amy traveling to Oz. Once she lands in Oz, however, the plot slows down. Paige was dropping the reader into a world they were supposed to already know, but had been drastically changed. This is Oz, but not the Oz we know. As a result, there needed to be a degree of world-building added to the story in order to explain how and why Oz had changed. I enjoy world-building, but not if it comes at the expense of the story being told. There are lengthy parts of this book where Amy doesn't appear to be doing anything that furthers the plot. Instead, they're being used to build up Dorothy and her friends into these horrible monsters that must be destroyed when the reader already knows that. Part of this pacing issue is due to this being the first book in the series. There needed to be a lot of set-up for future books, which meant the plot itself doesn't have a lot going on.

An aspect of the story that I did enjoy was that the author didn't shy away from making things dark in this new Oz. Not only do characters say how terrible Oz has become, but it's shown. There's blood and gore and scenes that are genuinely frightening, which I liked. When stories tell me that a place is horrible, but never show an example of it, it gets under my skin. If you want me to think something or someone's bad, you need to show something that verifies it. In this story, the terrible world is backed up by the terrible events the reader gets to witness. I also enjoyed the fact that, while it did slow the plot a bit, Amy's training with the rebellion wasn't glossed over. I don't enjoy time skips, but I also don't enjoy wishy-washy explanations of how a character who's never fought before can suddenly kick butt. The story showed enough of her training to indicate it was happening, but focused more on relevant lessons she's learning than just adding to the length.

I liked Dorothy Must Die, but I didn't love it. The premise behind the novel is intriguing, even though the execution leaves a bit to be desired. Some of my criticisms are due to this being the author's debut novel and those tend to need a little bit more polish than a non-debut novel. There are also aspects that I found disappointing that are a result of this being the first book in the series. There's a lot of world-building and explaining, with not a ton or plot and very little resolution at the end. I haven't decided whether I'm going to read the next book in the series, The Wicked Will Rise, but this book didn't disappoint me to such a degree that I'm adverse to the idea. Dorothy Must Die had a lot of potential and maybe my expectations were a bit too high going into the story.

Rating: 2.7 stars

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Countdown to Omega

Countdown to Omega is a 2019 science fiction novel by Robert Wingfield. It was self-published by the author and released in August of 2019. The author's website can be found here. I was provided with a free copy of the book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

The novel tells the story of a girl named Anthea who lives on a paradise planet and is an outcast of a colony of refugees and religious pilgrims. One day, a storm of meteorites begins to bombard the planet. She believes this to be an omen of the Gods returning. The “Gods” are in fact the remnants of the race Anthea is descended from, left behind by her own ancestors and evolved over millennia in order to survive. Their arrival causes an alien artifact given to Anthea as a child to activate, seemingly counting down, and sets off a chain of events that threatens a deadly conflict. Unsure if the amulet is the key to salvation or her doom, Anthea goes on a journey to prevent the devastation of her planet.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Countdown to Omega, the novel didn’t quite fulfill the expectations I got from the tagline. The tagline reads “Ancient Aliens meet Greek gods in an epic confrontation that spells the end of the world” which I thought was a bit misleading. I thought the story would depict an epic war between aliens and gods, not of a possible war between humans and aliens believed to be gods. I guess the truth of the tagline depends on how the reader chooses to interpret it. The tagline and the novel’s plot not quite meshing together isn’t a criticism by any means. The story within is more engaging and nuanced than a straightforward “Olympians vs. Aliens” battle royale.

The novel has a wide array of characters, far too many for me to list, but I would like to discuss a handful who I see as the most important to the story. First, there is Anthea, the main character. She’s a outcast among her people because she’s different, having a different hair color and complexion, from the others on the planet An-Ki. She draws ire from others in her community because she questions things, mostly the religion she’s an acolyte of, and if she needs to follow certain rules, she wants to know why. In addition to her rebellious streak, she has a very dry sense of humor and is quite sarcastic. Naturally, being incredibly sarcastic myself, I connected with her very early on. The two “Gods” Anthea encounters early in the story are a male and a female “Watcher”, named Phoebus and Diana respectively, who were sent to observe another planet and report their findings back to their own people. Their mission goes awry and thus, they end up on An-Ki. They’re both very clinical and emotionally stunted, much to Anthea’s confusion and frustration. However, despite being members of the same alien race, they have very distinct personalities. Diana is very cynical of many things and willing to do whatever is needed to accomplish their mission. Phoebus, on the other hand, is a far more curious about the world surrounding him and doesn’t have the same laser-like focus on the mission the way she does. The final character I’d like to mention is Tiresias, the main antagonist of the story. There are a number of antagonistic characters, but Tiresias does the most to drive the plot forward and, given that other antagonists are either his allies or his followers, he’s clearly the main villain. Wingfield wrote all of the villains really well, but Tiresias I feel is the best written one, because he perfectly embodies the power-hungry villain trope and it becomes clear in the first scene he appears in that he’s not meant to be liked. Anthea makes a number of allies throughout her journey, and this review would be far too long if I mentioned all of them, but something that I noticed, and enjoyed, about the characters was that they were all flawed and it wasn’t all the same flaw. Some were too trusting, some were very distrusting with no reason. There were characters who are religious zealots and others who don’t seem to believe in the religion, but see it as a gateway to more power. I loved flawed characters, I feel that they make a story more interesting, and having a variety of characters with different flaws makes a story even better.

It’s clear early on in the novel that the author did a great deal of research for this story and was passionate about what he was writing. The knowledge and the passion help guide the reader through the story. Wingfield wrote very vivid descriptions of the world, the people and events that effortlessly create the scene in the reader’s mind, allowing them to lose themselves in the story. This is a story that makes you think about creation, the origins of mankind and evolution. There are some questions about the inherent destructive nature of humanity and our tendency to create structures that foster corruption thrown in as well. Wingfield wrote a unique and thought-provoking explaining both the origins of humanity and some of our oldest mythologies.  The story is the right level of confusing, which might seem like a contradiction, but hear me out. Very little is revealed up front, but as the story moves forward, more details and answers are provided. The author also included appendices and a glossary that can be referred to if necessary. There are nods and hints along the way indicating where the story ends and what the author is trying to convey happens after, but they aren’t so straightforward and obvious that it gives away the ending. There were a few parts or moments within the story where I stopped and went “oh, that’s clever” after finishing the book when I thought about it.

While I did enjoy Countdown to Omega overall, there are some critiques I need to express. The book is a bit dialogue heavy. This didn’t bother me very much, but there were some parts where I would’ve enjoyed less talk and a little more action. I can see why there’s a lot of dialogue, it’s the only in-universe way to explain or reveal past events but at a few points it did get a little annoying. While the plot is very well-paced, it did get repetitive at a point. By that, I mean that three times the same basic situation, a confrontation between Anthea and her enemies, took place and those confrontations ended more or less the same way each time. The third time it happened, it started reminding me of that Charlie Brown bit with Lucy and the football. Each confrontation further the plot, but I found myself getting annoyed at the characters for repeating the same mistakes over and over.

Countdown to Omega is an excellent book. It takes two seemingly very different topics: Greek myths and aliens and melds them together quite well. It’s not suited to be a fast, casual read though. I think any fan of sci-fi should read it. It’s a fascinated, deep, well-executed story. I’m not sure if the author plans to write a sequel or not, as the ending works for both a stand-alone novel or the first in a series, but I’m excited to read what other stories he has to offer.

Rating: 4.4 Stars

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A Dream Within A Dream

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A Dream Within A Dream is a 2019 fantasy young adult novel by Kristina Mahr. It was published by Uncommon Universes Press. It is the second and final book in the Dreamworld duology. The first book is titled All That We See or Seem. I read the first book in the series a while ago, but I haven’t written a review because I read it back before I started this blog. Perhaps I should’ve reread the first book in the duology before reading this one, but I remembered enough of the details to be able to follow and understand the story. The novel can be purchase here from Bookshop.org.

The series follows a girl named Reeve who lives in a kingdom called Acarsaid. She travels to another world, Tenebris, when she sleeps due to a magical breach in the spell connecting the two worlds. In the first book, Reeve travels to Tenebris and falls in love with a boy named Bran who lives there, but at the end, a wizard in her kingdom closes the breach so that nefarious forces from Tenebris can’t enter Acarsaid. In A Dream Within A Dream, Reeve is still able to travel there in her sleep, but she’s invisible to everyone, including Bran. She tries to find a way to reopen the breach so that she can be with Bran, as a war between the two kingdoms looms in the distance.

The three most important characters in this novel are Reeve, the narrator and main character, Arden, Reeve’s fiancé who she’s set to marry within the novel’s time frame, and Bran, the Tenebris soldier who she’s fallen in love with and desperate to be reunited with. There are other characters that play a significant role, such as Carrick, the king of Acarsaid and Reeve’s uncle, Thrall, the court wizard, and Rancore, the villain of the series and an evil wizard, but there’s not much I can say about them withour spoiling the end of the series. Of the three most important characters, my favorite was Arden since he was written with the most personality. He was complex, sometimes putting forth a façade of indifference , while at others showing how deeply he truly cares. Additionally, I found the dreams and goals he expresses to be the most understandable and relatable. Trapped within the confines of his own social class, all he wants is to see the world. Of all of the characters, his desires are the most concrete and specific. I had trouble relating to Reeve, which is unfortunate because in the previous book, I was able to connect with her a little better. I know that I don’t necessarily need to like a main character to enjoy a book, but I actually found myself rooting against her in certain parts. Some of her actions didn’t make sense to me and I found myself getting annoyed at her hopelessly romantic attitude. Unlike Arden, who had a set goal he wants to fulfill, Reeve seemed to be of the mindset that if she can make herself visible to Bran and reunite with him, all of her problems would be solved. It seemed a little too simplistic. Bran is kind of a non-entity to me. I can’t remember if I felt this way about him in the previous book, but nothing about him stood out to me in this novel. He felt like a very cookie-cutter YA love interest, and I found myself not being too invested in their relationship.

One thing that I enjoyed about this novel is that it wraps all of the plotlines up. The magical barrier separating Tenebris and Acarsaid is taken care of. The antagonist is defeated. The Arden-Reeve-Bran love triangle is resolved. I know that may sound silly that I’m happy the last book in a duology wraps up the story, but I’ve read a number of duologies that turned into trilogies that then became longer series and, more often than not, the series as a whole suffers. Everything is wrapped up in a nice little bow and there’s no need for a third book. I also enjoyed the world of Tenebris, the so-called dreamworld. The kingdom is dark, and depressing and there were elements of it that I genuinely found fascinating, but they weren’t explored enough in my mind. The sorcery keeping the two worlds separate and the rules of how magic works in each world took a backseat to the romance aspect of the story and that decreased my enjoyment. The cover art is also incredibly beautiful and I like the mirrored  world aspects of it. A Dream Within A Dream has potential to be a more interesting story, but it wasn’t taken advantage of.

While there were elements of the story that I enjoyed, this book was a miss for me.  Kristina Mahr’s writing style wasn’t really to my taste. Sometimes the language got a little too flowery. At points, I felt like she was repeating words to make a point that the reader had already gotten. There were a few parts where I read a sentence or a paragraph and it felt like they were intended to sound deep or thought-provoking, but it didn’t really work. The pacing was also a little weird. The majority of the pages are spent with Reeve thinking about how much she wants to be with Bran or considering whether she should move on and marry Arden. The dreamworld, which should be the focus of the series, took a backseat to the relationship stuff. In fact, so much of the plot is driven by the romance aspects that the ending feels completely rushed. The better part of two books are spent building up Rancore as this massive threat who wants revenge and will destroy anything and everything in his way. It’s disappointing then when he only appears a handful of times in the entirety of the second book and is defeated incredibly easily. The battle between good and evil could’ve been a very interesting and high-stakes fight, where the tides keep turning. The good guys are winning at first, but then Rancore turns the tables of them and it starts to look like they might not triumph, making the victory sweeter. The ending could’ve been a great magical fight but instead, its more of a one-punch knockout. All in all, it didn’t quite live up to me expectations.

A Dream Within A Dream is a slightly below average book. I wasn’t a big fan of the writing style, finding it a little distracting at points. Some parts of the plot weren’t given enough attention or depth while others dragged on a bit too much. Overall, my disappointment stems from the fact that it’s miscategorized in my opinion. It’s categorized as fantasy and the blurb makes it seem like a fantasy novel with some romance thrown in, but it’s actually a romance with some bits of fantasy thrown in. It’s a quick read and a pretty easy story to follow though.

Rating: 2.6 stars

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The Girl the Sea Gave Back

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The Girl the Sea Gave Back is a 2019 young adult fantasy novel by Adrienne Young. It was published by Wednesday books. It is part of the same series as Sky in the Deep, but reading Sky in the Deep prior to this novel is not necessary to understanding it. In the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t read Sky in the Deep prior to this novel, so please keep that in mind for this review. The novel can be purchased here from Bookshop.org.

The novel follows Tova who has lived among the Svell people after being found washed ashore in their lands as a child. She is a Truthtongue, able to read portents and see in the future, which is a gift the Svell have used to their advantage for years. With two nearby clans joining together, the chieftain of the Svell looks to Tova to advise them on what course of action to take. By looking into the future, she sets into motion a series of events that could change everything. The conflict could give Tova the one thing she thought she’d never have again- a home.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back doesn’t have one protagonist but two. Tova is a Truthtongue and half of the novel follows her story. The other main character is Halvard, the man who will be the next chieftain of the Nadhir people. The Nadhir are the group the Svell are debating whether to go to war with or not. Switching between Tova and Halvard’s perspective, the conflict between the two group draws the pair close together and it’s clear from early on that the two share a connection. Given that I would describe the story as being more plot-driven than character-driven, there’s not a lot I can say about Tova or Halvard. Halvard is a young man, only 18, who is unexpectedly called to lead his people in the midst of a crisis. He wants to lead his people in the best way he can, but has no idea how to do that. Tova is an outsider who has always wanted a place to belong but has never found it. Despite her abilities making her valuable to the Svell, a number of them want her dead and believe her to be cursed. As expected, Tova finds a place to belong over the course of the story and Halvard learns how to lead his people.

Aside from the two main characters, there are a few others worth mentioning, most of whom are Svell. Jorrund is a Tala, a religious figure, of the Svell. He was the person who found Tova as a child. While there are moments where its clear he cares about his surrogate daughter, one starts to wonder if he cares about her or the power her abilities give him the more the story progresses. Vigdis is one of the tribal leaders of the Svell and becomes the new chieftain after the old one, his brother, is killed early in the book. He’s the villain of the story, being responsible for both the main conflict, the war between the two peoples, and the inner conflict Tova feels throughout the story. There are a number of friends and mentors Halvard has, but the most interesting of which is Kjeld, who is one of the Kyrr. The Kyrr are another tribe that live on the headlands of the sea, while the other tribes live along fjords and the coasts. Tova is also one of the Kyrr, although she remembers very little of her homeland, as she was found by the Svell at the age of six. She believed they had cast her out and left her to die. The two Kyrr meeting in the midst of this conflict pushes Tova further in her journey of self-discovery and changes the tide of the war.

One of the central themes of the book, and most consistent one, revolves around destiny. Tova is perhaps the only character who fully understands how fate works, given that she can see the future. Everyone else, especially the Svell, are under the impression that nothing is destined to happen, even as events she predicts come to pass. An interesting pattern I noticed was the unspoken idea of self-fulfilling prophecies. In telling the Svell the future she sees in her omens, is she causing it to change or would things always turn out this way? This idea is something she struggles with in the middle of the book when she believes that her casting stones, the way she sees the future, about whether war is wise led to the destruction of an entire village. She believes her reading caused the destruction, while it could be argued that it was the Svell’s leadership’s actions that are responsible. The connection between Halvard and Tova is hinted to be as a result of destiny. When she looks into her own future, she sees him and this causes her to seek him out to understand why.

The story is told mostly in first person from Tova and Halvard’s alternating perspectives. The prologue and a few chapters that take place in the past are told from the third person perspective and give insight on both narrators’ childhoods and events that shaped who they are. I’m normally not a fan of alternating perspectives because, more often than not, I think that they don’t serve a purpose. I often see alternating POVs being used to serve a plot twist rather than something that serves the plot itself. Alternating perspectives are effective in this story because Young doesn’t just show events from two different perspectives, but also provides extra context along the way. Being told from only one perspective would make the story feel a little disjointed and the climax wouldn’t make as much sense.

I found the story and the world enjoyable. The clans are inspired by Viking history from what I can tell and it shows. Young does an excellent job weaving the story together and explaining aspects of the world without making it seem like too much or too little. Each clan felt unique, as did their way of life and beliefs. It was the most enjoyable coming of age story, and self-discovery story, that I’ve read in a while. And, while certain aspects of the plot are a little predictable, I liked the risks the author was willing to take. The Girl the Sea Gave Back isn’t a story where only specific character archetypes die. it’s not a story that’s entirely black and white and the gray area leads to some interesting character dynamics and changes to the plot. Characters you’d think are one-dimensional actually have quite a bit of depth and characters who appear trustworthy turn out not to be.

One thing I wish there had been more of was explanation about the Kyrr. There is a scene at the very beginning of the book, showing how Tova ended up in the Svell village, but aside from that not much about that group is explained until the very end, and even then, it’s not much. I suppose the reason for this could be to keep the Kyrr as mysterious as possible. Depending on which character is describing the Kyrr, they’re either demons or this strange, almost mystical race that no one knows much about. Another critique I have is the pacing of the story. The main conflict between the Svell and Nadhir is concluded in the span of about 10-20 pages and the way it was resolved felt a tiny bit forced to me. If the ending went on for a little longer, or the closing events felt less contrived, I would’ve enjoyed the story a lot more.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back is a book that I found by random chance. I picked it up on a whim due to both the title, which intrigued me, and the cover art which is beautiful. I was happy to discover that the story within its pages more than met my expectations. It’s not a perfect book, but better than I expected it to be. The fantasy aspect doesn’t make the story too difficult to follow, making it an ideal choice for someone looking to start reading fantasy. It’s also a novel that is easy to read quickly, once the first few chapters are over and the story truly starts. I would recommend and I plan on reading the author’s first book that takes place in this world.

Rating: 3.9 stars

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Catch and Kill

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators is a 2019 nonfiction book by Ronan Farrow. It chronicles his investigation into sexual harassment and assault claims against Harvey Weinstein, which broke in October 2017. It also depicts the attempts by Weinstein and his allies to prevent the story from ever seeing the light of day. Farrow published the story in The New Yorker and the publication shared the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with The New York Times for the story. The term “catch and kill” refers to the practice of disreputable news sources, usually tabloids, buying the rights to a particular story, “catch”, in order to bury it, “kill”, on behalf of a third party.

Many reviews label this book as “part spy thriller, part investigative journalism piece” and that description is rather apt. Farrow effortlessly blends events he experienced with testimonies about things happening behind the scenes and things behind the scenes read similar to a spy thriller. In what began as a story about the allegations surrounding one man, Farrow unknowingly found himself entrenched in a plot to hide the truth and uncovered a network of “fixers” from high-powered attorneys to ex-spies all trying to bury the story. If not for Farrow and his producer’s determination to tell this story, it would’ve been buried, as many earlier accounts and charges against Weinstein were.

While the Harvey Weinstein expose, and its connection to the #MeToo movement, are enough to get someone interested in the subject of the book, it’s the behind-the-scenes events that made me continue reading. Because Catch and Kill isn’t just about Harvey Weinstein or his victims. It’s also about the people at NBC, the network Farrow was working at when he started his investigation, who tried to kill the story. It’s about the network of private investigators, lawyers and businessmen trying to interfere with the investigation and find some weak spot, or blackmail material, to make him drop the investigation. And, its about the tidal wave of stories, many so similar to the stories told by Weinstein’s victims, that have been printed and told since.  

I personally found it fascinating, in a sad and somewhat troubling way, the lengths that were gone to in order to try and stop the story from breaking. Initially, hearing that NBC tried to prevent the story’s release sounds ludicrous, but as Farrow outlines the timeline of events, the cover-up becomes less surprising and more saddening. It’s saddening that a news organization bowed to the external pressure Weinstein’s team put on them. It’s disturbing the incidents NBC was keeping under wraps internally due to the predator in question being a popular morning show host. It’s also frustrating hearing about how “everyone knew” what was going on, but until the story gained attention, only the victims were willing to say anything. 

Catch and Kill is a difficult book to read. It’s very hard to read the accounts of Weinstein’s victims without feeling some kind of emotion. When I was discussing the book with someone, I described it as the following: this book makes you mad, but in the best kind of way. This is a tale that’s supposed to make you angry, supposed to make you want things to change, and it does. Farrow deserves all of the praise he’s received for this book, not just from a journalistic perspective, but also from a technical one. The story is well-structured, well-paced and draws the reader in in a way that few other nonfiction books seem capable of. While I’d definitely say this book is not for everyone, I’d recommend it to anyone even thinking of giving it a try.

Rating: 4.9 stars

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