Reading Reflection: 2019

2019 is over and I'm happy to say that I had quite a good year in reading. I'm finally starting to settle into my new home and I'm getting more comfortable with my job. It's been a long journey to get to this point, and my books have been a great comfort to me throughout it. Here is what I managed to accomplish.

My goal this year was to read a total of 50 books. I far surpassed that with a total of 81, and this included some monsters like Don Quixote (940 pages), Shirley (624 pages), The Goldfinch (771 pages) and The Pickwick Papers (756 pages). The only thing that bugs me about my Goodreads year in reading is that it only gives me credit for 79 books, because I read the three books in the His Dark Materials series in one volume. Goodreads counts that as one book, but it was really three!

I made a crazy amount of progress in my Classics Club Challenge this year. I fell behind on this in 2018, and needed to read a total of 27 books from it to catch up to where I should have been by the end of this year. I managed to read 29, meaning that I not only caught up, but pushed a tiny bit ahead. I've got two years left to finish the 38 remaining books.

I finished the Back to the Classics Challenge for the fourth year in a row this year, reading 12 classic novels to fit various prompts.

My Finally in 2019 Challenge really morphed into something else this year. It started out as a small challenge to encourage myself to read six books that I had been meaning to get to for ages. I got into a good reading groove and ended up finishing those six books by the end of February. After that, I just kept adding on books to the list that I picked up solely because I wanted to. I ended up reading a total of 49 books by the end of the year.

The Book Junkie Trials were a sweet summer surprise this year. This challenge had readers take a personality quiz to determine their team and then set off on a quest across a magical realm. I finished a total of 17 books throughout the month of July to fit the reading prompts.


I am very satisfied with the amount that I managed to read in 2019. I'm so glad that I got myself back on track from the reading disaster that was 2018. I'm hoping to do even better in 2020, and I have a whole bunch of goals in mind. This year has affirmed that reading is the best thing I do, and I'm excited to see what new stories I discover next year.

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

After spending most of December reading very long classics, I found myself wanting something a little bit quicker to read. While perusing my shelves, Girl Made of Stars caught my eye first. I heard about this book through a YouTube review a while back, and it sounded very sad and very intriguing. Young adult books tackling social issues are my guilty pleasure, so I decided to spend a few blissfully lazy mornings of my winter break making my way through it.

The plot of the novel centers around Mara McHale, a high school student in Tennessee. At the beginning of the story, her twin brother Owen is accused of raping a girl named Hannah at a party. Mara, who has always been very close with her brother, has an extremely difficult time processing this event. She can't believe that her sweet, caring brother would assault anyone. At the same time, Hannah is one of Mara's best friends, and she can't imagine that Hannah would make something like this up either. Her inner conflict over the situation begins to take a serious toll on her relationship with her brother and her parents, who believe Owen's version of events unequivocally.

The accusation also stirs up some past trauma in Mara's life that she has been keeping secret. Watching Hannah struggle through the ensuing investigation, and then suffer the shame of not being believed, start to bring her own repressed emotions bubbling up to the surface. Somehow, she must find a way to support her friend, deal with her brother, and take care of herself. Girl Made of Stars is a gut-wrenching story about surviving trauma, supporting victims of assaults, and finding the courage to ask for help when you need it. 

I very much enjoyed this novel, It's a quick read that packs an emotional punch. The writing was pretty and the plot was well-paced. Obviously, it deals with sensitive topics, and I felt like the author handled them in a realistic and thoughtful way. The pain of the characters is palpable and unsettling; their struggles leap off the page as they attempt to renegotiate relationships with people they thought they knew. This is especially true of Mara, who must grapple with a complex knot of emotions arising from both past and current events in her life. As the novel progresses, interesting questions emerge about how you can come to doubt people you have adored and trusted for your whole life, and how you can reconcile yourself to living beside someone that might have done something unforgivable. The novel places its characters in impossibly painful situations, and watching them try to sort out how to move on and heal made for extremely engaging reading. I wanted to see what would happen next, and if the real truth of the situation would ever come out. 

The novel does a good job of discussing several social issues as well. Of course, ideas related to feminism and rape culture are explored, but LGBTIQA+ topics are well-represented too. Mara is bisexual and has relationships with male and female characters throughout the story. Another major character is genderqueer, which allows for helpful discussions of what that identity actually means and how a young person that identifies that way might struggle with it. It's so important for diverse characters to be present in young adult literature. It helps normalize different kinds of people for readers who may be unfamiliar with them, and it also allows readers of varying identifications to feel seen. I appreciated the inclusion of these topics alongside the main story.

Where the novel is a bit weak is in the interaction of the teen characters with their parents. Simply put, these kids have too much independence. They move around their neighborhoods like adults, going wherever they want at any time they want without any authority figures asking them any questions or setting any real limits for them. As they are older teens, you would expect them to be somewhat self-sufficient, but the ability they had to just roam wherever they pleased was not realistic. They even skipped school multiple times throughout the text without anyone knowing or caring. From time to time, a parent would pop up and make a comment or ask a question, but for the most part, the teen characters had way too much freedom. This issue gives the whole story a vibe of being unbelievable, even though most other aspects of the story are fine in this regard.

Overall, Girl Made of Stars was an emotional and thought-provoking read. It dealt with tough issues in a realistic and respectful way. This is the kind of novel that is very beneficial for young people to read. It contains a nice diversity of characters and competently educates readers about the important issues associated with consent and sexual assault. This is definitely not a fun read, but it is an important and engaging one, and one that I will be remembering for a long time to come.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 49/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 80

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

For my next read, I found myself craving a fast-paced mystery story. I don't often pick up books from that genre, but when I do, I generally have a good time with them. I decided to try Alex Michaelides' The Silent Patient after seeing it nominated in both the "Best Mystery & Thriller" and "Best Debut Novel" categories of the Goodreads Choice Awards this year. I started my reading hoping to be swept away in an engaging story, and happily, I wasn't disappointed.

The plot follows Dr. Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist. At the start of the novel, he accepts a new job in the psychiatric ward of a hospital. Among his new patients is the infamous Alicia Berenson, a famous artist convicted of the gruesome murder of her husband. She shot him five times in the face one night six years ago and then went silent. She hasn't spoken a single word since, and no one has been able to determine why she did it. Her silence intrigues Theo, and he immediately sets out to try and get her talking. He quickly become infatuated with Alicia's case, and, unable to help himself, he begins to go beyond the bounds of normal therapy. He starts seeking out friends and family members from Alicia's past and asking questions. He soon discovers that there is more going on with his silent patient than mental illness, and solving the mystery of her crime reveals many secrets that others would prefer to stay buried.

This novel was definitely a page-turner, and a big part of its success was Michaelides' structure. Interspersed with Theo's narration are bits and pieces of Alicia's diary, which paint a very different picture of events than the version Theo obtains from his own investigations and the official record of events. As Alicia is clearly an unreliable narrator, this push and pull between conflicting pieces of information keeps the reader guessing throughout the story. It's tough to know how much of Alicia's sections to believe, as she is obviously suffering from some form of mental illness, but everyone Theo interviews about her is so shady that it feels unwise to discount what she says entirely. Eventually, the diary entries and Theo's narration collide, with pretty surprising results.

The characters in the novel were suitably developed as well, with both Theo and Alicia having multiple layers to their personalities that are revealed over time. Interestingly, neither of them are particularly likable or sympathetic, but their less-likable aspects are what drive the plot of the story, so this didn't bother me while reading. If Theo wasn't inappropriate and kind of creepy, and if Alicia wasn't dramatic and emotionally damaged, the story couldn't exist.This is not a "nice" story, thus, the characters aren't particularly nice people. The minor characters are nothing special, but they serve their purpose and are about what you would expect in a mystery/suspense novel.

Where the story fell a bit flat for me was the ending. While I didn't guess the final twist, I didn't think it made all that much sense either upon a closer examination. I think Michaelides had a great idea for the last big reveal, and I did think it was creative and clever, but his way of getting there wasn't quite as tight as it could have been. Upon thinking over the previous events in the book after knowing the ending, I found myself questioning why certain people would act the way they do or care about the things they care about. Obviously, a novel in this genre is going to have a lot of red herrings along the way, but it seems like people were going too far out of their way to look guilty when they weren't.

So due to my feelings on the ending, I ended up rating The Silent Patient a three out of five. It was still a very enjoyable and quick read, and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of this genre. The ending left me wanting a little more, but it was a fun and engaging reading experience overall. I'm glad I took the time to scratch that itch I had to read something exciting and dramatic with this novel. 


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 48/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 77

The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

The Secret Commonwealth is the second book in Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust, a companion series to His Dark Materials.  After reading (and loving) the first book in this series a few weeks ago, I was excited to continue on with it. I've been reading in a pattern lately; I alternate one novel from my Classics Club list with a novel of my choice. So, after taking about a week to read The Octopus by Frank Norris, I picked this one up next.

The plot of the novel is difficult to describe, as this is the middle book of a trilogy and it follows a few different characters on very different missions. Most of the focus is placed on Lyra, who is now an adult attending college. Her whole demeanor has changed from the girl she was in the previous books. Her feisty, courageous nature has been replaced with a melancholy, subdued one, and her relationship with her daemon Pan is very strained. Her previous adventures in the North feel like they happened in another lifetime, and her days have become normal and lonely. She is thrust into the thick of an adventure again, however, when Pan witnesses a brutal murder one night and comes into possession of some curious information about a mysterious breed of rose that can only be grown in a desert in the Middle East. It has some sort of connection to Dust, but the exact details of what it can do are vague. Reading about the rose sparks some sort of memory in Lyra, and she feels drawn to try and find the place where it grows. Before she can set out, however, she has a massive falling out with Pan and her focus shifts to healing the rift between them.

At the same time the Magisterium has been quietly consolidating their power. They are on the hunt for roses too, but their objective seems to be to destroy them. A new leader has emerged and he is also searching for Lyra, for reasons that start off unclear. Malcolm Polstead and Alice, the duo that rescued Lyra as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, are involved in the story as well. They are adults now too, with Alice working as a housekeeper at Oxford College and Malcolm working as a professor at a different university. A large portion of the story is told from Malcolm's perspective, as he is also working for a secret spy group and is tasked with investigating the roses. He is also trying to help keep Lyra safe, and finds himself starting to develop romantic feelings for her as the story goes on.

The novel follows the paths of these different characters as they embark on their separate adventures. The threads of each story slowly wind towards each other, with the novel ending on a cliffhanger. It is clear that everything will eventually come together, but The Secret Commonwealth offers little resolution to any of the storylines. Readers will have to wait for the last book in the trilogy to discover how Lyra's relationships with Pan and Malcolm, the business with the roses, and the Magisterium's plots turn out.

I did like this novel, but it definitely felt like a middle book to me. Unlike La Belle Sauvage, this is not a self-contained adventure at all. It's half of a story, and at over 600 pages, it felt like a lot of buildup to wade through for no resolution at the end. There wasn't anything wrong with the buildup itself though. As always, it was a treat to explore Pullman's alternate version of the universe. This story takes place entirely inside Lyra's world, but her travels in search of the roses bring her to Middle Eastern-inspired corners of it that we haven't visited before. It was interesting to see new pieces of it and learn about the different cultures there. The daemon system is developed more thoroughly here too, with additional information being given about how separation between humans and daemons works and how the relationships between these groups don't always function the way they are meant to. Pullman's world building continues to be exceptional, and I definitely felt transported away to another place while reading.

The characters were similarly well developed across the story, with the new characters being intriguing and the old characters revealing new sides of themselves. As this novel jumps forward quite far in time from the first book in the series, everyone is much older and views the world differently now. It was interesting to be able to compare the personalities of the characters across the intervening years. There were some characters that grew in strength and became better versions of themselves, like Malcolm and Alice, for example, and some characters that felt diminished, like Lyra and Pan. While I didn't always love everyone's personality or choices, there were no parts of their development that I would judge to be unrealistic. For example, I was disappointed that Lyra had grown to be so practical and gloomy, but I also realize that this is a logical outcome for her character. Anyone who had been through the struggles she had at the end of her adventure in The Amber Spyglass would probably go to a melancholy place readjusting to normal life. This humanizes her, although I do hope that her growth will continue into the third book and she will gain a little bit of her magic back.

In general, the plot of the novel was interesting and engaging, but it did feel a bit slow in parts. As I mentioned before, there is a cliffhanger ending here and almost no resolution to any of the storylines. Pullman is obviously gearing up for an action-packed second half to this story, and hopefully I will feel like all of this buildup will be worth it in the end. One small issue I had while reading was trying to remember all the characters and place names. There was a lot going on at once, and it was difficult to keep everything straight in my mind. As the last book in the series is almost certainly years away, I will have to reread this before diving into the conclusion. I already am having trouble remembering all the details, so there is no hope that I will be ready to read the new one without revisiting this.

As usual, I can't write a review without discussing some of the things that I didn't think worked well in the novel. There were definitely a few elements throughout the story that I was uncomfortable with. It pains me to say it, since I love this world and these characters so much, but there was some creepy sexual stuff going on that I didn't like. One of these elements was Malcolm's growing romantic interest in Lyra. He is ten years older than her and first met her when she was a baby. He was her teacher for a brief time when she was a young teenager too. While ten years isn't that uncommon of an age gap between romantic partners, these particular characters' past interactions all involve Malcolm taking on a parental or authoritative-type role with Lyra, which makes the idea of a romance between them distasteful to me. Throughout the story, Lyra starts to feel a growing attachment to him as well, so I'm pretty certain that this relationship is a thing that will happen. This will probably form a large part of the final book, so that's disappointing to me because I find it unsettling.

There is another moment in the novel when Lyra is sexually assaulted on a train by a group of soldiers. She fights back and is terribly injured. I dislike seeing sexual violence used as a plot device in general, but in a series for young adults, in which we have followed a character since infancy, this felt too brutal. At this point in the story, Lyra was already in danger, already suffering, already alone. This was gratuitous and unnecessary.

I have to mention another odd sexual moment, less serious than the rest, that irked me. At one point, Alice is called into an obviously ominous meeting with some Magisterium officials. Pullman describes her entrance into the room like this:

She sat down in the third chair in front of the desk, between the two strangers. Alice was slim, she could move with great elegance, she was not beautiful--she would never be that, nor pretty, nor conventionally attractive--but she could embody an intense sexuality...She let it show now, just to disconcert them.

Ah yes, the old "switch on my intense sexuality at will" trick to make people uncomfortable. A club every woman has in their bag, right?

Only a man would think to describe a woman in this way.

These moments didn't stop me from enjoying the novel as a whole though, and I am still a big fan of this series. I can forgive some less than ideal moments. The Secret Commonwealth just released about a month or so ago, so the final installment in the trilogy is very far away. I'm still not clear on what the ultimate themes of the story will be, or how the characters will end up. What I do know is that this novel was engaging enough for me to be excited to find out.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 47/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 75

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

After taking a little break from His Dark Materials after I finished the original trilogy of books last month, I decided I was ready to give Philip Pullman's companion series a try. La Belle Sauvage is the first volume in The Book of Dust, a new trilogy set in Lyra's world. I watched (and loved) the first episode of the new Dark Materials HBO series a few weeks ago, so I was extra excited to get back into this universe and see what other secrets there were to uncover.

The plot of the novel follows a young boy named Malcolm Polstead. As the story begins, Malcolm is living a quiet life, helping his parents run The Trout, their tavern and inn. He is a smart, kind boy that enjoys learning, asking questions, and puttering around the river in his small canoe, La Belle Sauvage. His peaceful existence is upended, however, with the arrival of a little baby named Lyra at a neighboring priory. There is an unusual amount of attention surrounding the baby, and soon, all kinds of odd strangers are turning up at his inn, staring across the river at the priory and asking questions.

Malcolm himself is curious about the infant, so he goes to visit the nuns at the priory in the hopes of meeting her. He falls in love with Lyra at first sight, and starts visiting there quite a bit. He also starts paying more attention to the different groups asking about the child, which include various agencies of the all-powerful Magisterium, some powerful government figures, and a mysterious and sinister stranger with a horrifying hyena daemon named Gerard Bonneville. It is obvious that the baby is in danger, and Malcolm takes it upon himself to protect her as much as he can.

Things finally reach their breaking point on a stormy night when the river floods its banks, unleashing a torrent of water into the town. Malcolm is forced to rescue Lyra from a kidnapping attempt and take her away in La Belle Sauvage. Alice, a rather prickly and taciturn girl that works with him at the inn, is also caught up in the escape and joins Malcolm and Lyra on their journey. Together, they must fight off the elements, multiple pursuers, and even some supernatural obstacles to try and save Lyra's life.

This summary is woefully inadequate in describing just how epic and beautiful this book was. This is a true adventure story, complete with lovable characters, narrow escapes, ideas worth fighting for, and some truly chilling moments. I was consistently engaged in the story and never found myself feeling bored, despite it being 450 pages long. A big part of this was my love for the protagonist, Malcolm. He is a quiet kind of hero - one who believes in politeness and helping others. He is thoughtful and sensitive, but not cowardly. He is smart and curious, but not weak. He approaches every task before him with good humor and honest effort. He's not an invincible sort of hero. He's a human one that's easy to root for. Compared with Will, the protagonist from the original Dark Materials trilogy, Malcolm was much more interesting and likable for me.

The plot of the novel was nicely structured as well.  A little bit over half of the story takes place before the flood, which provides a rich background for the survival adventure that follows once Malcolm, Lyra, and Alice set off in La Belle Sauvage. Once their journey starts, the action increases considerably as they have to evade the Magisterium, find enough provisions to keep themselves alive, and escape the mysterious and deranged Gerard Bonneville. The ending is satisfying and heartwarming, and provides a sweet bridge to the The Golden Compass. Simply put, I had a great time reading this novel. I actually ended up being surprised by how much I liked it, which is one of the best things a reader can ask for.

In comparison to the original series, I would place La Belle Sauvage as my second favorite, right after The Golden Compass. When authors return to an older work after a long time has passed, there is always that little bit of apprehension that the new stories won't be as good, or won't feel the same. I didn't feel that at all here, and I even ended up enjoying it more than most of the original series. This was a wonderful addition to the world of His Dark Materials, and I look forward to exploring the rest of the books that will be in this companion trilogy.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 46/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 73

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

I first came across Pet on a list of top YA dystopian novels. The summary sounded intriguingly odd, and it promised to have a strong social justice focus, so I picked it up on one of my Barnes and Noble runs last month. As I'm currently teaching a unit on dystopian fiction to my eighth graders, I thought this would be a good story to try now, so I could maybe talk about it in class as we discuss the elements of the genre.

The plot of the novel follows a young teenager named Jam. She lives in the town of Lucille, a place that has recently been through a revolution. The revolution was focused on ridding the world of all its evil. Social ills like racism, discrimination, police brutality, child abuse, gun violence, and sexual assault were eliminated, and all the "monsters" that perpetuated these acts were placed in rehabilitation centers. No one has to worry about these problems anymore, and acceptance, kindness, and community spirit are the new orders of the day.

Jam's idyllic little world is shattered, however, when she unwittingly brings a monstrous creature out of a painting to life. This creature, named Pet, tells Jam that monsters are still alive and well in Lucille, and he needs her help to hunt one of them down. Even worse, this monster, Pet explains, is in the home of Jam's best friend, Redemption. Worried for her friend, Jam embarks on an investigation to determine who the monster is, find out what he has done, and make sure Redemption is safe. Pet is a novel about the dangers of complaisance, and the importance of keeping our eyes open when it comes to protecting our friends and our communities.

This was an odd little story, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Emezi did many things right, but there was quite a bit about Pet that I didn't love. On the positive side, its message about the importance of paying attention and staying alert to potential dangers in our communities was a good one. Jam's story teaches the lesson that monsters can be hiding anywhere and wear any face. Even when we believe problems to be solved or to be things of the past, we must stay vigilant for signs of that they could be returning. The connections to modern day issues was clear, and it will be easy for young readers to draw parallels to their own world.

The representation in the novel was also very strong. Jam is a trans character, Redemption has three parents, there are many people of color, and there is a character that uses they/them pronouns. The plot does not center around any of these aspects. The characters simply were these things, it was accepted by everyone, and it wasn't a part of the main story. This kind of diversity is nice to see, and we need more of it in young adult literature.

The magical realism aspects of the novel were nicely done as well. Lucille is similar to a typical American small town, but Emezi imbues it with a wonderfully weird sense of fantasy. Life is mostly normal there, but there are little touches of wonder sprinkled throughout. The most obvious example of this is Pet, a creature called into being from a painting, but the world buzzes with a quirky spirituality in other ways too. Speaking of Pet, it is a beautiful creation; it's scary, comforting, disturbing, wise, violent, and gentle all at once. It is both a danger and a guardian to Jam. I've never read a character quite like it, and I really enjoyed how it was woven into the story.

However, while there was clearly a lot to appreciate in this novel, there were some elements of it that I didn't enjoy. One of my issues was with the writing style. This is clearly a matter of personal taste, but I found Emezi's storytelling to be arrogant or self-important in many places. She conveyed her message almost aggressively, like she was trying too hard to impress readers with her intelligence and her woke-ness. Some of her vocabulary choices were odd as well, and I found myself rolling my eyes quite a bit at some of the turns of phrase she employed, like saying "voiced" instead of "talked," or "vex" instead of "angry." In addition to the wording, Jam's voice felt inconsistent throughout the story. Sometimes she spoke like an innocent child, and other times her dialogue was peppered with profanity that felt unnatural in her mouth. I consistently felt irked by the language for one reason or another all throughout my reading.

Also, there were some thematic issues in the novel that bothered me. The story has a directly-stated, straightforward theme about how evil can wear any face. It could be anywhere and we must always be alert for it and never forget about it. It could even be hiding in our own families. While this is technically true, it's also very paranoid and unsettling, especially for a young adult audience. Are kids supposed to walk away from this story feeling like they need to look for evil around every corner? Maybe that's smart, I don't know. Something about it didn't feel quite right for me.

Another thematic inconsistency popped up at the end of the novel, when Jam and Redemption uncover who the monster is. To get the monster to confess, Pet essentially maims and tortures this person. While the monster is undoubtedly evil and deserving of punishment, I couldn't help but remember how in the post-revolution setting Emezi created, offenders are rehabilitated and helped. Torture is definitely not part of their justice system, and aside from begging Pet not to kill this person, Jam never comments on the other, extremely brutal events that happen. It also felt off to me that Pet played so large a role in the final confrontation in the first place. I thought for sure that Jam and Redemption would bring this person to justice through their own bravery and intelligence, working within the rules of their society, but they take a backseat to Pet's violent tactics and literally turn their backs and cower while Pet handles business. I'm not sure what kind of lesson that ultimately teaches. I'm used to seeing young adult protagonists find their courage and solve their own problems in the end. Everyone doesn't have their own creature to fight evil on their behalf, after all. 

In the end, I felt quite mixed on this one. There was a lot about Pet that was admirable, but a lot that bugged me too. If nothing else, this book is a great one to analyze and start conversations about. The symbolism, theme, and connections to modern society provide ample food for thought, and even though there are criticisms to be made, there are a lot of great things to think through as well. I started reading this because I was hoping to use it in my classroom. Sadly, I do not think I could use it there. The language is too confusing for my lower readers and the content is inappropriate for a middle school audience. This is definitely for higher level readers on the older end of the young adult range. Adults will probably enjoy reading this as well, especially if they aren't bothered Emezi's writing style. Pet is a unique read about important topics. I wish I could have fallen in love with it, but even though it wasn't the perfect book for me, I'm still happy to have experienced it.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 45/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 70

Verify by Joelle Charbonneau

I'm currently teaching a unit on dystopian fiction to my eighth graders, and I needed a novel to read alongside of them. I had recently picked up Verify by Joelle Charbonneau, so I decided to give that one a shot. I had read and mildly enjoyed Charbonneau's The Testing trilogy years ago, so I figured that this would be a pretty safe pick to read quickly and recommend to my students afterward. As I was to discover, I was only kind of right.

The plot of the story follows Meri Beckley, a sixteen-year-old girl living in Chicago in the future. This version of Chicago is seemingly perfect. There is virtually no crime, and the government has made great strides in creating pristine, beautiful communities where everyone gets along and works together. As the novel begins, Meri is struggling to cope with the recent death of her mother, a prominent artist who was struck by a car several months earlier. While examining some of the artwork her mother left behind, she stumbles across a series of images that lead her to a mysterious underground group called the Stewards.

One of the leaders within this group, another teen named Atlas, begins to tell Meri facts that she didn't know existed about her world - facts that throw everything she thought she knew about her idyllic community and about her own mother into doubt. Soon, it becomes clear to Meri that she has been living in a world that is highly censored and rigidly controlled by the government, and that her mother's death was not due to a random car accident. Understanding this, Meri embarks on a mission to continue the work her mother started, and alert people to the reality of their oppression.

This book was a bit of a mess, and it's a real shame because Charbonneau had some intriguing ideas here. On the positive side, I enjoyed the novel's message about the dangers of censorship and the importance of books. It's a crucial message that is still relevant in our society today, as we grapple with the current government's stance on "fake news" and its treatment of reporters and news outlets. I also enjoyed the ways Charbonneau showed the government exerting control over the people. Getting rid of all books and paper under the guise of a recycling program, and controlling the flow of information through the tablets everyone uses in lieu of physical media was interesting and felt like something that could actually happen. Also, I really liked the cover design. It was very distinctive and ad eye-catching, and made excellent use of colors.

Unfortunately, the positive aspects in the novel were swallowed up by its problems. This novel has serious issues with characterization and pacing. Meri, Atlas, and the rest of the characters were rather flat, and it was difficult to feel engaged in their struggles. No one came alive in the story for me, and the insta-romance that was thrown in for Meri was unsatisfying and unnecessary. The pacing was very unrealistic as well, with the events of the story taking place over the course of just two or three days. This was entirely too fast for a young girl to uncover the truth about her dystopian world and lead a resistance movement. However, the short amount of time the story took place over doesn't mean that the book was fast paced. Somehow, the action of the plot felt oddly slow. There were long, boring stretches in the story. The novel as a whole just didn't feel right; it was too difficult to suspend my disbelief while reading.

Aside from these issues, there was one other aspect of the story that irked me that I must mention - the terminology used by the resistance movement. The Stewards use train lingo as code words for their operation. It's a nod to the Underground Railroad, but it didn't come across well (at least to me) at all. Everything within their operation, and I mean everything, had a train code word. People within it were classified as conductors, porters, stokers, etc. The different bases were referred to as "stations." The rooms with beds were referred to as "sleeper cars." The suicide pills members carried were referred to as "dead man's switches." Being inducted into the movement was referred to as getting a "ticket." It was too much. It didn't come across as cool or secretive; it came across as unbearably cheesy and I started cringing every time I heard a train word. More than any other issue I had with the novel, this language choice bothered me the most.

Verify is a novel with a lot of potential and great ideas, but it ultimately falls down in its execution. I was right in my initial assumption that this would be a quick read, but I was wrong in my assumption that I would be able to recommend this to students. Reluctant readers will struggle with the slow pace and avid readers will struggle with the unrealistic story elements. I'm not sure who would really, truly enjoy this story. This is book one in a planned duology, and I'm not sure that I will be picking up the second novel. Sadly, this is one of those reads that was mediocre and is destined to be forgotten as I move forward with my reading life.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 44/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 68

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

*This review will contain spoilers for the first two books in the series,The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife.*

Shortly after finishing (and enjoying) The Subtle Knife, I decided to pick up the final book in the His Dark Materials series next and finish off the trilogy. The Amber Spyglass picks up right where the last book ends, with Will finding and immediately losing his father, then discovering the Lyra has been kidnapped. 

This is a tough novel to summarize, as it is a sprawling and epic adventure told from the perspective of many characters and layered with lots of symbolism. Speaking generally, the first part of the novel deals with Will's attempts to rescue Lyra, and the rest of the novel deals with Will and Lyra's journey into the land of the dead and their participation in the final battle of the novel between the church, the Authority, and Lord Asriel's army. Also included in the story are sections focusing on Mary Malone, the scientist studying particle physics Lyra first meets in The Subtle Knife. She travels to an alternate dimension filled with strange creatures who need her help to save their species. She crafts the eponymous amber spyglass to analyze the Dust swirling through their atmosphere, which aids in her efforts to reverse the problems this world is facing. She is able to determine that all the rifts between the worlds, torn open through various means over time, are causing the Dust to leak out, with disastrous environmental effects. Eventually, Will and Lyra unite with her there, where they must make some difficult decisions about how to seal off all the alternate worlds from each other and move forward with their own lives.

I enjoyed reading this novel, and it did provide a satisfying end to the series. I was pleased to see my favorite character, the armored bear Iorek Byrnison, return in it, even though his part in the story was limited. I was also pleased to see Lyra regain some of the spunk she lost in the second book of the series and act like her regular, mischievous self again. I liked Will's character a little bit more in this book too. The relationship between the pair was more of a partnership this time around, instead of Lyra blindly going along with whatever Will decided was best.

While I thought this was a stronger entry in the series than The Subtle Knife was, I did struggle a bit with some elements of it. For a children's fantasy series, this was far from an easy read. The path Lyra and Will travel is long and winding, with layers of religious symbolism to it that I didn't always understand. I wasn't sure what everything in the story was meant to represent, especially the Dust, and as the Dust is the most important force in the story, this was probably not a great plot element for me to be confused about. It was easy to get lost between all the different characters, events, and symbols, and the slow pace of many of the sections made deciphering everything a challenge. Ultimately, I did like this story, but I was definitely ready for it to be done by the time I got to the end of the book.

Despite my issues, Philip Pullman's overall themes regarding kindness, personal responsibility, sacrifices, and doing the right thing just for the sake of doing right come across clearly. His stance is firmly against organized religion, and that's a position I found it fascinating to explore in a novel for young readers. The characters in this novel wage a war against God, and things do not go well for God. I was astounded and excited to discover that this was what the novels were about. I did a little research to see how often this book gets banned from school libraries, and the answer is a lot. It is one of the most challenged books of all time in the United States, a distinction that Pullman himself regards as an honor. This guy has guts and I respect his dedication to his beliefs.

So while I had mixed feelings across this series, I am very glad to have spent the time to read it this year and I liked it overall. The first novel in the series, The Golden Compass, has become one of my favorite fantasy novels, and I am still looking forward to the upcoming HBO adaptation. As far as my reading goes, I think I need a break from this world for a little while. When I am ready to return to it again, however, I can dive into Pullman's companion series to these novels, The Book of Dust. Maybe I'll finally be able to understand what the Dust is once I give those a shot. 

Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 43/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 67

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

*This review will contain spoilers for the first book in this series, The Golden Compass"*

After reading (and heartily enjoying) The Golden Compass earlier this month, I was excited to pick up the second novel in the series, The Subtle Knife. With the HBO adaptation coming out at the start of November, I wanted to get it read. Plus, I was excited to see how Lyra's story would continue. I went into my reading hoping that this book would be as fantastic as the first one was, and luckily, I was (mostly) not disappointed.

Chronologically speaking, the story picks up right where the last one ended, with Lyra walking into another universe in order to learn more about the Dust. However, we start from the perspective of a new character, a young boy named Will Parry. Will lives in England, and has a heavy weight on his shoulders. He is struggling to care for his mentally ill mother and prevent anyone from finding out how sick she is. Through a series of misadventures, he manages to cross over into a different universe. He finds himself in a deserted city called Cittágazze, and after wandering around for a bit, he runs into Lyra, who also traveled to Cittágazze from her world.

As both children are in difficult spots, they decide to help each other on their respective missions. Lyra wants to determine what the Dust is, and Will wants to try and help his mother by finding his father, an explorer who has been missing (and presumed dead) since he was a baby. Both head back into Will's world to seek answers to their questions, setting into motion a chain of events that draws them deep into Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel's continuing and complex schemes. Along the way, Will comes into possession of a curious artifact known as the Subtle Knife, a small blade with the powers to cut through anything - even through the veils between different worlds.

As the children begin to move between universes, it becomes clear that there is more to Will's father's disappearance than anyone realized. Understanding this, Lyra and Will embark on a treacherous journey to find him, hoping to unlock the mystery of the Dust in the process. Old friends from Lyra's first adventure arrive to help support them, including the witch queen Serafina Pekkala and the balloon navigator Lee Scoresby. All the while, underneath the characters' more immediate concerns, the boundaries between the universes are weakening and a terrible war is brewing. Lyra and Will will have a part to play in all of it, and unbeknownst to them, they are inching closer and closer to the center of everything.

I definitely enjoyed The Subtle Knife, but it felt like a middle book to me. There was a lot of universe building going on, and it lacked the action and suspense of The Golden Compass. That being said, it was still an engaging and complex entry into the series. It is the shortest book out of the three, and having already starting reading The Amber Spyglass, I assume it will be the weakest as well.

One of the elements of the story that I didn't particularly enjoy was the shift away from Lyra as the main character. I really enjoyed her spunky, brave personality in the first book, and I missed focusing on her exclusively here. Will was fine as a character, but bland in comparison. His goal of finding his father becomes the whole plot of the novel, and Lyra is relegated to being a supporting character. She pledges her complete loyalty to his wishes, and even stops using the alethiometer unless he asks her to. After seeing her grow so much and become so strong in The Golden Compass, this was a letdown. 

Also a letdown: my favorite character, the armored bear Iorek Byrnison, wasn't part of this story. I already know he's in the last one though, so at least I have something to look forward to in The Amber Spyglass.

On a more positive and intriguing note, I was surprised to see how deep a role religion plays in the overall themes of the story. It was a powerful force in the first novel, but it becomes more clearly defined in the second, with angels and God (known as The Authority) becoming part of the plot. Usually, I'm not the biggest fan of religious themes in books, but the way it is handled here is quite subversive. Religion is not shown in a positive light at all. It is a corrupting and controlling element in the characters' lives, which is an interesting angle for a children's novel to take. I'm very interested to see how this develops throughout the rest of the series.

So, while I did not enjoy The Subtle Knife quite as much as The Golden Compass, I still had a good reading experience and I'm still loving the series as a whole. I'm already working on the final book, and I'm really looking forward to finding out how the story ends.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 42/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 66

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Ever since I saw the preview for HBO's His Dark Materials adaptation, I have been itching to start reading the series. I've had all three books sitting on my shelf for a while now, but I hadn't gotten a chance to pick them up yet. With the show set to premier in November, I figured it was time to get started.

Book one, The Golden Compass, is set in an alternate version of England. In this world, religious orders control the government, magic is real, and everyone has a personal daemon companion. The story follows Lyra Belacqua, a young orphan who has grown up in Jordan College, a part of Oxford University. She has an uncle, Lord Asriel, but he is frequently away in the North on various political missions and she doesn't see him much. She has been raised by a collection of stodgy academics, and has grown up half intelligent and half wild as a result. She has spent most of her young life so far playing outside with the children of the servants and wandering the university's sprawling campus.

She is drawn into a mystery when one of her usual exploring sessions results in her overhearing a meeting between her uncle and other senior college staff members containing some troubling news. Children are disappearing from the city, snatched away by a mysterious group of men nicknamed "Gobblers." When her friend Roger disappears soon after this, Lyra embarks on a quest to the dangerous North to try and find him. On her way, she will encounter witches, armored polar bears, and truly evil machinations. Secrets are revealed, trust is betrayed, and her view of the world is irrevocably shifted.

The Golden Compass is a very difficult book to write a succinct and accurate summary for, because the world Philip Pullman creates in it is so rich and layered. Lyra's England runs on a curious mixture of religion, science, and magic, and all of these elements conflict with each other throughout the story. The setting is a strange mixture of the antiquated and the modern, making it both fascinating and a little tricky to envision clearly. Members of different political factions are all striving towards different goals, and their clashes with each other weave a complex network of plot lines to untangle. It was a pleasantly surprising challenge and an absolute pleasure to make my way through this novel. It's a young adult fantasy that does not talk down to its audience and doesn't shy away from showing all the sides of humanity, from the irrepressibly good to the unrelentingly evil.

One aspect of the story that I found especially intriguing were the antagonists. When reading a fantasy novel, especially one that I know has a talking bear in it, I expect the villain of the story to be darkly magical or maybe some sort of evil monster or force of nature. While the story does contain plenty of fantastical elements, the evil the Lyra fights against is all too human. Her enemies here are the ruthless ambitions of regular people who are working at cross-purposes to each other, and to humanity as a whole. I liked exploring this juxtaposition throughout the story. In a setting imbued with the impossible, the greatest dangers Lyra faces are rooted in impulses that could exist in any world.

Speaking of the talking bear, I must devote a few sentences to him. Iorek Byrnison was definitely my favorite character in this book, and has also become one of my favorite characters of all time. The armored polar bears in the story have their own society and culture in the far north, but we meet Iorek far from this city. He's been exiled from his people for killing another bear, and has been working for a man in a human town repairing sledges. After Lyra does an important favor for him, he joins her on her quest to the north. Iorek is a bear of few words; he is gruff, matter-of-fact, and quite abrupt most of the time. However, he is fiercely loyal to Lyra and becomes her devoted friend throughout the story. Their relationship was very sweet to watch unfold and I grew quite attached to him. The danger of falling in love with a character in a trilogy is that they character could change in unfavorable ways, disappear from the story, or die as the series moves on. I hope Iorek stays around and stays just the way I like him.

The ways magic functioned in this story were quite unique, and I especially enjoyed the daemon system. A daemon in this universe is the outward expression of a person's soul. It takes the form of an animal and stays by its person's side for life, like a built-in best friend. The connection between daemons and their people is deep; when a daemon feels pain, their person feels it too. To be away from each other, even for a few seconds, is unthinkable. Lyra's daemon, Pantalaimon, usually takes the form of an ermine and helps her in many ways throughout the story. Of course, all of the other characters have daemons too, and they all work to help their people, whether their personal aims are good or evil. I liked the whole idea of this and found the inclusions of the daemons to be a very cool part of the story.

I went into reading The Golden Compass thinking I would probably enjoy it. Happily, that ended up being an understatement. There was a lot to like here and I was extremely impressed with the quality of the story and the depth of the world. This novel is a new favorite for me, and I sincerely hope that its creativity, uniqueness, and emotional storytelling continue on throughout the rest of the series. The story ends on a serious cliffhanger, and I'm very excited to pick up The Subtle Knife soon and find out how Lyra's journey continues.   


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 41/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 64

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks

Rainbow Rowell wrote one of my favorite young adult books of all time, Eleanor and Park, so when I saw she was coming out with a graphic novel, I had to pick it up. After slogging my way through The House of the Seven Gables for the past few weeks, I was ready to read something a bit lighter, and this was the perfect little treat.

The plot of Pumpkinheads follows two high school seniors, Josiah and Deja. All throughout high school, they have worked together at a pumpkin patch in their hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. The story begins on Halloween, the last night that the patch will be open for the season, and thus, the last night that the pair will ever work together. As a last hurrah, Josiah and Deja decide to make this their best night ever. Ditching their usual responsibilities, they set out on a quest to experience the pumpkin patch as if they were guests instead of employees. Deja also puts a plan in motion to set Josiah up with the girl that works at the fudge stand, whom he has had a crush on for years, but has never spoken to. As they wander around together, they get into all kinds of adventures, see new sides of each other, and discover the true nature of their feelings for one another.

Pumpkinheads is an extremely cute little story, and is a perfect, quick, feel-good read for fall. Josiah and Deja are both quite well developed for graphic novel characters; even though their story is short, they feel like real teens with defined personalities. As they move throughout the story, they do grow and change a little, with themes of honesty, bravery, and appreciating friendship at the forefront. The art style is adorable as well, with the illustrations of the pumpkin patch in particular feeling welcoming and friendly.

The first word that comes to my mind when I think about this novel is nice. Pumpkinheads is a nice reading experience about nice characters accompanied by nice illustrations. Anyone in search of a light read that will lift your spirits should definitely pick this one up. This was a wonderful way to clear my mind after my last (and much more dense) read. 


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 40/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 63

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

I don't pick up a lot of middle grades fiction when I'm out and about browsing bookstores. I mostly prefer to stick with young adult and up. Every once in awhile though, a middle grades book will catch my eye. I heard some positive reviews of Ali Benjamin's The Thing About Jellyfish, so when I saw it sitting on a table of featured books at Barnes and Noble last month, I decided to pick it up. I was hoping that it would be a good fit for my classroom library once I finished it, so I started reading it a few weeks ago. Based on the cover design and summary on the back, I was expecting an emotional, sweet read. What I ended up getting was so much more brilliant.

The plot follows a seventh grader named Suzy Swanson who receives some tragic news right as the school year is about to begin: her best friend Franny Jackson has drowned in a terrible accident while on her summer vacation. Suzy is completely devastated. She stops talking and becomes obsessed with trying to figure out exactly what happened to her friend. She knows Franny was a strong swimmer, and is unable to accept that her drowning was a random accident; in her mind, there had to be a bigger reason behind it. After a field trip to an aquarium with her classmates, she settles on the idea that her friend must have been stung by a rare jellyfish, and begins researching the species in order to prove it.

As the story moves forward, it becomes clear that the friendship between Suzy and Franny was more complicated than readers were initially led to believe. The girls had been drifting further and further apart for months, some bullying was going on, and Suzy keeps alluding to a major, bad thing she did to Franny at the end of the last school year. Guilt and hurt feelings are fueling her jellyfish research, as well as a deep sense of loss for what she had shared with Franny back when they were inseparable little kids. The narration switches back and forth between Suzy's current life and her memories of Franny, with each memory revealing a little bit more of the story of their friendship, and what went wrong between them. The Thing About Jellyfish is a story about the finicky nature of childhood friendships, the ways we change as we grow up, and crushing weight of the grief that descends on us when we lose people that we love.

This book was truly, shockingly good. I was completely engaged from page one and I raced through it in just a few days. This would have been a one day read for me if I wasn't so busy with school things and I had some uninterrupted hours to devote to it. Part of the reason for this was the excellent pacing Ali Benjamin did an amazing job releasing little bits of information slowly to gradually build a picture of what was really going on between Suzy and Franny. Her narrative decisions in how to spread everything out kept me turning the pages, anxious to get a clear view of the situation. Another part of the reason I fell in love with this book was the language itself. The imagery it contains is emotional and poignant. Suzy's grief felt palpable, and the descriptions of her family and classmates felt genuine as well.

Suzy's character in particular deserves special mention, because this was one of the best unreliable narrators I've encountered in a middle grades novel. As Suzy tells her story, it becomes clear that her pain, guilt, immaturity, and quirky personality are skewing the narration. For the first few chapters, readers believe her to be an average kid grieving for her friend, but as time goes on, it becomes clear that Suzy doesn't see the world the same way other kids do. Her friendship with Franny deteriorated for reasons both understandable and unfair, and her perceptions of what exactly went wrong are not always accurate. Slowly, readers learn to dig a bit deeper into what she is saying, look more closely at what was actually happening in her life, and consider what her actions would look like to an outsider.

Another small aspect of the novel I enjoyed was the inclusion of a gay relationship. Suzy's older brother is gay and lives at his college with his boyfriend. There is no negativity or stress associated with this relationship in the story. It is a simple fact and everyone regards it as such. I think it's a wonderful thing for children's fiction to include this type of representation without making it a key plot point. It goes a long way towards normalizing what should already be considered normal.

The Thing About Jellyfish is a rare treasure in the world of middle grades fiction. It doesn't feel like it's "talking down" to young readers, it has a compelling plot, it and stirs genuine emotion as you read it. I think that both adults and kids will enjoy this novel, and I will definitely be recommending it to all sorts of readers. In fact, I have already started talking about it. After I finished my reading, I brought it into school and gave a little book talk to my eighth graders. Later on that night, one of my kids emailed me asking to borrow it. This student, who says she struggles to find books that she enjoys, read the whole thing in a few days and bought her own copy. If that's not proof of how special this book is, I don't know what else would be.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 39/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 61