July Wrap Up

Illustration by Nicc Balce

 

July is already over and summer is slipping by way too fast. This was a pretty busy month for me. I've been doing a lot of work in preparation for the new school year, and my new position means that I'm suddenly on so many different projects that my head is spinning. It's meeting after meeting and assignment after assignment. I'm getting paid though, so at least I'm making a little extra money! I was also officially accepted into my master's degree program, so registering for classes and taking care of things like medical forms and ID cards is taking up my time too. I've got so many changes just on the horizon and I'm feeling a lot of emotions. There's a desire to prove myself, but there's also a lot of anxiety. I just have to remember to stay organized and take things one step at a time.

I was still able to keep up with my reading, and my 100-pages-a-day streak has stayed alive! I read a total of nine books and totaled 3,119 pages. My feelings on this bunch were more mixed than usual. I didn't love everything. I did find one new all-time favorite though, so I was excited about that. Here's what I finished:

Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling (4 stars)

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsal Faizal (3 stars)

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal (2 stars)

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller (3 stars)

Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan (5 stars)

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (3 stars)

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (4 stars)

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel (3 stars)

Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman (4 stars)

My favorite read of the month was definitely Tales from the Inner City, a collections of illustrated short stories and poems about interactions between humans and animals. The stories were weird and the illustrations were beautiful. I loved every page of it. 

My least favorite of the month was We Free the Stars, the second and final book in a YA fantasy duology. I found the pacing to be awful and a lot of the dialogue to be too cheesy. It's a shame too, because I found the first book in the duology to be fairly entertaining. 

I also finished my Middle Grades Mission challenge this month! Over the course of the year so far, I have read a total of 24 recently published middle grades novels. Honestly, these books have been among my favorites of what I have been reading, so I definitely plan to continue adding books to this challenge and see how many I can get to by the end of the year.

I ended up hauling just one book this month - Lore Olympus Vol. 2. I'm doing pretty well limiting how many books I acquire lately, although the amount of everything else I've been buying is still not great. I really enjoyed the first Lore Olympus volume back in December of last year, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the story continues. 

My mixed reactions to a lot of what I read this month meant that I ended up putting several books on the donate pile. I'm letting go of Across the Desert, We Hunt the Flame, We Free the Stars, When You Trap a Tiger, Such a Fun Age, Clap When You Land, The Test, and Dry. A total of eight books will leave my shelves.

Once again, I did not keep up with my physical reading journal beyond just listing what I read. I love the idea of it, but I think I have to face up to the idea that I just don't have the time to devote to it right now. I still want to keep some pieces of it though - maybe I can incorporate challenge pages and book logs into my regular planner. I'll have to think about it.

My TBR for August is below. The plan is to just keep trucking along and powering through my stacks. I want to read a few more middle grades books and cross a few more titles off my 22 in 2022 Challenge list. Here's the plan:

Anne of West Philly by Ivy Noelle Weir

Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake

Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake

Sadie by Courtney Summers

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

I worked on ton of puzzles this month. First up was a set of four 500 piece puzzles based on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney. I love the ride and I loved the art on these, but the quality of these puzzles was just not good. There were many false fits and one of the puzzles had a missing piece (it was a corner one too!). They were still fairly fun to work on though, so I can't complain too much.

I also finished my first every wooden jigsaw, this 192 piece Betta Angel puzzle. I really enjoyed how these pieces felt to put together. It was a unique challenge and I definitely want to try another one sometime.

After that I completed a 750 piece shaped puzzle called Blooming Books. The crazy shape was a little bit challenging to put together, but it wasn't too bad. What was the most difficult was the flowers part. All the pieces looked the same to me, so it was a lot of trial and error. I figured it out in the end and it made for quite an impressive finished piece.

Next up was this little 300 piece image from Blanc Puzzles. I still absolutely love this brand. This was a very pretty picture and it was very calming and satisfying to put together.

I was on a roll with smaller puzzles, so I worked on this crazy fantasy one from Buffalo Games next. It was also just 300 pieces and it was very quick to solve. This is part of their Vivid Collection, and the colors actually were really bright and pretty. My puzzle aesthetic is really over-the-top cheesy images, so this one was perfect for me.

The last puzzle I completed was this 1,000 piece Little Mermaid puzzle from Ravensburger. I have a whole bunch of these Disney movie puzzles with the little film strip running across the bottom. I finished the Lion King one last year sometime and enjoyed it. This one was fun too, but all the blue pieces were tough to figure out. Between the water and the background there were a lot of very similar looking pieces! I actually made the frame last on this one, as almost all of those pieces looked exactly the same. It was faster to build the middle first then guess and check with the edge pieces.

I continued practicing my uke too this month. I picked up a nice new blue one on a Prime Day sale, and I really like the sound of it. I got pretty good at You're So Vain by Carly Simon and started working on Dream by Johnny Mercer. I always feel so good when I'm playing. I wish I had gotten into music earlier in my life.

That about sums up my July. It was busy, but I got a chance to relax too. August will be my last bit of calm before the storm of my new job and my return to college. I have a ton of work to get done, but I still plan to spend some time relaxing and getting myself into a good routine before the craziness begins. I'm very curious as to whether I will still be able to keep up my reading pace once all this starts. I really hope so, but I have a feeling it might take a bit of a hit in the coming months. 

Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman

 

I can't remember exactly how I found Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman, but it was probably on one of my customary runs through the young adult section of Barnes and Noble. I was a big fan of Neal Shusterman's Challenger Deep, so I was very interested in reading more from him. Plus, this novel is a standalone, which was a nice break from the crazy amount young adult fiction series I'm involved in. I decided to finally pick this one up early this week to see if it would be a good addition to my middle school classroom library.

The plot of the novel follows a small handful of teen characters during an extreme drought in California. The main two are a girl named Alyssa and her neighbor Kelton. Alyssa is a typical high school student living with her parents and her younger brother Garrett. She's level-headed, kind, and responsible. On the other hand, Kelton's life is not typical at all. His parents are survivalists and have spent years amassing supplies and weapons for the eventual collapse of society. His house is protected by strong locks and bulletproof glass and Kelton has an encyclopedic knowledge of survival skills. They couldn't be more different from each other, but they are thrown together when the drought finally causes the water in their region to dry up entirely. This event comes to be known as "The Tap-Out," and it changes everyone's lives in scary, brutal ways.

With the taps dry, society quickly degenerates into chaos as everyone enters desperation mode. Bottled liquids sell out immediately and people begin looting buildings and attacking one another in pursuit of more. Disaster relief from the government is slow to come and completely inadequate when it does start arriving. As people begin to die from thirst, Alyssa and Kelton are forced to set out on a dangerous and desperate mission to find some water before their time runs out.

This novel was very engaging and surprisingly intense. The writing style was easy to read and the narration changing between characters kept things moving at a quick pace. The authors did an excellent job of keeping a realistic and pressing sense of danger running throughout the text and the way they wrote about the characters ever-growing thirst felt downright harrowing. I found myself feeling thirsty in sympathy as I was reading. I was drawn into the story right away and was consistently rooting for the characters to find ways to survive. The exception to that was Alyssa's younger brother. After he accidentally ruined the family's only drinking water I was ready for Alyssa to abandon him in the woods. Just kidding. Kind of.

I found Kelton's character to be the most interesting. He's grown up in a doomsday prepper's household, giving him a unique advantage in this situation. He has to balance the good parts of that, however, with the bad. His father is a paranoid, coldhearted man that rules with an iron fist. Nothing Kelton ever does is good enough, and he's constantly trying to earn his approval. As the Tap-Out brings his community to the brink of disaster, he witnesses his father behaving in ways that he disagrees with deeply, and he has to figure out for himself how far away to step from his father's wishes. I liked this exploration of what might happen in a survivalist family if societal collapse actually occurred. 

Of course, I have to mention the disturbing reflection of real world conditions present in Dry. There are real water shortages occurring in the Southwest U.S. now, and just like in the story, there haven't been a lot of substantial measures put in place to fix it. People largely don't take it seriously. Could a situation like The Tap-Out occur in California for real one day? It's not impossible. Dry was published in 2018, and the water shortages have only gotten worse since then. Stories like this could go a long way in getting young people to understand the importance of water and inspiring them to advocate for more conservation measures.

Overall, I thought Dry was a great read. It's a young adult book that will firmly keep the interest of young adults, and I don't often feel that way about a lot of the YA books that I pick up these days. It also has a great environmental message that has only become more relevant over time. It's a little intense for middle schoolers, but it's a great choice for older teens. I'm glad I gave this one a try.

Challenge Tally

Total Books Read in 2022: 74

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel

 

I heard about Sylvain Neuvel's The Test in a review on BookTube. The plot sounded intriguing and the reviewer liked it, so I decided to try it for myself. Despite the fact that this is a novella and is only about 100 pages long, I never got around to reading it. I made it part of my 22 in 2022 Challenge so I would finally pick it up and see what it was all about.

The story is set in England in the not-too-distant future and follows a man named Idir as he takes the British Citizenship Test. He is hoping to do well enough to make himself and his family permanent citizens. He has to answer 25 multiple choice questions on topics ranging from everyday life in the country to obscure historical facts. He starts off doing very well, but events take a tragic turn when a group of terrorists infiltrate the testing center and hold everyone hostage. Idir suddenly finds himself at the center of the ordeal and is forced to make some impossible decisions to survive. 

I thought The Test was pretty entertaining and engaging. It was very easy to read and went by quickly. Idir was a likable character and I found myself rooting for him to make it out of his situation and somehow still pass his test.  Since this is so short, there weren't a lot of complex themes to think about while reading, but it did present some questions about what makes a person worthy of belonging in a society. Is is being brave? Being smart? Being logical? It was interesting to see how Idir's actions were interpreted by the characters administering the test. 

The novel contains a big twist that I won't spoil here. It was fine and worked for the story. I did find it to be a bit unoriginal. I've read and seen this particular plot element many times in books and sci-fi shows over the years and I didn't feel like Neuvel did anything new or noteworthy with it here. If you've even seen shows like Black Mirror or The Outer Limits, you've seen this story before. Like I said though, this was still a good read.

Overall, I did enjoy The Test. It was quick, interesting, and well-written. I can't say that it's a special favorite for me, but it was worth the hour or so I spent with it.  

Challenge Tally

22 in 2022: 16/22

Total Books Read in 2022: 73

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

Elizabeth Acevedo's Clap When You Land was an insta-buy for me back when it came out. The Poet X is one of my favorite young adult novels, so I was pretty sure that I'd love this one too. There's no grand story behind why I finally chose to pick it up now - it just happened to be towards the top of a towering stack of books that I'm trying to make my way through. I was excited to finally give it a shot though, and see if I would like it as much as I liked the author's first book.

The novel is written in verse and switches perspectives between two teen girls, Camino and Yahaira. Camino lives in the Dominican Republic and Yahaira lives in New York City. As the story begins, they don't know each other. They are brought together, however, when their father dies in a tragic plane crash. His death brings all the secrets he was keeping out in the open. He had two families on different sides of an ocean. Camino and Yahaira are sisters.

Suddenly united in grief, the girls must work to come to terms with their new reality. Both loved their Papi deeply, and he was a good, caring father. At the same time, he lied to both of them for their entire lives. He betrayed their mothers. He caused a great deal of pain. Reconciling those truths and figuring out if they want a relationship with each other is difficult, emotional work. When Papi's funeral  finally brings Camino and Yahaira face to face, they must decide if they want to come together and make a new family, or if the pain of loss and betrayal will stand between them forever.  

This novel was excellent, of course. It had an interesting premise, well-developed characters, and thoughtful themes about family, love, and grief. Acevedo's beautiful verses were easy to read and felt emotionally genuine. Much like in her first novel, Acevedo's Dominican heritage helped lend authenticity and richness to the story. I was invested in Camino and Yahaira and was rooting for them to work through their pain throughout my reading. This is one of those books feels wise and important and good. It's easy to like. I really don't have any criticisms for it. It didn't hit me quite as hard as The Poet X did, but that's just down to a matter of personal preference I think. This is well worth reading for both teen and adult audiences. 

I don't have much to say beyond that, so this will be an oddly short review! This is simply a very good book from a very good author and it should be enjoyed on its own terms. I do have another Acevedo novel on my shelves, With the Fire on High, and I look forward to checking that one out sometime in the future too. 

Challenge Tally

Total Books Read in 2022: 72

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

 

I picked up Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid based on the fact that pretty much everyone was talking about it when it came out. It was all over the internet, was featured on a prominent display at the bookstore, and was even selected as part of Reese Witherspoon's book club. I'm always interested in checking out what everyone else seems to be reading, and the summary sounded like something I'd enjoy, so I decided to give it a go. In a classic move, I put it on my shelf and never ended up reading it. This year, I put it on my 22 in 2022 list so I could finally see if it could possibly live up to all the hype it received.  

The plot of the novel follows two women and the chapters alternate between their perspectives. The first is Emira Tucker, a twenty-five year old black woman living in Philadelphia. She's not quite sure what she wants to do with her life and works a few part time, low-paying jobs to make ends meet. One of those jobs is babysitting a little girl named Briar for a wealthy white family. She actually likes her babysitting job quite a bit. She loves Briar and can't imagine not being a part of her life, but she also is feeling a lot of pressure to find herself full time employment that will provide her with health insurance and more stability.

The other woman in the story is Alix Chamberlain, a wealthy white woman who works as a blogger and influencer. She is Briar's mother and Emira's employer. On the surface, she seems to have the perfect life. Internally, however, Alix is somewhat dissatisfied with her current situation. She moved to Philadelphia to have more space for her growing family, but she misses living in New York and being able to fully throw herself into every exciting opportunity that came her way. She does love her husband and Briar though, and is a good mother. Emira is absolutely indispensable to her and she trusts her implicitly. 

Their story begins when Emira goes through an awful ordeal one night while babysitting Briar. During a trip to the grocery store, another shopper, alarmed at seeing a black woman walking around with a white child, alerts the security guard. Emira is accused of kidnapping Briar and is detained until Briar's father shows up to confirm her identity. A bystander films the entire incident and sends the footage to Emira, but she chooses not to do anything with it. She just wants to return back to her normal life, but that soon proves to be impossible. The events of that night have a ripple effect and stir up all sorts of emotions in Emira and Alix. The ways they interact with each other begin to change, and both end up discovering things about themselves and each other that will change the course of both of their lives forever.

I wanted to like this novel more than I actually did. I didn't think it was bad, but it wasn't as good as I was assuming it would be either. What it came down to for me was a lack of...something. Subtlety? Nuance? Complexity? I'm not sure which, and it's a shame because the story presents a truly interesting dilemma for Emira. After the grocery story incident, she ends up being caught in the middle of two well-meaning, but ultimately racist, white people. On one side is Alix, her employer. Emira desperately needs to hang onto the salary she provides. However, Alix's behavior to her become very maternal after the incident, and she starts to take on that white savior role. She starts to covertly exert more control over Emira and attempts to influence her decisions. She is convinced she knows what's best for her and isn't above sneaking around and doing some pretty unethical things under the guise of "protection." On the other side is Emira's boyfriend, Kelley. He is outraged on her behalf, and his feelings are too much. He cares about what happened at the grocery store more than Emira does and tries to get her to be more angry about it and to release the video. He can't understand the ways in which that move might negatively impact her and his lack of understanding about that is a betrayal of the privilege he's enjoyed all his life. He is also oddly into black people. He seemingly only has black friends and only dates black women. There are questions about him fetishizing the culture. Alix and Kelley continually push and pull Emira in different directions, and both believe that are totally in the right about what they feel and both feel like the other is racist. It was really a fascinating dichotomy. That tug-of-war was the most interesting part of the story to me, and was a powerful example of the ways white people continue to misunderstand and harm black people, even without meaning to. 

Where I felt Reid made a misstep with this dilemma was in how Emira reacted to it. She was essentially oblivious to all of it. She didn't look deeper into the conflicting views of her boss and her boyfriend, and didn't seem to get how both of them were harming her. Things would just happen and she would react, but it never really felt like she noticing all the different layers of white nonsense swirling around her. I wanted to hear more of her thoughts on it. Without her analysis, it felt like an important piece was missing. I wanted her to interact more with the hypocrisy that I felt should have been evident to her.

The ending of the novel was a disappointment to me as well. I didn't think the decisions Emira and her friend made were realistic and there was a last minute twist that really undercut the complexity of one of the characters. I honestly wished Reid had left out that reveal entirely, because it didn't make much sense and ended up undoing some of the questions her story asked.

Despite all that though, I still mildly enjoyed Such a Fun Age. It was worth reading for the push-and-pull between the main characters, even if the reader was largely left to interpret those issues on their own. The characters were complex and the writing was easy to read. This was Reid's first novel, and I do think that she's going to have a very bright future as a writer. She seems to have a knack for coming up with interesting questions about race and the way people from different backgrounds interact with each other. This story didn't quite live up to its full potential for me, but it still had interesting things to say and was worth the time.    

Challenge Tally

22 in 2022: 15/22

Total Books Read in 2022: 71

Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan

 

I have always really enjoyed reading books with illustrations, so when I spotted Shaun Tan's Tales from the Inner City on an endcap at Barnes and Noble a few years ago, I was instantly interested. I was really drawn to the strange, beautiful artwork on the cover, and I loved feel of the thick, glossy pages inside. I bought it, of course, but I consistently put off reading it. This was one of those books that I was always "saving for later" for some reason. I knew it was going to be a special one, so I guess I was waiting for the perfect time. I decided to put it on my 22 in 2022 challenge list this year so I would feel like I had permission to finally read it. Since I haven't been loving my picks so far for this month, I figured that the time was finally right to give this one a try.

Tales from the Inner City is a collection of short stories, poetry, and illustrations about interactions between people and animals. The stories are not realistic. They are dreamlike, impossible, and not always easy to understand. The understanding part doesn't matter so much though, because everything in this book is special and interesting. The themes of the stories vary across the text, but all focus on appreciating the natural world in some way and treating animals with kindness and respect. Some of them are sad, some are heartwarming, and some are just plain weird. For example, in the frog story, a boardroom full of executives suddenly turn into frogs. Rather than be upset at his turn of events, they are ecstatic that they are finally free. In another story, all of the bears decide to hire lawyers and sue humans for their crimes against nature. It does not turn out well for either side. Each piece in the book is wildly different and is accompanied by beautiful illustrations. It's a very quirky and memorable read.

Just like I predicted, I did absolutely love this book. It was the good kind of weird - the kind that sticks in your brain for a long time after reading it. There wasn't a story in here that I didn't like, although some of my favorites were the aforementioned bear story, the sunfish story, and a very unique piece about some amorous gigantic snails. The opening story about crocodiles living on the eighty-seventh floor of an office building was great too. The pictures were so good that it's really beyond my ability to describe them. This is most definitely one of those books best enjoyed in its physical form so you can really appreciate the artistry that went into it. It was such a good read.

Tales from the Inner City has definitely become a new favorite for me, and I'm very glad I decided to finally pick it up. There's a lot to love about it, but my favorite thing overall was the clear reverence for animals that was woven throughout every story and drawn into every illustration. It is clear that Shaun Tan has a deep respect for all creatures, and that came through in a really beautiful, interesting way here. I can see myself recommending this to a lot of people, but anyone who follows my advice is going to have to buy their own copy - I'm definitely not letting this one off my shelves! 

Challenge Tally

22 in 2022: 14/22

Total Books Read in 2022: 70

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

 

I came across When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller while I was looking for books for my Middle Grades Mission Challenge. It won the Newberry Award in 2021, so that was really all the persuasion I needed to pick it up. The inside flap, which promised a story about a young girl struggling with some family issues mixed in with traditional Korean folklore, only sweetened the deal. I've read a few middle grades books that mix contemporary issues with old cultural stories, and those have been some of my favorite reads so far this year. All signs were pointing to this novel becoming a new favorite, so I started off my reading with high hopes.  

The novel follows a young girl named Lily who, as the novel begins, has just moved with her family into her grandmother's (halmoni's) house. Halmoni is very ill and needs help around the house, so this is a stressful and sad time for the family. Upon arriving, Lily is immediately troubled by a strange occurrence. She sees a giant tiger, just like the ones in the folktales Halmoni tells her, standing in the middle of the street. Lily is the only one who can see it, so at first, she dismisses it as some sort of optical illusion. That proves to be untrue when the tiger appears again and starts speaking to her. The tiger explains that Halmoni has stolen something the tiger wants back, and if Lily will help her retrieve it, she will help Halmoni feel better. Desperate to help her family, Lily agrees. Deals with tigers, however, are tricky business, and Lily will need to keep her wits about her if she wants to make everything turn out right.

When You Trap a Tiger is a story about stories--the ones you find comfort in and tell over and over, the ones you tell yourself to cover up uncomfortable truths, and the ones that you lock away and try not to think about. Lily's quest to help Halmoni leads her to dig through all of these, and in the process, she discovers a lot about herself and her family. Watching her grow and come to some very mature realizations was a pleasure and probably the strongest aspect of the novel. The language was also very beautiful and the inclusion of Halmoni's Korean folktales was very engaging. For the most part, I did enjoy this read.

That being said, however, I did not like this book as much as I thought I was going to. Frankly, I'm stunned by this because it's the exact kind of story I typically love. I think the issue for me was the way the magical realism was handled. I felt like everything was left too hazy. What was real and what wasn't was never made clear, and the way the folktales connected to reality never clicked in a satisfying way for me. This didn't feel intentional. It felt clumsy. Something was continually off about it. I had trouble fully getting all the layers straight in my mind, and that really should not be an issue I have to deal with in a novel written for children. Of course, this wasn't a bad book by any means and I want to be very clear about that. I did still enjoy it. On the whole, however, I was surprised it was selected for the Newberry.

I have read two other books this year that connect cultural folktales with a modern storyline, The Magic Fish and The Last Cuentista. Both of those were phenomenal reads and are among my favorites for the year. Sadly, When You Trap a Tiger paled in comparison. I'm not sure how many actual middle school kids would be able to make it all the way through this book and enjoy it. Magical realism is high concept to begin with, and I don't think the way it was implemented here is particularly child-friendly. I'm definitely in the minority on this one though. Goodreads has pages and pages of excellent reviews for this, so I suppose I'll have to chalk my feelings up to personal preference. Even so, it was a good book that was a little disappointing. I'm not sorry I gave it a try. 

On a side note, with this novel, I have officially completed my Middle Grades Mission Challenge! I have read 24 fairly current middle grades books since the beginning of 2022 and some of them have been shockingly good. I'm going to continue on throughout the rest of the year and see how many more I can get to.

Challenge Tally

Middle Grade Mission: 24/24 - Finished!

Total Books Read in 2022: 69

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

 

*This review will contain spoilers for the first book in this duology, We Hunt the Flame*

After finishing We Hunt the Flame last week, I decided to go ahead and finish off Hafsah Faizal's duology with We Free the Stars. I had mixed feelings about the first book. I liked it well enough, but wasn't blown away by it. In light of that, I didn't go into my reading with super-high expectations. I was still interested enough to find out how Zafira and Nasir's stories would end though, so I started off my reading hopeful for a satisfying conclusion to their story.

The plot of the novel picks up right after the events of book one. Zafira and Nasir have teamed up and partially completed their mission to restore magic to Arawiya. They have retrieved most of the special items they need, as well as the magical book that contains the instructions they need to do it. Unfortunately, the Lion of the Night is still alive and is determined to foil their plans and take control of the entire kingdom. Zafira and Nasir must work together to prevent him from taking the throne and finish their quest to bring magic back to their people before it slips away forever. 

Sadly, I did not have a great time with this book. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was bad, but it was definitely inferior to the first in the series. It still had some high points, of course. Faizal's writing was very pretty, the Middle Eastern elements were still interesting, and there was definitely chemistry between Zafira and Nasir. The emotions running throughout the story felt genuine too. The characters struggled with trauma and grief in relatable ways. All that was fine. It wasn't enough, however, to make up for the pacing. This was nearly 600 pages long, and it felt like it was dragging for most of that time to me. The plot was very repetitive throughout most of the book, then very rushed in the final few pages. Not enough happened and then way too much happened in a very short time. There were a lot of scenes consisting of characters having conversations about their thoughts and emotions that did not further the plot and felt unnecessary. Zafira was indecisive to the point of madness, going back and forth on decisions constantly. It became annoying, and I'm so sorry to have felt that way, because I enjoyed her character quite a bit in book one. 

The relationship between Zafira and Nasir felt stagnated for a lot of this book as well. I know that Faizal was going for a whole slow burn will-they-or-won't-they kind of thing, and this was effective in the first book, but it got to a point here where it was too much. There was no real reason for them not to be together, so their reluctance and self-sabotage didn't make sense. There were a few kisses here and there, and lots of sexual banter between them, but then one of them would almost immediately say the wrong thing or run away and it was frustrating in a bad way. Honestly, nothing about their relationship ended up being satisfying for me. Even the ending left me wanting a lot more. However, I did laugh uproariously when Nasir got an erection once while riding a horse with Zafira and to disguise it, he immediately jumped off the horse and picked a fight with her. That was hilarious, but I don't think it was really supposed to be.

While I'm here, I want to elaborate more on the sexual banter. It was very present in the story, between many of the characters. It was relentless and not very funny. I'm not coming at that from a pearl-clutching place. It was just cringey. There seemed to be no thought about which characters were speaking to each other when it was happening either. Nasir and his half brother kept up a line of joking that felt extremely uncomfortable. Before it was revealed in book one that these two were related, I thought that one was secretly in love with the other. Now, to be fair, Nasir didn't know this guy was his half brother throughout part of book one. Once he does know, however, the jokes don't stop. This kind of humor felt really out of step with the rest of the story--like it was an attempt to make the characters seem cool and edgy, and it didn't work for me.

One other small thing that irked me was the fact that the characters kept saying, "We freed the stars." Usually when you're going to have a character say the title of the book, you just have someone say it one time. It was said multiple times here by different characters, and as it's purely a metaphorical statement, it was cheesy as heck. 

So obviously, I was disappointed with We Free the Stars. I am definitely in the minority here. Most people on Goodreads absolutely love this book, and it's great that so many were able to connect with it. I knew after book one that this series didn't click with me, and that feeling only deepened throughout this final book. It's okay though, not every reader is going to love every story they pick up. I'm still glad to have given this duology a try. I'll add these to my donate pile and hopefully a reader better suited for them will discover them.

Challenge Tally

Finally in 2022 - Series Edition: 30/28 - Finished!

Total Books Read in 2022: 68

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

 

I came across We Hunt the Flame in the young adult section of Barnes and Noble a few years ago. The cover was beautiful and the summary, promising a Middle Eastern inspired fantasy story, seemed interesting enough. I decided to buy it, but didn't end up reading it right away. Eventually, the sequel to this novel came out, and I bought that too. Since I'm making my way through as many unread series as I can this year, I decided that now was the perfect time to give this duology a try.

The novel is set in the world of Arawiya, a place that has lost its magic and fallen on hard times. It follow two characters and alternates between their points of view throughout the chapters. The first is Zafira, a teenage girl who must take on the role of provider for her family after her father passes away and her mother becomes mentally unstable. She is good with a bow and disguises herself as a man to hunt in the Arz, a dangerous magical forest that encircles her caliphate. The Arz is deadly for most people, but Zafira is somehow able to navigate it with ease, and this uncanny ability has earned her a fearsome reputation. She is known as "The Hunter," and believed to be some sort of super-tough man. Only her family and closest friend know the truth though--she is a determined young woman trying to help her family and the people in her town survive. 

The second character is Prince Nasir, a young man that is set to inherit the throne of Arawiya one day. He's been trained since birth to be a deadly assassin and travels around the kingdom on his father's orders, taking out his enemies. His father treats him terribly, and Nasir is caught in an abusive pattern of trying to earn his approval only to be continually met with cruelty. He's earned a dark reputation for himself as well, he's a very good assassin and is known as the Prince of Darkness amongst the people.

Zafira and Nasir are unexpectedly brought together when they are both sent on a mysterious quest. There is a possibility of restoring magic to Arawiya, but it requires a journey to a deadly island to retrieve a magical artifact. Zafira is sent to try and find it; Nasir is sent to kill Zafira and claim it for his father. Once they meet, however, Nasir realizes that the legendary Hunter is actually a woman, and an attraction blossoms between them that they can't deny. Suddenly, Nasir is questioning his orders and reconsidering his allegiances and Zafira is feeling emotions she hasn't experienced before. Together, they start working to make a new future for Arawiya, one that will restore the magic they lost and bring peace to their people. There is a dark force working against them, however, and it threatens to undo everything they are striving for and bring destruction to the kingdom they love.    

We Hunt the Flame was a pretty solid read. The cover design was stunning. I liked the Middle-Eastern inspired setting and Hafsah Faizal's writing was undeniably beautiful. The world-building was rich and interesting and the story was pretty engaging. The slow burn romance between Zafira and Nasir was well-written too. It was obvious that this was a story crafted with love, and I appreciated that. I can see how this story would really click with a lot of readers. 

For me personally though, it was was good, but not great. I'm not really sure why, because I did like it and I can't think of a lot that was specifically wrong with it. I think the pacing was a little bit slow. There were definitely boring parts and I found myself struggling to stay awake a lot while reading. I didn't exactly look forward to picking this book up each day either. One thing that was consistently an issue was the vocabulary. The story included a lot of cultural words that I didn't know and there was no glossary. You could figure most of them out through context, but I really found myself wishing there was an easy way to look them up and see a pronunciation guide. I noticed on Goodreads that the author created a glossary on their website after the book was published, but I didn't know that as I was reading. I think it was a misstep to not include a resource like that in the book itself. Neither of these things are were enough for me to say I didn't like the book because of them though. I think it just comes down to personal preference. 

So ultimately, I liked We Hunt the Flame, but it wasn't a favorite for me. The setting was great and the story was interesting enough, but I found parts of it to be slow and it just didn't fully click with me. I still plan to read the sequel though, because I am interested to see how Zafira and Nasir's story ends up. I think many readers will fall in love with this novel. It wasn't my perfect read, but it was still worth the time.

Challenge Tally

Finally in 2022 - Series Edition: 29/28 - Finished!

Total Books Read in 2022: 67

Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling

 

I found Dusti Bowling's Across the Desert while browsing new middle grades novels on Goodreads. I was stocking up on books for my Middle Grades Mission and this one looked interesting enough, so I picked it up. I was in the mood for a short, easy read to kick off the month and this one was calling to me, so I decided to give it a try.

The plot of the novel follows a twelve-year-old girl named Jolene. She lives in Phoenix and her life has been tough lately. Her mother has become addicted to oxycodone following a bad car accident, and she spends most of her time sleeping and finding ways to acquire more pills. Money is extremely tight due to this. Jolene is outgrowing all of her clothes and there is very little food in the house. Jolene finds an escape from her troubles through watching a streamer that goes by the name of "Addie Earhart." Addie is a young pilot, who streams herself flying her ultralight plane around the Arizona desert. Jolene is usually Addie's only viewer, but that suits both girls just fine. They have struck up a tentative friendship online. Jolene doesn't have many friends, so she treasures this relationship.

As the story begins however, disaster strikes. Jolene tunes into Addie's stream as usual. As she watches, something goes wrong with Addie's ultralight and she crashes somewhere in the desert. The stream abruptly cuts off, leaving Jolene the only person who knows what happened. Frantic, she tries contacting the police and telling other adults her friend needs help, but when people hear that this was something that happened online to a person she doesn't really know, they stop taking her seriously. Determined to save her friend, Jolene sets out on a dangerous mission across the desert on her own to rescue her.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would, which made for a nice surprise. I have read a lot of middle grades books lately that I personally really liked, but didn't really think an average twelve-year-old kid would actually sit and read all the way through. This one was different. It moved quickly, it was very engaging, and it dealt with the kind of real world issues that young readers are interested in. Jolene's journey into the desert to try and save her friend felt genuinely harrowing, and the way Bowling described the heat, her thirst, and all the pain she was in had me wincing internally. It felt real and it felt dangerous and it made for a real page-turning experience. Jolene was an easy character to root for and I enjoyed watching her grow throughout the text. 

The element of Jolene's mother and her drug addiction was handled very well too. Bowling did a nice job of portraying the pain that both Jolene and her mother were in. She explains in the notes at the end of the book that she struggled as a kid with her own father's addiction to pain pills, and you could absolutely tell that she was writing from a place of experience throughout the text. There was this one point towards the end of the story where Jolene thinks that if she can complete this impossible task and rescue her friend, then maybe she can prove to her mom that she is worth getting sober for, and my goodness, that hit me right in the feelings.

So ultimately, I liked Across the Desert a lot more than I was expecting to. It was full of heart, had a very relatable protagonist, and was consistently engaging. I will most definitely be recommending this to students in the future and I think it's worth a read for anyone that enjoys middle grades realistic fiction. It was surprisingly solid!

Challenge Tally

Middle Grade Mission: 23/24

Total Books Read in 2022: 66