Thursday, December 29, 2022

DNF Review | The Stranded by Sarah Daniels

The Stranded is a YA dystopian novel by Sarah Daniels.

Snowpiercer meets The Hunger Games in a gripping near-future dystopian: romances, betrayals, and fights for freedom in a world turned upside-down...

Welcome to the Arcadia.

Once a luxurious cruise ship, it became a refugee camp after being driven from Europe by an apocalyptic war. Now it floats near the coastline of the Federated States - a leftover piece of a fractured USA.

For forty years, residents of the Arcadia have been prohibited from making landfall. It is a world of extreme haves and have nots, gangs and make-shift shelters.

Esther is a loyal citizen, working flat-out to have the rare chance to live a normal life as a medic on dry land. Nik is a rebel, planning something big to liberate the Arcadia once and for all.

When events throw them both together, their lives, and the lives of everyone on the ship, will change forever . . .

The Stranded is a YA dystopian book being compared to The Hunger Games and Divergent. I used to love this genre so I was hoping to have a bit of nostalgia wrapped up in a modern dystopian. Unfortunately, The Stranded read exactly like the YA dystopians that were flooding the market over a decade ago. There wasn't a lot of development and there wasn't a lot of explanation.

The Stranded is told through multiple points of view. A couple of these views are told through first person and a third point of view through third person. I didn't enjoy the change in narrative, and I didn't enjoy the characters either.

This dystopian world has strict rules, but anyone can get in trouble at any time - even if they did nothing wrong. People in close proximity to rule breakers would be arrested while the actual rule breakers got away. The characters are stuck on these ships because the world got hit with a virus - but the people who study and earn their way back into the real world can get vaccines and be taken off the ship. There are vaccines but they don't give them to everyone because it would cost millions. When was this written? Did I read this wrong?

Our main character is studying to earn her way off of the ship, but she totally forgot to study for an exam that's 65% of her grade so she decides to cheat in order to take the only remaining spot off the ship. Why would I care to keep reading? The stakes were so random, the characters were basic, and I didn't understand the world at all. I held on for 173 pages until I just didn't have any reason to root for anyone.

If you are a huge fan of the Hunger Games era books, you might love this. I would 100% believe The Stranded was written 10 years ago when there was no longer a market for it. I was hoping for a modern take on the YA dystopian genre, and I guess that's my fault.

Review copy provided by publisher. This is a review of my reading experience.

Jennifer

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Friday, December 23, 2022

Review | Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi is a cross-genre novel by Susanna Clarke.

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

What a strange and wonderful book.

How do I even review Piranesi? This is 100% a book that is best to go into blind. I'm so glad I chose to avoid reviews for this one so I'm going to keep my review vague and avoid talking about the details of Piranesi.

I do want to mention if you decide to try Piranesi, don't put it down. I would actually recommend reading it in as few sittings as possible, but I mean don't DNF it. For most of Piranesi I had no idea what was going on and I assumed I wouldn't care about the characters that I was struggling to get to know, but I was wrong. I wound up loving the characters and loving Piranesi. This strange little book has turned out to be one of my favorite books of the year.

I wondered throughout reading Piranesi who I would even recommend it to if I wound up loving it, but now that I've finished reading it, I would recommend it to anyone willing to take a chance on a unique story. If you love finding a reading experience unlike anything you've read before, you should definitely consider picking up Piranesi.

5/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Jennifer

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Sunday, December 18, 2022

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | December 18

I'm so close to being done with my Christmas shopping. Hopefully I can finish up the last of it today and get the last of the shopping stress off of my shoulders!

I dropped my milk frother/steamer yesterday, and it shattered so that made the decision of where I'm shopping today. I'm driving out to the one store that has the brand/frother that I use. I can't head into the holidays without lattes and warm cocoa. Life is hard enough! 😆

One thing I have not been able to find this year is a Christmas tree scented candle. I look for a specific scent, and I don't know if it's pine or spruce, but I know it when I smell it. Do you have a favorite Christmas tree scented candle? Where can I find it? If you don't like Christmas tree scents, what scent do you like this time of year?

Posted Last Week

Review | The Family Game by Catherine Steadman ⭐⭐⭐★★ - I'm still thinking about this book.

Review | Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - Glad to be rereading these!

Finished Reading

The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore

The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore ⭐⭐⭐★★ - This was my local book club's pick for December. I'm glad to have read it, but I'm pretty sure this will be my one and only Christopher Moore book.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - This was a reread. I'm hoping to reread the entire series before the new book comes out in January.

One Piece, Volume 8 by Eiichiro Oda ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - I'm shook! Again.

Currently Reading

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire - Continuing my reread of the Wayward Children series.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - What am I reading? If you've read this - you know exactly what I mean. I am 77 pages in, and I know there have to be some big reveals with this one. This book is weird, and I'm hoping I fall in the "love it" camp by the end.

One Piece, Volume 9 by Eiichiro Oda - Just more One Piece. Life is good.

Added to the TBR

Belladonna by Adalyn Grace - I was out doing some Christmas shopping, and I bought myself a gift as one does. I couldn't resist.

Added to the TBR

White Christmas - I watch this every year while we decorate the tree.

Christmas Vacation - This week was the week to watch the greatest Christmas movie of all time.

This post is being shared as part of The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz, Book Date’s It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Jennifer

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Thursday, December 15, 2022

Review | Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Every Heart a Doorway is the first book in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire.

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

This reread is so heartbreaking. Having now read 6 more books in this series and coming back to the beginning - I think it hits even harder reading about these wayward children who have been forced to return "home". I get it now that no matter where they went through their portal doorway - a nice place, a dark place, a nonsense place, that was home.

I went back and read my original review for this and for some reason I focused on how weird this series would get according to reviews. It definitely does get strange, but it's wonderful and quite often heartbreaking.

I don't know if it's the end of the year or my lack of focus, but I've been in full reread mode. This is the perfect time for me to make my way back through this series. I think I will enjoy book 7 and the new book coming out in January much more revisiting the previous books in this series. I want to reacquaint myself with all of the characters we've met along the way.

Every Heart a Doorway is a perfect introduction to this universe and what it's like to be a wayward kid who has gone through a portal to another world and forced to come back to the life they left behind. These children struggle to cope and often wind up at the school for wayward children which is where Every Heart a Doorway is set.

In each book after Every Heart a Doorway, we get to follow someone through a doorway to another world (with the occasional return to school). This is one of my favorite series, and I look forward to a new release every year. You could probably jump into most books of series without starting at the beginning, but I love the magnitude of what Every Heart a Doorway spells out for these characters and the expectations that are set for these children ever finding their doorway again.

I'm awful at classifying genres so I've always thought of these books strictly as fantasy, but I can see why these also make it onto horror lists. Every Heart a Doorway is certainly horror adjacent and should appeal to a wide range of genre readers.

I feel like you will know if this is a series that sounds right for you. As for me, I love it and I hope it lasts forever.

4/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐★

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Jennifer

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Monday, December 12, 2022

Review | The Family Game by Catherine Steadman

The Family Game is a mystery/thriller by Catherine Steadman.

A rich, eccentric family. A time-honored tradition. Or a lethal game of survival? One woman finds out what it really takes to join the 1% in this riveting psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Something in the Water, Mr. Nobody, and The Disappearing Act.

Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward's eminent family and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they've dominated headlines and pulled society's strings, and Edward left them all behind to forge his own path. But there are eyes and ears everywhere. It was only a matter of time before they were pulled back in . . .

After all, even though he's long severed ties with his family, Edward is set to inherit it all. Harriet is drawn to the glamour and sophistication of the Holbecks, who seem to welcome her with open arms, but everything changes when she meets Robert, the inescapably magnetic head of the family. At their first meeting, Robert slips Harry a cassette tape, revealing a shocking confession which sets the inevitable game in motion.

What is it about Harry that made him give her that tape? A thing that has the power to destroy everything? As she ramps up her quest for the truth, she must endure the Holbecks' savage Christmas traditions all the while knowing that losing this game could be deadly.

The Family Game is a holiday themed thriller that I read with the Horror Spotlight discord group. I want to say straightaway that I liked this book because I'm probably gonna spend this review doing a whole lot of complaining.

First off, for those of you who hate prologues because it usually means the book is boring for a while, I hate to inform you that there is a prologue and the book is, in fact, boring for a while. The Family Game starts out with a man and a woman enjoying the holidays in New York. It feels very much like a super messed up holiday romcom. It's romantic and it's over the top and it's in the big city, but you know from the prologue the female main character is going to wind up bloody and scared for her life on the floor of his family's holiday home.

There is a lot to not believe in this novel, but there's also a lot to keep you reading and guessing and griping out loud.

My biggest fear when I started reading the holiday game was that I would not care whether this woman survived by the end of the book because she's not very likable. But somehow even though I didn't like a soul in this novel, I still wanted to know what was really happening. I'm not usually the type of reader who tries to guess who did it, what the twist is, who's lying, but I was guessing and wondering in The Family Game.

There is so much to unpack now that I have finished reading this novel, but I don't have it in me to do the unpacking that's necessary to make it all makes sense. This book is being billed as a psychological thriller, but it's not what it had hoped to be.

So while I could sit around the kitchen table and gripe about the characters and the plot all day long, I still would not tell you not to read it. If you have The Family Game on your TBR, you should definitely read it. There is something to be said about a book that can make you gripe this much. Read it and then let me know what you think. We can scratch our heads about it together.

3/5 Stars
⭐⭐⭐★★

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Jennifer

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Sunday, December 11, 2022

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | December 11

How is your weekend going? I have nothing exciting to report. I'm absolutely not prepared for the holidays, but I'm ready for them to get here anyway! My tree is up, but we haven't even put the ornaments on yet. Do you decorate for Christmas?