August Reviews

August felt very long. It was hot, we're still in lockdown, and it feels like everything is exploding or imploding simultaneously. So I read books, to keep my head, to keep busy, to keep a balance between sitting in the sun and sitting in air conditioning and sitting on the edge of a world at war. And I got lucky, because all the reading was a good time.

Let's jump right in.

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

I was hearing amazing things about this book before it even came out, so I knew right away that this would be a book I wouldn't be able to wait to buy. And I gotta tell you, this book is changing the way the fairy tale genre is being retold.

Sophia's lived under the tyrannical reign of King Manford and his predecessors her entire life, watching the way the patriarchal and archaic laws were destroying her chance at happiness and freedom. Modeled after the fabled Cinderella, girls are sent to a ball every year like cattle to be chosen by men and used in any way they see fit. But when Sophia tries to run from the ball, she's caught in a web of rebellion and magic, helped by a beautiful descendant of Cinderella's stepsister, trying to stop this evil king and save the people of her kingdom from a curse that spans longer than she could have ever imagined. But people aren't always who they claim to be, and the darkness of Lille runs deeper than Sophia realized.

This book takes the 'dark fairy tale retelling' tropes and twists them in a delightfully magical and feminist way. Sophia recognizes the wrong doing in her town, the women being killed and abused, the restrictions around who a person can love and be, and does something about it, even though she's afraid. This book preaches the message of gender equality and fairness but goes beyond just the need for female representation and action. The entire system needs to be dismantled with quick systemic change in order to bring about real peace and equality, which is Super Applicable to today's society. But it does it through the lense of a fairy tale, where the story is changed and manufactured to tell the story the government needs it to, keeping the people compliant and unquestioning. And ultimately people calling out the unfairness isn't enough until direct action is taken.

So not only is this book a kickass tiny rebellion book, it's also starring a black lesbian with a beautiful black queer love interest! We love a powerful black queer leading lady! Sophia has a good heart and a lot of bravery to face down the man who wants her dead, all for the chance to help the people she loves. And Constance is a red-haired badass from a long line of rebel badasses, doing her best to stay alive, fight back, and hopefully get a cute girlfriend along the way.

All the characters in this book wrestled with a lot of fear, and their reactions to that fear were all different. Sophia was really good about recognizing the reasons certain people acted as they did, even when she didn't understand completely. She never made apologies or excused for men (as it should be, don't be sorry be better) but looked at the women around her with sympathy. Even the girl that bullied her in the beginning was recognized to be doing so out of fear. And Sophia wasn't so much a gentle soul as a bulldozer who pointed out that it was the situation and not the individual girls who were creating the divide between them.

The descriptions in this book were very rich but in the right ways, a story told with heart that didn't get bogged down with a billion heavy paragraphs about a dark and scary forest. Instead, the focus got to be on the characters and their interactions, the way a person's expression and body language dictated their truth more than their words did. This felt especially important when it came to interactions with Constance and the king and the difference between them.

I have no idea if this was a coherent review or not (hey, I never promised my words would make sense, only that I would mean them), but this was a really neat twist on a classic story with the representation we deserve. Grab a copy and enjoy a kickass fantasy.

Similar to: Blanca and Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore and Cinder by Marissa Meyer

The Friend Scheme by Cale Dietrich

I've read Dietrich's other book before and wasn't as into it as I'd hoped to be, and while in some ways the same thing happened with this book, I did enjoy the time I spent reading it.

Matt Miller is the youngest son in one of two crime syndicate families living in Florida. The Millers and the Donovans have been enemies for generations, and Matt wants nothing to do with the criminal life. So when he meets Jason, a boy he has so much in common with he can't possibly be real, Matt thinks he's maybe finally found a person he can be himself (and not his family) with. But Jason isn't who he seems to be and the Millers are closing in on an end to their violent cold war, leaving Matt wondering if there's anyone he can trust, and if there's any way for him to leave it all behind.

Dietrich has a great grasp on the tightrope of being seventeen, especially in a family where the main character is expected to act older than he is. Matt's interested and internal dialogue make him seem so young and so at odds with the violent situation he's in. He did what he was told an dhid the parts of himself that didn't fit the lifestyle he was expected to lead. He loved his brother but also recognized that Luke was the better son, the one his father trusted more. In a lot of ways it was his brother's trust and opinion that mattered more to Matt than his father's, which really struck home what their family dynamic was.

Jason felt kind of like a typical YA love interest, but both his character and the fact that he was a YA love interest means that makes sense. He's hot, likes the same things Matt does, participates in the awkward teenage banter. He was exactly what Matt needed and that made me very disinclined to trust him. I won't give away spoilers, but Matt has suspicions the entire time he's falling for Jason, which makes for a complicated relationship and a lot of stress on Matt. There was a lot of back and forth in his mind because there's a lot at stake for him. His family doesn't know his preferences (both for dudes and a not-criminal life) and straying from the herd any further than he already is could put him in hot water. But Jason is there to say the things Matt needs to here and provide a support system he didn't know he could have. Having a friend was just as, if not more important than falling in love for Matt, and I respected the hell out of that idea.

There weren't a lot of characters in this book, or at least not very many with extended page time. The book was probably 85% Matt and Jason, but I'm not at all complaining. The other characters that existed in the periphery were kept at a distance that showed just how separated Matt felt from both his family and community. And the few that stepped forward were made notable by their interactions with Matt. Cassidy was great, stepping into the picture right when Jason needed her, and it was kind of adorable to watch Matt go from having no friends to two friends in like a week.

There were a lot of pop culture references, which from a writing standpoint made me nervous, because I'd been told that too many references could date a piece, especially as time passed and certain things lost or gained popularity. But from a reading standpoint it was fun to see connections with current pop culture, as well as finding a few things that seemed interesting to look up later. I wouldn't say I'm "hip with the kids" because I'm definitely in my mid-twenties and therefore not a teenager anymore, but it is nice to know that I still understand almost all of the current interests, at least according to a nerdy somewhat-reclusive teenage criminal.

This book was dramatic and youthful and I had a good time reading it. The concept is great, I love a good star-crossed vibe, and the ending surprised me with just how easy it was. Don't know what I'd rate it if I actually gave books ratings, but it was a good time for sure.

Similar to Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig and The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich (I can compare two books by the same author, that's allowed, I make the rules)

What I Leave Behind by Alison McGhee

I got this book through my used book app and really had no idea what it would be about or like, so when this slim book appeared on my doorstep, I had no idea of the impact it would leave on me.

Will's father committed suicide three years ago and Will started walking to help process his grief. Now, he walks everywhere, to work, to school, to the places where he gets ingredients to try and recreate his dad's famous cornbread recipe. But when his childhood friend is raped, Will's walking turns toward her house, where he leaves little presents on her doorstep every night in the hopes that maybe it will help with the grief she's buried in. This turns to little gifts for everyone Will passes when he walks, as he struggles to come to terms with the decisions other people make.

The formatting of this book was super interesting, with just little snippet paragraphs on every other page and chinese symbols on the other. The idea of small blessings and small moments is prevalent throughout the story, so the way it's told is hugely impactful on the story.

I was already feeling very tender with everything going on, and this book just kind of punched me in the face in a loving way. It gripped my chin and pulled my face toward the pages and said, "Just listen, just read, things are not okay but you will be."

This book is full of these really simple striking moments that can both shatter and build up a person. The effect that little things have on people struggling with grief is represented so poignantly. Will has so many moments where he could have described or created a feeling through paragraphs and paragraphs of explanations, but instead he manages to craft the feeling of your heart being smashed in one sentence, and then ends with a "You know?"

The characters are all people that Will feels sorry for in some capacity, people he does kind things for because he knows it will make them happy, even as their interactions affect Will in such profound ways. Everyone from his boss, Major Tom, to a little boy who looks for butterflies to a homeless man named Superman is given a piece of Will. Will doesn't dwell long on his father's suicide, but the pages dedicated to it are just heartbreaking and drive home this idea that Will's search for answers has given him the desire to make sure other people realize they have someone in their lives who cares. Will is a teenage boy who says a whole lot with just a little and cares so deeply that he has to walk the day out through the soles of his feet, quoting song lyrics his father loved to himself as he goes.

There's not a whole lot I can say about this little book, just that it packs a big punch and looks at grief through the lense of generosity in a way I've never seen before. It's a quick read, so if you have the chance grab a copy and see what gets left behind.

Similar to Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (in vibes) and The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz (in vibes and story)

We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra

I don't usually right reviews right after finishing the book. Sometimes I'll write little notes to myself about memorable phrases or important thoughts, but most of the time I'll finish reading late at night and sleep on my feelings for the book.

This book gave me so many feelings I couldn't possibly sleep on them.

Jonathan Hopkirk and Adam Kurlansky couldn't be any more different. But when their english teacher assigns them an inter=class letter writing assignment, Jo and Kurl are partnered up to write letters to one another. They start perfunctory and stilted, something for a grade, but soon become a lifeline to both boys. When tentative friendship turns to love, however, the real world starts to encroach on the little universe they've designed for themselves, and it gets harder and harder to hold on when everything else seems determined to pull them apart.

Jo and Kurl are such different characters both so desperately in need of connection that they don't really they're falling for each other until they're already there. And my god was it a powerful falling. The epistolary nature of this book made everything so raw and personal, and I cried as my heart broke with theirs.

The use of Walt Whitman in this book is powerful. I mean, Leaves of Grass is already a beautiful and empowering poem, but Kurl and Jo use it in such meaningful ways, both to understand the world around it and themselves. It's all Henstra, of course, but she's give Kurl and Jo such unique and brilliant voices, that they can take Whitman and use his work as needed and still have it come across as breathtaking every time.

This was a complicated story. I was so pleased to watch Kurl and Jo fall in love, only to look at the remaining part of the book, much larger than what I'd already read, and feel myself tense for all the things that must go wrong. And things went wrong. Real life, even in fiction, isn't all good days. It's not just falling in love. Bad days and mistakes and messy things happen, and being in love doesn't suddenly make everything okay, no matter how much you want it to.

This is probably the part where I should talk about the characters or story structure some more, but I'm honestly still reeling from finishing it. I probably should have slept on it, but I don't know that I would've been able to. I don't know if I'll still be able, I might just lie here awake and then wander through work in a haze tomorrow, still thinking about Walt Whitman's poetry and what it means to understand the world through someone else's words.

Because that's what this was. Kurl and Jo wrote letters, and they had those written words to use, to interpret, to feel. To remember. They had Walt and they had their letters and they understood the world with those things. And it was heartbreaking in places. I keep using that word: heartbreaking. But only because that's what it felt like. I would sit at work and count down the time before I could do on break or go home and read this book, I didn't want to put it down, all of me tense and stressed and needing to know how the story played out, how Jo and Kurl made it all the way to the end. I was almost certain at one point that they wouldn't. I've never been in love, not really, so I don't know of this is how it feels, how it works, but I was consumed with this story, and ultimately it delivered both me and the characters to a place of understanding.

There is betrayal in this book, and wanting and fear and all the things that make a story hard to read and impossible to put away at the same time. And while this is probably so incoherently riddled with feelings that it doesn't count as a review anymore, I want ro recommend this book to the people who are afraid of love. To the people who aren't afraid. To the people who've been hurt and the people who have somehow yet remained unscathed. The poetry lovers and the ones who prefer prose; try this book out. See what it says to you.

Similar to: You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan

Noteworthy by Riley Redgate

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but honestly it blew my expectations away. I was a little weary of some of the ways this book could go wrong, but it kept a steady course toward a good time.

After being told that her voice is just too low for the acting roles within her discipline (again), Jordan Sun is forced to reconsider her place at the Kensington-Blaine Boarding School for the Performing Arts. Her parents are pushing for her to come home, but Jordan can't give up on her dream. So, in a dramatic and ambitious ruse that could backfire painfully, Jordan tries out for the all-male a capella singing group on campus, the Sharpshooters, dressed as a boy. When her new persona, Julian, is selected for the group, Jordan begins a juggling act of trying to live both as herself and as Julian, facing decades old rivalries and what it means to be a girl and a guy.

The issues in this book were handled delicately but with a self-awareness I didn't know I'd find. Jordan cross-dressing stretches into the dangerous territory of infringing on transgender representation, and Jordan herself spends quite a bit of time wrestling with the guilt and recognition that her actions (and the assistance she receives from online tips for how to bind her chest) could be considered insensitive, and that this ruse she's attempting is very different than someone expressing their true gender identity. Similarly, after an incident that could have easily revealed her secret and the boys concluded their friend Julian was gay, there was a recognition that this fake identity she was wearing was a real thing for other people with real consequences. Jordan came to the conclusion that she was bi, but that wasn't exactly on par with the lies she was telling her friends. It could have probably done with an actual transgender or non-binary character to provide more than just a teasing representation.

There is a good amount of different kinds of representation in this book. There are queer characters and characters of color, as well as a wide variety of characters with very different wealth backgrounds. Jordan was a bisexual Chinese girl who came from a very poor background, and while she hid all of those things until closer to the end, stepping into a more masculine role allowed her to find the pieces of herself that were never as feminine as the people around her wanted. Within the school of acting, Jordan was expected to try and make her tall frame smaller, pitch her deep voice up, become who everybody else needed her to be. But throughout the book, it was often only as Julian that Jordan was able to find confidence in herself. She carried herself differently, moved with more confidence, found herself looking at gender roles and wondering why she was supposed to only fit the ones on one side of the spectrum.

A lot of this book was about finding her place and balancing her lives, but soon her time as Julian far outweighed her time as Jordan, at least in terms of fun and friends. Jordan was a lonely girl, still processing the breakup of her relationship that defined her time at Kensington and unable to land the parts she needed to prove to her parents her time was worth spending there. Julian got to be a talented tenor with a group of new friends and a place he belonged.

I loved the dynamics in this book. All of the Sharpshooters had very different personalities and interests but came together for love of music and each other. They had different dynamics and friendships within the group, an Jordan always had excellent observations and thoughts on her interactions with them that it felt like the reader got to spend the right amount of time with each character. Isaac was one of my favorites, with his very chaotic and funny demeanor, but getting to know more about his character, the flaws and fears that were revealed as Jordan got to know him better, that made him way more whole and likable. All the Sharpshooters, from Jon Cox to Nihal, had their own personalities and demons, and they all had a moment to shine.

Similarly, we got to know the "villains" of the story with just enough ire and frustration that it kept me turning page after page, hoping for some kind of punishment or retribution. But it also humanized them, to an extent, looking at the damaging aspect of the male ego and masculine expectations within society. It still held the guys responsible for their actions, but allowed for a grace from Jordan that recognized the way they were raised had left a lot of confusion and frustration in its wake.

Overall I had a good time with this book. It was very long, but there was a lot of story to cover, and it keeps the reader guessing until the very last page if things will work out in the end. So I think even with the tenuous relationship with gender identity in this book, it was still a fun musical read. I did enjoy laughing at the antics of Jordan juggling her two selves (including crawling out her own window in her Julian disguise), and overall had a fun time with this book.

Similar to a much less problematic She's The Man

Chaotic Good by Whitney Gardner

Did I read two books back to back about girls dressing up as guys to fit in with an all-male group? I did. And I had a decently good time with it.

All Cameron wants is to complete her costume portfolio and get into CalArts, so she can leave all the internet bullies behind. But when her family moved away from Portland and she has to start over with a local comic book store, one run by a gatekeeping nerd boy. Tired of being judged for not being "geeky" enough, both online and in real life, Cameron dresses up as a boy and joins a dungeons and dragons group, ready to prove that girls can be just as nerdy as guys. But as romantic interest rises within the group and internet trolls get more and more belligerent, Cameron's life starts to feel like it's unraveling faster than her spool of thread.

This one didn't discuss or establish the same conversation about transgender or nonbinary appropriation, though some of Cameron's actions are under the guise of a costume/cosplay type act, and while that doesn't make it okay, it makes the whole thing seem smaller, I guess? As a cisgender person I'm probably not the right person to start a discussion ont hat or properly recognize what is and isn't okay in situations like this, but I do think it's worth mentioning, if for nothing else than at least as a comparison to how things were handled in the previous book.

Chaotic Good had some really fun and really frustrating parts to it, and that was all indicative of a well-done narrative. The characters play Dungeons and Dragons, which is something I have very limited practical experience with but a decent amount of knowledge and a lot of enjoyment of. It was really fun to get to see parts of that play out in the story, even when it overlapped with the frustrating parts.

And GOD were there from frustrating parts, mostly because I've had negative experiences with dudebros trying to be "nice guys" or gatekeep like every conversation is a competition. Honestly, if you're a female-presenting person, you've probably experiencing some kind of interaction like that, and it's not fun at all. Cameron gets it particularly bad both from her in-person dealings with Brody and all of the internet abuse she faces for her cosplay creations. And it just keeps getting worse, so she's dealing with a bunch of shit by herself and the only way she thinks she can escape it is by borrowing her twin brother's clothes and pretending to be a boy.

I loved basically all the characters except for Brody. Why and Lincoln were both total sweethearts, and Cooper definitely radiated less chaotic sibling energy. Cameron's parents were fun parents, and that's always fun to read about in contemporary YA. Dotty the fabric store owner was Delightful, and while the miscommunication and misunderstanding made things complicated (part of the storytelling process!) they eventually became a really good support system for Cameron.

Overall the concept itself had some issues (anything with cross-dressing is gonna be kinda problematic, whether or not it properly addresses the issue), but I enjoyed the story. If you like costumes and cosplay, dungeons and dragons, and girls learning how to not care what other people think, give this book a go.

Similar to Moxie by Jennifer Mattieu

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith

Do you ever have those books where you're peripherally aware that they exist for a long time, and you see them everywhere, but you never pick it up? That was this book for me. And honestly, this book came out in 2014 but I'm absolutely convinced it's been around for longer than that, because 100 Sideways Miles has been sitting on the shelf of libraries and bookshelves what feels like my entire life, and it took until 2020 for me to finally pick it up and read it.

Finn Easton can't shake the feeling that he's just a character in his father's bestselling novel. He has the heterochromatic eyes, the scar and epilepsy from the accident that killed his mother. He sees the world in miles instead of minutes, in the amount of time it takes the world to spin. So Finn lives passively in his own life, going about his day with his best friend Cade, meets and falls in love with his girlfriend Julia. But when Julia moves back to Chicago, Finn and Cade embark on a road trip that changes everything, including the way Finn views his place in the world.

Every so often I'll read a book starring a teenage boy where half the book is this intense internal character study and the other half is sex jokes. For example, I've never read The Catcher and the Rye, but I feel like that book would fall into this category as well. It's not a bad thing, because I enjoyed this book, but it was a little bit jarring at times. Finn is a teenage boy, and I think I've said it before in previous book reviews, but because I am not a teenage boy, the sheer amount of time spent talking about sex and dicks feels excessive. But, to reiterate, I am not nor was I ever a teenage boy, so this is something that could very well be true to the generic teenage boy experience. Some of the conversations were funny, just stupid shit that teenage boys say, but I liked the other parts of the book better, the parts where Finn talked about the tragedy with the dam and the knackery and his father's book. The book floated through time, which I suppose males sense, since Finn tracked the world through distance rather than minutes.

Smith knows how to say a lot with every few words. Finn had a few phrases that repeated themselves throughout the story, and some of them got more powerful as the story went on, while others gave the biggest punch the very first time, and then carried on the idea as a smaller reminder each repeat. The phrase "The knackery never shuts down" made me stop reading the first time around, just to pause and feel the effect it had on me, especially following the reveal of how his mother died.

Finn's story is one that should feel absolutely ridiculous but instead just feels tragic. Like, you want to laugh at first, because of the incredulity of it all, but very quickly that becomes a sort of pity and awe. The tragedy with the dam in San Francisquito Valley is the same way; presented with a blunt and almost humorous air that quickly turns sad when the scope of the damage is realized. And Finn drops details in ways that make you think you know the whole story until forty pages later when he gives another round of details and you realize you hardly knew the story at all.

Finn's best friend, Cade Hernandez, is definitely someone I would have hated in high school. That sounds mean and makes me seem very unlikable, but I stand by that statement. He was funny because he's not real, but if high school me had known him in real life, we would very much have not gotten along. Finn I probably would have liked, but definitely not Cade. That being said, he's a great fictional character. He was annoying at times, but he was what Finn needed, the one piece of normalcy in his strange life. Not very many characters get page time in this book, it's predominantly Finn, Cade, Julia, and Finn's dad. Julia was viewed through rose-colored glasses, so she didn't quite feel real, but the others had a relationship with Finn where they could grow as part of his story.

Overall, this was a pretty good read, and I enjoyed parts of it a lot.

Similar to Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak and The Inexplicable Logic of my Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz

That's it! Seven books this month, and all of them enjoyable. Let's see if we can maintain the streak.

Keep writing, friends!

Sam

Literary recommendation: This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills

Media recommendation: Taylor Swift's album Folklore