July Reviews

July was a whirlwind! Between traveling, visiting friends, concerts, events, and being sick for far too long, it feels like I've hardly slowed down this month. August might be a bit slower, but my best friend is getting married then, so I won't be upset if it's just as fun and busy.

But enough of that, let's jump into the books!

The Sun and The Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro

I was absolutely obsessed with the Percy Jackson series growing up (and well into college as books kept coming out), and Nico di Angelo has always had a very special place in my heart, so getting to come back to that world for his story was such a treat.

Nico has been having dreams of the titan Bob trapped in Tartarus, and when a prophecy declares a quest, Nico and his boyfriend Will know they'll have to venture to the underworld to rescue him. But the pits of Tartarus are dangerous, even for a son of Hades, and especially for a son of Apollo. Will and Nico will have to stand together or risk losing themselves. And the prophecy dictates something must be left behind.

The PJO series has always been hilarious in its quick wit and teenage irreverence, and this book is no exception. For a book about the darkest place in the underworld, it was surprisingly funny. Don't get me wrong, they grapple with some heavy stuff and terrifying monsters, but whenever it gets too dark or too terrible, there is always a bit of hope, either in the form of a jovial moment or joke, or a moment of tenderness and recognition.

Will and Nic are very different, and the way they work and see themselves is also Very Different, so their relationship (and both of them) grew a lot through the trial. They leaned on each other a lot, but also had conversations and realizations about they way they treated themselves and each other. I loved that, ultimately, they both came to a place of understanding, not changing who they are at their core but recognizing the parts of themselves that judgmental or hurting, and working to be better, both for themselves and each other.

I've also missed all the mythology of the series, the twists that Riordan (and in this book Oshiro as well) add to classics that make them something new. I always learn something reading a PJO book, and this one hand it's own stories to retell.

I do wish I'd remembered more stuff from PJO or maybe reread some things before reading this book, but even without all the details, it does a good job of reminding you what happened before it. That's not to say you shouldn't read the other books before reading this one (they add so much context and emotional weight), but it's okay if you don't remember everything.

For a book about the underworld and despair, this was a very sweet story. It's a story about queer love, self acceptance, and never giving up on the things you love. It's about stories and darkness and life finding a way, and it's a very lovely one at that.

Lies We Sing To The Sea by Sarah Underwood

I'm on a short Greek myth kick this month, between The Sun and The Star and this book, and while both are queer Greek myth inspired stories, that's where the similarities end.

Leto, daughter of the Ithaca oracle that disappeared years ago, has been marked for death. Every year, twelve girls are marked with black scales around their throat and must be sacrificed to the sea, or else it will rise up and destroy the city in search of them. But death isn't the end for her, and when Leto wakes up on an island changed, she realizes she's been chosen for something more. Teaming up with Melantho, a beautiful girl also changed by the sea, they must kill the prince of Ithaca if they are to free the land from this curse. If Leto can succeed, no more girls have to die. But Prince Mathias is not what they expect, kind, handsome, and working on his own to break the curse. Trapped between two loves and two lives, Leto must decide what she's willing to lose in order to save the lives of thousands of girls.

I'm not usually a fan of love triangles, but I think the fact that it centered around a bi girl helped a bit, though I was squirming a bit throughout. Leto was in an impossible position, in love with Melantho while also trying to seduce Mathias in order to kill him. Her feelings for both of them were very real, and that made the inherent tragedy of it all even more powerful.

I really liked the world building and creativity built around the twelve maids story in Odysseus. With the Penelopiad I read earlier this year, it feels like there's more of their story being told, or at least the rising opportunity to do so. Creating a curse that continued to punish innocent girls in place of the kings who killed them was so interesting, but ultimately allowed for blame to be cast in a direction that wasn't the girls who died. Melantho's tie to all of that was so cool, and I loved the slow weaving of her story with the curse, and how directly tied to Mathias she was. For his part, I felt terrible for Mathias, who didn't deserve to die for his ancestors mistakes, especially when he was also trying to stop it. The solution in the end of tragic and sad, but the overall ending was hopeful, or at least as hopeful as it could be.

Overall this was a good story, even for as much as I disliked the love triangle of it. The plot was compelling, the characters interesting, and the danger of it all meant I had no idea where the story would go at any given time.

Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This book is part of a delightful little traveling book club I have going with some friends. We each picked a book, read and annotated it, then mailed it off to the next person, rinse, repeat. The book I chose was The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, which I read back in May and have since sent off. This was the book another friend chose and passed to me, filled with little scribbles and notes, and I'm honestly even more obsessed with this idea now that I've gotten a book with notes. 10/10 would highly recommend.

That being said, I don't know that I would have picked this book up on my own, but it was creative and different and ultimately I enjoyed it.

Funiculi Funicula is a cafe where you can travel through time. But there are rules-- going back will not change the present, you can only meet people who have been to the cafe, and, most importantly, you only have until the coffee gets cold. Four people go back in time, each of them finding strength and change in themselves, even as they cannot change what's already happened. Lovers are reunited, sisters see each other one last time, and a daughter gets to meet her mother.

This book is a translation, and while I don't usually read a lot of translated works, there is a stiltedness to it. The way certain things are phrased, the emphasis on other things. It, in all honesty, sort of felt like watching anime with subtitles. The meaning is clear and the emotion is there, but there's something about word choice and the way the book's attention stays on certain things that I wouldn't have chosen to focus on made it a very interesting process.

The overall concept is fascinating. There are so many restrictions on this time travel cafe, it wouldn't seem worth it to me. But as each character travels back, we get to see how much they themselves are changed. It's not about changing anything that happened in the past, it's about changing the mindset of the traveler, giving them peace, confidence, purpose. There was a lot of emotion packed into this little book, and it squeezed my heart a few times.

It did end on a bit of a strange note because the final story felt off to me. I just didn't connect with it as much as I did the others, maybe, so it felt like leaving things in a weird place, but overall the story was entertaining and unique, and I had a good time with it.

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

I read this book back when it first came out and fell in love with it. I bought the special edition when it came out and figured I should justify owning two copies of the same book by reading it again. This one also had a special Henry bonus chapter, which was fully worth buying the book again. I just love this book so much.

Son of the first female president of the United States of America, Alex, doesn't get along with English Prince Henry. After an explosive incident creates rocky international rumors, Alex and Henry are forced to pretend to be friends. But when that friendships morphs into something else, they have to decide what they're willing to give up and who're they'll willing to be, if whatever's building between them is going to work.

McQuiston is a god tier writer, so jot that down. If you haven't ready any of their works before, please go pick one up. Red, White, and Royal Blue is my favorite, but One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler are both absolutely incredible too, so you really can't go wrong with any of them. This one though. This one. It's hilarious-- I laughed out loud several times while reading it, and was just delighted for so much of it. There's heartbreak and anxiety and it pits in your stomach so you can't put it down until things have resolved (and then you don't want to put it down again because things are so wonderful and funny and you just have to keep reading). It's so, so romantic (the emails they send to each other with quotes from famous letters just like. Heals my soul every time I read them. I never want to fall in love more than I do when I'm reading this book) and the way Alex and Henry come into their own through it makes me so happy. They're both hurting in different ways, and I'm not saying a romantic relationship fixes all problems, because theirs certainly created way more than they may have solved, but they were given the opportunity to discover things about themselves, and then the confidence to share those truths with other people.

It is a little bittersweet reading this book in the year 2023. It's set right before the 2020 presidential election, and Alex's mom has been president for the last four years. Thinking about how our own history went those four years makes me indescribably sad. Like, we could've had those four years of healing and trying to be better, we could've had so much more than what we did. Instead we were afraid. But it's also a wonderful little fantasy to read about a female president with a bisexual biracial son and the changes they want to make, the future they're trying to build. It gives me hope.

My feelings about this book are almost too big to put into writing. I laughed, I cried, I remembered how much I love this masterpiece of queer romance, and I'm unbearably excited for the movie adaption that I already know isn't going to be as good as the book (how can it when the book is literally perfect?) but I want to watch Henry and Alex fall in love over and over again in any form I can.

Please read this book. You will not regret it.

And that's it! Solid four this month. I've already decided that since the Ahsoka series comes out next month, I'll be reading as many Star Wars books as I can.

Keep reading!

Literary Recommendation: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Media Recommendation: I've been watching season 2 of Good Omens, which is delightful and hilarious, and you haven't already you HAVE to go see the Barbie movie