August 17, 2021

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Do You Ever Buy Physical Copies of Your NetGalley/Edelweiss Approvals?


Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). While Heidi is on an extended hiatus, there are five of us who are hosting it and providing the questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real LifeJen at That's What I'm Talking AboutKaren at For What It's WorthLinda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

DO YOU EVER BUY PHYSICAL COPIES OF YOUR NETGALLEY/EDELWEISS APPROVALS?

For the books I REALLY enjoyed - 4 to 5 stars - and the publisher didn't provide a download copy of (as opposed to a temporary reading file), absolutely. So far I've bought Reverie by Ryan LaSala and Strange Exit by Parker Peevyhouse, and I plan on buying Angel of the Overpass by Seanan McGuire and Dead Space by Kali Wallace. If it's a book that the publisher kindly provided with no strings attached (I've been blessed with a number of those), I don't necessarily buy a physical copy, because hey, I'm not that rich 😉 - plus I wouldn't even have space enough. But I cherish the ecopy that I got and I keep it saved on a pendrive (two, actually. I'm taking no chances LOL). Anyhow, I have two reasons for buying...I plan on revisiting the book later and I want to support the author.  Win-win!

August 13, 2021

Seanan McGuire: "Dying with Her Cheer Pants On"

Title: Dying with Her Cheer Pants On  [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None...so far
Author: Seanan McGuire [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Urban Fantasy
Year: 2020
Age: 14+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Inventive twist on the cheerleader + teens-save-the-world tropes. Nice blend of humorous and poignant. Some excellent characterisation. 
Cons: Not all the leads are equally developed. Due to the stories being written in the span of a few years, there are some continuity errors/inconsistencies. The change in tone from story to story might not work for everyone.
WARNING! Blood and gore.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a humorous approach to horror. Those who like the Chosen One(s) trope. In short, those who dig a Buffy the Vampire Slayer kind of vibe.

Blurb: Cheerleaders are seriously injured and even killed at a higher rate than other high school sports. The Fighting Pumpkins take that injury rate as a challenge. Students of Johnson’s Crossing High School, they answer to a higher calling than the pyramid and the basket toss, pursuing the pep rally that is rising up against mysteries and monsters, kicking gods with the pointed toes of professional athletes chasing a collegiate career. Meet Jude, half-vampire squad leader; Laurie, who can compel anyone to do as she asks; Heather, occasionally recreationally dead; Marti, strong enough to provide a foundation for any stunt; Colleen, who knows the rule book so well she may as well have written it; and Steph, who may or may not be the goddess of the harvest. The rest of the squad is ready to support them, and braced for the chaos of the big game, which may have a big body count. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: This collection started off as as seven individual short stories published in different anthologies over the span of ten years, to which the author ultimately added three brand new ones when they became their own book in 2020. Please note: the physical release is out of stock (you can only buy ridiculously priced second-hand copies on Amazon), but of course the ebook version is still available. Please also note - I did my research and peppered my review with cheerleading-related puns 😉. Finally, lo and behold...after 8 year and 10 months, I finally got to feature a book that matches my blog aestethic! 💃 😂

SINGLE-BASED DOUBLE CUPIE [1]

It's no secret that I pretty much love (or, at worst, like) everything Seanan McGuire writes. This collection is a litte different from her usual production, in that the stories it incorporates are more humorous/over the top than average - though, as the author herself states in prefacing one of them,
The more time I spend with the Fighting Pumpkins, who are in some ways the comedy relief of my ongoing universes, the more I come to understand how tragic they really are, and how many terrible things are lurking in the corners of their lives.
In short, the Fighting Pumpkins are a cheerleader squad - or, it turns out, a whole legacy of them - tasked with battling monsters and restoring the world's balance both via some superpower-fueled kick-assing and the actual, fine art of cheerleading. It's true that - regardless of the consequences and the body count - these stories (except for Turn the Year Around, easily my favourite) have a somehow lighter, more absurdist feel than I usually dig in my books, but the fact is, McGuire can get away with anything. Her characters are solid and sympathetic (which doesn't necessarily mean likeable, but you never fail to understand what makes them tick and to feel for them nevertheless), her imaginations knows no bound but is disciplined enough to build worlds you can buy into, and her writing is masterful (because yeah, the patches of telling-not-showing in her Wayward Children series are intentional, and they fit that kind of stories). So it comes as no surprise that, even when tackling the cheerleader trope and placing it in a universe where they can have a pep rally context with their alien counterpart, McGuire would pull it off (though the moments when she gets more serious/deep/philosophical are still my favourite, and oh, there are a few, and they will break your heart a little). So, yeah - DWHCPO is, ultimately, a book with two souls from an author who's strong enough to support (and juggle) both of them. [...]

August 08, 2021

Cassandra Khaw: "The All-Consuming World" (ARC Review)

Title: The All-Consuming World [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Cassandra Khaw [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Sci-Fi
Year: 2021
Age: 18+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: I decided to DNF this one early on, so I can't give a whole list of pros, but from the little I've read, it sounds like an original twist on a few sci-fi tropes.
Cons: The writing is often convoluted/difficult to decipher and gets in the way of the plot too much.
WARNING! Again, I can't give a whole list, but it's heavy on gore and profanities (if that's something that turns you off).
Will appeal to: Readers who don't get a headache when the writing is a hard nut to crack and/or overshadows the plot.

Blurb: A diverse team of broken, diminished former criminals get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade... but they’re not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir. The highly-evolved AI of the universe have their own agenda and will do whatever it takes to keep humans from ever controlling the universe again. This band of dangerous women, half-clone and half-machine, must battle their own traumas and a universe of sapient ageships who want them dead, in order to settle their affairs once and for all. (Goodreads)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Netgalley and Edelweiss, and got approved for it on both sites. Thanks to Erewhon Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

August 03, 2021

Tell Me Something Tuesday: Do You Like to Read with Others (Buddy Reads, Readalongs, Bookclubs, etc.)?


Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). While Heidi is on an extended hiatus, there are five of us who are hosting it and providing the questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real LifeJen at That's What I'm Talking AboutKaren at For What It's WorthLinda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

DO YOU LIKE TO READ WITH OTHERS (BUDDY READS, READALONGS, BOOKCLUBS, ETC.)?

I've never been involved in bookclubs, and I'm not totally sure how a readalong is different from a buddy read. Maybe there are more than two people involved? Anyhow, my only real experience with buddy reads so far has been with the lovely Carrie @ Bright, Beautiful Things (she's on Tumblr - though she's in the process of building a Wordpress site - but do yourself a favour and follow/friend her on Goodreads: she reads most genres and writes awesome reviews!). To be precise, I also started a buddy read with Lindsi @ Do You Dog-Ear? once, but she wasn't feeling the book, so I told her she didn't need to suffer through it for my sake 😉 - anyhow, the experience in itself was really nice. Back to Carrie, the thing with her is, not only she's pretty much the only bookish friend I have whose tastes overlap with mine a lot (not to mention, she's a fellow Christopher Pike fan 😁), but she's always willing to discuss books in detail and dissect them/guess where they're going, which isn't everyone's cup of tea. We've buddy-read a number of books to date, and it's always been a riot. Bottom line, buddy reads can be a lot of fun, and I'm open to do more of them with anyone who happens to have one of my TBR books on their list!