Intro
Hello beauties!
Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear, I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL. But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!
Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.
Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.
After an alien attack that turned part of the world's population green or blue (giving the latter weird powers as a result), a found family of teen Blues tries to take the invaders down, while relationships blossom and a huge twist is just around the corner.
An original take on the "alien invasion" trope, with a nice and diverse cast (a cross-dressing male among them!) and a few too many convenient situations/plot holes/execution issues. While the story in itself was creative and entertaining, a number of times I felt like I was missing a vital piece of information, or the ones I got were too confusing for me to get my bearings. While I enjoyed spending time with the characters - alas, not all of them equally fleshed out - I didn't have strong feelings for any of them. Also, there's a "hey, it's the apocalypse, we like each other, let's jump in bed together" moment that no review had prepared me for, and you know how I feel about that. After hunting this book for years, frankly, I expected more. Then again, the found family of seven and the novelty of the alien plot did the trick for me.
Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later).
Three sisters living in an emotionally abusive/neglectful household, and still hurting from their eldest's tragic death one year before, start experiencing strange occurrences that may be their deceased sister's doing - but if so, what does she wants from them? and can her haunting change the course of their lives?
***
One of those books where the story takes a backseat to the characters, except they're so fleshed out and sympathetic (even when they make very stupid choices) that you just want to keep living in their heads. Harsh yet soft (mostly thanks to the lyrical writing), infuriating yet heartwarming, ultimately hopeful, it will resonate with everyone who loves to read about complicated family dynamics, damaged young women with a chance to become whole and little girls with unusual gifts.
Full review to come. (Goodreads pre-review)
Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
★★★★After a fight with her elusive, distant-yet-codependent mother, 17 y.o. Margot flees to a rural small town in search of her family roots and the answers she's always been denied. But she finds yet more secrets and a repeating pattern of what could pass for toxic relationships, except the truth is much darker and crazier than she could have anticipated.
***
Magical realism meets sci-fi in this quietly unsettling, ultimately horrific tale of a dysfunctional family with secrets - except, wait, this is not that kind of story, since its roots go much deeper (pun intended) than that. It's a story about wanting to be loved and to belong, as much as one about stumbling onto a chain of mysteries and fighting for answers, until it becomes one about the impossibly rotten core of a girl's bloodline and her desperate attempt to break its grip - and its loop. It requires you to suspend your disbelief like a champ, but it repays you with lyrical writing, character development and a twist like no other.
Full review to come. (Goodreads pre-review)
So, have you read/are you planning to read any of the above? And if you have, what do you think of them? Do you post mini reviews? Do you like to read them?
(Please note: on August 3rd, I accidentally deleted this post...so I put it up again, but of course the comments are gone 😭).
Sorry about the accidental delete, but now I can comment again! These are all a little intense for me, though Daughters might work for me. Looks like a decent batch for you (which is good).
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you! I really think Tigers, Not Daughters could be your thing!
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