Taste the Books: Review Morsels #61 Peyton June, Kelly Murashige, Anna-Marie McLemore

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 (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). 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.

Bad Creek by Peyton June (ARC Review)

★★★

A 16 y.o. girl whose older sister drowned at their usual vacationing spot recruits two lifelong friends to find answers, but secrets and ghosts are muddying the waters (the latter even literally), and history is threatening to repeat itself.

***

Rated 3.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to W.W. Norton/Norton Young Readers for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

Bad Creek is the story of a group of flawed, yet sympathetic teens battling bigotry, privilege and generational curses, with lots of atmosphere and a touch of romance. The worst thing I can say about this book is that the concept at its core doesn't exactly knock your socks off. I mean, you don't necessarily see the twists coming, but when they do, they don't bring a whole lot of novelty to the horror table. This being said, it will probably work much better in that respect for teens who have been less exposed to the tropes that come with the genre than it did for this jaded adult reader 😉. Regardless, it's a remarkable debut book in more than one way. Told in the POVs of three lifelong friends who meet every year at the same vacationing place, it's spot-on when it comes to their voices and character development. There's a lot of diversity that doesn't feel shoehorned, and the horror imagery is strong and effective. Even the reason why some people never leave and others (like the dead girl's family) keep returning in a place of grief and not exactly queer-friendly is believable enough, by supernatural standards (though the fact that some adults are keeping secrets even in the face of what happened the previous summer doesn't make a ton of sense). Ultimately, Bad Creek is a well-done blend of supernatural horror and social commentary, and if it doesn't add much to certain familiar tropes, it's still worth a read for its intriguing mystery, chilling ambiance, nuanced characters, and giant middle finger to patriarchy.

Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later).

The Yomigaeri Tunnel by Kelly Murashige (ARC review)

★★★

Two 18 y.o. girls - one mourning the tragic death of a classmate, the other of her mother - enter a tunnel rumoured to be able to bring back the deceased, and find themselves literally facing (sometimes even sharing) their past traumas and a shocking discovery.

***

Rated 3.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Soho Teen/Penguin Random House for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

A creative, heartfelt and honest look at loss, grief, guilt, emotional abuse, generational trauma, mental health and growing pains, with some genuinely chilling moments - but also a celebration of love (in the widest sense), family (in all its messy glory), friendship and empathy. If the tunnel visions are a slow burn and not particularly meaningful at first, they eventually become more poignant, especially when Monika and Shiori start experiencing each other's memories, up to the shocking climax. That being said, I couldn't buy the importance of Shun (the deceased classmate) in Monika's life, and her all-consuming desire to revive him - not so much because of his faults, but mainly because there wasn't enough history between them that she should brave a supposedly magical tunnel in order to bring him back (I know the author is drawing from her own experience, but the story didn't manage to give me solid ground for the protagonist's choice). In the same vein, having Monika "meet" family members who died before she could really know and/or bond with them detracts from the impact of the story in my opinion. Even her connection with a certain videogame feels forced in a way, because I never got the impression that, prior to Shun's death, she had experienced grief so strongly that she would "feel seen" while playing a game about its five stages. Lastly, the tunnel is conveniently near and easy to access, and yet there isn't a plethora of people in line to enter it just in case the legend is true (even if no one they know has been revived yet, who's to stop other desperate people than Monika and Shiori to try?) - not to mention, I wonder how Monika wouldn't have heard about it for 18 years...Despite these shortcomings, though, I enjoyed this story straddling the line between contemporary and magical, and I think most teens touched by grief and trauma will get a lot out of it.

Content note: see the author's list of triggers here. 

Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later).

Flawless Girls by Anna-Marie McLemore

★★★★

An intersex teen rejoins the refinement school she once fled in hope to get answers about her sister who graduated there, but she winds up entangled in a web of further questions and mysteries, and will have to decide what kind of girl she wants to be.

***

Luscious, evocative (though the gemstone metaphor gets a bit too heavy-handed at times), surreal yet painfully rooted in reality (despite the story being clearly set in an undefined past, the discourse on femininity is, alas, timeless), loaded with beautiful, yet unsettling imagery, Flawless Girls is part mystery, part modern fable, part coming-of-age narrative, part sibling relationship exploration, all around fever dream. It's not as much a "plot" book as it is a "vibes" book, so if you need a little more meat in your reading, you'll probably be disappointed. But the intersex rep and the social commentary about the female experience/gender expectations are spot-on, as is the gem symbolism. If you're a fan of Nova Ren Suma (especially A Room Away from the Wolves), by any means pick this one up.

Note: as a rule, I review every book that I rate 4 stars and above in full, unless it's a novella or an anthology. But since this is a book that mostly relies on atmosphere, it felt easy to summarise its contents (and my opinions) in a few sentences, so I took the mini-review route.

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?