Taste the Books: Review Morsels #71 Mike Chen, Jonathan Sims, Rachel Reiss

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 STILL writing long reviews too - but for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis, and I took to writing them also for novels that I can do justice to in a less wordy fashion, in order to ease my reviewing burden. In addition to that, I sometimes write minis for books I don't want/don't have the time to review in full at the moment, but plan on rereading and writing "proper" reviews for later. Lastly, just be warned - this feature is VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Of Sorcery and Science by Mike Chen (ARC Review)

★★★

A teen who used to be the Chosen One in a fantasy realm - and came back to find out that he's not only still a nobody in the real world, but the butt of the joke - teams up with a girl from the same world he visited in order to save magic, but there's a catch...

***

Rated 3.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Running Press for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

Don't go into this one expecting the portal world to take much space in the narrative - though the magic that originates from it does (sometimes literally, sometimes as the subject of basic scientific experiments, which is fun and refreshing). OSAS is more of a coming-into-your-own novel (with a strong found-family accent) on the mostly distant backdrop of a magical land, with a time-travel angle that pays homage to the '90s and their music - but more than anything, reminds us that certain achievements (especially when it comes to queer rights) are a lot more recent than we'd like to think. The concept of a parallel universe having more than a Chosen One (if in different periods) is one that portal fantasy rarely, if ever, explores, so it was interesting (and fun) to see it at play here. The worst thing I can say about this one is that the final conflict gets resolved too quickly/easily, and as I said above, the fantasy realm is barely a blip on the radar (6 chapters out of 33, counting the epilogue). But it's an enjoyable story with lots of representation (Taiwanese, Black, bisexual, nonbinary), likeable characters, and a fresh approach to magic, that will surely appeal to the appropriate age range. Oh, I was forgetting... kudos for the Doctor Who reference 😁.

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

The Burn Line by Jonathan Sims (ARC Review)

★★★

Five strangers who witnessed a monstrous event in the London Underground and apparently forgot about it start to slowly regain their memories, and will have to work together in order to prevent the horror they saw from spreading (and getting to them)...assuming that it can be stopped.

***

Rated 3.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

In equal parts gore fest, psychological horror, creature feature and social commentary, The Burn Line puts a spin on the latter two by weaving them together in a creative - if a bit on the nose - way. The first half of the novel is quite the slow burn, both because it takes its time introducing the characters (there are five narrators, but don't let that scare you - they're all different and fleshed out, with lots of intersectional diversity woven in) and because it has the tension ramp up a bit at a time. Once our group hits the London Underground, though, things get crazy and frantic soon enough - not to mention grotesque, but in a way that you can buy into, given the state of the world and how people in power can never seem to quit. Frankly, the only thing that gave me pause was how the author spelled out the message and the metaphor behind the story (more than once, too), instead of trusting his readers to understand the point on their own - not to mention, I found the long-ish tirade about the late Queen Elizabeth II being, for all purposes, a parasite, both forced and out of place, even if you happen to share the sentiment. Then again, The Burn Line has a lot going for it: from the inventive premise to the entertaining execution, from the band of outcasts that do their best to save the day to the unusual monsters and setting, from the strong found-family core to the somehow-open ending that doesn't tie the story up in a bow too neatly. Bonus points for the badass trans female character.

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

Seconds to Spare by Rachel Reiss

★★★

On a plane apparently doomed to crash, a girl keeps reliving the 28 minutes before the nosedive and trying to find a way out, until a boy joins her in the loop and the two band together to change the future...if that's even possible.

***

Rated 3.5 really.

Time loop meets locked-room mystery by way of the butterfly effect: the result is an entertaining, adrenalinic story (if with enough reflective/emotive beats) that, despite its premise, never gets repetitive. I have a few qualms about it (hence my rating): 1) the (purported) explanation for the loop sounds flimsy, to say the least, and straddles the line between sci-fi and magical realism; 2) does every loop reset the sleep/wake cycle for those who are aware of it? because by the last one, the female main character (Evelyn) has technically been awake for more than one week...; 3) we're told-not-shown that Evelyn has an endearing personality (if anything, she clearly struggles with boundaries, even before the loops...her very meet-cute with Orion at the airport feels off, to put it mildly); 4) I don't completely buy that, in almost 400 loops spent actively looking for clues, Evelyn would never notice a certain thing (we're given an explanation, but I found it questionable); 5) when Evelyn and Orion try to change things, the drama escalates to over-the-top heights that hardly seem justifiable (if at all - that's gratuitous violence in my book, especially if aimed at teens); 6) there's some corny dialogue ("To know you, Evelyn, is to love you." 🙄). BUT! the actual loop is very well done, and trying to beat it doubles nicely as a metaphor for choosing to face the future and not remaining prisoners of the same patterns in life. That's why STS will appeal both to adults who enjoy temporal paradoxes with an emotional layer, and teens who love action, mystery, coming-of-age and a pinch of romance. 

TW: death/graphic violence, life-changing illness, trauma, grief, loss.

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

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?