Book review: “Black Dog: 4 vs the wrld” by Matthew Heiti

 

I received a copy of the play “Black Dog: 4 vs the wrld” from Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for a free and honest review.

If you have been reading my reviews for awhile, you know that I love reading plays. I love reading notes on scripts. I love reading notes on staging. I love it, even if I don‘t get an opportunity to watch the play on stage, as it is in this case. “Black Dog: 4 vs the wrld” by Matthew Heiti was commissioned by Sudbury Theatre Centre and premiered there in April 2013.

The moment I read the synopsis of this play, I knew immediately that I had to read it.

Synopsis:

The Breakfast Club meets Shirley Jackson in a fusion of live theatre and technology that tells a darkly comic but hopeful story of found teenage outsiders struggling with death, depression and the shadow of a black dog.

The topic of mental health is prevailing in the play. Not only the play opens with the honestly shocking statistics regarding mental health and suicide rates in Ontario and in the world, but the performance itself consistently keeps reminding the audience of the subject matter.

I will allow myself to include the quote from the "notes on the text":

“More than ever, there is the tendency in our Wikipedia-obsessed society to self-diagnose and slap easy labels on people. It’s in our language - we say. “He’s a schizophrenic”, when we should say “He is a person with schizophrenia.”

It can’t be more true, as we often hear our peers and friends throw around such phrases as “I clean all the time. I am so OCD about it”, or “This is giving me anxiety”, or “I am so depressed about it”. Even though, all of those feelings and emotions might be valid and true for the speaker, the easy way of appropriating such labels is detrimental for the people who truly suffer from mental illnesses or the representation of their stories.

The staging notes of “Black Dog” captivated me even before I got to the script itself. The play uses technology and live twitter feed as part of the performance, and the audience is encouraged to use their cellphones - something that is never the case in live theatre.

The play kept me on my toes throughout. I read it almost in one go while commuting on a bus (and, yes, I almost did miss my stop in a very typical booknerd way). I remember walking through the quiet streets of Lakeshore Boulevard and thinking that one of those houses could be the home of One and Two. Or, perhaps, Four. That behind those walls there might be someone like one of those teenagers, suffering and alone, unheard.

The play is fast-paced with a staccato dialogues and the increasing crescendo of anxiety. You can tell that something bad is about to happen. That the black dog is getting closer and is about to pounce. The ending came, and I was left with the feeling of mounting depression. It was too real and in some ways too close home to brush off as a piece of fiction. I found it hard to step away from the characters and the plot and found my thoughts return to both again and again in the following days.

Five: [...] These are the things I keep to myself because they make me different. / And different’s just one more word for alone.

Is the plot completely original? No, we have seen it done in many ways many times before. Was it meant to be original? No. (Well, yes, but also no.)

As Matthew in the beginning, he tried to create those characters as representatives of a whole spectrum of mental health and illnesses. Numbers instead of names, symptoms of multiple disorders instead of labels. Those kids are like countless nameless victims of a spreading plague - unique and faceless at the same time. This play, like many other stories that touch upon the subject, is meant to make you uncomfortable and aware of those who suffer. I can only applaud the author.

Personal rating: 5 stars

Buy “Black Dog: 4 vs the wrld” by Matthew Heiti"

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Movie/book review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

 

"Everything, Everything" Movie review

I am one of those bookish people who have to read a book before the movie. It doesn’t always happen, but I strive for it. The only movie franchise that I have ever watched without reading books (not for the lack of trying) was The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. And I loved them a lot!

I admit it, I am a book snob. I always think that books are better than movies. Sometimes it is even hard to compare the two as movie scripts inevitably bring changes to the plot, and not always to the best effect.

It was one of the reasons why watching “Everything, Everything” the movie was very low on my priorities list. I am not very fond of romance stories, and even though I loved the book, I didn’t feel compelled to watch it on screen.

Thank goodness for transatlantic flights: I am ready to watch “Madagascar” movies for the upteenth time just to distract myself!

So, after watching The Boss Baby (which was cute), Smurfs: The Lost Village (which was fairly stupid) and rewatching “Penguins of Madagascar” (because they rock), I settled to watch “Everything, Everything”.

The movies has only one, rather unimaginative, tagline on IMDB: “A teenager who's spent her whole life confined to her home falls for the boy next door.”; and an average rating of 6.4. I didn’t have much hopes for the movie, as I knew the plot, but I hoped to be entertained by the characters, and sure I was!

I think that Amandla Stenberg is a perfect Maddy. I loved her acting and her sweet nature. She was, honestly, the best thing about this movie. I was not as impressed by Nick Robinson (Olly) as I felt that he was not gritty enough, if you will. I liked how their text conversations were translated into face to face conversations on screen. The presence of an astronaut was a nice touch. But otherwise the movie was not very visually imaginative. The books has some cool illustrations, that were missing from the movie.

I think my biggest disappointment with the "Everything, Everything" movie was that it failed to deliver a punch at the end. Everything showed on screen was sort of mellowed out, in my opinion. Maddy was less sick, her mother less obsessive, Olly less intriguing. I loved Olly in the book, but in the movie he was a bit mediocre, unfortunately. The imperfections and inconsistencies in treating serious illness are more visible on screen than in a book format too. (E.g., Maddy's mother or her nurse enters the house and goes through decontamination, washes her hands but then grabs the bag and brings it in? That looked very improbable.)

When I read the "Everything, Everything" book, I gave it a rather high rating of 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed it, it was sweet and resonated with my personal experience of being subjected to an obsessive care by a relative. However, since then I did read some reviews by people who pointed out that even though Maddy’s disability was not correctly portrayed and this representation is actually harmful. I admit that I did not think about the representation of serious chronic illness or disability when I read the book as it always held a bit of an unrealistic touch for me. As in, this is a mysterious disease and nobody knows what it is (which is actually not true, but it was my interpretation of it). Obviously, I can not speak on behalf of people who struggle with serious chronic illness or disability, but as my mother is severely allergic to animals (we are talking about not being able to share a space with an animal for any period of time), I do understand how this representation seems unhealthy and deems the character's situation as not serious enough. Especially, since the message is that it is okay to risk everything (family, health, life) for the sake of love.

Nope, don’t do that, kids.

I am not going to change my rating on Goodreads for this book, although I do now think that 4.5 stars was a bit too generous. However, I did enjoy "Everything, Everything" and the writing style, and still think that it was a great debut novel. Nicola Yoon is also a total sweetheart - I met her at BookCon in 2016. Too sad that the movie flopped for me.

Overall movie rating: 2.75 stars

"Everything, Everything" Book review

Written: November 2015

personal rating: 4.5 stars

This book deserves all the love and hype surrounding it! It is a very cute story about a girl who is allergic to everything. One day, a new family moves into a nearby house and she befriends their son.

I liked everything about this book. The way it is written. The fact that it is interrupted by illustrations and notes written by Madeline. The fact that this book has some similarities to "The Fault In Our Stars" but only it is way better and lighter and happier. (And also, HAWAII!)

The characters are unique and have very distinctive voices. I loved both Madeline and Olly. I loved the setting of the book. I loved all the descriptions.

I also loved the twist and the way the story resolved itself, even though I did suspect something like this would happen. (It also quite unexpectedly resonated with my own experience, which was a bit surprising.)

Can't say more but this book gave me rather happy, warm and fuzzy feeling. Even though it mostly about illness. Nicola Yoon has achieved something that John Green failed to do for me.

Read it. You will love it.

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Sources:

• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5001718/?ref_=nv_sr_1
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18692431-everything-everything?from_search=true

I Suck At Read-A-Thons (#ISATRAT) Read-A-Thon TBR

I suck at read-a-thons. Sad but true. I was only ever mildly successful with BookTube-A-Thon Read-A-Thon 2016. I did okay with LGBTQIA+ read-a-thon too, but I still did not finish all I wanted. So, when Sam from Sam's Nonsense came up with idea of a "I Suck At Read-A-Thons (#ISATRAT)" Read-A-Thon, I immediately jumped on it. Even though I will probably fail at it too... This read-a-thon will take place from Sept 18th-22nd.

Challenges:

1. Read the smallest book on your shelf

2. Read 10 pages/day

3. Read a graphic novel

4. Finish 1 book

5. Read for 20 mins/day

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ISATRAT2

Twitter Sprints will be 9am PT/12pm ET & Again at 7pm PT/10pm ET And Twitter chats are daily at 5pm PT/8pm ET

Sam’s video announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uib76P1MZEM&t=5s

So, here is my TBR:

1. Read the smallest book on your shelf

The shortest book on my shelf is Sophie Carlon's Burn and zines. But I have read those already, so I needed to pick something else (unless her third zine arrives on my doorstep during the week).

Since I am seeing Yerma next Thursday, I picked Frederico Garcia Lorca's collection of plays a month ago. I will be reading Yerma as my choice for the smallest book as it is only 50 pages long.

2. Read 10 pages/day

Shouldn't be a problem.

3. Read a graphic novel

I have several graphic novels borrowed from OverDrive that I need to finish this upcoming week (or more like in 1-2 days), but I am putting only 1 volume of manga on this list. It will be "What did you eat yesterday?" volume 8.

4. Finish 1 book

At least 1 graphic novel + Yerma.

5. Read for 20 mins/day

If I have time to read, I usually do not read for less than half an hour.

***

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

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My book reviews

Book review: "Black Bird of the Gallows" by Meg Kassel

 

"Black Bird of the Gallows" is a stand-alone, young adult urban fantasy novel with lots of supernatural and even slight horror notes. Let me start the review by saying that this is the most gorgeous cover I have seen this year! I was definitely attracted to the book based on the cover and the prospect of an urban fantasy (because crows and harbingers of death? Hell ya!) and was extremely lucky to receive a NetGalley copy from Entangled Teen. The book is officially coming out on September 5th, and I will provide the links at the bottom of my review.

Here is the official synopsis:

A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece—and he’s not human.

What's more, she knows something most don't. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.

I was rather excited to read this book, but, unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype. It is not a bad debut novel, but it lacked depth and solidness of the plot and characterization. The idea of the crows being the supernatural creatures and harbingers of death is not a new one but Meg Kassel takes an interesting spin on it, adding more supernatural forces into the mix. However, a lot of the explanations of the magic and the rules of it were vague, undeveloped, and the ending had a very rushed and ‘Deus Ex Machina’ feel. (Considering how many of YA books tend to have an ending that can be summarized as “well, this happened because it happened”, I am starting to think that a lot of people have never read any classic literature. Go and read the Greeks. It has all been done before.) It was not the worst ending ever but I could tell that this was going to happen a mile ahead.

I did not like the fact that the author decided to title every chapter - it is my personal preference not to know what is going to happen in the chapter that I am about to read as all of those titles were basically spoilers. It sometimes took out the fun out of reading the story.

I liked all of the characters in the book, which is rare. Well, almost everyone - I am not counting the bullies at school. Angie is lovely, and her father is one of the best supporting characters in YA, as he has both a distinctive voice and is not just a plot device, as it often happens with parents or relatives in the genre. Angie goes through some serious character development, that was well-written and thought through. Her friends are great too - they were both funny, and reliable, and supportive, and everything about them was great for the story. The relationship that they had with Angie was great and I loved how close they remained throughout it all.

Let’s talk about Reece now. Okay, first things first: I love angsty and dark characters. I can live off angst. However, in case with Reece it was a  bit overdone. I liked the way he was introduced in the story, as well as his background, his family, etc. But as the book progressed, we were not given any new information or anything else, the author just recycled the same facts over and over again. The plot concerning Reece, his family and the curse can be summarized in a couple of sentences. It is a very alluring plot, but it lacks depth and, ultimately, originality.

Have you ever watched the movie "Meet Joe Black" with Brad Pitt? Reece sometimes reminded me of Joe. The Fernandez family had a very strong vibe of Edward Cullen’s family, just on a less violent side. Overall, I did get occasional Twilight vibes from the book (a lonely, angsty girl, who comes to live with her father; a supernaturally attractive and dangerous boy; “the death follows me around” sort of thing, etc), but I guess it can be said about a lot of supernatural or urban fantasy YA books that came out after Twilight Saga (by the way, I am not fan of those books at all).

I am not a huge fan of “insta-love” either but it somehow worked in this book. The amount of romance was a bit too much but it was not overly too sweet. I did, however, roll my eyes whenever those kids wanted to make out when the world was basically going to an end around them.

I found a couple of copy-editorial mistakes, where things disappeared or appeared out of blue, but since I was reading the ARC, I can not tell if those made it into the final version.

I have always loved crows but this books just reinforced my love for these birds. I will never look at the bees in the same way, though.

I would have been able to deal with all of those if the style was more solid. The author’s writing suffers from a very common mistake of ‘telling’ instead of ‘showing’. The details of the curse are repeated over and over, as well as descriptions of things that happen at school, during the day, etc. Even with the first POV, it is still possible to avoid that. There was a whole passage almost at the very end of the book which was the repeated information, almost word to word, to what the characters had said just a page ago. It was glaringly obvious and redundant. A lot of things that happened during “the tragedy event” were told instead of described, and some of the details were so vague that I felt as if the author rushed through this part, when it should have been one of the major parts of the book.

Like I said, "Black Bird of the Gallows" is a debut novel, not the worst but not the best either. I found it cute, but not too original. It was refreshing to read a stand alone novel though. I do feel that the author has a potential to produce great stories, but lacks the skill at this point. Will definitely keep an eye on her future projects.

In spite of my opinion of the book, I do appreciate the opportunity provided to me by Entangled Teen to read and review the ARC.

Personal rating: ~ 3 stars

More of my reviews on my blog.

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Book review: Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles, #3.5) by Marissa Meyer (audiobook)

 

"Fairest" is the book which is complementary to The Lunar Chronicles and should be read between "Cress", book three, and "Winter", the last book in the series. Initially, I even wanted to skip it, but since it was about Levana, the Queen of Luna, I figured, I might learn something new about her and Winter, who I already liked.

After ploughing through the six and a half hours of this audiobook, all of my thoughts can be summoned as “why on earth did Marissa Meyer write this book?”.

"Fairest" tells us the story of Levana, from her childhood and the tragic incident that happened (which was absolutely obvious and in no way as exciting of a mystery as one could think), to her quite obsessive fixation on Evret Hayle (which no sane person can ever call love), to her cruelty towards people whom she considered her family. Everything about Levana, with exception of her childhood, is despicable and did not make me sympathize with her any bit. If "Fairest" was supposed to be a redeeming story, in the same way as “Heartless” is, then it failed for me. "Fairest" did not make me like Levana or feel sorry for her. It only solidified my opinion of her being a cruel tyrant. I did sympathize with Levana when she was a child but it was very brief, and there is no redeeming what she did to Evret, Winter, Selene, and countless other characters in the books.

As a matter of fact, Levana in this book is extremely reminiscent of Catherine. To the point that it made me think that Levana was written as a doppelganger of Queen of Hearts. Naturally, Levana is a representation of all evil characters in fairy tales, the trope of “the evil stepmother”. And you know what? I was quite happy with hating Levana for being an evil queen. I did not need to know her sad story, because it didn’t change my perception of her at all.

To put it shortly, "Fairest| felt redundant and unnecessary for the narrative of The Lunar Chronicle series. Since it is positioned as a supplemental book between books three and four, it might be referenced later on in “Winter” (which would make sense), but for me it felt as a complete waste of time. I did like the characters of Evret and Channery, because they were new and unfamiliar to me, and we do get all of those things regarding mirrors and veils explained to us in this book. However, I don’t think, it should have been explained at all. The whole plot of "Fairest" could have been referenced as hints and snippets throughout the series without losing anything in the narrative. I would have even prefered it to be done this way as it would have made Levana’s character more mysterious and tragic. Having everything explained and described in so much detail made the plot too simplified, boring, and the book - way too long.

Alas, I wish I could give it higher rating, but as it stands, this book felt to me like a waste of time. I am glad I listened to it in audio, otherwise I would have DNF'ed it.

Narration: 4 stars

Plot: 1 star

Overall: 2.5 stars

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Blog: “Earn It!” by Cinders McLeod - Book Launch @ Queen Books

You know, you are friend with right people when instead of going out for dinner, your friend invites you to a book launch party. So, this is how yesterday, August 15, I found myself at a new independent bookstore called “Queen Books”, located on (obviously) 914 Queen Street East. I had never heard of this bookstore before and learned that it just opened in April of this year. Their website is still under construction but you can check them out at queenbooks.ca. The book launch party in question was for the picture book “Earn It!”, the book one in a series called “The Moneybunnies”, by Cinders McLeod. This book is about Bun, a little bunny, who wants to be rich and famous (ain’t we all) but doesn’t understand that she needs to work hard for it. This series of books is intended to teach young children financial literacy, about spending and earning money, and why some families have more money than others.

I found the atmosphere at the party very welcoming and relaxing, even though I personally does not know Cinders, it was nice to see so many people come to celebrate the launch. The book was sold out, and everyone who was lucky to get a copy was able to get it signed by the author on spot.

(Unfortunately, I did not purchase a copy for myself, and I don’t have any readers of that age in my life to give it as a gift. Plus, the books were in high demand and I didn’t want to get ahead of someone who really wanted it. However, I do intend to pick it from the public library to read - they already have 32 copies in stock! I checked! But fear not - I did purchase another book from the book store. Just because I have no self-control.)

Here are some of the candid photos I took at the store.

“Earn It!” is both written and illustrated by Cinder McLeod and is published by Nancy Paulsen Books, the imprint of Penguin. It has 32 pages and is intended for children of 3-5 years old. It is currently available in hardback and ebook formats.

Cinders McLeod is represented by Samantha Haywood, Transatlantic Agency. Learn more about Cinders McLeod at www.cindersmcleod.com and cindersmcleod.tumblr.com and follow her on Twitter at @cindersmcleod.

Queen Books is scheduled to celebrate their official launch on August 26, Saturday.

Queen Books

queenbooks.ca

info@queenbooks.ca

416-778-5053

914 Queen St East

Toronto, On

Open 7 days a week, 10 am to 6 pm. Buy the book at Indigo:

Book review: "Girl Code" by Cara Alwill Leyba

Let me start the review of "Girl Code" by saying that I went into this book fully aware that it is not my type of a book. Over the years many people, mostly my mother and female friends, tried to push various self-development books on me. I detest them. There is nothing else that can put me quicker to sleep or annoy me to the point of throwing the book across the room (something that I more often than not imagine doing but have actually never done) than a book telling me who and what I should or should not be. Part of this is a bit irrational, as I do enjoy learning about other people’s experiences, especially if it is on a topic that I am interested in.

I learned about this book by Cara from her podcast named “Style Your Mind”, which was mentioned and recommended by the self-published author Kristen Martin (whom I got the privilege to finally meet in person at BookCon). Kristen is someone who I admire and look up to when it comes to organization and being a self-published author - she has a youtube channel and her vlogs are my favourite videos! She mentioned Cara’s podcast, and even though, like I said before, I am not into this type of thing, I went to iTunes and listened to several of her episodes in quick succession. (I was deep cleaning my apartment and her podcasts made this tedious task more bearable.)

I liked Cara’s energy and her message about empowering women. I liked what she was saying about her life, how she never had a privileged childhood, but she crafted her life to where she is right now. I liked her way to putting ideas into simple statements. Cara is a life coach and a self-published author, and only recently her self-published novel, "Girl Code", was reprinted by the traditional publisher. I decided to give that book a go, since it was the only novel available at my library.

"Girl Code" is extremely short and extremely easy to read. In fact, I found it so simplistic, that I almost felt as if I was reading the scripts to Cara’s podcast. It is not necessarily a bad thing. But for someone like me, who relishes reading complicated prose, it was a bit too simplified at times.

Besides her own advices and coaching, Cara’s book also has interviews with other empowering women, interspersed by quotes by famous women. I liked some of them, others I found a bit ‘meh’.

Overall, I think this book is great for picking you up if you are in some sort of a funk, but I would not call it ‘groundbreaking’ or ‘empowering’ or ‘inspiring’, and definitely the rating of over 4 stars on GoodReads is a bit surprising (I feel as if it is more of a reflection on Cara’s personality than her writing ability). It was not bad, but there were a lot of things that I could not, personally, relate to. And it is fine. If you are interested in being an entrepreneur or if you want to hear from women who came through a lot of hardships but stayed true to themselves - give this one a try. It is a very short book and I read half of it while getting my pedicure done (which was the appropriate amount of attention this book required from me).

Personal rating: 3 stars

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Book review: Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3) by Marissa Meyer (audiobook)

 

After finishing Cinder and Scarlet in a quick succession, I was impatient to start Cress. The beginning of Cress was everything I wanted and expected - it was dramatic, fast paced and worked perfectly well.

Then came the slump. I listened to about one third of the audiobook and started to lose interest in what was happening. Mainly, it had to do with a very long and predictable journey through desert - everything that happened there, including the following kidnapping, I was able to foresee a mile away, which left me feeling ‘meh’ and reluctant to continue. I found myself turning to this audiobook less and less, and eventually had to have a little break.

I did continue with it, and once all of our character finally assembled in one place, the pace picked up again. I did, however, find some of the revelations very obvious, which saddened me. Although I find the narration pleasant and the storyline entertaining enough, it is not as engaging as I would have liked. At times, the series has a bit too much teenager’y drama and soap opera for me.

I do what to remark on the fact that although almost all characters went through some character development in this book, I still can not figure out Carswell Thorne. He was introduced at the end of “Cinder”/beginning of “Scarlet” and was depicted as a completely fluke, a self-absorbed moron and a failed conman, whose mind seemed to be only occupied by ladies and maintaining his good looks. I disliked him a lot at that point. Throughout “Scarlet” Thorne was developing into a better fleshed out character, but I still was not sold on his “a conman with a heart of gold” persona. I found it difficult to believe that Cress would fall for Thorne, when there was clearly nothing heroic about him.

By the end of “Cress”, however, Thorne is turning into a real hero. He is not afraid to admit to his less favourable deeds to Cress, and he is hiding less and less behind his jokes and over-exuberant confidence. Cress is slowly growing into a strong character in this story, perhaps, less than Cinder and Scarlet, but she is a real team member by the end of this novel. She saved the day more than once in this book, which I absolutely loved.

The only character, who has not failed to annoy me in every single book, is Emperor Kai. Not only he is willing to be a sacrifice lamb and go through the marriage with Levana, but he seems to completely incompetent in everything that he does. He is praised for his diplomatic skills, while he failed to secure future peace for his nation. His decision to marry Levana is not only the suicide but also a definite disaster for his nation, if he is, indeed, killed after Levana is crowned as the empress. It is a ridiculous decision, which the author is trying to portray as this big and important sacrifice, but it is just plain stupid. He is choosing to prolong the suffering of his nation (and his own) by implementing this short-term solution. Kai is completely oblivious to everything that is happening in the palace - he is not fully aware of the research, he doesn’t know that there are tunnels under the palace, etc. He seems to be surprised by the most obvious decisions and is fully dependant on his advisor Torin. I hope that he will undergo at least some character development in “Winter” as for now I don’t understand what Cinder (and Iko) see in him as he is not the Prince Charming I expected in this series. (I love the fact that all the female character in the series are badass in their own ways, but Kai just annoys me.)

I feel that this book could have worked really well with at least 50 pages cut out. It is long and the middle of the book is rather slow. The pace did pick up at the end, although I found the ending of “Cress” to be less dramatic and intense than the ending of the second book in the series.

I hoped that I would give this book a higher rating than books one and two, but alas. It is a good series, but so far it has failed to enamour me to it to give it anything higher than 3 stars.

Narration: 4 stars

Plot: 3 stars

Overall: 3 stars

Book review: Shadow and Bone (The Grisha, #1) by Leigh Bardugo

  As always I am late to the party. I mean, everyone has already read the Six of Crows duology a year ago which followed The Grisha trilogy, and here I am - finally reading the first book in the trilogy. But better late than never, huh?

Following my rather mixed feelings in regards of  “Crown’s Game” by Evelyn Skye (I was excited to read the book set in Imperial Russia but also found all language fumbles and misconceptions rather frustrating - neither of which prevented me from buying the book or its sequel, by the way), I became increasingly anxious over starting The Grisha trilogy. I heard good things, but not amazing things. People were praising Bardugo for setting her fantasy in Russia, but at the same time they were not calling it an amazing book. Even the title of the series made me feel apprehensive - who names the series a short version of the name Gregory which, by the way, is the name for magicians of that world.

Errr, what?

Not to mention, the types of the order - Corporalki, Etherealki and Materialki - that make even less sense and only vaguely resemble Russian language. (Stapling ‘ki’ ending to an English word is not how you go about it. It just makes it sound derogatory.)

But at some point I was like - enough is enough, time to read the series! If I hate it, then I will hate it, but if I don’t - then I want to be able to say so.

Long story short: I did NOT hate it. But I was not instantly enamoured either.

Linguistic fumbles aside (and, yes, I did find mistakes in the language, which once again made me what to pull at my hair and yell at non-native speakers incorporating words in foreign languages to seek reliable native speaking translators), you can definitely tell that “Shadow and Bone” is Bardugo’s debut novel. It is not a necessarily bad novel, but it is cliched and raw in some parts, although I did enjoy the fact that it is a very fast paced book. You get thrown into the midst of action almost from the very beginning, which is great and saves you from paying too much attention to certain plot holes.

I liked all main characters, although the trope of “the chosen one” is getting pretty old. The Darkling is, probably, my most favourite character, in spite of how cliched of a dark brooding but incredibly attractive villain he is. I loved the depictions of the Shadow Fold and Unsee and volcra.

While reading the book, I felt compelled to stop treating this world as an actual historical depiction of Russian Empire in 1800s but treat it as a sort of resembling reality fantasy world. I am thankful that unlike Skye, Bardugo did not claim any historical prowess when it comes to world building. I would not have handled that well. The world of Ravka (another word that makes me cringe internally) is as historically accurate as the animated movie ‘Anastasia’ (which is a great movie but is also so Hollywood-like that it is almost offensive that it was so well received and is still loved by many, considering how far fetched it is from actual events). Since “Shadow and Bone” does not claim to be set in Russia, I am (almost) willing to overlook poorly constructed sentences in Russian (please, do not use Google Translate when you write books), misconception that kvas is a heavy alcoholic drink (it is lighter than beer and I can’t imagine anyone getting drunk on it!) or that everyone eats buckwheat and marinated herring for breakfast (the herring is delicious, by the way) or that the name of the main protagonist, Alina Starkov, sounds like an immigrant Russian name in USA (because since Alina is female, her last name should have been Starkova). As you understand, I can continue with this list.

I did enjoy reading the novel, when I was not cringing or rolling my eyes. It is better than some debut novels, I have read. It is not perfect - not even close, but it is book one in the trilogy, and I have heard from several people that Bardugo’s writing does get better in later books. Which gives me hope.

Overall, the book has a distinctive Hollywood flair to it. The alluring boys are too alluring, the stubborn main characters are too stubborn, and the creepy villains are too creepy. You know what I mean. But the pace of the narrative was enough to keep me hooked. I flew through the book that turned out to be shorter and a much quicker read than I expected. So, I have to give Leigh that. She managed to keep me entertained in spite of everything.

I can not wait to read the second novel. I hope it does get better.

Personal rating: 3 stars

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Book review: This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity, #1) by Victoria Schwab

 

Do you know that feeling when you open a book, read the first line and go like, ‘yup, this is my author, alright’. I got this feeling when I started reading “Vicious” - the first book by Victoria Schwab that I read. And I got the same feeling when I started reading ‘This Savage Song’. And it thrilled me to no end.

“This Savage Song” was doing a lot of rounds on BookTube last year, and the most mentioned thing about it was the fact that there is no romance in this book, which is incredibly rare and unusual for a young adult novel. What this book does have in abundance is monsters - both of human and supernatural variety.

The novel is set in a dystopian world, in the city which is divided by civil war. August Flynn and Kate Harker might seem like dystopian Romeo and Juliet but, thankfully, they are not star-crossed lovers, although there is an undeniable connection between them. There is enough gore and violence in this book to make it seem almost an adult novel. Almost but not enough. I would have loved this book to be more heavy (yes, more angsty and more intense), but I loved it for what it was worth.

“This Savage Song” seems like such a my book that it is surprising that it doesn’t have my name printed all over it. I couldn’t have asked for a better book (well, maybe a bit more angst and queerness) to read. I am surprised I have not written it myself, in a way. Just like when I was reading “Vicious”, I kept thinking that Victoria must be my brain twin as she created monsters that are more human than humans, and humans who are more monstrous than monsters - something that I aspire to do too.

I adored this book. I read it in less than two days because I just couldn’t put it down. I did, however, manage to predict who the real bad guys are, but it didn’t disappoint me in the least but rather made me more firm in my assumption that Victoria writes much in the same way as I think. Which is brilliant.

I don’t want to discuss plot for the fear of spoiling it, but I must say that I loved everything about this world: the monsters and their different powers; the fact that monsters are born from the vile crimes that people commit (which is something that I feel strongly about); the dystopian city divided by civil/turf war; chosen families; instant connections and unlikely friendships; being true to oneself, etc. There are so many things that I love about this book. I want to read it again. And again. And again.

The best thing about this book, though, is the fact that there is a sequel and I am already reading it.

Rating: 4 stars

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