Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

Read May 2022.

3/5 stars

Camino and Yahaira are half sisters, not that they know it yet. Their father has been splitting his time between the Dominican Republic with Camino and New York with Yahaira, that is until the plane he's on comes down and he's killed.

This book was written beautifully, I believe it's considered a novel in verse. There are a lot of Spanish phrases which obviously I don't understand but it doesn't particularly take away from the reading experience.

The pacing of this novel could have been better, for two thirds not a lot actually happens which is especially shocking when you consider that all in all that covers a period of almost two months. It took way too long to get the sisters together and then the book ends very abruptly. I wanted to see more of their new life together, what was the adjustment period like? It just ends which I found very disappointing and almost dropped the rating to 2 stars.

Stef Out x

A Land of Never After by R.L. Davennor

 

Ebook provided by BookSirens for review. Thank you.

Read May 2022.

3/5 stars

So I will preface this by saying that I have never read Peter Pan, I don't think you need to though. This book takes a few familiar elements: Wendy, Peter, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, the Lost Boys and Neverland and completely twists them.

Wendy has just left the orphanage where she grew up when she runs into Peter who then steals her satchel, so she follows him straight into Neverland. But Neverland sits under a horrible curse, kill and steal a being's life force or rot. But who is responsible for the curse? One Captain Hook. Peter's long-standing rival. Everyone has secrets and somehow Wendy is the key to everything.

I thought that the story and ideas were great but there were elements that were lacking. The pacing was strange, one chapter ended with Wendy falling asleep then the next opens with her running through the forest with no explanation, some kind of training session maybe? I'd also have like more development. Wendy didn't seem to have much personality beyond the basics. Also her 'friendship' with Peter is a bit something and nothing. They have a deep conversation about something which seems all but forgotten after apart from one small aside.

I might read the sequel if I come across it but it doesn't feel especially memorable enough overall to actively seek it out.

Stef Out x

Goodreads: Here

Instagram: Here

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

 

(Review copied from Goodreads)

Original review March 15: I liked and didn't like this story. The characters were well-developed and interesting and very real as modern teenagers but Tori is so unlikeable. She improves slightly throughout when she realises that shock horror she's allowed to care! I found myself wanting to know more about Michael and I really want a more detailed story about Charlie, he was so sweet! There also wasn't much detail given about the situation with Ben and the conclusion of Lucas was a little obvious and cliched. I also found all the conversations about shipping and fandoms and the sexual tension between Sherlock and John in BBC's Sherlock very odd as despite them being popular topics of conversation these days - particularly online - I haven't come across those sort of conversations in books before now.

Re-read Oct 19: I still sort of agree with some of my previous thoughts but now I find Tori relateable in her pessimism and some of the rest I just don't care about. I just enjoyed the book. I do still want to know more about Ben's situation though. I don't know if it comes up during Heartstopper at all? I seriously need to read that sometime!

Re-re-read May 22: Ben's story makes so much more sense having read Heartstopper. Also having read Heartstopper I wanted more Charlie and Nick! On this reread I barely noticed most of the fandom stuff although there is a lengthy Harry Potter based conversation in the opening chapter. I've come to appreciate Tori more with each reading. I did want to know more about the other guys involvement in Solitaire though.

4/5 stars

Stef Out x 

It Helps With the Blues by Bryan Cebulski

 

Ebook provided by BookSirens for review. Thank you.

Read April 2022.

4/5 stars

This was a strange and engaging little book. We follow a nameless narrator and his connections? I'm not sure how to word it. We open with our narrator and his friend Jules just hanging out, she then invites Dennis who is struggling with something. We later learn that Dennis has taken his own life.

What follows is our narrator pondering over his various friendships, peppered with letters some have written themselves. In fact the only person who doesn't write a letter is Estelle. Once upon a time he bullied them - sidenote but I loved how self-aware he was about his past mistakes - but a chance meeting leads to an almost something, the overarching theme to this section is his pride in Estelle discovering their identity, and getting rid of an apparently racist boyfriend.

Our other characters are Gabriel, openly gay and angry at the world, and Joshua, Jules's younger brother who had a connection to Dennis and feels partially responsible. A small cast yet effective in its simplicity.

At 178 pages by GoodReads description this is a short book and I think that would be my main criticism. It is great as it is but I wanted more. More backstory, more connections. I wasn't a fan of the way things were abandoned with Gabriel and I hated how abrupt the ending was. Did our narrator sort his crap out? Who was he?

Stef Out x 

To Dare by Jemma Wayne

 

I found this quite a dull book really. I kept expecting more from it. Instead I got tasteless descriptions of a violent beating and wholly unlikeable characters.

Sarah in particular annoyed me. Blaming Veronica for her sister's death when she wasn't even involved. The issues that led to it may have been caused by Veronica but I feel that there was enough years for Sarah to have gotten help for her issues.

The ending was very disappointing. Very rushed and a lot of lack of clarity. I was surprised when I noticed I was near the end of the book because I felt like there was still so much to cover. Even now I'm unsure of what really happened.

2/5 stars

Stef Out x

Plan Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Read March 2022. Borrowed from the library but also own as an ebook thanks to NetGalley.

3/5 stars

Dual timeline told in alternating chapters. Half is set in 1902 where Libbie is running a girls school with her partner Alex when a diary of a girl named Mary MacLane starts making its rounds. What follows is tragedy and creepiness. And a lot of yellow jacket wasps 😬

The other half is set in the present day where a horror movie is being made about Brookhants School's tragic past. It girl Harper Harper is one of the co-leads and is also co-producing. Aubrey is a former child star whose role in the film has suddenly changed. Merritt is the writer of the book about the original tragedy that is now the basis for this film.

So firstly this book is super queer. Like 99% of the female characters have a same sex leaning. Harper is named lesbian, Aubrey is bi, not sure what Merritt is and the historical sections introduced me to the term "Boston Marriage" wherein two women (whether romantically inclined or not) would live together in order to achieve careers and independence uncommon for the time.

I thought that it was interesting and creepy but the novel was too long (over 600 pages) and too slowly paced. A lot could have been cut in my opinion. Also the ending was very abrupt. I've seen reviews saying it could have been a duology: the historical story and then the modern one. That would allow for the detail without being overlong.

Stef Out x 

Here the Whole Time by Vitor Martins

 

Read February 2022. Borrowed from the library.

5/5 stars

I read this in two sittings and it could have been one but I needed to get to bed. I loved this book! The characters were amazing, Felipé was so relatable for I too am a fat, socially awkward gay. And like Felipé my school bullying was directed towards my weight rather than anything sexuality based. Sigh.

I loved the development of both the boy's characters and the growth of their relationship. I also loved Caio's friends and I wish we'd had more of them. I just wanted more story in general, 15 days was just not enough!

Stef Out x