Often, the problem with YA fantasy is that the romantic aspects of the books overshadow the world-building and background necessary to make the fantasy elements shine. This problem plagued Caraval. Instead of being a kickass novel similar to The Hunger Games, Caraval came off…
Book Review: “The Heartbreakers” by Ali Novak
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling twenty-two sometimes I need a fun, lighthearted read to balance out all the Shakespeare and Faulkner I read in class. Ali Novak’s “The Heartbreakers” is perfect for those times. It may not…
Book Review: “The Kiss” by Lucy Courtenay
Warning: an almost unbearable amount of cheesiness ahead. Read at your own risk. I read Lucy Courtenay’s “The Kiss” very recently expecting many overused teenage tropes and cliches, but I still underestimated the sheer cheesiness of the novel. From the…
Book Review: “Daughter of Dusk” by Livia Blackburne
“Daughter of Dusk” is about power — from the different types of power the protagonist Kyra finds deep within herself to the power that the Demon Riders possess. Yet, I think the most powerful part of the entire book is the…
Book Review: “If You’re Lucky” by Yvonne Prinz
When I read “If You’re Lucky” and thought of Prinz’s problematic depictions of schizophrenia, I was immediately reminded of a book I read over the summer, Lauren Slater’s “Lying.” The novel is a “metaphorical memoir” that uses epilepsy to force readers to examine…
Book Review: “The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs” by Matthew Dicks
I was reading Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” for English class around the same time I read “The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs.” As a result, I tried to find similarities between the two books, which wasn’t as easy as…
Book Review: “The Scorpion Rules” by Erin Bow
Two years ago, “The Scorpion Rules” would be a book I aspired to like. But now I’m not afraid to dislike a book with so much promise, a book that could have been a modern classic had it lived up…
