I really like the vibe of this box, it feels very fitting to the book it featured. So let’s dive in, starting from the top left corner:
Discovery of Witches pin. I struggled to read this one due to the main love interest so I gifted my copies away. But the pin is cool
Uprooted Tote, which is a super dreamy eerie tote and I love it. It is perfect!
Magnetic coin (not bothered by it, as you may already know).
Theme booklet, I love the design is eerie, witchy, green.
Bellatrix promotional booklet.
Witchlands pin banner underneath the book (I like the size and that it is black).
Sanctuary, by Vic James. I have been really looking forward to it since I knew it was going to exist. (And I won a proof copy plus some extras at YALC so this is awesome!)
Wicked Saints Tiptych, love the artwork.
Second half of the bookends. I am a little bit disappointed by them as they are much too fragile and the pointy bits are bending even before I have used them just by moving them. But I do like the idea of the design.
A “book” Magic Spells ceramic pot. I am bad with plants but this makes me want to plant something in it and see it grow and be magic…
I was a bit of two hearts on this box. Some items are awesome, some I am not that crazy about but what definitely goes is that gorgeous totebag, favourite item for sure and I am very happy with the gorgeous green sprayed edges of the book.
The Mayan god of death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this dark, one-of-a-kind fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore.
The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.
Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.
Rating:
I am going to do my best to not be a blubbering mess while writing this review. I received a review copy from Jo Fletcher books because I begged to be able to read before publication, but I have the Goldsboro edition ordered (hopefully it will arrive soon) and had preordered a finished copy too (nope, I wasn’t dying to read it, I promise).
So why did I want to read this book so much? Because it is a) own voices, b) México, c) Mayan gods. And it is set in the 1920’s, which is just after the Revolution so it is a country beaming with change and opportunities but also aching in some ways.
There are Latinx books showing more and more, but there are very few fantasy books like this one out there (or the ones I know of are in Spanish and for me, expensive to get unless I go to México).
From the very beginning, Casiopeia’s México is in a way my México, a slightly older and more frayed around the edges, but it is very much the one my greatgrandmother lived in (who was alive during the Revolution and told stories about living through it). Where it stops is that in this story, the Mayan gods are more than just words, they take flesh (I mean I have never seen this happen so I will leave this to fantasy but there are stories of different gods becoming human for a while).
It was an utter delight to read this, the way the mythology becomes reality blends with how México is in general, into the beautiful parts of it and also sometimes into the not so pretty ones too. I’ve been to most of the places Casiopeia goes (except her home town) so it was like taking a trip myself and reliving that, but almost at the same time as time travel.
One of the things this book does perfectly is to display Mexican culture in the way the characters interact. Casiopeia is 100% the real deal, and not a make believe of a Mexican. For example, in the quote above, she’s saying a “sorry” that doesn’t exist in English. In Spanish it is “lo siento mucho”, which is literally “I feel this so much” and it is to convey empathy to say “I am sad for you, I hurt with and for you”. Because at the core, we care. Family, friends, caring, food, they are central to who we are. And you can see that through the whole book.
And this book made me cry. I don’t cry much with books, but I was bawling my eyes out near the end, because it had just dug in deep into me.
I think if you are intrigued by Mayan mythology/gods, México and its culture, and fantastical stories, you should definitely read this. All the characters show different aspects of life in such a country and this is a wonderful representation of it.
I literally want everyone to read this book and then re-read it, and then talk about it and go visit México and each place Casiopeia and Kun-Kamé visit.
I was eagerly awaiting this box and I am glad to have got it (and it made me decide to change form a monthly subscription to a 6 month one, since I have enjoyed most of the recent past Owlcrate boxes). So let’s unbox this one, starting from the book and going clockwise:
Spin the Dawn, this time the exclusive cover is a very subtle change (from silver title to gold) which I am glad for, as this is a gorgeous cover.
A jigswa puzzle in a carry pouch (300 pcs). This one made me super happy as I love jigsaws and it was in a handy pouch rather than a big box.
Theme card.
The collective pin to match the book, very gorgeous too.
A Cara Kozik mug for HP4, gorgeous as usual.
Playing cards set with each deck changed into one of the Londons from A Darker Shade of Magic. Love this idea.
A cute money purse, zippered.
Kingdom of souls promotional postcard.
The Selection inspired lankyard. I am not into this fanodm but I love the fact that this lankyard is perfect even if you don’t do the fandom and it is pretty neutral.
The print that is the puzzle which is a quote print too. Wow, that felt convoluted.
All in all full of gorgeous details and items, so very happy with this box.
A gorgeous and inspiring picture book about a young girl, Nell, who invents a machine to fix the pollution that is choking the city.
Rating:
I bought this after seeing (I may be wrong but probably not) Stephanie Burgis comment about it. It is a little on the pricey side, but it is good quality so it kinda balances it out.
We start with little Nell who is busy inventing something to help save the city from pollution and she insists she has to go show it to the people there (she lives far form the city).
When she arrives to the city, it isn’t as easy to be considered important. Nell is just a little girl and the adult men have things to discuss (like the pollution). But Nell doesn’t give up and she goes back to the drawing board (inventing) and works hard to help the city.
The artwork/illustrations are gorgeous and full of detail and I like the invention Nell does. And it encourages children to invent and to try to solve real problems.
What I didn’t like was that the ending was kinda left there without much. At the end I felt like there needed to be more, and there is a back pages illustration that hints at it, but story wise it feels a little incomplete.
Still, a cute book witha girl as the heroine and encouraging to invent and create.
August is here! So here’s last month’s BookBoxClub, because after YALC (and before it which is when this box actually arrived), who doesn’t want some extra love to UK YA?
I think I need a bigger puzzle because I can’t fit all the stuff that came in the box nicely over it. Let’s unbox, going from top left corner, clockwise:
Heartstream by Tom Pollock. Highly anticipated book for me, as I loved White Rabbit, Red Wolf so much!
I ♥ boks flag, which is cute.
A zine invite (it is online and interesting and full fo interviews and other bits).
Some promotional postcards.
Under a Dancing Star by Laura Wood. Also one I wanted to read as I enjoyed Sky Painted Gold a lot.
I ♥ UK YA notebook, which is full of wonderful books on the cover and a cute bookcase/shelves.
Book-Lover necklace.
Theme card.
Apple crumble tea, I haven’t tried, but it sounds delicious and I can’t wait.
All in all this was a cute pre-YALC box that made me want YALC to come sooner (I know, this is post the event but the box arrived before it and that’s what it made me feel like, but I usually post unboxings a few weeks later to be polite about spoilers).
Frozen meets Mad Max in
this epic teen fantasy duology bursting with star-crossed romance,
immortal heroines, and elemental magic, perfect for fans of Furyborn.
Generations
of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon. But seventeen years ago, one
sister’s betrayal defied an ancient prophecy and split their world in
two. The planet ceased to spin, and a Great Abyss now divides two
realms: one cloaked in perpetual night, the other scorched by an
unrelenting sun.
While one sister rules Aranth—a frozen city
surrounded by a storm-wracked sea —her twin inhabits the sand-locked
Golden City. Each goddess has raised a daughter, and each keeps her own
secrets about her sister’s betrayal.
But when shadowy forces begin to call their daughters, Odessa and Haidee, back to the site of the Breaking, the two young goddesses —along with a powerful healer from Aranth, and a mouthy desert scavenger —set out on separate journeys across treacherous wastelands, desperate to heal their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands.
Rating:
This is my first book from Rin but the premise sounded amazing and when Harper360 sent the email for proof requests I couldn’t help myself. (This is a proof provided by Harper for free, though they would prefer if I can review it but that definitely doesn’t shape my views)
I am very glad I chose it. This felt like a fairytale plus meet cute plus crazy epic adventure and mystical touches. In my head this was like a darker grown up sibling of The Spinner of Dreams (like the teenage sibling of it).
We get the story from four viewpoints, which would usually drive me MAD. But because the voices are telling two stories that will merge into one, this was easier (and probably it was due to the voices being distintc enough but not too much to break continuity). At the beginning I was totally team Odessa and Lan over Haidee and Arjun. But as the story progressed I ended up switching who my favourite couple was. (And to be fair I could see myself more in Haidee than I did in Odessa).
The middle of the book is a bit slow and feels like filling to add worldbuilding and a bit of extra intrigue, and the other thing that reduced it’s rating was that the ending isn’t a good ending (and I don’t mean I was expecting a Happy Ever After one, I know it’s a duology(?)). What I mean is that there is a LOT of mysteries they are working on finding and solving once they arrive at the Great Abyss, and most of it doesn’t get an answer and instead you end up with even more questions (plus I couldn’t believe much on Odessa’s reactions on the end, Haidee had a good build up to the what/why, whereas Odessa had no reason/motive or anything to do what she did).
Obviously, this is a proof so the final copy may have this better (also to note, there are grammar errors but I don’t usually mark those as 99% of the time they get picked up before final print). I just wish that the next book was complete because I wanted to read it after I had finished this one.
As many of you know (and for those that don’t) I went to YALC this year. All the times I’ve been at YALC, I’ve done cosplays, so this year was no different. Though I did bring in two new cosplays (Previously I have done Hermione, Death from Book of Life and of course Moon dress).
Friday’s cosplay was as Cat Noir from Miraculous Ladybug (a cartoon for children, you can find it on Netflix, and this is no promo as I don’t even have Netflix but I do like the cartoon).
Saturday was Knit Anele aka Moon dress (because it is iconic and everyone recognises it). This was the costume that gave me the most problems as the corset shifted (yes it is a corset) and I couldn’t sit, so after lunch I took it off (it is designed to be used with or without it, but obviously it is more stunning with it).
And finally, on Sunday I dressed up as Menolly (with blue hair) from Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey. This was a very interesting cosplay because I got a lot of children asking for pictures (also some teenagers and adults), but no one really knew who I was dressed up as(I think the exception would be Steph from GeekyClean). My favourite part was that when I said who I was, there were two very distinct reactions “oh yes, of course” (on the older side of the scale or those that do a lot of SFF and not just YA) or blank faces of “no idea”. One person even asked me to write down the book and author so they could look it up. The dragon(firelizard) has now been baptised as “Pern” in honor of the planet where he comes from. Oh and yes, I wasn’t “holding” him, attached him to my shoulder with the help of Josie Jaffrey and my friends.
Now to the part about the books! This is my haul:
From left to right:
Brought 23 books. All except Lauren James’ book got signed (I mean puppy needed her, good priorities there).
Bought 17 books. Some for the wedding favours pile. The new edition of After the Fire (to complete my collection), and some early copies of books plus books that caught my eye. I behaved much better this year and didn’t go on a crazy buying spree.
7 Books that were free or swapped. I did bring about 10 for the book swap so this didn’t go too bad (and only one of those was from the book swap directly). Some publishers did a “buy a book get one free” so some of those are in this pile.
And I won 10 books/proofs. Wilder Girls, Chinglish and Kingdom of Souls were high priority and I was so pleased to win them. Sanctuary was “fated”. The first person who drew won, so I went next thinkign that the odds of me winning the other prize were too small (they were), and yet still won.
I won’t talk about every single book here as I will review them at some point. But I tried to only enter those I would read (or a friend was eagerly wanting) and I also didn’t go too crazy on freebies and ended up with a small stack of them rather than a crazy amount.
I have read most of the samplers and started my list of “preorders” that are to come next (for those that follow the preorder spreadsheet, I had paused it on the buildup to YALC so I wouldn’t shoot myself in the foot and buy doubles, but it will continue in the next few weeks).
As per usual, things could be better, but they were better than last year (I am being positive and small improvements are better than no improvement). The biggest issue is lack of suitable chairs to sit for those of us who struggle sitting on the floor (I have been working wiht my physio to help me cope with this better but by Sunday I really really would’ve loved having a chair as I was struggling). And it isn’t a thing that is particularly hard to fix either.
I was also super glad to make new friends, and put faces to names and to have the chance to chat with people (I kinda want to tag everyone but I am also afraid I’d forget someone and I just don’t want to forget anyone!). You know who you are since we talked.
For me this YALC was better and easier because I made myself enjoy it more and go less into a rush and manic hype. And it was about friendships old and new. Community was interesting to see.
My biggest wish would be that people in general are more polite and considerate of others. There was a lot of madly crushing people despite asking not to. (And becauseof this I made an extra effort to not push on people and to not be too close to them in the queues, giving them space to be).
I finish with that YALC sign picture and our squad which keeps growing!
Another mini review, because I saw a snippet out of this book and it made me laugh so I chose to buy it (yeah, the reasons that make me buy books are very varied) and because I am still at YALC doing bookish stuff.
Persepolis is a book that is a comic collection. And it is a story in comics. Plus it is an autobiography. I know a lot of things in one single book.
And because it is so many things, most of it was a great interesting read, either because I was learning something about Iran/Persia or because it was funny. But some of those parts also were a bit odd, slice of life that I just didn’t connect or found relevant (but that’s me and this is a biography type of thing so yeah).
It was a quick read as it is made of short comics as mini episodes of her life, so you can stop, get a dirnk or a snack and keep going without loosing much, lots of pause points. And in itself you don’t have to remember a LOT of stuff or anything. You could basically open the book anywhere and as long as it is the start of that comic, you’re totally fine to go. (Yeah you may miss some nuance, but it won’t detract from it). So that’s a good plus for this little book.
The biggest issue I had with this (just for the record, biggest issue is just to say what bugged me most but it doesn’t mean the book is bad just what I noticed most as a con) nis that sometimes it rambles poetically, and it kinda ends too soon. But it was an easy interesting read for me.
I got this gorgeous colourful book from my birthday elf box (we do a birthday box like a secret santa) Tracey, and I was really happy.
This is the paperback version as there is a hardback one, but I am a paperback human through and through. The book is big and colourful and full of imagination.
It is like the perfect imagination box inside, and with a story about a little girl who prefers to doodle than do her homework or pay attention in class (I was the kind of person who needed to doodle to pay attention or she just couldn’t concentrate). And then she meets a new girl at school and she seems to like her drawings. But maybe it isn’t all good…
It has a creepy/scary element in it but it reminded me a little of the Book of Kells style of artwork (it isn’t the same I know) and type of story. Highly recommended as a story book and just to enjoy the artwork.
I am at YALC this weekend so hopefully if you are around you can find me (bright blue hair, cosplaying each day).
My short tip list is to:
Be kind. Your attittude will help you get the help you need.
Hydrate. It is hot and you are excited and you forget. A few of us “veterans” are well prepared, so reach out to us.
Eat. Snacks are the very least but there’s places to eat or bring your own food (again, find veterans who can help if in a pinch).
Do a recon of the area. I sometimes go a bit crazy and do everything the first day. Depending on which days you’re going, try to make it last as long as you’re there.
Don’t rush. Yes, there’s a lot to see and do, but you’ll enjoy it more if you take it easy rather than rushing around.
Sunday near closing time is when crazy offers happen (stock is too small to take home, etc). If the risk is not too big for you, it may be worth waiting. I snagged some wonderful deals on Sunday that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Authors sometimes walk the area and will happily chat to you and sign books (not all of them, be polite when you approach them and don’t expect them to be at your beck and call, they’re humans too). So don’t over fret.
Divide and conquer. If you’ve got friends (or made queue friends) who can help you queue or get a ticket or something, ask. Most of us are a friendly bunch and diviing bits and asking for your highest priority and helping others get theirs is win win.
I could go on and on but there are other helpful guides around, so I’ll leave it there. I will be posting a selfie or some kind of picture of my costume each day so you can find me (I am very bad at names, so I forget, even if I recognise your face don’t take this badly). Be aware that at social gatherings I go on overdrive and I am talkative and overly extroverted (my Mexican side shows up). I am not trying to be annoying.
When Rin aced the Keju, the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies, it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard, the most elite military school in Nikan, was even more surprising.
But surprises aren’t always good.
Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.
For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .
Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.
Rating:
This is a powerful brutal book and I freaking loved it.
Rin is a war orphan and well, she does her bes tot get a scholarship to a school to avoid getting married off to an old man just so her foster family can kinda get rid of her and “sell” her well (money talks). So she manages that and goes to military school.
The best thing about this book is that it has many of the things I love in general and in books. One of them is the whole “this happens in a school” (which is part of the first part and the second part of the book). There is also a lot of military, fighting and strategy information, which I love very much (we watch documentaries on tanks, on spies, on guns, on military strategy, on yeah… you get the gist I will stop here, the point is that reading her training made me very happy).
And then we have the bonus of weird magic that is powered by a mysterious thing (because spoilers, though I did guess what it was but nevermind) or drugs (while reading this I couldn’t help but feel like I was back in Mexico and also about Carlos Castañeda’s books). Lore is what they call it.
Now this is where I would like to discuss all the spoilers and all that stuff but I really shouldn’t. I have to say, only one of the twists surprised me. This usually means I enjoy the book a little less, but not for this one. It just made it good because it wasn’t the goal that meant it but rather the “how we got there” and it was a glorious brutal journey.
This is also a great example of how side characters aren’t there just for the sake of, and they all exist as individuals. Plus Rin is a little bit of a bad person and you hate her sometimes (you also love her at times) and this doesn’t make you want to throw the book at the wall and give up. My uttermost respects to Miss Kuang for pulling such an amazing story and giving it layer over layer of information. This also includes the historical nuance.
As a bit to know, there is self harm in it (burning), there is obviously a LOT of violence and gore, implied rape and dehumanization, amongst many other vile things (I can’t even remember them all) so this isn’t a fluffy light book. But despite all the hard stuff, it was an amazing read.
