.review – Page 3 – The Constellation of Moon

Ghosts Review

Posted on April 27, 2020

Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier

Rating:

The premise of ghosts is a family that moves to a new city due to the younger sister (Maya) having cystic fibrosis (CF). Catrina, the older sister, is very unhappy because it is disrupting her life, plus the town they’re moving to apparently has a lot of ghosts and she doesn’t like this.

Maya is a bundle of joy that is trying to live her life to the max and then has issues due to CF. Catrina is being a difficult teenager, afraid of ghosts, tired of having to share everything with her sister and that her life revolves around Maya.

The idea of the story is about confronting the fact that Maya may die soon and the old traidtions of their family. It also tries to bring Day of the Dead into it, and this caused some odd feelings about it.

Catirna is terrified and also not really wanting to make friends or anything, so the story works on her being gloomy and it being spooky. At the same time we have super hapy Maya, things randomly happening to her and the neighbours and suddenly everyone is Mexican or has Mexican ancestry and wow, look, Day of the Dead exists. Everythign just kinda happens, everyone accepts the traditions and everyone participates in them.

The artwork for the celebration scenes was great but they still had some weirdness happen through it and the best way I can describe it, is that it didn’t feel genuine. It reads and looks like the author had friends who celebrate Day of the Dead, or liked the idea of it and applied to her idea of trying to accept the potential death of a family member. So I really liked the approach of how to deal with death but I am not sure trying to make it about Day of the Dead was the right choice, maybe it won’t matter that much for those that don’t have it is as their tradition or aren’t confused by it but to me, it took some of the joy of reading it, and a lot of the wonder of the intention of the story from it.

So I can’t really recommend this for the Day of the Dead value, but for the family and friendship value it does great things.

Book Review, Books

Hold Back The Tide Review

Posted on April 25, 2020

Hold Back THe Tide by Melinda Salisbury

Rating:

I’ll start by saying that this is my favourite book by Melinda so far (and that is not to say I didn’t like the previous ones, I did, this one is just better).

We meet Alva and her rules for living with a murderer, who is in this case, her Father. She is 110% sure he killed her mother and will kill her if she does something wrong or something. But she has a plan to leave and do her life the way she wants and not have to deal with her Father.

All good so far, except that suddenly some supernatural beings appear and wreak havoc and well, Alva has to make some choices.

Now, I liked Alva. She is scared, trying to make her life something more than be and survive. And she has been planning this for a while. And not just that, but living with her Father and taking care of the loch, means she’s well prepared and trained well. Obviously, she’s the daughter of the loch keeper and there’s stigma and dislike for him so she is a little bit of a loner and a stranger in the town that relies on the loch.

Then there’s Ren, who seems to be a friend who also feels shunned because who knows who his father is. And he has helped her accidentally with her plans to have a life outside of the town.

As Alva gets closer and closer to the day she is meant to leave for good, things start getting scarier and scarier and weirder. Until she sees this creature outside of her house and can’t deny that something real bad is going on.

In general I liked this as Alva is confronted with a lot of choices and sometimes it feels like she has NO choice and still she makes a choice or gives herself the option to do so. The lore was interesting and it has a very “small town” feel in the vibe of how things suddenly happen, there’s a lot of secrets, lies and cohersion or manipulation that has kept the town running the way it was, which wasn’t great.

As the supernatural beings start attacking and killing some of the villagers, obviously things slowly fall away and truth comes out, including the truth about what happened the night Alva’s mother disappeared and a gun was shot.

Book is intense but engrossing, and the writing gets you going and you forget what time is and just keep reading, which was very enjoyable even if there was a lot of scary in it and at times I had to pause.

Some trigger warnings just in case: attempted rape, murder, violence and abuse of others (non sexual). The one that got me a bit surprised was the attempted rape/sexual assault because I was most certainly not expecting that.

Oh and the ending is quite something. That’s all I can say without spoiling it!

Book Review, Books

The Fire Never Goes Out Review

Posted on April 23, 2020

The Fire Never Goes Out by Noelle Stevenson

Rating:

If you’ve been following Noelle Stevenson since the tumblr days and the Broship of the Ring, then this book will be like a walk through memory lane with a selection of comics/doodles/etc from those times. And the summary posts of her year that she had on her blog. Which may make this book feel a bit too familiar and maybe not that surprising/new.

However, for me, despite being one of those from way back then, I enjoyed it a lot. It was a refresher of whereshe was (and a reminder of her age and what she’s done so far), but it was also, a reminder of my own ghosts, successes and battles. Because in some ways I had similar things happen to me, grand things and then that fear of “will this be the last grand thing because I have used all the grand-thing-points alloted to me during this lifetime already?”. She is way better at wording this and even illustrating.

And it is a memoir of where she was before she realised a lot of her identity, but also, as her career in art got a massive kickstart and also what pushed her to find the way into it.

Reading it was fun and when I finished it (it was relatively fast since it’s art and short posts on how her year had gone and what was accomplished/not done/etc), I felt inspired to draw, to put some of my own experiences to paper. And at the same time I wanted to give her a hug. And maybe just sit down and talk because I have similar fears, I have had similar fears.

Afterwards, I even had a deep conversation with my husband pondering if I had done the most amazing thing I could’ve done already and how I felt I may have wasted that chance because life happened and well, I am relatively happy where I am, but I am doing less amazing stuff now than I was 5-10 years ago. I won’t go all into it but it was an interesting talk, and I can only recommend reading this book. Or if not the memoir, maybe give Nimona a go?

Book Review, Books

The Last Paper Crane Review

Posted on April 21, 2020

The Last Paper Crane by Kerry Drewery

Rating:

I was sent a copy of this book by Hot Key Books, but as tends to be the case, it was already on my preorders list. So the fact that this came from the publishers in the hopes of a review, doesn’t affect the review at all.

We start with Mizuki, the granddaughter of a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb. She is meant to take care of her grandfather who is old and doesn’t believe that words can be of hope or help anymore, so to her he seems cranky, but he sits down and starts telling her his story.

Ichiro was a young man on a day off, spending it with his friend Hiro, when suddenly the world changed in a drastic way. He starts telling us about how he woke up after the bomb dropped and the disorientation, the chaos, everything feels so intense as you read about it. Then he manages to find Hiro, and they set off to look for Hiro’s little sister Keiko.

Thankfully Keiko is still alive, but they can see the destruction and devastation while they search for her, and Hiro is in really bad shape. However, Hiro makes a choice that leaves Ichiro with Keiko and a promise to take care of her. And he tries, but again, hard choices have to be made and he becomes separated from her.

He sets off on a desperate search for her, getting the hospital staff in Hiroshima and then in Tokyo to try to help him, however, it seems hopeless. Every place he visits, he leaves a paper crane with his details, since that was the last thing he left with Keiko before he lost her.

Ichiro, as an older man now, is still distraught that he couldn’t keep his promise and save Keiko. All he has is a note saying there are no records of her.

I have to say, while I read this, the combination of poetry and verse made it interesting and also set a clear difference between past and present and personality and the changes time has done to Ichiro. It was powerful and beautiful and amde me tear up a few times as I could feel as if I was with Ichiro through his journey, rather than reading an account of someone that this is happening to.

I even had to share with my husband because it just stuck with me so much and it left hope and wanting to be able to believe in hope and not giving up.

I can only recommend this story, and now I am myself intrigued about Kerry’s other works so may go check those out because the writing made this book work really well (the artwork was also a great help at the points where it was, which were minimal but they were well chosen).

Book Review, Books

The Bone Witch Review

Posted on April 19, 2020

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Rating:

Bought The Bone Witch after reading The Never Tolting World and enjoying a lot, then thought I should read it for #Februwitchy readathon, but didn’t manage to fit it in, so in the end buddy read it for #ConquerAChonker.

At first I wasn’t sure terribly into it, not that I didn’t like it, but didn’t know where the story was going. However as it progressed I started loving it more and more. I don’t have a better way of describing this but it gave me geisha house vibes with added necromancy and magic, and I absolutely love it!

It was interesting to see her tell her story and have that “break the 4th wall” kinda view on her own past, the wiser Tea telling the story of how she got to where she is but keeping some of the mystery and giving us a potential hint as to what she is attempting to do next.

The world was richly built and the characters had a lot of personality. I was rooting for them and also wanting things to happen (some did, some didn’t) plus I was kept guessing about the two loves she had (not that I couldn’t guess who, mroe I was wondering who they’d be and what happened with each.

Now I can’t wait to see what happens next because that ending left me wanting more (plus those last few chapters of her past were definitely an interesting surprise and I loved it).

I have to say, writing a good review is hard given that I don’t want to spoil the plot and that it was a really good read!

Book Review, Books

Little Lost Fox Review

Posted on April 13, 2020

Little Lost Fox by Carolina Rabei

Rating:

Another cute children’s book I recently got gifted from my wishlist. It is easy to figure out why it was on my wishlist. Yes, it is because it has cute foxes on the cover and the title goes about it too.

The story is about a little girl who has a many toys but her favourite is a cute fox, but suddenly her fox disappears and is lost. So she follows some paw prints and finds a fox cub who seems lost and lonely, which it is why it has borrowed the fox toy.

And so they set off to search for Mother Fox around the area until they find her, but the little girl has made new friends so she has more company to play with afterwards.

The artwork is really cute and the story is lovely and just nice to read. The foxes are gorgeous and it wins at being easy to read but entertaining and heartwarming.

Book Review, Books

Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit! Review

Posted on April 11, 2020

Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit! by Lorna Scobie

Rating:

Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit! was gifted by a friend from my wishlist because I saw it and thought it’d be a fun book to have and read (plus it made me think of my sister who keeps rabbits, and the friend who gifted it also has rabbits).

Best part, it has a surprise fox featuring in the story which made it even better.

But this is a book about a small bunny who gets all the best things and all for itself, until suddenly the rabbit parents surpise with a lot of siblings (you get it, the whole “like rabbits!” definitely applies here). So our bunny isn’t too keen on having suddenly a lot of comapny and having to share.

But what will be done about having so many new siblings around?

I thought the whole story was really cute and the artowkr is fun, with each new rbabit being unique in its way and a lot going on in page as we move further and further. Plus, despite thinking I knew what the next page had to say I was still surprised nicely by it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Highly recommended for children or just yourself as a treat for your tired mind and just needing something soothing and that will end well.

Book Review, Books

Woven in Moonlight Review

Posted on April 7, 2020

Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez

Rating:

A book based on Bolivian history with moon magic? yes please! And that is just the short premise of it. We have Ximena who has been the Condesa’s decoy for most of her life, to the point she’d die for her. But she doesn’t have to die, only marry the enemy King who is intent on destroying the few leftover Illustrians and has taken over the country.

But King Atoc is corrupt and obsessed with a drug and using it to make money while makignthe population addicted to it and slowly destroying what he built after de-throning the Illustrians.

At first I was incredibly annoyed by Ximena and Catalina (the true Condesa), but the plot was what kept me wanting to find out. I could see bits of where the inspiration for the made up things in the story came from and it made it richer and more interesting.

I never really ended up caring too much about Ximena, though she does grow a lot through the book which helped as she realises not everything she has been told and knows is actually the full truth.

We get a lot about food, weaving and clothes but not enough about the politics, history or the magic. Moon magic, come on! I was dying to know more about it, but we only really find the weaving magic and what Catalina is meant to do via the stars. Not much more is mentioned other than some healing abilities and hiding things, but not detailed enough and it is almost as if magic is an afterthought and yet it is incredibly significant to the story, so it didn’t sit well in my head the disconnect between the importance of the magic and how easily it was brished off to the side unless it was plot important. Or got Ximena out of a pickle.

The animals were cute and having El Lobo be this kind of Robin Hood/Zorro figure was fun but it was easy to guess who was behind it and it felt a bit frustrating that his part in the story is only to prompt Ximena to do things or challenge her when she’s out doing the things. We only know of him as folk hero, and again, the book feels like it only birngs certain things in as needed without any concept, and given how Ximena is that felt not right that she wouldn’t do more about it before she’s “forced” to do something about it.

A few other choices of actions for some of the characters felt odd but otherwise it was interesting and I enjoyed the story and the ideas behind it. It was fun to read and it went by fast (it didn’t feel like a drag or a struggle to read).

Book Review, Books

The Upside of Falling Review

Posted on April 3, 2020

The Upside of Falling by Alex Light

Rating:

This book came as part of February’s Book Box Club. I am not big on contemporary reads and romance (if I am reading romance, I usually go full romancelandia), so I wasn’t hoping for much here (not that the book would be bad, more that I may not enjoy it much because it is just not my type of book).

However, it surprised me. It was easy to read, just quick, light reading. I could be reading, drop the book and come back to it and not have to read back a little to make sure I was in place. And it was fast to read.

The story is cute and predictable but still, easy to read, fluffy romance. A fake relationship that may not be fake after a while, which was nice to read and see them discover that they aren’t so different after all and how good each is and their strengths (and weaknesses).

Also, this book made me want to bake and eat cake a lot. Becca’s mother owns a bakery, so there’s always some kind of baked goods in there and gosh, you will be hungry!

All in all, it was a nice read for a romance and not too bothersome or over complicated just for the sake of. It kept the cuteness and the happy ever after, and all that making you want out of romance.

Book Review, Books

Beneath the Rising Review

Posted on April 1, 2020

Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed

Rating:

I don’t usually read books that cross into “scary” land because I am not big on horror. But I like Premee and her twitter, and the fact that Johnny (one of the main characters) is a young female “genius” sold me to it.

One of the strengths of the book is setting the mood and the progression of the story. We start with a very “normal” (or as normal as having a genius world saving best friend can be) part of the story and Nick trying his best to figure out what comes next as Johnny goes further away and is less and less around due to all the amazing discoveries and inventions she is making, while he is the one working a bakery job to help his family.

Almost immediately I had a lot of things I wanted to quote as Johnny talks about how it is to be female, young and a scientist and have to compete against the established older male scientists. I don’t talk a lot about what I used to do for work and what I do now, but I used to be very similar to Johnny (sans the Ancient Ones). I was the one everyone expected great things. Had a big research career before I even graduated university. Doing big things, and everyone expecting great things… in Johnny’s words “everything”. So it was easy for me to engage with this book and to feel it to heart. Which made the scary a little less scary and more like “oh, that is scary but kinda interesting”.

Another strength is the relationship between Johnny and Nick. They are friends, but could they be more, and how can you keep a relationship (of whatever kind, friends or more) when the people in it are so different and understand each other’s challenges so little? Nick struggles to understand how despite Johnny being white and a genius, she still has barriers men wouldn’t have. And at the same time, Johnny fails to see what being brown and not being rich does to Nick. There are moments were they are as close as close can be and then you realise that at the same time ther eis this big chasm between them. It was masterfully done and it is proof of the craft that Premee can write an apocalypse/end of the world horror and at the same time have this intense view of a relationship as it moves and tries to define itself into adulthood.

Gosh, the Ancient Ones in themselves and the whole part of the plot that goes around it kept getting more and more interesting. The connections between cataclysms and ends of civilizations was also a bonus point for my history focused heart and just seeing all the little hints about geeky or nerdy stuff kept me smiling despite also being scared and worrying about the fate of the world and about Johnny and Nick.

And those last few chapters, well, that was magnificent and sad and intense and a big relief. A lot of emotions to be felt throughout it, and I couldn’t help but side a little with both of them and not be sure what exactly I wanted to happen because it was so hard to think what would be the best outcome for everyone involved.

Also, Ben and the genetically modified dung beetles that wouldn’t roll dung but might steal satsumas or other round objects made me giggle. The sarcams levels are great too, if you need a serving of that.

If you like history, science, geniuses and friendships put to the test with an end of the world, this is definitely your book. It gets my scarydorsement and my full endorsement as a read worth reading.