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TW: gun violence, death of an infant, injustice & misuse of power, animal cruelty (insects), minor self mutilation
3.8

The Renegades are the protectors of all- or, that's what they want people to think. But Nova knows what happens when you start relying on superheroes. When her family was murdered, she was taken in by her uncle- famous super villain- and she tried very hard never to look back. But now it's been years since his death and their movement is dying. It's desperation that launches the plan- get Nova into the Renegades as an inside man. It's surprising that it works at all, but there are more surprises in store for Nova and her team.

I picked up this book because I desperately needed super heroes, and it definitely scratched the itch. This book is full of powers big and small, supers heroic and villainous, and a whole lot of plots.
I think the characters are all really interesting, and I love the world explored here. The powers themselves are plain fun to get to explore, and you never quite know what you're going to get.

There's also a theme of parallel secret identities which adds drama and a nice amount of tension for and between the characters. While I didn't necessarily care all that much about Adrian or his desires, his alter ego is very cool and its addition does some cool things for the plot by large.

However, a lot of this book felt kind of flat for me. I enjoy complicated morality and flawed characters, and seeing as Nova is originally a villain through and through I expected more of a chaotic nature to her. The characters being very lawful and more or less moral (beyond the obvious exceptions who are meant to function as such) was a let down. I also thought most of the twists are fairly obvious, and the romance which is clearly supposed to be core to the story felt forced for a good chunk of it and trite throughout.

I didn't really expect to get sucked in enough to want to read the sequel, but it ends well and now I'm tempted. There's enough set up that it could be really cool!

TW: suicide, death of sibling
I received an ARC from Edelweiss

I am so, so obsessed with this, I know I'm going to be going crazy over it for weeks now. Not only is the art so good, and the character designs- especially for Time and Death- great, but the concept? Fantastic. The idea of being immortal until you find your soulmate is not completely unique, but compelling all the same- and the idea of the brokenhearted becoming basically assassins to destroy the hearts of the soulmates of those who want to live forever? Phenomenal. This book is also chock full of metaphors about grief, connection, and emotional well being, in some really cool ways, and includes non-romantic and non-concrete soulmates at its core!

Plus, man, I just really love these characters. I want more Marius and more Isaac right now please (and more Psyche would be nice too, she needs a hug). I feel totally sucked into this cast of characters and their world, and I am legitimately sad to have to leave them now.

TW: animal death, mentioned parental abuse, racism & historical prejudice, gun violence, slavery, biological warfare, fatal childbirth, amputation
3.5

Lee Westfall has a secret- she can sense gold. It's a secret that could change her family's life, but her parents have always been wary of drawing attention to their gains, or putting any suspicion on Lee herself, as gold becomes more scarce. Travelling West might be the answer, with more gold to find and no one who knows them- but before that decision can even be made, Lee's parents are murdered. With her best friend running away West himself, and an uncle who seems to know more about Lee and her powers than he should, she has no option but to flee, disguised as a boy. But life in hiding and life on the road are not easy things.

While I liked the concept for this book, it never panned out quite to the extent I'd imagined. Though it is fantasy tinged, for the most part this book acts more like a historical piece than anything else.

I will say, while sometimes on the slower side of things, it is paced well. The time skips are placed perfectly to keep things moving without losing track of anything major. If you enjoy travel stories and the more small detail based down to earth stories then you'll enjoy this pacing. It's not a flashy book, and you have to sink into the story enough to sort of slog the trail with them, but it can make it easier to understand the journey itself.

As I said, it's not a flashy story, and that also means the action is a bit sparse. While there are a some bigger events most of those events are not a grand scale. However, it doesn't make the book less compelling. It's a lot easier to see the stakes as bigger, because you're so close to the characters and their motivations.

Still, the slower pacing and the lower stakes does make everything feel middling. There's a lot of the same, keeping things at an even keel more often than not. Nothing makes too big of an impact, beyond the very beginning, so nothing really feels that dramatic. While I could buy into the events enough to care about them while reading they still didn't make me feel much, and there isn't a lot of excitement.

I also disliked the romantic element. In the beginning of the book it's set up as if Lee doesn't have romantic feelings for her best friend but would have just been friends and travelling companions- which I was happy about. But then, in the middle of everything else, she decides to harp on about how maybe they should have gotten married and her jealousy and him being handsome and it was honestly both very annoying and very exhausting to have to constantly read. There is no organic growth of feelings here, it reads more as Lee trying to hold on to what she has by getting possessive and compromising her feelings/role. Plus, the way in which her love rival is dealt with felt so cheap.

Finally, I just wish there was more magic in this story. I was excited for gold magic and secrecy, but this story is so focused on the more mundane aspects of life and travel that the gold magic barely comes up, and when it does it rarely is actually used for anything important. I'm not really a historical fiction person and I make exceptions for historical fantasy so this not really being much of a fantasy meant a lot of disappointment for me.

While this wasn't really the book I expected or the book for me personally, I do think this is well written and has some interesting ideas.

TW: racism, severe injury, gun violence, strangulation, animal injury, inhumane work conditions

I enjoyed the first book, but didn't really know what was to come with this one. In some ways I liked it better than the first, and in others I found it a little disappointing.

As much as April May and her many flaws did grow on me in the first book, it was a bit like a hostage situation- I got to know and like her because I had no other choice. And I do still like her, but I really enjoyed the POVs in this book, and enjoyed them more than I did at least half of April's in the first. Actually, I was kind of bummed out when April came back to take up the narrative, because I was hooked on the other stories, and really having fun with the other characters. I'm glad we get to see more of the "supporting characters" and get to know them as people, and the expansion away from it being Chosen One-esque is a really effective choice over all for this story.

I also thought the pacing in this is great. I liked the pacing in AART as well, but the inclusion of multiple storylines really works well in this, and they all cross each other and trade off in perfect ways to keep the book compelling. Even knowing that they're going to come together at some point and that each new direction is going to matter, the individual story itself stays interesting alone, and when they do start to touch it's somehow still a surprise.

The general concept of this book is a good one. I think the topics of digital currency, overly powerful and unchecked technology, and the power struggle between the brothers are all cool, and lead the way into both a fun romp and a story with some weight.

However, sometimes it went just a little stale for me. I think the biggest problem I had was simply that I preferred Carl as a mystery. I like him as a character in this book, but not as a main character, and his chapters explaining his background were both strange to read and kind of a let down. I would have preferred getting only some of the answers, but without the mystery it lost some of the mystique that was drawing me towards this story and these characters in the first place.
And then, there were things just felt too predictable, arcs that didn't have any room in the sheer drama of it all, and things that were just a little too unrealistic, particularly to Carl. Actually, I think my main complaint is that Carl went from being totally unknown to far too human and knowable, without hitting the right middle ground.

I did enjoy reading this book, I like the way Green writes and I was glad to be able to see what came of these characters. There's a lot here to like, though there were a few choices I didn't love.

TW: mentioned murder/drowning of children, mentioned abuse, mentioned self harm, arson & death by fire, strangulation, romantic relationship between step-siblings
I received an ARC from Edelweiss
2

Things have been different in La Cachette since last summer, when Grey's best friend disappeared. After a summer of being pushed away by her, Elora's disappearance is pain on top of pain. And, strangest of all, Grey's lack of the kind of powers the rest of the kids there have suddenly seems to be sparking to life, letting her feel what Elora was feeling. With an extra sense and her connection to her best friend, plus a mysterious stranger who knew her as well, can Grey solve this mystery for once and for all?

This book would have been popular in 2009, but unfortunately times have changed, and I don't think its target audience is that large. I know that I for one am certainly not in it.
There's a mix of paranormal elements, a mish mash of characters, a really weird love triangle, and an intrepid girl trying to save a loved one. It has all the trappings of a late 2000s era YA, and maybe there are people out there who are craving that even now.

However, there was just nothing here for me. The whole world and premise of the magic felt like a regurgitation from other books, with nothing unique to it, and the only interesting thing that got brought in- the rougaru- gets dropped completely as a plot point.

The love triangle also feels like its ripped from a hundred other books, and this one is inelegant, has no chemistry or sense involved what so ever, and gives the main character zero autonomy. It was actually kind of painful to watch, and I'll admit I speed read through a lot of those scenes.

The twist, the answer to the mystery, could have been something interesting. But it was one part incredibly obvious (as well as borrowed from quite a few other popular works), and one part just full out ridiculous. There was nothing there that was interesting, or felt realistic.

I just did not like this book at all, or the experience of reading it. Again, I'm sure other people will, and had it come out a decade ago it would have had its time to shine. But this is just way too much a mash of other books and old, over-used tropes for me to get anything from it.

Pre-review comments below
That was... a struggle

TW: child death & endangerment, strangulation, drowning, homophobia & homophobic slurs, hate crime
I received an ARC from Netgalley
4.4

Snakebite, Oregon is not the place Logan would've picked to spend her time in. First off, because it's a small and boring town, even if it is her where her dads grew up. Second, Snakebite doesn't want any of them there either. And third.... something weird is going on in Snakebite. The weather is strange, a teenager disappeared, and her already distant father is acting ever odder. The town thinks her fathers are to blame, but Logan knows that isn't true- right? On top of it, there's Ashley Barton- part of the family that basically owns the whole place, girlfriend of the missing teenager, and maybe the only one that can help Logan clear her family's name. With small town prejudice, heavy amounts of deja vu, something lurking in the dark, and doomed and poorly timed crush, it's more than either girl can deal with alone.

This is such a fantastic, dark sapphic read. It has everything to completely compel me into not wanting to put it down- the romance is a slowburn, the mystery picks at you from all angles, the characters all have friction.

Starting with the romance, I'm always a big fan of "golden girl meets outcast/rebel", and I love the way it's done here. I was afraid it was going to jump right in between them, and somehow I think Gould actually could have managed to make that work, but the tentative allies into confused friendship is so wonderful and done with just the right amount of tension and shifting feelings- plus, the pacing is perfect. Their chemistry is real, and given the perfect amount of space to grow without taking over the page and overshadowing the mystery.

The mystery itself is always well written. The tension and pacing in this book is great in every area. The way the antagonist was shown reminds me a lot of [b:Sawkill Girls|38139409|Sawkill Girls|Claire Legrand|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518809258l/38139409.SY75.jpg|56431700], but with even more mystery and dread tied to it, because there's still such a shroud of mystery over what this thing even is. There's a great amount of hinting, and I got so excited by every implication and reveal.

This book is so full of ghosts and creepiness. It nails the up against the world vibes, it hits the romance wonderfully, but it never once forgets that it's a ghost story. The layers make it so good, but it could have easily lost track of itself, and it doesn't. There's a firm foundation of creepiness and the paranormal that gives you all the spookiness the premise promises.

There were a few things I wanted a little more expansion with, some moments that could have had more time devoted to them, but those are just personal wishlist items. Over all, I love what Gould set out to do, and how she did it.

TW: jealous rage & intimidation, toxic relationships (The Jealous Type), mentioned rape, threats to infant (Enoki), mentioned arson/death by fire (Silently Burning), mentioned sexual harassment/attempted assault (A Day Off)
3

As always, short story collections are full of stories that all differ in terms of quality. I picked up this book because I 1) try to read translated works and 2) really love adaptations of folk tales, mythology, etc. But I was disappointed in the experience of reading this collection. My rule of thumb for short stories (what I was taught as a Creative Writing major) was that there needs to be a reason you're seeing this moment in time, and there needs to be some kind of arc; and my rule of thumb for adaptations/stories inspired by others is that you should still be able to enjoy the work even without the context of the source material.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of these stories missed all three marks.

I'm glad that there's a list of the inspirations for each story, but that occasionally just baffled me more, and, again, most of the time I'd be reading these stories with zero understanding of what was done except an assumption that Matsuda was doing something potentially clever with the source material.

This doesn't mean I disliked al of the stories, and I did like where the stories touched each other, sharing characters. My favorite stories in this collection were "Smartening Up" and "Having a Blast", both of which were fun, interesting, and meant something to me even without context. I also liked "Loved One", but I'm sad we don't get to see if he ever gets to see his cat.

If you already know all of the folklore here, you may really enjoy reading this collection picking and choosing from them, and spinning them apart. But these stories mostly do not have the ability to stand alone.

It's finally here! And it's hollowed me out like a small, decorative pumpkin!

God, I was scared picking up this book, because I didn't know if I was going to love it because it was this series or love it for the book it was, and I didn't know if the pain (because of course there was going to be pain) was going to overcome the rest of it. But dear Lord this book is good.

This book is also really, really funny, which is a gigantic surprise. These characters somehow all got 70% funnier the second they figured out how to use their words to actually communicate. (And yay, communication is a thing in this book!)
And yet, Rainbow flexes fully here and gives up emotional wallops, derringdo, and a comedy hour in between, and none of it feels anything but organic or earned, and all of it works!
While I was reading I wrote down "How the hell did this book ruin me emotionally for 100 pages and then take me to the circus????" and I genuine cannot say it better than that.

There's so much romance in here, and it's all exceedingly cute. Every book in this series feels a bit like a fanfic of each other, but that's not a bad thing for this series, and it definitely remains true for this book. It's romantic and fun and full of "fix-it" in ways that feel so satisfying.
I love Shepard's piece in this so much, I love the new relationships, I love getting to see our golden relationship finally work itself out hiccups and all.

There are so many great new plot points in here, the only thing that let me down even a little is that things didn't feel like they got full closure. Everything from Wayward Son except Shepard pretty much falls to the wayside, and definitely doesn't get shared with the World of Mages, which I was kind of waiting for. And the major plot point of this book feels like it didn't get much room to breathe, in between all of the rest of it. But, personally, I would have been find with this book being 800 pages and I would probably read The World of Mage's phonebook, so, really, when is it actually enough? (Never! Rainbow, keep writing!)

God, this book was an emotionally rollercoaster and I want to ride it again immediately.

Pre-review comments below
OH MY GOD THE TITLE IS BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY OH MY GOD SIMON HAS A SWORD OH MY GOD BOOK THREE IS HAPPENING

Update: RELEASE DATE AHH. 2021, please be good to me and do not push this back, I swear to God

Update 2: RED ALERT I DON'T KNOW IF THAT'S A WAND OR THE SWORD BUT IT SPELLS OUT M A G I C K