Book Reflections

Content Tags:  Death, Gossip, Bullying, Mystery Description from  Storygraph : Welcome back to Bayview High . . . It's been a year since the events of One Of Us Is Lying. But nothing has settled for the residents of Bayview. Not now someone has started playing a sinister game of Truth or Dare. Choose truth? You must reveal your darkest secret. Choose dare? Well, that could be even more dangerous. Even deadly. When the game takes an even darker turn, suddenly no one at Bayview High knows who to trust. But they need to find out who is behind the game, before it's too late. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Another re-read before beginning the newest installment in the Bayview series.  Sometimes sequels that don't follow the same characters can be a little bit iffy. Like it's trying too hard to be like the first but not quite the same. That is not the case in this book. The characters featured in Book 1 are still present and playing supporting roles while the story focuses on new charac...

Content Tags: Alcoholism, Self-Harm, Genocide, Abuse, Murder, Addiction, Colonialism, Depression, Systemic Violence Description from the back of the book: Keera is a killer. As the king's Blade, she is the most talented spy in the kingdom. And the king's favored assassin. When a mysterious figure moves against the Crown, Keera is called upon to hunt down the so-called Shadow.  She tracks her target into the magical lands of the Fae, but Faeland is not what it seems... and neither is the Shadow. Keera is shocked by what she learns, and can't help but wonder who her enemy truly is: the king that destroyed her people... or the Shadow that threatens the peace? As she searches for answers, Keera is haunted by a promise she made long ago, one that will test her in every way. To keep her word, Keera must not only save herself, but an entire kingdom. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ This is another book I've read this year that really drives home that some books are way more  impactful a...

Content Tags: Death, Gossip, Bullying, Mystery Description from  Storygraph : On Thursday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.  Bronwyn, the brain , is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty , is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal , is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete , is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast , is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investi­gators, his death wasn't an accident. On Thursday, he died. But on Friday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they just the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ...

Content Tags: Murder, Death, Corporal Punishment, Torture, Systemic Racism Description from  Storygraph : Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at noth...

Content Tags: Murder, Death, Racism, Fantasy Description from  Storygraph : Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream.  There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.  Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect h...

Content Tags: Yellowface, Racism, Anxiety, Mental Abuse Description from  Storygraph : Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from A...

Content Tags: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Racism, Murder, LGBTQIA+ Description from  Storygraph : It is 1937, and Laura Ann Langston lives in an America divided—between those who work the mystical arts and those who do not. Ever since the Great Rust, a catastrophic event that blighted the arcane force called the Dynamism and threw America into disarray, the country has been rebuilding for a better future. And everyone knows the future is industry and technology—otherwise known as Mechomancy—not the traditional mystical arts. Laura disagrees. A talented young mage from Pennsylvania, Laura hopped a portal to New York City on her seventeenth birthday with hopes of earning her mage’s license and becoming something more than a rootworker. But four months later, she’s got little to show for it other than an empty pocket and broken dreams. With nowhere else to turn, Laura applies for a job with the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps, a branch of the US government dedicated to repa...