I haven’t read that many books in the past year. I spent more time reviewing comics for reviewfix.com than reading novels. I can count on one hand the number of novels I’ve read this past year. One of those novels is Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman and I can say without hesitation that this was the best book I’ve read that year. Odd, whose name means “the […]
That’s right, I’m reviewing another Speak adaptation. I do like that book that much. This time it’s the graphic novel with artist Emily Carroll. As with the previous two, the plot is about high schooler Melinda who everyone hates because she went to a party and called the cops, getting everyone in trouble. The real reason and this is no longer a spoiler, she got raped at that party but […]
Wow, I haven’t written a review of anything horror in almost two years. Time to fix that with the YA novel The Girl in the Locked Room by Mary Downing Hahn. Jules (girl. Yes, I know) moves into an old house in Virginia because her dad renovates old houses. She spots a mysterious girl on the third floor of the house and Jules thinks the girl is trying to call […]
One of the worst things about being a girl with a super religious mother is all the crazy rules you have to follow. One of them is absolutely no dating. Poet Elizabeth Acevedo tackles this theme in her debut novel The Poet X which while it has some nice ideas falls flat. Xiomara Batista is a Latina teenager living in Harlem. Her mother’s super religious, all the men around her […]
Full disclosure: yes, I did see the movie and then the book because it was nominated for Best Animated Feature (alongside Boss Baby of all things.) Call me a filthy casual shill, but this is one of many ways I discover new books and will discover them in the future. Anyway, The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis is about Parvana, a young Afghan girl whose father was taken by the Taliban […]
Anyone remember an anime called The Girl Who Leapt Through Time? Yeah, it’s one of those that you either loved it or hated it. I was one of those people who was underwhelmed by it. Of course, once I find out there’s a book based on an anime I have to read it. This one was written by Yasutaka Tsutsui in 1967. Yup, it’s one of those anime where the […]
This is the first time in a long while that I have thrown a book in disgust. The last book I did this to was The Fault in Our Stars but for a different reason. This time the book is The Pigman’s Legacy, the sequel to one of my new favorite books The Pigman. While The Pigman is a heartwarming story about two teenagers who felt sorry for tricking an […]
I first found out about Brian Selznick from, like a lot of people, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. That was one of the most creative books I’ve ever read in that it has pencil images that tell a story combined with traditional novel writing. It was also an excellent story. He followed it up with Wonderstruck that was not as good as Hugo but was still interesting. His most recent […]
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