Miscellaneous

Lists and Rankings, Miscellaneous, Theme Tuesdays

Theme Party Tuesdays #1: Books About Korean Pop Culture!

Posted on April 19, 2020April 21, 2020 by Sarah S.

NOTE: this is obviously not being posted on Tuesday. Sorry, guys. 😦 I’m not punctual.

Hey guys! This blog has kind of died lately, and I’m trying to find a way to revive it, so I settled on something that I like doing a little more than I should: obsessively categorizing and ranking things! 🙂

We’ve all had to develop our own coping mechanisms for COVID-19 quarantine survival, and mine (aside from distance running and the online community college class I enrolled myself in For Funsies over spring break) has been bingeing K-Dramas. They’ve proliferated on Netflix lately, and I wanted to see what the hype was all about (one of my friends is in love with them and has been begging me to watch them for years), so I started with “Love Alarm.” And then I watched another one. And now I’m watching two more, and I have a K-pop playlist now, and I can’t STOP. So. Given the fact that we are being graced with not one, not two, but THREE lovely new K-Pop-themed YA novels this year:

I thought…what better way to celebrate my newfound love of Korean pop culture, and the fact that it’s an increasingly popular topic for YA lit, than by using it as the topic of my first Theme Party Tuesday post?

So. In this first post in what’s going to be a weekly series, I’m going to be listing five books in a themed category that I’ve read, along with mini-reviews and recommendations. So let’s get going with our first Theme Party Tuesday: YA lit about Korean pop culture! 🙂

Best for K-pop & K-drama newbies: “SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW,” MAURENE GOO

What It’s About: a runaway K-pop idol in Hong Kong breaks out of her regimented lifestyle to explore Hong Kong in the adventure she’s been longing for, aided by a boy she doesn’t realize is a paparazzi photographer.

Why I Liked It: “Somewhere Only We Know” is one of those books I ate up like an ice cream cone that’s about to melt in the sun: as if I was running out of time. :p As anyone on who reads my posts probably knows, Maurene Goo is one of my auto-buy authors, because all of her books have made me feel like that! Lucky and Jack’s bad-idea-that-you-can’t-help-but-love romance is adorable but also incredibly tense, given what we know about Jack and Lucky doesn’t; the FOOD, ugh; the Hong Kong setting is utterly transportive; and it does a good job of speaking to the darker side of K-pop as well. Oh, and it’s a retelling of the cinematic classic “Roman Holiday.” I would DIE for a movie adaptation of this.

Recommended For: people who think they hate reading, but I’m pretty sure that’s no one who’s voluntarily on this book review blog…and people who don’t know a ton about K-pop but want to get into it. “Somewhere Only We Know” definitely never lets you forget that its leading lady is a K-pop idol and gives a lot of insight into the industry, but there’s so much more to the story than Lucky’s career that it’s not ever JUST a K-pop novel. First and foremost, it’s a romance. Thus, it’s very accommodating for neophytes like myself who are still familiarizing themselves with the world of Korean pop culture.

2. Best Wish-Fulfillment: “Hart & Seoul,” Kristen Burnham

What It’s About: a runaway K-pop idol (sensing a trend?) visiting his aunt in Virginia on hiatus falls for a prickly local girl.

Why I Like It: “Hart & Seoul” is pure wish-fulfillment and fun from start to finish. It’s the “European prince falls for a plucky working-class American girl” Hallmark movie trope, except that the prince is a K-pop idol. That premise is admittedly a little self-insert-fanfic-y, but it’s well-written, and SO MUCH FUN. Now, I’ll admit that it’s not the book to go for if you’re looking for a primer in Korean culture: it’s not always incredibly accurate and the perspective character’s lack of sensitivity towards Korean culture can come off badly at times. But for me, the positive outweighed the negative: learning man Lee is an adorable bean, its depiction of the K-pop fandom has to be read to be believed and made me laugh my face off, and it’s a very, very fun romp if you can get past Merrilee’s cultural insensitivity.

Recommended For: those in need of an escape, fans who’ve always wondered what it would be like to fall for their celebrity crush, or casual K-pop fans who aren’t going to be mortally offended by the inaccuracies.

3. Best Quick Read: “The Idol Who Became Her World” by Ji Soo Li

What It’s About: aspiring K-pop idol Minhyuk builds a rapport with American dancer Lucinda through several years attending an annual dance camp together. Their friendship builds to romance, but the odds aren’t in their favor as Minhyuk’s music career takes off.

Why I Liked It: I’m going to be honest, this was not really of the quality of the other books on this list. The writing in “The Idol Who Became Her World” lacks the polish of that in the rest of the books on this list, and its story is a little bit ???. But it’s decent, it gives a good bare-bones introduction to the K-pop world, and it’s short. Not a bad way to spend an hour. (No, seriously, it will take an hour to read this. It’s 105 pages.)

NOTE: there are three more books in this series that I haven’t read.

Recommended For: people with an interest in K-pop a lot of extra time on their hands.

4. Best Use of K-Dramas: “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by Maureen Goo

What It’s About: an overachiever with questionable luck in romance uses K-dramas to design a surefire method for landing a boyfriend.

Why I Liked It: this book is kind of insane in the best possible way. Protagonist Desi has a plan to snag her dream man that would only work in fiction, and watching it play out in epically melodramatic Korean drama fashion is an absolute treat. Is Desi actually kind of deranged when you stop to think about it? Yup. Is her plan actually kind of disturbing? Definitely. But as a fellow overachiever, watching this oh-so-relatable overachiever scheme, plan, and wind up with everything she ever wanted in the end is so much fun. It really does have a K-drama-esque plot, and who doesn’t love those from time to time?

Recommended For: K-drama addicts who feel like taking a break from the screen to read. Or just fans of wildly improbable but incredibly fun contemporary romances.

5. Favorite Overall: “Comeback” by Lyn Ashwood and Rachel Rose

What It’s About: rising K-pop star Emery Jung (known to fans of his group NEON as “M”) is thrown for a loop when he crosses paths with a mysterious girl from his past.

Why I Liked it: okay, so I know not everyone loved this, but let me gush for a minute. The romance was honestly kind of meh, but I didn’t care because that didn’t make or break the book for me. This one had so much heart. And aside from that, the insight into the K-pop industry was superb (it has a very “insider look” vibe), the relationships between the boys in NEON were wonderful, and Emery was a sweet bean and in other news, I want eight of him. This was the book on this list that I most connected with on an emotional level, and though a working knowledge of K-pop helps, you don’t need to know anything or even like the genre to enjoy this.

Recommended For: people who don’t think they could possibly like a book about K-pop, because if reading “Comeback” doesn’t prove such people wrong, I don’t know what could.

BONUS: if you want more books about Korean culture in general that don’t necessarily involve K-pop or K-dramas, I recommend “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Maurene Goo, “Good Enough” by Paula Yoo, and “Wicked Fox” by Kat Cho, and (I can never hype this series up enough) the “Rebel Seoul” duoloy by Axie Oh.

This concludes my first incredibly delayed Theme Party Thursday! What’s your favorite book on this list? Do you know of any other books on Korean pop culture that you’d recommend? Leave me a comment to let me know 🙂

Miscellaneous, Reviews

MINI-REVIEWS: What I’ve Read This Month is no

Posted on March 14, 2020May 8, 2020 by Sarah S.

So, I haven’t exactly been active on this blog lately. Other than the ARCs I’ve reviewed lately, I’ve fallen very short of my goal of reviewing every YA novel that I read. So in an attempt to remedy that, I’m doing a few mini-reviews of the recent releases I’ve read this month!

1. “This Light Between Us” by Andrew Fukuda

Quick Summary: a Japanese-American boy and a French-Jewish girl become pen pals a few years before the outbreak of WWII; the friendship they build through their letters sustains them when, as teenagers, as both of them come under fire during the war because of their heritage.

What I Liked: seeing the literarily-familiar events of WWII through the unique experiences of two teenagers whose people were oppressed during the war was eye-opening. We spend most of the book seeing the events through the perspective of Alex Maki, a Japanese-American teenager who joins the army after his family is uprooted to an internment camp at Manzanar, which is a perspective that I don’t see much of in WWII fiction; his circumstances (and those of his pen pal Charlie, though we don’t see as much of her) are heartbreaking, but his story is an important one, and though it’s not easy to read, it really puts things in perspective.

Recommended For: those who like historical fiction with substance and weight.

Rating: 4/5 Nonplussed Giraffes

2. “Break the Fall” by Jennifer Iacopelli

Quick Summary: elite gymnast Audrey Lee, recently recovered from a major injury, thinks all is right with the world when she makes the 2020 Olympic team, but a series of shocking revelations are about to throw a wrench in the team’s plans.

What I Liked: I love gymnastics, and there were a few years where I followed the sport extensively enough to know the technical lingo and all, so I was OVERJOYED at the accuracy of the gymnastics side of this story. I’ve never read a sports story where the author so clearly knows her stuff. That, combined with the compelling characters, very real and meaningful human drama, and Iacopelli’s talent for writing fast-paced competition sequences, made for an utterly gripping story. I devoured this thing in a single night and was legitimately depressed when it was over – as much as I love to read, I can’t remember the last time that happened. “Break the Fall,” with its unique blend of exciting gymnastics, cultural relevance, real and lovable characters, and friendship dynamics, was easily my favorite YA novel of 2020 so far.

Recommended For: everyone, especially fans of gymnastics, the Olympics, and well-written sports stories of all stripes.

Rating: 5/5 Nonplussed Giraffes

3. “The Iron Will of Genie Lo” by F.C. Yee

Quick Summary: when an existential threat faces the universe as she knows it, Genie Lo – with boyfriend Quentin and mentor Guanyin – realizes that the demon invasion of the first book in her eponymous series was just the tip of the iceberg.

What I Liked: the mythology aspect of these books is always fun, given how little I know about Chinese mythology and how much F.C. Yee does fantastic things with the concept of the Chinese pantheon cavorting about the modern SF Bay Area. But what I’ll really miss about the story of Genie Lo is the characters. From perpetually-angry overachiever Genie, learning restraint and mercy without losing one ounce of her delightful snark and her boyfriend, Quentin, an adorable and extremely competent but reckless goof-off with a heart of gold; to soft-hearted bad*** Guanyin, goddess of mercy, to her best friend Yunie, a violinist who doesn’t take “no” for an answer; to entirely new characters we get to meet here – I love them all. They’re all so fresh, dynamic, and full of life that I couldn’t help but fall in love with them, and I can’t help but miss them now that the duology is over. And their adventures were as humorous and action-packed as ever. This was a great way to end Genie’s story, as much as I wish it didn’t have to.

Recommended For: fans of the first book, Chinese mythology, mythology-based YA in general, and urban fantasy.

Rating: 4.5/5 Nonplussed Giraffes

Miscellaneous

Sarah’s Not-Quite-Definitive List of Clean YA Recommendations

Posted on May 25, 2019June 3, 2019 by Sarah S.

I wanted to write a post, but since I’m procrastinating my review of “Descendant of the Crane” (AMAZING, by the way) like my life depends on it, this is not going to be one. Also, every book blog I love posts things other than reviews, so I figure it has to be good to branch out. So where to begin? Well, I thought a clean-YA rec list might be a good starting point.

You may have noticed that I go to some length to point out adult content in a book I review. That is very intentional. Growing up, I was always encouraged to read as much as I could, but my parents were so strict about content that YA was sort of an off-limits genre until I was about fourteen. Even then, I wasn’t allowed to read it if it didn’t come from a list of clean YA recs that my mother found online. Obviously, it’s been a few years and she doesn’t do that anymore, but since I was not raised on content-heavy books, I’m not used to them. Not only do I still want to avoid reading about certain things for moral/religious purposes, but I’m just not comfortable with it. So, although my standards have relaxed (significantly), I still try to monitor the books I read for content. Sometimes this isn’t possible – if a book is very new or obscure, there’s rarely information of that nature about it. That lack of information is what I want to address.

I’m careful to write about the content in books I read because I want others to have the resource that I didn’t when I decided to read new or lesser-known YA. Since I review a lot of obscure ARCs, talking about content helps fill in gaps where information isn’t available. So this is going to be my attempt to compile that information. To me, a clean book is one with no sexual content of any kind (the most a book can have and still make the list is kissing and perhaps one or two instances of mild innuendo), strong language (nothing worse than a** and, if present, barely there), or extremely graphic violence (arbitrary, but when you know, you know). So, I’m going to be compiling every clean YA novel I’ve ever reviewed, and some I haven’t, and that doesn’t suck, into this post, for all those readers who, for whatever reason, aren’t down for a lot of adult content. Happy reading!

Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

01_Padmore_Culture_Books_Gifts_Love_and_Gelato_Jenna_Evans_Welch.jpg

Reviewed: no

Rating: 5/5 Befuddled Emu

Six-Word Summary: loss, love, and glorious Italian food.

Why: this comes up on clean lists a lot. But even if you aren’t necessarily in the market for clean books, I absolutely LOVED “Love & Gelato”! I read it in one night when I should have been studying and regret nothing. It’s got a wonderfully atmospheric setting, lovable characters, a slightly far-fetched but incredibly fun premise, a swoon-worthy romance, and a lot of heart. Highly recommended for literally everyone but especially eager armchair travelers.

2. Love a La Mode by Stephanie Kate Strohm

41ZyH7I87kL._SX319_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Reviewed: yes

Rating: 5/5 Befuddled Emus

Six-Word Summary: teen chefs have adventures in Paris.

Why: this was one of the most fun books I’ve read this year. It was so light and fluffy and fun, and the premise was very appealing for me, the girl who was only allowed to watch TV growing up if it was on the Food Network. (Worst Cooks in America was my CHILDHOOD.) The cooking aspect was fun, the romance was appropriately sweet, and the supporting cast was an absolute riot. Seriously, this one was hilarious. I read this on an airplane and was dying the entire time, and I think I got some strange looks, but I didn’t care. There’s one use of “a**” and a few innuendos, but that was so little that I figured it could still make the list. Recommended for soft-hearted chefs and lovers of food the world over.

3. Duels and Deception by Cindy Anstey

51mRpunEtbL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Reviewed: yes

Six-Word Summary: Regency romance with side of kidnapping.

Why: depending on the era, historical fiction tends to be a bit safer than contemporary for those looking for clean books. In line with that theme, this fun Regency rom-com is a great example of that: it obviously has no language (the curse words we use didn’t even exist at the time) or egregious sexual content (it was a tamer time), and since it’s a romance, violence isn’t really a concern. This wasn’t the most riveting book I’ve ever read, but it was fluffy and amusing, and I really enjoyed it. Great for fans of historical fiction or anyone who wants the feel of a Jane Austen novel without the difficult language.

4. Alex & Eliza by Melissa De La Cruz

Reviewed: no

Six-Word Summary: “Hamilton” in book form – truly delightful.

Why: again, historical fiction is often a goldmine for cleaner reads. Ironically, given that I’m a theater kid, a musician, and a history nerd, I never really got into Hamilton, which shares characters with this (unaffiliated) novel, but I still loved “Alex & Eliza.” It’s extremely clean save for one vaguely-described assault scene (nothing is described in any detail and the perpetrator is stopped very quickly), and other than that page-long scene, it’s a lot of fun. Eliza and her sisters are wonderful characters and her romance with Alex is deliciously enemies-to-lovers-esque. Recommended for fans of Hamilton, historical romances, or books about colonial America.

5. Last of Her Name by Jessica Khoury

Reviewed: no

Six-Word Summary: Space Anastasia – need I say more?

Why: I CAN’T RAVE ABOUT THIS BOOK ENOUGH. I never reviewed it, I know, so please take my word for it: I loved this to death. Anastasia is my favorite animated movie (although I actually prefer the Broadway show…), I have a very odd interest in anything Russian, and I have a soft spot for space stories, so of COURSE I was going to love this delightful sci-fi retelling of the Anastasia legend. It’s about what would happen if you mixed Anastasia with Guardians of the Galaxy (another of my absolute favorites) and threw in just a pinch of Star Wars for good measure. IT’S SO GOOD, MY DUDES. And clean. Did I mention that? I don’t always love sci-fi, but this one easily converted me for the time I spent reading it. Highly recommended for everyone. Yes, everyone.

6. For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

51WMTSktTRL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Reviewed: yes

Six-Word Summary: contemplative dystopian Jane Austen retelling.

Why: this wasn’t my favorite, probably not the least because I didn’t really like “Persuasion,” of which “For Darkness Shows the Stars” is a retelling, much either. Still, I liked it fine, and if you like dystopian fiction that uses its hypothetical future scenario to pose ethical questions, you’ll love this. It had a lot of depth, but not much emotional heft – I didn’t really connect with the characters. Still, a good read for people who like unique retellings and dystopian novels that don’t look like every single other one ever published.

7. Good Enough by Paula Yoo

Reviewed: yes

Six-Word Summary: overachieving Korean violinist navigates senior year.

Why: this book was a gem, and it makes me sad that it’s so obscure. As an overachieving violinist (who overachieves in areas not involving violin, which I am sadly not as good at as our protagonist here) myself, I could relate to a lot of it. And it has great Korean rep if that’s something you’re looking for. This was just really satisfying read (and a clean one), and I want more people to know it exists.

8. A Conspiracy of Stars by Olivia A. Cole

41iwUukjM5L._SX336_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Reviewed: no

Six-Word Summary: fascinating sci-fi commentary on colonialism.

Why: this is another of those very contemplative books that ponders ethical questions. It’s set on a planet settled by future humans fleeing from a destroyed earth and deals very thoroughly and evocatively with the consequences of human exploitation of the planet’s people and resources. “A Conspiracy of Stars” is a deep exploration of colonialism but tends to drag in parts; even though it’s clean enough for any teenage reader, it would probably not be very interesting to anyone younger than sixteen. Still, a superbly-written novel.

OTHER BOOKS THAT ALSO FIT THESE CRITERIA (Will be added to)

Note: these are only books that I have never seen on another list. I left out obvious ones like “The Selection” because they show up on every other list of this nature that I’ve seen and I’m trying to provide entirely new recommendations.

The “Vango” Duology by Timothee de Fombelle
“Hart & Seoul” by Kristen Burnham (upcoming – I’ actually got to interview the author about this book, and I address the cleanliness issue there)
“Parade of Shadows” by Gloria Whelan

Lists like this are more useful when they’re sourced by a variety of people, so if you know of any clean YA novels that you’ve read and enjoyed, please leave a comment listing them and I will gladly add them to this post! The more, the merrier 🙂