Posted in Uncategorized

REVIEW: “The Girl Who Became a Goddess” by Theresa Fuller

Posted on by Sarah S.

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

SPECS

Author: Theresa Fuller

Release Date: May 26, 2019

SUMMARY

The Girl Who Became a Goddess is a tribute to the childhood stories of Theresa Fuller who has experienced multiple cultures and learned to love them all. These are tales passed on from generation to generation, some to delight, some to terrify, all to enlighten.

A FOOLISH ANIMAL DISCOVERS THAT THE RAINFOREST IS A DANGEROUS PLACE.

As a girl, a mother, and a teacher, Theresa retells her favorite folktales through the lens of her own life experiences in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia, putting a unique spin on ageless classics.

A YOUNG BOY IS WILLING TO SACRIFICE EVERYTHING FOR HIS FAMILY.

The Girl Who Became a Goddess is a love letter to a young girl from the adult she has become.

REVIEW

I don’t typically read folktales – not out of dislike, just because they aren’t really on my radar a lot. So when I saw a collection of Southeast Asian folktales available for request on NetGalley, I was intrigued; I thought it might be an interesting expansion on my typical reading habits. I was absolutely right.

I knew almost nothing about Singaporean culture and folktales (most of the stories in this collection originated in Singapore), so I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect. Essentially, the book is broken into two major sections: one half that contains several shorter folktales, and another half that is all one story – the titular legend. Though I enjoyed all of them, “The Mousedeer Who Danced on the Backs of Crocodiles” had to be my favorite. I love stories about animals AND stories that praise brains over brawn, and this one was both – and unlike anything I’d ever seen in the European folktales/fairy tales I grew up with. But, though that one was my favorite, there weren’t any that I really disliked.

Really, this was a great case study in why it’s a good idea to expand your reading horizons. I would probably not have picked this up if it hadn’t been on NetGalley but I’m very glad I did. This was a fascinating look at a culture I didn’t know much about, and after reading it I’m interested in learning more.

RATING:

This one is a little unusual because it’s an anthology rather than a story, so I’m going to give it a flat rating rather than an averaged one. Since I enjoyed it so much, I’m going to go ahead and give it a 5/5.

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: “Dear Haiti, Love Alaine” by Maika and Maritza Moulite

Posted on by Sarah S.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

Author: Maika and Maritza Moulite

Release Date: September 3, 2019

SUMMARY:

When a school presentation goes very wrong, Alaine Beauparlant finds herself suspended, shipped off to Haiti and writing the report of a lifetime…

You might ask the obvious question: What do I, a seventeen-year-old Haitian American from Miami with way too little life experience, have to say about anything?

Actually, a lot.

Thanks to “the incident” (don’t ask), I’m spending the next two months doing what my school is calling a “spring volunteer immersion project.” It’s definitely no vacation. I’m toiling away under the ever-watchful eyes of Tati Estelle at her new nonprofit. And my lean-in queen of a mother is even here to make sure I do things right. Or she might just be lying low to dodge the media sharks after a much more public incident of her own…and to hide a rather devastating secret.

All things considered, there are some pretty nice perks…like flirting with Tati’s distractingly cute intern, getting actual face time with my mom and experiencing Haiti for the first time. I’m even exploring my family’s history—which happens to be loaded with betrayals, superstitions and possibly even a family curse.

You know, typical drama. But it’s nothing I can’t handle.

REVIEW:

Well, this was a mixed bag…let’s break it down in bullet points.

WHAT I LIKED

  1. The Alzheimer’s subplot (spoiler alert: Alaine’s mom is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s). I’ve never read a YA book that deals with Alzheimer’s before, and I think “Dear Haiti, Love Alaine” did a great job of showing how devastating it can be both for the patients and for their loved ones. Great take on a rarely-covered but very prevalent real-life issue.
  2. Alaine’s voice. Though she often came off as really entitled and reckless, she was written with a wicked sense of humor and a lot of intelligence, and I liked the way she narrated her story.
  3. The glimpse into Haitian culture and class structures. “Dear Haiti…” went to great pains to show multiple facets of Haitian society, and to point out the extreme divide between Haiti’s upper and lower classes. We get glimpses of both privilege and poverty, and the characters who fall into the “privileged” category (mostly) show an admirable desire to bridge the gap between classes. The story also presents Haitian worldviews and customs (the best example of this is the “family curse” subplot) in a way that left me feeling like I’d learned a lot about the culture.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

  1. The busy-ness of the plot. There were sooooo may subplots, and I didn’t dislike any of them, but there were just way too many of them. From the family curse to the Alzheimer’s diagnosis and the romance (more on that later) and everything else, trying to follow all of the plot threads left me mentally out of breath.
  2. The romance seemed super rushed. There was almost no explanation of it: Alaine’s aunt tries to set her up with a guy, and she is vehemently opposed to this. Then, she meets said guy, and boom! Love. I was a little confused – “where did that come from?” was all I could think. It was cute, but came out of absolutely nowhere; it didn’t really feel earned.
  3. I liked Alaine’s voice, but her personality grated on me. A lot. She seemed so entitled. In a lot of cases Alaine acted like she expected to be allowed to do whatever she wanted without consequence. (Case in point: the school project that initially gets her sent to Haiti.) She was very self-centered and not particularly mature, and although she grows during her time in Haiti, she never loses that above-the-law attitude. I know a lot of people like it when people show that kind of assertiveness, so they’ll probably like Alaine, but it drives me nuts. (To be fair, a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that she uses humor/snark/acts out to cope with grief.) Alaine’s mom had a lot of the same personality traits, but she didn’t get as much page time, so it wasn’t as bothersome.

RATING: 

Plot: 4/5. The story was fascinating, but at times, there was a bit too much going on. There were a LOT of subplots and none of them were ostensibly weak or boring, but there were just so many of them.

Characters: 5/5. The characters’ relationship dynamics were really the beating heart of the story. Not all of them were entirely likable, but their motivations were fleshed out enough to make that lack of likability understandable.

Pacing: 3/5. Slow in parts; some of it was really redundant and in other parts, there was simply too much happening at once.

Handling of Subject Matter: 5/5. The plotline involving Alaine’s mother’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s (what a lot of apostrophes) was handled well and Haitian culture is lovingly and respectfully incorporated into almost every element of the story.

Writing Style: 3/5 – I probably shouldn’t take points off of this category for the formatting of an ARC because it probably won’t stay like that in the actual publication version, but the format was so incredibly incoherent that it was difficult to read. The writing itself was nice, but I couldn’t get past the formatting issues.

Content: 4/5 – generally pretty clean save for a smattering of strong language. Also, Alaine makes some choices that I should hope most teenagers would not want to emulate.

Overall: 4.00/5

Posted in Uncategorized

INTERVIEW: Kristen Burnham on “Hart & Seoul”

Posted on by Sarah S.

GUYS, THIS IS SO EXCITING. I couldn’t be more thrilled to present you guys with my first-ever author interview! I was lucky enough to have the chance to chat with Kristen Burnham on her upcoming debut, “Hart & Seoul,” which I loved (review here). Both Kristen and her agent, Michelle Weber, were wonderful to work with, and I can’t wait to share her insights with you guys – and hopefully get some of you to read this awesome debut, which is releasing June 4!

INTERVIEW TIME 🙂

1. K-Pop is obviously a huge cultural phenomenon right now—I’ve been seeing a lot of K-pop-related YA lit right now (I’m actually reading another book that deals with the K-pop industry, which is kind of a funny coincidence!). Even so, Hart & Seoulwas a really unique take on that subject matter—taking the K-pop star out of Korea and plunking him down in Virginia certainly changes the dynamic a lot! How’d you get into K-pop, and what ultimately inspired you to write a novel about it? 

 

K-pop has really taken the country by storm, hasn’t it? Being in Northern Virginia, I’m right near what we call Little Korea, THE place to get all the Korean food you could ever want from both restaurants and grocery stores and anything else Korean you have a craving for. It’s perfect for a K-drama/pop junkie like me! And it’s great for inspiration; whenever I hit a creative wall, I’d go out to my favorite Korean bbq place and always leave inspired…and full. Really, really full.

 

But I in no way planned for my debut novel to be Hart & Seoul. It’s funny, because if you’d told me that my first novel was going to be about a K-pop star, I would have laughed myself silly; I’d been grappling with one idea for years, and it was most definitely not Hart & Seoul. I was convinced that that was going to be the one that I’d publish first…but I am so glad that I was wrong!

 

Hart & Seoul seemingly hit me out of nowhere, although in hindsight I think it ultimately came from years of watching K-dramas (I blame Boys Over Flowers for starting it all), which eventually led me to K-pop. I was volunteering at a book festival, moderating a panel, and twiddling my thumbs because the audience was having such a great time with the authors and obviously didn’t need me there to come up with questions. I admit, I was super tired from having to get up so early to get to the festival, had the beginnings of a massive headache, and the day was only halfway over—so I told myself that as a reward I’d start a new K-drama. But what drama to watch? A romance? Fantasy? Comedy? What if there was a drama about a K-pop star that moved next door to a girl in America…and Hart & Seoul was born! I was really hoping that I’d be able to create a rom-com that is just as you described it: unique. 

 

2. One of my favorite parts of Hart & Seoul was the famous guy/ordinary girl romance dynamic. I’m a total sucker for that type of rom-com, and I have to ask: what made you want to write about that? Also, semi-relatedly, I noticed that the novel is set very near your hometown—is that a clue that there is some element of autobiography in this (whether real or more of a wishful-thinking scenario, like what you would have wanted to experience at Merrilee’s age)? 

 

Wouldn’t any K-drama/pop lovin’ teenager want this? *Laughs* But alas, for me, it is entirely a work of fiction—I mean, I can’t even draw (unlike Merilee), and I certainly haven’t come so much as thirty feet near a celebrity of any kind. One day, celebrity crush, one day…

 

I chose this setting because a) it was what I know and b) I wanted to put Lee in an area that on the one hand would be out of the spotlight but still run the risk of meeting fans, although he’s not entirely aware of that danger at first. That was tricky, because I wanted to make it relatively believable that he’d be recognized without having the Chasers be an actual threat before his discovery. And yes, I had A LOT of fun writing the Chaser scenes. 

 

I am SO a sucker for famous person falling for ordinary person—one of my favorite Disney Channel original movies was Model Behavior. I won’t spoil the plot for you because it’s worth the time to search for it, but needless to say I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that the book features the famous/ordinary love story plotline…as does half of the K-dramas that I’ve ever watched. Two words for you: Full House. #Rain

 

3. Hart & Seoul is much, much cleaner than your average YA book (as a reader who isn’t comfortable with tons of adult content, I very much appreciated that!). I often find that YA authors who choose to write cleaner stories do so very purposefully. Could you tell us if that’s the case with you as well? Did you have a particular motivation for wanting to write something that touches on mature themes without mature content?

 

I love that you bring this up, because that is EXACTLY what I was going for. One of the reasons why I fell in love with YA was because I could have the fun of all the most amazing genres without some of the more graphic content that is in adult books. I have friends/co-workers who don’t mind that content, which is fine; I, personally, gravitate towards books that don’t have it, and wanted to help provide some more of that kind to give YA readers a variety to choose from. I challenged myself to write a book that is entertaining without the added adult content because you don’t always need it to tell the story. 

 

4. Merilee’s turns of phrase and the way she thinks and speaks are absolutely hilarious. I was in stitches at some of her observations, which rarely happens when I read YA contemporaries. How did you develop her incredibly unique and comedic voice? And, more broadly, how did you manage to pull off that tonal balance between humor—Merilee’s zany manner of speaking, her hilariously awkward interactions with Lee, the terrifying-but-somehow-still-hysterically-funny melodrama perpetrated by the Storm Chaser fangirls—and the more serious messages about mental health and absentee parents? 

 

I read somewhere that debut authors often put a LOT of themselves in the book, and that is absolutely the case with Hart & Seoul. I always try to see the humor in situations, and I think Merilee’s voice is very similar to my own. (Okay, I know that it is; several people who read early drafts of it commented on just how much Merilee sounds like me.) I have always enjoyed comedies with snappy dialogue, feisty characters who are able to a laugh at themselves, and zany (love that word!) adventures that pull everything together, and really wanted to create that atmosphere in Hart & Seoul. I took a lot of inspiration from K-dramas, which excel at having that humor while at the same time introducing emotional storylines that have a surprising amount of depth to them that you initially didn’t expect.

 

In regards to the more serious plotlines in the book, I drew from my own experiences, particularly with Lee’s struggles. I think that because I tend to be very bubbly person (other people’s description of me, not my own), people are shocked when they find out that I suffer from anxiety—mainly panic attacks. I had my first one when I was six years old, and for years didn’t know how to describe it other than saying that I was sick. At one point, it was so bad I couldn’t leave the house, and even now it amazes me that I’ve been able to do the things that I’ve done. It hasn’t been an easy road, but my family has always been so supportive of me, and I’ve been blessed to work with a fantastic counselor who has helped me learn coping techniques that I practice every day. Plus, having a sense of humor about things is a huge help!

 

Everyone, to some extent, deals with anxiety, but for some of us that level of anxiety is kicked up a notch…or fifty. If nothing else, I want people to know that they are not alone—something that both Merilee and Lee struggle with, in different ways—and that there is hope. Whether it’s talking to a family member, friend, therapist—there are people who genuinely care and want to help you. 

 

5. My English teacher once told my class a story about a friend of Ernest Hemingway’s who challenged him to write a story in six words. I loved that idea, and I included six-word summaries of every book I reviewed for several months. Now it’s your turn! How would you describe Hart & Seoul in six words? 

 

Oh gosh, really? Okay, here goes: Runaway K-pop star meets American suburbs.

 

6. As a youth librarian, you clearly have a lot of exposure to children’s/YA literature. What was it that you hoped to add to the YA world by writing the story that you did—in other words, what did you not see in other books that you hoped readers would see in yours? 

 

There are so many excellent YA books out there—books that inspired me to write, books that I see reader after reader get excited about. I don’t want to say that they’re missing something that my book has—other than the fact that I’m the writer of it and not someone else!—but I will say that YA moves in trends. No surprise there. I just wanted to try something new, both for me to write and for people to read. And boy oh boy, am I glad I did! I began penning the draft before K-pop had become as hugely popular in the States as it is now, but once I saw just how popular it was getting, it convinced me all the more that this was a story that was meant to be shared. Writing a book doesn’t happen overnight, and getting it published takes even longer, so I’m incredibly fortunate that the timing worked out the way it did. 

 

 

7. The question every author probably dreads: are you working on any other writing projects after Hart & Seoul? Are you interested in returning to the world of Korean pop culture in your writing, or would future projects probably be very different from Hart & Seoul? 

 

While I am happy to say that that one idea that I struggled with for so long is finally ready to be developed, I think it’s safe to say that Merilee and Lee’s adventures are not over. They both still have a lot of things to sort out, lessons to learn…and we still haven’t met the other Thunder members yet! And that’s all I’ll say at the moment. 😊

 I hope that’s gotten you all excited for this release! Seriously, you’ve got to read this. “Hart & Seoul” is out today and you can purchase it at:

https://www.amazon.com/Hart-Seoul-Kristen-Burnham/dp/1643073141

https://mascotbooks.com/mascot-marketplace/buy-books/fiction/young-adult/hart-seoul/

Happy reading! 🙂

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen

Posted on by Sarah S.

SPECS

Author: Jenn P. Nguyen

Page Count: 292

Genres: YA, romance, contemporary

SUMMARY 

Mia and Jake have known each other their whole lives. They’ve endured summer vacations, Sunday brunches, even dentist visits together. Their mothers, who are best friends, are convinced that Mia and Jake would be the perfect couple, even though they can’t stand to be in the same room together.

After Mia’s mom turns away yet another cute boy, Mia and Jake decide they’ve have had enough. Together, they hatch a plan to get their moms off their backs. Permanently. All they have to do is pretend to date and then stage the worst breakup of all time—and then they’ll be free.

The only problem is, maybe Jake and Mia don’t hate each other as much as they once thought…

REVIEW

There were some fantastic things about this book. Those include:

  1. The friendships. The summary doesn’t touch on this, but both Mia and Jake have fantastically supportive friends (both male and female). They are never anything but unwaveringly supportive and there is NO DRAMA TO BE FOUND. Can I get a hallelujah?!? That never happens in YA contemporaries. I loved those relationships and I want to see more of that in YA.
  2. FAKE DATING. SOOOO MUCH GLORIOUS FAKE DATING. Mia and Jake’s plan is exactly the kind of thing I’d do if I were in their shoes and while it isn’t exactly realistic (few teens I know are that extra), desperate times call for desperate measures. Their adventures in fake dating were pretty hecking (yes, I said hecking) entertaining.
  3. The fact that this story follows every known rom-com trope and is completely, utterly predictable but still managed to hold my interest, even though I knew exactly what would happen next at almost all times.

But there was also a problem: “Fake it Till You Break It” was a little surface-level. It sort of touched on some deeper topics (parent death, estranged siblings), but it never really delved into them, nor did it have a lot to say. It kept everything very superficial, so it was kind of difficult to form an emotional connection to the story. There just wasn’t a lot too it. It was cute, and fun, and lighthearted, but not substantial – and although sometimes that’s okay, I prefer books with something to say. It need not be profound, so long as it is there. Had there been such a message in “Fake It Till You Break It,” I think it would have been a solid 4-5 star book.

RATING

Plot: 5/5 – but this number could vary a lot from person to person. If you enjoy rom-com tropes the way I do, you’ll probably rate it as highly as I did. But if you’re looking for something profound and unpredictable…yeah, not the book for you. Either you love this sort of thing or you hate it and there’s not much in between. I happened to love it, because fake dating is just about the best thing ever, but I can see how others wouldn’t.

Characters: 3/5 – they’re nice, but a little bit two-dimensional. We learn what makes them tick but I didn’t really connect with them. That’s an issue I had with a lot of parts of this book – it’s cute but ultimately too surface-level to really make a connection with.

Pacing: 5/5 – it’s kind of an extended one-day romance (they fake-date for about a week) and it’s almost impossible to pace one of those badly, since everything happens so fast.

Content: 3/5 – this would have made my clean list if not for the fact that it’s got a bit of strong language. That was the reason for one of the points I docked. The other was for the fact that it has almost no message or moral to speak of – for me, that’s a bit of a detractor. Others might not care, and it is light and fun so I get why it seems weird to take a point off for that, but I firmly believe that a book can be fun and lighthearted and still have something to say. This definitely does not.

Handling of Subject Matter: 3/5 – there…was not a lot to be handled here.

Writing Style: 3/5 – meh. Nothing wrong with it, but meh.

Overall: 3.67/5

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: Descendant of the Crane

Posted on by Sarah S.

SPECS

Author: Joan He

Page Count: 410

Genres: YA, fantasy

SUMMARY 

Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina does something desperate: she engages the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death… because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago.

Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

In this shimmering Chinese-inspired fantasy, debut author Joan He introduces a determined and vulnerable young heroine struggling to do right in a world brimming with deception.

REVIEW

WOW.

That’s the only way I could begin this review. “Descendant of the Crane” was the epitome of “wow.”

Everyone whose opinion is important in the book world read this book long before I did, so you’ve probably seen rave reviews already. I am here to tell you, folks, that those reviews were absolutely dead-on. “Descendant of the Crane” has it all – suspense, action,  characters who leap off the page, a touch of unrequited romance, beautiful writing – but its strongest quality is its relentless pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you-ness. (That was a horribly clunky contraction but it gets the point across.) Masterfully-executed plot twists abound in the later chapters and although there were a few tiny details I could kind of see coming, when it really counts, you won’t have any idea what hit you. It pulls off twists so deftly that it reminded me of the similarly-plotted “Queen’s Thief” series (which is just about the highest compliment I can pay a YA fantasy – those have been among my favorite books since I was a child).

 Another place where He’s debut shines is in its political overtones. I love political fantasy, though why I do is rather a mystery, and I found myself being drawn into Hesina’s struggles as she navigated the politics of her court. I also appreciated that she reacted to such things exactly as someone of her age (she’s 17) in an incredibly high-pressure situation would – she didn’t always handle situations like a seasoned pro, as would be realistic, and she often lets her emotions get the better of her. That also set her up as an interesting character foil to Akira, the love interest-ish figure and Hesina’s court representative, a convict whose almost-too-smooth conduct and brilliant arguments in court always give off the impression that there’s more to him than meets the eye. (Spoiler alert: there is.) It was easy to get lost in the court proceedings and officials’ political machinations.

In the end, this was an incredibly gripping work of fantasy. I am wildly impressed, and I sincerely hope this gets a sequel – it deserves, nay, demands one.

RATING 

Plot: 5/5 – “Descendant” weaves a brilliant, tightly-plotted narrative that never fails to keep the reader guessing.

Characters: 5/5 – though not always likable, the characters are nearly all complex, layered, and capable of suddenly pulling the rug out from under each other.

Pacing: 5/5 – though this is a long book, it never lagged.

Handling of Subject Matter: 5/5 – particularly deft in portraying the effects of grief and massive responsibilities on young people. It was also a very insightful commentary on the difficulty of rooting out oppression when it’s deeply ingrained in the collective mind of a society.

Content: 4/5 – this is a brutal story, mostly emotionally. There is little kindness or truth in Yan, and characters stab each other in the back constantly; that is not necessarily a bad thing content-wise (it’s not usually violent), but it can make for a difficult read. Otherwise, there is very little content to worry about other than a tiny smattering of vulgar language and a few innuendoes.

Writing Quality: 5/5 – absolutely SPECTACULAR. He’s prose is nothing short of poetic.

Overall: 4.83/5

Posted in Miscellaneous

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

Posted on 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!

  1. Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch 

 

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 

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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

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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.

  1. The “Vango” Duology by Timothee de Fombelle
  2. “Hart & Seoul” by Kristen Burnham (upcoming – I’ actually got to interview the author about this book, and I address the cleanliness issue there)
  3. “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 🙂 

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: Somewhere Only We Know by Maureen Goo

Posted on by Sarah S.

“Somewhere Only We Know” was far and away one of my most anticipated books of 2019. To put it in terms of pop culture, this was the “Avengers: Endgame” of books for me in terms of hype (I spent MONTHS waiting for that movie! And this book!). So yeah, my expectations were high as heck.

And the actual book?

ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY MET THEM.

SUMMARY 

10 00 p.m.: Lucky is the biggest K-pop star on the scene, and she’s just performed her hit song “Heartbeat” in Hong Kong to thousands of adoring fans. She’s about to debut on The Tonight Show in America, hopefully a breakout performance for her career. But right now? She’s in her fancy hotel, trying to fall asleep but dying for a hamburger.

11 00 p.m.: Jack is sneaking into a fancy hotel, on assignment for his tabloid job that he keeps secret from his parents. On his way out of the hotel, he runs into a girl wearing slippers, a girl who is single-mindedly determined to find a hamburger. She looks kind of familiar. She’s very cute. He’s maybe curious.

12:00 a.m.: Nothing will ever be the same.

REVIEW 

This book took everything I adore about Maureen Goo – the swoon-worthy romance, the focus on Korean culture (particularly Korean pop culture), a little dip of the toe into the pool of deeper issues, the comedic beats – and threw that all into a blender along with an Asian setting (which is new, as her other two books were set in the Los Angeles area) and a masterful use of the one-day romance trope. It worked spectacularly, and I read this entire book in one day. (I think I read the first hundred pages in my English class during other students’ presentations, the second hundred during a school awards ceremony that I had to go because my brother was getting a thing, and the rest later that night.) This one immediately went on my favorites shelf and I’m glad to say that it lived up to the hype.

Before reading this and “Hart and Seoul,” which also has a K-Pop focus, I knew nothing about K-Pop outside of the fact that a bunch of girls at my school are really into BTS. So I didn’t have a lot on which to base my expectations of the book’s handling of the k-pop material. That was good, because A) it made the book far more informative and B) it meant that it couldn’t let me down. It was satisfactory – a little surface-level, but not anything drastic. And I really loved how it tied into the ending, and the choice that Lucky eventually made with her career. But that was not why I loved this.

Friends having spontaneous adventures in big cities is possibly my favorite thing ever. It’s something I’ve always wished I could experience, and I love reading about it. But complete strangers having spontaneous adventures in big cities that end in romance? EVEN BETTER, apparently. The setting, the food(!), the banter, the random scrapes that Lucky and Jack get into while exploring Hong Kong together – all of it was *heart eyes.* It captured the setting so vibrantly that I was building a picture of the places they went in my mind (although the Hong Kong in my brain looked suspiciously like Honolulu, for some reason). Having the “adventure in an unfamiliar city” story partially narrated by a really sheltered character who doesn’t get to do much on her own was a very effective narrative device; Lucky’s wide-eyed wonder at everything about the experience is adorable but also is great for the reader because, if you are like me and have not been to Hong Kong, her reactions feel like yours might, perhaps, be.

The romance was, as others have previously said, a little sketchy. While the night off is entirely Lucky’s decision, she doesn’t really know her way around Hong Kong, so she’s pretty much at Jack’s mercy. Of course, we know that Jack, in spite of his sleaziness, is a decent human who wouldn’t do anything that would put Lucky in harm’s way (he obviously doesn’t care if he hurts her her career at first, but when she’s in actual danger of bodily harm, he does everything he can to protect her), Lucky doesn’t. Lucky, sweetheart, trusting strange men with your life in a foreign cities you’ve never properly been to is not a good life practice! Either way, I think the potential problematic-ness of that scenario was meant to be ignored due to the fact that Jack ends up being a decent dude (if you don’t count that he’s a paparazzo) and none of the potential worst-case scenarios end up happening. And the romance really is sweet. Lucky has never really been in love and gets to experience it for the first time on her terms, not those of her studio; Jack finally sees how the advancement of his career could hurt others and is ultimately bettered by his feelings for Lucky. And, as a very innocent person, Lucky’s clumsy attempts at Doing Couple Things were a MOOD. (I, too, lack proper knowledge of how to flirt.)

Also, this cracked me up. One example: Jack’s little sister has possibly the funniest line in this entire book. After their parents tell Jack that they didn’t want him to take the famed “backpacking trip of discovery” during his gap year, she says, “yeah. Discovery of the weed.” And I DIED. She’s reprimanded for this, as it’s not exactly an appropriate thing for a 12-year-old to say, but STILL. This was one of many lines that killed me dead.

Yeah, that about covers it. Read this book, my dudes.

RATING

PLOT: 5/5 – WE STAN A ONE-DAY ROMANCE. Really, an adorable premise.

CHARACTERS: 5/5 – there aren’t many people in this who matter much to the story besides Jack and Lucky, but since we spend so much time in their heads, both of them are wonderfully fleshed-out.

PACING: 5/5 – it’s hard to get a one-day romance paced right, but this one makes a day feel just long enough to say what needs to be said, but not so short that it’s unsatisfying.

WRITING STYLE: 5/5 – I really really really love Maureen Goo’s style, guys.

CONTENT/MESSAGES: 4/5 – light cursing and some references to adult content, not much. (Like Jack’s sister’s “discovery of the weed” line.) Good messages about getting out of unhealthy situations even when it’s difficult, but the “trust a stranger with your life in an unfamiliar foreign city and it’ll turn out fine” plot might send a bit of a sketchy message to more impressionable readers.

HANDLING OF SUBJECT MATTER: 4/5 – it touched on a lot of heavy topics but didn’t really go into depth with them. Ultimately, though, it was a good exploration of K-Pop, the city of Hong Kong, etc. and worked pretty well. I haven’t seen “Roman Holiday,” the movie this was apparently based on, but I can imagine this is a pretty good retelling.

OVERALL: 4.67/5

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: “Across a Broken Shore” by Amy Trueblood

Posted on by Sarah S.

I received an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. “Across a Broken Shore” releases to the general public November 5th, 2019. 

SUMMARY

The last thing eighteen-year-old Wilhelmina “Willa” MacCarthy wants is to be a nun. It’s 1936, and as the only daughter amongst four sons, her Irish–Catholic family is counting on her to take her vows—but Willa’s found another calling. Each day she sneaks away to help Doctor Katherine Winston in her medical clinic in San Francisco’s Richmond District.

Keeping secrets from her family only becomes more complicated when Willa agrees to help the doctor at a field hospital near the new bridge being built over the Golden Gate. Willa thinks she can handle her new chaotic life, but as she draws closer to a dashing young ironworker and risks grow at the bridge, she discovers that hiding from what she truly wants may be her biggest lie of all.

REVIEW

This was another example of the classic “I requested this from NetGalley, not expecting anything, only to end up loving it” scenario. Across a Broken Shore was at times dark, depressing, and bleak, but it was undercut with hope and progress and familial bonds that no amount of suffering broke.

The book’s selling point for me, at first glance, was Willa’s interest in medicine. As a teenage girl interested in science, I love reading about girls my age who are also passionate about STEM fields, regardless of what they are. That works especially well for me in settings where the character has to face down and defeat prejudice to practice her profession of choice. There aren’t many stories more empowering for me, a girl who loves science and deeply values education, than those of young women who overcome societal barriers to their education/ability to practice a profession. Thus, Willa’s journey towards becoming a doctor in a world where female doctors were extremely rare was very inspiring for me. And the medical parts of the book were realistic and well-handled;  they were realistically gory at times, but never gratuitous. Any aspect of the book related to medicine got no complaints from me.

Nor did the characterization. Willa was a deeply-realized character, even if she had a rather irritating tendency towards indecision and her brain repeated itself a lot. And the supporting cast was equally strong – Willa’s brother Paddy was an equally fleshed-out character, the MacCarthy siblings’ relationships were explored in depth and quite touching, and SAM. I read some reviews saying the romance was cheesy – perhaps, but I do NOT care. I’m a sucker for cheesy romance, and Sam was a smol bean. It was adorable  and that’s final. 🙂

But perhaps my favorite part of this entire novel was its exploration of religion in Willa’s life. Though she doesn’t want to be a nun (and I can’t blame her – I wouldn’t either), Catholicism is a HUGE part of her life. As a religious person, I get what it’s like to simultaneously rely on your faith and feel incredibly pressured by it/the expectations of fellow practitioners; I related to that part a lot, even though I’ve never exactly promised to be a nun. Thus, I was a bit apprehensive that this book’s treatment of Willa’s faith was going to be sort of toss-aside-y. I was pretty sure it was going to present Willa with a “something’s got to give” scenario where she either had to become a nun or completely abandon her faith to become a doctor, but it didn’t. Rather, Willa simply realizes that God is calling her to something other than the path her parents think she is on. I was very pleasantly surprised that her continual adherence to her faith wasn’t ridiculed as “blindly obeying her parents” or something (as a Christian teenager with very pious parents who chooses to remain in the faith I was raised in, I get “you need to think for yourself” a LOT and expected Willa’s experience to be the same). That was really well-done.

The main problem with this book was that Willa’s internal conflict was hashed out so many times, and in such similar words, that it just felt tired. That was about the only defect on this fantastic book.

RATING 

Plot: 4.5/5 – compelling, and a storyline (both the girl-in-STEM aspect and the religious one) that is very close to my heart. No complaints there. The only issue I took with the plot, and the reason for the 4.5 and not a 5, was that, like, 65% of the conflict could have been avoided with proper communication, and some parts of it were unnecessarily repetitive.

Characters: 5/5 – I fell in love with nearly all of them. IDK, I just really love these crazy Irish kids.

Pacing: 4/5 – like I said, tends to repeat itself. A LOT. But not awful.

Content/Messages: 5/5 – great messages about overcoming obstacles and pursuing your true passions rather than letting others tell you what path to follow. The content is never vulgar or gratuitous, but as the story revolves around physicians who mostly serve the impoverished, it gets dark at times. The harshness of the circumstances might make it too much for younger readers, but given its contemplative nature, those too young to handle the content probably wouldn’t like it much anyway. I’d peg this one for the older end of YA (16+) not because it’s wildly inappropriate but because I can’t see many 13/14-year-olds enjoying this.

Handling of Subject Matter: 4.5/5 – medicine, sexism in STEM fields, and Catholicism were all handled very appropriately, but for a Great Depression-era novel, there wasn’t much of the setting evident in the story. The economic realities of the Depression could have been addressed more; there are no more than four impoverished characters in a novel set during a time when there was a ~30% employment rate. That was a little implausible in my mind.

Writing Style: 3/5. This was the weakest aspect of the book. There were a lot of commas missing (this is an ARC, I know, so that’ll get fixed, but still) and the dialogue was really unrealistic at points. Not egregiously bad, though.

Overall: 4.33/5

Posted in Uncategorized

REVIEW: “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Maureen Goo

Posted on by Sarah S.

SPECS

Title: The Way You Make Me Feel

Author: Maureen Goo

Page Count: 319

Genre: YA

SUMMARY

Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn’t so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind? 

THE GOOD

1. Clara’s growth. As stated below, she’s a pretty awful person when the book starts off, but her summer job and new friendships force her to reevaluate her priorities and realize that caring isn’t a character defect. She becomes kinder and more caring, and learns to cherish what she has. I especially love that she left her old friends: they were terrible influences who brought out the worst in her. Few YA books really seem to touch on the damage that friendships with the wrong people can do, but this one does. Clara’s choice to spend more time with Rose and Hamlet, who actually care about things and have drive and compassion and kindness, was a wonderful decision. Seeing her leave the worst parts of herself behind was one of the most poignant aspects of the story, and also sends a great message about surrounding yourself with people who make you a better person.

2. Rose and Hamlet! Rose reminds me a lot of myself – she’s earnest, hardworking, kind of nerdy, and very enthusiastic about everything she does. Seeing someone like Clara, the type of girl I’d usually avoid like the plague, befriend Rose, who’s so much like me, gives me hope that I actually could get along with that kind of person if I ever had to. And Hamlet…omg. SO ADORABLE. I WANT ONE. He’s a lot like Rose in personality and his interactions with Clara are preciously adorable.

3. The storyline – it’s so unique and fresh and I never found it to be too slow. I really lapped this one up.

4. The friendships – I’ve touched on this a lot already, but Rose, Clara, and Hamlet’s friendship is the kind we all wish we had. Reading about it was so much fun. And really touching, given the path they took to get to that point.

THE BAD

Mostly Clara herself. She starts off as one of those characters whose unique voice makes them seem great on-page, but who you’d hate in real life. As someone who’s very much like Rose, I know I would hate Clara’s selfishness. HAAATE. People who use other people as entertainment at their expense are just about my least favorite humans. It’s so endlessly selfish…I just can’t stand those kinds of people. She’s mean and cynical and doesn’t truly care about anything but herself. Obviously, she changes a lot, but geez, she’s a hard person to like at first. Also, her mother is the actual worst.

RATING

Plot: 4/5. Not a super plot-driven story, but the premise was fun and Goo certainly did it justice.

Characters: 5/5. Clara is a very dynamic and fleshed-out character, and she feels like someone you might actually know. Hamlet is an adorable bean, Rose is literally me, and Adrian is a smol and one of the best parents I’ve seen in a genre where bad parents are very much an overused trope.

Pacing: 5/5. Never slows down, so you’re always on the edge of your seat.

Writing Quality: 4/5. Engaging and well-written, but nothing about the style really stands out.

Handling of Subject Matter: 5/5. An incredibly loving depiction of Korean/Korean-Brazilian culture, with very tasteful handling of an unorthodox and at times unideal family situation.

Message/Content: 4/5. Good messages about responsibility, living with purpose, and finding people who bring out the best in you. Much cleaner than typical Maureen Goo – a tiny smattering of minor curse words, bad life decisions that characters later regret, one allusion to a character smoking (in the past – it was never done again). Nothing super major.

Overall: 4.5

Posted in Reviews

REVIEW: Hart & Seoul by Kristen Burnham

Posted on by Sarah S.

I recieved an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. “Hart & Seoul” is released June 4th, 2019.

SUMMARY

Merilee Hart has been doing her best to keep things together since her mother left, her art a welcome escape from her depressing new reality. But things seem to go even more awry the moment her next door neighbor’s enigmatic and mysterious nephew arrives from South Korea. Lee is moody, cocky, and utterly infuriating.
But when Merri’s closest friends betray her and her father crushes her dream of going to art school, Merri finds herself drawn to Lee, who seems to live within even greater shadows than her own. And just when she thought things couldn’t get crazier, Merri’s world is upended when she discovers Lee’s big and bizarre secret…he is none other than a runaway member of the K-pop mega-group Thunder.

It’s not long before Thunder’s fans, the Storm Chasers, begin to close in on Lee, ready to do whatever it takes to return their favorite idol to his rightful place in the band. Faced with the prospect of even more heartbreak and caught up in an international whirlwind that has a life of its own, Merri realizes that she must find a way to mend herself, gain control of her life, and pursue her dreams—her heart and soul depend on it.

THE GOOD

So much to unpack here. So let’s do some bullet points. Those are a good way to get thoughts out.

  • From the start, this book makes MASTERFUL use of romance tropes. It’s got everything from enemies-to-lovers (Lee and Merri’s terribly-flubbed first meeting and their subsequent awkward interactions are absolutely hilarious) to fake-dating and everything in between, and I LOVE IT. Tropes only suck in the hands of authors who don’t know how to use them – Burnham definitely does. All of it is done in a very tongue-and-cheek way that makes it deliciously obvious that these are tropes, but not the tropes you know.
  • Speaking of tongue-in-cheek, the tone of this book was fantastically fun and comedic. It had its serious beats, which were also well-done, but it was also uproariously funny at times. Some of Merilee’s turns of phrase cracked me up, Merilee and Lee’s early, awkward interactions were all 10/10 amazing, and almost every incident with Lee’s fangirls, the Storm Chasers, had me in stitches (not really funny for the characters, I know, but oh, how I laughed!).
  • I’ll admit that I don’t know a lot about the world of K-Pop, but “Hart and Seoul” was a great primer, and it really dug into both the pressures that the industry puts on its stars and the global phenomenon that k-pop has become. It was really seamlessly worked into the story, and it also provided most of the story’s most poignant moments. I especially appreciated the story’s focus on the impact of the industry’s rigors on Lee’s mental health – that’s a side of the story that we commoners don’t often see, and the author’s note, which talks about fame and mental health and provides resources for those struggling with depression, anxiety, etc., was a nice addition. That part of the story was tastefully handled and added a lot of depth to the story.
  • The food. I never knew much about Korean food before reading this (to the chagrin of most of my Asian friends, who all swear up and down by Korean barbecue), but I loved how food became a bonding point for Lee and Merri.
  • THE ROMANCE. OMG, SWOOOOOON. I’m a huge sucker for those “famous person falls for a normal person” love stories (Geekerella!) and this one was not only adorably swoonworthy, but actually made that improbable storyline seem somewhat grounded and realistic. And OMG, SO CUTE. I DIED. Really, this is a heckin’ cute romance.
  • The ending. *HERE BE SPOILERS* Lee’s flower deliveries and mid-concert confession werethe stuff of my melodramatic teenager dreams. HE WROTE HER A SONG…AND SANG IT IN FRONT OF 600,000 PEOPLE…AND SAID HE LOVED HER…*faints* *SPOILERS BEGONE* High romance right there, folks. HIGH ROMANCE. 

THE NOT-SO-GOOD

  • Merilee has a tendency to be quite insensitive. She does improve, but it felt kind of off considering how much she knows Lee is struggling.
  • That’s about it, really. This was a delightful book.

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS

Plot: 5/5 – a creative twist on a whole boatload of tropes that work so, so much better than you’d ever expect them to.

Characters: 4/5 – Lee and Ema are angels and I’d die for them. Ms. Park is pretty great. The rest are sort of meh, and Bree is a scumbag. Lee and Ema make up for most of this, hence the high score. Not all of them are well-developed, but the leads, Lee and Merri, are, so it doesn’t feel flat.

Pacing: 5/5 – it was short, so there wasn’t a lot of time for it to slag, and I loved the lack of slow-burn. Slow-burn drives me nuts in most cases – this is one where it would have, which is why I appreciated its absence.

Handling of Subject Matter: 5/5 – surprisingly heartfelt, tasteful, and nuanced look at the K-Pop industry. Merri’s family situation (her mother left the family) is well-handled as well.

Writing Quality: 4/5 – it wasn’t exactly masterful prose, as YA rarely is, but the writing lent itself well to the story’s comedic timing, and Merri’s turns of phrase were wonderful.

Message/Moral/Appropriateness for Audience: 5/5 – squeaky clean except for one use each of “a**” and “hell”. Lots of kisses, but they’re not graphic. Allusions to a failed suicide attempt – the character later seeks out help, and the author’s note provides contact information of suicide prevention agencies; potentially disturbing but a sensitive handling of the topic. Good messages about the dangers of celebrity hype and the importance of trust, forgiveness, and loyalty. Would recommend for ages 14+ – I’d put it younger if not for the mention of the suicide attempt at the end because it’s largely clean (there’s no adult situations, drinking/drugs, or violence, and characters conspicuously don’t curse), but that would probably be a bit much for younger readers, though it’s brief and sensitively handled.

Overall: 4.67/5 Confused Llamas