Review of Fairest, by Marissa Meyer

Science Fiction, Teen Fiction Review 0

fairest_largeFairest

Levana’s Story

by Marissa Meyer

Feiwel and Friends, New York, 2015. 222 pages.

Fairest is a short prequel to the other books in The Lunar Chronicles, filling in the back story of Levana, the Queen of Luna.

All the books in The Lunar Chronicles parallel fairy tales, and as the title indicates, Levana takes the place of the wicked queen in Snow White. In Fairest we learn how Levana acquires a stepdaughter, named Winter.

This is not a nice story, and Levana is not a nice person. But readers understand her better after reading this book. She wants to be a good queen for her people. She was cruelly disfigured as a child, which is why her glamour is so important to her. And she made an attempt at love, but the power she had to manipulate minds short-circuited that quest. People think she’s controlling? Well, she takes ruling more seriously than her sister did. It’s all for the good of Luna. She will do whatever is needed for her people.

At the end of the book there is a preview for Winter, the final book in the series, coming out in Fall 2015. We don’t have long to wait!

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Black Dove, White Raven, by Elizabeth Wein

Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

black_dove_white_raven_largeBlack Dove, White Raven

by Elizabeth Wein

Hyperion, Los Angeles, 2015. 357 pages.
Starred Review

Wow. Once again Elizabeth Wein illuminates a historical situation I knew nothing about. In some ways, this combines themes from her two different series. We’re back in Aksum of Ethiopia – but this is not ancient Aksum. Instead, Aksum is combined with female pilots of World War II – okay, just before World War II, when Italy invaded Ethiopia. (Did you know about that? I sure didn’t.)

At the start of the book, Black Dove and White Raven are the airshow names for the mothers of Emilia Menotti and Teodros Dupré. Black Dove is Teo’s mother, Delia Dupré; and White Raven is Em’s Momma, Rhoda Menotti. They travel around doing airshows together in 1930s America, doing aerobatics and wing-walking. They met in France after World War I. They dream of moving to Ethiopia, where Teo’s father was from, where people won’t be shocked by a black woman and a white woman living and working together.

But then there’s an accident, and Delia is killed. However, the family still makes it to Ethiopia, and Teo and Em work on becoming the new Black Dove and White Raven.

Teo and Em grow up in Ethiopia, and Momma teaches them to fly – just in time to come of age when Italy invades Ethiopia in 1936.

This book is filled with historical details I knew nothing about, but mostly it’s the compelling story of two children with strong family ties, living in another culture, learning to find their place in the world and deal with all manner of people – and coming of age in wartime — wartime that involved mustard gas against spearmen, and the need to protect ancient treasures, including the Ark of the Covenant.

As always, Elizabeth Wein’s writing is powerful and evocative. I’ll admit that this is slower, atmospheric reading most of the way through, but these are distinctive characters you will remember long afterward.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Belzhar, by Meg Wolitzer

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

belzhar_largeBelzhar

by Meg Wolitzer
read by Jorjeana Marie

Listening Library, 2014. 8 hours on 7 compact discs.
Starred Review

Jam Gallahue has been sent to The Wooden Barn, a boarding school in Vermont for “highly intelligent but emotionally fragile” teens. After she lost her boyfriend, Reeve, she’s withdrawn from everything and everyone.

On her first day of classes, her roommate is jealous when they discover that Jam’s been put into Special Topics in English. No one knows why everyone claims the class is life-changing. There are only four other students, and a teacher who will retire at the end of the term. They will be studying Sylvia Plath. The teacher, Mrs. Quinnell, gives them each a red leather journal and tells them to write in it twice a week. She’ll be collecting them at the end of the term.

When Jam writes in the journal, she’s transported to another place, a place outside time, and she is together with Reeve again. She can’t do anything new with him in that place, but she can actually feel him and see him and talk with him. When she comes back, five more pages of her journal are filled in with her own handwriting.

The other members of Special Topics in English have their own traumas to deal with. Before long, the class members all figure out that each one is being transported to another place, where things are right again, every time they write in their journals.

But the journals will be completely full by the end of the term.

This story could have been trite and problem novel-ish. But the author has crafted the story well, revealing information a little bit at a time. Each student in the class has a compelling story, and we also learn more and more about what Jam went through, and how she interacts with her fellow-students.

There’s a fine overarching message about dealing with trauma and being able to get on with life. But the book is good because the story is told in a compelling way.

It’s also a tribute to the healing power of words – both written yourself and written by others.

This book has some healing power of its own.

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Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Prairie Fire, by E. K. Johnston

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

prairie_fire_largePrairie Fire

by E. K. Johnston

Carolrhoda LAB, Minneapolis, March 2015. 297 pages.
Starred Review

After finishing Prairie Fire, my love for The Story of Owen has only grown. I didn’t read the books quickly — they are thoughtful, intriguing, world-building stories rather than page-turners. In fact, I may have lingered longer for not wanting it to end.

The sequel caps the Story of Owen. It’s essentially one story, told in two parts, so you will want to read the first book before this one.

Again, summing up is easy: Modern-day Canada. With dragons.

In this book, Owen and his girlfriend Sadie, and his bard Siobhan (who tells the story) all enlist in the Oil Watch. The Oil Watch is their world’s version of an international military force defending oil fields and people against dragons. Work in the Oil Watch is mandatory for dragon slayers, but Siobhan also signs on, as part of Owen’s crew.

Every dragon slayer has a dedicated support crew. This book tells about their team in the new challenges of the military. And new types of dragons they must fight. Here’s the explanation of Owen’s team:

Every support squad had eight firefighters; a pair of engineers — one sapper and one smith — two medics, one of whom could double as a cook if you were on patrol; and in Owen’s case alone, one bard. All of them were older than Owen and I were. The Combat Engineer, Courtney Speed, was twenty-four and had a master’s in engineering from the Royal Military College. This was unusual, as most people in the Oil Watch, including our smith, Aarons, had at most only an undergraduate degree. The firefighters had all completed a two year college program, and the medics had bachelor degrees in addition to their year-long medic training course. Davis, the medic who was also the cook, planned to go to medical school when his tour was up. In those first days I despaired of ever learning their names, let alone coming up with ways to write them into Owen’s songs. I was more than a little bit intimidated, and I didn’t even have to be in charge. Owen was supposed to be in command and would eventually be given the highest rank It was really important that everyone got along.

That’s the style — lots of details, but so intriguing. And we see more ways their world is dramatically different from the one we live in — because of dragon. There’s a huge tunnel through the Rocky Mountains, for example. And totem poles are to keep giant dragons from landing.

I love the way Siobhan sees everyone as represented by an instrument. Or perhaps I should say hears everyone as represented by an instrument. When she meets a drill sergeant at basic training, for example, she says, “He was every inch cornet: compact but lacking the hard edge of a trumpet.” Later, she refers to him as the cornet-sergeant.

I also love the way Siobhan’s friendship with Owen grows and deepens. And yet never gets romantic. They have a fantastic working relationship. And when is that ever portrayed in books without romance? Owen’s girlfriend is also Siobhan’s friend, though she gets assigned to a different part of the world. And Siobhan meets some men who are interested in her. And she’s not portrayed as gay, but she doesn’t fall in love in this book. And somehow I find that wonderfully refreshing — a book where the characters become adults and pursue their callings and build lasting friendships — without making the whole point of it to be falling in love.

I should warn readers that the ending is a tear-jerker. This is not something that will leave you smiling — but it will leave you thinking, and will linger in your heart for a long time to come.

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Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at ALA Midwinter Meeting.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Story of Owen, by E. K. Johnston

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

story_of_owen_largeThe Story of Owen

Dragon Slayer of Trondheim

by E. K. Johnston

Carolrhoda LAB, Minneapolis, 2014. 302 pages.
Starred Review
2015 Morris Award Finalist

It’s easy to explain what this book is about: Modern-day Canada with dragons and dragon slayers!

The carrying out of that idea is much more intricate than you might think. There are insights about politics, publicity, environment, ethics, calling, and community. And, of course, plenty of danger and drama.

Here’s how the book begins:

Before the Thorskards came to Trondheim, we didn’t have a permanent dragon slayer. When a dragon attacked, you had to petition town hall (assuming it wasn’t on fire), and they would send to Toronto (assuming the phone lines weren’t on fire), and Queen’s Park would send out one of the government dragon slayers (assuming nothing in Toronto was on fire). By the time the dragon slayer arrived, anything not already lit on fire in the original attack would be, and whether the dragon was eventually slayed or not, we’d be stuck with reconstruction. Again.

Needless to say, when it was announced that Lottie Thorskard was moving to town permanently, it was like freaking Mardi Gras.

Lottie Thorskard is a famous dragon slayer who was recently seriously injured in the line of duty, so let out of her corporate contract. But with her to Trondheim comes her brother Aodhan, another dragon slayer, and his son Owen, who is being trained in the family business.

Siobhan meets Owen when they are both late to class on his first day at the high school. She is the one telling the story. She is a musician, and the Thorskards ask her to become Owen’s bard, to tell his story for the public. In this alternate world where dragons exist, bards were once very important for dragon slayers, but now the practice is more rare.

I don’t need to tell too much more about the story. Dragons in modern-day Canada. Siobhan posts her songs about Owen on YouTube. I will say that E. K. Johnston does a magnificent job of world-building, showing us why and how dragons make the world totally different.

When I first read the book, I was a little annoyed that there was no romance between Owen and Siobhan. After reading the second book, Prairie Fire I’m actually happy about that. Because between the two books, I’m not sure I’ve ever read such a good portrayal of a close and sustaining male-female friendship. I’ll say more in my review of Prairie Fire.

Also, with no romance, there are no sexy situations in this book. Just intriguing situations that get you thinking about the ethical and political implications while enjoying a good yarn.

Now, there is an interesting addition, which I liked: When Siobhan is first invited to the Thorskards’ house, she’s excited to meet the most famous married couple in Canada — Lottie Thorskard and her wife, Hannah. That relationship, both called “Aunt” by Owen, is portrayed as a loving and warm one, and Hannah especially, not a dragon slayer, but a smith, takes Siobhan under her wing when dragons come to town.

My love for this book only got bigger when I read the sequel. I’ll be coming back to these two books. The Story of Owen, as told by Siobhan, sticks with you.

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Shadow Scale, by Rachel Hartman

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

shadow_scale_largeShadow Scale

by Rachel Hartman

Random House, New York, March 2015. 599 pages.

This sequel to Seraphina brings us back to the rich and detailed fantasy world where dragons take up human form. In the first book, Seraphina dealt with her heritage as a half-dragon, and in this book, she seeks to find the other half-dragons.

Much of the book happens in Seraphina’s mind, which at first is a little confusing, but eventually has you wrapped up in the details. My biggest complaint is that in the big final conflict scene, I’m not entirely sure what exactly happened. But I do think I got enough of it.

This is a good book for those who like their fantasy complex. There was a rather neat solution to the love triangle (though I personally am not entirely happy with it. But it did work).

There’s war going on, and Seraphina has a role to play. But there’s another half-dragon able to enter the minds of the others and then manipulate them to her own purposes.

We’ve got intrigue and strategy combined with a virtual tour of several countries of that world. This is a wonderful follow-up fulfilling all the promise of the award-winning first book.

And why did I again think there’d be a trilogy? I’m happier with this misunderstanding than I am when I mistake a quartet for a trilogy. This book did complete the story and tie up loose ends. And though it is based on Seraphina, I didn’t remember all the plot details of the first book, but everything I needed to know was filled in. And the plot threads were all wrapped up at the end.

An intricate and satisfying tale.

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Review of Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters, by Shannon Hale

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

forgotten_sisters_largePrincess Academy

The Forgotten Sisters

by Shannon Hale

Bloomsbury, February 24, 2015. 324 pages.
Starred Review

Look at that! The Forgotten Sisters has been released earlier than the date printed on the Advance Reader Copy. So I need to post my review!

This book is the Advance Reader Copy I was most excited about getting at ALA Midwinter Meeting – and the first one I read, immediately after the conference. This is the third book after Princess Academy and Palace of Stone. I believe readers will enjoy it more who have read the earlier books – and reading those books will be a treat, if you haven’t yet.

Princess Academy is a simple story about Miri and the other girls from her mountain village learning to negotiate and make their way in the world, while one of them will be chosen to be the princess. In Palace of Stone Miri and the other academy graduates go to the capital city in the lowlands – and learn about politics and rumblings of revolution.

In The Forgotten Sisters, the outlook gets yet broader as war comes to Danland.

But the beginning of the book simply has Miri excited about going home, back to Mount Eskel. Then she is summoned by the king moments before the traders who were going to take her home must leave. In the royal breakfast chamber, the king and queen, all thirty-two delegates and three priests of the creator god are assembled.

“Early this morning, traders sailed from the commonwealth of Eris with news,” said the chief delegate. “The kingdom of Stora has invaded Eris. The battle lasted only three days. Eris surrendered.”

Steffan leaned forward to grip a chair back. Britta reached out for Miri’s hand. Stora was the largest kingdom on the continent. Miri imagined its vast army pouring into tiny Eris like all the sands of a beach trying to fill a single jar. And Eris bordered Danland.

“Danland can no longer take for granted our longstanding peace with Stora,” the chief delegate continued. “We must secure an unbreakable alliance. Stora’s King Fader is a widower. The delegation has decided to offer King Fader a royal daughter of Danland as a bride.”. . .

“The highest ranking royal girls are His Majesty’s cousins,” said the chief delegate. “They live in a territory known as Lesser Alva. Three girls. King Fader of Stora will have his pick of them for a bride, if he agrees to our offer.” . . .

“Living in Lesser Alva, I suspect the girls are not very, shall we say, refined,” said the chief delegate. “The priests of the creator god have called for a princess academy to prepare them, and the delegation approved it. We require this girl to go be their tutor.” He gestured toward Miri without looking at her.

Miri doesn’t want to go; she wants to go home to Mount Eskel. But she works out a deal that if she does go, and if she is successful and King Fader marries one of the girls, then the people of Mount Eskel will be given the land where they live (which the king was thinking of selling) and the quarry where they make their livelihood.

However, when Miri arrives in the swamp that is Lesser Alva, she finds things not at all as she expected. The three girls do live in a white house made of linder. But the house is empty, the girls’ mother is dead, and they are destitute. They haven’t seen anything of the allowance supposedly sent to them every month by the king. They don’t have time to learn about being princesses, because they need to go out in the swamp and hunt for food.

We do come to enjoy the three sisters, Astrid, Felissa, and Sus. Here is a scene shortly after Miri has met them.

”Just so you know,” said Felissa, her smile a little timid now, “in Lesser Alva one never, ever enters someone else’s house without being invited.”

“Never,” Sus said, unblinking.

“Never ever,” said Felissa, nodding.

“In fact, we could have killed you on the spot and cut you up for meat,” Astrid said, casually cleaning out her fingernails.

“No one’s ever really done that,” said Sus.

“As far as we know,” said Astrid. “But we could be the first and no one would stop us.”

So first, Miri must win the girls’ trust. But she also needs to learn the ways of the swamp and help in the hunt for food. But it’s also urgent to find out where the girls’ allowance is disappearing – because the same corrupt people are not letting Miri’s letters get out of Lesser Alva.

However, that’s only the beginning. War from Stora does come to the swamp. Miri needs to get the girls to the capital city and King Fader in hopes of sealing that alliance. But none of that is simple, and many things turn out to be different than they seem at first.

I like all the complexities and diplomacy and cleverness that Shannon Hale builds into these books. In each of the books, somebody gets outsmarted. Miri again shows her worth – and this time the Forgotten Sisters get to contribute as well.

And I won’t give anything away, but the Epilogue puts a nice cap on the entire trilogy.

Shannon Hale has done it again! She’s written an absorbing further tale of a simple girl from Mount Eskel who makes things right, and changes the world while doing so.

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Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at ALA Midwinter Meeting.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater

Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

blue_lily_lily_blue_largeBlue Lily, Lily Blue

Book III of the Raven Cycle

by Maggie Stiefvater

Scholastic Press, New York, 2014. 391 pages.

Why in the world was I thinking this is a trilogy? All along, they carefully called it The Raven Cycle, not The Raven Trilogy. Yes, some extreme things happened in this book, but they just inched the plot further along, rather than wrapping things up, as I had hoped.

I’m not crazy about this series — It’s a darker story, with more occult elements, than I usually like. But I can’t look away! And I’ve come to care about the characters. I’ve even come to believe in a romance between Blue and Gansey — and that took some skilled writing!

This cycle of books is like no other fantasy I’ve ever read. We’ve got a bunch of entitled rich kids and their scholarship friend and a girl from the hills looking along a ley line in West Virginia for a buried Welsh king. And all sorts of amazing supernatural things are happening while they’re looking.

In some ways, this felt like a bridge piece. It wasn’t as striking as either the first or the second book. And the characters were dealing with consequences from the second book, looking for Maura, and getting much closer in their quest to find the sleeping king.

There’s not a lot I need to say. If you’ve read the first two books, this strings you along with more of the same. Maggie Stiefvater is an amazing writer, and manages to make her crazy world seem plausible, even as not a bit of the story is predictable.

I may not be crazy about this series, but one thing’s for certain: I will be reading the next book as soon as it comes out.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

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Review of The Shadow Hero, by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew

Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

shadow_hero_largeThe Shadow Hero

story by Gene Luen Yang
art by Sonny Liew

First Second, New York, 2014. 158 pages.
Starred Review
2014 Sonderbooks Stand-out, #6 Teen Fiction

The story of why this graphic novel exists is so interesting, I’m going to copy text from the author’s note at the back of the book (minus examples from the actual Green Turtle comics):

[Chu] Hing was among the first Asian Americans working in the American comic book industry. This was decades before the Asian American movement, though, so he wouldn’t have self-identified as such. Most likely, he would have just called himself Chinese.

For Rural Home, Chu Hing created a World War II superhero called the Green Turtle. The Green Turtle wore a mask over his face and a cape over his shoulders. He defended China, America’s ally, against the invading Japanese army. He had no obvious superpowers, though he did seem to have a knack for avoiding bullets.

So those are the facts. Here are the rumors.

Supposedly, Hing wanted his character to be Chinese.

Supposedly, his publisher didn’t think a Chinese superhero would sell and told Hing to make his character white.

Supposedly, Hing rebelled right there on the page. Throughout the Green Turtle’s adventures, we almost never get to see his face. Most of the time, the hero has his back to us.

When he does turn around, his visage is almost always obscured by something – a combatant or a shadow or even his own arm….

The Green Turtle’s face isn’t all that Hing keeps from us. Over and over, the Green Turtle’s young Chinese sidekick, Burma Boy, asks him how he came to be the Green Turtle. Every time, an emergency interrupts before the Green Turtle can give his answer.

So Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Llew have stepped in and written an origin story that fits everything that appears in the short-running comic book series.

The Shadow Hero is our answer to Burma Boy’s question, our imagining of the Green Turtle’s origin story. We firmly establish him as an Asian American superhero, perhaps even the first Asian American superhero. Our Green Turtle is a shadow hero. Not only is his identity secret, so is his race….

But let me end on a fact: Studying Chu Hing’s comics, imagining what might have been going through his head, and then writing this book in response were a lot of fun – a crazy, Golden Age sort of fun. I hope reading it is, too.

And that brings me to the story found in these pages – the origin story of the Green Turtle. The story is indeed tremendous fun.

Hank is a Chinese boy living in San Incendio, America, with no ambitions other than to be a grocer like his father. However, his mother has ambitions for him.

After she is saved by a superhero from a carjacking by a bank robber, Hank’s mother decides that he needs to be a superhero.

Her methods are hilarious, including pushing him into a toxic spill and trying to get him bitten by a dog used for scientific research. Eventually, she settles for arranging for him to learn to fight.

But his first efforts toward fighting for justice end up getting his father shot. However, what Hank and his mother don’t know is that a spirit from ancient China was residing with Hank’s father. Now that he is dead, the spirit – shaped like a turtle – will stay with Hank – and grant one request.

This book has plenty of humor and plenty of adventure. It nicely captures the flavor of Golden Age comics. (I know a little bit about this because my son is a fan.) At the end of the book, the first Green Turtle comic is reproduced in its entirety. I like the way the source of all the details in the comic has been revealed (including our hero’s unnaturally pink skin).

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Mortal Heart, by Robin LaFevers

Fantasy, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

mortal_heart_largeMortal Heart

by Robin LaFevers

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2014. 444 pages.
Starred Review

Wow! The third book of the trilogy that began with Grave Mercy is everything I hoped it would be! I had preordered the book before I found out I was going to be a Cybils judge. So the book came in while I was very busy with Cybils reading – and was the first thing I pulled out when we had finished making our list of Finalists.

The trilogy is summed up in three words: Medieval Assassin Nuns.

One thing I love about the three books is that each one is a complete story on its own – the complete story of one of the initiates into the order of St. Mortain – the god of Death. I also love that each girl’s story is totally different from the next. Each book has romance – and I thought I had it all figured out how it would go. Then this volume was completely different.

Because each book tells a complete story, with even a little bit of overlap in the timelines, you could read the books in any order. But I still highly recommend beginning with Grave Mercy. You will want to read all three books, so you might as well start at the beginning. The first book also goes into a little more depth about the political situation facing the Duchess of Britany. (The duchess in the 1490s really was engaged to multiple suitors when her father died.)

It’s all based on actual historical events – even the ancient gods of Brittany, whom the church absorbed as saints. I’m guessing that in real life, the god of Death didn’t have actual physical daughters who had special gifts as assassins, but it definitely makes a good story!

This third volume goes into more detail about some of the paranormal elements, as Annith meets the Hunt, with hellequins sent out from Death himself. Like Ismae and Sybella in the books that went before, she is struggling with her role and whether the Abbess is actually representing Mortain’s guidance, or following her own purposes.

There is an overall plot arc to the series, too, which is resolved in this book. I didn’t know anything about Brittany and its history with France, so the resolution was a surprise to me. I’m guessing things didn’t happen the way they did for the same reason portrayed in this book, but they *could* have, and I love that in a historical novel.

Parents of young teens, just to warn you: All the girls “take lovers.” No details are given, so they are not sexy reads, but that might influence whether or not you think it’s good reading for your own daughters.

They are wonderfully romantic tales, with each book having its own conflict and dangers, and each girl having a different – but beautiful – relationship with the god of Death. And I do like the way no one can push around these trained assassins!

Yes, on finishing this trilogy, I’m all the more impressed with each book individually, and the series as a whole. Each book demonstrates outstanding writing. I have no doubt I will be coming back to these books over the years. In fact, I’ll be looking for an opportunity to reread the whole series soon.

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