Review of Bone Weaver, by Aden Polydoros

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Bone Weaver

by Aden Polydoros

Inkyard Press, 2022. 428 pages.
Review written November 25, 2022, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher for Cybils judging
Starred Review

Bone Weaver begins with a girl named Toma sewing back the finger of her sister, Galina. Before long, we realize that Galina is not alive. She’s an undead upyr, and she loses body parts if she’s not careful. But when Toma sews them back, using patterns from her mother’s rushnyk, an embroidered cloth she left with Toma — the parts heal back as if they were never lost.

And Toma quickly gets another chance to use her stitches when she finds an injured man in a downed airship. She drags him home and stitches his wound. He’s horrified by her family of upyri — who have been caring for Toma the last six years since she was left traumatized and alone. But it turns out the rescued man is Mikhail the young tsar — and a usurper named Koschei has stolen his magic.

But then some men in another airship come after the tsar — but find Galina and decide to take her to Koschei to win his favor after losing the tsar. Toma cannot let her sister fall into the hands of someone who experiments with the undead, so she sets out after them in the company of the tsar, who wants to find allies to try to win the country back.

Along the way they see examples of terrible things done by those in power — tsarists and rebels alike. Will Mikhail take those things to heart? Will Toma be able to save her sister?

I happened to be reading this book while I was in the middle of listening to another book that dealt with bringing people back from death. In the other book, it was seen as something that can bring no good thing — not so much in this book, but I lean toward that feeling, that death is something it’s probably best not to mess with, especially bringing people back.

But I did like the way this book played off Russian and Slavic folklore, encountering various undead creatures and Toma seeing the humanity remaining in them.

There’s lots of death and undeath in this story, but it’s a compelling tale about a girl with power and heritage she doesn’t even realize. As she helps others, she comes to understand herself better, deals with her own past trauma, and gets ready to face living people again.

AdenPolydoros.com

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Review of This Rebel Heart, by Katherine Locke, read by Kathleen Gati and Steven Jay Cohen

Historical, Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

This Rebel Heart

by Katherine Locke
read by Kathleen Gati and Steven Jay Cohen

Books on Tape, 2022. 11 hours, 34 minutes.
Review written November 20, 2022, from a library eaudiobook

This Rebel Heart is an absorbing, atmospheric look at the Budapest student uprising of 1956, when the Soviets left Hungary for a week. The book is full of supernatural elements, which at first I thought were figurative, but ended up being a fundamental part of the story. For example, since the Soviets came, the city has lost its color. The blue sky was the last to go. People can barely remember the names of colors, and marvel when they begin to come back.

Another example is in the back story of our main character, Csilla. During the war, when the Jews were being rounded up and shot next to the river Duna that runs through Budapest, Csilla’s father led their family into the river, and they lived in its waters for the rest of the war, protected from the Nazis. And now the river constantly talks to Csilla.

As the book begins, Csilla’s parents were recently exonerated and reburied. Csilla’s father had been important in the Communist party, but he was falsely accused of treason and Zionism and executed years before. Now he has been publicly exonerated — but the authorities seem to have used his funeral as a cover to crack down on students at the university.

Csilla has tickets to get out of Hungary with her aunt Ilona — her only surviving relative after the Holocaust. But despite that immanent escape, Csilla gets pulled into the cause of the rebels. She becomes friends with a young man whose lover was recently executed by the secret police for homosexuality. And starts thinking about his cause and all that is wrong with Hungary under the Soviets. And then someone leaves her father’s journals at her doorstep, and she reads about his vision for Hungary. Is it even possible to right the wrongs he committed in support of that vision?

And then Csilla meets a handsome young man who tells her he is an angel of death. He is an angel of death who comes to be with children who are facing death. So why has he been pulled to Budapest?

This is an evocative novel, rich with the atmosphere of Budapest. I visited Budapest years ago, and the words of this book pulled me right back to that beautiful city, dominated by the presence of the Duna River. It was easy for me to believe the river would speak to one of her children.

katherinelockebooks.com
GetUnderlined.com

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Review of Rebel Witch, by Kristen Ciccarelli, read by Grace Gray

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Rebel Witch

by Kristen Ciccarelli
read by Grace Gray

Listening Library, 2025. 13 hours, 44 minutes.
Review written March 4, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Fabulous news! The Crimson Moth series is a duology! So we don’t have to wait for another volume!

And she pulled off a very satisfying conclusion to the story.

Once again we’ve got the conflict of a witch and a witch hunter in love with each other, but on opposite sides. In fact, the book starts out with Gideon planning to assassinate Rune on the distant island where she fled. He’s jealously watching her at the party where her engagement to a prince is being celebrated. But Gideon hesitates…

And one thing leads to another, and they end up traveling together back to their home island – with neither one in good graces with their ruler. They’re basically each planning to betray the other… or are they?

Who’s in danger and what they’re planning seems to go back and forth in this book, but I appreciated that it was all in a way that made sense to me as a listener. The trouble is that both sides in the conflict have a ruthless, terrible leader, so we don’t root for either leader to succeed – but we do root for Gideon and Rune’s love to somehow win out.

And I probably shouldn’t say a lot more about the plot. There’s lots of death and danger, and, yes, some sex, and Rune and Gideon each find allies and enemies in surprising places.

And I’m so glad the author didn’t leave our heroes in danger, waiting for another installment!

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Review of Scout’s Honor, by Lily Anderson

Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

Scout’s Honor

by Lily Anderson

Henry Holt, 2022. 403 pages.
Review written October 24, 2022, from a library book
2023 Printz Honor Book

Scout’s Honor is the story of Prudence Perry, a legacy scout with the Ladybirds. The Ladybird Scouts are a secret society that to the world outside appears to be about having tea and serving cookies to students taking the SAT. But in actuality, they are about fighting monsters — specifically, mulligrubs that come from another dimension and feed on people’s emotions. Only legacy scouts and those who drink the Tea of Seeing can see the grubs, but everyone feels the effects. The Ladybird scouts patrol and fight grubs to keep their neighborhoods safe.

Most mulligrubs just zap your energy when they consume your emotions, but if they become carnivorous, they consume people. And three years ago, when Prudence was thirteen, she saw a carnivorous grub do exactly that, when her friend and sister scout died in the jaws of a scranch.

Prue quit the Ladybirds after that. She felt responsible and continued to have PTSD about the incident, which her friends think was a mountain lion attack.

But her mother wasn’t happy about Prue withdrawing from the Ladybirds. And this summer, with two new scouts turning thirteen and ready to be trained, after Prue gets caught sneaking out, the punishment is that she is responsible for training the new recruits.

Right from the start, there’s a fiasco and some of Prue’s other friends drink the Tea of Seeing. But during the summer, Prue learns from her now three new recruits and wonders if there might be a better, gentler, less competitive way to be a Ladybird. Though all along she worries that the babybirds don’t realize how dangerous fighting mulligrubs can be.

The book is entertaining and just a little bit silly, as it portrays the Ladybirds being about all things pink and bloodthirsty fighting techniques. Some of the little details of the world-building didn’t quite work for me, but if you take it as entertainment, with thoughts thrown in about gender roles and responsibilities, it’s an awful lot of fun.

mslilyanderson.com
fiercereads.com

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Review of Into the Bloodred Woods, by Martha Brockenbrough

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Into the Bloodred Woods

by Martha Brockenbrough

Scholastic Press, 2021. 354 pages.
Review written October 18, 2022, from a library book

In this very dark and atmospheric fairy tale-esque young adult novel, we’ve got fairy tale tropes all interwoven throughout a story that implies here’s what really happened, and the tales you’ve heard were changed for an audience of children.

There’s a storyteller featured in short interludes between the parts, weaving tales that become truth as they are repeated. But the book promises us the real story at the start:

This is the story of a werebear and her brother, one of whom will inherit a kingdom . . .

It’s the story of another werebear who wanted to burn it all down . . .

Of a sister who traded everything to spin grass into gold . . .

Of an angry musician who loved a gentle werewolf . . .

Of a girl who loved a singing forest more than life itself . . .

And of a kingdom shattered like a mirror, the pieces of which can be put back together, but only by someone brave enough to look.

The book has its heart in a singing forest, a forest just outside a kingdom.

The forest started singing when a girl named Esme struck a bargain in exchange for the magic that she needed to save her sister’s life. And that was necessary because their father had lied to the king to make himself seem important; he’d claimed that he had a daughter of surpassing beauty who could spin grass into gold.

And what was that bargain? (I told you the book is dark.) Esme traded her womb for magic. She buried it in the soil of the forest, and the forest taught her to spin grass into gold.

So her sister married the king and had twin babies, a boy and a girl. The girl was born first, though it wasn’t traditional for a girl to inherit the kingdom. This set them up for a rivalry.

But many things happen before the children become teens. Esme flees from the king to the forest where she has a daughter of her own, Capella. And the main characters of the book are Hans and Greta, the children of the one woodsman in the forest, and the king and queen’s children, Ursula and Albrecht. Ursula is a werebear, and Hans is a werewolf.

In this kingdom, werecreatures are treated as lesser citizens, and even Ursula must sleep in a cage at night. And when Hans and Greta’s parents die of a fever, they go to the kingdom to buy provisions, but get taken as servants to the castle.

Albrecht uses Hans to help him make mechanical creatures. He dreams of ruling the kingdom, protecting it with an army of mechanical soldiers. If he can only get the mechanisms right.

Albrecht is fascinated by how things work and what makes creatures alive. Aren’t those alive who can feel pain? He thinks about ways of causing pain….

And the kingdom is funded by the gold given as the queen’s dowry. But this gold has a weakness — it disintegrates when touched by human blood.

Throughout the book, many themes from fairy tales get pulled into a twisty atmospheric tale of powerful evil and those who would stand up against it.

marthabrockenbrough.com
scholastic.com

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Review of See You Yesterday, by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

See You Yesterday

by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2022. 419 pages.
Review written October 10, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

See You Yesterday is a time loop novel. I’m not the best audience for time-travel books, because it’s pretty hard to convince me it could happen, but this book got me to read long into the wee hours of the morning to finish, so it did win my heart, even if my mind is still skeptical. Besides, it’s fun!

Barrett Bloom has a disastrous first day of college. She’s been looking forward to college giving her a new start after horrible bullying in high school. But she wakes up to the disappointed sounds of her high school nemesis assigned as her new roommate. In Physics class, a smart-aleck boy embarrasses her, she does a terrible interview for the school paper, and the day tops off with setting a frat house on fire. So imagine her horror when she wakes up the next day — and it’s not the next day. It’s the same day all over again.

But after a few times through September 21st, she discovers that someone else is trapped in the time loop, too. Miles, that boy in Physics class, actually lived September 21 sixty more times than she has. So maybe they can work together to get out of the loop?

At first, they don’t even like each other. But with weeks together and only one person can remember what you tell them? Yes, they start confiding in one another, understanding one another, and yes, falling in love. The romance in this book is just lovely — I like it when you can see they have reasons to fall for each other. And yes, the situation put them together, but as a reader, I was convinced that they’ll stick it out even if they can get out of the loop.

As for the physics of how the time loop worked and how to get out? Well, I wasn’t convinced. But who cares? It made for a super fun story, and a really well done slow-burn romance.

rachelsolomonbooks.com
simonandschuster.com/teen

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Review of Bitter, by Akwaeke Emezi, read by Bahni Turpin

Audiobooks, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Bitter

by Akwaeke Emezi
read by Bahni Turpin

Listening Library, 2022. 7 hours, 11 minutes.
Review written October 10, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I heard great things about the author’s National Book Award Finalist last year, Pet, but I never did get it read. Now I am going to get my hands on it. This riveting novel was unusual and powerful. Bitter is a prequel to Pet. It’s set in a time of unrest in a city named Lucille.

Bitter is a queer Black girl who got recruited out of unloving foster care to attend a school for artists called Eucalyptus. Unfortunately, Eucalyptus is right in the city center, and the sounds of protests and violence come into Bitter’s room and fill her with fear. Some of her good friends have ties with Assata, an organization behind the protests, working for justice. Lucille is a place with police brutality based on skin color and where people in power exploit the poor.

Meanwhile, Bitter has a secret skill. She can paint small creatures and make them come to life with a drop of her blood. They don’t last long, but making them helps Bitter feel grounded and less alone.

But when one of Bitter’s friends gets horribly injured at a protest, Bitter gets angry. And she paints something bigger and more terrifying than she ever has before. When this creature comes to life, things start that Bitter doesn’t know how to control.

Something I appreciated in this novel, as opposed to some fantasy novels I read last year — I appreciated that the main characters shrank back from unnecessary violence, even in service to a needed revolution, even against people who had done terrible things. Of course, not everyone felt the same way, and events set in motion aren’t always easy to stop — but I appreciated the value placed on human life — even the life of humans who had done evil things.

akwaeke.com
listeninglibrary.com

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Review of A Thousand Steps Into Night, by Traci Chee

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Thousand Steps Into Night

by Traci Chee

Clarion Books, 2022. 373 pages.
Review written October 7, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

From the very beginning, I felt pulled into a fairy tale. Here are the wonderful first few paragraphs:

Long ago, in the noble realm of Awara, where all creation, from the tallest peaks to the lowliest beetles, had forms both humble and divine, there lived an unremarkable girl named Otori Miuko. The daughter of the innkeeper at the only remaining guesthouse in the village of Nihaoi, Miuko was average by every conceivable standard — beauty, intelligence, the circumference of her hips — except one.

She was uncommonly loud.

Once, when she was two years old, her mother was wrestling her into one of the inn’s cedar tubs when Miuko, who had no plans for a bath that day, screamed so violently that the foundations shook, the bells rang in the nearby temple, and a respectable chunk of the dilapidated bridge spanning the river a full quarter-mile away let out a horrified groan and slid, fainting, into the water.

That was mere coincidence. Miuko had not, in fact, been the cause of an earthquake (at least not in this instance), but several of the priests, upon hearing of her peculiar vocal faculties, rushed to exorcise her all the same. No matter what spells tthey chanted or incense they burned, however, they were ultimately disappointed to discover that she was not, in fact, possessed. Instead of a demon, what her parents had on their hands was merely a loud child. Worse, a loud girl.

As you may guess, through the book, Miuko continues to be distinguished by qualities that don’t fit the expectations of the culture around her for a girl of the serving class. And it’s lovely to watch Miuko becoming more comfortable with who she is.

As the story begins, Miuko is met on the road by a death demon, who curses her with a kiss. The soles of Miuko’s feet turn bright blue, and wherever she steps, plants die. Worse, the blue color starts traveling up her legs. If it continues, she’ll become a death demon herself.

So in order to try to free herself from the curse and keep her humanity, Miuko must travel a thousand steps to the temple of the December God. Fortunately, she finds companions along her way, beginning with a magpie spirit who can take the form of a boy. Unfortunately, she also gets the attention of a demon inhabiting the body of a prince, and he wants to stop her.

It makes for a wonderful quest to heal Miuko’s curse, and ultimately to save the nation. The Japanese-inspired background of this fairy tale-type story gives it beautiful atmosphere.

The one thing I wasn’t crazy about is that there’s a time travel paradox in the middle of the book, and none of the characters comment on it at all, but just accept it as magic. Honestly, by glossing over it and not trying to explain it, the author pretty much pulls it off. But I’m persnickety about things like that, and it detracted just a tiny bit for me. But I still highly recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy.

tracichee.com
epicreads.com

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Review of Pride and Premeditation, by Tirzah Price, read by Morag Sims

Austenalia, Historical, Mystery, Teen Fiction Review 0

Pride and Premeditation

by Tirzah Price
read by Morag Sims

HarperAudio, 2021. 8 hours, 30 minutes.
Review written October 2, 2022, from a library eaudiobook

I always enjoy Jane Austen spin-offs. This book takes all the characters from my favorite Jane Austen book, Pride and Prejudice, and places them in a murder mystery.

They’re in a different social setting than before. Lizzie’s father Mr. Bennet is a barrister, owning the firm Longbourn and Sons, where Lizzie helps out and wants an official position. Instead she must endure it when Mr. Collins, a distant relative who will inherit the firm, takes credit for her work. Her father challenges her to solve a case using logic to prove herself.

And then she hears about the case of the murder of Mr. Hurst. His brother-in-law Mr. Bingley is accused of the murder. Lizzie hopes to insert herself into the case, but they have engaged the services of his friend Mr. Darcy, who works for the much larger legal firm, Pemberley.

What follows is a convoluted and melodramatic case. At first, I didn’t much like this version of Elizabeth Bennet. She didn’t seem nearly as clever, and was mostly jumping to conclusions in her attempts to sleuth. (Of course, I expected her to jump to the wrong conclusion about Mr. Wickham.)

The author does admit in a note at the end that a woman could not have done the things Lizzie does in this book. But beyond that, the solution to the case seemed a bit coincidental and convoluted.

But when I stopped worrying about the logic behind things, I had to admit it was a fun ride. And it’s always fun to watch Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy gradually change their opinions of one another, whatever the setting.

tirzahprice.com

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Review of Trajectory, by Cambria Gordon

Award Winners, Historical, Mathematical, Teen Fiction Review 0

Trajectory

by Cambria Gordon

Scholastic Press, 2024. 285 pages.
Review written January 24, 2025, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher.
Winner, Mathical Book Prize, High School

My committee just selected this as a Mathical Book Prize Winner, so I’m going to post a review. It’s historical nonfiction about a teenage girl named Eleanor who gets selected to work as a human computer calculating firing tables during World War II.

I’d had no idea such work happened, and that part was super interesting. Later, Eleanor gets selected to go to a desert base and help figure out how to improve the Norden bombsight. And she meets a handsome pilot while she’s there.

The setting is fascinating, based in historical fact that I’d known nothing about, and it’s always lovely to find a book that features a mathematician.

I did have some reservations. Her mathematical “gift” is portrayed as a rather mystical thing that comes and goes, and I didn’t like that portrayal. And I’m skeptical of the details about the Norden bombsight (the kind of development done seems to have mostly happened in the 1930s) and completely failed to suspend disbelief for a climactic scene where they needed a mathematician to save the day.

But – that’s why we choose winners via committee! The vast majority reminded me that this is historical fiction. And mathematics certainly go into bomber technology. And female mathematicians certainly did important work during World War II. And is it so terrible to read about a female mathematician saving the day with her mathematical skills, even if it feels a tiny bit implausible to me?

So anyway, I’m proud of our winner. You might need to suspend disbelief a bit, but there’s a good tale here about using math to win the day. And this year had more high school titles to consider than any other year I’ve served on the Mathical committee, which was a wonderful milestone.

cambrialgordon.com

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