Review of All the Days Past, All the Days To Come, by Mildred D. Taylor

Historical, Teen Fiction Review 0

All the Days Past, All the Days to Come

by Mildred D. Taylor

Viking, 2020. 483 pages.
Review written November 12, 2020, from a library book

All the Days Past, All the Days to Come continues the story of Cassie Logan and her family that Mildred Taylor wrote about in her previous books, including the Newbery winner Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. It’s been awhile since I read that one, and that’s the only one of her books I’d read, but she gives enough information so I didn’t feel lost.

This book covers Cassie’s start into adulthood. In fact, I think the only real reason this book is in the YA section is because the earlier books were for kids and teens, and this is the same family. The book has a Prologue in March 1944, and then covers 1945 through 1963. Many members of the family, including Cassie, move to Toledo, Ohio. From there, she spends some years in Los Angeles (I enjoyed that I knew the area that part described much better.) and also in Boston. Throughout the book, they go back to Mississippi where their family has land.

And everywhere they go, throughout the book, they encounter discrimination and segregation. Relentlessly and repeatedly, even in the north. By writing this as a sweeping family story over years, I felt the pain of that more than when it’s simply described to me. They never were able to escape it. The fifties and sixties brought some particular fights, with some victories but also some losses.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and was pulled into the story. At the same time, it was depressing and discouraging. Regarding the incidences of racial discrimination, I think that discouragement shows that the book pulled me into the story. However, I was also disappointed that the author didn’t give Cassie a happier life! She had some terrible losses that seemingly happened at random. And the book doesn’t really come to a place of resolution at the end, simply stopping at a place where their struggle continues.

They’d been fighting voter suppression and do end with an Epilogue about going to the inauguration of Barack Obama. For me as a reader knowing who got elected eight years later, that’s not quite as triumphant as I would wish.

This is a powerful story, and it does stir the reader up about injustices based on skin color. So it’s probably appropriate if it feels a little depressing. I’m also sure that readers who have read the earlier books will be excited to find out how Cassie’s adult life starts out.

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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books!

Review of The Prisoner’s Throne, by Holly Black

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Prisoner’s Throne

A Novel of Elfhame

by Holly Black
read by Barrett Leddy

Hachette Audio, 2024. 11 hours, 58 minutes.
Review written March 18, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Okay, I confess. We don’t order ebooks or eaudiobooks until the day they’re published (because they don’t require physical processing), and I used my insider knowledge to check out this eaudiobook from our library the same day it came out. I didn’t do as I was tempted and stop my previous audiobook in the middle, but as soon as I started listening to this one, it was every bit as good as I’d expected after reading The Stolen Heir.

And yes! This sequence is only a duology! So no more suspense — the story is finished. (Though there are hints at where we might find drama for the next book.) And wow.

Yes, you should read The Stolen Heir first. And while you’re at it, you should read the entire trilogy that introduced us to Elfhame that begins with The Cruel Prince. I probably should have used this as an excuse to do some rereading, especially to remember side characters and how the different enchantments work, but it didn’t take long to feel like I at least generally knew what was going on.

I don’t want to tell any plot points, because that would give away things from earlier books. So let me talk about what I like in this book and in this series.

In the series in general, I like the romance, but I also like the politics. Which doesn’t sound like as much complete fun as you’ll find here, so let me reword that — I like the court intrigue. It works out to plots and counterplots and trying to figure out whom to trust. There’s a whole lot of that going on in this duology, as Oak is the heir to the High King of Elfhame, and Wren is heir to the Court of Teeth — which was supposedly defeated. In this book, we learn that Prince Oak has been cultivating people who are conspiring against the High King in order to thwart their plans — but he neglected to tell the king and his sister the queen what he was doing. So any little amount they find out makes him look treacherous.

I like that The Stolen Heir was told from Wren’s perspective, and The Prisoner’s Throne from Oak’s perspective. I also like that we can’t be sure for either title exactly which main character the title refers to. Wren has been a prisoner before, and Oak is a prisoner as the book opens. Both are heirs to a throne, and there’s a sense where you could say each is stolen away.

I like the romance in this book, building on the previous book. I like the way it’s based on who they are and what they’ve learned about each other — even when appearances don’t look good for them.

And I like that I don’t have to wait impatiently for the next book — although I very much hope there will be one, about some different characters. But I like that Oak and Wren’s story was resolved.

This series has shaped up into an amazing saga, spanning the mortal world and the world of faerie and how it all works. There is a lot of death and destruction, but you appreciate that Oak and Wren are both trying to do the right thing in this violent world. They both want to find someone who sees them, knows them, and loves them.

If you haven’t started the series yet, I highly recommend it.

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Review of Return of the Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, read by Steve West

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Return of the Thief

by Megan Whalen Turner
read by Steve West

Blackstone Audio, 2020. 11 hours, 22 minutes.
Review written April 19, 2021, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I once heard Megan Whalen Turner say that she feels she has failed if people only read her books once. It is now true that I have not read any of her books only once. The plotting is so intricate, reading them again gives you new appreciation of things you missed the first time. And listening to Steve West read is always a treat. His voice is wonderful to listen to, and when he’s reading my favorite book from 2020, all the more so.

The beginning books in the Queen’s Thief series have stunning reversals at the end. This last book is more a series of clever, small twists. This is the culmination of the series, so I won’t give away what happens except to say that the Medes finally invade, and the three kingdoms of the peninsula must work together to stop them, which is a challenge in itself.

The only thing better than reading this book is listening to Steve West read it.

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Review of The Isles of the Gods, by Amie Kaufman

Adventure, Audiobooks, Award Winners, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Isles of the Gods

by Amie Kaufman
read by Nikki Patel, Homer Todiwala, Donnabella Mortel, Vidish Athavale, and Steve West

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 49 minutes.
Review written February 14, 2024, from a library eaudiobook
2023 CYBILS Award Finalist, Young Adult Speculative Fiction
Starred Review

I listened to this book because it was a Cybils Award Finalist (even though I’m not on the panel this year), and I was mesmerized. In the first place, the production is very well done, with one of my favorite narrators, Steve West, reading a large portion. The book has five viewpoint characters, with a narrator for each one. This enhanced the experience and made it easier to realize when a different character was telling the story.

Our main character, though, is Selly. She’s a merchant’s daughter and has grown up on ships. Now, she’s gotten the disappointing news that her father isn’t coming back for her after a year apart. So she plans to sneak aboard the last boat heading north before winter. She plans to get her things off her assigned ship and go in the night. But before she can get off the ship, her captain tells her the whole ship is leaving quietly in the night. The prince, whom everyone thought was leading a procession of ships to various allies, is actually traveling undercover on their ship.

Every twenty-five years, the royal family of Alinor must make a sacrifice at the isle of their goddess, the Sentinel. Well, Prince Leander has been putting it off, and now he’s a year late — and war is brewing. He’s a powerful magician, but for this one important task, he’s been a slacker.

And it turns out there are people and powers who want to stop Leander so that Alinor’s goddess will not have power, and their own god can awaken and they can start a war.

Two of the five narrators are among the group trying to stop Leander. Let’s just say that the voyage does not go smoothly. There is plenty of danger, plenty of tension, and high stakes.

Because of the high body count in the other Amie Kaufman book I’ve read, Illuminae, I was not surprised that there’s also plenty of death in this book. Don’t get too attached to any character, because all lives are in danger and those who want to stop Prince Leander are ruthless.

I must admit, at the start I rolled my eyes a little, thinking it highly unlikely that our two main characters, Selly and Prince Leander, could fall in love with such dramatically different backgrounds. I wasn’t rolling my eyes at all by the end. Amie Kaufman pulls off a tender slow-burn romance based in character, and it’s exquisitely done.

Now, I’m not completely sure I wanted to know all the motivations of the people working to thwart Prince Leander, and maybe five different viewpoint characters wasn’t entirely necessary. But the other characters had short segments so I was never impatient to get back to the main story, and it did add depth to my understanding of the politics of the two countries and how much was at stake.

Though this book stops at a good place, there are some big loose ends that are not tied up, so I will be waiting impatiently for July’s release of the next book, The Heart of the World. It is already on a list to order for the library.

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Review of Stateless, by Elizabeth Wein, read by Moira Quirk

Audiobooks, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Stateless

by Elizabeth Wein
read by Moira Quirk

Little, Brown Young Readers, 2023. 10 hours, 38 minutes.
Review written February 27, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review
2024 Odyssey Honor

I shouldn’t be surprised by how good the books I’ve read lately are — because I’ve been reading award winners. Stateless won an Odyssey Honor, which is the award for best audiobook, and this audiobook was indeed wonderful. The book is also by the author of the amazing book Code Name Verity, so, yes, I expected brilliance.

This book is set in Europe in 1937, when the Nazis are already in power and there’s already war in Italy, but World War II hasn’t broken out yet, and people are still hoping for peace. So much so, in fact, that a young people’s air race across Europe is organized to promote peace. Competitors from many different nations are flying across Europe in timed flights, with stops in various places for socializing and promoting peace.

Stella North is representing England even though she doesn’t carry a British passport. Her parents were killed by Bolsheviks in Russia when she was three years old, and her aunt and uncle got her out of Russia. So now she has a refugee passport stating that she was born in Russia but the Soviet Union doesn’t claim her. She is essentially stateless.

And it turns out that Stella isn’t the only competitor in the Youth Air Olympics who is stateless. She is the only woman, though, and is hounded by the press. They’re not sure she’ll be able to handle the pressure of the race — so when she sees two planes far ahead of her come close together — and then one of them falls into the English channel, Stella tells about the crash, but she’s afraid to let anyone know she saw the other plane that may have been responsible for the crash. She’s not sure whom she can trust, even among the experienced chaperones.

And that’s not the only incident of sabotage and dangerous threats in an epic race that’s supposed to be for peace. Stella must learn whom to trust and whom to avoid — and then how to keep safe during their day and night in Nazi Germany.

There’s lots of tension, suspense, and drama in this amazing story, along with a sprinkle of romance and international friendship. And an author’s note at the back gives you key background details such as there were a higher proportion of female pilots in the early days of aviation than there are now. The only sad part is that it’s hard to imagine a good future for these young people with World War II right around the corner. But I was glad to share in this exciting part of their story. So good!

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Review of The Q, by Amy Tintera

Cybils, Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Q

by Amy Tintera

Crown, 2022. 343 pages.
Review written February 9, 2024, from a library book
Starred Review
2023 Cybils Finalist, Young Adult Speculative Fiction

The premise of this book set in the not-too-distant future is that the entire city of Austin, Texas, was quarantined for a deadly virus with a 40 percent mortality rate. Eventually, they built a wall around the Q to keep people from escaping. Twenty years later, there is still no vaccine because the virus mutates too quickly and antibodies don’t help, though people inside have developed artificial organs that are keeping everyone alive. The Q seceded from the United States and is ruled inside by two rival gangs, each with their own territory.

Into this scenario, Lennon Pierce falls from the sky.

It’s election year, and Lennon is the son of one of the candidates for U.S. President. His Dad has been speaking up for the Q, trying to come up with helpful solutions, while the incumbent president is talking about nuking the whole thing, including the people inside. So someone kidnaps Lennon, takes him up in a helicopter, and drops him into the Q with a parachute.

Lennon lands in the south, in Lopez territory, and unfortunately, the only exit from the Q lies in the north, in Spencer territory. Fortunately, folks in the south have developed a temporary vaccine for the virus, and they give Lennon a shot of it right away. The US government knows about the vaccine and tells Lennon he can leave if he gets out within 72 hours.

Unfortunately, Lennon arrives just in time for an attempted takeover and a power vacuum in the south. A much-needed shipment of supplies is being held up by the north, so Maisie Rojas, teen daughter of the former Lopez enforcer, decides to go with Lennon to the north. She’ll get him to the gate, and he’ll help her recover the shipment. Unfortunately, the new would-be-leader of the Lopez clan would rather just fight — and hold Lennon as a hostage. Not to mention that folks in the north aren’t exactly open to letting people walk through their territory.

What follows is a heart-racing adventure. This was a book that was hard to put down. When I almost had it finished while waiting at the doctor’s office, I absolutely had to take the book to work and finish on my lunch break. Yes, there’s plenty of violence, in a place that has a wild West vibe. There’s also a nuanced romance — though of course if all goes according to plan, they’ll never see each other again after Lennon escapes from the Q.

Now, mind you, I don’t actually believe the book’s premise is possible. In the age of jet travel, I find it hard to believe that you could ever confine a virus to one city. Somebody would have left the city long before they figured out the virus existed and exactly who had been exposed. But that’s just background, and once I glossed over my disbelief in that, I was completely invested in the situation Lennon and Maisie faced.

Based on the Acknowledgments at the back, the author started this book before the Covid-19 pandemic and never thought it would get published once that pandemic hit. I think reading it today does make the setting more believable — at least that the government would try such a solution, even if I don’t think it would actually work.

Some favorite moments: Finding out why Lennon got arrested three times in the past. Maisie learning to trust in her own abilities as a leader.

I read this book because it’s a Cybils Finalist for Young Adult Speculative Fiction. And I’m happy to say that the panel did a great job picking this book. Read it for a thrill ride that’s also full of sweet moments.

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Review of The Next New Syrian Girl, by Ream Shukairy

Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Next New Syrian Girl

by Ream Shukairy

Little, Brown and Company, 2023. 409 pages.
Review written March 27, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #10 More Teen Fiction

The Next New Syrian Girl beautiful interlaces the story of Khadija, a Syrian American girl about to graduate from high school, with Leene, a Syrian refugee girl the same age who has come to Detroit with her mother.

Khadija chafes under the control of her mother and finds relief at a local gym, where she learns to box, wearing her hijab. But when Khadija’s mother opens their home to Leene and her mother – and then holds Leene up as what a Syrian daughter should be like – Khadija isn’t pleased.

But as the girls get to know each other, they find each has something to learn from the other. Both girls are mourning the Syria they knew before war struck, but each had very different experiences.

I like the way Khadija wears a hijab but is not at all stereotypical. The characters read like distinctive individuals, so you feel like you’re getting to know real people when you read this book. A lot of the plot hinges on an enormous coincidence, but that coincidence means both girls are highly motivated to go to great lengths to make things right, so it did further the plot.

This debut stirred my heart and opened my eyes.

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Review of Sing Me to Sleep, by Gabi Burton

Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Sing Me to Sleep

by Gabi Burton

Bloomsbury, 2023. 417 pages.
Review written July 9, 2023, from an Advance Review Copy sent by the publisher.
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #10 Teen Speculative Fiction

Sing Me to Sleep is the story of Saoirse, a siren living in a kingdom ruled by fae, where her existence is illegal. Fortunately, she has access to magic that enables her to change her appearance. By night, she sets aside that magic and works as a hired assassin. She has the power to sing to her marks and convince them to kill themselves. This satisfies the instincts that being near water rouse in her – water calling to her to kill.

By day, working in the training academy, Saoirse has posed as a fae who has no affinity for water or fire or air, even though they are generally despised, so that her power to control water will not be noticed. Then she must work to outperform all the other trainees. But when she achieves the top ranking, she is assigned to serve the Prince, part of the regime she despises.

The reader is of course not surprised when romantic tension sparks between them, despite Saoirse’s disguise with a scar across her face. But this leads Saoirse into conflict about the people she’s been asked to kill and the goals of her employer. The question of who her employer is becomes more important. Did the people she killed deserve death? Does she want the monarchy overthrown if it means the prince will die? And who, exactly, can she trust?

The world-building in this book is expertly done, without info dumps, as we gradually come to see there are more nuances than simply the monarchy is bad and needs to come down.

All the characters in this book have black or brown skin – a simple given, which is refreshing. Saoirse is stunningly beautiful – that’s her deadly weapon, and it’s nice seeing a black girl in that role.

The book does come to a finish at a nice place – but provides a lead-in to more. That’s how I like fantasy series to work. A danger was averted and the kingdom saved – but there’s still more to be done. And I’m looking forward to reading on.

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Review of All the Fighting Parts, by Hannah V. Sawyerr

Award Winners, Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

All the Fighting Parts

by Hannah V. Sawyerr

Amulet Books, 2023. 387 pages.
Review written October 2, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review
2024 William C. Morris Award Finalist
2024 Waler Award Honors
2023 Cybils Novels in Verse Finalist
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #8 More Teen Fiction

[Note: This review was written after my first reading. I read it again, and saw even more on rereading. A marvelous novel and one of our Morris Finalists!]

All the Fighting Parts is a novel in verse about a teen dealing with the aftermath of sexual assault.

Amina’s mother died when she was five years old, and she’s been told that her mother was an activist and a fighter, and that Mina inherited all the fighting parts from her. Her father doesn’t really know how to relate to her, and has taken refuge in the church. When Mina’s teacher calls after she fought back in class, his suggestion is to do some volunteer work at the church as a penalty.

The book interweaves what led up to the assault with the police report about the assault and dealing with it afterward. At first, Mina pushes her friends away and won’t talk to anyone. That felt authentic and realistic. But I also like the way Mina is portrayed grappling with healing. Her boyfriend is almost too good to be true in his understanding – but as a reader, I definitely wanted that for her.

There’s another person abused by the same perpetrator, a respected member of the community, and she has a different way of dealing with it. But this is a sensitive and powerful portrayal of a teen trying to do what’s right and getting her trust betrayed. Then having to figure out it wasn’t her fault what happened.

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Review of Saints of the Household, by Ari Tison

Award Winners, Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Saints of the Household

by Ari Tison

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2023. 312 pages.
Review written May 14, 2023, from my own copy, sent by the publisher.
Starred Review
2024 Walter Dean Myers Award Young Adult Winner
2024 Pura Belpré Award Young Adult Author Winner
2024 William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #4 More Teen Fiction

[Note: This review was written after I read the book the first time, before I discussed it with the Morris committee and before two more readings. I was blown away by this book from the first time I read it.]

Saints of the Household opens when two brothers, Jay and Max, are going to back to school after being suspended for beating up the school soccer star. They’re both seniors in high school, eleven months apart, and have to meet with a counselor, who is also requiring them to meet with their victim for reconciliation.

Jay is trying to figure out how things went so far, but we gradually learn that they saw the soccer star being rough with his girlfriend Nicole, Jay and Max’s cousin. Jay, Max, and Nicole are the only indigenous people at their Minnesota rural high school. Jay’s worried she won’t speak to them again, but also worries that the boy isn’t treating Nicole the way she deserves to be treated. And we find out that the boys’ dad isn’t treating their mother the way she deserves to be treated, either. In fact, Jay and Max have plenty of personal experience with abuse.

The story is told in short vignettes from Jay and poetry from Max, who is an artist. Jay worries that if Max doesn’t take the reconciliation process seriously, he won’t get into art school. But he has to learn that they each have their own burdens to carry.

As the book goes on, we grow to understand how each boy is coping. The book deals with abuse, trauma, depression, and protecting others – but also art, healing, strength and survival. The beautiful writing draws you in and makes you care about these boys.

Here’s one of Jay’s vignettes toward the end (not giving anything away), when he’s helping his grandpa get his home ready after an absence in the Minnesota winter:

First, we warm the house, and then we pull off the panels nailed to the windows that protected them in the cold. We have hammers, and we tug to undress this house.

I feel like this house.

Boxed up for a season of survival. I have survived well like this house. My muscles are as strong as ever as I tear off each panel. It’s a good strength, one I don’t need to use to hurt. A useful strength, and it has me crying. I start tearing off the wood faster and faster because I can’t help but think of each of these boards as a thick skin I had put up. I don’t even know what’s inside there.

The writing is stunningly beautiful, and I was amazed this is a debut author.

aritison.com
fiercereads.com

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