Read and Dream: My Book Life: historical fiction

Showing posts with label historical fiction. Show all posts

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart Review

Title: Shuggie Bain

Author: Douglas Stuart

Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. Under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink. Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her--even her beloved Shuggie. A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction.

Me: This debut novel about a young boy and his mother in 1980s Scotland has taken the literary world by storm. It just won the Man Booker, and I was excited to finally pick it up and get to read it myself. The praise is so well-deserved; the book was unapologetically beautiful and real.

Title: Lincoln in the Bardo

Author: George Saunders

Genre: Historical Fiction, Contemporary

Blurb: February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy’s body.

From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a thrilling, supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory, where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.

Me: After reading Saunders' short story collection Tenth of December, I didn't think I would feel inclined to read any of his other works. He was known primarily as a short story writer before this novel, and while his writing is undeniably fascinating and fresh, it didn't seem like my thing. This book changed my mind, and got me so excited that I get to experience a writer like this in real time.

Title: Human Acts
Author: Han Kang

Genre: Historical fiction

Blurb: In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed.

The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho's best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.

An award-winning, controversial bestseller, Human Acts is a timeless, pointillist portrait of an historic event with reverberations still being felt today, by turns tracing the harsh reality of oppression and the resounding, extraordinary poetry of humanity.

Me: Han Kang is probably the most well-known contemporary Korean author, and it had bothered me for a while that I hadn't read any of her works, especially The Vegetarian (which won the Man Booker and is definitely on my next-to-read list!). I decided to read this first because it was directly related to a period of South Korean history, and I'm so glad I did. It was one of the most beautiful books I've read about any uprising or protest.

Title: The Girls

Author: Emma Cline

Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence, and to that moment in a girl’s life when everything can go horribly wrong.

Me: One distinctive change from this summer has been that I've started to actively read more adult contemporary fiction, a genre that I mostly avoided unless books were critically acclaimed. It's been really nice, keeping me reading not just for education but for fun, and has also shown me some general flaws of popular "literary" or adult fiction. The Girls was one of those, where I found myself extremely interested in the story yet not entirely compelled by the writing, not intoxicated by the world of the book.

Title: The Underground Railroad
Author: Colson Whitehead
Genre: Historical Fiction
Blurb: From prize-winning, bestselling author Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South.

In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor- engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre–Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.

Me: Winning both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, this book has become a part of every list of essential books to read from the past few years. I was really excited and intrigued by the premise and had very high expectations going in - perhaps too high, because it felt mostly underwhelming and not entirely memorable.

Hey! I talk about this book so much to anyone who'll listen, so I'm amazed that I haven't mentioned it on the blog yet in some shape or form. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is probably my favorite book of all time. I first read it in 8th grade, and just a week ago, finished my fifth re-read. Here's why I love it so much:

Title: Nervous Conditions
Author: Tsitsi Dangarembga
Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: This stunning first novel, set in colonial Rhodesia during the 1960s, centers on the coming of age of a teenage girl, Tambu, and her relationship with her British-educated cousin Nyasha. Tambu, who yearns to be free of the constraints of her rural village, especially the circumscribed lives of the women, thinks her dreams have come true when her wealthy uncle offers to sponsor her education. But she soon learns that the education she receives at his mission school comes with a price. At the school she meets the worldly and rebellious Nyasha, who is chafing under her father's authority. Raised in England, Nyasha is so much a stranger among her own people that she can no longer speak her native language. Tambu can only watch as her cousin, caught between two cultures, pays the full cost of alienation.

Me: Such an interesting look on women in colonized Africa, and on two girl's journeys in coming to terms with themselves and the worlds they live in.

Title: Trieste
Author: Daša Drndić
Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: Haya Tedeschi waits to be reunited after sixty-two years with her son, fathered by an S.S. officer and stolen from her by the German authorities during the War as part of Himmler's clandestine 'Lebensborn' project, which strove for a 'racially pure' Germany. Her obsessive search for her son leads her to photographs, maps and fragments of verse, to testimonies from the Nuremberg trials and interviews with second-generation Jews, as well as witness accounts of atrocities that took place on her doorstep. A broad collage of material is assembled, and the lesser-known horror of Nazi occupation in northern Italy is gradually unveiled. Written in immensely powerful language, and employing a range of astonishing conceptual devices, Trieste is a novel like no other. Dasa Drndic has produced a shattering contribution to the literature of our twentieth-century history.

Me: I am a huge WWII geek. As in I will read practically anything under the sun if it has to do with WWII. I've read a lot of war novels before, but this one blew everything else out of the water. It is truly a war novel like no other.

Title: The Shadow of the Wind

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Publisher: Penguin Books

Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction

Blurb: Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

Me: My favorite book that I have read in 2016 so far, and one of my favorites of all time. All lovers of literature should read.

Title: Between Shades of Gray
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Publisher: Philomel Books
Genre: Historical Fiction

It's 1941 and fifteen-year-old artist Lina Vilkas is on Stalin's extermination list. Deported to a prison camp in Siberia, Lina fights for her life, fearless, risking everything to save her family. It's a long and harrowing journey and it is only their incredible strength, love, and hope that pull Lina and her family through each day. But will love be enough to keep them alive?

Title: Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Publisher: Egmont Press
Genre: Historical Fiction

Spoilers in white. Highlight to read.

I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine - and I will do anything, anything to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France - an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

Title: All the Light We Cannot See

Author: Anthony Doerr

Publisher: Scribner

Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: (from goodreads) From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Me: I DO NOT HAVE WORDS. I AM JUST SPEECHLESS. NO. WORDS.

The Ups: Okay. You may be thinking this is just another WWII book. And yes, it is a story set in WWII. But there is no book like it. It is so complete, so wonderful, so beautiful.

There are books that tell a story. Then there are books that radiate truths about the human soul, about human nature, about human life. All the Light We Cannot See is one of those books.
I have always been fascinated by the fact that there are billions of lives on Earth, which means billions of interactions, billions of meetings, billions of moments you get only once. We are exposed to only certain moments of people's lives, and the more we see, the better we know the person.

But how can you express that haunting feeling of a short encounter whose memory lasts for a lifetime? How can you understand how the best of people come together in the worst of times? All the Light You Cannot See captures this perfectly.
Marie-Laure is quiet, intelligent, and loyal. She loves the people near her dearly, even as she loses them one by one. The setbacks of being blind have matured her beyond her years, yet she still has a fascination with little animals and organisms, and loves to read.
Werner is a Hitler Youth with a knack for wires and transmissions. He is smart and is amazing at what he does, yet his mind never fails to question. He spots the ripples in the seemingly-perfect Nazi society, and does not know what to do about them.
Both stories are so wonderfully told that Marie-Laure, Werner, and all the surrounding characters embed themselves into your heart. Their fear, their love, their small triumphs are one with the reader, and it is as if the reader is living in those times.

The story of their brief meeting and the impact of their encounter is breathtaking. To think that simply another human being, a complete stranger, can change your life so subtly yet remarkably. It is not often a book writes such a unique story, but maybe that's what makes this one so special.
The research and the blood, sweat, and tears in order for this book to come alive are apparent. I do believe this book deserves nothing but praise. I have fallen in love once again.

Overall: A book forever to be in my memory. The beautiful story that reflects the small beauties of life and those priceless encounters of suffering people.

Rating: Beat My Scale.

The Diviners Review

Title: The Diviners
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Little, Brown
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Blurb: (from goodreads) Do you believe there are ghosts and demons and Diviners among us?
Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It's 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.
Evie worries he'll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.
As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfurl in the city that never sleeps. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened....

Me: 1920's flapper girl NYC + a quirky heroine + a creepy ghost murder mystery? Yes. Yes yes yes.

The Ups: First of all, the history. I love books with a historical spin on them, and the 1920's is one of the most exciting decades in the history of America. The glitz and the glam looks extravagant and glamorous, but beneath the facade is a lot of problems. A lot of problems.

Evie, the main character, talks about the Ziegfeld girls who dance and sing on stage, the newsie boys selling the latest headlines, and the bars and nightclubs even in the prohibition era. Everything is exciting, special, and it's fascinating to think that this setting was real, that a time like this really existed.

I also love that it is set in New York. I have such a love for the city, and to see it in the perspective of an Ohio girl in the 20's was so awesome. What I would give to have been there in her place and experience it all for myself....

I really liked all of the characters. Evie is such a great protagonist. She is quirky, bubbly, and just a bit crazy, but she's also very smart, determined, and not afraid to speak her mind. I loved her originality, but I could also tell that underneath everything she was just a small-town girl (livin in a lonely world....nope nope jk jk) who was trying to find her place in a city that was constantly changing. Uncle Will was kind but distant, caring but almost too intelligent, and I loved his awkardness. Theta, Sam, Sister Walker, THE CAST WAS PERFECT. Oh, not to mention Jericho. I wish we get to spend more time with him later on in the series.

Another interesting thing is the subtle commentary on American culture, and the materialistic, media-centered world we live in. It is imbedded into the story, and it is phenomenal that the critique on society is woven in with just a simple story.

Ahh and we cannot forget the horror. I'm not a fan of creepy supernatural stories, but this one was good. Good as in it gave me the chills. I was on the edge of my seat when the murders happened, but then Evie and her brightness would come in and balance it out, which I thought was a great contrast.

Basically, Libba Bray created a world. An experience. Reading this book is like living in the 1920's and the way she writes is magical. You can hear the music, see the lights, smell the perfume. How she manages to describe it so perfectly and bring it to life is beyond me.

Overall: A great thriller story with a quirky twist that sets a perfect mood for the 1920's New York; a truly American story.

Rating: 5 kisses!

Under A Painted Sky Review

Title: Under A Painted Sky
Author: Stacey Lee
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: (from goodreads) Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a professional musician—not an easy thing if you’re a girl, and harder still if you’re Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life. With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys headed for the California gold rush. Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to their past, and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the light-hearted troupe turn out to be unexpected allies. With the law closing in on them and new setbacks coming each day, the girls quickly learn that there are not many places to hide on the open trail.

This beautifully written debut is an exciting adventure and heart-wrenching survival tale. But above all else, it’s a story about perseverance and trust that will restore your faith in the power of friendship.

Me: An incredibly unique story with lots of great aspects.

The Ups: I have never read a story like this. It is hard to find a 1800s, going west book that is genuinely interesting, and even harder to find one about anyone of Asian descent. I think that is what made it so fascinating for me, because I could relate to her cultural differences (even though Sammy is Chinese and I am Korean) and everything about the path she chose to take and her journey was fascinatingly different from what I normally read in historical fiction.

I loved the plot. I find that most 1800s stories tend to get a little slow after a while, which is understandable as there are basically cows, cows, more cows, and grass.

But the book kept me interested the entire time. Maybe it is because they had the constant problem of being men and being caught, but even the "drab" parts managed to keep me hooked.

I really enjoyed the characters as well. Sammy, like I mentioned before, was someone I could relate to, and found myself connecting to with the prejudice and hate she got for her race and the restrictions she felt both as an Asian and a girl at the time. Andy was one of my favorites, a faithful girl with a strong sense of direction that I felt like all the characters, and me as a reader, could rely on. The boys, West, Peety, and Cay...God, I hated them. But I loved them. I cared for all of them so much, even with their significant flaws. The author did a great job at making the reader really feel for all these different characters.

This book was just a perfect mixture of adventure, suspense, friendship, characterization, eccentricity and everything else. Loved it.

The Downs: The ending was a bit confusing. I understood it, but I found myself wishing for a bit more of a solid conclusion.

Overall: A truly unique story with wonderful characters I grew to care for. A fresh take on historical fiction.

Rating: 5 kisses!

Code Name Verity Review

Title: Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Publisher: Egmont Press
Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: (from goodreads) I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine - and I will do anything, anything to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France - an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

Me: I remember picking this book up 2 years ago to read it for a book club, and not being able to get into and dropping it. But I have tried again. And succeeded.

The Ups: First of all, it's a WWII story. And it is practically impossible for me to not enjoy a WWII story in some shape or form, because I am crazy about WWII. (It just utterly fascinates me. Does anyone agree? Comment below if you do)
I loved that the main characters were girls. Again, going on my WWII geekiness here, it makes me extremely proud that women really got into the midst of the war in WWII. I think that the book showed the power of them, and what they did for the war, while also mixing in their personal stories. It really showed their bravery, and how capable they were.

I really loved Maddie Brodatt. She was someone I felt like had a very strong voice, and I feel like she felt very genuine to me. Her character arc, I feel like, was very apparent even though she only spoke for half of the book. And I could really picture her world, and this may sound weird, but I felt a sense of comfort leaving her in her world after I read the book. It's like I knew she would be okay.

The Downs: But I faced the same problem as the first time I'd tried to read the book. It took me so long to get into it, and when the book would finally get interesting, it's go back to lengthy boring ranting again. I also feel like Julie's part of the book, or her "report" so to say, was very confusing because it kept going back and forth to the past and back. I felt like I was getting sucked out and in of a story and it was chaotic and weird.

Overall: Fabulous heroines, but not so great plot.

Rating: 4 kisses!

All the Truth That's In Me Review

Title: All the Truth That's In Me
Author: Julie Berry
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Genre: Historical Fiction , Mystery

Blurb: (from goodreads) Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn't know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever. This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.

Me: Such an amazing book, with an enthralling mystery and a great protagonist.

The Ups: Oh this book was so great. So great. First of all, I'd like to point out that it is supposedly a "historical-fiction" and while that is absolutely true, it didn't feel hard to read or weirdly disconnected. The language and the tone made it extremely easy to see straight into Judith's mind, and to really get sucked into the story. I loved the setting and how I could picture everything, and I think it fit so well with the story.

The character development was phenomenal. Judith went through such immense changes throughout the book, and she was very easy to connect to. Her love for Lucas seemed pure and innocent and a bit afraid but never annoying, and her difficulty to speak up really touched my heart as well. The fact that she found a way to change something and become her own person was really beautiful.

That being said, the other characters didn't fall behind, either. Darrel was my personal favorite because I felt that he truly loved his sister and could understand her but often had the oblivious, naive thoughts of a teenage boy. I absolutely adored Maria, who seemed like a wonderful person with a true heart. Lucas, Goody Pruett, Judith's mother, all of them contributed immensely and I loved them all.

I absolutely adored the writing, The mystery was great, and although it didn't bring a huge shock, it felt like everything really came together at the end. I loved how it was written to Lucas, and even though that made me a bit doubtful at the beginning, it got very interesting and just kept getting better.

The Downs: I think that at certain parts of the book it was a tad bit slow, and I would have liked to see a bit more action and maybe have the ending come a bit faster in the book, but overall, the book came to me at a great time and told me a wonderful story.

Overall: Such an original, meaningful story that truly stood out to me.

Rating: 5 kisses!

Conversion Review

Title: Conversion
Author: Katherine Howe
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Fantasy

Blurb: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane comes a chilling mystery—Prepmeets The Crucible.

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.

First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.

Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .

Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

Me: I want you to scroll up and look at the genres this book fits into. It's pretty crazy. I think that that was the thing that made it so fascinating. It blended together a lot of diverse aspects, but melded them really smoothly.

The Ups: This book was addicting. I mean, ADDICTING. I read it for 5 hours straight last night. The thing is, I can't really place my finger on what it is. I think it's a mix of the suspense and the way the book was written. Howe's writing was very realistic but also extremely sharp and to the point, which made it even more confusing to see how the book would unravel. She would also just set the mood perfectly, with a witty cliffhanger at the end of a chapter or a perfect depiction of the illness and the symptoms.

The entire scenario that was happening was so original. The thought of relating it back to the Salem Witch Trials was haunting and frightening and I literally got goosebumps every time it went back to 1706. I felt like St. Joan's was my school and these things were happening to people around me and it was so intense. I felt like I was completely soaked into the story.

The characters were also a huge part. I felt like I knew each and every one of them, but not in a good way. I feel like as a reader I was on guard to see who the culprit was, and although I had my suspicions, I was prepared for a total twist.

All in all, this book just kept me hooked and my brain spinning to the point where I just could not put it down.

The Downs: I predicted who it was from page 30. The strange thing is, I feel like that should have ruined the book for me. But instead I feel like it kept me going even more because I wanted to see if I was right or not, and even when it was, I got a sense of like "Yes, I knew it! ACCOMPLISHMENNTTT!" and not, "Seriously bro that was so obvious." Even though it turned out much better than I would've thought, I would've loved it if there was a huge twist that absolutely blew my mind.

Overall: A riveting novel that kept me hooked until the very end...really haunting and chilling.

Rating: 4 kisses!

Lies We Tell Ourselves Review

Title: Lies We Tell Ourselves
Author: Robin Talley
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Genre: Historical Fiction, GLBT

Blurb: In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept "separate but equal."

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

Me: A hastily chosen novel that ended up being incredibly provocative and powerful.

The Ups: I honestly picked up this novel because I loved the feeling of the cover. Yup, something as shallow as that. And I got super excited to bring it on my trip to Korea, since I knew I wouldn't be able to bring many books. (Love from Korea btw)
The book started off as any other school integration novel, strong in historical facts and hooking in characters. I really loved Sarah Dunbar as one of the main characters. She seemed very clever, honest, and strong-willed, a perfect girl to fight. But what made her even better was she didn't know it. She had her doubts and her flaws. The character arc she had was so interesting as well. She gained immense strength and a sense of self throughout the book
The other African American students with her, like Ruth, Paulie, Ennis and Chuck were amazing as well. I felt an immense connection to them and throughout the entire story I was asking myself, could I have done what they did? And I don't think I ever could've. They are so brave, so beautiful, and in the writing I could feel their struggle and the unfairness of it all. I wondered at the beginning. Could a white author living in modern times fully express the character of a black teenage girl in the 60's and make it genuine? I have to say Robin Talley has succeeded.
I started off reading this thinking it would just be a powerful story of the integration fight. And even at the beginning the book had strong potential and had already established connection with me as a reader. I then realized that the two main girls were feeling romantic feelings for each other and the story dived into a new area of depth.
There was just so much to block these girls from being themselves. Sarah was only seen as her color, and Linda had been raised to think a certain way about blacks and not dare think otherwise. Both of them, feeling things for each other in a world where interracial marriage was considered a crime and where for most the concept of two females loving each other hadn't even occurred to them
The book was just so brave and about such brave people. It really made me think about how fortunate we are now, but also about everything we still had to work for.

The Downs: That being said, there were certain things that bothered me about this book. First of all, Linda bothered me as a character. She was the opposite of understanding, and had a lot of bias. Even when she was falling for Sarah she refused to let her former thoughts go. I understand that that was how she was brought up, but after a while it started to really bother that me that after everything that happened, Linda was, even in the end, a racist.
I also felt like the romance was a bit ridiculous. I obviously could not connect to the romance as well as some people, because I am not GLBT. But the fact that these two could feel these things by arguing and debating and not anything else was weird. I didn't feel like the relationship was genuine.

Overall: A very powerful story that is pulled by strong characters and a sense of finding yourself.

Rating: 4 kisses!

Out of the Easy Review

Title: Out of the Easy
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Publisher: Philomel Books
Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: (from goodreads) It’s 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer.

She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street. Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny.

Me: Ruta Sepetys has just received my utmost respect for being able to weave such beautiful historical fiction stories.

The Ups: I personally am a fan of historical fiction. It's fascinating to learn about the past, and I think that there is no better way to experience it then to completely be immersed in the world through a book.

However, I often notice that historical fiction novels are revolved around just the facts and that the story doesn't feel quite so authentic, because the character development and plot doesn't feel real. But Out of the Easy was a timeless story that every person even now, can relate to.

It was a very character-driven novel, which are the kinds of novels I love. Josie Moraine was determined, self-driven, but also tied to a destiny and a life she wanted to escape. And I loved her. But moreso I loved the other supporting characters. I fell in love with Patrick, even though obviously that would have been possible, I hated her mother but felt sorry for her and pitied her life at the same time, I had such compassion for Cokie, and most of all I loved Willie. The characters were just all so flawed, so tied to their sad lives and making the best of it.

The setting was very well crafted as well. I personally have a love for New Orleans, and its originality, but the book really brings to me the idea of the struggle the people of the city had to face 60 years ago.
I also really enjoyed how nicely paced the book was. For the first time in a long while, I stayed up really late reading this book because it was so captivating.

The Downs: There were certain parts of the story I wasn't very comfortable with, and I think that that is the only thing that keeps me from giving the book 5 kisses.

Overall: A wonderful historical fiction novel with a stellar plot and great characters.

Rating: 4 kisses!

The Help Review

Title: The Help
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

Me: This incredibly real story is a book about crossing the lines...that crosses the lines.

The Ups: It's so admirably daring. So many books have turned into a form of entertainment, which essentially, that's better than boring, uninteresting books, but this book shows the bare concept of a story. To cross lines. To tell a story. To teach us a lesson.

I can't believe this is a first novel. It has so much talent and authenticity for me to believe so. It's an absorbing story, where you don't want to miss a split second of what's happening. Being a fast reader, I will skim through pages occasionally, but with The Help, I couldn't. Every detail just made me feel like I knew the characters more and I wanted to know more.

The characters were the absolute perfect ensemble. It's like when you're watching an amazing movie and you look at the cast and you think it's absolutely perfect. That was me, in this book. I think that this story really need to be told, and that these characters were the perfect ones to tell it.

The story of these women and their small part to let others know about their lives was very touching. It makes me want to do something now in the present. This book is like the most perfect, subtle insult. Carefully though out, it highlights how racism is still inexplicably strong in our country, and how we can always make a difference.

The Downs: I feel like Kathryn Stockett sometimes added in historical events just to add historical events. Certain things that wouldn't have really been too important to the women of Mississippi, It kind of broke me out of the spell of the book sometimes,

Overall: Really taught me what a good book is. I've missed them.

Rating: BMS!

PS. Personal thoughts about this book: I think that books have become merely a form of entertainment, desperate to sell. The Help made me realize that the true beauty of a good book is a need to tell a story.