Tag Archives: YA

No Filters and Other Lies by Crystal Maldonado Book Review

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Book Description

Title: No Filter and Other Lies 

Author: Crystal Maldonado  

Publisher: Holiday House

Publication Date: February 8th, 2022 

Genres: Young Adult contemporary romance 

Synopsis:

You should know, right now, that I’m a liar.

They’re usually little lies. Tiny lies. Baby lies. Not so much lies as lie adjacent.

But they’re still lies.

Twenty one-year-old Max Monroe has it all: beauty, friends, and a glittering life filled with adventure. With tons of followers on Instagram, her picture-perfect existence seems eminently enviable.

Except it’s all fake.

Max is actually 16-year-old Kat Sanchez, a quiet and sarcastic teenager living in drab Bakersfield, California. Nothing glamorous in her existence–just sprawl, bad house parties, a crap school year, and the awkwardness of dealing with her best friend Hari’s unrequited love. But while Kat’s life is far from perfect, she thrives as Max: doling out advice, sharing beautiful photos, networking with famous influencers, even making a real friend in a follower named Elena. The closer Elena and “Max” get–texting, Snapping, and even calling–the more Kat feels she has to keep up the facade.

But when one of Max’s posts goes ultra-viral and gets back to the very person she’s been stealing photos from, her entire world – real and fake — comes crashing down around her. She has to figure out a way to get herself out of the huge web of lies she’s created without hurting the people she loves.

But it might already be too late. 

Book links

Goodreads ~ Blackwells ~ Amazon ~ Book Depository ~ Barnes & Noble

Review

Thoughts and Themes: When I saw that the author had another book coming out soon I knew that I had to read it since I enjoyed Fat Chance Charlie Vega so much. I loved this book just as much and think that Charlie and Kat would be such good friends.

I thought that this book does a great job of addressing the complications of social media especially for teenagers and what messages are being passed through social media. Kat first creates Max’s account out of spite and anger with Becca, he co-worker who didn’t want to attend a high school party. Kat only wants to get her art out there to more people but her own account isn’t working too well so she thinks that by using Becca’s face, she’ll have more luck. It doesn’t stop there though as Max/Kat starts speaking to Elena and Elena has a crush on Max who doesn’t really exist.

This book touches on not just social media and how so many things are fake on there but it also brings up being a person of color and being fat within the social media space. I thought it was great that we see Kat bring up how she’s pretending to be a white girl in order to gain popularity online. I also enjoyed seeing the interactions between Elena and Kat during their first photoshoot and how Elena points out photo editing certain parts of herself away.

This book takes a bit to get into what we know is going to happen which is Kat posing as Max but it does a good job of building this up. There are things that have to take place for this idea to pop into her head and there are also actions that need to happen for her to reach this point. I liked the build up that leads to this point and then I liked getting to read as this whole thing plays out. I felt bad for Kat as this whole thing plays out but I also felt bad for the people who were involved in this Max situation without their consent, such as Becca and Elena.

Characters: In this book you get introduced to several characters through their interactions with Kat. You get to meet the members of her family, mom, dad, brother, and grandparents, her friends, Hari, Luis, and Marcus, her co-worker, Becca, and Elena her online friend.

I really liked all of the characters that you get introduced to in this book and enjoyed Kat’s dynamics with each of them. I thought it was great to see her be a different person depending on who she was interacting with and what each person brought out in her. I liked that Kat has people she can be herself with rather than the person she thinks everyone expects her to be.

Something that this book does a great job with and that I really enjoyed in particular was the friendship between Kat and Hari. There were so many times that it could’ve gone wrong and how it could’ve ended the way I expected it to, with a guy who has feelings for a girl throwing that girl away when she wants no more than friendship. I was so glad that they were able to have a conversation about their feelings and navigate these circumstances in a way that didn’t harm their friendship. I thought this was so important because Hari is Kat’s person and she was having such a hard time not having anyone to go to with her secret regarding Becca.

Something else that I liked about this book was the way that it portrayed Kat’s relationship with different members of her family. Kat has to lie about who she lives with and her relationship with her mom, dad, and brother in order to keep her mom happy so it only makes sense that she would want a little control over her life. I liked getting to see the role that Kat’s grandparents play in her life and how she was raised by them. I liked that this book portrayed family in a different way and made it something that Kat didn’t need to be ashamed of.

Writing Style: This story is told in first person through Kat’s perspective. I really liked getting to hear the story through Kat’s perspective because you don’t know how others are feeling. You get to only see what Kat is thinking and get to be in her head about the actions that she is taking.

I love that the only times you get to see how someone else is feeling or their thoughts is when they are interacting with Kat. I love that we get brief glimpses of Elena and her feelings but we never get everything because we only get what she reveals to Kat.

Author Description

Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author with a lot of feelings. Her debut novel, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, is a 2021 New England Book Award winner, a Cosmopolitan Best New Book, and a POPSUGAR Best New YA Novel. Her next novel, No Filter and Other Lies, explores teenage life in the social media age—and the lies we tell to ourselves and others.

By day, Crystal works in higher ed marketing, and by night, a writer who loves Beyoncé, shopping, spending too much time on her phone, and being extra. Her work has also been published in Latina, BuzzFeed, and the Hartford Courant.

She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog. 

Author Links

Website ~ Goodreads ~ Twitter ~ Instagram 

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The Girl who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill Book review

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Book Description

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. 

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magic begins to emerge on schedule–but Xan is far away. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Soon, it is up to Luna to protect those who have protected her–even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known.

Review

Thoughts and Themes: I heard about this one on bookstagram and booktok so when I saw it at the library I immediately picked it up. It took me a while to get into this book because it is a slow story and it doesn’t really pick up at any point throughout. I am glad that I stuck with it though because it is such a beautifully written book and I loved the world that this book takes you to.

I really enjoyed the world-building in this book and how this takes place throughout the book rather than just at the start of the story. The fact that we learn more as we read kept me immersed in this story and made me want to read more. I loved getting to learn more about the Protectorate and how that town came to be as well as the forest as Xan, Luna, Glerk and Fyrian make their way through different parts of this forest.

I loved that this whole story has a lot to do with misunderstandings and lack of communication. I thought it was great that throughout we see the mess that is caused by a lack of communication between people. I was so angry that so much of this was due to something that could’ve easily been solved but that is reality when problems occur due to communication.

Another theme that I really enjoyed in this book is found family. I loved Luna’s family with Xan, Glerk, and Fyrian and how important each one of them was to each other. I liked seeing their relationship strengthen over the course of the book and seeing how Glerk grows to love Luna.

Characters: In this book, there are several characters that you get introduced to as there are a lot of main characters. While this book centers around Xan and Luna, there are other characters that are quite important to the story as well as those who are important in their lives. Glerk and Fyrian are a part of Xan and Luna’s family and you get to know a lot about them throughout this story. You also get to meet Antain, a man who lives in the protectorate and is set on freeing his people from the witch. There is also the “madwoman” who is Luna’s mother and has gone mad with grief after her baby was taken as a sacrifice to the witch. Then there is our villain who I can’t say much about because that would ruin our story.

I loved all of the characters that you get to meet throughout this book and really enjoyed the relationships that they develop with one another. I loved Xan as Luna’s grandmother and how strong their bond with each other is throughout this book. I also really liked Fyrian’s playful nature and his relationship with everyone in the family.

I liked getting to learn about the people of the Protectorate and how they interacted with one another. I liked seeing the relationships they had with one another and why those relationships were important to this town.

Writing Style: This story is told in the third person and it gives you several perspectives. This story follows Xan, Luna, Antain, people of the Protectorate, and at some times Glerk and Fyrian. At first, I was not a fan of this story bouncing around between which characters I was reading about but by the end, I loved getting to see things from so many different viewpoints.

Most times an all-knowing narrator throws me off because I find the story not as interesting but this narrator was good. I liked that the narrator knew everything but didn’t reveal everything to us all at once. The narrator allowed our characters to slowly find things out for themselves and as they encountered new things so did we.

Author Information

Kelly Barnhill is an author and teacher. She won the World Fantasy Award for her novella The Unlicensed Magician, a Parents Choice Gold Award for Iron Hearted Violet, the Charlotte Huck Honor for The Girl Who Drank the Moon, and has been a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award, the Andre Norton award, and the PEN/USA literary prize. She was also a McKnight Artist’s Fellowship recipient in Children’s Literature. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her three children and husband. You can chat with her on her blog at www.kellybarnhill.com

I Hope You Are Listening by Tom Ryan Book Tour Post

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I am so excited to get a chance to be a part of this book tour hosted by TBRandBeyondTours . Make sure you check out the rest of the posts that are a part of this tour by looking at the schedule for the tour found here. 

Author Information

Tom Ryan is the award winning author of several acclaimed books for young readers. He has been nominated for multiple awards, and was the winner of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Best YA Crime Book. Two of his books were Junior Library Guild selections, and three of his young adult novels, Way to Go, Tag Along, and Keep This to Yourself, were chosen for the ALA Rainbow List, in 2013, 2014 and 2020. He was a 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction.

Tom, his husband and their dog currently divide their time between Ottawa and Nova Scotia.

You can find Tom Ryan at:

Website ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~Goodreads ~ Facebook

Book Description

EVERY MISSING PERSON HAS A STORY.

In her small town, seventeen-year-old Delia “Dee” Skinner is known as the girl who wasn’t taken. Ten years ago she witnessed the abduction of her best friend, Sibby. And though she told the police everything she remembered, it wasn’t enough. Sibby was never seen again.

At night, Dee deals with her guilt by becoming someone else: the Seeker, the voice behind the popular true crime podcast Radio Silent, which features missing persons cases and works with online sleuths to solve them. Nobody knows Dee’s the Seeker, and she plans to keep it that way.

When another little girl in town goes missing, and the case is linked to Sibby’s disappearance, Dee has a chance to get answers with the help of her virtual detectives and the intriguing new girl at school. But how much of her own story is she willing to reveal in order to uncover the truth?

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads ~ Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Book Depository ~Indigo

Giveaway Information

Finished copy of I Hope You’re Listening. This giveaway is US only and ends on October 20th. You can enter by clicking here.

Review

Thoughts and Themes: This is a story that hooks you in right from the first few pages in which you meet young Sibby and Dee playing in the forest. From those first few pages you want to know what really happened that day, and want to know if this book is going to reveal that to you.

I wanted to know if the new missing person case had anything to do with the past and what really was going on in this small town. I really enjoyed the short snippets that we get of podcast episodes and really want to listen to this book on audio now because I feel that would really add to the atmosphere in this story.

I really enjoyed how quickly the pace picked up towards the end of the book and how quickly things changed for everyone. I don’t want to give you any spoilers though so I can’t tell you much about what happened except that this book wrapped up nicely. I thought the characters developed nicely throughout the story and really liked seeing how different events affected them and changed them.

Characters: You get three main characters through this story, Dee, Burke, and Sarah. Dee is the main character of the story whose best friend went missing 10 years ago and things have never been the same for her since then. That case is now resurfacing as a little girl has gone missing from the home that Dee lived in when Sibby went missing. I really like how she develops throughout the story from the start where she is closed off and secretive about her feelings to when she shares things with Sarah.

Burke is Dee’s best friend who is the only one who knows that Dee is behind the podcast, Radio Silence. I love how supportive he is of Dee’s podcast even if it isn’t something that he is interested in, and love how supportive he is of the relationship between Sarah and Dee.

Sarah is the new girl in town who knows nothing about what happened 10 years ago and has no clue why the media suddenly has interest in Dee. I really like how Sarah seems to come in and save the day when Dee needs her and is patient with her. I like that she never demands answers from her and gives her time to want to reveal any information to her.

Writing Style: This story is told through the perspective of Dee and through transcripts from her podcast, Radio Silence. I really enjoyed the way that the podcast was included in the story and how we got to read through some of the episodes. I thought it was a good way to see a different part of Dee’s personality and see the change in her.

I also liked how this story told both the present and the past through flashbacks from Dee as she explained things to others. I thought that the flashbacks were included at just the right moments and also thought that they were able to make you feel like you had gone back in time to those moments. I liked the way that you could tell that it was a younger Dee remember those moments and you could feel the way that she felt throughout those times.

Forest background with three images on top of it, boots in muddy water, gmail image, door with branches around it. Sticky note of I hope You're listening by tom ryan on lower left corner
image collage with a girl in a foggy forest, old style white house, door with branches around it, and a laptop in the dark. I hope You're listening by tom ryan in the left hand corner

The Afterlife of Holly Chase Book Review

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Summary: (borrowed from Barnes and Noble) On Christmas Eve five years ago, seventeen-year-old Holly Chase was visited by three Ghosts who showed her how selfish and spoiled she’d become. They tried to convince her to mend her ways. She didn’t. And then she died.

Now she’s stuck working for the top-secret company Project Scrooge—as their latest Ghost of Christmas Past. So far, Holly’s afterlife has been miserable. But this year’s Scrooge is different. This year’s Scrooge might change everything…

Thoughts: I got this book because my December TBR had no holiday books and this one was on display at my local library. I saw that it was a retelling of a Christmas Carol which I have never read so I was a bit worried about that. I’m so glad that I decided to read it because it was such a cute Christmas story.

I loved the romance aspect of this story and how Holly was trying to fix the scrooge. I loved how Ethan’s past mirrored Holly’s and how they bonded over small things. I liked watching as they both grew as people and as they changed in the readers eyes as well.

The twist at the end was so unexpected and was something that I never saw coming. I was like wow how did they do that but was also kind of sad because I was rooting for the original plot I thought was happening. I loved the way they shifted everything and how they made sense of things.

I recommend this to those of you who enjoyed A Christmas Carol and those of you who enjoy romance.

You can get this book at Barnes and Noble or look for it at your local library.

I’m Not Dying With You Tonight Book Review

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Summary: Lena and Campbell aren’t friends.

Lena has her killer style, her awesome boyfriend, and a plan. She knows she’s going to make it big. Campbell, on the other hand, is just trying to keep her head down and get through the year at her new school.

When both girls attend the Friday-night football game, what neither expects is for everything to descend into sudden mass chaos. Chaos born from violence and hate. Chaos that unexpectedly throws them together.

They aren’t friends. They hardly understand the other’s point of view. But none of that matters when the city is up in flames, and they only have each other to rely on if they’re going to survive the night. 

Thoughts: I got this book because it’s the library’s big read and they had it available on audiobook. I also have been seeing others read it and wanted to give it a try so this was the perfect excuse for that.

The audiobook is really good because they use two different people to read each characters chapters. I always have a difficult time with fiction audiobooks because it can be so monotone but not this one. This one the voices change as the characters feel different emotions and even the description is read in the tone of specific characters.

I really enjoyed how there was a clear distinction between which character was speaking. I loved that even other characters who were introduced had a different tone of voice and way of speaking. It makes me wonder if I would’ve seen the story any differently if I read it rather than listened to it. I wonder if I would’ve understood the perspectives as much as I did or if I wouldn’t have paid much attention to the differences between the two girls.

I liked having this story told in both of the girls perspectives. I enjoyed that this was such a big event that has been occurring recently and that you got both sides of this story. I liked that Lena iss black and Campbell is white, I think that their raqcial dynamic added a whole new layer to their story.

I liked watching Lena be one way towards Campbell but be so frustrated with her. I also loved the revelation that Campbell comes to at the end and how she sees everything as she’s told off. And I love how things aren’t resolved at the end and it leaves you thinking.

I also really enjoyed how quick paced everything was. I liked that everything happened in the span of a few hours. I think that things had to happen that quickly for anything to have an impact.

You can get this book at Barnes and Noble or look for it at your local library.

Frankly in Love Book Review

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Thank you Penguin Random House and Penguin Teen for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my review.

Summary from Goodreads: High school senior Frank Li is a Limbo–his term for Korean-American kids who find themselves caught between their parents’ traditional expectations and their own Southern California upbringing. His parents have one rule when it comes to romance–“Date Korean”–which proves complicated when Frank falls for Brit Means, who is smart, beautiful–and white. Fellow Limbo Joy Song is in a similar predicament, and so they make a pact: they’ll pretend to date each other in order to gain their freedom. Frank thinks it’s the perfect plan, but in the end, Frank and Joy’s fake-dating maneuver leaves him wondering if he ever really understood love–or himself–at all. 

Thoughts: This is a book that you definitely don’t want to miss out on. Everyone will be talking about it and it’s worth the hype.

There are so many aspects that I like about this because it is so much more than a love story. I loved the way this talks about the complexity of family, dating, friendships, and racism.

I read mixed reviews about this book after I finished it because I didn’t want to let other people’s opinions influence my own. I really enjoyed the story minus the love part of it but I understand that it needed to be there to move things along. I think that this isn’t a love story but a coming of age of story for Frank, who is coming to terms with what it means to be Korean-American.

I enjoyed the way that Frank grapples with his identity and how he tries to mix both of his lives together. I also enjoy when Frank doesn’t understand why he does anything. I think it was very reflective of how a lot of teenagers feel at his age.

Something I didnt like at first but after thinking about it I love it is the way we don’t really know any of the characters. We know them on a surface level and that’s about it. Even Frank who is the main character in the story is a little bit of a mystery to us. I loved this because I felt like I was seeing people how Frank saw them. He didnt know the people in his life as well as he wanted to and that included himself.

I recommend this to those of you who enjoy YA and those of you who want a book that makes you think.

You can purchase this book at Barnes and Noble or look for it at your local library. Another great way to get this book is subscribe to YA BOTM this month by using code “grow” and get your first box for $9.99.