Bookish Blerd

To start, I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided I HAD to read this. I shall quantify this by saying, as someone who has lived her intire life dealing with the reality of slaver, racism, and mysoginy, I despise dealing with it in my fantasy world. I actively avoide books and movies that are racially charged or heavy with the sexism. Sometimes you can't avoid it, and sometime and book/movie is so effing fantastic that I can give it a pass. Dread Nation is going on the list. But make no mistake, the racism really grated on me. Also, it was in first person perspective, which I normally loathe; this was not bad.


With that being said, this was an amazing story, and what drew it to me was zombies, combined with historical fiction, and black people in the forefront. The characters were fun and likeable, even when they were unliekable. The world building was amazing and the writing was incredible!

We follow Jane McKeene a half black/white girl who is a student at Miss Preston's School for Negro Girls (I think that's what it was called.) Basically when the dead decided to get up and walk during the battle of Gettysburg The Civil War "ended" and the war vs the Dead began. The North still "won" and blacks were given freedom, but not really. They, along with indigenous tribes were swooped and placed in combat schools where they taught them how to be on the frontlines in the battle against the dead, as well as beat their culture and "savageness" out of them so that they can better serve their white betters. Sigh, I'm letting the bitterness bleed into the review.

Anyway Jane gets thrust into crazy adventures and all around bad situations with her nemisise Kathrine Devaraux, who is also of mixed race, but a goody-goofy know-it-all, which irks Jane to no end. There are devious plots, secret "utopia" towns, crazy scientists with vaccines and terrible experiments. There is also the dead, which the characters refer to as shamblers. There's a lot of death, allies, betrayals and grudging friendships.

I've heard the narrator before and they were amazing. They captured the voices and brought the world to life.

Just read/listen to it; it was great!

I'm going with 3 stars because I don't know how I feel about this novella.  I wanted to love it. I didn't hate it.  There were parts that I got lost in.  However, there were parts that lost me.  I own the hard cover, but had to borrow the audiobook from the library to get through it.  Perhaps a re-read at a later date...

Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi have been my favorite master/padawan pair since the prequels were released. I devoured the Master Apprentice series and this book is just an extension of that. In this novel we got to know their relationship a bit more intimately. It was fascinating that Qui-Gon was offered a position on the council as well as the fact that he believed he was failing Obi-Wan as a master. Seeing them go through turmoil once more was unexpected, but I suppose that was their relationship from the beginning to the very end. They clearly loved and respected one another, but they also butted heads frequently. Perhaps their love for one another was the reason they were in opposition so often.

 

This story was well done because it didn't lose anything from the Master Apprentice series and even though I knew the outcome would be Qui-Gon declining his invitation to join the council, which woulingd have meant hand Obi-Wan over to a new master, I still had no idea how it would all transpire. They were both disenchanted with one another throughout, but it was because they both cared. Qui-Gon saw his failings as a master and pondered whether or not he even deserved to be Obi's master. Obi-Wan felt his inadequacies as a padawan was the reason he learned about Qui-Gon's invitation from an outside source, rather than from his master. I think he believed that Qui-Gon was disappointed in him as an apprentice. Oh, and in the midst of all of this angst, there were flashbacks from Qui-Gon's time as Dooku's apprentice, and an entire plot of betrayal and murder involving a "backwater" planet's monarchy and their ascent into "modern" within the republic.

 

A very good addition the the JA canon and Jeff Davis did very well with the narration. He captured each characters voice and emotion in a believable way. Fun listen.

Talk about a wild ride! 10-out-of-10, will listen again! This was amazing. The story was sad and heart-wrenching, yet hopeful. This made me cry.

 

Xiomara is a teenage girl trying to navigate life with so many things pulling her in different directions. It spoke to so many teenagers living similar lives. There are parents who try to live their lives through their children, parents, who think they're doing what is best for their children, but are actually putting them in cages to live the lives they want for them rather than letting their child just live, forcing instead of guiding. It was so sad and it upset me so much as a parent. The ending was hopeful, because the family as a whole sought outside help to deal with their issues, which so many families need to do, but do not. It gave me hope that while things would never be perfect, they could get better.

 

I am so very glad that I bought the audibook version of this book, because hearing the author's words, in her own voice made it more powerful and profound for me. This was excellent and I look forward to reading/hearing more from the author.

This was amazing. I do not understand how there are people who thought this was bad. My first thought is that it's white people who just don't/won't get what growing up black is like, but I don't want to be that person.

 

As a black woman growing up in racist America, even I cannot imagine what it was like to grow up like Trevor did. Apartheid... I just can't imagine. I've experienced racism, but DAMN! I thought this was a brilliant story about his life and the fact that he was unapologetic made it that much better. Why should he apologize? And no wonder he turned to comedy. Yikes! His life was fully a humor, but sadness and fear were very prevalent. I cried when he spoke about his mother being shot and how he thought he had lost her. I was so angry that nothing was ever done about his waste of space step-father. The only parts I skipped were anything with the dogs being abused, or if/when they died. I cannot do animal abuse or death even if the death is just of old age.

 

Excellent listen.

I very much enjoyed this as the end of the trilogy.  We were met with more characters, crazy shenanigans, and a self-aware A.I. that was bonkers, but not really.  This finished out the story very well.  I don't think I have it in me to write a more articulate review.  Just know I liked this very, very much.

This was more a sister story than a sequel to the first book in this series. They have many of the same characters, but the main protagonists change. This one flows Noah and Matt. Noah is the biracial son of a rich politician... he's also gay, so of course his father uses his mixed race and sexual orientation as a campaign tactic, which Noah clearly resents. As a way of irritating his father he agrees to be the fake boyfriend of Matt. Matt is a pro football player who was forcefully outed by the tabloid media. He loses his job with his current team on a morality cause, but everyone knows he was because Matt is gay.

 

His friend and agent Damon convinces him that he needs to clean up his image and portray himself as someone in a relationship rather than a guy who has random hook-ups at clubs.

Matt and Noah struggle to be fake boyfriend, mostly because they are both attracted to one another and it frightens them.

 

What I liked about this book was the backstory for the main characters as well as the struggle. Again, it wasn't overly angsty. There was time to develop the plot and relationship without it being too quick or drag on too long. Very good narration; I felt the characters come through.

I do not think I can adequately express my feelings for this book.  So I will just say that I find Egypt fascinating and love to learn anything I can about its history.  I also love women and stories of empowerment and the fight for that power.  This encapsulates both.  It was well researched, well written and the author did the narration herself and while it wasn't spectacular it was what I expected for something so academic.

Fake Boyfriend is one of my favorite fanfic tropes, so it was fun to see in a novel.  The story follows Maddox whose high school girlfriend refused to accept his repeated attempts at breaking up, so he finally lied and told her he was gay.  She then outed him to his entire town, which, I don't care how upset you are, that's just wrong, so I actually felt no sympathy for her because of the lie. Maddox moved to New York to attend college and then stayed, rarely visiting his small town home in Pennsylvania.  Years later he ran into the ex-sweetheart who was having a bachelorette party.  SHe boo-hoos about how it should have been them getting married and how much she misses him.  She then invited him to the wedding with his boyfriend...his non-existent boyfriend.  And much like she did in high school, she blabbed and told everyone he was coming home.  Everyone including Maddox's parents who make certain he can't politely back out of the wedding because they guilt him into bringing his boyfriend (that he didn't tell them about) home to meet them.  Now he's tasked with finding a fake boyfriend to take home for a weekend.

 

Enter his best friend, Stacy, who convinces her gay brother to do the job.  Maddox promises to get Damon, an endeavoring sports agent, a meeting with a high profile hockey player in return for the favor.  Of course Damon cannot turn the chance to gain his first (solo) client and agrees.  And shenanigans ensue. I don't want to spoil the good bits.

 

The characters were likable and flawed like normal humans.  They were not perfect and there were bad choices made and misunderstandings, but not to the point of angst where you wanted to strangle everyone.  It was a fun story where the plot didn't resolve itself immediately, but it didn't drag out overly long either.  There was comedy, drama, angst, sweetness, and sexytimes.  All of which were well written.

 

The narrators did a good job of capturing the voices and emotions of the characters.  This was the first in a series and I would be interested in checking out more.