REVIEW: The Grimoire of Grave Fates, edited by Margaret Owen and Hanna Alkaf

Professor of Magical History Septimius Dropwort has just been murdered, and now everyone at the Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary is a suspect.

A prestigious school for young magicians, the Galileo Academy has recently undergone a comprehensive overhaul, reinventing itself as a roaming academy in which students of all cultures and identities are celebrated. In this new Galileo, every pupil is welcome—but there are some who aren't so happy with the recent changes. That includes everyone's least favorite professor, Septimius Dropwort, a stodgy old man known for his harsh rules and harsher punishments. But when the professor's body is discovered on school grounds with a mysterious note clenched in his lifeless hand, the Academy's students must solve the murder themselves, because everyone's a suspect. 

Told from more than a dozen alternating and diverse perspectives, The Grimoire of Grave Fates follows Galileo's best and brightest young magicians as they race to discover the truth behind Dropwort's mysterious death. Each one of them is confident that only they have the skills needed to unravel the web of secrets hidden within Galileo's halls. But they're about to discover that even for straight-A students, magic doesn't always play by the rules. . . .

18 authors, 18 students. One murder. Mass confusion for this reader.

The good: 

Each of the 18 authors did a great job with their part of the story. I'm not sure if it's good or bad that there wasn't any abruptly different, tell-tale difference in the writing styles. Each chapter flowed with the next as far as the "voice" of the storyteller.

The setting was really interesting. I'd like to read more stories set in this school

The characters were diverse--backgrounds and magic.

The overarcing story line carried through each part. No author contradicted something that had already been established by a previous one.

The not so good: 

I didn't feel like any one character was particularly well-developed. DIverse, yes, but they didn't have a lot of individual depth. Occasionally, some detail would emerge that made me think "so what?" because it didn't further the story at all, to me. 

18 unique points of view was too much. And they marginally overlapped, if they did at all.

The plot wasn't smooth. Some of the POVs seemed to retell what another had already told us about. There were individual climaxes for each, making it hard to figure out where in the arc there was really a climax.

Overall:

I can appreciate there was A LOT put into creating this single story arc anthology. It's an interesting treatment, I just think the slate of authors and stories within the story was too large.

Contributors include: Cam Montgomery, Darcie Little Badger, Hafsah Faizal, Jessica Lewis, Julian Winters, Karuna Riazi, Kat Cho, Kayla Whaley, Kwame Mbalia, L. L. McKinney, Marieke Nijkamp, Mason Deaver, Natasha Díaz, Preeti Chhibber, Randy Ribay, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Victoria Lee, and Yamile Saied Méndez

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Random House Children's/Delacorte Press through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

REVIEW: The Last Secret of the Secret Annex, by Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn

Anne Frank’s life has been studied by many scholars, but the story of Bep Voskuijl has remained untold, until now. As the youngest of the five Dutch people who hid the Frank family, Bep was Anne’s closest confidante during the 761 excruciating days she spent hidden in the Secret Annex. Bep, who was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding, risked her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam’s black market to source food and medicine for people who officially didn’t exist under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies. In those cramped quarters, Bep and Anne’s friendship bloomed through deep conversations, shared meals, and a youthful understanding.

Told by her own son, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex intertwines the story of Bep and her sister Nelly with Anne’s iconic narrative. Nelly’s name may have been scrubbed from Anne’s published diary, but Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn expose details about her collaboration with the Nazis, a deeply held family secret. After the war, Bep tried to bury her memories just as the Secret Annex was becoming world famous as a symbol of resistance to the Nazi horrors. She never got over losing Anne nor could Bep put to rest the horrifying suspicion that those in the Annex had been betrayed by her own flesh and blood.

This is a story about those caught in between the Jewish victims and Nazi persecutors, and the moral ambiguities and hard choices faced by ordinary families like the Voskuijls, in which collaborators and resisters often lived under the same roof.

The Diary of Anne Frank is a book I go back to again and again. I'm simultaneously fascinated with her story, through her eyes, and horrified that humans could treat others that way.

This story isn't Anne's. It's the story of Bep, one of her father's employees and Anne's good friend, who helped hide and care for the family when they went into the annex. We learn how it affected her daily life at the time, and after the war. How it ultimately changed the trajectory of her entire family, and even affected her children. For me, it deepened my understanding of the fear and stresses the war and the Holocaust itself took on those who lived under German occupation. 

This book would make a good companion read when studying The Diary of Anne Frank. It widens the perspective and brings to light the generational affects of what the helpers survived.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Simon & Schuster through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

REVIEW: My Murder, by Katie Williams

 

Lou is a happily married mother of an adorable toddler. She’s also the victim of a local serial killer. Recently brought back to life and returned to her grieving family by a government project, she is grateful for this second chance. But as the new Lou re-adapts to her old routines, and as she bonds with other female victims, she realizes that disturbing questions remain about what exactly preceded her death and how much she can really trust those around her.

Now it’s not enough to care for her child, love her husband, and work the job she’s always enjoyed—she must also figure out the circumstances of her death. Darkly comic, tautly paced, and full of surprises, My Murder is a devour-in-one-sitting, clever twist on the classic thriller.

Lou, young mother and wife, is cloned following her murder. She's aware of what happened, big picture, and that she is not her "original" self. She wasn't the only one cloned at that time, and is in a support group with the others who were--all victims of the same murderer. But Lou needs answers, closure maybe, for her "first" self.

The premise drew me in. Interesting speculative fiction, searching for the answers to your own murder. It's, well...a weird twist of an existential crisis. The world-building was done well. It's not set too far into the future as to be unrecognizable, and playing out the possibilities inherent in technologies to put it just beyond our current reach. I liked this story, but I have mixed feelings about it.

I couldn't connect with Lou the way she was written. I do realize it may have been intentional that she was hard to connect with, because I think she was having a hard time connecting with herself. I may also be hoping that was the author's intent. I did, however, connect with her baby, who knew something wasn't exactly right with her momma.

The "thriller" aspect, per the publisher's blurb, isn't a thriller for me. It's a mystery, there's crime drama, but it doesn't "thrill" to me. A little more than halfway through the story, you discover that what Lou (and the reader) thought was the truth isn't quite that. It's not completely outside the realm of possibility from the get go. From that point, the story is rushed and comes together too quickly.

The whole book is part mystery drama, part deep character study. I needed it to lean one way or the other to be more than a 3 star read.

Thank you to NetGalley and RiverHead (Penguin Group) for the review copy. I am posting this review voluntarily.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Riverhead (Penguin Group) through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Book Review: Deep, by Melanie Boksted Horav

Ryler is a young resident of Deep Blue, an underwater colony that's home to the last survivors of a global environmental disaster. A disaster that wiped out humanity hundreds of years ago, leaving the surface air toxic and the last hope of humanity beneath the waves. After the devastating and unexpected death of his grandmother, Marna, who also happens to be the president of the colony, Ryler teams up with his friend Anna to uncover the truth behind her suspicious demise.

Their investigation takes them down a dangerous path, as they discover shocking secrets and a killer on the loose who will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden. With time running out and their own lives on the line, Ryler, and his friends must race against the clock to solve the mystery and escape the clutches of an invisible enemy. Will they make it out alive?

I have to admit, I snagged this one to read based on the cover. I had a dream recently about Michael Crichton's Sphere, (which just went into my stack to be reread.) So, I was caught a little unaware by the story line. I wasn't expecting dystopian fiction, I guess. 

Not to say I didn't really enjoy this book. Because I really did. The world-building alone was enthralling. Without a map, an ocean colony could potentially be unwieldy to carry in one's head, but even with the detailed descriptions, was easily imaginable. I could "see" the houses, the garden, the engineering areas, etc. where scenes took place. The story is fast-paced and it draws you in quickly.

The characters are so well-done and interesting. Ryler and Anna (the leads) are relatable and deep. Supporting characters are just the ones that are needed in the spaces they arrive. I particulary like Red, who is rough-edged and brings an element that shows us that human nature is the same, even with and despite technological and sociological advances.

I do think that it's very obvious that this is intended to be a series. I often "get" this as a book is winding up, but thinking back over it, I feel like there's a lot left untended or unanswered. One of the characters mentions severe back pain often enough that it's part of the story line, but we aren't told more than that there's pain and medication for it. A few scene changes felt very abrupt. The story is going strong along an arc, and then stops because a character is distracted by something. It was unsettling, which maybe was the point.

Overall, I'm definitely going to find the next book because I want to know the answers to some things. It's a good story, and done well.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Enter Text Here through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

REVIEW: The New Guys, by Meredith Bagby

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The never-before-told story of NASA’s 1978 astronaut class, which included the first American women, the first African Americans, the first Asian American, and the first gay person to fly to space. With the exclusive participation of the astronauts who were there, this is the thrilling, behind-the-scenes saga of a new generation that transformed space exploration

The story of NASA’s Astronaut Class 8, or “The F*cking New Guys,” as their military predecessors nicknamed them, is an unprecedented look at these extraordinary explorers who broke barriers and blasted through glass ceilings. Egos clashed, ambitions flared, and romances bloomed as the New Guys competed with one another and navigated the cutthroat internal politics at NASA for a chance to rocket to the stars.

Marking a departure from the iconic military test pilots who had dominated the space program since its inception, the New Guys arrived at the dawn of a new era of space flight. Teardrop-shaped space capsules from Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo gave way to the space shuttle, a revolutionary space plane capable of launching like a rocket, hauling cargo like a truck, and landing back on Earth like an airliner. They mastered this new machine from its dangerous first test flights to its greatest achievements: launching hundreds of satellites, building the International Space Station, and deploying the Hubble Space Telescope.

The New Guys depicts these charismatic young astronauts and the exuberant social and scientific progress of the space shuttle program against the efforts of NASA officials who struggled to meet America’s military demands and commercial aspirations. When NASA was pressured to fly more often and at greater risk, lives were lost in the program’s two biggest disasters: Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003).

Caught in the crosshairs of this battle are the shuttle astronauts who gave their lives in those catastrophes, and who gave their lives’ work pursuing a more equitable future in space for all humankind. Through it all they became friends, rivals, lovers, and ultimately, family.

I'm not usually a fan of overview, storytelling collective biographies, but this was so well done I couldn't put it down. It's as engaging as the best novel and just exactly right in terms of research and history. It's a literary memorial to the astronauts wre called upon to not only rocket into space, but to help design and build the Space Shuttle fleet.

It's like looking through a window in time, learning about each of the The New Guys, names that any NASA officianado recognizes with little effort, from Sally Ride to Ron McNair, and the people who shaped the program all along the way. It was both intriguing to discover what road they took to space, and awe-inspiring how they drove themselves to reach the heavens.

This is a beautifully woven story of the iconic women and men who touched the stars, the challenges getting there, the heartbreak when we lost those in Challenger and Columbia, and the history of a government program that is made of the dreams of us all.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from William Morrow through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.