Manga Review: Yona of the Dawn, Volume 20, by Mizuho Kusanagi

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: October 2019

Volumes: 31+

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 19. 21.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A red-haired princess loses her family and her kingdom… Now she must rise and fight for her throne!

Princess Yona lives an ideal life as the only princess of her kingdom. Doted on by her father, the king, and protected by her faithful guard Hak, she cherishes the time spent with the man she loves, Su-won. But everything changes on her 16th birthday when tragedy strikes her family!

Betrayal leads to Yona and Riri being abducted by the nation of Sei! Forced to work as slaves, the two stubbornly refuse to be controlled, but their situation is dire. In order to save Yona and Riri, Hak and the Four Dragons split into two groups and sneak into enemy territory!

Review:

After that last cliffhanger, we discover that Yona and Riri haven't been taken to immediate danger, but are put to work where danger is going to come over time, whether they do or don't do what they're told.

It's interesting to see the group separate like this. Yona and Riri are apart from the rest, of course, but the dragons and Riri's guards also split up, in order to check the locations that Yona and Riri might be. And then Su-Won shows up, and we see a couple more surprise characters that might just complicate things more.

It's easy to forget that the dragons and most other characters don't know what happened to Yona, and don't know Su-Won or all the connections there. They're very separate experiences for most of the characters. But on the other hand, it's also nice to see what friendships have formed around all these events. Su-Won has made connections. But also, Hak has grown close to the dragons, despite whether he wanted to or not—they all care for each other, and it's nice to see that acknowledged, as they reassure and watch over Hak, when they're all worried about Yona.

This cliffhanger is even worse than the last. And this plot line is getting more complicated and terrible as it goes. I immediately need to read the next, because I cannot wait to find out what happens.

Novel Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: Adult/Literature Fiction, Realistic

Publisher: Back Bay Books (Little, Brown and Hachette Book Group)

Release Date: 2010

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

 
To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world....

Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough ... not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

The Cover:

I really like the cover above, which is the one on my copy. I think it makes the emphasis on the title nice and clear, and shows the childishness of Jack, while all of the white gives an eerie or ominous feeling. There are a few other covers, as well, and I think most of them give a similarly good impression of the book. It's mostly the movie-version cover that I don't care too much for.

Review:

I've been wanting to read this book ever since it came out. I'm glad I finally got around to it.

Jack's mom was kidnapped by this guy seven years ago, but Jack is only five and he only knows this tiny room he's never left. He doesn't know what's beyond Door, and he doesn't know that he's missing anything. Anything he sees on TV, he knows is fictional.

Despite the very serious matter of this book, Jack is the one telling it, and he's a rather optimistic, cute kid. He's very smart for his age, but he also only knows the contents of Room. Everything else is fiction as far as he knows. Up until he leaves Room, at least.

I wouldn't say that Jack makes this book light-hearted, per se, but it does help. While he doesn't directly mention some of the things that happens, and a lot of things are merely said around him when they leave, it's always apparent that he's aware. He has an idea of things being wrong, even if he doesn't quite acknowledge them, or know what they are.

I really liked this book. Seeing Jack discover things is nice, even if some of those things are bad or have consequences. The ending was really well done, too. I wasn't sure where it was going to end, but the significance of that ending and where they are now, was really well done.

This is definitely a book worth reading. It was enjoyable to read, even if it was very sad at times.

Novel Review: Shackled by Tom Leveen

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Realistic, Thriller, Romance

Publisher: Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster)

Release Date: 2015

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

From author Tom Leveen comes a taut, suspenseful novel about a girl’s abduction that leaves her best friend emotionally paralyzed, until a chance encounter points her toward the truth…and a terrifying new danger.

Sixteen-year-old Pelly has a master plan. After years of therapy, medication, and even a stint in a mental hospital, she’s finally ready to re-enter the world of the living. Pelly has been suffering from severe panic attacks ever since her best friend, Tara, disappeared from a mall six years ago.

And her plan seems to be working, until an unkempt girl accompanied by an older man walks into the coffee shop where she works. Pelly thinks she’s seen a ghost, until the girl mouths “help me” on the way out, and Pelly knows she’s just seen Tara.

Too shocked to do anything, Pelly helplessly watches Tara slip away again as she steels herself against a renewed spiral of crippling anxiety. But rather than being overcome by anxiety, Pelly feels more energized than she has in years. Determined to track down enough evidence to force the police to reopen Tara’s file, Pelly’s master plan takes a turn for the dangerous.

Pelly decides she cannot be shackled by her past—and the anxiety, fear, and grief that comes with it—any longer if she wants to save Tara. But in seeking answers through whatever means necessary, she’ll come face-to-face with true evil. And not all the shackles are in her head...

The Cover:

I really like this cover. It's simple, and not a cheesy YA one, but shows exactly what's important with this book and what you're getting. It displays the scary elements, the anxiety, well, I think.

Review:

Pelly can barely keep her job, what with her fear of being outside her home. She can't go to school. And then she thinks she sees her best friend from childhood who was kidnapped. And she has to do something.

I really admire the way that Leveen can make so many different voice so very realistic. I love reading his books so much, because each time you're right inside the characters' head, and every time it is very different. Pelly is afraid of being outside, and she's terrified of a lot of things, and has panic attacks. And it's very evident in the writing.

I really liked the way that Pelly pushes herself. She's terrified, but she makes herself keep going. She makes herself do something about the girl she sees, even when no one else believes her. She even drags one of her co-workers along, even when he doesn't believe her but wants to help anyway.

I wasn't terribly surprised by the twist at the end regarding who the girl was, but I did like it. I really liked how Pelly got out of the situation, too. It was exciting, and it made sense.

I'm definitely a reader of Leveen at this point. This book was fast and intriguing, and it was an easy read to the end.

Novel Review: Ostrich Eye by Beth Cooley

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Genre: YA Realistic

Publisher: Delacorte Press (Random House)

Release Date: 2004

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Is the man Ginger meets in the park really her long-lost father . . . or is he her family’s worst nightmare?

The guy is everywhere. On the jogging path. At the video store. In the coffeehouse. He’s beginning to give Ginger the creeps. But maybe he’s not a weirdo. Maybe he’s just a man looking for the daughter he walked out on ten years ago.

Or maybe not.

Beth Cooley’s cautionary tale of family relationships, identity, and the disastrous results of miscommunication is a gripping novel with the unsettling premise that danger lives closer to us than anyone ever wants to think possible.

The Cover:

This cover is just blah. It's plain, not eye-catching, the colors are all weird. It kind of gives an idea of what the book is about, but otherwise I'm not a fan.

Review:

I was more impressed with the subject matter in this book than I thought I would be.

If Ginger’s mother had just been honest with her from the start, several things would have been different in her life. Sadly, Ginger didn’t know the whole story. And it turned very badly when Ginger thought she’d found her real father.

This is definitely a sad story, a creepy one, and I had a bad feeling from the beginning. It didn’t turn out quite like I expected, but I did like that there was more story after the fact, that we got to see the aftermath of it. Usually stories cut off at that point, and I was glad this one went beyond. It gives a more rounded picture of the event, and I liked that.

This was better than I expected, and while very creepy and upsetting, definitely worth reading.

Novel Review: Girl, Stolen by April Henry

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Genre: YA Suspense

Publisher: Square Fish (Macmillan)

Release Date: 2010

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Sixteen–year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription for antibiotics. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, their car is being stolen. Griffin hadn't meant to kidnap Cheyenne, but once his dad finds out that Cheyenne's father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there's a reason to keep her. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare? Because she's not only sick with pneumonia—she's also blind.

The Cover:

I really like both covers for this book. The one above is more subtle, without a model, but shows the same idea, with the crime scene tape, and I like that. I like the original cover more, though, because I like the tape over the mouth. They're both good, though.

Review:

I was impressed with the first book by Henry that I picked up, so I’ve been looking forward to this one in particular.

Cheyenne is blind, and sick, and ends up accidentally kidnapped when Griffin steals the car she’s resting in. Griffin freaks out, and when he takes her to his father, they end up actually kidnapping her for ransom when they find out who her parents are.

Cheyenne is in a bad spot, of course, but she does what she can. She knows how to handle being blind, how to find clues on her own, and she does what she’s able. Griffin, I feel bad for, because he’s stuck with a terrible father, too afraid to do anything against him. They’re both doing what they can in the terrible situation they’re in.

I will admit, though, that this wasn’t very exciting, on-the-edge-of-your-seat intense. I wish it was, but instead it was much more slow moving. The ending was good, and I’m happy with how it all worked out. I like what happened with Cheyenne and Griffin, but I also wish that there was more closure for them. I think that Henry likes making these open-ended endings, of which I am not a huge fan, but they’re okay.

I did enjoy this book, and I know it was her first one. I’m looking forward to reading her other ones still.

Review: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5 (maybe 4)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Simon Pulse)

Spoilers: No.

Goodreads Synopsis:

"Once upon a time, I was a little girl who disappeared.

Once upon a time, my name was not Alice.
Once upon a time, I didn't know how lucky I was."
When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends -- her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over.
Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her, but he speaks more and more of her death. He does not know it is what she longs for. She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her.
This is Alice's story. It is one you have never heard, and one you will never, ever forget.

Review:

This book… This book is just wow. I’m not even sure what to say about this book, honestly.

I’d been intrigued by it for a while, and had read some of Scott’s other books, but just hadn’t gotten around to it. I got the opportunity, though, and finished it rather quickly, seeing as it’s a very short book. And it kind of surprised me.

I do find these types of books interesting, but they aren’t my normal genre, and so I don’t get around to them as much. And when I started it, I wasn’t too sure how far it was going to go, and it definitely went farther than I was expecting.

It didn’t blow my mind, or anything; I know these kinds of these happen, have read things about them, and know that they can turn out like this, I just wasn’t expecting a YA book to go that far, I guess. And I feel bad saying that, as I know YA books go farther than most people (people that don’t read the genre, at least) think, but still. It was darker than I expected. And because of how dark it was, I have a hard time deciding what to rate the book, and how exactly I feel, and what really to think about it. It’s just, there was so much. So much to take in, or something.

I felt bad for the girl, and then I didn’t feel so bad for her. I felt sad for her, I guess, because of her situation and how it turned her into what she was. I understood it, in a way. I wasn’t too surprised, even if I didn’t quite like it.

I didn’t like the guy, as I really shouldn’t have. I did like that he was given a bit of a back story, a little bit of a reason for why he turned out the way he did, why he likes what he does. I didn’t like it, but still.

I felt bad for… Well, I just felt bad. For the situation, for her, for what they were planning to do.

And the ending. I’m not sure what to think of the ending much at all. It fit, really well. I’m not sure that things could have turned out okay in any other way, but it was still sad. For her, not him. And, well, and the other two people involved, by a lot. (I’m not going to ruin that, though, because you’d have to read to really understand and get what happened, and I don’t want to spoil it, in any way, no matter how much I want to talk about it.)

I guess I liked this book; it definitely wasn’t bad, and I didn’t not enjoy it. It’s just the kind of book that gives you mixed feelings, that you have a hard time saying you enjoyed when the subject was so bad and depressing, and the ending was what it was.

One thing that I really did like about the book, was the writing. It was written in a really neat way, going to the past and then the present, skipping around all over the place, being stuck inside her head, with all of her depressed, statement-like thoughts. The whole thing, really, was done really well, and that did impress me.
So, yea, I did enjoy it. I might have to pick up some more of Scott's books, as well as some others with this type of subject, as there are some that I've been eying.