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sarahdm's reviews
156 reviews
Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II by Adam Gidwitz
adventurous
5.0
Its books like this that are the reason that I continue to always return to middle grade, even as a 31 year old.
I think a lot of people still see middle grade as children's books that can't approach serious topics. But thats just not true. Max in the House of Spies tackles topics like politics, trauma, racism, and more just head on. The first half of the book is just the reader having to experience Antisemitic racism/bullying along side Max. Max describes Kristallnacht in such horrifying and cruel detail. A dude dies at the end of the book. The book doesn't pull any punches and asks the reader to ask tough questions.
Lots of adults will be asking themselves if these topics and themes are "age-appropriate." Books like it have been book banned before all with the same cry of not being age-appropriate: Night, The Diary of a Young Girl, Number the Stars, and Maus all come to mind (3 of those books I did have to read for school). But these books aren't just age-appropriate, they hold subjects and themes that are paramount for young readers to explore. Readers are asked questions about Max's feelings, his morals, his ideas about the world, what is good and evil, can we trust our own bias, can we trust everyone, when is it okay to stand up to bullies and why, if he questions the world around him, faith, family, death, and a ton of other things. And in turn asks the reader those same things.
These themes and questions are not only enjoyable for younger reads to explore, but adults as well. And along the way, we get to meet incredible characters and experience fun scenes.
Middle grade can truly be enjoyed by everyone. And if you don't believe me, pick up Max in the House of Spies today.
Very excited for the second book!
I think a lot of people still see middle grade as children's books that can't approach serious topics. But thats just not true. Max in the House of Spies tackles topics like politics, trauma, racism, and more just head on. The first half of the book is just the reader having to experience Antisemitic racism/bullying along side Max. Max describes Kristallnacht in such horrifying and cruel detail. A dude dies at the end of the book. The book doesn't pull any punches and asks the reader to ask tough questions.
Lots of adults will be asking themselves if these topics and themes are "age-appropriate." Books like it have been book banned before all with the same cry of not being age-appropriate: Night, The Diary of a Young Girl, Number the Stars, and Maus all come to mind (3 of those books I did have to read for school). But these books aren't just age-appropriate, they hold subjects and themes that are paramount for young readers to explore. Readers are asked questions about Max's feelings, his morals, his ideas about the world, what is good and evil, can we trust our own bias, can we trust everyone, when is it okay to stand up to bullies and why, if he questions the world around him, faith, family, death, and a ton of other things. And in turn asks the reader those same things.
These themes and questions are not only enjoyable for younger reads to explore, but adults as well. And along the way, we get to meet incredible characters and experience fun scenes.
Middle grade can truly be enjoyed by everyone. And if you don't believe me, pick up Max in the House of Spies today.
Very excited for the second book!
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
medium-paced
3.0
I have mixed feelings on this one. (almost like every 3 star I give lol)
I wanna start off by saying, I don't really read a lot of romance. I think I can count the romance I novels I have actually enjoyed on one hand. Usually the cliques annoy me and the plots are usually incredibly clumsy. But I picked up "One Last Stop" because it was sitting on my wife's bookshelf.
The writing is VERY millennial. I think Know Your Meme summarizes it perfectly: "Millennial Writing is a slang term that refers to a type of writing that is distinguished by an unnecessary abundance of sarcasm, meme and pop culture references and cliché quips." I think most people are either neutral on it or absolutely hate it. I'm in the neutral category, mostly because I am a millennial and this type of language doesn't really bother me. I'm not a fan of it but the overly earnest, quirky, "lol so random" of it all is just something you get used to. I imagine its a deal breaker for a lot of people and I think in another 10 years this book is going to feel really dated.
"One Last Stop" also has another weird characteristic that I feel is very millennial of it. It takes place in this weird perfect fantasy of what young queer millennials thought perfection was going to be. The main character moves to New York, instantly finds her very cool friendly queer found family roommates, is able to afford to rent a bedroom by working tables at your equally queer/ally found family co-workers, has her perfect fantasy meet-cute with her perfect hot girlfriend, every night is glitter, drag queen, and the world just farts fairy dust everywhere. This book feels like a bi-sexual manic pixie dream girl wet dream. This book feels like it was written in 2015, not 2021. Its taking place in this perfect reality and at times it makes me feel uncomfortable. But at others it makes me feel nostalgic, for a 2015 summer night standing in a DC gay bar sipping vodka cranberries and feeling like I was standing in the reality that this book subscribes to.
These two ingredient (the writing and the books weird reality) are a little bit of a positive and a negative. So with that in mind here are a few other things that I feel like pushed me from thinking "this is cringe and weird" to "this book was fun and actually not that bad."
-The romance is cute and there is actually a REAL REASON besides miscommunications that the couple can't get together.
-The supernatural/sci-fi plot is actually interesting.
-Sometimes the prose are actually fun and nice.
-I ugh actually enjoyed the "spice" scenes. Even if these degenerates fucked on a public train.
Anyway, at the end of the day, this is a light fluffy gay romance novel that takes place in a weird millennial version of reality. Its not a terrible time. A solid 3 stars.
I wanna start off by saying, I don't really read a lot of romance. I think I can count the romance I novels I have actually enjoyed on one hand. Usually the cliques annoy me and the plots are usually incredibly clumsy. But I picked up "One Last Stop" because it was sitting on my wife's bookshelf.
The writing is VERY millennial. I think Know Your Meme summarizes it perfectly: "Millennial Writing is a slang term that refers to a type of writing that is distinguished by an unnecessary abundance of sarcasm, meme and pop culture references and cliché quips." I think most people are either neutral on it or absolutely hate it. I'm in the neutral category, mostly because I am a millennial and this type of language doesn't really bother me. I'm not a fan of it but the overly earnest, quirky, "lol so random" of it all is just something you get used to. I imagine its a deal breaker for a lot of people and I think in another 10 years this book is going to feel really dated.
"One Last Stop" also has another weird characteristic that I feel is very millennial of it. It takes place in this weird perfect fantasy of what young queer millennials thought perfection was going to be. The main character moves to New York, instantly finds her very cool friendly queer found family roommates, is able to afford to rent a bedroom by working tables at your equally queer/ally found family co-workers, has her perfect fantasy meet-cute with her perfect hot girlfriend, every night is glitter, drag queen, and the world just farts fairy dust everywhere. This book feels like a bi-sexual manic pixie dream girl wet dream. This book feels like it was written in 2015, not 2021. Its taking place in this perfect reality and at times it makes me feel uncomfortable. But at others it makes me feel nostalgic, for a 2015 summer night standing in a DC gay bar sipping vodka cranberries and feeling like I was standing in the reality that this book subscribes to.
These two ingredient (the writing and the books weird reality) are a little bit of a positive and a negative. So with that in mind here are a few other things that I feel like pushed me from thinking "this is cringe and weird" to "this book was fun and actually not that bad."
-The romance is cute and there is actually a REAL REASON besides miscommunications that the couple can't get together.
-The supernatural/sci-fi plot is actually interesting.
-Sometimes the prose are actually fun and nice.
-I ugh actually enjoyed the "spice" scenes. Even if these degenerates fucked on a public train.
Anyway, at the end of the day, this is a light fluffy gay romance novel that takes place in a weird millennial version of reality. Its not a terrible time. A solid 3 stars.
The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún Vol. 1 by Nagabe
4.0
The art is literally so beautiful even if sometimes its a little hard to understand whats going on because the art is so dark (in the way of color not mood).
In volume one it gives you just enough information to keep you curious about what exactly is going on. What is the curse? Where is grandma? What is this world all about?
Will def keep reading
In volume one it gives you just enough information to keep you curious about what exactly is going on. What is the curse? Where is grandma? What is this world all about?
Will def keep reading
The Andalite Chronicles by K.A. Applegate
5.0
Listen to me.
This book FUCKS.
It is SO GOOD.
It is a certified BANGER.
This book has EVERYTHING that makes a good Animorphs book. Action, emotions, in-depth character exploration, hard moral questions, devastating effects of war. And it comes with this AWESOME character of Elfangor. Love this character so much, almost wish we could have more of him. And also we got HUGE lore in this book. This book is great, I think it seriously might be the best book in the series.
Hot take but if you are an adult reading Animorphs for the first time, you don't usually read middle grade, you are not quite sure if you will like Animorphs, and you just wanna test out the waters, you should read this book FIRST. This is a way more exciting introduction to Animorphs than the actual first book.
Its seriously gonna be hard to top this one guys.
This book FUCKS.
It is SO GOOD.
It is a certified BANGER.
This book has EVERYTHING that makes a good Animorphs book. Action, emotions, in-depth character exploration, hard moral questions, devastating effects of war. And it comes with this AWESOME character of Elfangor. Love this character so much, almost wish we could have more of him. And also we got HUGE lore in this book. This book is great, I think it seriously might be the best book in the series.
Hot take but if you are an adult reading Animorphs for the first time, you don't usually read middle grade, you are not quite sure if you will like Animorphs, and you just wanna test out the waters, you should read this book FIRST. This is a way more exciting introduction to Animorphs than the actual first book.
Its seriously gonna be hard to top this one guys.
The Reaction by K.A. Applegate
2.5
This book is so weird and chaotic. I guess if you are reading for the weird shit, this is gonna be a great read for you. But if not than this is a book you can skip.
The Andalite's Gift by K.A. Applegate
3.0
Well its pretty "action packed." Which is fun. But it doesn't have the character insight that I usually enjoy. The different POVs are nice. As an adult, this book isn't super entertaining but I can see younger me really liking it. Marco driving was a treat though. Worth reading just for those scenes.