Tally lives in the future, in a world where, at the age of sixteen, everyone is made superhumanly pretty. The thinking is that by leveling the playing field, so to speak, racism, bullying, low self-esteem, and all the negative things that can be associated with personal appearance can be eliminated. But not everyone wants to […]
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor: Book Review
Karou is a blue-haired high school art student, living a double life in Prague. By day she deals with her jerk of an ex-boyfriend and hangs out with her best friend Zuzana. By evening, or whenever duty calls, she does odd jobs for her secret family, a group that she calls the Chimera. They seem […]
Ice by Sarah Beth Durst: Book Review
Cassie Dasent is growing up in an Arctic research station with her dad and his team. Her grandmother has always told Cassie stories about her mom and how the family lost her to the North Wind and the Polar Bear King. When Cassie was younger, she believed these stories, but as she’s grown older, she […]
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
Aza was abandoned at an inn when she was an infant. Luckily, the innkeeper and his wife decide to adopt her as their own. Aza grows up to have an unbelievably beautiful singing voice, but she does not have a pleasing appearance, to put it nicely. Other Ayorthians value her for her voice, but they’re […]
Dingo by Charles de Lint: Book Review
Miguel is working in his dad’s comic book/record store one afternoon when a girl he doesn’t know wonders in. Lainey is beautiful, with a sense of humor, intelligence, an Australian accent, red-gold hair, and a matching dog–excuse me, dingo. The two hit it off immediately, but weird things start to happen–and it all seems to […]
Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder: Book Review
Yelena is now in Sitia, where she meets her long-lost family and starts to learn how to control her magical powers. But life isn’t really any easier for her here than it was in Ixia. Sitians believe she’s a spy from the north, sent to pave the way for the Commander’s takeover of their country. […]
Fire by Kristin Cashore: Book Review
Fire lives in a country known as the Dells, and she is a human monster. There’s a strain of wildness in the country that leaves some of the animals and people with impossibly seductive beauty and power. Fire is so named because of her hair. She can enter minds and control people and animals. But […]
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling: Book Review
This book is the one that Hermione inherited from Dumbledore. It contains the “Tale of the Three Brothers” that was told in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It also contains notes about each story written by Dumbledore and J.K. Rowling. I’ll be honest here. True, morbid, Brothers Grimm fairy tales are just not my […]
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: Book Review
Nobody Owens is being raised in a graveyard. His “parents” are two ghosts. His guardian is a man who only comes out at night and who seems to be neither dead or alive. His real family was murdered and the murderer is still looking for Nobody. As long as he stays in the graveyard, he’s […]
Graceling by Kristin Cashore: Book Review
I’m having a hard time summarizing this without either giving away the story or making it sound like something it’s not. Katsa is a fighter with almost supernatural abilities. This is the story of how she grows into her power and herself. Not the greatest summary, but at least it doesn’t sound like a book […]
The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds
Gareth Hinds undertakes the task of adapting The Odyssey, the tale of Odysseus’s long journey home after the Trojan War, into graphic novel format. I wish this had been around when I was wading through The Odyssey in high school (and maybe college? I can’t remember). I don’t know what translation we read, but we […]