Tag: young adult books

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Spells for Forgetting

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Adrienne Young

File this book under the “books to read instead of sleeping” category. 

I started this and couldn’t put it down. This is a story of the island Saoirse and the tale of mystery and magic. It’s a story of one community willing to do anything, magical or otherwise, to keep its traditions and folklore alive. It’s a story of love and power and sacrifice. Of murder and mistakes and how sometimes, going back into the past can redefine your future. Most of all, it’s a story of secrets and lies. 

I love how this story is told from multiple perspectives. At first, I thought it would be too confusing to keep up with the story but it truly wasn’t. In fact, it was so well done that I found myself having an emotional attachment to each character – whether they deserved it or not. And I really liked how each person’s point of view was relevant to the story. Even the island has a point of view which I absolutely loved! I will always love when authors manage to give an inanimate object character and a life. 

This is one of the more atmospheric books I’ve read in a long time. I felt the chill in the air, heard the crunch of leaves, smelled the tart scent of burning wood and moved with every breath the island took. Even magic had a scent of its own and it wafted in between the pages of this book seamlessly, weaving together such enchantment that I would not put it down until I reached the very last page. 

If there’s anything that I didn’t like about this book, it was that it left me wanting to know more. I want to know what happens next. I want to know just how powerful the island is and if those that leave wind up returning permanently or not (trying to stay away from spoilers). 

Very nicely done and I cannot wait to read more from Adrienne Young. 

NOTE: Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Small Favors

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Erin Craig

Ellerie Downing lives in the quiet town of Amity Falls in the Blackspire Mountain range–five narrow peaks stretching into the sky like a grasping hand, bordered by a nearly impenetrable forest from which the early townsfolk fought off the devils in the woods. To this day, visitors are few and rare. But when a supply party goes missing, some worry that the monsters that once stalked the region have returned.

As fall turns to winter, more strange activities plague the town. They point to a tribe of devilish and mystical creatures who promise to fulfill the residents’ deepest desires, however grand and impossible, for just a small favor. But their true intentions are much more sinister, and Ellerie finds herself in a race against time before all of Amity Falls, her family, and the boy she loves go up in flames.

NOTE: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

The Village meets Bigfoot!

Small Favors by Erin Craig serves up in no small way. This book is thoroughly enjoyable. Full of folklore and just the right amount of creepiness to keep you going until the very end.

Initially, this book gave me The Village vibes. Amity Falls is a small village seemingly cut off from the rest of the world. The people in it are self-reliant to some degree but have knowledge and  need of the outside world.

We meet Ellerie, a young girl who lives in the village with her family. Her family are beekeepers and they provide honey for the town and beyond. As strange events start to unfold, beginning with several men going missing in the woods as they go on a run for supplies. Her father and brother go out looking for them and both come back unsure of what they witnessed in the woods. As weird things start to happen, the village begins to implode violently until it’s beyond recognition.

Ellerie is a typical heroine. Spunky, smart and strong. We see her grow from a somewhat little girl at the beginning of the story to a woman, fully capable of defending and saving her family via any means possible. She risks herself in the end as she comes face to face with the cause of the mayhem in the village. She makes a bold choice and lets it play out. We see a nice development of her character throughout this story.

Honestly – I didn’t find a character that didn’t develop. For better or worse, everyone in the story was affected adversely by what happened in the village and the surrounding areas. And while this story is a Rumpelstiltskin retelling, the central character is fear and how fear plays on the minds of desperate people (much like today). We see a few villagers react to fear with kindness, attempting to draw everyone close together towards a common resolution. Unfortunately, most dig into their selfishness using fear to exact a measure of violence on each other until village life ceases to exist. We see this as a graduate, snowball effect.

I know some didn’t care for the ending however, I thought it was effective for the story. Not every monster is always destroyed. Some simply move on and continue their ridiculousness elsewhere. Key characters were released from their grasp which I was happy to see.

Over all, this didn’t feel like almost 500 pages. It’s a very fast read that keeps you guessing and keeps you in its grips until it’s done with you. Afterwards, I was exhausted.

This was my second Erin Craig book and like The House of Salt and Sorrow, I absolutely loved this one.

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: 

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Bookbinder’s Daughter

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By Jessica Thorne

When Sophie is offered a job at the Ayredale Library – the finest collection of rare books in the world, and the last place her bookbinder mother was seen when Sophie was just a teenager – she leaps at the chance. 

Taking in the endless shelves of antique books, the soaring stained-glass windows, and the grand sweeping staircase, usually shy Sophie feels strangely at home, and is welcomed by her eccentric fellow binders. But why is the Keeper of the Library so reluctant to speak about Sophie’s mother? And why is Sophie the only person who can read the strange spells in the oldest books on display, written in a forgotten language nobody else understands?

The mysteries of the library only deepen when Sophie stumbles upon an elaborately carved door. The pattern exactly matches the pendant her mother left behind years ago, engraved with a delicate leaf. As the door swings open at her touch, Sophie gasps at the incredible sight: an enormous tree, impossibly growing higher than the library itself, its gently falling golden leaves somehow resembling the pages of a book. Amidst their rustling, Sophie hears a familiar whisper…

‘There you are, my Sophie. I knew you’d come back for me.’

There are several things to love about this book. 

First, the language used is intricate, delicate and beautiful. Jessica Thorne has a such a mastery over vocabulary which she uses skillfully and without alienating her reader with a lot of “high-falooty mambo jumbo”. It’s simply exquisite. She uses words like a carver would use their tools to carefully craft a world-behind-the-world creating such detail and a stunning backdrop for this story. I fell in love with the library as though it was a living, breathing entity. Due to this, it can take a while for the actual story to unfold however, if you just stay with it, it’ll be worth it!

Next, the story itself. The idea of books and magic housed under the roof of a library isn’t one unfamilier to us readers. Books are magic, transporting, creating, and allowing escape from our everyday lives – even if we’re escaping to live the everyday life of a book character. We meet it, crave it and thrill to it as we let the magic of a good book envelope us and take us where the author wants us to go. Outside of God and all I feel and know through my faith, books are literally the next best ‘high’ one can get. 

I always love when an inanimate object suddenly becomes a character. There are two of those in this book; one is the library and one is the tree. They both have words, feelings, personalities and ebb and flow with the heroine flawlessly as she seeks out their secrets and unravels their mysteries. The library moans and groans under threat of evil. The tree dispels its leaves which, in turn, become pages for the bookbinder to create into a book. 

There’s a nice symbiotic relationship here as the library cannot survive without the tree, which gives of itself to the library yet the tree cannot exist without the library; the library is its home. 

The main character of Sophie is lost, alone and confused and all for the right reasons, having survived an emotionally abusive relationship and much loss. She flees to be with an estranged uncle as she takes on a job as the bookbinder at Ayredale’s library. She meets up with friends, old and new. There is a love interest in the form of Will and we struggle along with her to find out his connection to the library. 

There is an evil presence and I often found myself wondering who were the good guys and who were the bag guys with the exception of Sophie, our heroine. There is a nice character development as we watch Sophie’s internal struggle to find out what happened to her mom but also to free herself from the bondage of her abusive relationship. 

Lastly, I love that this story is almost told like a bit of folklore. It’s like a story you’d tell your kids at night, around a fire while sipping hot chocolate. It’s simply lovely! 

My rating – :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: