Saturday, September 17, 2016

Saleena's reviews 9/17/16

So, Future Perfect is the story of a smart, focused teen whose grandmother has been offering her the world if she would only lose weight, every year for her that it's senior year, it's accept bariatric surgery and get 4 years of Harvard paid for, or figure it out on her own.  I am of mixed feelings on this book, I love that the main character has a mind of her own and isn't a failed wallflower; but I hate that, once again, a fat girl feels bad and has to figure out whether or not she's ok with being who she is regardless of size.....and it's worse because there are secondary characters with MUCH more serious problems, that Grandmother supports, but my fat child....nope, nope, nope.   I also hate that the disappeared mother is conveniently brought back (but still off-stage) with a "your grandmother drove her away"....and that trauma is deemed less worthy of pages than the continuing saga of "fat vs surgery".   Can we please stop with this story arc?

Will is a confused high school senior dealing with a lot.  First, he's attracted to both his best friend and this cute girl, second, his father is falling apart due to his alcoholism that neither of them want to discuss.  There is more going on, with the divorce, the second family of his mother and his general ennui of what to do with his life after high the book is full of issues....too full....nothing is really resolved, and Will just kind of floats through all the anger and frustration without sharing any of his least not with anyone else.  I wanted to see some resolutions, I wanted to have Will realize that he didn't have to choose gay or straight ....I wanted so much for this story to be more than it was.   I was disappointed all around....=(

Madness So Discreet is set in 19th century America, with Grace living in an insane asylum; placed there by her family to hide her pregnancy.  Grace is not insane, but abused and definitely traumatized.  She is also really smart with an amazing memory, which is discovered by a visiting doctor who smuggles her out of the horrible asylum she is in, and brings her to a better one; where she helps him solve murders.  Grace must also learn to face her abuse and seek to find a resolution before her sister is also attacked.
This was a quick and engaging book, with so many details of the horrors of asylums of that time.  I don't know how realistic the solving crimes part of it is; but it did add some interesting elements to the story.

This is the conclusion of the Asylum trilogy, I missed the second book but I adored the first....sadly, this one was just not as strong.....lots of creepiness and angst; but the ghosts are more sporadic and mixed in with a, all in all, not a bad ending to the trilogy, all loose ends nicely tied together; but not as thrilling/can't put this down as the first.

Key writes a compelling book about some kids caught in a hurricane, and how they fight to survive.  I love a good survival story, and while there is a bit of some family drama mixed in (that is a bit too neatly wrapped up by the end); I really enjoyed the ride.

I am a big fan of Lindsey Stirling, but had no sense of who she was...only her music on it was fun to read her bio and get a deeper sense of where she comes from.  A quick and fun bio.

Drag Teen is a fun, campy book about a teen who loves the idea of drag but who has no self confidence.....when he is talked into a drag competition which has a scholarship as a prize, he tries hard, but it's not really a book about whether or not he wins; it's a book about the journey.  I really enjoyed watching the characters grow and mature, and yeah, the ending was a bit "happy ev

Thursday, September 08, 2016

Review of And I Darken by Kiersten White; review by Sulphia Iqbal

BOOK REVIEW : And I Darken
By Kiersten White
August 28 2016           BY SULPHIA IQBAL





The main characters in this book are surprisingly disparate from each other. They are each unique in their own way and I don’t really favor one character over the other. I love them all. Well, sort of.

Lada is one of those characters you don’t know whether you want to hug because you feel sorry for them in some way, or smack for being so annoyingly obdurate. She might seem like a constantly belligerent character, but when reading more and more of the book, you might come and find yourself actually feeling sorry for her. It’s hard to see why you would at first, I’ll admit, but it is very obvious from start that Lada is striving for her father’s approval. She’s fierce, cold, ruthless, like her father, and even men fear her. As she grows, she becomes even more calculating, decisive, and resilient. She realizes the role women have in the world and she completely refuses to follow it. At least to a great extent at first. She wants to show that as a women, she could do anything a man does, if not greater. I can connect with how she feels. Throughout the book, I am captivated by the curiosity of  finding out what she does to find her place in the world as a women without going to an extreme. How you can be fierce and significant without crossing the line. I believe many girls around the world can relate.

And then there’s her younger brother. Radu. The complete opposite of his sister, father, and elder brother and seems to seek his father’s love and approval as well. Except he doesn’t ever receive it. Compared to his family, he’s weak, reticent and pathetic. Less hostile. He’s sympathetic towards people he is told to not care for and he’s desperate for someone to make him feel less lonely. Someone to protect him from his elder brother’s bullying. Someone to care for him. His mom left when he was very young and all he had was his maid. Even Lada found him to be weak and rarely showed any affection. But when they were abandoned by their father, the tw0 became closer than they ever have before. After he met Mehmed, he finally got what he has longed for his whole life : a friend.

Then there’s Mehmed. Mehmed. Mehmed. Mehmed. He is such an important character because he gave Radu a friend and Lada a reason to feel a tinsy bit nicer ( And by a tinsy bit I mean tinsy bit ).


The plot. It was eh. I mean, most of it was just Lada and Radu getting used to the Ottoman Empire over the course of about , I don’t know, two years?

Lada and Radu , though Lada HATES to admit this in any form, consider their place in the Ottoman Empire their home, even though they are technically their prisoners and the Ottomans were their kingdom’s enemy. And despite that, Lada decided to help the Ottomans defeat their enemies out of the fact that they were friends. I liked how she helped Mehmed with decisiving planning that turned out to be helpful in the long turn. I liked how she, a once enemy, acted like his advisor. One thing I didn't really like was how the book was focused a bit more on Mehmed, Radu, and Lada rather than what was going on in their world. It makes sense why it was like that because it’s just the first book and I think the next book will have a lot more of what I was expecting.

The beginning, the introduction of Lada and her brother, was very interesting. It gave me a really good idea of Lada’s character and why she acted the way she did.

The ending on the other hand….


The ending left me speechless. It left the story unfinished and I need the next book, even if the book wasn’t super exciting throughout.

When I recommended this book to my friend, they emailed me back telling me how they’d cried for reasons they were unclear of. The writing style was very descriptive and it told the story really well. It gave the story a compelling dark atmosphere that really fit.

What I loved the most about this story was the fact that it was a twist to history. Radu and Mehmed were real people during the 1400’s. Instead of the story being about Vlad the Impaler, a brutal prince, it’s about Lada the Impaler, the brutal princesses.


“On our wedding night," she [ Lada ] said, "I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke our marriage vows will belong to me, and I will be wed only to myself. You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate, but I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied.”

“So the question becomes, Daughter of the Dragon, what will you [ Lada ] sacrifice? What will you let be taken away so that you, too, can have power?”


So all in all, it was a good read. It took about 2 days and you’ll definitely want  more of it after finishing.

Check it out at the library and goodreads :

