ballgownsandbooks's reviews
59 reviews

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

Sisters of Sword and Song by Rebecca Ross

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adventurous hopeful fast-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Jane Austen Investigates: The Abbey Mystery by Julia Golding

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

3.5

This is one of those middle grade novels that is very much written for children, and possibly won't work as well for adults: I didn't get terribly much out of it, but it is the kind of thing I might give my 7yo sisters! The mystery was fun (if obvious), though the ending was very abrupt and everything seemed to get wrapped up rather too fast. I did enjoy Jane's character - even though she read quite a bit older than her supposed 13, both in her own actions and the way other people treated her (e.g. there was a moment where she mentioned that she wasn't invited to a ball because she was from a poor family... even though a 13 year old never would have been anyway, regardless of social class!) - and I liked all the references to her real-life family and her letters! However, all the side characters were fairly one-note (especially the villains, which made the mystery even more obvious).

Thank you to Lion Fiction and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

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adventurous slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Major content warning for insects and plague!

Content Warnings

The Awakening of Malcolm X by Tiffany D. Jackson, Ilyasah Shabazz

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you to Fierce Reads and Colored Pages Tours for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Malcolm X has always been a hero of mine: I read his autobiography when I was eleven, and again at sixteen, and I’ve always looked up to his incredible strength and determination. So I was absolutely thrilled that Colored Pages Book Tours have given me the opportunity to review this, a YA novelisation covering just his years in prison, the period of his life where he learned to be both Muslim and activist.

The first half of the book is incredibly tough to read. The bleak hopelessness of young Malcolm’s first few years in prison, interwoven with the utter dissoluteness of his earlier Harlem life (shown in a series of flashbacks as he dreams of the events that have led him here) are absolutely devastating, particularly knowing what he was capable of and what he would eventually become. All credit to Shabazz and Jackson’s writing: his emotions – guilt and anger and helplessness – are just suffocating.

A particularly visceral scene is one in which Malcolm chemically straightens his hair, fully in the knowledge that it will burn his scalp. The water pipes in his family’s Michigan home are frozen, leaving him unable to wash out the lye; his only option is to wash his hair in the toilet, and the moment is such a symbol of the degradation and pain that Black people have endured in an attempt to be accepted by white people.

But the second half of the book, once he finds Islam and starts learning about the oppression of Black people (his ‘awakening’, if you will), was… nothing short of glorious. The Nation of Islam was wrong about a lot of things (as X would come to realise in later life), but this book mainly focuses on the aspects of it that did align with true Islam, particularly prayer. Seeing his twin journeys towards connecting with God, and learning about the systematic oppression of Black people, was so powerful and inspiring.

Malcolm is resistant to Islam at first, and it’s desperation and hopelessness that ultimately drives him to start learning about it. His impatience to find out everything, learn the ritual prayers, practice as perfectly as he can, is almost childlike in its innocence and eagerness, and truly just made my heart so happy.

For him, spreading Islam within the Black community was one and the same with his anti-racist activism, and though he’d started re-learning to read before accepting Islam, it’s his acceptance of religion that turbocharges his drive to learn about Black history and racism. Really the main focus of the book is the fact that Black people descend from a lineage of incredibly rich and developed society in Africa, and the ways in which American society is set up so as to deliberately and systematically oppress Black people. Both points are reiterated over and over, but it never feels repetitive and it hits every time (and besides, given that the target audience is young YA, for whom this could well be their first introduction to structural racism in so many words, I think the approach of really driving it home absolutely works!).

I absolutely loved the messages of this book, and the way it depicted Malcolm’s thoughts and emotions in such an accessible and vivid way, and I can’t wait for more people to read it!

Content Warnings