This book is a fucking delight.

Adina is an alien born to an Earth mother. She sends messages to her extraterrestrial superiors via fax. And those faxes are full of absolutely adorable, insightful and profound observations about what it is to be human (and not). Adina reminds us of the moments that we, humans, are at our most beautiful. But she also holds up a mirror for us to see our moments of inhumanity, cruelty and destruction.

"What would these people say instead of I love you? I'm scared. I worry I will never recover. I love you is a can of soda that comes free with every meal. Yet every day humans suffer from lack of hearing it."

I laughed. I cried like the sad little human I am. I'm better for having read this book. It's quirky and warm, and I want to live in it forever. @marie.helenebertino
did something really special here.

As a mom to a child from the stars (you can't convince me otherwise), I felt this book and Adina's journey in a way I'll never be able to explain. I hope my little stargirl is able to see the world as innocently and profoundly as Adina does. I hope she lives like she knows she is alive.

"Every human being dies. But the bad news is that every day, they act like they don't know they're alive."

Read this one with your heart ("Human beings fetishize no organ more than the heart") all the way open ❤️

Bear by Julia Phillips

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adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

📚Book review📚 :: Bear by Julia Phillips

Story premise: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Character development: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Writing style: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ending: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What a wild (literally) ride Bear by Julia Phillips is -- full of intense dread, excitement and whimsy.

Sam and and her big sister Elena are eachothers' whole world, or so Sam thinks. They live with their ailing mother on an island off the coast of Washington state and life isn't easy. In debt and isolated following the pandemic, Sam and Elena's lives are hard. Sam dreams of leaving it all behind and starting over in a new place with Elena. But when a big ol' grizzly Bear arrives on the island and takes a liking to one of the girls, it changes the course of both their lives by revealing who they truly are to each other.

This book reads like a modern day fairy tale without ever being over the top or unbelievable. Phillips bends the typical fairy tale tropes into something so true to modern storytelling. I believed Sam's motivation to leave and Elena's to stay. I believed the bear! I believed the ending. Oh the ending.

I absolutely love how Phillips writes the sisters' tale, with an underlying sense of dread and foreboding on every page. I had a bit of a knot in my stomach from the first moment the Bear appears and the author leaves it there for me to contend with. I felt the entire time like I was being stalked by a giant grizzly in my mind.

For me, the power of this book lies with the ambiguity of "the villain" (for every good fairy tale has one!). While the bear is certainly ominous and ultimately the major obstacle, it never truly becomes the antagonist. It's looming over the story but the antagonism comes from the humans (as it often does in real life) and the choices they make. The sisters take turns, in their own way, playing the role of the "evil" sister (or at least which one is ultimately responsible for their downfall). I found this truly fascinating to watch how the sisters' interpreted the other's actions. These interpretations then played on their own motivations and caused quite a bit of fairy tale catastrophe!

I can't wait to read more from Julia Philipps!

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

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adventurous challenging funny tense medium-paced