juicereads's reviews
7 reviews

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

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

4.5

I would honestly suggest exclusively reading this book in the trilogy. Starclimber is fine, but Skybreaker is DEFINITELY a product of its time, and it shows.

Coffee Boy by Austin Chant

adventurous funny hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A must-read for transmascs seeking good fiction

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, Volume 2 by

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

Another beautiful anthology. An extremely important read.

Purple Hearts by Tess Wakefield

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Initially, I was not super keen on the premise of framing the American military in a positive light, but the novel actually has a pretty complex and nuanced take! I love how Luke and Cassie's relationship grows over the course of the book, and I love how Cassie is so confident and kind. The epistolary chapters were cute, and all of the prose chapters felt like snapshots of scenes. I've read a lot of fanfic that uses this type of perspective swapping, but not much original fiction! It was an interesting change of pace.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Blood, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Islamophobia, Racial slurs, and Racism

Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle

medium-paced

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

2.0

This book is fine as far as teen fiction goes, but it rubs me the wrong way in a few places. It really does SCREAM that it was written in 2014, from calling a character's hair a Jewfro to having the all-white cast do 'African dances' to bring rain when they need to film rain scenes. The most unsettling thing about this novel is that the main love interests, Paige and Rainer, are 17 and 22 respectively. Imagine a man in the first year of his Masters degree calling an 11th grader hot or sexy, and you'll understand my feelings while reading. It set off a lot of alarm bells for me. Read at your own risk if minor/adult romances are triggering for you.

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, Volume 1 by Hope Nicholson

challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

Favourite stories:
Coyote and the Pebbles
Ue-Pucase Water Monster
Home
Ayanisach

Beautiful, vibrant art with extremely topical stories. A must read for Canadians, but highly recommended regardless of citizenship.