maises's reviews
54 reviews

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Decided to try out the audiobook and definitely did not disappoint. Jennette’s journey has been especially hard-hitting, and her inner voice could be so familiar and comfortable, but also heart-wrenching. She has such a knack for poignant moments that I’m sure certain parts of this book will linger with me for years to come. I don’t feel comfortable starring autobiographies quite like this, so I’ll leave it unmarked. I really wish her well. 

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

4.75

"I'm serious as harpy cancer."

I may be a little blinded by nostalgia here, but on this reread it went down easy as butter, so that has to mean something, especially now that YA doesn’t have its grip on me like it did as a kid. I read this story originally when it was called The Turn of the Story, published chapter by chapter (school year by year?) on the author’s personal website ages ago. I only know it's been a long time because I vividly recall reading it on desktop. I remember reading and rereading about Elliot and his adventures so often that on this first reread in adulthood I still recalled nearly every event and almost every line after all these years. Which is a little embarrassing. Even the additional extra Wings in the Morning was a part of a YA horror monster anthology or something like it which I definitely borrowed just for it. I have a lot of sweet feelings for this world and its people.

Elliot is kind of a heart-breaking character, but it takes some time to really uncover that, which means his schemes of being annoying enough to at least bury that part of himself really worked. I think lots of young teens can see themselves in him, but he’s probably not the best role model. Or maybe he is. I liked him a lot, and I liked Luke (easiest kid to adore) and Serene (easiest elf to adore) and everyone else, but I think that’s a little too easy to talk about. I will say that I think In Other Lands is a perfect example of being able to succeed within a deconstruction of a genre only because the genre is clearly loved despite being self-aware. I’m happy to finally have a physical copy of it on my shelf for when I need it again like comfort food, even though I noted one too many punctuation errors to blink away. Please make sure your editors are alive n kicking…

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Life is not like that.”

I’ve been sitting on doing a proper review for this one for a good couple weeks. Even now, it’s still a bit difficult to really know what I want to say about all of it in particular. 

I love a good folktale, and I love love love a good retelling, so thank you to Valente for cobbling this together so thoughtfully and beautifully. I know the obvious go-to for many to gush about is the depth of Koschei and Marya relationship, but at risk of sounding so predictable, Ivan the Fool stole the show for me. This novel was one of the first I’ve read where writing a character as a symbol was as strong as writing a character as a character; Ivan, start to finish, was a path more than a person. Albeit, still a good person, and real enough that you could hate him as much as you like him. He doubted and he made mistakes and he was the human Marya loved because of it. I think my two most emotional moments were his first meeting with Marya and his last monologue before death - the dummy fated-to-be-tragic guy with only love and love on his brain!

Thematically, having this folktale set during WWII was pretty fitting. I am not familiar at all with the original Russian myth, but having it correlate breath to breath with war felt succinct. The dialogue and the occasional monologues didn’t feel out of place because it fit well with the idea that this is a story being told, which has been told before. It made a lot of things more impactful to me.

Koschei having less actual power than Marya on a psychological level was so fascinating. Sometimes he made me mad and sometimes he did something just right, but in the end I have to like the god who let himself be chained inside a basement for the human he loved. If I were more eloquent I could expand on that. And Marya herself ensured this story stay so solid. Her growth over time was spectacular and she never lost the empathy and care she had from the start, although she was tougher than those two men combined by the end. I think a lot of the reason this worked so well was her stubbornness in reason but also in kindness, something the book even begins with using a prologue-that-is-really-an-epilogue. 

One thing about this novel that will stick with me is the idea that life and hardship go hand in hand, but avoiding it and its realities helps no one. You have to embrace it and love through all of it, even if there’s only death at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel is still worth traveling through.

Lazarus Is Dead by Richard Beard

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

“The fate of the resurrected is uninterrupted misery, with no reason to smile for thirty years to come.”

I’m trying to articulate why this has given me such a heavy throat. We all know how the story is supposed to go. It’s about trying to escape fate and losing. Or not trying to escape at all and still losing. It’s about loving someone desperately who loves you too, but only the same as he loves everyone else. Or so you think. Because… I mean. He wept.

Beautifully written! In love with Beard’s pacing and atmosphere, as well as the natural fallback into historical sleuthing between musings. It felt alive and beating at all times and every emotion flew off at the page at me in real time.