probablyjenna's reviews
351 reviews

Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

4.0

Dystopians are my favorite, and I really enjoyed the spin on this one. Without giving away too much of the plot, essentially the world is dying off because of climate change so an experimental group creates a structure to keep people safe…but the kick is that only women are allowed inside. We get questions of free will, gender identity, feminism, equality, and a whole lot else. I enjoyed this one a lot, and really recommend the audiobook! Also, there’s a sequel in the works 🙌🏻

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.25

I love a villain origin story. 

The best villains are constructed from shades of gray. They didn’t start out with purely evil intentions; they often still think they are acting for the greater good. Suzanne Collins shines in her ability to humanize parts of Snow, a character who is infamous from the original trilogy.

From the very first start, you see murmurs of the controlling and cruel person teenage Coriolanus someday becomes. He has a moment near the beginning where he mentions his own obsessiveness, and even muses how that may someday be his downfall - a curious reflection that certainly comes to pass years later. 

I’m confused by the amount of people who have left this book feeling as if Snow has redeemed himself, even in a small way. While at times I did pity Coriolanus’ circumstances - no child should grow up in war - in no way did I feel it excused the things he eventually does with his power. His possessiveness of Lucy Gray was more than enough to sound the alarms for me; add in basically every scene where he thinks about or interacts with Sejanus Plinth, and it’s a big ol yikes from me on Snow, both young and old.

I think it’s brilliant that Collins had Snow tell this story because it adds such insight into the Capitol mindset, and also tells the tale of Lucy Gray in a wildly effective way. She’s a character who remains a mystery; we only see the idealized version of her Snow sees, and we’re left to wonder who she truly was.

Overall, I loved this. Was it a bit long? Sure. But I will honestly read whatever scraps of Panem history Collins chooses to throw at us - page count be damned 🤷🏼‍♀️

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

fast-paced

3.75

I love Rachel Hawkins - her books are always so much fun to me, and The Heiress was no different. While I didn’t like it quite as much as some of her other books, this was still an enjoyable read that I’d recommend to anyone who likes mysterious books.

Unlike in Hawkins’ past books, I didn’t really care for any of the characters in this one. The storyline was intriguing enough to keep me entertained, but I would have liked a bit more from at least one character. I feel like Hawkins often shines in creating characters with some depth, but these ones just felt entirely too unlikable for me to really care about them.

I think this has also been her most predictable novel, which doesn’t bother me but might bother some readers. My guess toward the beginning of the novel was not far off from the conclusion at all. The journey to get there was fun, but definitely not the most compelling on the suspense end of things.

Those small complaints aside, I liked the storyline and enjoyed the way Hawkins used letters and newspaper articles to help develop the past timeline. Overall, this was an easy read and considering how heavy some of my other current reads are, it was a welcomed break

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

Grief is such an intricate emotion. I find myself really drawn to stories that center grief, and have a running list of books that I think portray it most accurately (and beautifully.) Without question, Dear Edward is going to be near the top of that list.

It would have been incredibly easy for Ann Napolitano to write a single layer story focused just on the main character, Edward. His storyline had more than enough to work with, yet Napolitano instead used his character to weave together multiple different types of grief, which somehow all join together in a story that left me feeling much lighter than I expected.

Grief exists in so many different forms; Dear Edward embraces the complexity of the emotion, forces readers to grapple with its painfulness, and inevitably reminds us that to feel grief is to be human.

Some books are great books, and som are gifts. I feel like this one is a true gift.

The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

For the first hundred or so pages, I thought this was going to become a new historical fiction favorite. Unfortunately, the second half of the book was just missing too many key elements for me to feel that way upon finishing. This is a fine enough book, but one that lacked the necessary depth in order to truly understand the motivations behind character decisions.

Here’s what I really liked:
- This is a WWII novel NOT centered in Europe! I learned a lot while reading this, and Chan did an amazing job embedding that history in an organic way.
- I love flawed, messy female characters and we certainly have that here in MC Cecily.
- I liked that Cecily’s chapters were mainly flashbacks to before Japan took over Malaya. Having the current timeline paired with the past timeline really helped me see how drastically things changed, as well as how the propaganda from Japan was so effective.

Here’s what missed the mark for me:
- While I enjoyed Cecily being a complicated character, I feel the book lacked in making it clear why she was that way. Upon finishing the novel, it’s hard for me to articulate what motivated her to act in the ways she did. It’s brushed on, but never really dissected. I would have loved to understand her more, and it really would have been easy to add those moments in.
- I think there was one too many MCs; with the amount of trauma each one was enduring, there were just too many storylines happening which prevented any of them from feeling fully developed.
- The ending began to feel like a soap opera. It started to feel almost fantastical with the amount of major coincidences that happened. I think it’s possible to have sequences like that, but there needs to be some sort of acknowledgement on the part of the characters in order to not lose readers. 
- The estranged romance had way more time than necessary. There were so many more interesting things happening that I would have loved to seen better explored.

I think if you like historical fiction but maybe don’t love deep character analysis, this could be a good for. Other than the last 50ish pages, I was really hooked into the story and eager to see what happened next. I feel like this might end up being a buzzy book because it is quite moving, but not so much so that you need to think too hard.

Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray

medium-paced

4.5

I’m shocked this doesn’t have a larger following in the book community  - this is some high quality YA fantasy! I am so into this series & cannot wait for the third one to come out next year. It’s filled with clever twists, fascinating creatures based on African myths, and has a super interesting system of magic.

It does have some of the common YA fantasy tropes, but also brings some fresh ideas to the table.  I really recommend it!

Bridge by Lauren Beukes

medium-paced

4.75

This is some fantastical science fiction. If you like weird time stuff, this is one for you!

The overall concept felt fresh and unique, but what really won me over was how this book explored grief. There were some moments that stabbed me right in the heart as Bridge, our main character, navigated the death of her mother. 
The journey she goes on was fascinating enough on its own; the mother/daughter storyline was just icing on the cake.

Now, it does start a little slow. But I think the slow start is worth it for the adventure that follows.

The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis

2.75

I really struggled with this book. In the first third, I liked it a lot. The main character, a mother who has fallen on hard times, was frustrating but I understood where she was coming from. She was set up in a very specific way…

And then about 100 pages in, Mathis turned her into what felt like an entirely different character. The change made no sense to me as a reader; it literally felt like an entirely new character had taken over.

The plot itself was compelling enough, but the major character shift without the proper work to make it make sense just brought the whole book down for me.

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

4.25

This book feels like poetry - Garcia is an absolute artist with words, and even months after finishing this book I can recall how easy it was to fall in love with her writing.

This book does not follow a linear storyline, and that works really well for the somewhat messy lives of the characters.

This is a story about women - each one in this book was unique & a portrait of someone who felt extremely real. I am blown away at how much Garcia accomplished in terms of characterization in such a short book.

Maame by Jessica George

fast-paced

3.0

I know so many people loved this one, but I really struggled with the protagonist. Her naivety didn’t make sense to me given her alleged love of reading & how quickly she had to grow up due to her family. Her inner dialogue felt trite and bordered on cringe for me.

There were moments I liked - typically ones where we weren’t locked into Maddie’s inner dialogue. Protagonists like this rarely work for me, so this is def more on me than the book itself.