Take a photo of a barcode or cover
psionicsorceress's reviews
649 reviews
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
4.0
This book started off slow but ended in a bang of heart swelling tears.
Salama is a 19 year-old young woman living in Homs, Syria. Her only dreams were to go to pharmacy school and have a family. Six months prior to the start of the book, her whole world came crashing down with the start of the Syrian Revolution. Now, Salama practices as a physician at a local hospital although she only has one year of formal education. She has watched her mother murdered and her father and older brother arrested to never be seen again. She lives with her best friend turned very pregnant sister-in-law, Layla, in her home after Salama’s was destroyed by a bomb.
This book is described as a romance, and there is romance. However, this book is much more of an historical fiction and educational fiction novel. Throughout most of the book, we are educated on the history and present destruction and devastation of the people of Syria. We follow along with Salama as she processes her trauma, fear, and the various emotions that come with the guilt of being a survivor. We also get an education on the difficulty of wanting to do what’s best for you versus what’s best for your country.
At the beginning of the book, Layla wants Salama to leave with her and escape to Germany. Salama doesn’t want to go. She wants to stay and help at the hospital for as long as she can. She’s in survival mode. She’s just going and going and going without taking the time to think about her future. Eventually, she comes around. But, then she meets Kenan and begins to fall in love with him. But, Kenan is a revolutionary, and he wants to stay and give his life, if necessary, for freedom. Now, Salama finds herself in another difficult situation. She is falling in love but she also needs to save Layla and her niece. What is a broken and traumatized girl to do?
Horror:🚫/5
Pacing: ðŸŽðŸŽðŸŽ/5
Romance:🥜🥜🥜/5
Audiobook: 🎧🎧🎧🎧/5
Read it: You like historical fiction, learning about other cultures, can handle heartbreak 💔
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
4.5
Never in all my life would I ever think a fig tree would be my favorite character in a book. It’s a very sassy fig tree at that.
If there is one thing I truly enjoy about historical fiction, it is the chance to learn about cultures and people that I have heard about in passing but never really fully engulfed myself in their tragedy and trauma. I mean, I hate to only learn more about a country and its people through their trauma, however, tragedy seems to touch so many civilizations of people that it would be difficult to weed out the cultures who have not suffered.
In The Island of Missing Trees, we get to dive into a very dark part of history of the tiny Mediterranean island of Cypress between the middle part of the twentieth century and the early 2000s. Prior to this book , I already knew that like India, Cypress and its people have endured much civil unrest due to being a victim of colonization. At this point, what country isn’t? Am I right? Just like India, the small country of Cypress became divided among religious and cultural lines. There was an actual line of demarcation to separate northern and southern Cypress, which in turn separated Turkish Cypriots in the north from the Greek Cypriots in the south. Against this backdrop of social and political turmoil, we have Kostas and Defne performing in their own version of Romeo and Juliet.
In the early 1970s, a teenage Turkish Cypriot Defne meets and falls in love with a Greek Cypriot and all around gentle soul named Kostas Kazantzakis. They have to meet in secrecy due to the unstable political system and constant overturning of regimes on the island. So, they begin to meet at a small restaurant called The Happy Fig run by a couple of guys named Yusuf and Yiorgos. Like Defne and Kostas, Yusuf and Yiorgos are divided by the line of demarcation. Also, like the young couple, they do not care. They run their business, live their lives, and are happy to be a place where young lovers can meet. But, with the growing state of unrest in Cypress, Defne and Kostas are not able to meet in secrecy for long.
Fast forward to London in the late 2010s, we meet Ada, the teenage daughter of Kostas and Defne. Ada has problems. Her mother died recently, her father is withdrawn because his soulmate is gone, and Ada suffers from the illusion that most teenagers seem to have in books lately, she thinks knows everything and can handle everything without help from any adults. She’s having problems at school but doesn’t want to open up to her father because she feels like she needs to take care of him. So, she keeps everything bottled up inside until one day she finds out that her mother’s sister, an aunt she had never met, is coming to visit them in London. Of course, being the teen she is, Ada is upset and feels she has righteous indignation on her side even came out of the womb a couple of months ago. Regardless of how she feels, her aunt Meryem is coming, and to Ada’s chagrin, Meryem is a fireball and doesn’t take no for an answer. She’s the exact opposite of Kostas and is exactly what Ada needs, an adult to keep pushing her out her self-induced hyper-intensified emotionally charged cocoon. Meryem won’t let Ada wallow. She also becomes a source of information for Ada to become educated about her parent’s past.
Through this budding relationship, we are shown everything that Defne and Kostas went through until present day. The story is told from multiple intermingling points of view. We get to see things mostly from Defne, Kostas, and Ada’s viewpoints. However, there is one overarching point of view that outshines all the others. And, that is the point of view of the fig tree that once sat in The Happy Fig. This fig tree is no ordinary tree. She, and according to Kostas the authority on plant life the fig tree is in fact a she, is so bold and unrelenting in personality. She has sass, she has class, and she has emotion and determination. If you could speak tree, she would gladly let you know that a fig tree produced the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, not some crusty apple. I lived for the fig trees point of view. I could take a whole book about her.
This book is about tragedy, trauma, and migration. It deals with aspects of immigration in the migrating parents to their first generation children pertaining to, but not limited by, language, religious beliefs, and food. Ada serves as the first generation born in another country, and therefore lacks the depth of understanding for her parent’s home country. Because her parents, mostly her mom, suffered, Ada grows up not knowing much about Cypress until Meryem comes and sheds a lot of light on things that happened in the past. Meryem, although I disagree with her views on most things, was a very strong but also fragile character. The same goes for Defne. With the exception of Ada, all the characters were strong in character and had an unending depth of emotion making them instantly likable.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes tragic love stories and learning about the history of a country you may know nothing about. Also, there are recipes in this book, Cypriot food. Everything sounds exotic and delicious, so if you like reading about food and recipes in your books, I suggest you read this one.
As always (at least lately), the teen character in this book made me want to reach in and shake her through the pages. So, this book is getting a 4.5/5 because anytime her POV came about, I noticed that my eyes began to roll on their own.
Schrader's Chord by Scott Leeds
4.0
My recurring thought when reading this book/listening to the audiobook: What the f*ck is a davenport?
When Schrader’s Chord was first released, it was praised upon release and spread across the horror grapevines of bookstagram like a fervent game of telephone. I immediately got FOMO and knew i had to read it. Fast forward about 8 months or so, I finally read it. Lol
Schrader’s Chord, which you can guess by the title, is a horror book for music lovers and music heads alike. I’m not going to lie. For most of the book, I had no idea what these musically inclined music heads were talking about. I mean, besides the continuous use of the word davenport, i was left outside the niche bubble the whole time i read and listened to the book. I found that i had to stop and look up terms so i could better understand what was going on. Now, keep in mind, i have not one musical bone in my body, so it was literally like reading a foreign language at times. With that said though, the jargon wasn’t jarring and didn’t take me out of the book, not even when i had to stop and Google search some words.
Besides the term research, the plot and flow of the book was nearly flawless. Each chapter moved seamlessly from one to the next. Also, the action of the plot never really slowed down. It moved at a quick but steady pace right up until the end. And, this is where the near in nearly flawless comes in. For about seventy-five percent of the book, I was engrossed. I was in it. I was in it to win it, and there was no turning back. Or, so I thought. The very last act of the plot is where the book started to fizzle out for me. I found my mind wandering while listening to the audiobook. The narrator was amazing by the way, so it definitely wasn’t due to the voice-acting. It was just the flow of the plot. It felt like it went on and on and on when i was ready for it to wrap up.
Speaking of wrapping up, the conclusion to the plot was done very well. At first, it seems like a happily ever after, but when you think about it, was a really a happy ending? (Insert stinkface meme) Days later after finishing the book, i’m still considering that question.
Now let’s discuss these characters. Charlie Remmick and his sisters were great. They had amazing characteristics with trauma-bent personalities. Charlie was especially traumatized from his relationship with his father growing up. He holds so much resentment towards his father for how he treated him, his sisters, and his mother that when the book opens Charlie hasn’t spoken to his father in six years, since his mother died. I my issues with Raymond Remmick. He was a little too alpha male for my taste, and the mistakes that he made were enough to make any child never speak to him again, not even in the afterlife. He better thank his lucky stars that his kids take after their mother.
Not all the characters were great. In my humble opinion Ana Cortez was the most juvenile character of the bunch. Right off the bat, she comes off as trying to be an authority on a situation she knows nothing about. She’s headstrong but lacks the ability to think before she leaps. She is also an instigator and pushes the other characters towards places and things the should go nowhere near. Basically, she’s that one character that wants to check out the creepy noise when everyone else just wants to leave. She pushes the plot forward because she’s vapid and, for whatever reason, the other characters listen to her. I think that also bothered me. Why did all the other characters listen to her advice and suggestions so much when she had no authority or experience to be the one leading or making decisions? I remain baffled.
Ana and the fizzling plot aside, this book and audiobook was thoroughly entertaining.
The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw, Richard Kadrey
3.5
So, my first question as I finished listening to this audiobook/reading my hard copy: Why is this book called The Dead Take the A-Train? I don’t get it? Is it a New York term? Is there something about the A-train that I don't know because I'm not a New Yorker, although I do hope to be one of those tourists one day walking around wide-eyed just so a native can tell me to get the hell out the way. Because face it, that's the only way that I will know that I have truly arrived in New York. But, back on topic, when I initially read the title and even the blurb, I envisioned a battle with cosmic forces for the sake of New York. I envisioned ghosts or maybe even zombies. I even thought there would maybe be some magic and mayhem on the level of The Witcher or something. That’s not what this book is at all.
What exactly is it you ask? It’s the Wolf of Wall Street meets cosmic beings. In fact, The Worms of Wall Street would actually be a more descriptive title. I mean, there weren’t even many dead people in this book, and the subway was only mentioned once or twice. If you want to go out on a limb, you could say that most of the characters were dead inside. Like, all of them, dead inside. There’s the main character Julie Crews. She lives a life on the edge without any ties to the world aka dead inside. There’s Sarah, Julie’s longtime bestie and crush who’s trapped in a controlling marriage aka dead inside. Next, there’s the main antagonist Tyler, Julie’s ex and all around bastard whose only concern is climbing the corporate ladder no matter what aka dead inside. Next, there’s Julie’s landlord St. Joan who is undoubtedly paranormal on her first introduction. She’s lived for quite some time watching her loved ones die aka dead inside. And finally we have Dead Air, Julie’s newest bestie who’s a slave to the internet and the internet gods who only like to go by They/Them aka stuck in the Matrix and dead inside.
I joke and jest, but the characters all had issues, which made them interesting to read about. Julie has a one-track mind and at times could be quite annoying because she suffered from the sickness of never listening and jumping head first and blind into any given situation. She’s a tough chick though. I only want the best for her. Sarah was adorable. Tyler was a douche nozzle that I wanted to push in front of a moving train like that one guy in the movie Ghost. Dead Air just gave Gen Z vibes. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. It just is. St Joan was the star though. Everything she said, everything she did, and every way she was described by Julie and the narration gave long-living strong witchy feminine air and atmosphere. Her attitude in any situation provided a calm secondary to her centuries of experience. She exuded sex appeal while at the same time displayed confidence with the nonchalant attitude of a witch that has more important things to do than worry about other people’s opinions.
The plot of this book was a little all over the place and convoluted. There were parts mentioned in the beginning that took a long time to cycle back to. This caused the plot to feel like it was leading you in different directions even though it was ultimately leading in one central direction. It also made the middle of the book feel longer than it was. This also made the pacing feel slower in the middle.
This book is supposed a part of a series as it is entitled Carrion City #1. I would like to see how Tyler gets his comeuppance, so I will definitely read book two.
The September House by Carissa Orlando
4.5
The September House blew up last year when it was released in, you guessed it, September. After reading the synopsis, I immediately put it on my list of books to read, then promptly went about my business of being distracted by the eighty million other books I wanted to read. I never forgot about this book, however, because I kept seeing reviews and thoughts on it everywhere. I can’t really remember anything specific. I just heard it was a good haunted house story. And, why don’t we start the review right there.
Is this book really a haunted house story? I want to say yes, but I also want to say no. Is the house haunted? Yes. is that the main focus of the book though? No, definitely not. The main focus of this book, and even maybe an alternate title, is the haunting mind of Margaret Hartman. Margaret is a woman in probably her late fifties or early sixties, it’s never really specified in the book, who lives in her dream home with her husband. After moving around all her life and living in apartments, Margaret and Harold Hartman finally find a place to call their own, nevermind that the realtor looks uncomfortable selling the house or the asking price is well below what this lovely victorian house should be going for on the market currently. Who cares after you find the home you have been looking for all your life? If and when I find my dream home, I'm never leaving, not even after I die. Whoever moves in after I'm gone will either have to get with the program or get the hell out.
And, this is the situation Margaret and Hal find themselves in. They can handle the ghosts. Nothing bad ever really happens, that is until, you guessed, September rolls around and all the living hell breaks loose in the house every year. Margaret can take it. Hal not so much. After the third year, Hal can’t take it anymore, and when the books begin, Hal is no longer living in the house with Margaret, but no one is actually sure where he went, and Margaret is acting like everything is honky dory. When her daughter Katherine calls inquiring about her parents after not speaking to either of them for months, she finds out about her dad and books plane tickets to travel to Margaret’s house so the two can investigate whatever the hell is going on.
So, that’s the setup of the book. The point of view is explicitly from Margaret. We spend ninety percent of the book inside Margaret’s head. And, what a head it is! Margaret fits all the stereotypes for aging adults, her mind wanders and she can’t remember things half the time. She is presented as a very unreliable narrator, at least that’s what it seems like the author is trying to portray. I don’t know if it’s because I'm a nurse with a majority of elderly patients or because I just want to believe in the ghosts in Margaret’s house, but I believed her from the start. Even when Katherine kept asking questions and hinting at Margaret’s mental capacity and mental health, I still believed her right up until the point where her sanity was questioned by Katherine and the detectives (shhh…spoiler). It was at this point where I was about to throw my headphones at the wall screaming “Noooooo!!! I wanted ghosts!!” But, shhhhh….spoiler.
So, that’s the reason why this book is sort of a haunted house story and sort of not. Margaret, for the most part, is unreliable. Everything she says or thinks can be taken with a grain of salt. Also, everyone walks all over her, tells her what to do or influences how she thinks to the point where even she doesn’t really know what she’s thinking, saying, doing, or experiencing. But, whatever it is though, it is entertaining to watch her go though it.
As a character, I genuinely loved Margaret. She was flawed, presented as weak, but had a heart of pure gold and the awkwardness of a boomer in a chat group. Or should I say a member of Gen Z when the doorbell rings? Either way, she was severely entertaining. Katherine, on the other hand, was equal parts annoying and caring. I wanted to love to hate her but ended up hate loving her. More than once I mouthed “Back the f*ck off Katherine!” Overall though, she was just a caring daughter with the exact opposite personality of her mother. And, that’s just called family.