ARC Review: Be Careful What You Witch For by Thomas Hobbler

Be Careful What You Witch For

by Thomas Hoobler

Publication Date: January 18^th 2016

Publisher: Booktrope
Source: Netgalley

Find This Book: Be Careful What You Witch For

Rating: 2/5

I was provided an eARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So the very first qualm I have with this book is that I thought it would be a cool story about a teenage witch, but this girl is a completely un-relatable, pretentious rich girl. And by rich I mean “both of her parents are famous movie stars, her family is rolling in it” rich. She’s used to servants and chefs doing everything for her and her mother dictating where and when she ate and of course has a bit of culture shock when she moves in with her Aunt in NYC while her parents are both filming in Egypt.

            Olivia starts her first day of ninth grade of right (yeah ninth grade, and she’s a REALLY immature ninth grader) by befriending the two school outcasts and charming the hottest boy in her grade, Alex, to pretty much follow her around and be her loyal servant. And by charmed I mean literally. This boy is written to be was weak-minded and dumb as possible. His only apparent talent is his large collection of X-Men comics which he knows like the back of his hand. Aka he reads a lot and has an incredible memory. Two skills that Olivia and the author seem to dismiss. Yeah comics have pictures, but they also include lots of words and complex thoughts and he obviously absorbed all of it so how is it that a character like this is also portrayed as dumb? How is it that a character that reads so much and so easily is consistently made fun of for not being able to spell of know the right word for things? The way Alex is depicted is absolutely ridiculous! Olivia even stoops so low as to think that Alex is an animal who can be her Witch Familiar. It’s disturbing really.

Additionally, Olivia is written as extremely racist. For example, her first taxi driver wore a turban, which seemingly always reminds her of terrorism. Additionally, her next taxi driver, René, has an apparent French accent, but according to her he can't possibly have a French accent because he's black. Cause obviously there's not a single black person who can speak French. Because the French colonialism of Africa and the Caribbean clearly never happened, and there are evidently no people of color living in France. Seriously, this is a disturbing mentality to read.          

            The two friends that she made, Dulcimer and Paul, were quite interesting. Dulcimer is the daughter of two amazing, professional musicians, yet she can’t play anything herself. Paul seems to be the only person of color in the story and also happens to be gay. My first impression was that at least they tried to be diverse, but then about 2/3 of the way through the book Olivia decides that both of her friends would be happier not being themselves. So she decides to cast a magic spell on Dulcimer to enable her to be an awesome musician like her parents. Surprise, Surprise this ends up changing Dulcimer’s personality because people aren’t like machines where you can replace one singular part. What really pissed me off about this book is that Olivia, even after seeing the fallout from Dulcimer, decides to bring Paul in on her Witch secret and offers to use a spell on him to make him straight. I though this was going to be a semi-nice book about accepting diversity but nope, she wants to “fix” her gay friend and turn him white while she’s at it. It was a pretty disgusting scene. When he angrily turns down her proposition (thank god) she gets angry that nobody appreciates her and curses the school. When literally the entire book so far was her Aunt Tilda and her neighbor Eva telling her to pretty much not do magic and, if she does, to only use magic that won’t hurt anyone else. So now on top of EVERYTHING ELSE this ninth grade girl has decided to unleash 7 demons upon the school until everyone in the building is deceased. Wow. Great Going. Totally didn’t see that coming. At the same time I totally though she wasn’t idiotic enough to do that.

            I honestly thought from the blurb that this book had some intriguing potential. Tone the girl’s background down a bit, create some 3 dimensional characters and add a bit more intelligence/general reasonability and this could have been a fabulous book. I will say the pure silly ridiculousness of the story line kind of made this book enjoyable. If you’re looking for a mediocre YA read to break up the dullness of your day, or are interested in a book including Wicca (though I personally don’t know how well represented the subject is) then this book may interest you.

Review: The Rose Society (The Young Elites #2) by Marie Lu

The Rose Society (The Young Elites #2)

by Marie Lu

Publication Date: October 13^th 2015

Publisher: G.P Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Source: Bought

Find This Book: The Rose Society

Rating: 4/5

So I’ve never official reviewed a book by Marie Lu before, but I absolutely adore her. I purchased Legend, Prodigy, Champion, and The Young Elites all when they came out (I especially loved the legend trilogy because the book’s fonts were printed in color! That’s just so aesthetically pleasing for me).

***Spoilers of Book One***

So the main twist in The Young Elites is that the protagonist, Adelina Amouteru, is actually the villain of the series, not the hero! The world building is just so great in this series, all of the countries, culture, and politics are there in the background for you to soak up and The Rose Society doesn’t fail in my expectations of the sequel!

The Rose Society takes place after Adelina reunites with her sister and gets kicked out of an elite secret group called The Daggers. The love of her life is dead and she decides to take revenge by leaving the country and rounding up her own elite squad to rival The Daggers. Boy does she get the rivalry she craves. Her new groupies, which she dubs ‘The Rose Society’ is made up of Herself, her sister Violetta, Magiano, and Sergio. Sergio is mentioned in book one as the boy who couldn’t control hos storm powers. Well, he’s back and in control now! My favorite member, Magiano has the special ability to imitate other Elite’s abilities which sucks if you’re not around elites to steal powers from, but is totally AWESOME for the inevitable Dagger/Rose showdown.

In the meantime, the Daggers also leave Kenettra and go across the sea to meet with a foreign queen. Turns out malfettos are treated pretty nicely over there and even their queen is an elite. Spoiler stuff happens regarding the beloved Prince Enzo’s death and the brand new queen (Enzo’s sister) leaving us with the foreign queen deciding that now is the perfect time to conquer the country of Kenettra.

The reader is now faced with a power struggle between the current Kenettran queen, the foreign queen supported by the daggers, and Adelina and her Rose Society who also want the crown. This creates the perfect environment for tensions between Adelina and her old friends, as well as more experimentation with Adelina’s powers, dark side, and character development.

Once I actually started this book I found it hard to put down and I’m super intrigued by the concept of the main character being the series’ villain. I’ve never seen that down before. While I’m reading it I’m also low-key thinking about how this might be told differently if told by the traditional hero perspective. My only qualm with this book (that took away one star) is that Adelina’s relationship with Enzo is brought up a lot and while I’ll admit that they had a spark in book one, you know before he DIED, their relationship was never really strong. While I understand that it was over exaggerated in Adelina’s POV I still thought it was too overdone in The Rose Society.

Top Ten Tuesday #4

Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish 

Top Five 2015 Releases I Meant To Get But Didn’t

1. The Rose Society by Marie Lu

I absolutely loved Marie Lu’s Legend Trilogy and have pretty much decided to read everything that she writes. I read the first book of this series and really liked it. I even pre-ordered The Rose Society and had it ship to my house the day it came out! But… I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. Addicted to YA book club is reading this book for January so I’m hoping to read it with them this month. Still haven’t started it (I’m currently reading City of Glass) so we’ll see I suppose.

2. Ignite by Sara B. Larson

I received an ARC copy of the first book of this series back in 2013 and I really enjoyed it (There’s a 5/5 star review of it here on Love at First Write). So I was super looking forward to reading this book! I actually almost bought it along with the 3^rd book when I was at Barnes and Noble last week. I am 100% buying it next time I see it because I really enjoyed the characters and Sara’s writing style.

3. Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan

I absolutely enjoy Rick Riordan’s writing and mythology so this is another book that I’ve purchased and that I’m sure that I’ll love. I didn’t get to this purely because the large book’s format makes it too tall to fit on my dorm bookshelf! I had to leave it at home after I purchased it.

4. You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day

I ADORE Felicia Day and my friend met her and had Felicia sign their copy of the book! I was so pumped for this to come out I just… haven’t gotten around to it? I don’t exactly have the money to be buying all of these new books (I mostly read over the summer when I actually have time) so I’ve gotta check it out of the library this May!

5. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

I don’t know much about this book but the cover was gorgeous and I meant to read this book when it came out this year. Hopefully I’ll get it from the library or something and read it this year!

Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Reboot

by Amy Tintera

Publication Date: May 7^th 2013

Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Bought

Find This Book: Reboot

Rating: 3/5

           

            I’ve owned this book for awhile, I actually don’t remember when I bought it, and I finally got around to reading it the past week! I’ve got to admit, I originally bought it for the aesthetic of the cover- it’s so cool. Besides, a book about a badass girl and a hopeless boy? Yes, please.

            SO. Reboot is about a girl named Wren who died, and 178 minutes later she woke up. When you die and come back you’re no longer human, and no you’re also not a zombie. You ‘Reboot’. You become stronger, faster, able to heal, and become less emotional. The longer it takes a person to Reboot, the less human they are. Our main character is the deadliest Reboot in the known universe (though it does only take place in a couple locations in Texas in some sort of post-apocalyptic world). She trains the newbies to be tough like her, except when she’s training a boy who’d only been dead for 22 minutes; her task is more than a little difficult. Our novel is a gripping story about friendship, love, and freedom and since it doesn’t end in a cliffhanger I’m not that interested in reading the sequel.

            178 and 22 have an interesting relationship. Callum is sweet and human-like, and honestly reminds me of one of my own relationships. It takes awhile but that cutie wins Wren’s affections and they decide to escape their government holding cells when she is ordered to exterminate the troublesome 22! I’d say their relationship was pretty well-written and adorable. It has a happy ending which was a pleasant surprise. Too many books that I’ve read recently have ended either bitter-sweet or full on tragedy so this was a nice change-up. Like I said before, the story ends on a pleasant note, not a huge cliffhanger or anything so I’m kind of content where the story is right now and might not read the sequel… 

            I don’t particularly have anything to nitpick at, there’s nothing that I disliked about this book and would totally recommend it to anyone interested! At the same time it was a bit underwhelming. The concept of Reboots is interesting and I think it could have been explored a bit more in this first book with some more background details. Specifically, What happened to the rest of the world? What is bringing these people back to life? Why is it that kids adapt better to being Reboots; does the government kill every adult Reboot? The book didn’t make me passionate by reading it, which is why I feel pretty “meh” about the book as a whole.

Review: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1)

by Rick Riordan

Publication Date: Oct 6^th 2015

Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books
Source: Bought

Find This Book: The Sword of Summer

Rating: 5/5

I preordered this book the second it was available and was sitting as patiently as possible to await it’s arrival. Let me just say this- I was not disappointed! While I’m not sure if it reaches Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus standards, it was just as good, if not better than the Kane Chronicles. This book brings together a homeless boy in Boston, a deaf elf, an unappreciated dwarf who’s trade is bulletproof ascots, and a strong, empowering woman of color. None of these characters felt stereotyped and each brought something new and fresh to the story. Thank you Uncle Rick for bringing together some diversity here! Each of the characters had their own depth and backstory and while we got a satisfactory summation of each, I hope that that’s something Riordan will dive deeper into in future books.

For those of you that may have been wondering, Riordan pours on the sass and wit in this wonderful volume of Norse Mythology. There are many jokes for long-term fans of Riordan as well as just genuinely funny remarks. It’s similar to his old series, but at the same time The Sword of Summer is distinctly different. They travel to some of the different realms, encounter a squirrel, and have a very intense deep sea fishing expedition! In Midgard the world is set in Boston which was pretty cool. Knowing a bit about Boston drivers from living there myself it was also amusing to see this city from Magnus’s perspective. Additionally, we get to see Annabeth in the book momentarily and Magnus clearly doesn’t appreciate how much of a badass she is: yet.

Ok so general plot: Magnus is destined to pull his Father’s old weapon The Sword of Summer out of an old Norse shipwreck here in Boston and this basically triggers Ragnarok because that sword has been missing for centuries and it’s needed to cut Fenris Wolf free to start the apocalypse. For a unique twist, Magnus our main character gets killed in the first chapter. We then proceed to delve into Norse myth along with Magnus, which I thought was great because I don’t know them was well as I know Greek Myths. As usual the whole story flowed well and this is just another huge Riordan masterpiece. 

I would definitely recommend this to Riordan Fans, fans of Norse mythology, or anyone looking for characters other than strong hero-type hetero-normative white males! Not even Magnus truly fits that stereotype and it was just pure amazingness.