Rogue Untouched by Alisa Kwitney

Since rewatching X-Men Evolution and Wovlerine and the X-Men for the first time in years, I find that it is better than I remembered and Rogue is the best. So of course, I had to read this novel from a new series showcasing origin stories and original adventures of Marvel heroes. From what I can tell when I checked wikipedia afterwards, this pretty faithfull follows the comic origins of Rogue and Gambit albeit with its own twists.

First off, Kwitney settles the readers into Anne-Marie’s life in a small southern town during the 21st century. There’s talk of those crazy mutant heroes over in the northern states like New York but that world seems pretty far away from Anne-Marie. She doesn’t see them as the menace that others in her town do. Actually, she sort of wishes she could have powers too. It might make her life easier after dropping out of school with little money for college. Being a waitress in a town that blames her for her ex’s football career-ending coma is just the worst.

But then this down on her luck waitress meets a drifter and when she saves him from two drunken bullies, she goes against her common sense and invites him back to her house. Leading to a crazy world and epiphanies of who she really is.

Just as with any good X-Men property, Kwitney goes full-speed in drawing the mutant prejudice parallel with other real-world issues like racism and classism. The latter particularly related to Anne Marie who struggles against the low potential others assigned to her because of her work as a waitress and her label as a high school dropout as if that makes her less deserving of opportunties to show her capabilities. It also means men somehow believes that makes her a easy target to hit on as if her lack of money is a sign that she’s up for anything.

Her aunt treats her the same. An old-school Catholic, she had kicked Anne Marie out of the house and checks up on her to remind her that going to Church may clense her of her sinful self.

Kwitney hinted at some intriguing family drama that in total constrast to her self-righteous aunt, Anne-Marie’s mom was part of a personality cult before she died leaving Anne-Marie navigating a world that hates the sinner no matter how small the sin and her own worries of losing herself to a manipulative charlatan. Unfortunately, there is little exploration into how these women inform Anne-Marie’s worldview as it jumps right into the mutant action readers are waiting for.

But I can forgive the lack of family exploration as Anne-Marie’s partner in crime is Gambit. Remy is the best flirty rogue and yes, I’m totally biased but Kwitney wrote him with such charm that I have also fallen for his silver-tongue despite his vast criminal ties. It’s part of the attraction.

From there, the book is split into two other parts with Part 2 delving into Anne-Marie discovering her mutant powers and realizing the signs of it had been with her all her life. Unfortunate she doesn’t have time to explore them as Remy’s associates/enemies kidnap them for a mutant trafficking ring. Comic fans will appreciate the presence of Gorgona and Spiral who believe themselves to be good-slavers because it’s better that mutant get profit from other mutants rather than humans. . . Whatever helps them sleep at night.

Anyway, the tone shifts from realistic albeit mundane life in Southern town to a very action movie-esque complete with awesome fight scenes and Oceans 8 escape that allows all the captive mutants a chance to shine. It also helps that Kwitney continually ups the ante as more and more suspenseful villains join the mutant auction, making the escape that more difficult.

And Part 3. . . Part 3 brings in the Brotherhood and a found family dynamic with sinister undertones that made me wish the book would get a sequel even though it’s part of a series of standalones. Just the action balanced with the fire-forged romance and self-discovery was a great ride.

Loveboat Taipei/Reunion by Abigail Hing Wen

As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog, I sorely enjoy the S.A.S.S. series which focuses on coming of age stories as each protagonist go on their foreign exchange. This harkens to the premise but with more mature topics like sex, mental health, racism and immigration.

Ever Wong is like many children of immigrant parents, pushed to become a doctor so she can fulfill her parents’ dreams of success when all she truly wants is to be a dancer. Unfortunately, they ruin that chance when they book her on a program to Taipei the same week as her audition. She can’t do anything to stop it, but she decides if she’s going to be forced on this trip, she’s going to do it her way and break all the rules.

Of course, Ever makes friends and new romance and each character is three-dimensional in their (un)likability, and complexities. It’s a tricky balance as some of the actions the teens do cross the line but Wen manages to portray their reasoning and where they’re coming from, and most importantly, their apology so that they can be redeemed.

Poignantly, Ever goes through a great personal journey as her rule breaking just for the sake of it brings more trouble than it was worth and she realizes she can have a balance. She doesn’t have to force herself to follow all her parents’ rigid rules but she should break the rules only if she wants to break them. Total rebellion just to stick it to them won’t make her happy. She should just focus on what does bring her happiness-dancing.

Even with the great fit between her parents, Wen does bring them to a small understanding. Or at least one that will bring Ever some peace as she comes to realize that rejecting her parents’ ambition for her isn’t a rejection of them.

There are other great themes about the guilt/frustration associated with being a child of immigrants and being a minority in America as Ever had long tried to divorce herself from her Asianess as something not defining her but she comes to embrace it the more time she spends in Taipei.

And this is all just Ever’s development. The journeys that Ever’s friends go through would make take five pages and really, it’s best readers see for themselves how Wen delicately touches on each triumph/defeat of their coming of ages.

Wen is really impressive in this aspect as descriptions of art and dance can be very difficult on the page in my opinion. They’re both visual mediums but Wen manages to make them come alive in my imagination.

She also brings Taipei itself alive with lush descriptions of snake blood sake, night markets, steam baths etc. It made me feel like I was standing next to the characters experiencing it all myself.

Loveboat Reunion takes place almost a year later and follows rich but lonely Xavier Yeh and whirlwind Sophie Ha.

Well it doesn’t take place a whole year later but rather shows a spread of months as Sophie adjusts to college life and Xavier struggles against his dad’s manipulations of his life even from thousands of miles away.

But as one can guess from the title, everyone returns to Taipei and unlike the last book, it’s less of a foreign exchange and more Crazy Rich Asians as Wen focuses on the Taipei elite, corporate backstabbing and the dysfunctional Yeh family.

I won’t say much about the plot but Wen continues to masterfally craft the characters’ stories, deepening and building on their previous development. Readers will enjoy Sophie’s relatable journey that she contains multitudes. Unlike her family’s message that the only thing she should aim for is a rich husband, a good, likable pretty girl, she realizes that she can be girly, and bossy, and she shouldn’t apologize for that. Her tornado of planning and discipline and yes, sometimes drama, can be harnessed for good.

As for the resident brooding “bad” boy, Xavier learns to accept that he’s the Yeh heir. He may be like his dad, but that doesn’t mean he has to reject him and what he stands for outright, he can be better. He learns to appreciate the way his brain processes things and that his dyslexia is not something to be ashamed of. That people want to help him doesn’t mean they pity him or think less of him, he doesn’t have to keep people away. It doesn’t spare the hurt as much as one believes it does, and luckily, Sophie and Xavier figure that out just in time.

I can’t wait for the next book following Pearl’s story.

Make ups, Break ups by Lilly Menon

Lily Menon may be better known to teen readers as Sandhya Menon and this is her adult romance debut chock full of the happy ever after romance that her readers have come to love.

I’ll admit the premise is a bit similar to When Dimple met Rishi as it follows two computer programmers-Annika Dev is the driven, romantic creator of a matchmaking app and Hudson Craft is the cynical, blunt creator of an efficient break up app- with opposite-attract spark.

But there’s a reason the trope is so beloved. It works as the banter is cute albeit predictable and makes it all the more satisfying when the two start to really reconnect after their random one night stand.

Despite its fufillment of the formula, Menon adds some of her staples like the family aspect where Annika struggles with her father’s unsupportive comments, and trying to prove why this matchmaking app means so much to her. Menon also doesn’t shy away from showing the financial and professional difficulties of creating a start-up which fuels the tension between Annika and Hudson who feel they don’t need the distraction but can’t deny the connection.

Another thing that separates the book from the fray is the break-up is not reliant on miscommunication but because Hudson felt that he needed to work on himself. It is such a break from the norm and it made me admire Hudson more than he was self-aware. Of course, it made it even more fulfilling when they were reunited as it gave you hope that they’ll definately have a happily ever after.

Lost Legends: Diamond in the Rough by Jen Calonita

This is the second of Calonita’s latest grade school series showing the pasts of Disney’s beloved heroes. A lot of young Aladdin’s past is divorced from him since his parents died when he was little. But he ends up finding answers when he is unfortunately separated from his tribe during a sand-storm.

Lost he ends up in the markets of Agrabah and with a gang of thieves. But not just any pick-pocket but a group led by Muhktar whose purpose is to find magick objects. What’s more, Muhktar knows Aladdin’s past and his destiny, to be a Diamond guarding the Cave of Wonders.

Young readers will enjoy the found family aspect as well as Aladdin’s first meeting with Abu as he comes to realize his self-worth and his unique cleverness. Plus readers will be introduced to Nasir, Jafar’s egomaniacal younger brother along with Iago and lots of fun references and forshadows to the events of the movie. Also, I may be showing my age but I thought it was a cute reference to Nasira who was Jafar’s younger sister in the Aladdin video games. Or maybe that was coincidence.

Plus Calonita really gets to the fun of it with lots of magic and creativity in the depicting the mysterious Night Market with action sand-swept scenes as Aladdin faces off with Nasir. But don’t worry, Calonita adds a nice deus ex machina that will bring things to the status quo so all of the revelations that Aladdin confronts will come as a surprise years later.

While it is a fun adventure, I felt that the idea that Aladdin was part of some sort of special society destined to be the diamond in the rough kinda ruins the unique aspect of Aladdin being an ordinary guy in the movie. He’s not the chosen one, he’s considered a street rat but is still capable of great things.

That’s just my opinion though and young readers will surely find nothing to pick at when they’re lost in the sands of Agrabah’s Arabian Nights.

The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic by Martin Grams, Jr.

The Twilight Zone was a game-changer in introducing sci-fi, fantasy and “wisdom” television to viewers all over the world, expanding their minds to the unknown. This book is for the fans, by a fan tracking almost everything you could want to know about the

I mean seriously, this book is 700 pages and starts from the beginning with Rod Sterling’s origins in radio shows like Dr. Christian that had self-contained anthology format that viewers would come to enjoy on his show. It detailed the fan reaction, various scripts and writers vying for the show, and almost episode by episode details on production, casting, tangentially related products like magazines, advertising, foreign language dubbing and PSAs and more. The book does not go into theorizing the meaning behind episodes or interpretations but gives it to the readers from Rod Serling’s mouth, imparting documents and scribbled pages to show every part of production that brought The Twilight Zone to your screens.

Other Books I’ve read this April

Bobbie’s Faye very (very, very, very) Bad Day and When a Man Loves a Weapon by Toni McGee Causey, Jem and the Holograms Vol 2, 5, Infinite, Dimensions, and The Misfits by Kelly Thompson, Divergent series by Veronica Roth, Crossed by Ally Condie, Twilight, Life and Death and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, Mulan: Before the Sword by Grace Lin, Love by Numbers trilogy by Sarah Maclean, The Clandestine Affairs trilogy by Diana Quincy, Girl meet Duke trilogy by Tessa Dare, Rogue Untouched by Alisa Kwitney, Loveboat duology by Abigail, School of Good and Evil trilogy and Rise of the School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani, Rise of the Snake Goddess and Curse of the Specter Queen by Jenny Elder Moke, Summer State of Mind by Jen Calonita, The Winter Soldier: Cold Front by Mackenzi Lee, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, Broken Wish by Julie Dao, Shattered Midnight by Dhonielle Clayton, Against the Tide by J. Elle, When You Wish Upon a Star by Elizabeth Lim, and Ana Maria and the Fox by Liana del Rosa

Betty and Veronica digest #186 and Archie & Friends: All Action