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Author Highlight: Wendy Mass
In small-town Willow Falls, nothing is a coincidence.
It’s all thanks to octagerian resident, Abigail whose distinct duck-shaped birthmark and her perchant for appearing everywhere, all at once throws the lives of these kids into a tailspin on their birthdays.
For instance, Leo and Amanda, best friends literally from the day of their birth experience a groundhog day loop on their eleventh birthday.
Rory finds out that trying to rush through childhood leads nothing but problems on her 12th birthday.
Tara gets into trouble when she tries to dupe Abigail herself and must go on a town-wide scavenger hunt to find 13 gifts before her 13th birthday.
And Grace. . . well they all have to come together to figure out the secrets of this town and help Grace on her tenth birthday in order to fulfill her destiny.
I have previously encountered Mass’ writing with Every Soul a Star, a thoughtful tale that expounds on the vastness of the universe and uniqueness of each individual finding their place when she brings three disparate teens together in a coming of age tale under an eclipse.
Her Willow Falls series is much more whimsical and humorous as one can tell by the premise of each novel. It falls under the realm of magical realism with more magic as the series continues forth. Well magic mixed with physics.
But that starts getting into spoilery territory so Ill focus on the characters which are the real draw of the series. While Abigail and the town fall under the magical side, the kids are three-dimensional and realistic in their strengths and flaws.
She totally gets how kids might react in these situations from Amanda and Leo happily taking advantage of the groundhog day loop in order to fix friendship problems and skip school or Rory’s insistance on following through on her list no matter the amount of physical injuries she encounters. The kids misunderstand one another while making fun of the crazy situations they get up to.
They’re not bastions of maturity but they’re endearing in their awkwardness and confusion while trying to be supportive of their friends and the magical mishaps they are thrown into by Abigail.
I’ll admit Finally, Rory’s book feels like an outliar in the series as the magical events seem more like orchestrated coincidences but it’s the funniest so I don’t mind. It still fits as Mass continually ages up the characters and incorporates them into each other’s lives in order to bring the series to its conclusion in regards to friendships and growing up and the interconnectedness of community. Magic or not.
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Aug Books
She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sara Smarsh
Who doesn’t love Dolly Parton? I mean, she can sing, has fabulous costumes, has an amusement park and still gives back to her roots. So it’s no surprise that Dolly has a few books written in her honor.
Smarsh’s book is part autobipgraphy, part music analysis and part memoir as she relates her and her grandmother’s rural experience to Dolly’s and what she represents to other demographics.
Dolly’s story is relatable yet aspirational in how she grew up poor but rose to great prominance by navigating the music indutry and gaining confidence to manage her image.
And it may sound overused but you can tell Dolly is authentic in the way she writes and the way she speaks. The big takeaway is that she knows her mind, she knows she has talent and that her heart is what matters more than her appearance. Although she sidesteps it by keeping her philanthropic efforts out of the press and poking fun at her enhanced body and hair.
This relates to her background in a big way as everyone knows that Dolly is not overtly political. Not because she doesn’t care but as an extension of her rural upbringing, she doesn’t have the fancy, Oxford definitions academics and others use to define their ideologies and speeches. Rather she lets her actions and classiness demonstrate that.
If there are three words to describe this book, it’s music, sex and God, and that’s not a bad way to live one’s life.
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Twisted Tales: Suddenly Super Review
What if Violet was an Agent of Syndrome?
This was another solid addition to the Twisted Tales series. It’s unfortunate this tale is only available out of the U.S. because Calonita does a great job on the first Pixar-based tale.
All from Violet’s POV, Calonita explores the girl’s negative feelings about her powers. Since being Super is illegal, it’s been ingrained into her to never show her powers to others. Problem is, she can’t quite control it when she turns invisible from anxiety, embarrassment or any high emotion. I mean, it’s teenage hell amplified.
Add in the fact that they’re constantly moving when Mr. Parr blows their cover, chasing his glory days, Violet wishes she was never born super. She wants to be normal.
What’s more normal than getting grounded for sneaking to a party without her mom’s permission. And almost getting exposed. But that brief bout of normality is all Violet’s gonna get. When her parents don’t return from their vague conference, Violet has an inkling that her mom’s paranoid attitude the day before might have something to it.
She certainly knows it when goons break into their house to kidnap them!
With no one else to turn to, she accepts the help of Mirage, a woman she only knows from her dad’s mess of business cards, and her boss, Syndrome. Syndrome offers Violet a chance to rescue her parents with a special bonus. To ensure that they won’t be targeted by supervillains again, he’ll help get rid of their powers.
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Summer Comics
Scout is Not a Band Kid by Jade Armstrong
Scout is obsessd with Pristine Wong’s fantasy series and when the author is scheduled to go to AlmonteFest, Scout is determined to attend. However, she needs money. Money. . . or a skill in trombone. The school band is also attending AlmonteFest for their final music competition so Scout signs up.
However, it’s not easy to fake skill at the trombone and Scout is assigned to uberserious, Type A Merrin who belittles and scolds her for her lack of interest in the instrument. Band is torture, can Scout survive the next three months?
This was a delightfully, adorkable graphic novel. Some readers may get annoyed with Scout as she causes her own problems with her laziness and disinterest in learning trombone. But she is rightfully called out by others and she soon learns to appreciate the skill and discipline involved in playing trombone and the friendships she makes with the other band kids. In fact, Merrin and Scout gave me serious Luz/Amity vibes although Armstrong did not make them go in the romantic way like in The Owl House. Still, it’s a delightful little novel.
(more…)#alexhirsch, #annaandthemysteryofthemountains, #cassandracalin, #christinadiazgonzales, #disneyhyperion, #disneyprincesses, #graphicnovels, #gravityfalls, #invisible, #jadearmstrong, #lostlegends, #middelgrade, #mulanandthepalaceofthesecrets, #pancooke, #pizzaface, #puzzled, #rachelreads&reviews, #rexogle, #rhonaclearly, #scholastic, #scoutisnotabandkid, #thenewgirl -
Truth or Dare Review
I always enjoy it when Archie comics brings the spotlight to one of the lesser-known reoccuring characters. In this case, it was Trula Twyst, my favorite adversary for Jughead with her mental mindgames. I can see why Robbins thought she was prime material for a psychological thriller in liu of Saw and Escape Room.
He has a great set-up too with his new backstory of Trula being a foster kid who’s been emotionally and physically abused to the point of being a cold, calculating maniac trying in her own twisted way to get attention.
Yes, the attention of Jughead Jones. By eliminating all his friends and classmates so they can be the ultimate power couple by forcing them to turn on one another.
Unfortunately, all this great set-up is carefully plotted only to be wrapped up in five pages. We have such intriguing secrets with Cheryl cheating on Toni, Trev and Betty making Kevin a third wheel, Reggie supplying Moose with steroids. . . and then we get no follow-up on how the revelation of these secrets will affect the friend-group.
Nor do we actually see the teens try to escape or what would have happened if they didn’t fess up their dark deeds. There were hints of danger, but no blood was actually shed as if Archie Comics felt constrained by their family-friendly reputation even though they’ve tackled horror in their horror line before.
I’m sorry to be bringing up this again but the problem is the page limit. Previous specials were able to do sixty pages but these one-shots seem to be constrained to just half and it leaves the endings to feel hollow and rushed. I don’t understand why they’re not longer.
I will say I did like having Ethel be the one to bring Trula down and reach out to her at the same time as she can understand the feelings of alienation and bullying. I just wish there was a little more from Jughead because he was barely present that new readers might not understand why Trula decided to latch on to him.
Finally, one last nitpick. I wish they gave Trula a different shade of red from Cheryl. Like I know the difference because Cheryl has straight hair and Trula’s more curly, but just differentiating the shades from straight red to some sort of auburn would have been helpful. I’m just used to her being darker.
My final review would have to be 3 stars. So much potential but rushed execution.
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Book of the Month: Lessons in Chemistry
Don’t let that gorgeous hair and sassy look fool you, Elizabeth Zott takes chemistry and cooking seriously. In fact, she takes everything seriously. She rarely smiles, and she has good reason to. Being a female scientist in the early 60s is just hell. No respect, constant comments from men and women, no one likes her because she won’t shut up and be pretty, and is smarter than them and that eats them up with jealousy, and has her work stolen and undermined all the time because even though she leads all the science teams, no one would actually believe she is that competent.
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Peter Vronsky Interview
Peter Vronsky is the foremost expert on serial killer history, and author of such books, Sons of Cain, American Serial Killers: The Epidemic Years and more. He generously took the time to talk with me about Cottingham, the state of true crime publishing and how do you define a psychopath. Enjoy.
1. What put you on the path to criminal justice history?
Technically, I’m a historian of espionage and international relations. Espionage is an offense in the criminal code, a felony. I was generally interested in the legal aspect of espionage and prosecutions. As a background, when you do a PhD, you have to do a number of fields and one of my fields was criminal justice history, particularly how the courts work in the Anglo-American system.
As a Canadian, we’re similar to the British system, and the US was a former British colony so the core principles of justice are very similar as well, although there are unique American elements to it.
But in talking about spies, I’m not talking about James Bond kind of spies that work for the government.
I’m talking about people who are betraying their own country. Those kinds of spies are very similar to serial offenders/perpetrators and their psycology is very similar to serial killers and are motivated by the same motives, so that made it helpful to writing my history books on serial killers.
The first two I wrote while I was still a student in grad school. That helped the next two books I wrote after eight years of grad school where I had a different discipline in research.
I was a college drop-out and I didn’t return to school until my forties. I earned my PHD, I defended my thesis in 2010, 14 years ago, and I’m a very young professor in that sense.
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Thundercats (2024): Omens Review
For lovers of action, sci-fi and furries, welcome to the world of Thundera and its Thundercats!
Dynamite Comics takes this popular IP and reintroduces the world to newcomers while leaving plenty of Easter Eggs for fans of the original series. Yes, including that glorious 80s rock-star hair.
In this universe, Lion-O is the young heir to Thundera but when the planet is invaded, he and a small, loyal crew rocket out like Superman to land on the Third Earth. During this flight, Lion-O’s icy containment pod glitches and he rapidly ages into adult form. Now he has the bod of a warrior but feels just as immature and inexperienced as an adolescent. Difficulties times are definately ahead when he is thrust into the role as leader, trying to cement his authority but again, not really knowing what to do.
But Lion-O will have to learn fast as the Third Earth has plenty of troubles. Not only as a hostile, unknown territory but their mortal enemies, the Mutants of Plund-err are close on their heels. But worst of all, Mumm-Ra has awakened.
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July Books
Bloomability by Sharon Creech
I’ve always liked the cover of this book but I never actually read it. Until this month that is. It’s about a young girl, Domenica aka Dinnie who’s been kidnapped to Switzerland. Well, not really kidnapped. Her family is having lots of dysfunction that the eleven year old doesn’t comprehend so her mother leaves her with her aunt and uncle who run an international boarding school.
Man, if I knew that before I might have reead it sooner, I love travel stories and Creech does an excellent job in having Dinnie gradually develop by learning about her fellow classmates and how similar they are despite their cultural/language differences. After all, they’re in the same boat navigating a new country, homesickness, coming of age, and come to have a tight bond because of it.
Not that it is all close friendships as Dinnie hs to deal with the fellow ugly American in the form of her sort of friend, Lila who is a true annoyance despite her home life. With her, Creech is able to demonstrate the tumultuous feeling of adolescent friendships with everyone changing and Dinnie deciding what kind of person she wants to be.
It can be meandering some of the time. Since Dinnie is only eleven she is unable to comprehend the bigger events happening around her (Lila’s father’s neglect, her sister’s teen pregnancy, her brother’s delinquent tendencies), I, as an older reader wish these events could have been explored more but it wouldn’t make sense for her age.
Still it’s a thoughtful slice of life book for kids.
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Book of the Month: The Duke and I
After my friend’s sister insisted she choose this book for book club with the “It’s like a modern Jane Austen,” we finished and my friend’s expectations fell short. Very short. As she kept saying when we finished “This isn’t like Jane Austen at all. Jane Austen didn’t write about horny people. I mean, they probably were but they weren’t getting caught in the gardens. She didn’t write that. The only thing like Jane Austen is the romance and the time period.”
So maybe comparing Bridgerton to Jane Austen set the wrong expectations. She admits it’s not bad but comparing it to Austen lessened her enjoyment.
As for me, I already read it and saw the show so I think my enjoyment was mitigated by how I already knew everything that was going to happen. But on second read I appreciate the familial aspect a little more. Sibling relationships fall to the wayside in romance so it was nice to see how close the Bridgertons are and their funny banter even though Anthony’s dual against Simon was so extra.
My friend appreciated that the siblings were in alphabetical order so it was easy to remember who was the oldest and youngest. We both agreed that what Daphne did was super messed up still, it really doesn’t change how wrong it is. But Daphne got off pretty easy cuz if a man did that he would have been beaten up probably. At least it would be satisfying if he was.
So yeah, not much to expand on this time. Maybe I’ll have more for our August book, Lessons in Chemistry.
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 