![]() Meghan Brehon Nova Ren Suma writes the tales of two girls; Amber, who is 17 and has been in juvenile detention since she was 13; and Violet, an 18 year old ballet dancer and Julliard hopeful. To intertwine their stories is Ori, Violet’s best friend who was sent to the detention center after being charged with two counts of murder. This book was less about a story unfolding, and more about un-boxing the events of the past to lay certain mysteries to rest. The first half of The Walls Around Us had me a little unenthused and frankly, bored. Some of the parts were confusing in that I had no idea what was going on or how what was happening was happening, and the parts that weren’t confusing were boring. Amber living her life, doing basically nothing but going to class and eavesdropping on unimportant conversations, and Violet being stuck up and annoying. It wasn’t until the second half when we meet Orianna that the story begins to take shape and become something I was interested in reading to the end. Orianna made the plotline something that I could enjoy and become invested in, but the supernatural elements were confusing (even after reading the whole thing I’m still confused as to what was happening on those “…two strange nights at Aurora Hills?”). If it had been explained in a more in depth way I think that the supernatural elements could have been interesting. But for me, having a story that seems like a contemporary completely devoid of any out of the ordinary elements, with the occasional scene where somehow the seemingly separate timelines intersect for no reason, and characters interact even though it is not humanly possible for them to do so doesn’t cut it. I understand that the whole point of supernatural is that the events are supernatural, they don’t happen in normal people’s everyday lives, but I do not enjoy them when they are not well explained or properly incorporated into the story. I enjoyed the book for the story, but not for the way it was told. I found the way the supernatural sections of the book were laid out to be confusing, and I was unsure as to how it worked, and what was really happening during certain character’s lives.
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Meghan Brehon ![]() Mosquitoland by David Arnold is a YA contemporary not short of heavy themes, but a light hearted read in that it is filled with hope, humour, and a kick-ass vocabulary (a quality in a book I much admire). The book is Mim (the heroine of this tale) telling her story as it happens of how she spontaneously boarded a Greyhound bus to make the 947 mile journey from Jackson, Mississippi, to Cleveland, Ohio to visit her sick mother. Had the story been written in a different way, or had Mim had a different voice, I don’t think that it would have worked as well. Her zany personality makes her adventures and interactions all the more lively. The book was loaded with one liners, Mim’s thoughts and dialogues filled with sometimes random exclamations that provided comedic relief in scenes where humour was something out of the blue (in action scenes, while discussing personal philosophies on the existence of God, etc.). Despite her out-of-the-blue-oddity-filled-anomaly-personality her life is not all rainbows and sunshine. Not every sentence is purely for the sake of humour, throughout the novel, Mim writes letters to “Iz”, these letters include advice and some of Mim’s philosophical standpoints. These ideas and expressions on the world are not only limited to the letters, but rather we get to see this throughout the whole book as her adventure and the movie of her life unfold. Mosquitoland is a quick, fun read, with a great heroine and assemblage of characters. Arnold has created a protagonist whose wit and spontaneity keep the reader both enticed and surprised throughout the duration of the book. Cassidy Serhienko The first book in a new series by M G Reyes, Emancipated left something to be desired. A storyline that was supposed to be gripping, suspenseful and romantic fell short on all counts, mostly due to to a lack of character development/believability. The book follows 6 teenagers, all who have either been kicked out or chosen to leave home, sharing a house on Venice Beach. Each housemate has a secret they’re desperate to protect, with a child star turned promising musician, a teenage professional tennis star, an up-and-coming actor, a formerly homeless gay teen, a girl living in her stepsister’s large shadow, and the youngest member of the house who maybe has the most secrets, this diverse cast should’ve made the story easily entertaining, but in an effort to bring insight into the character’s lives and move along the plot, Reyes creates awkward dialogue with poor attempts at conflict. This effort to bring the characters closer had the opposite effect and created a disconnect between them and the reader. Perhaps now that the story is set, M G Reyes’ upcoming volumes will be more engrossing, but for now, Emancipated didn’t live up to expectations.
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