So one afternoon, a little kid knocks on the door of the houseboat where Hannah, her husband Owen, and his daughter Bailey live, and the kid deliSigh.
So one afternoon, a little kid knocks on the door of the houseboat where Hannah, her husband Owen, and his daughter Bailey live, and the kid delivers a note to Hannah that reads only, “Protect her.� From this Hannah realizes that her husband is gone, and she must do everything in her power to protect Bailey, from what, we’re unsure of. At the same time, the company Owen works for has just been raided by the FBI, and there are questions about how much Owen knew about his company’s misdeeds before he disappears.
The book then meanders on with Hannah looking back at her life with Owen and realizing that everything he’s told her is a fiction. She thinks back on certain things and begins to piece together some of the puzzle with help from Bailey, whose fuzzy memories as a four-year-old in Austin, Texas, are triggered by the trip that Hannah and Bailey take there. Throughout the book, Hannah slowly pieces together exactly what’s happened to Owen, and why he may not be able to return home.
I wouldn’t necessarily call this a thriller. It’s more of a family drama, and one that isn’t particularly fast-paced. Bailey’s attitude was rather annoying as well; I understand that most teens aren’t huge fans of the adults in their lives (I lucked out with my own 16-year-old, who still loves hanging out with me), but Bailey was downright disrespectful and rude to Hannah from the time Owen introduced her. I feel as though Bailey, having lost her biological mother at a young age, may have been more likely to see Hannah as at least an older friend, not necessarily a stepmother, without all the stereotypical teenage histrionics and eye-rolling.
I also feel as though the reader needs to engage in quite a bit of suspension of disbelief. The reason for Owen’s disappearance felt a little forced, and the fact that he can never come home again, not even to see his daughter, seems a little over the top. I would have preferred something a bit more believable.
This wasn’t a terrible book by any stretch, but it wasn’t all that good either. Definitely a middle of the road book, perhaps something good to read on an airplane or at the beach.
Merged review:
Sigh.
So one afternoon, a little kid knocks on the door of the houseboat where Hannah, her husband Owen, and his daughter Bailey live, and the kid delivers a note to Hannah that reads only, “Protect her.� From this Hannah realizes that her husband is gone, and she must do everything in her power to protect Bailey, from what, we’re unsure of. At the same time, the company Owen works for has just been raided by the FBI, and there are questions about how much Owen knew about his company’s misdeeds before he disappears.
The book then meanders on with Hannah looking back at her life with Owen and realizing that everything he’s told her is a fiction. She thinks back on certain things and begins to piece together some of the puzzle with help from Bailey, whose fuzzy memories as a four-year-old in Austin, Texas, are triggered by the trip that Hannah and Bailey take there. Throughout the book, Hannah slowly pieces together exactly what’s happened to Owen, and why he may not be able to return home.
I wouldn’t necessarily call this a thriller. It’s more of a family drama, and one that isn’t particularly fast-paced. Bailey’s attitude was rather annoying as well; I understand that most teens aren’t huge fans of the adults in their lives (I lucked out with my own 16-year-old, who still loves hanging out with me), but Bailey was downright disrespectful and rude to Hannah from the time Owen introduced her. I feel as though Bailey, having lost her biological mother at a young age, may have been more likely to see Hannah as at least an older friend, not necessarily a stepmother, without all the stereotypical teenage histrionics and eye-rolling.
I also feel as though the reader needs to engage in quite a bit of suspension of disbelief. The reason for Owen’s disappearance felt a little forced, and the fact that he can never come home again, not even to see his daughter, seems a little over the top. I would have preferred something a bit more believable.
This wasn’t a terrible book by any stretch, but it wasn’t all that good either. Definitely a middle of the road book, perhaps something good to read on an airplane or at the beach....more
I will preface this review by admitting that while I absolutely adored the first two books of this series, plus the novella, it’s been a while since II will preface this review by admitting that while I absolutely adored the first two books of this series, plus the novella, it’s been a while since I read any of them, and so my memories of them are spotty at best. I’ve been reading other reviews by people who know the stories so much more intimately than I do, mentioning how many characters from the first book show up in this one, and I do wish I remembered them as well. But in my defense, I read a whole lot of books, and it’s been years since I read the first two.
That said, I really did love this book. One quibble I did have was the fact that this book was supposed to have taken place a good 18 (?) years after the first novel, when Monty took his Grand Tour around the continent with his best friend Percy and his sister Felicity. Yet Monty and Felicity tend to act more like the teens they were in the first book, versus folks in their late 30s. It was a little jarring to think that Adrian is so much younger than they are because they all seemed of an age.
What I really loved about this series is how Mackenzi Lee tackles some hard subjects, but with a deft and sensitive hand. Book 1 was all about Monty being gay in an era when that was completely unacceptable. Book 2 handled Felicity and her desire to be more than what her gender prescribed for her. Now with Book 3, we have a young man who has mental illness that is really hampering his ability to live his life, and the stigma surrounding it. While I myself am not as obsessive as Adrian, I have had the thoughts that just spin me around and around and don’t let me get other things done because I’m so fixated on those thoughts, so I felt so much empathy for him. My heart broke to know that he was living in a time where mental health was so stigmatized with the frequency of “lunatics� just locked up in institutions. I’m so grateful that he had his siblings to help and support him.
This is a really quick read, even though it’s so long (my main quibble with all three books isn’t the length; it’s how large the font is, plus the wide margins and the near double spacing. Make the font size smaller and you can take off a good 50 pages, easily). The pacing is fantastic and makes you never want to put the book down. While I’m sad to see the Montague siblings go, I think Lee made an excellent decision to end here, on a high note.
I’ve rather fallen in love with the new indie bookstore that’s downtown, especially because the clerks that work there are always up for discussing boI’ve rather fallen in love with the new indie bookstore that’s downtown, especially because the clerks that work there are always up for discussing books and giving recommendations. I started chatting with this one clerk when I noticed The Bromance Book Club on the shelf, and he recommended it to me, which sent me down the road of reading romance novels � something I hadn’t really done before. I went in again last week, and when I told the same clerk that I didn’t read Westerns, he offered this to me. Always up for a new challenge, I requested it from the library.
Other reviewers haven’t enjoyed Lin’s flowery writing, but I found it quite vivid and evocative. I even learned some new words I hadn’t ever seen before, and when I looked up their definitions, it was absolutely the most precise word he could have used in that sentence. Because of Lin’s focus on vivid imagery, the landscape of the Wild West that Ming travels through ends up being almost a character in its own right.
I enjoyed the plot line where Ming meets up with the circus crew and ends up escorting them to Reno. The magical realism that pops up, with the blind prophet who “sees� into the future, the members of the circus who are themselves miracles, I found rather delightful. But once that plot line was resolved, and Ming goes back to his revenge quest, I wasn’t nearly as interested in the story. I do understand that this is a revenge novel, but just about *everyone* is killed by Ming. There is so much death in this book, and it’s hard reading about yet another person whose face is blown off by Ming on the way to his facing the person who wronged him.
There are also quite a few horses that meet an untimely end, whether through starvation and thirst or by violence, so if that bothers you, you may want to take a pass on this novel.
As I read the book, I was enjoying the writing (less most of the death), but now that I’m finished and Ming has completed his quest to revenge himself on all who wronged him and his wife Ada, I wish there had been more personal growth by Ming. The novel simply recounts Ming’s revenge quest, day by day, until it’s over. I’m left wanting *more*.
However, this is a debut novel and I’m excited to see what else Lin decides to write. ...more
One of my favorite cuisines is Filipino, and I miss when my Filipina friends lived near me and would always have so much food set out when they’d hostOne of my favorite cuisines is Filipino, and I miss when my Filipina friends lived near me and would always have so much food set out when they’d host a party. It makes my mouth water just to think about it.
I’m trying to read more books by many different types of authors to broaden my horizons. As soon as this one came across my social media, I immediately requested it from the library, even though cozy mysteries aren’t usually my thing.
I really wanted to love this book, and there were a few things I enjoyed about it. The food, oh wow, the food. I can always get behind descriptions of tasty food, especially when it’s not something I can eat every day. I also enjoyed how close Lila was to her family and her community, even if she resented it at times (part of trying to determine whether she was going to be more Filipina or more American, being second-generation).
But the book is not all that well written. I understand that it’s trying to be a book about an amateur sleuth trying to clear her name, while the incompetent police detectives spin their wheels, but it was so clumsily done. Because of that, the plot was unwieldy and clunky. Too often, Lila would go to investigate something and ask the same questions over and over and get the same answers. She learned fairly early on that the health department’s inspections weren’t on the up and up, yet she figures this out over and over and over again, without seeming to delve much deeper. It was also rather disturbing to think the cops would try to haul Lila up on drug trafficking charges even though she just moved back to her hometown a few months ago, based simply on the planted evidence in her locker.
There are also a lot of loose ends that seem to never be tied up. I know that at some point Adeena becomes angry at Lila, though we don’t know why � and we never find out since something big happens to Adeena, and everything seems forgiven in the light of the book’s revelations. Plus Adeena and Lila act more like teens most of the time, not women in their 20s.
As someone with a first and last name that are frequently mispronounced, I don’t care if I die trying � I will correct you as to the correct pronunciation of my name. Lila’s white friends call her “Ly-lah� while her family calls her “Lee-lah,� and Lila says it’s because she got tired of correcting people. I am 42, and the correct pronunciation of my names is a hill I will die on.
I did love the premise of the novel, and I hope the author continues to grow as a writer. I may pick up the next novel in the series just to look for growth. ...more
This book was featured on an end cap at my library, and since I enjoy reading about villains, I figured it would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, This book was featured on an end cap at my library, and since I enjoy reading about villains, I figured it would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, I didn’t really care for this book.
What I did like was that Palombo points out that the whole supposed incest of the Borgias has no basis in fact, and probably results from ugly rumors fueled by Borgia enemies. I can see that the Borgias� closeness, while not being incestuous at all, probably looked odd to anyone looking in, but since they were the product of a man who wasn’t even supposed to have children, let alone acknowledge them. They were probably so close because they were on the fringes of society anyhow until their father elevated them after he became Pope. Plus, according to Palombo, much of the distaste for Pope Alexander VI came not only because of his conniving and machinations, but also because he was a Spanish Pope in a world where most popes had been Italian. Xenophobia played a role as well.
But there was much more about this book that I didn’t care for. I don’t think the alternating chapters between Maddalena and Cesare Borgia work all that way. It was frustrating to constantly go back and forth between the two, especially because oddly enough, their voices didn’t sound all that different. I’d be halfway through a page before I glanced up to see if Maddalena or Cesare was speaking.
I also felt a bit icky with the sex aspects of the book. I’m fine with sex, but the fact that Cesare was captivated at first sight by Sancia, his brother’s wife, who he then invited into his bed mainly as a way to relieve stress. Any time Cesare had a bad day, he would then have Sancia come to his room and they’d have rough sex so that he could let go of that bad day. And then he did the same thing with Maddalena. Just� ick. It also made clear that Cesare had no control over his own sexuality and thought of little else.
The book also dragged because there was a whole lot of papal politicking described, and since I have a terrible mind-map, I couldn’t really envision any of what Pope Alexander and Cesare were going on about. I feel like that aspect could have been edited down for a tighter plot.
I feel like this is more of a historical romance novel, versus straight historical fiction, which I’d prefer. The romance bit was clumsily done, and didn’t add much at all to the story....more
I noticed this book at a lovely indie bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, and as soon as I read the blurb, I wanted to read it. I’m all for people who dI noticed this book at a lovely indie bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, and as soon as I read the blurb, I wanted to read it. I’m all for people who do things outside of the “gender norms� � I’ve always gravitated towards playing instruments that were usually played by guys, and some of my hobbies seem to have more men in them as well. I love seeing men knit or crochet, and one of my friends is a guy who cross stitches. Hobbies have no gender; it’s great to see all kinds of people engaging in them.
That said, there isn’t a whole lot of knitting in this book. But then there isn’t a whole lot of anything that is going on either. I realize the issue is that Jesse’s adoptive mother has died, and left him and his three brothers (also all adopted) the yarn/knitting store she ran in Harlem. It’s a lovely addition to the community, and with gentrification getting ever closer to these close-knit neighborhoods, it’s a place no one wants to lose. But unless Jesse and his brothers come up with the money to cover a loan, Strong Knits (a play on their last name) may just cease to exist. Fortunately Jesse has some great ideas to keep the store afloat, and they have the help of their friend Kerry as well.
What I did like about this book was reading about a community that was so close-knit, and in which everyone knew everyone else, and everyone looked out for everyone else. Having been so transient all my life, I have never experienced such a feeling of community, and it was really lovely to see.
The issue with this book is that it’s just not very engaging. Jackson tends to write from inside the character’s head, which leads her to over-explaining a whole lot. The book would benefit from much more showing instead of telling. The writing is also rather repetitive; Jackson will use the phrase “oh, well� as a literary shrug, but she’ll do it two or three times in the same paragraph.
I didn’t really feel like there was all that much chemistry between Jesse and Kerry. For as much as the author goes on and on about how the two of them had always liked each other, even as kids, there just wasn’t a spark between them. I was also a little disappointed with the idea that Jesse is a player because he hasn’t found the right woman to calm him down, and then once he and Kerry start dating she seems to “fix� that aspect of his personality.
As a novel about community and family and friendships, it could be a rather cozy read, but as a romance, it tends to flop. ...more
I really loved the author’s Conventionally Yours last month when I read it, so when I learned that she had a bunch of romance novellas, I was really eI really loved the author’s Conventionally Yours last month when I read it, so when I learned that she had a bunch of romance novellas, I was really excited. I’m not usually a novella reader, but when they’re done well, they’re like the perfect tiny dessert that rounds out a fantastic meal.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I really enjoyed it. Albert does a fabulous job of writing characters that are just so damn *real*. Robby owns a coffee cart in Portland, and he’s been scoping out one of his regulars, a dapper guy named David that comes by like clockwork every day. Unsure whether David is gay, Robby drops into the conversation that he’s going to Pride, and when David shows up as well, a spark is ignited between the two. But David is dealing with the grief of mourning the death of his longtime boyfriend, and Robby’s ex-boyfriend refused to come out of the closet. Both guys have a lot of emotional baggage, but Albert handles it with sensitivity and care. Often when I read romance novels, I end up yelling at the characters to JUST TALK IT OUT ALREADY, and while I can see that David should have opened up a little earlier, I never got the sense that either was assuming completely the opposite of what the other was thinking or feeling. It all comes to a head rather naturally, and is resolved satisfyingly.
My only issue is that I wish the novel had been just a teensy bit longer, like when they were in Idaho visiting David’s family. One minute, Robby is meeting David’s mother, and then next page, they’re back in Portland, painting the apartment. It was such an important step in their relationship, to have David bring someone home with him, but it got short shrift in the story.
I am so glad I found this author, and I’m so excited to read more from her....more
To be brutally honest, after finishing this book I don’t know how I feel about it. At the beginning of the novel, I was totally into it. I enjoyed thiTo be brutally honest, after finishing this book I don’t know how I feel about it. At the beginning of the novel, I was totally into it. I enjoyed this pseudo-England with lingering issues after a long and brutal war with another nation that involved devastation and poison gas. It was as if WWII had taken place in Victorian England � a little bit steam-punky. I also didn’t mind that Starling’s world-building was rather vague. A lot of the things she references can be picked up through context instead of explicit explanation. And weirdly, her world just felt *right* for this novel.
The thing is, this book is confusing as all hell. The way in which Starling adds mathematics into the world of the occult is quite clever, but all of the spells and wall-building and circles and drinking raw egg/fertilized eggs began to be repetitive. There was also a whole lot of random screaming. Initially, I liked that Jane decided that she wanted a marriage of convenience, on her own terms, just to get out of being someone’s ward (though if she’s an adult, why couldn’t she live alone? Women clearly could have careers; several of the doctors that visited Augustine were women). The chemistry between Jane and Augustine was just about nil until all of a sudden, they’re going at it. Jane’s insistence on trying to rescue Augustine is also a little strange, especially since she’s only known him for a week. That doesn’t seem long enough to form such a strong attachment.
I really did want to love this, but I think it got bogged down in the execution. I also didn’t care for the chapter in which Jane actually dies; at that point I was just trying to finish the book, and it felt like yet more confusion I had to wade through. It’s possible that lovers of gothic novels will prefer this, but it definitely wasn’t for me....more
Nine years ago, I read the original of this book, Between Shades of Gray. I’ve always been a sucker for novels about the Holocaust, and it was refreshNine years ago, I read the original of this book, Between Shades of Gray. I’ve always been a sucker for novels about the Holocaust, and it was refreshing, if I can use that word, to read a novel based on other atrocities that happened during WWII, not just the horrors endured by European Jews in the death camps.
My family are originally from Lithuania, though they were Jewish, and therefore not really considered Lithuanian, according to what my father has told me. His family was able to escape the pogroms perpetrated by the Russians on the Jewish people living in Lithuania, and came to America at the tail end of the 19th century. But these folks who were ripped from their homes in Lithuania and sent by the Soviets to Siberia could very well have been my family’s friends and neighbors. It’s a sobering thought.
This is a difficult book to read, thanks to the subject matter. There is a lot of heavy material here, and some of the images are disturbing because of the horrors they portray. This is a text-heavy graphic novel as well, but I tend to prefer that as I don’t always pick up on the visual cues in images.
This is an excellent book regarding a lesser known atrocity during WWII, and would be especially good for folks who want to learn about history but prefer a more visual medium. ...more
Belle Marion Greener was the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black student and first Black graduate of Harvard University, and who worked tirelBelle Marion Greener was the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black student and first Black graduate of Harvard University, and who worked tirelessly to secure equal rights for Black Americans. However, in the early 1900s, Reconstruction had come to an end, and any equality Black Americans had secured was being drowned out by the Jim Crow era. As a result, Belle Greener’s mother decided to pass as a white woman, and changed her children’s ethnicity to white as well to protect them. From then on, Belle was known as Belle da Costa Greene, white instead of Black, and with a fictional Portuguese grandmother to ease questions about her slightly darker complexion as compared with her siblings. As da Costa Greene, Belle was able to secure a job with J.P. Morgan to curate his personal library, full of rare manuscripts and major works of art. As a result, she became one of the most highly paid women in America, especially once Morgan died and left her $50,000 in his will. She will forever be remembered as the woman who desired to make all of Morgan’s rare treasures available to the public, and not locked away in dusty storage rooms.
I really wanted to love this book, especially relating to how Greene felt about having to deny her ethnicity in order to have her expertise taken seriously. However, I felt the writing to be a bit dull and even repetitive. So often when she’s pitching a new acquisition to Morgan, she lures him with the promise of making his library pre-eminent. It’s obvious that that’s what Morgan wants, but it’s the same line over and over again. You’d think Greene would have figured out how to entice him with different words.
I’m curious as to what Greene really thought about leaving her true heritage behind, since she burned all of her personal correspondence before her death. We don’t really know what she truly thought. It’s possible that it was a weight on her shoulders that she carried alone, but it’s also possible that she embraced the fact that she was perceived as white, much like her mother seemed to. I also wonder when it came to light that Greene was really a Black woman, and what the reaction to that would have been.
As fascinating as the subject matter of this book must be, I feel that the authors managed to make it feel rather dull and lifeless....more
When I heard that Amor Towles had a new book out, I was really excited. I absolutely loved A Gentleman in Moscow, giving it 5 stars, but I haven’t yetWhen I heard that Amor Towles had a new book out, I was really excited. I absolutely loved A Gentleman in Moscow, giving it 5 stars, but I haven’t yet read Rules of Civility. Based on how much I loved A Gentleman in Moscow, I figured this one would be a definite home run.
And you know, it could have been. But it was really, really long. I don’t mind an epic tale of nearly 600 pages if it just keeps moving along. I feel like Towles had an idea for a story that he embarked on at the start of the novel, with Emmett coming home from juvenile detention after his father’s death so he could take care of his precocious 8-year-old brother. The farm has already been foreclosed on, and Emmett has a great plan to take his nest egg and go to California to start a career of flipping houses. But once his fellow juvie inmates Woolly and Duchess appear, all of Emmett’s best laid plans are upended, and Emmett and his brother Billy start a strange journey to New York City instead.
This book would have been a hell of a lot stronger if Towles had kept the focus on just Emmett, Billy, and Sally, Emmett’s childhood friend. While I can see why Towles had chapters on Duchess and Woolly, especially after the guys split up, I don’t think we needed long, deep dives into their motivations and feelings, including discussions on their parents and flashbacks into their pasts. That definitely could have been tightened up in some way. While I enjoyed the character of Ulysses, and I hope one day his travels come to an end like with the Great Ulysses, we didn’t need the chapters on The Pastor. All these side stories just seemed to bog down the story.
And this is a tiny issue, but I did not care for the conversation being set off in the text with em-dashes. We have a convention in English for how to deal with dialogue; let’s just stick with that.
Towles can definitely write, and I look forward to more of his books. I just don’t think this one worked as well as he hoped it would. ...more
Last month I read the author’s Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia, and was absolutely fascinated by the entire book. It is mind-boggling when you thiLast month I read the author’s Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia, and was absolutely fascinated by the entire book. It is mind-boggling when you think about the sheer seamanship the Polynesians had to settle on tiny islands that were so far-flung from one another.
So because I loved that book so much, I decided I’d read her earlier book. And now I kind of wish I hadn’t because this is not great.
For one thing, I’m not sure what Thompson was going for when she wrote this book. There’s a lot about her restless rambling from Boston to Hawaii to New Zealand to Australia, and between any or all of those points. She runs into her future husband Seven in a bar, and randomly decides to join him back at the place he was staying. One of the people at the house says he’s been looking for a new pair of earrings, so Thompson takes out her earring and offers it to him � and has the audacity to say that she feels like one of the early Europeans coming into first contact with the natives of Polynesia. Like, what?
Most of this book has a white savior vibe to it. Thompson continually rambles on about how beautiful and strong and tall and broad her husband is, with his glossy black ponytail flowing down his back, but I don’t recall her ever talking about them being in love. She brings up all the time how she has a PhD but her husband is a tradesman who can rarely find work. It’s clear she feels superior to him when she comes home from the university to find Seven and his sister sprawled on the living room floor watching monster trucks.
And the cringiest part of this book was at the end, where Thompson brings up her ancestor who was responsible for the death of almost 40 Native Americans in a mass hanging. While she acknowledges how awful that is, at the same time she recognizes but doesn’t seem to mind that it was the Native Americans� loss of their land and their culture and their way of life that led to her family’s riches and ability to basically do nothing but live off their fat pocketbooks for the next few decades. Somehow she’s trying to point out that she realizes she comes from a line of colonizers and that Seven’s family and fellow Māori have had great losses due to being colonized. But instead it comes across as horribly obtuse of her.
I really wanted to enjoy this book, but the more I read, the more uncomfortable I got. Thompson seems to pat herself on the back often for wanting to help Seven and his fellow Māori make something of themselves, even as she points out that white people have for hundreds of years tried to strip the indigenousness from whatever indigenous peoples they have encountered, to make them more “civilized,� ie, white.
Mike and Benson have been together about four years, but as I read this novel, I wonder why they even bothered to be together. It felt like neither liMike and Benson have been together about four years, but as I read this novel, I wonder why they even bothered to be together. It felt like neither liked the other that much, that they were basically still together based solely on inertia. I can understand that when it’s a situation of love maybe dying along the way, but it seems as though these guys never really liked each other to start with. They were just fucking and decided that was enough.
Also I feel like you have to suspend disbelief a bit from the very beginning. As the novel opens, Mike’s mother is arriving from Japan to stay with the guys, but Mike has decided he needs to fly to Osaka to stay with his father after he learns of his dad’s cancer diagnosis. His parents have been split up since he was in middle school, and his mother stayed in the US with him until he was grown while his dad moved back to Japan. Before his dad dies, Mike wants to get to know him a bit and take care of him. But it feels so unrealistic to expect that Benson would be just fine living with Mitsuko, Mike’s mother whom he’s never met, while Mike trots off to Japan for an unspecified amount of time.
I appreciated the viewpoints of both men, about what it’s like to grow up gay in America, especially as a Japanese-American or a Black man. Neither of their fathers would really acknowledge their sons� sexual orientation, and that’s got to mess with a person’s brain a bit. Plus Benson is HIV+, which his family doesn’t want to acknowledge, leaving him feeling alone and hurt. Perhaps that’s why he got with Mike and stayed; Benson’s status didn’t seem to matter much to Mike.
Washington describes the casual racism the guys, particularly Benson, endures on a daily basis, and it’s infuriating to see, though I know this is the reality for Black people in America.
I loved the way Mitsuko teaches Benson how to cook, and reading about all the delicious food they produce, as well as what Mike makes for his dad, made my mouth water, as I love Japanese food. I could definitely appreciate having a Mitsuko in my life, teaching me to cook. I also found it unique how Washington included photographs of both Houston and Osaka within his story; it really pulled me even further in.
But my issue is I feel like there was no real plot to this book. It’s more of an extended snapshot of these two men’s lives. Without any true resolution at the end, it’s hard to really engage in the book as a whole, which I found frustrating. As I read, I would fly through the pages, invested in what was going on, but now that it’s over, I am hard-pressed to remember very well what actually happened in the book.
A good friend of mine bought this series, and loaned it to me so my kids and I could read it. He knows that my kids enjoy manga, but this is my first A good friend of mine bought this series, and loaned it to me so my kids and I could read it. He knows that my kids enjoy manga, but this is my first foray into the genre.
This book hits hard, it really does. As a kid, I was bullied mercilessly for a lot of things I couldn’t help (my ancestry, my last name, and my lisp, to name a few), so I really identified with Shoko and the way she was bullied for being deaf. I’ve known too many kids like Shoya, one in particular that really made my life horrible when I was in elementary school. To be honest, Shoya’s mother’s seeming indifference to Shoya really made me angry; no wonder Shoya engaged in dangerous behavior and thought it was okay to be a bully. The teacher in this manga also made me mad. It’s never okay to side with a bully, and having a deaf child in one’s class shouldn’t be viewed as a burden.
I look forward to reading the next installment in this series....more
When I was a teen, all my friends were super into gaming. My one friend crowd loved D&D (though my mom wouldn’t let me play, sigh), though we also plaWhen I was a teen, all my friends were super into gaming. My one friend crowd loved D&D (though my mom wouldn’t let me play, sigh), though we also played CyberPunk. I painted figures for my then-boyfriend to play Warhammer and Warhammer 40K with, and we spent weekends at the local RPG store either playing or painting. Plus my then-boyfriend was super into Magic: the Gathering, so he built me a few decks, and my friends and I would play as many rounds as we could during lunch.
Yeah, total nerds.
Having this book be about a group of friends who play a card game that feels a lot like M:tG made me feel all kinds of happy and nostalgic. I somewhat wish I had a local friend to dust off my decks with and try to play, even though I know my decks are pretty terrible and completely outdated (I have a black deck full of plague rats, lol).
So for me the title is a little misleading because when I think of a con, I think of various Comic Cons around the country, where I feel it’s more about movies and TV shows than it is about gaming (though never having been to a con, I may be talking out of my butt). I understand that the title is supposed to be a play on words, but still, they go to a championship, not so much a con.
Channeling my inner Alden, maybe.
At any rate, I absolutely loved this book. It was a little slow at the first, and took a bit too long to get to the actual road trip, which we already know is where Alden and Conrad realize they’ve completely misjudged one another. But where this book absolutely shines is where they start to come together as a couple, and where they become more vulnerable and allow each other to shoulder some of the weight of their emotional burdens. I was absolutely here for that � there is so much important personal growth the two men share that it feels so natural that they start to fall in love. It’s definitely not an insta-love situation.
This is the story of two guys who don’t care for each other based on some pretty harsh misconceptions, who are trapped together in a car on a long distance road trip, who then start to share their fears and hopes and dreams, and they realize they are truly a well-matched couple. It warms the heart to see how supportive each is of the other.
I also appreciated the fact that there is a non-binary character (who wears a unicorn hoodie, which makes me so happy) in this book, and that Alden is neuro-divergent. Representation is so important.
For me, I was happy that the sex scenes were more suggested than being fully explicit. It fit with Alden’s personality, and made those scenes feel more special and charming.
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