I Am Her Revenge
7.0
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She can be anyone you want her to be. Vivian was raised with one purpose in life: to exact revenge...
Orphan Monster Spy
10.0
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After her mother is shot at a checkpoint, fifteen-year-old Sarah--blonde, blue-eyed, and...
Jamie Foreman: Gangsters, Guns and Me
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Jamie Foreman is one of Britain's most iconic actors. He is also the son of Britain's most notorious...
The Penguin Lessons
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*AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 2 FACT NOT FICTION BOOKCLUB AND READ BY BILL NIGHY ON AUDIO* 'I was hoping...
Christine A. (965 KP) rated The Swallows in Books
Jan 30, 2020 (Updated Jan 31, 2020)
Lisa Lutz's latest, The Swallows, introduces Alex Witt, a teacher with a past. She is hired at Stonebridge Academy and asks her creative writing students to answer innocent questions so she can get to know them. "What do you love? What do you hate? What do you want?" The answers surprise Alex. They are not innocent and reveal much more about the students and the school's activities than she expects. The students reveal online bullying and a private message board. She encourages the female students to fight back and fight they do.
While I have not worked at a boarding school, I have worked at urban schools. The online bullying and message board are all too real. So is the school's attitude that "boys will be boys". Lutz uses her characters to show the dark side of technology and teenagers. This is not a young adult book. It is a book for adults which is set in a school.
The writing in The Swallows is witty while covering dark topics. Lutz's word choices and writing style keep the book from being too dark.
I added several of Lutz's books, including the Spellman Files series, to my "want to read" list.
This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com on 1/30/20.
Bloodlines
9.1
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I wasn't free of my past, not yet. Sydney's blood is special. That's because she's an alchemist -...
Luke (Learning to Love #3)
10.0
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Can Luke learn to love the man who left him? Headmaster Luke Lawson is committed to saving his...
Contemporary MM Romance Trigger Warning: Non-explicit mentions of childhood anxieties.
Cumberland (1142 KP) rated And We Stay in Books
Apr 1, 2019
Emily is a really interesting character. She is a mess, and spends the book trying to pull herself together. It takes a while for her to open up to other, and come to terms with everything that has happened.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book is that Emily uses poetry to help express herself. Each chapter ends with a poem she has written. She feels connected to Emily Dickinson and that connect is explored throughout the book.
The one negative aspect of this book is that at times Emily's parents made decisions for her. This is in part because of her age. It may have also been that she was an unreliable narrator, so she was blaming her parents for some of the things that took place. I could never really decide which of these were the case.
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Never Let Me Go in Books
Mar 6, 2018
The story follows Kathy H., a carer to dying patients, and her mysterious upbringing alongside her charges at a secluded boarding school. From the beginning, we are introduced to the concept of 'donors', and it only becomes apparent after some time what it truly means. As a child, her and her fellow classmates were urged to be overly health-conscious with a special focus on artwork, which is said to be taken away to a gallery if exceptional. But when the students begin to question about its necessity, they understand that not all is what it seems.
From cloning to transplants, this book is both daring and alarming - and perhaps one of my favourite Ishiguro novels so far.