Category Archives: Reviews

Read This!: AMINA’S VOICE by Hena Khan

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Amina's VoiceAmina’s Voice by Hena Khan

Summary: Amina has never been comfortable in the spotlight. She is happy just hanging out with her best friend, Soojin. Except now that she’s in middle school everything feels different. Soojin is suddenly hanging out with Emily, one of the “cool” girls in the class, and even talking about changing her name to something more “American.” Does Amina need to start changing too? Or hiding who she is to fit in? While Amina grapples with these questions, she is devastated when her local mosque is vandalized. 

My 12-year-old son and I listened to the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Soneela Nankani in a way that perfectly captures Amina’s loving heart and earnest nature. Khan has accomplished the remarkable feat of creating a warm, funny school and family story that takes on a variety of issues – dealing with prejudice, navigating friendships, overcoming fears – without ever once feeling like an “issues” book. Religious details that may be unfamiliar to non-Muslim readers occupy the story in a natural, straightforward way that informs without lecturing or information dump. This book also contains, through Amina’s mentions of the treatment she has received from classmates over the years, some of the truest depictions of microaggressions I have ever read – how they occur, how they are discounted by the people who perpetuate them, but how heavily they can weigh on the psyche of a marginalized person. As a reader, I was spellbound by Amina’s story; as a writer, I was inspired by Khan’s masterful use of craft; as a parent, I was grateful for such an engaging story that has led to many important conversations with my son.

AMINA’S VOICE is out now.

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Read This!: THE TOMBS by Deborah Schaumberg

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The TombsThe Tombs by Deborah Schaumberg

Summary: New York, 1882. A dark, forbidding city, and no place for a girl with unexplainable powers. Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl pines for the life she had before her mother was taken. She fears the mysterious men in crow masks who locked her mother in the Tombs asylum for being able to see what others couldn’t. Avery denies the signs in herself, focusing instead on her shifts at the ironworks factory and keeping her inventor father out of trouble. Other than secondhand tales of adventure from her best friend, Khan, an ex-slave, and caring for her falcon, Seraphine, Avery spends her days struggling to survive. 
Like her mother’s, Avery’s powers refuse to be contained. When she causes a bizarre explosion at the factory, she has no choice but to run from her lies, straight into the darkest corners of the city. Avery must embrace her abilities and learn to wield their power—or join her mother in the cavernous horrors of the Tombs. And the Tombs has secrets of its own: strange experiments are being performed on “patients”…and no one knows why.

Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl has been working as a welder in an ironworks factory ever since her mother was locked in the Tombs asylum and she and her father had to flee their respectable middle-class life. The skills Avery has developed in creating perfect metal connections are only appropriate, as she discovers that she has powers that let her see the connections between lives, and help heal other people’s auras. But in New York City in the throes of the Industrial Revolution, such powers are dangerous, and there are plenty of greedy men who want to use Avery’s powers for their own gain – just as they have been using her mother’s. When Avery’s burgeoning powers attract attention from the mysterious men in crow masks who drag people off to the Tombs, she has to go into hiding with her mother’s Romany friends. She hatches a desperate plan to free her mother…only to find that the greedy industrialists are getting ready to unleash an awful plan on New York City, one that threatens the lives of every worker in every plant and factory. And Avery and her friends may be the only ones who can stop it. Filled with intrigue, adventure, romance, and all the cool steampunk flourishes a reader could ask for, Schaumberg’s debut melds history and fantasy to create an absorbing world just beyond the known.

THE TOMBS is out now.

Read This!: TOO FAT, TOO SLUTTY, TOO LOUD: THE RISE AND REIGN OF THE UNRULY WOMAN

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Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly WomanToo Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman by Anne Helen Petersen

Summary: There have been unruly women for as long as there have been boundaries of what constitutes acceptable “feminine” behavior, but there’s evidence that she’s on the rise–more visible and less easily dismissed–than ever before. In Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of “unruliness” to explore the ascension of eleven contemporary powerhouses: Serena Williams, Melissa McCarthy, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian, Hillary Clinton, Caitlyn Jenner, Jennifer Weiner, and Lena Dunham. Petersen explores why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures, each of whom has been conceived as “too” something: too queer, too strong, too honest, too old, too pregnant, too shrill, too much. With its brisk, incisive analysis, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud will be a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks celebrity today.

This book is a wonder. Peterson articulates so many frustrations and furies that I have personally felt, and that I know other women have felt, and documents the way our society attempts to limit women in a way that is precise, articulate, and utterly undeniable. Her choice to center each chapter around a specific female celebrity and how she is supposedly “too” something is inspired – these studies are not so much about the women themselves as they are about how the women are seen, discussed, and applauded or vilified by the world around them. This book is an absolute must-read for anyone who is interested in understanding what all women experience in large and small ways as they dare to exist in a world that constantly tells them that they only have worth in relation to men.
Some choice quotes:

“’Shrillness’ is just a word to describe what happens when a woman, with her higher-toned voice, attempts to speak loudly. A pejorative, in other words, developed specifically to shame half the population when they attempt to command attention in the same manner as men.”

 

“To be an unruly woman today is to oscillate between the postures of fearlessness and self-doubt, between listening to the voices that tell a woman she is too much, and one’s own, whispering and yelling  I am already enough, and always have been.”

Read This!: SUBMERGE by Tobie Easton

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Submerge (Mer Chronicles #2)Submerge (Mer Chroncles #2) by Tobie Easton

Summary: Now that Lia and Clay’s love has broken the Little Mermaid’s curse, everything has changed. Will Lia’s family remain on land, leading the only life she and her sisters have ever known, or will they move below the waves, to the sparkling new capital city? Lia is adamant about staying on land with Clay for her senior year. But at Melusine and her father’s trial, new revelations threaten what Lia holds most dear. The verdict will shake Lia’s whole world, calling into question her future with Clay, her feelings for Caspian, and the fate of all Merkind. As she wonders who to trust, Lia sets out on a treacherous path that will lead her away from her sheltered Malibu home to a remote and mysterious school for Mermaids—Mermaids who may hold the secret to ancient magic Lia can use to either get back all she’s lost or to embark on a dangerous journey.

EMERGE was a thrilling start to Lia’s story, and SUBMERGE manages to completely sidestep the dangers of second-book slump and offer a story with higher stakes, more danger, and deeper relationships while remaining grounded in the characters and the world of the Mer. One of the things that made EMERGE such a delight was the layers of worldbuilding underpinning the story; here we get to delve deeper into Mer culture and language, from a courtroom trial to visiting a school below the waves. All of it is a natural part of Lia’s story as she explores what it means to be suddenly immortal and reconnect with the Mer side of her heritage. Everything follows naturally from the relationships and events of the first book; indeed, one of the things I love best about Easton’s writing is that, at the scene level and at the plot level, the story moves along inexorably and inevitably, like the tides. At the center of it all is Lia, proud and impulsive and warm and flawed – a character I would follow anywhere. (And don’t get me started on Caspian. Caspian, stop breaking my heart!) It’s a heck of a ride, and I feel like reading Easton’s work actually makes me a better writer.

SUBMERGE is out now.

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Read This!: BEING FISHKILL by Ruth Lehrer

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Being FishkillBeing Fishkill by Ruth Lehrer

Summary: Fishkill Carmel fends for herself, with her fists if need be — until a thwarted lunch theft introduces her to strange, sunny Duck-Duck and a chance for a new start.  Born in the backseat of a moving car, Carmel Fishkill was unceremoniously pushed into a world that refuses to offer her security, stability, love. At age thirteen, she begins to fight back. Carmel Fishkill becomes Fishkill Carmel, who deflects her tormenters with a strong left hook and conceals her secrets from teachers and social workers. But Fishkill’s fierce defenses falter when she meets eccentric optimist Duck-Duck Farina, and soon they, along with Duck-Duck’s mother, Molly, form a tentative family, even as Fishkill struggles to understand her place in it. This fragile new beginning is threatened by the reappearance of Fishkill’s unstable mother — and by unfathomable tragedy. Poet Ruth Lehrer’s young adult debut is a stunning, revelatory look at what defines and sustains “family.” And, just as it does for Fishkill, meeting Duck-Duck Farina and her mother will leave readers forever changed.

Fishkill Carmel is a tough-as-nails heroine with a desperate secret. Christine Farina, better known as Duck-Duck, is the quirky idealist who sees through the tough façade and appoints herself Fishkill’s new best friend. What follows is a tale full of poignant moments of friendship, exploring everything from the stirrings of sexual attraction between the two girls, to the nuances of girl bullying, to the ways the system fails those without resources. What I loved most about this book is that it treats Fishkill’s struggles with middle school social life with the same gravity it treats her family situation – only fitting, as both are integral parts of a middle schooler’s life. Fishkill’s inimitable voice – all hardness yearning for softness – comes through from page one, and readers will root for her to find the family she so needs. Just as in the real world, no one gets off easy, and no character is all good or all bad. Prepare to have your heart broken and put back together again by this funny, sad, immersive, and excellent book.

BEING FISHKILL is out now.

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