Top Five of 2021

16 Feb 2022 Leave a comment

by Amy in Top Five List Tags: , , , , ,

I have a crisis. I don’t actually have enough 5 star books to fill up my top 5 for 2021. It isn’t like I didn’t read enough – 120 books is more than enough to choose from. Surely amongst those thousands of pages of reading I could find enough books to rave about?

Apparently not.

Though as I look through my list of five star books I can safely pull out 4 that were amazing reads of the year. Even the picture books I’ve found 5 that I gave full stars to, they all may not have been amazing in the same way, but they were all fantastic in their own way.

I felt my reading tapered off towards the end of the year with everything going on but I’m trying to get back into the swing of it. Whether I would have found my fifth amazing book if I’d kept up momentum I do not know. My reviewing certainly suffered but there is a nice backlog to dive into for the future. I’m only hoping that I can write a good review, I don’t usually like leaving it so long since I finished for those inevitable times I can’t actually remember what it was about.

But that is for a later time. This is to share my Top Five of 2021.

Sword in the Stars (#2) by A. R. Capetta

Sword in the Stars (Once & Future #2)The sequel to Once & Future that featured in last year’s list and it did not disappoint. It picks up after book one and takes you on another amazing adventure that is full of mythology, space, love, action and adventure and honestly every time I think about the world and narrative Capetta and McCarthy have created I am in awe of their talent. If you love the Arthurian legend and want all kinds of diverse representation and a kick-arse story than you MUST pick up this series but you also have to start with book one.

 

Loveless by Alice Oseman

LovelessI ADORED this story. Absolutely adored it. Oseman tells a beautiful story about growing up, self discovery and finding your place in the world and it’s filled with a range of characters that are delightful to get to know.

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday by Meredith Russo

BirthdayI will warn you that this book deals with some serious topics and can be hard to read at times but it is also so incredible powerful in what Russo is trying to tell us. I felt so much sympathy for these poor characters and their lives but there is hope which is important and no spoilers but there is light after the darkness. The format is unique and I love how Russo has told a full bodied story across numerous single days.

 

 

The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom (#4) by Clint McElroy

The Crystal Kingdom (The Adventure Zone Graphic Novels, #4)I love the entirety of The Adventure Zone podcast but this was also my least loved arcs so I was surprised to see how much I loved the graphic novel. I mean I still loved it, but it never stuck with my the ways the others did. But seeing it visually play out reignited my admiration for Griffin’s storytelling and Clint’s ability to convert an audio into a visual medium. The memorable, quotable moments are there and it’s another step in this journey we’re going on with this little band of misadventurers and I can’t wait to keep going.

 

 

 

Top Five Picture Books

Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name by Sandhya Parappukkaran

The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name

The Tiny King by Tarō Miura

The Tiny King

My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart

My Shadow Is Pink

Things in the Sea Are Touching Me by Linda Jane Keegan

Things In The Sea Are Touching Me!

Green Lizards vs Red Rectangle by Steve Antony

Green Lizards vs. Red Rectangles

 

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

24 Jun 2021 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, LGBTQIA, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Published: 3rd May 2016 (print)/4 August 2016 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Flatiron Books /Macmillan Audio
Pages: 280/6 hrs and 59 mins
Narrator: Samia Mounts
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★ – 3 Stars

A new kind of big-hearted novel about being seen for who you really are.

Amanda Hardy is the new girl in school. Like anyone else, all she wants is to make friends and fit in. But Amanda is keeping a secret, and she’s determined not to get too close to anyone.

But when she meets sweet, easygoing Grant, Amanda can’t help but start to let him into her life. As they spend more time together, she realizes just how much she is losing by guarding her heart. She finds herself yearning to share with Grant everything about herself, including her past. But Amanda’s terrified that once she tells him the truth, he won’t be able to see past it.

Because the secret that Amanda’s been keeping? It’s that at her old school, she used to be Andrew. Will the truth cost Amanda her new life, and her new love?

Meredith Russo’s If I Was Your Girl is a universal story about feeling different and a love story that everyone will root for.

I read this after Russo’s other book Birthday but while I liked this I think Birthday was a more powerful story. Even though some tough issues are raised here like transphobia, bullying, abuse and violence towards trans people, it was still a relatively minor part of the story. The main plot points are about Amanda at her new school, making new friends, falling in love and trying to reconnect with her estranged father.

There are stereotypes and easy roads taken to make Amanda’s story work which Russo admits to, but that is ok because this isn’t a story about Amanda’s transition (though we do get her full backstory through well placed flashbacks), this is about her life now and how she is navigating a new school, new relationships and her first love.

Russo’s author note at the end talks to her readers, trans and otherwise about how to approach Amanda’s story. She admits she took liberties and made the process seamless for Amanda where it otherwise shouldn’t have been to make the reader accept Amanda more easily, but she acknowledges that many other people don’t have such luxuries in real life. I liked this addition because it would be so easy to dismiss Amanda’s experiences because she had it easy and things were perfectly aligned for her, not to mention for people to assume this experience was universal when it isn’t. In doing so Russo makes the story afterwards the focus and Amanda’s life now rather than before where the main story lies.

Having said that, it isn’t a perfect road for Amanda – I hated that for the entire time I was waiting for the reveal about her past and for the town and/or her friends to turn on her. There are so many trans stories and they shouldn’t all end in revelations resulting in abuse and rejection but while some of Amanda’s story had rule bending, I appreciated Russo not sugar coating the entire experience.

Despite being #OwnVoices it still falls into YA tropes and stereotypes; it is cheesy and sappy at times, but if you’re after a sweet romance with the small town aesthetic that so many US YA books have then this is right up your alley.

You can purchase If I Was Your Girl via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Birthday by Meredith Russo

22 Jun 2021 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, LGBTQIA, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , ,

Published: 31st May 2019Goodreads badge
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
Pages: 300
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★   ★   ★ – 5 Stars

Meet Eric and Morgan.

Born on the same day, at the same time, in the same place. They’ve always shared this one day together, but as they grow up they begin to grow apart.

Everyone expects Eric to get a football scholarship, but no one knows he’s having second thoughts.
Former quarterback Morgan feels utterly alone, as she wrestles with the difficult choice to live as her true self.

Both of them are struggling to be the person they know they are. Who better to help than your best friend?

Told on one day every year, over six years, this is a story about how change pulls people apart… and how love brings them back together.

This book. Oh my gosh, this book. Birthday is an absolutely beautiful story that in part broke my heart and moved my soul.

I am not going to lie, it was heart wrenching and painful to read at times but Russo does a superb job getting you inside the minds of Eric and Morgan, especially Morgan. We feel their pain and anguish and the discovery of self when not a lot was being said and anything LGBTQIA was a punchline or a flippant insult. The same is said for the sexism because there is plenty of that as well. It’s full of the harm of toxic masculinity and the pressure and heartbreak boys are put through in order to live up to what they are “supposed to be”. It was incredibly sad, even in fiction, to read about how these characters were told off for saying they loved each other and weren’t allowed to cry.

Russo captures the derision of a town obsessed with football coupled with the reality that it is the only way out of a place that is dying. The dead end existence of their small town is well explained and the catch-22 of hating football but knowing it’s the only opportunity you’ll have to get into a good university and escape was a refreshing approach to other US novels where football is simply the town obsession for no reason (I mean it is a bit of that too). At least Russo makes it evident there is no real escape otherwise and the way this plays into both character’s choices and mentality is amazing.

Structurally I love how this story is laid out. With one day each year we see the lives of Morgan and Eric, their alternate views on same experiences and different lives as they start to grow up. Every year that passed for Morgan made me hurt, but every year that passed I saw how much Eric was still a loyal friend. Even with this one day we still discover how the rest of the year has been, it never felt like we were missing information of chunks of time. It was incredible how through one day over many years we get to see the whole lives of these characters and see their lives unfold.

I cannot praise this story enough. It is full of pain and sorrow, the confusion of being a teenager and the failure of the adults, but it is also about the power of friendship – especially friendship struggling under the damaging rules of society, bigotry, and ‘being normal’. There are many content warnings obviously such as parental death, self harm, homophobia, depression and bullying, but there are also moments of pure joy and the love, exploration and value of true friendship.

It’s a brilliant book because being inside Morgan and Eric’s head makes you angry and sad, and this isn’t even the distant past – there’s no exact year stated but with references to VHS video cameras, YouTube, and getting Netflix in the mail it’s not that long ago. It’s relatively recent in the scheme of everything and the story does an amazing job in showing how damaging this whole mentality can be while also showing there is always hope and there will always be people who love you and surprise you. I loved this book even though it made me hurt and I think even though it covers some tough subjects it’s an important story to tell and being an #OwnVoices story I think there is even more power and importance in these words.

You can purchase Birthday via the following

QBD | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust