Jen – Page 16 – Made of Stardust and Stubbornness

“Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything” Review

Posted on September 16, 2023October 12, 2024 by Jen

“Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything” by Justine Pucella Winans

Sixteen-year-old Bianca Torre is an avid birder undergoing a gender identity crisis and grappling with an ever-growing list of fears. Some, like Fear #6: Initiating Conversation, keep them constrained, forcing them to watch birds from the telescope in their bedroom. And, occasionally, their neighbors. When their gaze wanders from the birds to one particular window across the street, Bianca witnesses a creepy plague-masked murderer take their neighbor’s life. Worse, the death is ruled a suicide, forcing Bianca to make a choice—succumb to their long list of fears (including #3: Murder and #55: Breaking into a Dead Guy’s Apartment) or investigate what happened.

Bianca enlists the help of their friend Anderson Coleman, but the two have more knowledge of anime than true crime. As Bianca and Anderson dig deeper into the murder with a little help from Bianca’s crush and fellow birding aficionado, Elaine Yee (#13: Beautiful People, #11: Parents Discovering They’re A Raging Lesbian), the trio uncovers a conspiracy much larger—and weirder—than imagined. But when the killer catches wind of the investigation, Bianca’s #1 fear of public speaking doesn’t sound so bad compared to the threat of being silenced for good.

In this absurdist, bizarrely comical YA thriller that is at turns a deceptively deep exploration of anxiety and identity, perhaps the real murder investigation is the friends we make along the way.

Review

This was a fun read. The murder mystery was interesting but the way it was handled was a bit over ridiculous. However it being ridiculous was intentional given the description. Serious things would happen with only a brief mention from the adults and then the plot moved on… so the teenagers could solve the mystery. Which was fine but I ended up enjoying reading about Bianca’s character development more as they both figured out their gender identity (realizing they are non-binary) and also dealing with all their anxieties and fears. That was the more interesting part of the book for me. The characters are all great though I wish Bianca had been able to talk to their parents more, but that was realistic. At least they have their friend’s parents to rely on for that.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything”.

Book Details

a person's head is on the top of the cover looking towards the left. Over the back of their head are three birds in flight going in various directions. below them as the title and authors name and a skyline of a city in the background. THe cover is purple and pink in the center with black on the edges.

Author’s Website: Justine Pucella Winans
Publisher / Date: Clarion Books, April 2023
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult
Page Count: 384
Completion Date: September 12, 2023

“The Labyrinth’s Archivist” Review

Posted on September 16, 2023October 12, 2024 by Jen

“The Labyrinth’s Archivist” by Day Al-Mohamed

Walking the Labyrinth and visiting hundreds of other worlds; seeing so many new and wonderful things – that is the provenance of the travelers and traders, the adventurers and heroes. Azalea has never left her home city, let alone the world. Her city, is at the nexus of many worlds with its very own “Hall of Gates” and her family are the Archivists. They are the mapmakers and the tellers of tales. They capture information on all of the byways, passages and secrets of the Labyrinth. Gifted with a perfect memory, Azalea can recall every story she ever heard from the walkers between worlds. She remembers every trick to opening stubborn gates, and the dangers and delights of hundreds of worlds. But Azalea will never be a part of her family’s legacy. She cannot make the fabled maps of the Archivists because she is blind.

The Archivist’s “Residence” is a waystation among worlds. It is safe, comfortable and with all food and amenities provided. In exchange, of course, for stories of their adventures and information about the Labyrinth, which will then be transcribed for posterity and added to the Great Archive. But now, someone has come to the Residence and is killing off Archivists using strange and unusual poisons from unique worlds whose histories are lost in the darkest, dustiest corners of the Great Archive. As Archivists die, one by one, Azalea is in a race to find out who the killer is and why they are killing the Archivists, before they decide she is too big a threat to leave alive.

Review

I really enjoyed this story – the characters were great and I liked how the main character’s disability was used in the story – Azalea is a great character all around. The murder mystery was interesting and I enjoyed how it all played out. It may have been a bit predictable who was the actual killer but it was still fun reading it. I liked the fact that Azalea’s grandmother had the same gift if perfect memory and it wasn’t played as if it was a compensation for her being blind – it was a thing other characters may or may not have regardless of disability or not.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “The Labyrinth’s Archivist”.

Book Details

Author’s Website: Day Al-Mohamed
Publisher / Date: Falstaff Books, July 2019
Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery
Page Count: 132
Completion Date: September 10, 2023

“The Haunting of Tram Car 015” Review

Posted on September 10, 2023October 12, 2024 by Jen

“The Haunting of Tram Car 015” (a Dead Djinn Universe story) by P. Djèlí Clark

Cairo, 1912: The case started as a simple one for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities — handling a possessed tram car.

Soon, however, Agent Hamed Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi Youssef are exposed to a new side of Cairo stirring with suffragettes, secret societies, and sentient automatons in a race against time to protect the city from an encroaching danger that crosses the line between the magical and the mundane.

Review

This story takes place prior to “A Master of Djinn” which I read first. Anyway I really enjoyed this one – it’s a short story but one that felt complete as the agents were dealing with a someone easier case than the larger story. I like the way it worked out and the addition of the suffragettes sub-plot ended up feeling like it fit in. I liked seeing a couple of the side characters from the later story in here as main characters. Overall it’s a fun read.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “The Haunting of Tram Car 015”.

Book Details

View of a city square with multiple buildings and people in view and a green tram car moving overhead

Author’s Website: P. Djèlí Clark
Publisher / Date: Tor Books, February 2019
Genre: Alternate History, Fantasy
Page Count: 96
Completion Date: September 7, 2023

“The Wicked Bargain” Review

Posted on September 3, 2023October 12, 2024 by Jen

“The Wicked Bargain” by Gabe Cole Novoa

On Mar León de la Rosa’s sixteenth birthday, el Diablo comes calling. Mar is a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical ability to manipulate fire and ice. But their magic isn’t enough to reverse a wicked bargain made by their father, and now el Diablo has come to collect his payment: the soul of Mar’s father and the entire crew of their ship.

When Mar is miraculously rescued by the sole remaining pirate crew in the Caribbean, el Diablo returns to give them a choice: give up their soul to save their father by the harvest moon, or never see him again. The task is impossible–Mar refuses to make a bargain, and there’s no way their magic is a match for el Diablo. Then Mar finds the most unlikely allies: Bas, an infuriatingly arrogant and handsome pirate–and the captain’s son; and Dami, a gender-fluid demonio whose motives are never quite clear. For the first time in their life, Mar may have the courage to use their magic. It could be their only redemption–or it could mean certain death.

Review

This was an interesting book. It has some great parts to it but feels a little immature. Granted the main characters are teenagers reacting like teenagers to everything. I feel like it could have done with a bit more editing and figuring out how the story was meant to go. I got tired of how long it took Mar to realize they could actually control their powers – the sudden realization didn’t feel like it made a whole lot of sense. But again, teenagers. I’m glad it worked out in the end though and it was mostly a fun read.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “The Wicked Bargain”.

Book Details

A young person is shown taking up most of the cover facing right with their head turned forward. They're wearing a brown shirt and pants and a necklace. They have one hand up with a flame in it. Behind them is the ocean and a pirate ship. The title and author's name are shown over them.

Author’s Website: Gabe Cole Novoa
Publisher / Date: Penguin Random House, February 2023
Genre: Fantasy Young Adult
Page Count: 360
Completion Date: September 3, 2023

“A Two-Spirit Journey” Review

Posted on August 26, 2023October 13, 2024 by Jen

“A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder” by Ma-Nee Chacaby, with Mary Louisa Plummer

A Two-Spirit Journey is Ma-Nee Chacaby’s extraordinary account of her life as an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian. From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community riven by poverty and alcoholism, Chacaby’s story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social, economic, and health legacies of colonialism.

As a child, Chacaby learned spiritual and cultural traditions from her Cree grandmother and trapping, hunting, and bush survival skills from her Ojibwa stepfather. She also suffered physical and sexual abuse by different adults, and in her teen years became alcoholic herself. At twenty, Chacaby moved to Thunder Bay with her children to escape an abusive marriage. Abuse, compounded by racism, continued, but Chacaby found supports to help herself and others. Over the following decades, she achieved sobriety; trained and worked as an alcoholism counsellor; raised her children and fostered many others; learned to live with visual impairment; and came out as a lesbian. In 2013, Chacaby led the first gay pride parade in Thunder Bay.

Ma-Nee Chacaby has emerged from hardship grounded in faith, compassion, humour, and resilience. Her memoir provides unprecedented insights into the challenges still faced by many Indigenous people.

Review

This one was a hard read especially during Ma-Nee’s childhood and teenage years. So much happened to her during that time. The only bright spot was her grandmother. I did enjoy reading about her later years and the work she did to help others. I also enjoyed the explanation of the writing process that was provided at the end of the book.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “A Two-Spirit Journey”.

Book Details

The author Ma-Nee is shown on the front cover dressed in native style holding a drum in her hands. She is looking up off in the distance. Her shirt is blue with stripes of green and red on her chest. There are ribbons attached to the stripes. She is wearing a beaded necklace that circles her neck multiple times.

Publisher / Website / Date: University of Manitoba Press, April 2016
Genre: Memoir
Page Count: 256
Completion Date: August 22, 2023

“Abeni’s Song” Review

Posted on August 12, 2023October 13, 2024 by Jen

“Abeni’s Song” by P. Djèlí Clark

On the day of the spirits festival, the old woman who lives in the forest appears in Abeni’s village with a terrible message:

You ignored my warnings. It’s too late to run. They are coming.

The old woman hasn’t come to save them, only to collect one child as payment for her years of service and protection. When warriors with burning blades storm the village and a man with a cursed flute plays an impossibly alluring song, everyone Abeni has ever known and loved is captured and marched toward far-off ghost ships set for even more distant lands.

But not Abeni. Abeni escapes the warriors in the clutches of the old woman, magically whisked into the forest away from all she’s ever known. And there she begins her unwanted magical apprenticeship, her journey to escape the witch, and her impossible mission to bring her people home.

Abeni’s Song is the beginning of a timeless, enchanting fantasy adventure about a reluctant apprentice, a team of spirit kids, and the village they set out to save from the evil Witch Priest who stole away Abeni’s people.

Review

I enjoyed this book but younger readers would probably enjoy it more as it was a bit to fantastical – everything made sense but the impossible mission was a bit much and I think the style choices do work better for younger audiences. And the thing is this story is in fact meant for younger audiences (I didn’t realize it was middle grade rather than young adult until after I read it that’s on me). It’s just using very heavy fantasy elements to describe real world things like the slave trade as that’s what happens to the people in her village. It was still a fun read and I liked following along with Albeni as she met the other characters and figured out how to work with them. The ending resolution is good too.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Abeni’s Song”.

Book Details

Author’s Website: P. Djèlí Clark
Publisher / Date: Starscape, July 2023
Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade
Page Count: 336
Completion Date: August 10, 2023