Tag: Young Adult

“Otherbound” Review

Posted on by Jen

“Otherbound” by Corinne Duyvis

Amara is never alone. Not when she’s protecting the cursed princess she unwillingly serves. Not when they’re fleeing across dunes and islands and seas to stay alive. Not when she’s punished, ordered around, or neglected. She can’t be alone, because a boy from another world experiences all that alongside her, looking through her eyes.

Nolan longs for a life uninterrupted. Every time he blinks, he’s yanked from his Arizona town into Amara’s mind, a world away, which makes even simple things like hobbies and homework impossible. He’s spent years as a powerless observer of Amara’s life. Amara has no idea … until he learns to control her, and they communicate for the first time.

Amara is terrified. Then, she’s furious. All Amara and Nolan want is to be free of each other. But Nolan’s breakthrough has dangerous consequences. Now, they’ll have to work together to survive — and discover the truth about their connection.

Review

This is the fourth book I’ve read for the Disability Readathon and fits the prompt to read something from my library. I used the Libby App which connects to my local library’s ebook catalog.

Honestly this is another one where I ended up preferring another of the author’s books (“On the Edge of Gone”). That said I did enjoy this book for the most part because I really liked the characters and the way they ended up working together to resolve things. It took a lot of work to resolve the conflict and choices were made they’ll have to live with. Some things did get left unanswered but you kind of see that coming because there’s no way for the characters to really know everything. The disability repression was good too – it’s one where the disabilities are just there and not really the focus of the story which can be a good. Especially when the disabilities are the result of trauma – which in this case they were.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Otherbound”.

Book Details

The title of the book takes up most of the cover and is split into two words Other Bound. Behind the text are the profiles of the two main characters looking away from each other. Nolan is on the left with his eyes close and Amara is on the right with her eyes open. On Nolan's side there's a house on the bottom of the cover and Amara's there's a castle.

Author’s Website
Corinne Duyvis
Publisher / Date
Amulet Books, June 2014
Genre
Fantasy, Young Adult
Page Count
416
Completion Date
April 25, 2023

“One for All” Review

Posted on by Jen

“One for All” by Lillie Lainoff

One for All is a gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.

Review

This was a fun read. The main character has to deal with a lot of BS because of her illness before she ends up in a much better situation. I did kind of feel like things went a little to easily for her with the new group of people but it works. Maybe sometimes you do end up with an entire group of good people without having to do much work. The plot was a little predictable but it was still fun to read.

I especially liked how POTs is worked into the story, which is set in 17th century France, in a way that made sense for the time without seeming unrealistic. There’s a lot to be said about how people who are disabled or chronically ill were treated at the time and now. The author also included brief explanation of POTs and how she worked it into the story at the end of the book.

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “One for All”.

Book Details

Book cover for One For All depicting a young woman with her back against a building with dark brown hair and wearing a red dress with a fencing sword held up in her hand. There are several other swords of the same type pointed at her in a circle around the title of the book in the center of the cover.

Author’s Website
Lillie Lainoff
Publisher / Date
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), March 2022
Genre
Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Page Count
336
Completion
April 7, 2023

“Seeds for the Swarm” Review

Posted on by Jen

“Seeds for the Swarm” by Sim Kern

Rylla McCracken dreams of escaping her family’s trailer in the Dust States to go to college, but on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, her mother demands she drop out of school to work for Lockburn chemical refinery instead. When Rylla learns Lockburn is planning to dam the Guadalupe River-the last flowing water in Texas-she defies her mother to protest in the state capital. The protest ends in disaster, but her ensuing viral infamy gains Rylla an acceptance to the mysterious Wingates University.

Review

First I want to say I really enjoyed this book. However I wish I had known going in that it was actually part one in a series and the ending doesn’t actually resolve any of the various plot points that come up in the story. It’s not a hard cliffhanger where someone is about to die horribly, but it is a story that needs resolution that won’t happen until the next book. This is more about me though – when I read a series I like it best when each book mostly stands on its own with a resolved plot at the end. Anything else is just frustrating – especially when I don’t know when the next part is coming. I may have gone ahead and read the book anyway knowing this but I would have liked to know what I was getting into.

However all that said – the book is worth reading, especially if you don’t mind unresolved endings, because the characters are great. Sure they’re teenagers and the main character Rylla, makes some ridiculous choices but she is a teenager, and going through a lot of changes. It should be noted I was always a rule follower so don’t have any awareness of what is actually reasonable when it comes to teenage shenanigans. It’s also a book where kids or teenagers have to save the world which I’ve gotten a bit tired of but it felt realistic given our current world. The book may be set in the future with even worse damage from climate change but it’s a future we could very easily end up in. The emphasis on how rich white people will always able to survive comfortably while everyone else suffers is exactly how it is now.

And yes, it’s likely I’ll read the next book as soon as it comes out…

Warnings and additional reviews are available on the StoryGraph page for “Seeds for the Swarm”.

Book Details

Book cover for Seeds for the Swarm. a person with shaggy light brown hair and white skin is on the cover sideways looking up in. In the background are various colors and green flying bugs at the top of the cover.

Author’s Website
Sim Kern
Publisher / Date
Stelliform Press, March 2023
Genre
Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Page Count
440
Completion Date
March 26, 2023