Celebrate the love for books
A Semi Definitive List of Worst Nightmares was yet another book from Krystal Sutherland that made me cry. Something about the way she writes and crafts her characters make them so relatable. The emotions are so palpable, it’s impossible not to feel something for the characters. I think that’s what made this book particularly great. There was nuance in the way mental health was dealt with several times over.
A couple of days ago, I asked my Twitter followers which they thought were the top 5 words used in YA titles. Queen, fire, star, shadow and daughter came up several times. With popular books like Shadow and Bone, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, The Star-Touched Queen, Daughter of the Pirate King, and The Girl from Everywhere, I’m not surprised at the responses. But were they right? I’ve got answers with the top 20 words in YA book titles.
The opening chapter of Release gave me pause for the extent to which it borrowed from the beginnings of Mrs Dalloway. I knew that Ness took inspiration from Mrs Dalloway and Forever by Judy Blume. I’ve read the former, but not the latter. And let’s just say, I didn’t like that classic very much. I gave it 0.5 stars, although I could see what Virginia Woolf had meant to accomplish. But I’ve adored past books of Patrick Ness, so I was curious.
As you can literally gather from the, admittedly, clever name, Page Anchor is a device designed to hold books open. It’s a beautifully crafted pin that you can slide into a book to keep it from closing.
Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a retelling of retellings, a simulacrum if you will. After all, it was inspired by Frozen, Snow White and the Huntsman and The Bloody Chamber. Despite the extent to which this book was built on multiple stories, I thought the world building as well as the plot showcased Bashardoust’s creativity. The setting in particular, charmed me, and I loved how well it was woven together with the overarching plot.
