Book Review: Jonny Appleseed

Jonny Appleseed 

by Joshua Whitehead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book should be mandatory Grade 12 reading for Canadian teens (or anyone in a colonized country). Perhaps then more of them would be empathetic to the Indigenous, and understand how damn good they likely have it.
Crude, honest, ugly, and yet beautiful and endearing… nothing is pulled back in Joshua Whitehead’s story of a Two-Spirit Indigenous boy who ends up off the reserve selling his body to make ends meet. Whitehead portrays both the awfulness, and some of the lightness of our lead teen’s existence.
Jonny Appleseed has a clever set-up where we get a past story, then a current piece of the present. The present story is over 2-3 days as Jonny tries to make enough money to go home for a funeral service.
With short chapters, realistic dialogue, and hard hitting descriptions this is a story everyone should read. If only to remind you that it could always be worse, it is worse for so many, and that homophobia and racism are the stupidest, non-sensical human constructs ever.

I’m so proud this is a Canadian book, and will be placing this print copy in my personal library knowing it should be in everyone’s library as it’s the kind of book that only comes along once in a generation. This is the Anne Frank, Go Ask Alice for today, and everyone should read it.

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Book Review: A Haunted Girl

A Haunted Girl 

by Ethan Sacks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love this set-up, the mental health representation, the scary ghosts, and the honesty of the plot and emotions. I have one protest, the ending is so dissatisfying! Yes I know it’s setup so we want to read the next issue; but as a trade (how I read these issues #1-3) it’s less fun to have it cliffhanger as it did. Ironically that cliffhanger could be considered an ending (from the perspective of a short story meant to leave options open) so my criticism may feel misplaced. What I know is getting to the end I was just so annoyed to realize that was the last page!!

I read this on my new Kobo Colour Libre so I didn’t get the full impact of the colours (as all colours are muted on this ereader, but better than black and white)! I did pull a couple single issues from my comic collection of this series just to see the art in its full glory and I must say it’s really wonderful! Just minimal enough to give a spooky aura but detailed enough on all the ghosts; and at the moments it really matters. You have to watch some of the subtleties in the art to get the full story. There are little hints to what is happening that you could miss. So be sure to read and look at the art so you get the full experience.

Check this one out if you want a good, accurate representation of depression (seems weird to say that but you know what I mean), some intense ghosts, a (perhaps!) twist ending, but maybe be sure to have the next issue ready to go so you can keep enjoying this intriguing world. Note: the ebook version I read had issues #1-3.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Road to Woop Woop and Other Stories

The Road to Woop Woop, and Other Stories 

by Eugen Bacon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m going to try very hard to be fair here. This is about 3.5 stars for me. I love clever, quirky, and twisty short stories with last line reveals. None of these are that kind. That doesn’t mean they aren’t good; because they are. Overall this is a decent collection of stories with paranormal, fairy tale, or existential spins. Worth a read.

It’s also note worthy as it is written by an Australian woman of colour. Certainly a minority not often found in writing circles. I would absolutely read more from Eugen Bacon in the future. In fact a couple of the stories in here, I think, need desperately to be made into longer stories. They have a lot of potential and could easily be fleshed out to be more than how they were presented here.

I know it’s always a fine line between word count and content and it’s certainly not always the right decision; but at least two stories have that quality. In between each of the stories are little snippets of tales that seemed to be native to Australia and like the type of tale you might tell to a child. I really adored these, and the illustrations were lovely!! They broke up the larger stories nicely, and in some cases setup a feel for the next story. This showed that the order of the stories was very intentional and I do appreciate that kind of effort being put in to make the reader feel immersed; even when each story is its own.

Certainly worth a pickup and read; and an author to watch for!

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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