The Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There are some books where words will never be able to adequately express the power and feelings within it's pages. The Map of Salt and Stars is one of these books. There feels like so much to say about how incredibly emotional this book is; and yet I struggle to find the words.
The Set-up
Split into two stories, Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar tells us the story of a girl in the past who overcomes prejudice and hardships to become a great warrior. This story is mythical in that it includes the magical Roc and giant snakes(from One Thousand and One Nights stories). At it's core this story is about the journey to map the world and our three travellers who are trying to do so (including our warrior girl).
The second story is the one that will break your heart more-so than anything. It is the story of a Syrian family, who lost their husband/father the previous year and so have limited means to survive to begin with. Then their home is bombed to nothing and they fight to cross the borders of four different countries, in perious ways, in order to find some sort of sanctuary.
Our Lead Girl
There is always something poignant about hearing a story of destruction and death from the words of a child. Our lead gal is a pre-teen whom has to find her both her inner and outer strength to survive what is to come. This is the plight of a refugee. And one that everyone in a first world country should read. It is a story that will break your heart and also give you hope. Of all the things it will do however is make you feel like you are this little girl. I connected with her in a way I have trouble expressing outloud.
Syrian Refugee Crisis
The obvious point of Joukhadar writing The Map of Salt and Stars is to bring awareness of the Syrian people's dire situation. For those of us who live in places where our homes are not at risk of being bombed, where our government (mostly) protects us, and where no one carries machine guns around just because; this may be a hard thing to come to terms with it. One day any one of us could be in a situation where we have nothing and our only hope is aid in a different country. I hope that doesn't happen, but if it does we'd want the support and help from others. So why is it that so many people today (who have means to help) begrudge these destitute people?
I believe it to be a lack of understanding. This book definitely gives a better understanding of what it means to lose everything, to have nothing and nowhere to go.
Overall
It's always unfortunate that our world has these types of stories. However it is reality. Pretending it doesn't exist or isn't 'our problem' is the wrong attitude; because if the tables were flipped I know each of us would expect aid from those that could.
I recommend everyone read this book to gain some perspective and find some new-found compassion within themselves to better understand the circumstances of people. At the end of the day we are all the same; we are all just people trying to survive.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
Follow me on Goodreads...
Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman
Book # 2 of Scythe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I think it's important to know that I loved Scythe. Loved it so much that I told everyone I know to read it and it is one of my favourite books of the last few years. So going into Thunderhead I had big expectations. The problems with expectations is that they are often not realistic or even sensible.
Plot
There is quite a bit of political posturing and plot in Thunderhead. Much like in Scythe the internal politics of the Scythdom continue to spiral out of control. There was a point just past halfway where I got bored. It was a lull; and normally I'd have just powered through that lull. Instead, because I'm so behind in reading other books I actually read a couple books instead of powering through Thunderhead. That was probably a mistake in terms of continuity. However, once I got back into it a week or two later I found that only a couple pages ahead of where I had stopped was a massive plot twist in which the story just cascades down from. So if you hit a small glitch in your excitement with Thunderhead just keep going because it doesn't last long.
The Thunderhead
Almost all of the snippets or journal entries at the beginning of the chapters are the internal thought of the Thunderhead. As an AI that 'runs' the whole world I expected the Thunderhead to be very practical and have no emotional responses at all. Except that it does. Neal Shusterman has taken the idea of an AI made from human construct and really challenged how it would be. The idea here is that it would be flawed because it was created by humans. And that it can be 'tricked' by the humans who set-up the server connections... This was a hard thing for me to really accept until near the end of the book when events really allowed me to see (not just be told) what that might look like. Shusterman is brilliant at making readers eat up his logic by showing them a scenario in which his logic works.
Characters
I don't want say a lot here for fear of spoiling something. But let's just say all the characters we've come to know, love and hate in Scythe are back in Thunderhead (in some way shape or form). Much of the story is told from Scythe Anastasia's (Citra's) point of view.
Cliffhangers
Yep, you guessed it. Just like Scythe, Thunderhead ends with a major cliffhanger. This kills me as I am now dying to read the next book (not out yet at time of this writing) and makes it hard to get into new books for me sometimes. I get why it's done this way. Marketing hype is a hard thing to generate if people aren't dying to know what happens next. But sometimes I wish for the 'sort of ending' that we always got with Harry Potter or Narnia. Just sayin'.
Overall
Definitely this deserves a spot on my print bookshelf and this series continues to be one of the best in the last couple years, in my opinion. I love how sophisticated it is; while still being a teen novel. I wish there had been books like this when I was a teen! I think this shows how much we have changed as humans in just the last 20 years. We are able to be a little more critical of society; and we've certainly learned a lot (good and bad) about social media and mob mentality. Thunderhead does a good job of taking the society we know now and making his Scythe/Thunderhead future relatable.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
Follow me on Goodreads
The Upside of Falling Down by Rebekah Crane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Contemporary teen books and I are not usually friends. I still read them because when I like one it is often amazing. The Upside of Falling Down is an unusual situation as I didn't love it or hate it. It was okay. I find I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other.
Plot
Easily the best part of this book is the plot. Rebekah Crane takes us on a journey with our lead gal who has temporary amnesia. And while she has all the correct supports in place; she still runs away because in her mind she isn't the girl everyone at the hospital thinks she is. I can absolutely see myself as a teen doing exactly what our lead gal does. The twisting road the anmesia leads us on as readers is interesting. We only know what our lead girl knows; which means we have an unreliable narrator that may not be giving us all the details in the right order or even accurately. As the reader we also don't know what our lead gal is leaving out. What details is she not seeing or choosing to ignore. If you're a smart reader you'll actually focus on what she isn't telling us more than what she is.
Love Interest
Here's where The Upside of Falling Down looses me a bit. Yes there is an obvious, in your face love interest; and of course he's attractive, rich and without the 'constraints' of parents being present in his life. The perfect scenario for our lead girl to fall into. *rolls eyes*
The thing is that the actual lust/love aspects of the story are quite genuine. The first time is a bit glossed over but overall the interactions between the two feel genuine and reminded me of my own stumbling teenage years and relations with boys. So while the scenario may be convenient I'll give Crane props for making our teens act like teens.
Overall
There is a fun twist to this book that all goes back to our unreliable lead gal whose telling us the story. I liked how by the end I was ready for what happened and felt it made good sense. For some it may seem far-fetched but I didn't feel that way. With the exception of some convenient moments in the plot and characters I overall felt this was a well put together contemporary teen novel. And from this pessimistic teen literature reviewer that is actually a pretty good compliment.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
Follow me on Goodreads...
