Review: Temporada de Huracanes by Fernanda Melchor

Temporada de Huracanes was the pick for this month for the book club with my friends from Mexico. Melchor writes a book that immerses the reader in a small, poor town in Veracruz where a body is found by a group of kids in a canal. The body belongs to the Bruja, or witch, of the town and who has a lot of rumors surrounding her life, her powers, everything about her really. What follows the first chapter where she is found is 7 more chapters, each narrated by a different person related to how the Bruja ended up in that canal.

Each chapter unfolds a new layer to the complexity of each character, telling us more details about their lives and also about their perspective on why the Bruja ended up dead. There is a lot of violence within these pages: emotional, physical, and sexual, but it is not done in a nonsensical way. Melchor takes extra care on when she uses graphic language vs not and she also chooses how each character speaks with intention.

The language used in the book is very specific to the region of Veracruz where the book is set. While it is a fictional town, my friends from Veracruz confirmed that this is how people talk there and I also can confirm that that is how I’ve heard older relatives talk as well. There is a lot to say about this book, the themes about socioeconomic status, religion, academic education, sexual education, culture, addiction, children forced to become adults early in their lives, just a lot!

One thing I will say that I loved about this book is how Melchor managed to write characters that I feel like I now know personally. She is able to make us see the worst of people but also the best of them, they do some really horrible things but we also see how they ended up in those situations. Impossible decisions to make in that context!

In the book club we talked about how our perspective is one of privilege and this book is only a window into that world so we can’t begin to imagine what it would actually be like to live in that world. If we’ve ever touched a corner of that world in our lives, our instinct is to turn and go the other direction. This now leaves us with knowledge of this world and also empathy for that world as well as understanding.

I’d love to recommend this book to everyone but this book is not for everyone. As I mentioned, there is a lot of emotional, physical, and sexual violence, as well as heartbreaking situations with everyone, from minors to adults. However, if you do choose to read it and you can get it in Spanish I’d recommend that, I’ve seen that the translation is pretty good as well.

Review: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Cemetery Boys delightfully surprised me! I was wary about how this book would treat Día de los Muertos since it is my favorite holiday, but I have to say that I am quite happy about how we got to see multiple latinx cultures represented in this celebration.

This book is set in East LA in a world where a group of people from Latinx cultures have acquired magical powers from Lady Death, La Santa Muerte. As time has gone on, they have slowly lost the intensity of their power, before it was said that they could bring people back to life, while now they do more basic healing and just help spirits pass to the afterlife. Their power is defined by their gender so women are healers while men help the spirits.

Our main character is Yadriel, a boy who is struggling to be recognized as a brujo because his family is having a hard time accepting his gender identity. He decides to go on a path to get that recognition with the help of his cousin and best friend, Maritza. Maritza is a bruja but she’s vegan and since to use magic they need to use animal blood, she refuses to actually use her powers. In the process of trying to prove himself a brujo, Yadriel summons the spirit of Julian Diaz and now he has to find a way to fix everything before things become dangerous for everyone (including Julian!)

I loved the use of Spanish throughout the book as well as all the references to food (omg I’m hungry thinking about pan de muerto and Gansitos ::drool::). Yadriel’s abuela reminded me a lot of my aunts who basically don’t let you out of their sight until they are satisfied that you’ve eaten properly. I thought that the traditional thoughts of gender were pretty spot on but I loved that Thomas was able to give it more empathy and compassion. While Yadriel is scared and disappointed about how his family is not getting it right 100% of the time, his dad and abuela obviously love him very much and are able to recognize their shortcomings when it counts.

I highly recommend this if you’re looking for something to read that includes the Día de los Muertos celebration as well as a book with trans representation. I now need to go plan out my ofrenda for this year!

Review: In The Wild Light by Jeff Zentner

In The Wild Light was my most anticipated book of the year. So far Zentner has written 4 books, including this one, and I have loved all of them! However, this is my absolute favorite of his books so far.

Zentner writes books featuring teenagers and their journeys through some very difficult transitions in their lives.

In this book we follow Cash Pruitt and Delaney Doyle, two kids from Sawyer, Tennessee, who are now faced with the very real possibility of going to a private boarding school via a full ride scholarship and completely changing the course of their lives. Cash absolutely loves his hometown, his grandparents, and the simplicity of his life as it is. His grandparents have raised him since the death of his mom and his grandfather is ill so Cash does not feel confident enough to leave and go to the boarding school even though it would be a great opportunity. Delaney, on the other hand, can’t afford to stay. Her mom is an addict and so she tends to basically provide for herself without her mom’s support. Delaney also does not want to go to the school without Cash, who has become her only friend and lifeline.

All of the characters in this book are so well written, they are very smart and complex, they have very real problems like having to budget and the culture clash of going from a poor background to being surrounded by heirs to big fortunes, etc. There are also other wonderful characters in this book, like Alex Pak. Alex is Korean-American, from Texas, and is also at the boarding school on scholarship so Cash is able to connect with him and their friendship is heartwarming and beautiful. We see two boys being vulnerable with each other, supporting each other, and lifting each other up, I just love them!

Another beautiful relationship is that of Cash and his grandfather, Pep. Pep is such a wonderful man, he’s been a great role model for Cash and now that he’s ill all he wants is to make sure that Cash goes to the boarding school so that he achieves things that he has never even imagined. I just love Pep so much! T_T

I could go on and on about all the reasons why this book is just so wonderful but let me just put here one of the many beautiful passages you can find throughout the novel:

We think of language as this tame thing that lives in neat garden beds, bound by rules and fences. Then someone shows it to you growing wild and beautiful, flowering vines consuming cities, erasing pavement and lines. Breaking through any fence that would try to contain it. Reclaiming. Reshaping. Reforming.

In The Wild Light by Jeff Zentner (pg.263)

The love of writing and poetry is found throughout the novel. There’s even one of the most wonderful teachers ever: Dr. Britney Rae Adkins! I love that our main characters are not alone, they have a good support system and they have people who believe in them and want them to succeed. It’s just a positive book that made me feel good and happy in the end.

This book is perfect for autumn, Zentner is known for his beautiful writing as he describes the change of nature during autumn so if you want something to get you into that cozy fall mood, this is it! I highly recommend this book if you like beautiful writing, complex characters, beautiful relationships, and realistic fiction. Read this book! I promise you’ll love it! So far it is my favorite book of the year so…. read this book! XD

Review: Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto

I received “Dial A for Aunties” by Jesse Q Sutanto in my monthly Feminist Book Club Box, which was all about beach reads! This month the FBC donated 5% of the proceeds to Students Against Voter Suppression, an organization of high school and college students dedicated to protecting voting rights.

This book was a lot of fun! While this book does involve romance, that’s not all in terms of a defining genre. There is the theme of immigrant family dynamics, accidental murder, all set at a brand new hotel, venue for a Chinese-Indonesian wedding between two very wealthy families.

We are following Meddy, a young photographer who works along with her Ma and aunties in order to provide wedding services, from the photography to the cake, flowers, makeup, and even the entertainment. The night before the wedding she is set up by her Ma on a blind date with the owner of the hotel where the wedding will take place. She can’t just not go of course, even though she’s not happy that her mother set her up, she will go and make sure that her family does not get fired from the wedding. Unfortunately, things go really badly and now Meddy and her family have to figure out a way to discard a body while working a wedding!

I think the main thing I loved about this book was the relationship between Meddy and her family. I mean they are all literally trying to get away with murder for each other. There are also these very interesting dynamics between Ma and her sisters, there’s jealousy, resentments, and condescension, all while still truly loving and protecting each other over anything else. These dynamics make for a very interesting project in trying to hide the body since all of them want to be the one to lead them to victory. All of this leads to some very hysterical moments throughout the book that truly had me laughing out loud.

The other aspect of the book is the romance. I tend to be frustrated by romances in some books because the characters tend to have silly reasons or misunderstandings about why they break up or why there is some kind of drama. In this case, Meddy’s relationship with her ex was not ended due to a silly misunderstanding. Meddy is Chinese-Indonesian, daughter of immigrants with big expectations on her shoulders. It isn’t about just becoming a big doctor/lawyer for her, it is about not leaving her family (like other young members of the family have done) and disappointing them by seeking her own life. This was something that really hit home for me. There is a sense of duty to family that exists in many cultures and what I read in this book was very close to what I’ve experienced in my family. The guilt of thinking of yourself first causes one to make certain life decisions that might not be the same if we were just thinking of ourselves. However, there is always the fortune that our families stand by us no matter what, and all of it tends to be a mind game that we trap ourselves in.

Something I really liked as well was the use of English, Indonesian, and Mandarin throughout the book. Ma and her sisters speak mostly in Indonesian and Mandarin but Maddy is not fluent in those languages so she has a hard time keeping up with them. Meanwhile Ma is not 100% fluent in English so some ideas are lost in translation (especially in regards to that date she set for her daughter! OMG). It’s amazing because in my family we speak both English and Spanish so there are definitely some times when I have to ask my dad to elaborate a bit on what some words mean or when my mom will ask about what some term means as well. Conversations simply last longer and we learn to be a bit more patient with each other when we chat.

Overall, I loved the journey that this book too me in, from the blind date, the twists and turns, the reveals, and all the family antics, this is a really fun book to read. I also loved that I identified with a lot of the relationship dynamics. If you’re searching for a book that takes you on a wild ride, this is one to check out!

Review: Reinas Malditas by Cristina Morató

Reinas Malditas by Cristina Morató

I read this book along with my friends from Mexico (and technically Canada since two of them are there) over the past three months. This book is about multiple women who were big historical figures from various European monarchies: Empress Elizabeth of Austria, Mary Antoinette, Christina of Sweden, Eugénie de Montijo, Queen Victoria of England, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

I really wish that this book had been better… Morató wrote in a way that reminded me of gossip columns that was mostly drama and very little substance. In the first chapter she talks about Empress Elizabeth (Sisi) from Austria and she describes how her learning about life in court was like learning:

…gossip of the high aristocracy…

Sissi pg.37

Honestly, that’s exactly what this book was, pretty much gossip. Although I did learn about each of the royal women in the book I didn’t always trust the author (possibly because of her writing style) so I always ended up going to Wikipedia to learn more about them. (That’s not a good sign!) It was also very confusing because we kept jumping around in the timeline so you’d be reading about when they had kids and then go back to before they were pregnant or someone close to them died but the next paragraph we’d get a whole two paragraphs about them before they died. Just very hard to follow.

Overall I did not enjoy this book and I couldn’t recommend it on good conscience. I’d be interested in reading a non-fiction book about the life of any of these women, but I’d hope for something with a more linear and serious writing style. If you have any recommendations, let me know!

Review: Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan

The first book I finished in July was Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan. This is the third and final installment in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, which I started way back in 2018 right before the movie came out. (Still waiting for that second movie…..) I read the second book in 2019 (I think, I actually didn’t record it on Goodreads but I definitely read it, I swear XD). In the first book we mostly follow Rachel and Nick, a couple who go to Nick’s friend’s wedding in Singapore, where Rachel finds out that Nick belongs to a super rich family. There’s romance, there’s drama, there’s a lot of expensive jewelry, dresses, food, oh the food…. ::drool:: The second book delves deeper into Nick’s family and we learn even more about Astrid and Kitty Pong, Kitty’s story was probably my favorite part in this book, where she tries to go from an actress who is not taken seriously to a more refined version of herself. In the second book Nick and Rachel end up in a life or death situation and it’s probably the most action-driven book of the three.

The third installment has much less about Rachel but Nick is still a big player in the book. Nick’s grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed and the family is coming together to say goodbye but also… figure out what they will be getting in the will. Eddie, one of Nick’s cousins is so so so annoying and as melodramatic as usual. Kitty is back with even more ambition to have more power and respect from everyone. There is a particular chapter where Kitty hires Nigel Barker for a photoshoot and, as someone who used to watch America’s Next Top Model, I was laughing so much imagining him in this world, it was a lot of fun. Astrid is also on a journey of her own as she figures out her identity outside of her rich family’s expectations of perfection.

My favorite part of this book was that we got to see to the past and into Su Yi’s story of how she was a war heroine. As the Japanese invaded Singapore, she played a role in helping others stay safe and, even when her father sent her away to India until the war passed, she went back to Singapore and helped in the war effort. It was really cool to see what Su Yi was like in her youth and then how that contributed to how she was from book one and to the end of her life in book three. Also, looking into the real history of the Japanese invasion of Singapore, the real Tyersall park did serve as headquarters for some of the commanders so it was cool to learn some of the history through this book.

While the whole book is still filled with greedy, selfish people, who don’t seem to learn that money isn’t everything (mostly because they have just been taken it for granted), there are also some characters who start to see how there are more things to life than money and power. Of course, you still get a lot of glamour, name/brand dropping, insane parties and purchases that go beyond any “normal” human. Some of the characters are dealing with mental health issues, and that is much more apparent in this third book.

Perhaps the one thing that wasn’t perfect about this book was the time/pacing. Sometimes the book would jump months/days and it was hard to tell. The end was also wrapped up in a couple of sentences for each person, imagine a montage at the end of a movie where you see what happened with each person, not a bad ending at all since it did tie up everything pretty nicely, I just wanted more hahaha.

This is one of the most consistent series I’ve read (rated all three books with 4 stars on Goodreads) since they all kept me laughing, rolling my eyes, and just overall very entertained. As far as escapism goes, this was a great book to read and just forget about everything going on in real life. I definitely stayed up reading it way past my bedtime so if you’re looking for something like that, I do recommend this series.

Review: Supernova by Marissa Meyer

Supernova by Marissa Meyer

Supernova, by Marissa Meyer, is the third and final installment of the Renegades series. Renegades is a series where certain people are either born or develop powers, some go on to become heroes and others villains. This is the familiar setting for pretty much any superhero story right? Well, this series has the added layer of romance between a villain and a hero. The romance itself isn’t the main plot but it is an important part of the story. Meyer also manages to create a world where first the Anarchists (or villains) tried to rule Gatlon City and they pretty much had chaos, people just vying for power left and right with no structure to follow. Then the Renegades took over after defeating the Anarchists and now you have a world with rules about who can be a Renegade (basically part of a superhero crime force) and the rest of society. The Renegades are trying to control everything but aren’t being super successful at keeping everyone happy.

As both sides struggle for power, an Anarchist has infiltrated the Renegades as a new recruit, that’s one of our main characters, Nova. She’s super smart, observant, resourceful, and very determined to gain the inside scoop to help the Anarchists come back into power. She’s accepted into a Renegade patrol unit where the other main character, Adrian, and his teammates are enforcing the rules and keeping Gatlon City safe. Of course, there are secrets between many of these characters, shifting points of view from Nova to Adrian, and a great variety of superheroes with the same variety of superpowers.

I so loved the aspect of friendship and chosen families, Adrian is adopted and his teammates are more than just his friends, they are family. Same for Nova, with her parents and sister dying when she was little, her fellow Anarchists became her family. In many ways Adrian and Nova are two sides of the same coin and throughout the series they learn that their lives have become intertwined in more ways than they can imagine.

If you’re looking for a different kind of superhero story, definitely check out this series! There are definitely some things that I think could be improved in the second installment but this third one is pretty great.

What’s your favorite superhero story? What superpower would you have if you could choose one?

Review: It Goes Like This by Miel Moreland

It Goes Like This by Miel Moreland

It Goes Like This by Miel Moreland is such a wonderful book. It features four queer characters: Eva, Celeste, Steph, and Gina. They started a band called Moonlight Overthrow in high school that became incredibly successful to the point of having world tours and Grammy wins as well as a large fandom. For various reasons the band breaks up and each of them go their own way. Eva goes off to college while still writing songs for other artists, Celeste is now a big pop star giving world tours, Gina is an actress working on movies for Netflix, and Steph is simply back in their hometown with their family. The four of them were best of friends but now they don’t talk and haven’t seen each other since their breakup. Not only that, Eva and Celeste’s relationship ran much deeper and now they are both heartbroken and trying to move on. When a storm ravages their hometown they all decide to come back together for one concert to raise money for the town and perhaps, in the process, repair their friendships.

In this book we go back and forth between the time when the band was together to the present time when they are organizing and rehearsing for their concert. We also get a look into the fandom via tumblr posts and chats between fans of Moonlight Overthrow. It was a very cool way of seeing the importance of the band to not just the band members but also the rest of the world.

For me my favorite character was Steph, they are non-binary, uses they/them pronouns and is pansexual. They had the hardest time while in the band because it was basically marketed as a “girl” band and Steph wasn’t out about being non-binary so that was very difficult for them to be themself while touring with the band. Seeing the whole situation from their perspective was interesting and I identified with them because of their sense of duty to their family. That feeling that we need to be there for our family first and foremost even if that means putting our own dreams aside sometimes. Additionally, this was the first book I’ve read with a non-binary main character and it really helped me practice using they/them pronouns more. I think for that reason alone I will remember this book for a long time and it will also push me to read more books with non-binary characters since it is important to me to be able to naturally change to/from they/them as I do from he to she and vice versa.

Another cool thing about this book that I loved was the love of music. Eva is a very talented songwriter, since the band’s breakup she has been writing songs for other artists and those songs have been at the top of the charts. The way she talks about music and truly loves creating melodies and writing songs is clearly felt through Moreland’s writing. That being said, I’m so so sad that I can’t listen to Moonlight Overthrow’s songs! I actually imagined a lot of their music like that of BTS + Taylor Swift + Demi Lovato. With catchy melodies, amazing lyrics, and out-of-this-world vocals, simply amazing! (OMG can you imagine that collaboration?!)

All in all, this book is about fandoms, chosen family, friendship, queer love, and the love and magic that music brings to people.

I recommend this book to anyone who is part of a fandom, anyone who loves their friends like family, and anyone interested in reading a book with LGBTQ+ representation.

What is your current favorite band/artist/song? Let me know in the comments!

Review: Disability Visibility Edited by Alice Wong

Disability Visibility Edited by Alice Wong

When I was in middle school in Mexico I went to a private all-girls school and one of my classmates was blind. She was one of the smartest people in the class and as far as I can remember, she participated in just about every activity we had with just some assistance from the teacher. I can’t quite remember how it happened but there was a news story about her and her achievements in school and she tried to make her case to the interviewer that what she really needed to further succeed was a computer for blind people. I remember that she was upset later because when the news came out there was no mention about the computer, just a lot of praise and amazement that she was blind and yet she was doing so well in school. Now I understand that the interviewer and the media only wanted that feel good story but didn’t care to further help her with what she truly needed. I also understand now that she was probably one of the more fortunate blind people in Mexico, able to get an education at a private school with teachers who seemed to be able to help her as best as they could. Otherwise, I would encounter blind people in the subway, singing, playing an accordion while someone led them through the crowded aisles. I now have more of a perspective on how it wasn’t a consequence of their lack of sight that led them to beg in the street but because of society’s lack of support.

In Disability Visibility I was able to learn about many other types of disabilities and the people who live with them. How they live, how they try and thrive in a world that doesn’t seem to care much about them. It’s a book about the realities and not about feel good stories, like the one told about my middle school friend. I loved the diversity of people that we hear from, we hear from men, women, non-binary people, queer, straight, trans people, and more! To try to summarize all of that here would be impossible but trust me that throughout this book you get to meet many amazing people and learn about what they’ve been through and what they hope to accomplish. Alice Wong put together a great array of stories and you can also see more of her work at the Disability Visibility Project website.

As I finished each story I went to see what the author was doing now or to learn more about them and their endeavors. I also stopped a lot to think about what I had just read, to process and let it sink in. These are not easy stories to read, in fact, quite a few of them have content warnings at the beginning of each story so it makes it easier to read carefully.

There were some stories in the book that really did blow my mind in the sense that if disabled people were given all the resources that they needed to thrive, they would be able to contribute so much to society! Specifically I think of the story by Wanda Díaz-Merced, which is actually a TED talk that was transcribed for the book. Wanda Díaz-Merced is an astrophysicist who lost her sight late in her career, but she managed to find a different way to study space and one that ended up giving more information to scientists than by just visual means. As non-disabled people we think that there are only so many ways to do things in our lives, but in fact, there are many ways to do things. If we can be more open minded, there really would be endless possibilities! These aren’t stories of people doing things despite their disability, these are stories of people using all of themselves to live their life as best as they can and fight for what they believe in.

I highly encourage non-disabled people to read this book. There are endless social aspects that affect people with disabilities, from public transportation, architecture, scientific research, legal rights, etc., but where they are not given a thought. I realized for example, my house is not accessible to people who use wheelchairs! My workplace does not have an elevator to the second floor! We can at least start noticing and asking for the people in charge to make things accessible to disabled people around us. And even more importantly, we can empathize with their stories and the obstacles that are put in their lives and help remove those obstacles as best as we can.

Book Review — The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith

Back in February of 2020 I had my last trip before [insert all.the.things]. I went to Portland and got to visit one of my favorite bookstores: Powell’s. At that time I had no idea it would be the last time in a while that I’d visit such an awesome bookstore so I didn’t buy too many books (if only I had known….). Still, I got one book purely because of the cover and a couple of key words on the back:

“head librarian” “Hell” “hero escapes” “author” were the words that jumped at me from the synopsis of the book.

I don’t normally buy books that I’m not looking for but this book just yelled to be picked up! Hell’s library, what’s in Hell’s library?! Is it evil books? Is it books by evil people? What?! I also don’t normally read synopses because I enjoy going into books not knowing much about the plot but this one claimed that this library housed unwritten works, now that’s intriguing! The main character would be the librarian in charge of these unwritten books and that a hero escapes so they have to get him back. With only a tiny bit of unease at stepping out of my comfort zone I bought the book. That was February 2020.

Jump to July 2020 and I figured it was about time to get back into reading since I was stuck at home with not much else to do… Boy it took me a while to get into the book. I don’t blame the book too much though! Middle of a you-know-what and my mental health wasn’t great so my attention span was lacking. I was reading about 20 pages here and there and then I left it for a couple of months until I finally finished it in January of 2021.

Although this book took a while to read I really truly enjoyed it! The story centers Claire, the head librarian of the Unwritten Library. This library is home to all the unfinished works by people on earth. You know, you write half a story and leave it there? Yeah, that story now lives in that library. All the main characters live in those shelves but sometimes they get out of their pages and become “real.” These characters are then put back into their unfinished books by the librarian. But, in one case, a hero escapes his book and manages to get out of the library altogether. Now Claire and Brevity (a retired muse) have to get him back into his book before he meets his author and havoc ensues.

But of course that’s not all! The other big big issue is that someone somewhere has discovered that the Devil’s Bible, written by Lucifer (you know, king of the underworld, head of all things evil, fallen archangel) is somewhere it shouldn’t be. Books are huge sources of power, demons are always going to the Unwritten library to read and borrow some of that power so it is imperative that this particular book doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. So, heaven is making sure they find the book to put it in the proper place and also demons are now after the book! Well, of course Claire and Beverly get mixed into this mystery of where the book is and …well… you’ll have to read the book to find out!

An aspect of this book I really enjoyed also was that we got to visit multiple other afterlife places: Heaven, Valhalla, a random pagan afterlife, etc. The way that one gets there isn’t easy for these characters since one is supposed to be a human soul (I kept forgetting that they were not entirely human throughout the whole book, also a side effect of stopping after a few pages and picking it up again weeks later I bet). There are many challenges and puzzles that they must solve at each turn so that was really interesting.

I highly recommend this first installment of Hell’s Library because not only is it for all book lovers and aspiring writers, it also includes LGBTQ characters. Multiple characters are sexually diverse and the issues that they face through the book (and in their backstories) are treated really well. I did not know this when I read the book but A. J. Hackwith is a queer fantasy and science fiction writer so it makes so much sense now that she was able to write about the identities of the characters so well.

I would like to continue reading this series and perhaps re-read this book now that my mind is more at ease. What do you think? Have you read this book? Do you have an unwritten book that you’ve yet to finish?

An unwritten book is nothing but pure potential, a soul’s potential is power [in Hell]. Power naturally, is all the creatures of Hell care about. They’d descend on the shelves like a swarm of locusts if we let them

The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith