Review: BENNY RAMIREZ AND THE NEARLY DEPARTED by Jose Pablo Iriarte

Mar 062024
 

School Library Journal: Benny is not talented—not like his sister, the dancer; or his brother, the actor;  or his recently deceased abuelo, the famous musician Ignacio Ramirez. He is forced to reckon with this when he and his family move into his grandpa’s Miami mansion and Benny attends arts school. He discovers Abuelo is actually a ghost who has some unfinished business! Ignacio decides to help Benny become a star, so that the performer can go to the eternal party that is the afterlife. This debut title explores the complexities of family dynamics in a way that shows a love for the characters, including those who are not always the most sympathetic. Arguably the least relatable character, Ignacio, is the funniest to read about, with his wildly colorful outfits and his lack of self-awareness. As such, he may remind readers of their own weird relatives who are beloved. Though some of the humor falls flat, each emotional scene will riff on readers’ souls. Children who are ­going through the pain of barely-there parents or family will ­relate to Benny and ­Ignacio’s ­relationship. This pleasant title is best for young fantasy readers who like the paranormal, but do not want the scares. ­VERDICT Benny’s story is a ­charming, not-scary ghost story with ­moments of joy, ­sadness, and wishing-you-were-there in ­Miami eating a delicious ­Cubano sandwich.

Review: EXORDIA by Seth Dickinson

Mar 042024
 

Reactor: Where Dickinson succeeds—where he turns Exordia into a truly exhilarating, dizzying work—is that he can take these human stories, human choices on the personal and on the international scale, and set them against a deeply alien intelligence.   

Exordia is a book that grabs your attention and doesn’t let it go: Dickinson creates a world that feels twice as vivid as normal and does it without ever slowing down the frenetic pace of the plot. It can be a lot to handle—Exordia certainly isn’t light bedside reading—but it’s an incredible work and an enthralling way to kick off your 2024 reading.

Review: FAKE FLAME by Adele Buck

Feb 282024
 

Publishers Weekly: Buck (Fast Acting) brings the heat in this scorching rom-com. After professor Eva Campbell’s ex, Darren, stages a ridiculous romantic gesture at her place of work to try to get her back, Eva snaps and tries to fend him off with an improvised flamethrower created from the combination of a cigarette lighter and a can of bug spray—and the fire department is called. Hunky firefighter Sean Hannigan, 36, is immediately attracted to Eva, 41, and when Darren tries to intimidate Eva in her office, Sean commits to being her fake boyfriend to keep him at bay. What starts as just pretend quickly becomes all too real and Buck makes it easy to see how perfect these two are for each other. Swoony Sean is an avid reader who isn’t ashamed to love a romance novel, which endears Eva—a professor of literature and pop culture—to him immediately. When Eva witnesses him interacting with his numerous nieces and nephews, she realizes he’d be a great dad, but worries it’s too late for her to give him that. The result is a refreshingly grounded conflict that Buck handles with a great deal of sensitivity. The steamy sex scenes are just a bonus. Readers will have no trouble rooting for the chivalrous firefighter and the plucky professor to get their happily ever after. (Apr.)

Review: The Misdirection of Fault Lines by Anna Gracia

Feb 262024
 

The Bulletin: At the prestigious Bastille Invitational, three Asian American would-be teen tennis stars vie for the title under enormous pressure to win: newbie Alice Wu, who’s anxious to show she’s worth her family’s sacrifices; Lê “Leylah” Ha, determined to prove the viability of a tennis career to her high-achieving immigrant parents; and Violetta Masuda, rising social media star, desperate to please her former champion mother. Assigned to share a room, these should-be rivals soon turn could-be friends. Past betrayals, however, cause Leylah to clash with former bestie Violetta, and as challenges mount on and off the court, each teen wrangles with personal demons, from disordered eating and a growing drug habit to self-destructive anger and overwhelming grief and guilt. The world of competitive tennis provides a wealthy, white backdrop to explore the impact of race on the pursuit of pro-career dreams, but like many a sports story, athletics are the least important part here, a supporting player to the young women’s personal crises and interpersonal drama. As the narrative volleys between the trio’s perspectives, individual stories sometimes lose traction, but as tournament action picks up, so does the pace, providing a strong finish. The girls are all eminently likable, learning that it’s okay for girls to be loud, take up space, and direct their own lives and readers will root for them to get the love, help, and wins they deserve. Give this to sports-hungry readers, but also to fans of the 2000 film Center Stage, who like their heroines vulnerable, strong-willed, and ambitious.

Review: THREE KINDS OF LUCKY by Kim Harrison

Feb 232024
 

Booklist: In Harrison’s (Demons of Good and Evil, 2023) new urban-fantasy series, Petra Grady is just a sweeper, specializing in collecting the magical waste, or dross, left behind when mages cast light spells. Like many sweepers, she has no talent for magic and is looked down upon by most of the mages as a result. As one of the best sweepers on the mages’ university campus, she’s assigned to help former classmate Benedict Strom’s research project. When the research goes terribly wrong, Benedict and Petra have to find Herm Ivaros, an exile accused of using dross to cast spells during a campus incident that resulted in the death of Petra’s father. Herm reveals that the mages’ legends are filled with lies, deliberately crafted to discourage sweepers from becoming weavers and casting spells with shadows, and that Petra, like her father, is a weaver, and a group of magical-conspiracy theorists intends to stop her. Like Harrison’s Hollows series, this first book in the Shadow Age series is action packed and will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next.

Review: THE MISDIRECTION OF FAULT LINES by Anna Gracia

Feb 222024
 

Publishers Weekly: Three elite tennis players randomly assigned as roommates compete at Bastille, a tournament where they go head-to-head both on and off the court, in this multilayered novel by Gracia (Boys I Know). When 16-year-old Japanese American Violetta Masuda arrives at Bastille’s tennis academy, she’s expecting to have a roommate with whom she’ll share her dorm for the duration of the tournament. What she’s not expecting, however, is that along with Taiwanese American high school sophomore Alice Wu comes 17-year-old Cambodian and Vietnamese American Leylah Lê, Violetta’s former best friend. The stakes are high, as is the pressure to come out on top, and as the teen athletes wrestle with their performance and their families’ expectations, they each struggle with their own challenges—Leylah uses an insulin pump to manage her diabetes and Violetta vapes to mitigate stress—and their desires to live a “normal” life. Via the trio’s alternating first-person POVs, Gracia—a former D1 collegiate player—imbues the narrative with insider knowledge and traces the competition as the girls move through their draws and navigate romance, racism, and friendship. The supporting cast is racially diverse. Ages 14–up.

Review: EXORDIA by Seth Dickinson

Feb 212024
 

Library Journal: Recently dumped by her boyfriend and fired, Anna, a Kurdish refugee, already has enough to deal with before her close encounter with the wounded alien on her kitchen floor. Being that he’s an officer in the Joint Special Operations Command, Erik’s life mission is to bring order to chaos, and he’s sorely tested as he investigates what appears to be an alien starship. Clayton schemes in the background, willing to do anything to protect humanity. Hostile first contact brings these characters together, and then it’s a race against the clock to prevent nuclear Armageddon. Violent, vivid, vicious—this is an innovative military, sci-fi thriller that is equal parts action and introspection. It’s conceptually profound and touches upon many ethical and metaphysical subjects, including a peek into Zoroastrianism and a unique interpretation of souls. This doesn’t necessarily make for easy reading, but there’s no denying the intelligence in the writing.VERDICT This stand-alone story from Dickinson (The Tyrant Baru Cormorant) thrives on the unexpected, and while the characters aren’t necessarily likable, the way they wrestle with doing the right thing versus doing the hard thing is authentic and thought-provoking.

Review: THE LAST BOYFRIENDS RULES FOR REVENGE by Matthew Hubbard

Feb 192024
 

Kirkus: When three queer best friends in Alabama are inspired by The First Wives Club to exact revenge on their terrible exes, a homophobic school initiative takes their mission in an unexpected direction.

Ezra Hayes, who’s coded white, is accustomed to hiding in plain sight, but he feels that he’s fallen by the wayside once his two best friends, Lucas Rivera, who’s cued Mexican American, and Finley Lewis, who’s Black, get into relationships. Ezra thought his summer romance with Presley, the school’s star football player, would finally give him the chance to feel like the main character. But when Ezra discovers that Presley is cheating on him, Lucas and Finley also open up about the poor treatment they’ve received from their partners. Each teen has his own plan for revenge, and they set up an anonymous TikTok account called “Last Boyfriends.” Ezra decides to run against Presley for Winter Formal Lion King; he also burns Presley’s varsity jacket and posts the video to TikTok, tagging it #breakupchallenge. When their account goes viral, and Ezra’s Lion King campaign comes under fire (from the same leadership that dissolved the gay-straight alliance and is censoring library books), the trio’s priorities change, and they begin fighting for queer students everywhere. The friendships are fun and believable, Ezra’s single father is heartwarmingly supportive, and exciting twists keep the plot moving.

A pride-filled story complete with sass, love, and a timely message. (Fiction. 14-18)

Review: THREE KINDS OF LUCKY by Kim Harrison

Feb 162024
 

Library Journal: Magic users may be able to manipulate light energy, but dross—the waste left behind—is something few consider or deal with. This is where sweepers, people who can handle dross without its bad luck effects or development into the more dangerous shadow, come in, and Petra Grady is one of the best sweepers in St. Unoc. Working at the university has its perks, but when Doctor Benedict Sexy—er, Strom—wants Petra to help with a research project to render dross harmless, she knows it is the wrong decision. A horrible accident forces Petra and Benedict to go on the run, and Petra may find that her talent goes much farther than as a cleaner. Plus everything she knows about dross and shadow may be wrong. The story pace speeds along, and the twists of discovering who are friends or foes will keep readers guessing. Note that the novel includes the death of a pet.VERDICT Harrison’s (Demons of Good and Evil) new series has the same delightfully wry heroine her fans expect to see, along with an intriguing new magic system.

Starred Review: THOSE BEYOND THE WALL by Micaiah Johnson

Feb 142024
 

Library Journal: Scales is a mechanic and enforcer in Ashtown, working under the powerful, deadly Emperor to help keep balance in their desert town. When a close friend dies horrifically in front of Scales, she is tasked with finding out the truth about their violent death—especially when there was no murderer in sight. When it is discovered that more deaths have occurred, both in Ash and in the walled and wealthy Wiley City, Scales must work with two frustrating men—her Emperor-compliant partner Cross and annoyingly brilliant scientist Adam—to discover what is killing people. As the truth is uncovered, so is the buried past that Scales has tried to overcome, one of blood and secrets. Yet more secrets and more blood will be spilled, and the answers could destroy their world. This book packs an emotional punch, as brutality lies next to the thin edge of caring, wrapped up in friendship and rage, and love will not stop hearts from shattering.

VERDICT Set 10 years after The Space Between Worlds, this novel provides a new protagonist, returning characters, and a multiverse of paths for all of them. Johnson’s tense sci-fi thriller is exciting and immersive.

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