I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, mostly because of that gorgeous cover and the flying. Who doesn’t wish they could fly?!
Willa was just a baby on G-Day when most of Earth’s gravity disappeared, her mother floated away and her father confined himself to their apartment. Twenty years later Willa wants to see the world but is stuck working and paying the bills while her father hides inside.
Not only did Willa’s father somehow predict G-Day, he also claims to know how to fix it but evil Mr Barrow will do whatever it takes to stop him. After all, Mr Barrow has profited from G-Day and is currently living the high life (low life?) on street level courtesy of the gravity boots he invented.
I loved the illustrations and colours used in this volume and especially enjoyed finding out what a rainstorm looks like in this low gravity world.
I have a lot of questions about how this new world works and hope to find out more when Willa reads her dad’s journal, maybe in the next volume because – cliffhanger! Grr!
There’s violence in this series, with floating blood droplets (and also some gag inducing floating beads of sweat), so it felt like it was more suitable for a young adult audience. I wish there was more depth to the characters, particularly the boring and clichéd baddie, but I’m interested to see what happens next.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
One day, gravity on Earth suddenly became a fraction of what it is now. Twenty years later, humanity has adapted to its new low-gravity reality. And to Willa Fowler, a woman born just after G-day, it’s … well, it’s pretty awesome, actually. You can fly through the air! I mean, sure, you can also die if you jump too high. So you just don’t jump too high. And maybe don’t get mixed up in your Dad’s secret plan to bring gravity back that could get you killed …
It’s Charlie Brown and the gang so naturally I devoured this book as soon as it downloaded on my iPad. I’ve now finished my reread and all I can think is that I need to save up for the inevitable. One of these days I’m going to own the entire collection of Peanuts so I will always have smiles at my fingertips.
I was surprised by the amount of comics in this collection that I’d never read before. There will be kids who are discovering Peanuts who’ll no doubt ask their parents what some of the now dated references mean but they are few and far between. I loved that this collection was in colour so even the comics I already knew and loved felt fresh.
Snoopy continues his battle of wits with the creative bully cat next door
and we wait with Linus and Marci for the Great Grape. (Sorry, Linus, I was just messing with you. Unlike Marci I know it’s the Great Pumpkin!)
Peppermint Patty asks for Marci’s help to stay awake in class and Sally talks to the school building and seeks protection against the powers of darkness, i.e., the third grader whose ruler she broke. Charlie Brown checks his calendar to see if there’s anything coming up that he needs to dread, Schroeder plays piano and is annoyed by Lucy, Lucy dispenses 5 cents worth of wisdom, Snoopy’s brother Spike visits, Woodstock saves the day, and Pig-Pen even makes an appearance. My favourite comics included delightfully dour Eudora, who Sally first meets at camp.
Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to giggle my way through this collection of comics. I’m already looking forward to the next collection.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Is your baseball team getting beat sixty-eight to nothing? Are you caught in the rain without an umbrella? Have you finally worked up the courage to call your crush only to get the wrong number? Don’t worry! The Peanuts gang has the cure for your worries.
Join Linus as he awaits the Great Pumpkin, Peppermint Patty as she faces off against an entire hockey team, and Snoopy as he attempts to eat the largest sandwich he’s ever seen. Sally befriends the new girl at school, Eudora, only to find a rival for the affection of her Sweet Babboo. And Charlie Brown searches for a home for Snoopy’s mysterious brother, Spike.
So put on your top hat, fancy tie and dancing shoes, and join Snoopy and the rest of the gang in this boogielicious new collection of classic Peanuts comics.
This book took me back to the Point Horror books of my childhood (if their characters swore). Addison is a 17 year old who is obsessed with a series of books and writes fan fiction on her popular blog. Reader dream #264 comes true for her when the mysterious author of the Gap Lake books contacts her and asks for her help in generating buzz for the upcoming series finale.
Addison and her best friend Maya stumble upon the body of the most popular girl in school, the details of which eerily mimic those of the snippets of the new book the author has asked Addie to post on her blog. Addie begins to wonder whether the person contacting her really is the author or if she’s talking to the killer.
While there was nothing specifically wrong with Addie’s character it was Maya that made the book for me. I loved her snarky quips and the banter between her and Addie. Spencer, ex boyfriend of the dead girl and Addie’s crush, and Colton, who is not so secretly in love with Maya, both felt mostly two dimensional. I wasn’t a fan of Addie’s dad or Maya’s parents, although I’m fairly sure Mr Garcia could twist my arm and force me to eat some of his cooking.
I loved the snippets of the Gap Lake book that the author sends Addie as they had a creepy teenage horror vibe. I’ve read so many books like this and am a lot older than the target audience so I found the plot really predictable and I knew who was responsible for the murder early on. Had I read this as a kid I expect the whodunnit aspect probably would have floored me. The explanations espoused during the baddie monologue are quite groan worthy.
I was fortunate enough to have an ARC but life happened so I read it after its release. This became a fun game for me once I realised that the library book in one hand and the Kindle in the other didn’t always match. I preferred the ARC, mostly because there are two missing chapters in the final version. Not a lot happened in the first one but without it the continuity was off and I did flip back through the pages of the book to try to work out what I’d missed before I realised the ARC version made the story flow more smoothly.
My favourite difference between the ARC and the final version is totally irrelevant to the story itself but talked about food which always holds my attention. In the ARC Mr Garcia gives Addie “lessons on making something like gumbo or étouffée”. In the final version it’s his “signature enchiladas”.
I had a few irks and question marks while reading and think I may have tripped over some plot holes but there was nothing that made me want to stop reading.
Early on we’re told multiple times that Maya’s mother is the chief of police and her father is a homicide detective. I got it the first time. The descriptions of Addison’s saliva were also repetitive and included “Addison’s saliva tasted sour”, “Her saliva soured”, “her saliva going sour”, “saliva that tasted like hot metal”, and “her saliva tasting bitter”.
Addison’s phone pinged twice and another character mentions how insistent the person sending the message is. When Addison checks her phone there’s one message, not two.
When her blog was hijacked I screamed at Addie to take some screen shots so she had some evidence but alas, she didn’t hear me.
Maya is hit by a car and taken to hospital by ambulance. Addie is driven home at the same time. Addie walks in the door, slumps to the floor and calls Maya. Maya’s mother tells Addie that she’s taking her daughter home now. She was hit by a car! Either Barry Allen works at the hospital or she’s a meta so heals rapidly (yes, I’m currently bingeing The Flash! Why do you ask?!) or something is wrong with this picture. After knowing that Maya has been taken home Addie has a thought bubble: “You’re the reason Maya is lying in a hospital bed somewhere.” Then Maya’s parents are at work together maybe an hour later while their daughter who’s been hit by a car is either home alone or in the hospital. Perhaps this is a job for Schrödinger?
There were a few others but you get the point. It’s the sort of thing you expect to be picked up during the editing process and because I wandered through several ‘huh?’ moments I started questioning whether I was stupid, having missed a whole pile of information, or whether I was super smart for finding them when those before me didn’t. I’m still unsure.
Overall this was a fun, easy read and I’ll be checking to see if my library has any more books by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Everyone is dying to read the latest book in the popular Gap Lake mystery series, and Addison is no exception. As the novels biggest fan, Addison is flattered when the infamously reclusive author, R.J. Rosen, contacts her, granting her inside information others would kill for.
But when the most popular girl in Addison’s high school is murdered, Addison can’t help but think that life may be imitating fiction. And as other terrifying events from the book start happening around her, Addison has to figure out how to write her own ending – and survive the story.
I was looking forward to a fun B grade horror experience with this book and that’s mostly what I got. It’s almost Halloween and ‘Carnival of Fear’ is in town for one night only. Advertisements promise
“Terror! Blood! Mayhem! Monsters, Ghouls, and Murderers! Experience the agony of the damned!”
and
“The World’s Most Terrifying Haunted Mansion! Enter At Your Own Risk!”
They’re not lying!
Several groups of high school students are amongst those who are inside the Castle of Horrors at midnight when hell begins to literally break loose on the town of Whitebridge.
“It’s not like a regular haunted house. There’s only one exit, and you can’t get out until you go through all the rooms. You can do them in any order you want, except for the last one. That’s where the exit is.”
The characters are so clichéd that they’re essentially caricatures. You’ve got the jocks, the cheerleader, the nerds and the goody two shoes. I eagerly anticipated a lot of the characters’ death scenes from our first meeting, particularly those who spouted derogatory homophobic, racist, ableist, misogynist word vomit. I was also keen for the date rapist to be dispatched with the ample blood spatter he deserved.
I had planned on keeping track of all the deaths in the book in order to provide a body count in my review. There were so many that I decided to make up rules about which deaths could be included. They had to happen on page, so no dead bodies that were stumbled upon once they’d already started cooling, and I had to know their name for them to count. Before I made it a third of the way through the book I had already reached double digits so I decided to abandon my tally and just sit back and enjoy the bloodbath instead.
I grinned as B grade horror glory unfolded in front of me. There were some really entertaining over the top deaths. I witnessed a Jason Voorhees/Leatherface mashup, scenes from Alien and every alien invasion movie ever made, witch trials, Frankenstein at work, werewolves and zombies. I was really enjoying being ringside but then, just before 70%, I almost stopped reading. I’m all for slasher bloodshed. I’ll happily cheer on decapitations, limbs getting twisted off bodies, disembowelments and impalements, especially when they happen to a character I love to hate. It’s all part of the fun of B grade horror.
However, the story stopped being fun the moment the vampires started raping at whim. Both male and female characters experienced this, with some rapes happening in full view of the rest of the characters. I hesitated in the beginning when one of the main characters was described as a date rapist but tried to ignore this and simply looked forward to their demise. The story lost me at the first gratuitous sexual assault and while I continued reading until the end, I never got the fun back.
This may not impact on the enjoyment of the story for other readers but personally I felt the topic wasn’t dealt with sensitively at all and didn’t belong in the book in the first place. Its inclusion transformed Carnival of Fear from a fun Halloween read into something I would no longer recommend, which is a shame because the rest of the book was entertaining. Without those scenes I would definitely recommend it to people who enjoy B grade horror.
I may have missed something but it seemed like the castle rules changed after midnight. Early on we find out that in order to enter the final room you have to have already completed every other room. There isn’t a single character who enters every room after midnight, yet once at least someone has survived each room those who are left are all allowed to enter the final room.
This book would benefit from a proofreader and some further editing. Some of the writing was fairly crude and there are quite a few typos that hadn’t been corrected in the 2015 version I read. For example, ‘lightning’ is spelt correctly twice. I found it spelt ‘lighting’ once and ‘lightening’ four times. Some repetition also stood out, including “like a shark eats a seal” in chapter 8 and “Like sharks attacking a seal” in chapter 18.
Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
The Halloween carnival seemed like the perfect way to spend a Friday night, but when a group of teenagers find themselves trapped in the haunted mansion, they learn the awful truth about the carnival, and the demons that run it. Now they’re trapped, fighting their way through a maze of torturous attractions where vampires, werewolves, aliens, and other monsters come to life, eager for human blood. As the body count rises, friendships are made and lost, and unlikely heroes emerge. The final showdown takes place in Hell, where the ultimate battle between good and evil will determine their fate. The Carnival of Fear – the price of admission is your soul!
I first met Patience and Fortitude over thirty years ago when Venkman and Stanz passed them on their way to meet Egon and spend some quality time with the library ghost. I learned their names this week. I’ve wanted to live in the New York Public Library since my first Ghostbusters experience. Now that I’ve read this book I know that if I ever get to visit this wonderful place I will be imagining Patience and Fortitude’s adventures as well as keeping an eye out for my favourite spectral librarian.
One morning Fortitude wakes before dawn and discovers that Patience isn’t sitting on his plinth.
Concerned, Fortitude enters the library and searches for his friend. He asks for help from those he meets inside including the statue called Frolicsome Girl. Fortitude knows he needs to find Patience before dawn so they can return to their posts and greet the library’s visitors.
This is one of the best kid’s books I’ve read this year. The rhymes are lovely, the story is about friendship, the setting is a library, the illustrations are beautiful and the answer to the mystery of Patience’s location is bookish! I’ve read this book twice so far and I’ve smiled my way through it both times. My eyes may have gotten a little misty towards the end of my reread; it’s just such a beautiful story!
What I found especially interesting was the Get to Know the New York Public Library! page at the end of the book. I was able to learn about the different rooms Fortitude visited in his search for Patience, as well as the statues and paintings he spoke to. The dot points made the story really come alive for me and solidified this library’s place on my bucket list. My favourite fact was about Patience and Fortitude, which reads in part:
They have perched there since 1911 and were given their names in the 1930s by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in recognition of the qualities he felt New Yorkers would need to survive the Great Depression.
I have to buy this book and find a kid to read it to!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Steadfast Fortitude and curious Patience are waiting every morning to greet visitors of the Library.
That is until, one early morning, when Fortitude finds Patience is missing. The city is about to awake, and the lions absolutely must be in their places before the sun rises. Now, Fortitude must abandon his own post to find his best friend in the Library’s labyrinthine halls.
It’s Banned Books Week and the theme for 2018 is Banning Books Silences Stories. If someone tells me not to do something I want to do it even more so I was really excited when I came across Humble Bundle’s Forbidden Books bundle. This is the first book I’ve read from the bundle.
Of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2017 (as reported by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom) the ninth most challenged book is this sweet love story between two penguins in Central Park Zoo, just because the penguins that love each other are boys.
At the end of the book I discovered that Roy and Silo’s story is taken from real life which increased the adorability factor to maximum for me. Roy and Silo became a couple in 1998. In 2000 keeper Rob Gramzay’s wonderful idea became a dream come true for our two penguins when they welcomed Tango to their family. If you’re like me and will be concerned about why Tango’s egg was available, you don’t need to worry as it’s not a sad story. This book shows that it’s love, not biology, that makes a family.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
In the zoo there are all kinds of animal families. But Tango’s family is not like any of the others. This illustrated children’s book fictionalises the true story of two male penguins who became partners and raised a penguin chick in the Central Park Zoo.
Annabelle and her father usually travel where her mother’s work takes her but this time her mother’s assignment is TDY (Temporary Duty Yonder) and Annabelle and her father have to stay behind. While she’s serving in Afghanistan for six months Annabelle and her father will be living civilian life. For Annabelle that means the seventh grade, in an actual school with other kids.
All of a sudden the shy girl who used to enjoy being homeschooled while wearing her pyjamas is having fashion emergencies and hiding out in the janitor’s closet. To help Annabelle adjust to civilian life and get a support system in place before her mother’s deployment her parents arrange therapy for her.
This was an easy but predictable read. I loved that the main character’s mother is in the Air Force. I haven’t come across a book for this age group that talks about what it’s like to be a military kid before so I loved that this book explored different characters’ feelings and behaviours relating to this experience. There’s a build up to when Annabelle’s mother needs to leave but the leaving itself doesn’t happen in this book so you don’t get to find out how Annabelle copes when it actually happens.
While I liked the concept of Annabelle talking about trying new things on her vlog I had to suspend my disbelief to get through the sections where the other kids at school are discussing Daphne in front of her, not realising that Annabelle is Daphne. What’s happening in Daphne’s world coincides perfectly with what’s happening at their school and the vlog begins soon after the new kid arrives; the new kid who just so happens to look exactly like Daphne if she was wearing a wig, costume and glasses. Annabelle’s ability to hide in plain sight rivals that of a superhero.
I would have liked to have gotten to know Annabelle’s mother better but enjoyed drooling over her father’s amazing homemade dinners, especially the pizza. I liked Annabelle’s friend John but I never really got much of a sense of Clairna or Nav’s personalities.
I wasn’t quite sure how Rachael was supposed to be maintaining her status as fashion queen if money was tight in her family. I also never figured out what made her so popular that her legions of fans needed to wait outside the bathroom to take selfies with her other than the fact that she’s pretty, but then again I actively avoided the popular kids at school so I doubt I’ll ever understand popularity.
I didn’t find Daphne’s vlogs particularly funny but I may be too old and decrepit to understand their humour. I’m always hesitant when I come across kids using slang and referencing specific songs in books because it dates them so quickly so I have that concern for this book. Personally I think the whole ‘squad’ thing has already been overdone.
With the hype surrounding the Daphne’s first two vlogs it didn’t make sense to me that there’d be almost no interest in the third. I would’ve thought that a significant amount of the people who watched the first two would have also watched the third. How would they know it wasn’t as good if only 9 people saw it?!
While I understood that Annabelle has spent years being homeschooled she talks about watching Netflix and references watching rom-coms so I was surprised that she was as clueless about school life as she was. She didn’t know what a locker was or what ‘putting your face on’ means. I did appreciate some of the other humour relating to Annabelle’s lack of experience in the American school system though.
I was more than a little shocked that it was possible to get an emergency Sunday afternoon appointment with a therapist and that when Annabelle’s mother rang the therapist out of the blue they got straight through. I also cringed when the therapist continually shared details of their appointments with Annabelle’s parents.
In my experience therapists will outline any exclusions to the confidentiality of their appointments up front and while it was true when the therapist said that nothing shared in the appointment would leave the room, Annabelle’s parents were brought into the room to catch them up. While it didn’t seem to be a big deal for Annabelle I know that if I’d attended therapy as a kid and the therapist had then told my parents everything I told them, any trust I had developed with the therapist would have been broken. I hope that kids who read this book aren’t put off by this.
Hopefully the age group this book is marketed towards won’t have already heard variations of this story so many times they could tell you how it’s going to play out step by step but most of the story felt clichéd to me. You’ve basically got a new kid who’s trying to fit in. They become friends with the nice kids who they ditch when the queen bee pays them the slightest bit of attention. Eventually they realise they made a mistake, realising that their nice friends are actually true friends.
Then you’ve got the super obvious secret identity cliché that only one special person and the queen bee figure out before the big reveal. If the main character finally tells everyone the mystery person is actually them and that they’ve been lying to everyone for so long they risk losing every friendship. Oh, and the big reveal can only ever happen at the school dance in front of the entire school.
Despite the clichés this was a sweet book and I did enjoy it. I think military kids in particular will find themselves in Annabelle but those whose parents move frequently for work will also relate to constantly being the new kid. I thought Annabelle’s struggles were handled sensitively and appreciated that her strengths were also highlighted.
Completely irrelevant but welcome to my brain: Because I’m weird I tend to accidentally notice patterns in books. If I was going to go all Sesame Street on you this is where I’d tell you that today’s review has been brought to you by the number 2. In the space of three sentences I found ‘Second Chance’, ‘two carts’, ‘Two Tony’s’ and ‘two hours later’. Further down that page there were ‘two screens’. I’m sure this was unintentional but once my brain sees something like this I then look for it for the rest of the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Capstone for the opportunity to read this book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
In front of her followers, Daphne is a hilarious, on-the-rise vlog star. But at school Daphne is the ever-skeptical Annabelle Louis, seventh-grade super geek and perennial new kid. To cope with her mom’s upcoming military assignment in Afghanistan and her start at a brand new middle school, Annabelle’s parents send her to a therapist.
Dr. Varma insists Annabelle try stepping out of her comfort zone, hoping it will give her the confidence to make friends, which she’ll definitely need once Mom is gone. Luckily there is one part of the assignment Annabelle DOES enjoy – her vlog, Daphne Doesn’t, in which she appears undercover and gives hilarious takes on activities she thinks are a waste of time. She is great at entertaining her online fans, yet her classmates don’t know she exists. Can Annabelle keep up the double life forever?
“Cherry, I hate falling into this role all the time, but you know I used to be kinda like you. Always running off to have my own adventures and things like that.”
“So?”
“So now I’m a head on a spike!”
“So?”
Cherry just wants to have fun but the damned are so squishy! She knows she’s not supposed to make friends with dead people but as the granddaughter of Satan she doesn’t have a lot of viable playmates.
Cherry sets out to prove to her mother that she’s responsible enough to be allowed to have a pet human but Sin isn’t sure her daughter is ready for all of the hard work required to take care of a dead thing.
“Things can get weird if you grow too close, sweetie. A kind of weird even your grandfather wouldn’t enjoy. Dangerously weird.”
Cherry decides that she wants the coolest rock star, Briggy Bundy, as her new friend/pet (think early Ozzy Osbourne) but he’s not quite as excited as she thought he’d be about sliding down the doom slope or the blood-splodies or even the ghoulnado!
The only thing cuter in this graphic novel than Cherry, the little blonde reaper, are the adorable bone demons.
There’s so much to look at, including a game show host that is suspiciously Trump-esque. I loved the humour and adored the vibrant colours used in the illustrations. This collection includes the first three parts of the series and ends, predictably, with a cliffhanger.
Thank you to NetGalley, Starburns Industries Press and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this graphic novel. I’m looking forward to finding out how the story ends.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Cherry, the Devil’s prankster granddaughter and the cutest grim reaper in Hell, is honestly just trying to have fun and make new friends. She loves everything about Hell – its burning landscapes, its horrific inhabitants, and especially her demonic mother and grandfather – but she’s lonely. There’s nobody to play with, and anyone who tries ends up being defenestrated or digested or otherwise destroyed.
There’s only one mortal who Cherry thinks might be a good playmate: rock star and goth icon Briggy Bundy. The bad news is, he isn’t dead … Yet.
This collection of poems is divided into sections: bleed, love, scar, learn, heal. I was interested because a few of the themes interested me, especially when I learned the author has experienced chronic pain. I wanted to see how a poet would describe the experience of chronic pain but I never found out as, unless I missed something along the way, it was only mentioned in my letter to you.
I began to think this book wasn’t for me before I even read the first poem. During my letter to you I found
if i hadn’t hit my proverbial rock bottom, i would not have been able to plant my roots and grow upward.
Besides the lack of capitalisation, which is a huge turn off for me regardless of how incredible the writing is, I have a problem with the whole ‘rock bottom’ thing. I know it’s already reached maximum cliché level at this point but that’s not my concern. It’s the concept itself. Do we really need to fall as low as we possibly can in order to grow? Can’t we attempt to catch ourselves as we’re falling instead? Once I had my internal rant about that I moved on, hoping to be wowed by the poetry.
I wasn’t and I’m really disappointed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Poetry is such a personal experience; what you hate I may love and vice versa. Whenever I begin any book I fully intend to adore it and word vomit to everyone who will listen to me about why they should read it and hopefully love it too. I hate it when that doesn’t happen.
I want to acknowledge that this author has explored some really painful experiences in writing these poems. It takes courage and resilience to excavate these and then share them with the world. Just because I didn’t find a connection with these poems doesn’t mean you won’t.
I did connect a little to some of the first group of poems but as soon as the love story and ultimate heartbreak began it was all over for me. If you’re in the midst of your own devastating breakup you may find these poems resonate with you but my icy heart wasn’t warmed and I certainly wasn’t keen to go looking for love after reading so much about the devastation of its demise. I think if I was going through a breakup a lot of these poems would actually make me feel worse about my situation.
Some of the shorter poems read to me like sentences, not poetry. A significant amount felt like matter of fact statements. I don’t want to be able to read one poem after another without having to pause and take in the beauty of the specific combination of words I’ve just experienced. I want something revolutionary. I want to experience at least one ‘wow, I’ve never thought of it that way!’ moment.
Granted I probably want too much from poetry but ultimately it boils down to wanting poetry to make me feel. I want to feel the poet’s joy, heartache, rage, passion, hope. I want to take the experience (if not the specific words) of the poetry with me when I close the book. I read this book straight through and I hate to say it but the only thing I’m taking away from it is gratitude that I’m happily single.
Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read this book. I need to research whether a book of poetry is really for me rather than getting excited and jumping straight in without doing my homework.
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
The poetry living within these pages tells stories of love, heartbreak, freedom, oppression, sexual assault, sexism, hope, and humanity. Our darkest times are where we grow the most, so in this book, I share mine, and together we learn how to heal.
Soft Thorns is a poetry collection that takes the reader on a journey through a young woman’s life – from reckoning with her looks and sexuality to dealing with the trauma of sexual assault, and finally through the highs and lows of young love found and lost. Bridgett Devoue shares her raw, human story and the lessons learned from living a life fully.
I was bowled over by Brenna Thummler’s illustrations in Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel so when I heard she had written her own graphic novel I was all in. I simply adore Brenna’s ability to capture an image and present it in a way that I want her to draw the entire world for me. Seriously, I can’t get enough. Her use of colour is absolutely gorgeous and she’s able to evoke the emotion of a scene through colour as well as the images. I enjoy finding Easter eggs so I loved that Anne of Green Gables is in view a couple of times in Marjorie’s school library.
As soon as Sheets downloaded on my iPad I devoured it. That was months ago and I never got around to telling anyone how amazing it was… until now. This graphic novel is amazing!!! I’ve just read it for a second time and I’m still in love with the artwork. I felt there was something missing in the story that I couldn’t put my finger on during my first read but I didn’t feel that way during my reread.
Marjorie’s mother died last spring and since then her father has been essentially MIA, holed up in his bedroom most of the time. Marjorie (at 13!) has been left to singlehandedly run the family laundromat business, do the household chores, look after her father and younger brother, and attend school. Any combination of these would be a monumental ask and that’s before you take into consideration that she’s grieving her mother and feels completely alone. The family business is in danger of closing, with some help from Mr Saubertuck, who is the dastardly villain of the story.
Wendell is also lonely. He died a year ago and doesn’t fit in with the other ghosts. Wendell discovers the laundromat and accidentally makes life more difficult for Marjorie, but perhaps there’s a way for these two lonely kids to help each other.
During my first read I had trouble getting past the fact that 13 year old Marjorie is effectively running the family business by herself because her father’s grief has made him withdraw from his life. I couldn’t believe that the customers could be so mean to a kid who shouldn’t have been doing all of that work in the first place and that no one who was alive stepped up to help her or her family.
During my second read I focused more on the friendship between Marjorie and Wendell. It’s such a sad story, dealing with the pain of grief and feeling all alone in the world. However it also touches on forgiveness and perseverance, and is ultimately hopeful.
I’m really keen to see what Brenna comes up with next. I don’t care what the story is; I just want to see more of her beautiful illustrations.
Thank you very much to NetGalley, Lion Forge and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Once Upon a Blurb
Marjorie Glatt feels like a ghost. A practical thirteen year old in charge of the family laundry business, her daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr. Saubertuck who is committed to destroying everything she’s worked for.
Wendell is a ghost. A boy who lost his life much too young, his daily routine features ineffective death therapy, a sheet-dependent identity, and a dangerous need to seek purpose in the forbidden human world.
When their worlds collide, Marjorie is confronted by unexplainable disasters as Wendell transforms Glatt’s Laundry into his midnight playground, appearing as a mere sheet during the day. While Wendell attempts to create a new afterlife for himself, he unknowingly sabotages the life that Marjorie is struggling to maintain.
Schizanthus Nerd 