It’s time again to ask ourselves the three W’s:
What if your ADHD kept getting you into trouble?
What if you were completely obsessed with an Extraordinary?
Would you try to become one yourself, whatever it took?

Wait, no, that’s not right. We ask these three W’s:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

                   

Dragon Ops by Mari Mancusi
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
This felt a lot like Jurassic Park meets Sword Art Online for a middle grade audience. If that appeals to you, I totally encourage you to check this one out. The world was so fun (and can we pleeeease get some virtual reality theme parks in this world already?!). It was a deliciously nerdy read that I think gamers will appreciate. There’s lots of gamer jargon, but explained enough so that non-gamers can also enjoy it (even some references to Leroy Jenkins, which made me laugh). I can see this being a hit for its target audience, especially those playing Minecraft and Fortnite and the like. The only thing that was a problem for me, specifically, was how easy the quests and battles felt. That’s where it became incredibly obvious it was middle grade, which isn’t the fault of the book. That’s just a “my perception” sort of a thing.

Catalyst by Tracey Richardson
★★☆☆☆ || Goodreads
This book was just … not for me. I think there’s a very niche audience for this book that I would recommend this for. Anyone who’s big into yoga and energies would probably like this book. Anyone who’s really into saving the planet and activism would probably like this. However, I’m … none of those things. This book felt very one-sided, echo chamber-y, which is why I think it’s so niche, because if you’re not hardcore gung ho about these things, it can come off a bit preachy and one-note. I did learn a lot by reading it, though, so that was interesting.

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
Look! I did it! It’s finally done! Woot woot. One more novella to go and then I can read the novel. 😀 I’m excited. I have to say, though, that I think this was my least favorite Murderbot novella so far. Which maybe isn’t saying much since I love the series and still loved this. It just felt so technical, and I am so not a technical person, so my eyes glazed over in a couple places. Murderbot is brilliant as always. I feel like this one really doubled down on its learning and growth, and I loved that. The ending, though. Oof. My heart.

Out of Body by Jeffrey Ford
★★☆☆☆ || Goodreads
I really went back and forth on this one on what to rate it, and I guess I finally settled on two stars? The idea for this one seemed great, but not something pulled off well in a novella, I think. There was too much going on that it ended up feeling disjointed and unsatisfying by the end. I originally loved the idea of a small-town librarian witnessing a murder and then wanting to get to the bottom of it, so doing some investigating. From there, it got a little bizarre, with out of body experiences, a vampire, and a secret order. Unfortunately, these things didn’t really blend together that well. The out of body experiences were neat, and I enjoyed them, but there was no real plot associated with them, and it just dragged on. In fact, it didn’t feel like the plot actually kicked in until around 60%. There are some “dangers” to wandering around out of body, but they felt very contrived to me and waved away with a sort of “don’t question it” atmosphere (and one character actually says almost this exact thing to the protagonist, which felt incredibly lazy because I was, in fact, already questioning it).

Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1 by James Tynion
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
I’m not usually one for gory horror, but this was pretty tasteful. The gore felt “fuzzy,” as in it was clear that gruesome things were happening, but it wasn’t highly detailed, and I appreciated that. It’s more my speed. I’ll admit that you get to see the monster in this, and it felt kind of … meh. Yeah, okay, it’s supposed to be big and bad and scary, but I sort of just shrugged. Didn’t feel that scary/menacing to me, for whatever reason. The characters in this were great, though, and it was funny and full of action. I’m definitely really curious about what this is setting up. The author also did a great job of capturing a small town setting, and I couldn’t help but laugh because, yup, that’s what small towns are like, for better or worse.

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi
DNF @ 6 hours || Goodreads
I’m finally calling this. I might return to it later, but I realized that I haven’t actually listened to this in almost a week and I had no interest in returning to it. The narrator was fantastic, so I highly recommend her. The story, though? Eh. I wanted to love it. I still might come back to it. It’s just so all over the place. I mean, there was something like 20 – 30 minutes spent talking about the care and maintenance of bees! It felt so unnecessary. Then it started jumping between different characters, different settings, and I kept getting lost and having to rewind. I did buy the e-book, so I might give it a try reading it and seeing if I have better luck following along that way.

This Week’s Reviews

The Extraordinaries by T.J. Klune
Status: 75%

Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. TJ Klune’s YA debut, The Extraordinaries, is a queer coming-of-age story about a fanboy with ADHD and the heroes he loves.

Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right?

After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick’s best friend (and maybe the love of his life).

Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl meets Marissa Meyer’s Renegades in TJ Klune’s YA debut.

When I read The House in the Cerulean Sea and loved it so much, I knew I just had to read Klune’s YA debut. YA is my thing, right? Well, one of my many things. But you know what I mean. So imagine my thrill at getting an eARC of this one!

On the surface, I know it doesn’t really sound like my sort of book, and that’s part of the beauty of Klune’s writing. It happens with authors sometimes (you know, Fredrik Backman, Robert Fulghum, etc.), where they write a genre I wouldn’t normally read and yet they make me care about it.

Despite technically being fantasy, this book is written much more like a contemporary with superheroes. Even the superheroes feel contemporary. And it’s character driven without really much of an overarching plot. Doesn’t really sound like my thing, right? But I am loving it. Klune’s writing is so engaging and funny while being realistic and relatable. I wasn’t sure about it when I started, but I trusted the author, given how much I liked his last book, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Plus? Nick is basically me as a teenager. I mean, adult me isn’t too different, either, though I like to think I have at least some hard-won wisdom on my side. He’s a protagonist with ADHD, which sometimes gets him in trouble, but he’s got a good heart and he means well, and gosh, he’s so much like me that it’s scary.

I’m just getting to where things are reeeeally kicking off for the climax, so rest assured, I will be finishing this one today. Must find out what happens!

               

Sooo it should surprise no one that I’m hopelessly behind on ARCs, plus I have some blog tours coming up, so I really just … don’t even know where to begin on these books. xD I want to love them all, but I’m also working overtime now (which feels so weird to say during a pandemic when a lot of people I know are either laid off or working less hours, yet here we are).

First up for blog tours is Hope Island, which I actually did read the first chapter of, and it’s interesting so far. You know me, I’m a sucker for anything archaeology, especially if it seems to be a cursed/evil object they find. I don’t know why I’m like this.

Then, I’m also on a blog tour for The Archer at Dawn, which means I’ll be reading that and The Tiger at Midnight next, which is a book I’ve been meaning to read since it came out, so it’s about time.

And to round out upcoming blog tours, I’ve also got A Song Below Water, which I’m really curious about. Not sure how I’ll feel about it, but I read an excerpt and it hooked me, so I’m hoping to love it!

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