It’s time again to ask ourselves the three W’s:
What if the gods all turned and destroyed each other?
Would you try to learn about what happened?
Would you search for the truth of the gods?

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.

           

Rebel in the Library of Ever by Zeno Alexander
★★☆☆☆ || Goodreads
I didn’t love the first one in this series, but I thought the ending sounded interesting and like it was ramping up for something great in the sequel. I was wrong. The writing is this weird combination of formal, with big words and concepts, but simplistic, like it was intended for younger MG, and it just didn’t work for me. It’s doing too much, hopping from one subplot to another and completely forgetting the main plot. I do love that the author fits a lot of STEM and learning tidbits in, but they feel random instead of like they belong. Not to mention, there are two or three chapters about googols and math and large numbers, and oh my gosh make it stooooop. For any math people, this might be fun, but ugh, it was slow torture for me. The biggest thing that bothered me about this is that it’s espousing the virtues of libraries and that they’re wonderful places, while at the same time making the Big Bad of this book be the incomeptant, infantile director and the board of directors, which was so disappointing to me. My director and board of directors are wonderful, and the library literally wouldn’t exist without them going to bat for it over and over again.

My Video Game Ate My Homework by Dustin Hansen
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
This MG graphic novel was just freaking fun. It felt more middle-of-the-road MG, so the plot wasn’t particularly complex or deep, but it had some great morals about friendship and working together, which I enjoyed. Mostly, though, it’s just so gloriously geeky. The art style feels very video gamey, and there are a lot of little gamer elements in it that really sold it for me. I think it’d be an excellent book for MG readers who love video games (which are so many of them these days). Bonus points for the diverse cast, too!

Nazi Prison Camp Escape by Michael Burgan
★★☆☆☆ || Goodreads
I think this book suffers from a case of poor marketing. Our patrons love the I Survived series, which this was comped to. This reads more like nonfiction, except that it has some fiction elements, because it’s based on a real person but with fabricated dialogue, etc. If a kid were looking for historical fiction, though? This doesn’t feel like a full novel. It feels like nonfiction, complete with asides about different historical events, etc. It’s not a full narrative with a rounded plot and characters, etc. It’s also very definitely younger middle grade based on how it’s written. Ultimately, I think they should’ve chosen either to make it a full historical fiction, based on a true story, or they should’ve gone full nonfiction, but the combination just didn’t work for me. If I’m reading a historical fiction, I want to read historical fiction, instead of being pulled out of a story to learn about tangential things like in nonfiction.

Trapped in a Video Game by Dustin Brady
★★★★★ || Goodreads
I had so much fun with this one. The kids seemed to like this series, so I was curious, and since we’re closed, I grabbed this series just to see. I was surprised by how much fun this was! Definitely younger to mid MG, so it was a fast read, but it was fun. A combination of humor and video games … what’s not to love? There was even a somewhat suspenseful little challenge in the plot, and a nice lead in for the next book. This was actually just the break I needed from the darker books I’ve been reading.

Technically, A Curious Beginning should be here, too, but I’ve made absolutely no progress on that in the past week, so I figured I wouldn’t even waste the space. My bad.

Deeplight by Frances Hardinge
Status: 80%

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea meets Frankenstein in Frances Hardinge’s latest fantasy adventure

The gods are dead. Decades ago, they turned on one another and tore each other apart. Nobody knows why. But are they really gone forever? When 15-year-old Hark finds the still-beating heart of a terrifying deity, he risks everything to keep it out of the hands of smugglers, military scientists, and a secret fanatical cult so that he can use it to save the life of his best friend, Jelt. But with the heart, Jelt gradually and eerily transforms. How long should Hark stay loyal to his friend when he’s becoming a monster—and what is Hark willing to sacrifice to save him?

This is my last book for the O.W.L.s and I’ll have successfully completed them! What even is that? I don’t know, but I’m excited, because I wasn’t sure I’d make it. I’ll for sure finish this today, though.

I have to say that at this point, I’m HOOKED. I’m loving it. The world is fascinating (and larger than it seems). The characters are fun, for the most part. I’m loving the lore about the gods, etc. The only real bummer for me is that a lot of the story banks on the Jelt/Hark brotherly relationship, and I’m just not buying it. Jelt is an obvious jerk and manipulator, and clearly not meant to be liked by the reader, so without getting to observe the years of background between the boys, it makes no sense for Hark to put up with it. Especially when the majority of his thoughts towards the boy also happen to be negative.

               

After I finish Deeplight today, I’ll be picking up Red, White & Royal Blue, since it’s due back in three days. So this will be a super quick reading of that, hopefully, because if I end up back on the waitlist, it’ll be months before I get it again.

Rogue Protocol is also still here from last time. I meant to read it, but the annoying thing is that it’s not available as a Kindle download, so I have to read it on my computer, which is a real pain in the butt, since I normally read while I’m on the go.

Then I’m looking forward to picking up The Faith Machine, which comes out on the first. It was comped as being similar to The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind, and I am all here for that.

And then I’ve got another fun middle grade read with a dragon (which is obviously the best kind): What We Found in the Corn Maze and How It Saved a Dragon. It’s a mouthful of a title, that’s for sure, but it sounds really interesting! After that … I don’t know. The SeaMAYden-athon is next month, along with Wyrd & Wonder, so I’m thinking it might be a good fantasy read to kick things off.

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