What Are You Reading Wednesday (March 10, 2021)

It’s time again to ask ourselves the three W’s:
What would you do if Earth decided to fight back?
What if humans were no longer the dominant species?
Would you be able to survive?

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

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

               

Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler

★★★★★ || Goodreads
This one broke me in so many ways and I don’t even know what to say. Read the review? I’m usually not a huge fan of books that are mostly about war, but Ransom won my heart pretty much immediately in this book. Plus, it’s not just war so much as strategy and betrayal and action. Plus, stabbiness is always fun. Actually, I loved this so much that I immediately wanted to pick up the sequel and was a little disappointed to realize it wasn’t out yet. Soon, though! A very kind blogger informed me it’s on NetGalley, so I requested it and I’ve been approved and you can bet I’m looking forward to it!

The Memory Thief by Jodi Lynn Anderson

★★★★★ || Goodreads
This book was so stinking cute, and I can’t wait for the next book in the series. Jodi Lynn Anderson is clearly a fantastic writer. I’d never read her work, but I definitely want to read more of her stuff. The ghosts in this book are super cute, and there a lot of heavy subjects are raised and dealt with in a wonderful sort of way.

Ranger’s Oath by Blake Arthur Peel

★★★★☆ || Goodreads
This book placed in the top ten in BBNYA last year, and I can see why. I had fun reading it. I really enjoyed the world filled with magic and demons and secrets. The rangers were fun, too, and definitely the sort of people I’d hang out with.

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

★★★★★ || Goodreads
This book, guys. I prepared myself, because I am not new to this Kaufman/Kristoff emotional torture team, okay? I still wasn’t quite prepared. This was a buddy read with Dini @ DiniPandaReads, and she recommended the audiobook, so I gave it a shot. It was actually really good. It’s a full cast audio, which I absolutely loved, and whoever voiced Kal had a delicious voice. It was perfect. Kal’s perfect. End of review. *throws review notes everywhere and walks away*

Also, hold on to your feels, because they will be broken. Also, also, lots of plot twists. I can’t wait to start Aurora Burning. This will be a double buddy read with Dini @ DiniPandaReads and Mari @ Tirilu, because a sequel means twice the shouting, right? That’s what I’m going with.

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

★★★★☆ || Goodreads
I don’t think this was sort of what I expected, but it also sort of was? It’s a graphic novel autobiography, and I assumed it would be more focused on George Takei’s experience in an internment camp, which it was, but in a sort of 10,000-foot view. It mostly felt like anecdotes, which makes sense because he was too young to fully understand what was going on. So it wasn’t quite what I thought, but it was still a very powerful and moving book that I’d highly recommend. I enjoyed the way Takei wrapped up different parts of his life—the man he’s become, the young man he was seeking his father’s experience and counsel as he looked back on what they’d experienced and grappled with it, and the boy he was in those internment camps. In this way, I think it’s perfectly suited for young readers, because there’s enough to get a feel of the injustice and the emotions that ran in the camps and a real, tangible experience and effect that I think young readers will understand without getting too into the weeds and the details.

I still haven’t touched Midnight Riot because I’m tired and barely human at this point. Forgive me. I clearly fail at this group reading thing.

The Swimmers by Marian Womack
Status: pg 98/288

A claustrophobic, literary dystopia set in the hot, luscious landscape of Andalusia from the author of The Golden Key.

After the ravages of global warming, this is place of deep jungles, strange animals, and new taxonomies. Social inequality has ravaged society, now divided into surface dwellers and people who live in the Upper Settlement, a ring perched at the edge of the planet’s atmosphere. Within the surface dwellers, further divisions occur: the techies are old families, connected to the engineer tradition, builders of the Barrier, a huge wall that keeps the plastic-polluted Ocean away. They possess a much higher status than the beanies, their servants.

The novel opens after the Delivery Act has decreed all surface humans are ‘equal’. Narrated by Pearl, a young techie with a thread of shuvani blood, she navigates the complex social hierarchies and monstrous, ever-changing landscape. But a radical attack close to home forces her to question what she knew about herself and the world around her.

I have such a love/hate relationship with Marian Womack’s work. She is an absolutely brilliant, gifted writer, but her writing style is hard for me to follow. It’s very much, as the synopsis says, like a fever dream. The writing style is very train-of-consciousness sort of writing style that doesn’t work well for me, because I end up really confused and never quite sure where the heck in the story we are.

All that aside, I’m definitely enjoying this one! It’s a dystopian world where humans are no longer the top of the food chain. In fact, even plants outrank humans at this point. This world is chilling, yet I’m super interested in it. There’s a sort of split storyline, where the main character is currently in a space station over the Earth, but she’s reminiscing about her past. There’s a lot of foreshadowing going on, so I’m curious about what’ll happen next. I do wish there was some more world-building, as I’m still confused about quite a few things and have to heavily infer about most of it.

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Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Status: 15%

Imagine an America very similar to our own. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream.

There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.

Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.

I’m going to start off with the fact that I absolutely love the Lipan Apache stories and pretty much everything about Six-Great and her adventures. It’s not lore you see often in books, and I’d never heard of Six-Great before, so yes, more of this, please.

Unfortunately, I’m not loving this so far. Ellie is apparently supposed to be 17, which I didn’t realize. The way she reads, I assumed her and her friend were more like 13. There’s also a lack of world-building. It more just smacks you in the face. There’s a ghost dog (which I absolutely love) right off the bat, so obviously there’s going to be some sort of paranormal aspect to this book. However, I was a little waylaid when I was smacked in the face with a vampire out of nowhere, and then a bunch of other Western beings. It sort of kept pulling the rug out from under my feet, because when I thought I had a grasp of the world, something else I hadn’t realized was real in this world would pop up, and I’d have to readjust.

I’m not very far into this, so things might still change, but I’m not sure this is the book for me, unfortunately. I don’t want to DNF it, but I also don’t think I’m going to love it. Feels kind of middle of the road to me.

       

So. Many. Blog. Tours. I mean, I love it. But I need to work on moderation!

I’ve got a blog tour coming up for City Spies: Golden Gate, so I figured I should probably pick up City Spies first. I’ll probably start that either today or tomorrow. The idea for this sounds super cute, and I look forward to a little fun middle grade adventure to break things up a bit!

Then I’m super excited to finally pick up All The Murmuring Bones, which is a dark fantasy that involves mermaids and magic and dark family secrets and all sorts of good stuff that I am absolutely on board with.

What are you reading this week? Share in the comments below!

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