What I’m Listening to now: Pageboy by Elliot Page
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Review: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, narrated by Jennifer Lim
Oh, my god, this was so good, y’all. Just, so so good. So, this is the story of two families whose lives collide with each other. Set in 1997, the Richardsons have four kids and live in a nice house in the lovely suburb of Cleveland, Shaker Heights. Mia Warren, a single mother and artist, moves to town with her daughter Pearl and rents an apartment from Mrs.Richardson. One of the Richardson children, Moody, rides his bike to the house because he is curious about the new tenants and that starts this story of friendship, growth, self-discovery, betrayal, and love. The main complication of the story comes when the Richardsons attend a party of a family friend celebrating the birthday of their child, whose adoption is about to be finalized. Lexie, the oldest Richardson child, mentions the baby to Mia, who has become the Richardson’s part-time housekeeper and cook. Mia realizes that this baby is the daughter of someone she met at a different part-time job. Bebe, the baby’s mother and a Chinese immigrant, surrendered the child to a fire station in the midst of post-partum depression and hopelessness. Since getting back on her feet, she’s been trying to find the little girl.
The resulting public revelation and custody trial sets fire to the community. Family members disagree, everything is heated, and Mrs. Richardson uncovers Mia’s involvement and takes it personally. She sets out to discover everything she can about Mia. The results are painful, beautiful, and deeply touching.
I was taken in by this novel. The characters felt real; you could see how their choices had led them to where they were and how they gloried and chafed against their results and consequences. I felt for all of them, even when what they did made me angry or deeply uncomfortable. The court case that ran through part of the story made clear how complex family situations can be. Issues of maternal support, child welfare, and race all interconnected in a way that made for no easy answers.
This book was so good and I can’t believe it took me so long to get to it. I know it is now also a TV show, so I might have to watch it and see how it compares. But the book on its own is enough. If you’ve not read it, get out there and give it a try. The audiobook was read by Jennifer Lim and she brought the characters to life. I can’t recommend this book enough.
What I’m listening to now: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Quick Review: All the Feels by Olivia Dade
This book absolutely is full of feels. This is a sequel to Spoiler Alert and, in the tradition of romance novels, it follows two characters introduced and/or mentioned in the previous book.
Alex Woodroe is a star of the hit TV show Gods of the Gates and Lauren Clegg is the unfortunate person hired to be his minder by the show’s production company after he gets in a bar fight as the filming of the final season wraps up. Alex is full of energy and a troublemaker, but Lauren gets the sense almost immediately that her cousin (A producer/director on the show) has overblown the situation and not gotten to the bottom of what really happened. But, who is she to look an easy paycheck in the mouth? She’s recently quit her job as an ER therapist and a little break from that world will help her plan her next move.
The two of them develop a friendship over the course of time spanning between when filming ends and the big con for the franchise begins. And, as we know from Spoiler Alert, Alex sets his life, and Lauren’s, on fire.
Y’all, this was so good. I was bereft when I finished it. I jumped from show to book to podcast to show trying to find anything that could fill the void after I was finished. Alex and Lauren have a fun dynamic. They both have really satisfying arcs, dealing with trauma and growing. I cried. I laughed. I fanned myself when the romance finally got spicy. Olivia Dade does some really fun things playing with fan fiction/romance tropes and tags and it had me giggling. Or saying, “Aww!” Or just plain screaming. (I’d apologize to my neighbors, but they watch a lot of sports so I feel like we’re even.)
10/10, this. It is narrated by Kelsey Navarro and I loved the choices she made with the characters.
Quick Review: Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Nova a.k.a. Nightmare and Adrian a.k.a. Sketch are two powered people in a world full of prodigies, people with super capabilities. The Renegades are a group of vigilantes that emerged following the breakdown of society who have gone legit. But, of course, villains from the time before still lurk in shadows.
Sketch is a member of the Renegades. He is a true believer in justice and he’s assembled a sweet little crew of equally thoughtful and good crime fighters. He has a very strong moral center but he seems a little naive and unaware of everything going on in his orbit.
Nova has a few reasons to hate the Renegades. They’ve made promises they haven’t kept. She is smart and funny and has very strong beliefs about freedom and self-determination. Although, she may be putting her faith into folks who she shouldn’t. So, what happens when these two collide in this world where there is a lot of unacknowledged grey between the black and white?
I found this audio book entertaining. Sketch and Nova are fun characters and I liked the world building. You can see the inner turmoil and heavier themes of the novel (what is justice? why do we have governments? Who gets to decide how we live?) but there was a lot of set up in this book. There was action and drama, but I feel like the bigger story is being saved for the sequels. The big twist at the end was not really all that twisty and the reveal was a little bit meh. I liked this, don’t get me wrong, and I’ll probably read the next one, but this isn’t likely to make the Year end Top 5. It also ended a bit abruptly for my tastes. Maybe I’ve been watching too many K-dramas and I’ve gotten too used to a final episode that’s just fluff and tying up ends. This book is Rebecca Soler and Dan Bittner; they did an excellent job. So, this one is an okay from me. I’d give it a B. We’ll see how I feel after the next one.
What I’m Listening to now: All the Feels by Olivia Dade
I try not to have more than one audiobook going at a time so I don’t have to deal with decision paralysis about what to pick up. However, this became available at the library while I was still reading Renegades and I need to know about the characters in the B plot of Spoiler Alert and I’m told we find out what happened to them. I am so excited.
What I’m Listening to Now: Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Quick Review: Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (Read by Isabelle Ruther
Y’all, this story was adorable. April Whittier is a geologist who writes fan fic in her spare time. Her favorite OTP are Aeneas and Lavinia from a series turned television show called Gods of the Gates. Marcus Caster-Rupp plays Aeneas on the television show. He has the reputation of being hard-working, very pretty, but very dumb. So, no one would know he has a secret. He also writes Lavinia-Aeneas fan fiction. April and Marcus meet online and have a wonderful friendship, never knowing who the other person is behind the screen.
Then April posts a picture of herself and Marcus gets tagged by a bunch of asshole fanboys who are making fun of a fat cosplayer. Marcus wants to make it clear that he’s not on their side, so he follows April and then asks her out. Their first date is bland and Marcus is able to get a second date. Then he realizes the woman in front of him is his friend from the fan fiction community. Can he keep that a secret while also trying to woo April? What if she finds out and they break up and she tells the press? That could ruin his career.
This book was fun. It was very touching. It had spicy sex scenes. It had me texting non-sensical things to Beth while I was listening. I really annoyed the character arcs of both April and Marcus. They struggle and grow, both as individuals and together. I really enjoyed this! I can’t wait to dive into the sequel.
What I’m Reading/Listening to Now: Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
Beth gave me her copy of this to read and I’m excited to get to it. I’ve got the audio book from the library, so I’ll do some listening as well. We’ll see how it goes!
Quick Review: Yolk by Mary H.k. Choi
This is the story of Jayne and June Baek. They are two estranged sisters who were once very close. They are completely different people. June, the older sister, has a job in finance and an upscale apartment. Jayne is in school for fashion design and lives in an illegal sublet in Brooklyn. They moved from Seoul to San Antonio, Texas and somehow grew apart. Now they’re in New York City and June startles Jayne with a revelation: she has cancer.
The novel is the story of how these two navigate June’s news and their sisterly conflict. This story was beautiful and it was beautifully written, too. I really enjoyed the dynamic between the two sisters and the slow unfolding of finding out how they first grew apart. The end was very emotional, so keep a box of tissues nearby. But I absolutely loved this and I look forward to reading more things by Mary H.k. Choi.
CW: cancer, possible infertility, disordered eating
2 Women, So Many Books 