historyofjess's reviews
2011 reviews

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

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adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was such a fun and unique trilogy that has such a delightfully tight focus on the journey of its characters through emotional trauma. Sure, there’s some fun with summoning demons and marrying vampires and magical goats and a possibly fake chosen one, but all of those fantastical stories are there to serve these very lovable and very broken characters in their journeys of self-discovery. I love that not everything is resolved at the end. There are still open questions. There are still ways in which everyone’s journey isn’t quite finished. But since they’re all still very young, that totally makes sense. It’s just this piece of their lives that’s done. And, at the very least, we know that they’ll all have each other. 
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This wasn't quite the intense, propulsive, joyful ride of Carry On, but it was still a lot of fun. Taking these Brits to the U.S. was a fun way to broaden the world and help us and them learn more about their abilities. It was also a neat take on the "what happens after the ever after" trope, with Simon very much struggling with his new normal. I'm on to the next and final book in the series and I'm curious to see how it will all conclude.
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I had such high hopes for this book and it didn't disappoint in the slightest. It was such a fun and whimsical deconstruction of dark academia/chosen one stories. But aside from that, I could just hang with these characters forever and enjoy them bouncing off of each other, falling in love, solving mysteries, etc. As someone who never fully understood the Harry Potter craze (granted, I came to them as an adult because they were a bit late for me), this is such a refreshingly original answer to that subgenre. I'll be diving into the sequel's immediately.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was such a fun adventure to go on. Harrow spins such beautiful worlds with exquisite magical rules that I'm happy to follow her anywhere she wants to take me. And, in the midst of the really fun stories with the incredibly loveable characters, there was also some very excellent real-world commentary. I could have done without the romance, though, it was fairly underdeveloped and tacked on, but everything else was so great, that it's only a slight ding.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

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dark
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I feel like a broken record when it comes to short novels here. I just wanted more meat on the bone to this. I wanted to dig into these characters, particularly two sisters and their mother as a family unit and how they fed each other's worst instincts and behaviors. There was some really interesting stuff to mine there, that I never felt went as deep as I wanted it to. I think I also struggled a bit with the love triangle that was presented because the guy at the center was just not that compelling. In general, I just wanted more time with these two sisters together.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

After being a bit disappointed by The Ocean at the End of the Lane (the first Gaiman book I've cracked in a good long while), I was worried about delving into this one, but that worry was for naught. Everything about this book is what I love about Gaiman's storytelling. It's fun, funny, scary, tense and always finding little nooks and crannies in everyday life to sneak in a bit of fantasy. The structure of each chapter as a vignette was both nostalgic and refreshing, reminding me both of comic book storytelling (which was how I first came to Gaiman's writing) but also older novels like Little Women and Anne of Green Gables that track the growth of their main characters through their wacky adventures.

I don't tend to re-read things much these days, but this very much feels like something I may come back to in the future as it was a very quick read but full of joy and entertainment.
Jem and the Holograms Vol. 1: Showtime by Sophie Campbell, Kelly Thompson

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funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

It’s been ages since I watched this cartoon (though I still find myself remembering some of the songs), but this was a lovely reintroduction to a cast of characters reimagined for a modern world. The Hologram family is wholesome and adorable, contrasted against the inept egomania of Pizzaz and her Misfit hangers on (expect you, Stormer, you’re great). The art is absolutely gorgeous, especially during the concert scenes and I absolutely love that changed the body types of several of the characters to make them more diversely sized, while still all being cute and stylish as heck.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I thought I had read this as a kid, but if so, none of it stuck with me. Though that could be because none of it was particularly engaging. This whodunnit mystery box kind of story has been done far better in other books and in movies both before and since. There were some interested seeds of stories and characters in here, but it would always get drowned out by the focus on the sprawling collection of characters and the fairly uninteresting mystery.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I think I was actually more interested in the epilogue of this story than the actual meat of the book. That’s likely because I found the not-witches to be far more interesting characters than the little boy at the center of it all. I was also just a bit perturbed by the casual way that physical and emotional abuse of the boy was deployed in this, less from the monsters/creatures than from his own father. In general, there was some tonal confusion for me about whether this was a fairy tale story for young people (which it often appeared to be) or for adults (which it occasionally dipped into in very uncomfortable ways).
Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A very sweet, queer love story that really focused in on the flaws and biases of the main characters and how they impacted the budding romance. I was also very moved by both characters’ experiences of queerness. It added an extra layer of meaning to what is, at its core, a teen love story.