If you’re new around here, Things I’ve Read Recently is a series of posts I do that are basically mini-reviews of books that I either forgot to review, didn’t have enough to say for a full review, or just didn’t want to do a full post about for whatever reason.
My brain is broken in this post but we’re gonna try anyways, alright?
The Next Great Paulie Fink by Ali Benjamin
Published: April 16th, 2019 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Contemporary YA
Binding: Hardcover
Page Count: 368
Part of a series? Nope
Got via: The library
Summary (from goodreads): When Caitlyn Breen enters the tiny Mitchell School in rural Mitchell, Vermont, she is a complete outsider: the seventh grade has just ten other kids, and they’ve known each other since kindergarten. Her classmates are in for a shock of their own: Paulie Fink–the class clown, oddball, troublemaker, and evil genius–is gone this year.
As stories of Paulie’s hijinks unfold, his legend builds, until they realize there’s only one way to fill the Paulie-sized hole in their class. They’ll find their next great Paulie Fink through a reality-show style competition, to be judged by the only objective person around: Caitlyn, who never even met Paulie Fink. Who was this kid, anyway–prankster, performance artist, philosopher, or fool? Caitlyn’s quest to understand Paulie is about to teach her more about herself than she ever imagined.
Thoughts: This was really fun. I liked the way it switched between different perspectives, including interviews and emails, and I liked the message it had. Caitlyn is a former mean girl and she doesn’t really understand why she used to do things like that and she spends a lot of the book learning not to care so deeply about what people thought and the “unspoken” rules.
I’m very tired and that’s all I’ve got.
Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris
Published: October 25th, 2022
Genre: Adult thriller with a historical setting
Binding: Large print paperback which I ordered accidentally but was honestly nice
Page Count: 466 but again large print, so I think the standard edition has like 400
Part of a series? This is a companion/prequel to All Her Little Secrets, which I also enjoyed
Got via: The library
Summary (from goodreads): It’s the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are brutally murdered for trying to help Black Mississippians secure the right to vote. Against this backdrop, twenty-two year old Violet Richards finds herself in more trouble than she’s ever been in her life. Suffering a brutal attack of her own, she kills the man responsible. But with the color of Violet’s skin, there is no way she can escape Jim Crow justice in Jackson, Mississippi. Before anyone can find the body or finger her as the killer, she decides to run. With the help of her white beau, Violet escapes. But desperation and fear leads her to hide out in the small rural town of Chillicothe, Georgia, unaware that danger may be closer than she thinks.
Back in Jackson, Marigold, Violet’s older sister, has dreams of attending law school. Working for the Mississippi Summer Project, she has been trying to use her smarts to further the cause of the Black vote. But Marigold is in a different kind of trouble: she’s pregnant and unmarried. After news of the murder brings the police to her door, Marigold sees no choice but to flee Jackson too. She heads North seeking the promise of a better life and no more segregation. But has she made a terrible choice that threatens her life and that of her unborn child?
Two sisters on the run – one from the law, the other from social shame. What they don’t realize is that there’s a man hot on their trail. This man has his own brand of dark secrets and a disturbing motive for finding the sisters that is unknown to everyone but him…
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this. I liked the author’s first book, which this is a companion to, but you don’t need to have read to read this, and I really liked this one. It’s an interesting, important time period to set a book in, and I thought the author did an excellent job of using that setting.
I also really liked the relationship between the sisters.
The ending was a little underwhelming and I didn’t think Marigold or Violet did a ton to advance the plot, especially at the end, but overall, I liked it and would recommend this.
Representation: Obviously Marigold and Violet and most people in the book are Black, lol. There is also a queer character, which is a nice touch in a book set in 1964.
Content notes: Racism, lynching, slurs, miscarriage, homophobia, abuse, rape. I will add here that while those things are discussed, they are explicit without being graphic. For example, the fact that Violet was raped is discussed, but not shown.
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
Published: July 12th, 2022 by Scout Press
Genre: Adult Thriller
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 420 (lol) plus acknowledgments
Part of a series? Nope
Got via: The library
Summary (from goodreads): April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.
Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.
Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide… including a murder.
Thoughts: I’ve heard a lot of good things about Ruth Ware so I was excited about this… but it didn’t work super well for me. I thought it was a bit dull, unfortunately. It’s a good premise, but I spent a lot of the book just waiting for something to happen and… like nothing did. Neither timeline was particularly interesting, and the pre-murder timeline honestly was just kind of dull college drama.
The most interesting parts, to me, was when Hannah eventually met April’s younger sister, who is both a really cool character and causes Hannah to have a lot of struggle because she looks a lot like April and is similar to her, being her sister. That is some cool emotional stuff.
Otherwise… eh. It just didn’t do much for me personally. However, I do have other Ruth Ware books I’m interested in. So we will try again with Ware’s books. This one just was not for me.
Representation: One of Hannah’s friends from school uses a wheelchair after having a stroke at a very young age.
Content notes: Murder, violence, sexual assault, stalking, pregnancy.
The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf
Published: February 5th, 2019 by Salaam Reads
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Binding: Hardcover
Page Count: 274 plus acknowledgements
Part of a series? Nope
Got via: The library
Summary (from goodreads): Melati Ahmad looks like your typical moviegoing, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.
But there are things that Melati can’t protect her mother from. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her home city of Kuala Lumpur boil over. The Chinese and Malays are at war, and Mel and her mother become separated by a city in flames.
With a 24-hour curfew in place and all lines of communication down, it will take the help of a Chinese boy named Vincent and all of the courage and grit in Melati’s arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and her djinn’s surging power to make it back to the one person she can’t risk losing.
Thoughts: This was super good. This isn’t an event I really know a lot about (and the author’s note at the beginning giving some context was very helpful and I appreciated it) and it was really interesting to read.
This is the type of historical fiction I’d love to read more of. There’s this really thing it does where for a while at a certain point in the book, nothing really happens, and the nothing happening is scary and tense and you really feel that. Then, obviously, things pick up, but the amount of tension in the pacing is really amazing.
I would definitely recommend this and I really enjoyed it.
Representation: It’s set in Malaysia. People are Malaysian and Chinese. Shocker. Mel has OCD and is Muslim, as are many many people because… duh. I feel silly writing these for books like this.
Content notes: Racism, graphic violence, on-page death, OCD and anxiety triggers. The author’s note at the beginning of the book includes this warning, which was nice.
Oof, that was a rough post. Hopefully y’all liked it anyways!
What have you been reading lately?
– Laina
Laina Has Too Much Spare Time 