fiction – chelsea usher

[Book Review] Between Wild & Ruin

Title: Between Wild & Ruin

Author: Jennifer G. Edelson

Genre: YA; paranormal; mystery; fantasy; romance; mythology

Synopsis: (from Goodreads) Seventeen-year-old Ruby Brooks has never had a boyfriend. After moving to small-town La Luna, New Mexico following her mother’s untimely death, boys aren’t even on her radar. Ruby just wants to forget the last horrible year and blend in. But when she discovers an ancient pueblo ruin in the forest behind her house, and meets Ezra, a bitter recluse whose once-perfect face was destroyed in an accident he won’t talk about; Angel, La Luna’s handsome sheriff’s deputy, and Leo, a stranger who only appears near the ruin, Ruby finds herself teetering between love, mystery, and other worlds. What happened to Ezra’s face? And why is she so attracted to the one boy in town everyone despises? As Ruby unravels her own connections to both Ezra and the pueblo ruin, she’ll learn surfaces are deceiving. Especially in the heart of New Mexico, where spirits and legends aren’t always just campfire stories.

Review: 3 Stars

I enjoyed this book quite a bit! I loved the mythology and mystery behind the plot and how it unraveled over time. I thought the author did a great job keeping the main plot points a secret until just the right moment. There was a fine line between providing just the right amount of detail to keep me reading to see what would happen next.

I liked the way Ruby explained her motivations over the course of the book. She didn’t seem to grow much, so I’m hoping to see more development here in boom 2, but the way she seemed to see things differently from the rest of La Luna was unique. It was a little Bella Swan vibes, but overall, I enjoyed the “I see beneath the surface” stuff.

There were points where I thought her character went a little too far with the anti-vanity plot line, almost to the point where it got into fetishization with Ezra’s facial scarring, and that weirded me out. Almost like she had a point to prove. (Kind of like, “I don’t care about looks SO much that I’m not sure I like you if you don’t have a scar” if you understand what I’m saying.)

That said, all characters are flawed in this novel (in all novels in some way?) from the aunt to the side character friends. But overall, they’re developed just enough to make them relatively relatable in some way.

Angel vs Ezra vs Leo is a plot device I generally just do not like, and it’s no different here. Ruby doesn’t handle the multiple crushes well, and it still somehow turns out okay? In what world??? Anyway; lucky girl I guess!

All of the interpersonal stuff aside, I truly enjoyed reading about the Ancients, the True of Heart, and the Watchers, and would definitely read book 2 in order to learn more.

I got an ARC of this from BookSirens for an honest review.

[Book Review] Dead Djinn Universe Series (0.5 & 0.7)

Book Covers for A Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015

Titles: 0.5 — A Dead Djinn in Cairo & 0.7 — The Haunting of Tram Car 015

Author: P Djèlí Clark

Genre: fantasy; short stories; steam punk; mystery; historical fiction; novella; sci fi

Synopsis: (from Goodreads) In an alternate Cairo infused with the otherworldly, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) divine.

Entries in this series can be read as standalones in any order.

Review: 4 Stars

Around the end of 2020 I was looking for shorter texts to reach my goodreads challenge for the year and I stumbled on P. Djèlí Clark’s work and started reading it all as quick as I could. I am INTO it. In this series, he’s created this very realistic version of 1910’s Cairo with a twist… it’s kinda magical.

In 0.5 — A Dead Djinn in Cairo, he goes into the background a little, there or magical beings of all sorts in the world, both good and bad, and a group meant to help sort one from the other. This group is the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. In both 0.5 and 0.7, the main characters are investigators in the Ministry and have a mystery to solve that is more than meets the eye.

In 0.5, the lead investigator is a woman, a badass woman who wears trousers and sleek coat and takes no shit from men who are still afraid of women with a brain.

In 0.7, the investigators are men, and work to solve the mystery together (but need help from women all along the way). Along the way, a women’s liberation movement is going on, fighting for women’s rights. It’s pretty cool.

My favorite parts of these stories are how seamless the integration of magic is in the mundane. Every single element has been thought of, but it all feels authentic. I think that’s a major credit to the fact that the author is a historian and does ample research before writing.

There are two more books in this series and I’m looking forward to getting into both!

[Book Review] Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

Title: Mary Poppins

Author: P. L. Travers

Genre: classics; middle grade; fantasy; fiction; adventure

Synopsis: (from Goodreads) From the moment Mary Poppins arrives at Number Seventeen Cherry-Tree Lane, everyday life at the Banks house is forever changed.

It all starts when Mary Poppins is blown by the east wind onto the doorstep of the Banks house. She becomes a most unusual nanny to Jane, Michael, and the twins. Who else but Mary Poppins can slide up banisters, pull an entire armchair out of an empty carpetbag, and make a dose of medicine taste like delicious lime-juice cordial? A day with Mary Poppins is a day of magic and make-believe come to life!

Review: 3 stars

I grew up with this movie but hadn’t read this book until now. Honestly, I was overall pretty disappointed when I finished the book. I legit cried. But then, you ask, why three stars? Because it still had all of the magic and heart of the film.

I wholeheartedly believe the film is better than the source material in this case — I don’t want to start a fight with any purists, but like, Michael’s character alone… and like? Bert! they did my boy DIRTY.

I loved reading about the additional adventures in the book and getting more depth into the Banks family on Cherry-Tree Lane, but overall, I had 25 years of the movie to compare it to, and that won out. (Which I suppose isn’t quite fair.)

Mary is downright mean and not at all caring and loving, except to the twins.

Michael is a spoiled brat in much of the book, and while that could be said for both children in the movie, they learn and grow— in the book, the characters are static. All of them. And then poof, Mary leaves.

My love for the movie will never fade, but I won’t be reading book 2.

[Book Review] The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal

Title: The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

Authors: Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal

Genre: YA; fiction; mystery; horror/ thriller; paranormal fantasy

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

It’s 1992 in Bleak Creek, North Carolina—a sleepy little place with all the trappings of an ordinary Southern town: two Baptist churches, friendly smiles coupled with silent judgments, and an unquenchable appetite for pork products. Beneath the town’s cheerful façade, however, Bleak Creek teens live in constant fear of being sent to the Whitewood School, a local reformatory with a history of putting unruly youths back on the straight and narrow—a record so impeccable that almost everyone is willing to ignore the suspicious deaths that have occurred there over the past decade.

At first, high school freshmen Rex McClendon and Leif Nelson believe what they’ve been told: that the students’ strange demises were all just tragic accidents, the unfortunate consequence of succumbing to vices like Marlboro Lights and Nirvana. But when the shoot for their low-budget horror masterpiece, PolterDog, goes horribly awry—and their best friend, Alicia Boykins, is sent to Whitewood as punishment—Rex and Leif are forced to question everything they know about their unassuming hometown and its cherished school for delinquents.

Eager to rescue their friend, Rex and Leif pair up with recent NYU film school graduate Janine Blitstein to begin piecing together the unsettling truth of the school and its mysterious founder, Wayne Whitewood. What they find will leave them battling an evil beyond their wildest imaginations—one that will shake Bleak Creek to its core.

Review: 4 stars

As far as mysteries go, this one had me until the end. I wasn’t expecting some of the twists that came about and I was genuinely surprised at some of the more paranormal elements that McLaughlin and Neal incorporated into their storytelling.

That said, I enjoyed the mystery and storytelling overall but some of the writing was clunky. Pieces of the story could have gotten a little more developed (Janine for instance, considering she’s part of the storytelling instrument), but for a debut into YA and into this genre, it was fun.

Rex and Leif are really cute characters. They’re boys going through the heat of summer, puppy love and also a paranormal mystery in an ultra conservative small town where everyone knows everyone. What could go wrong? I love the way the friendship builds and grows over the course of the book too. Their boundaries are tested but in the end, they know they can rely on each other.

As I was reading this, honestly, the townsfolk just gave me the creeps. No small towns for me… thanks Bleak Creek.