📚📝July Reads so Far : reviews

Update:

The Death Row Club

4 stars

This is a roller coaster of twists and rankings. I felt the first 40% was a 3, then something 5 happened and cooled down to a 4... 3, then a 5. Here are the highlights for me: I have always been curious about how the children of celebrities live or cope with their parents' success, but when they are serial killers... Besides the thrilling murder mystery, the characters argue for the existence or not of the death penalty, awreness to the fact that we help/support criminals to be documentary stars and publish books because of our morbid attraction to wrong things. Everything related to the name Stephanie was my favorite.

The cons:

The slow burn comes from a delayed format, giving us the first body murder investigation starts only about the 50% mark, and also different POVs.

This book feels like 3 mashed into one. Lots of twists and surprises.

Brides by Charlotte Cross

5 stars

After getting past the first letters, which can be frustrating to keep track of, the author starts to converge these characters, uniting them into a single location. Apart from the 1903 medical facility, in the past, around the 50% mark, it was focused on Transylvania.

Highlights that I loved in this book: the author's writing style (made me want to look forward to the next book), the fact that are letters, the large cast, the slice of life of these women and their life situation, it's more about what is said in the letters rather than trying to keep track who wrote what because the content of the letters stars to knitting all together, we only discover who the lady afflicted in 1903 at the end and the entire revelation, as who the Brides were. Putting the puzzle together is awesome, from the main characters like Mafalda, Lucy, and Alice to the aunt and the baroness. When it lights up inside our minds how the puzzle comes together, it's very satisfying, and it happens more than a few times. The clues are provided in a very subtle way; if we miss one sentence, we miss one connection. Well done.

Instead of having a classic where the women are without choice, seduced and enslaved by all, we actually feel that we are living in that time, relating to these characters, which makes the classic novel look rushed and empty (I still love it, though, but now I keep these two novels together on my shelf) with Carmilla beside it.

When we finish the book, we understand how confusing the first letters may appear, but I recommend you stick to the story, trust the author, and get the reward.

Fatal Glitch camp zero by Erin Entrada Kelly

4 stars

A new eerie series kicks off with a summer (kind of correction camp). A Squid Game with plot twists for kids. They play, they rank each other, and the one at the bottom gets far away from those 1 million game credits and is taken by mechanical vultures. The books start with a strange robot in a room, it appears to be an experience. In volume 1, we're following Sophia, who has the worst mindset and choices. She hurts her little sister and won't confess, worse she lies a lot. This is a book of terrible things and terrible evil betrayals without redemption with a Stine vibe of ending. Can't wait for the next episode Let's Play a Game to see what kind of setting it will be, and perhaps learn more about what is happening with that robot and experience from page 1 to the last.

Horror is more psychological, and the tension of not knowing what is happening and making bad choices, like pushing each other under the bus to win.

Great cover, illustrations and it's short and full of tension.

The reimagining of thornwood house

4.5 stars

4.5 Sweet with romance, cozy scenery, village, people, and mystery. The characters are wonderful. There are a lot of relatable motherhood scenes and fears, trusting and misunderstanding, learning, and getting to know the people. The house is sentient and has a secret. She doesn't speak, but her body language is powerful. Not all is what it seems, kind of a mystery. Change is not always easy, but when people care for more than themselves, it's worth it. Solving the mystery is a tension point with a deadline: the house's life is at stake.

The cover is simply amazing.

I bought an audiobook dot com copy. Liked the narrator a lot.

Metamorphosis

4 stars

Besides the comp titles the publisher offers, I also felt it had a hint of Practical Magic House with the aunt and her friends. I enjoyed this one a lot. It has a beautiful naked cover and end pages, which I didn't know, and the surprise was great.

Lots of high-school, relatable scenes and issues as well.

Small Wonder by Ross Montgomery

5+

5+ I loved this one as much as I am a Rebel. A classic zero-to-hero adventure of two siblings left alone to find their way in the midst of a war of kings and knights. He does all he can to protect his 5-year-old brother, the companion of a very smart horse.

The marks of the king explained at the end shouldn't be inspiration for leaders only, but for all; in modern times, we would be OK if it started with our world leaders.

Midnight Mayhem

5 stars

Extra point for creativity. This is a great story for those who get easily bored and like to make up super silly, exaggerated what-if stories and make-believe. It also inspires those who usually don't play with what-ifs.

What if the family moves to a new city? What if Kaz can't make new friends and doesn't get used to the new place? What if something as absurd as 2 ingredients together could give you eternal boredom? Fun way to address isolation, new friendships, standing up for a friend who really understands us, helping younger siblings, adapting to change and a new community, trying new things, being brave, getting out there.

The Murders at Astaire Castle

Mac Faraday vol 4

4.5 stars

4.5 I'm conflicted about this one. Awesome start, but the mystery resolution was not my favorite. Here are the things that made me love this one. A few days before Halloween, MacFaraday discovered a hidden European haunted castle on his mountain and property. The stories associated with it are paranormal and eerie, not to mention the murders and suicides that occurred, sealing the place forever. The last person to live there was a horror author who ended up dead, his last manuscript gone, and the story of a werewolf on the premises gained strength.

David gets shot. I'm going to repeat here! DAVID ... gets shot. This author is a master of surprises and mashup themes. To our Scooby-Doo kind of murder mystery, we have a white German Shepherd adding to the characters a very well-behaved service dog, to which Gnarly is very attentive. A missing person reappears but is very connected to nature and the supernatural, giving this volume a Halloweenish vibe.

I got a bit lost with the red herrings and the real culprit but the rest was delightful. These characters are a lot of fun.

Everything you need to know about life...

5+ stars

5 +

This is brilliant and the artwork is amazing. Each double page is a painting, and the author is right. If we followed each of the puppies' ways to be, we would live in a better world. I definitely need to shake it off and stretch more. I already am a "good boy" for walking and staying curious. A delightful list of ways to improve our lives and be better humans to ourselves and each other. Great size for the font as well.

Below

4 stars

A slow-burn noir, futuristic mystery dystopia. From the great works of Blade Runner to the more contemporary Cyberpunk 2077, Scott T. Miller offers us a refreshing setting (Hawaii) for a future of greedy, corrupt corporations, human evolution, and dependence/symbiosis with AI entities that only the recipient can see. I like how the author had the idea for this book while driving and seeing the modern high-rise buildings towering over the city.

Kilo has a specific sidekick: EO, an AI twin who helps Kilohana (the main character) during his investigation with suggestions. Being invisible, EO can move freely without being seen, and with analysis of the world and people, predict the next move. We get some memories that help to add a layer to the character that clearly carries trauma. 

I felt whole reading that there is some imbalance in the pacing and what the author decides to focus on, giving us more information on secondary themes rather than the answers we want. (For example, after reading a few pages, what I remember most from that section was bacon and EO salivating).

The interaction with the colonel in Ludo and speaking with the higher-ranking one about which Designer was his favorite or not was a good build but felt to me anticlimactic (or perhaps it's the author's style to slow down tension). The same with the gladiator fight at the start. We think: what was the purpose of that scene? To show us Kilo has gone soft? No longer belongs to the Below as before? A message? A warning? I do believe that there is more to just a scene.

It's easier to read a book when the reader knows a bit more than the main character, but we go on the journey with Kilo at the same level of blindness. 

Getting to the end, we get to find out what happened to Maurice. What kind of betrayals will Kilo unveil...

Kilo is understanding who he is now. Self-discovery. Choices to make. 

When we get to the end, a lot of the slow pacing and random scenes since the start gain a deeper meaning.

The Chimes Seekers by Ross Montgomery

5+

Absolutely magical and adventurous. Yanni is not dealing well with his new baby sister. Everything is changing, even where they will move to. It's Halloween, and he stays home with the baby and Amy, a cousin of his age, who is the baby sister for today, but an evil Fae steals the baby away. It's up to Yanni and Amy (an RPG fantasy enthusiast) to go into the fae world, save them, go on a quest, trials, and save the baby girl as well. They must find 3 lost objects and overcome a lot of tricks. Loved the goblins bit. The underwater part was awesome too. As a super fan of Hobbit-kind of adventures and quests, I found this story delightful.

Sneaks

5 stars

Sneaks is a fun one to read. Unlikely friendship of a kid always in trouble and a prodigy pianist 12 year old with agoraphobia get together to investigate a neighbor. It's not very long and it grabs us from the very first page because of the main characters' life circumstances.

Everyone's Perfect by Jo Alton

4 stars

The perfect book to close June Pride Month with a sci-fi full of recognizable scenarios and a well-done allegory for AIDs and the prejudice of loving "interspecies," if you know this author, you'll know you won't get easy pop references, but subtle start ones, no cliches, and definitely a play with time traveling. I loved the Venice inspiration for this one.

Is it poop?

4.5

On one side of the page we get the photo of what we find, on the other side which animal it belongs to, if it's poop or not and explanation. The fly is hilarious. Some we didn't guess it looked yes but it was a no. Teaches a lot, very well designed.

Emma and the Llama Drama

4.5 Ah! This is the third day, and we have a detailed orienteering activity during this volume, which was one of my favorite summer things. Emma is super happy because it's her day with the llamas, and she can't contain her energy, happiness, and excitement (sometimes a bit too much). She means well, but some llamas are temperamental and don't react well. Some other kids are also not that extroverted, but Emma tries to reach out to all. We also learn the difference between alpacas and llamas. Sweet news at the end with another baby being born.

The Blossoming Summer

A warm summer walk in a field of blooming flowers.

I love what inspired the author to write this story: the emigration of a family who had to leave the UK to avoid WWII, the reconnection of the family members who had spent years apart out of necessity for survival, and finding their way to each other again. All wth the help of the 13-year-old Rosemary oldest child of three, the loss of hope in adults and cynicism that lead them to gloom and some in a less rightful way, the awareness to the fear and pressure one child feels to fix and please the adults so they can just remain ok (and I feel very relatable to this point because I was never able to heal it in myself) all of the negative points explored by the author are healed and resolved with communication, sincerity, willingness to learn more about each other's interest, passion for gardening as a family activity, respecting each other's passions and accepting differences, learning and overcoming trauma of inheritance/cultural ancestry, dealing with the trauma caused by racism, colonialism.

Although many times emigrants introducing fauna and flora to a foreign land results in problems in the ecosystem later, saving that violet from the ground that would be destroyed by war was a beautiful symbol.

The characters have a lot of faith, it doesn't bother me as a humanist/creative artist, I embrace the concepts not as religion, but as words from the dictionary: faith: faith in myself to do better, faith in the fact that authors and books like this make my day or a person better. The same applies to words as love: loving another human being (regardless of the genre, loving a pet or a city, a sports team, or a deity) shouldn't be used to hurt others.

Today, I feel that Rosemary's faith and her father's passion for art inspire me to grab my watercolors and paint fields and fields of flowers.

How to survive camping

5 stars

Loved this one so much, perhaps because we get more of the family, of her time growing up with her parents, more unveiled secrets from when they were kids, hunting with her father, embracing the camp filled with monsters. It has a major plot twist regarding her newborn niece.

Fairy Doors hobgoblin

4 stars

This one had naughty Goblins . I alao read the audiobook version. It's delightful and if you can pair it with the book because of the art it's double the fun because the narrator makes the best goblin voices. Short read, wished it had a bit more.

Time to organize that messy room.

Unicornia 5, 6

5stars

Oh no, her messy room and lack of focus lead to losing her headband and missing the flying bus. Roller skates may not be the answer to get to the show but they are a lot of fun. Friendship, tidiness (her room was a mess), more calm, organization, more focus, friendship, being aware of others and tye world around us. Fun ending. Love the monochromatic pink pages and cute characters.

Love this series for so many reasons: awesome monochromatic colors for each volume, super sweet, cute artwork and characters, always treats relatable issues (positive and negative) in a clear, inspiring way.

Camping this summer is in the clouds, the best place ever. Addressing changes in routine that can be scary, leaving home to sleep away from our beds can be challenging, but when friends help, it's all about making new, amazing memories and learning.

There are super fun lists on almost every page with questions or simple lists, which makes us want to list all sorts of things around us and notice more of the world around us. Fear of the dark, worry not, just remember all the wonderful and joyful things around, like friends and funny situations. Very inspiring.

Pia in the Forest

4 stars

Pia is not just an artist she is a super excited and enthusiastic one, and sometimes she can be a bit loud and overwhelming. I love that her father helps and supports her while teaching. Going into the forest to get a pine and record the sounds is the first step in learning to see, respect, and learn to respect others and not be all about oneself. Fun moments. Love the extra activities at the end to record the unexpected.

One Mad Cat...

Lots of pages, high-quality printing and size, with a mystery story to solve, easy to read, the design and pages (illustrations) have simple shapes and big font, easy to follow and read. Fun character, relatable, although the cat doesn't like crowds, she tries to help her friend. The conclusion is funny. Eheh, and if we get mad, we count to ten. Some themes, introverts, friendship, following clues mystery, shapes, numbers, counting to calm down, different personalities, school grounds.

Among thorns

Loved this one. The characters are fairytale-ish, but they are hilarious, competent, magical, secret, empowering, and independent. The two young women are oortraited buy the author very differently. One is naive, almost silly, isolated, and easily confused (living trapped all her life like Rapunzel), the other powerful, knowledgeable, and an aspiring chosen one with access to schools, masters, and all. The kingdoms need to "enslave" these sorceresses for prestige and power, so there is a prince, the spare, spare, spare, who must convince the powerful one to accept their king's deal. Awesome as an audiobook.

I read it as a standalone and understood all without extras.

Blast from the Past

Mac Faraday #3

Awwwwwww, this one is full of awww, especially for Gnarly stealing breakfasts, barking to let Nac know who is the real owner of the house (Gnarly, of course), Gnarly missing massage appointments because of mean mob guys that Archie has to shoot (lol)

Cool connections of all the murder cases, coincidences or not, with each other, with witness protection and mob hits. Awesome focus on Archie because we learn a big secret about her, and she is one of my favorite characters.

I was a bit sad that the little girl didn't stay, but it was a great ending.

Mayor of Noobtown

Made for an awesome beach day read. Good start, cool character, fun demon sidekick (ish) kind of demon with a lot of banter. Very RPG grinding, with lots of fights and encounters, humor, puns. I will continue this series as audio also which makes it funnier and collect the physical

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