Pocket Book Reviews {December 2016}

I hit a bit of a reading slump this month. I'm currently at 93 books, which surpassed my goal of 80 books for the year, but I only read three books in December. I was really hoping to read more to make up for not reading much in November. I'm currently in the middle of three books (The Potion Diaries: Royal Tour, The Hammer of Thor, and The Blazing Star) and really want to finish them before January for a fresh start, but I don't see that happening. Oops.

I got The Blazing Star from NetGalley, but it might DNF it. It's just not holding my interest at all. I hate to stop reading a book less than halfway through, but I have absolutely zero desire to keep going. Have you ever DNF'd a book?

Scythe
♥♥♥♥♥ (5 stars)

Written by Neal Shusterman; A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

This is one of the best books I've ever read! Ever! It has all of the things I look for in a book: fascinating premise, interesting and complicated characters you root for (and some you love to hate), and moments that make you think. This book has all of that.

I picked up this book because the idea that humans can only die by being gleaned fascinated me, but I kept reading because this book is thought-provoking, chilling, and surprising in many ways. It always threw me for a loop and in a good way. The plot and pacing in this book is incredible and I never knew what was going to happen next.

Citra and Rowan are both unique, flawed, and complicated characters and I enjoyed reading from both of their points of view and seeing how they changed over the course of the book. Rowan especially is a fascinating character.

This book made me think about nature, life, death, murder, suicide, mortality, immortality, religion, and being a bystander to crime. So many times while reading this book, I would read a sentence or paragraph that rings so true and is so well put.

One in particular is this: "My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There's no version of god that can help us if we ever lose that."

This book is beautiful and insightful and just plain incredible and everyone should read it.

Add to Goodreads

Gotham Academy, Vol. 3: Yearbook
♥♥♥♥♥ (5 stars)

Written by Brenden Fletcher, Dustin Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs, and Rafael Albuquerque; The students of Gotham's most prestigious prep school are back and they've just survived one heck of a year within the walls of Gotham Academy. Now it's time for everyone to look back and experience some of the lost adventures from the school year that was.

What a fantastic volume! This is my favorite so far! I loved that while Maps and Olive follow Robin in the present, there are several short stories interspersed throughout about the past and stories that Maps has heard. It made this volume such a delight to read and each story was drawn by a different artist, which I think is unique and fun to read. Gotham Academy is mostly about the friendship between Olive and Maps, but I think it really shined here. Great collection!

Add to Goodreads

The Princess Saves Herself In This One
♥♥♥♥♥ (5 stars)

Written by Amanda Lovelace; A poetry collection divided into four different parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, & you. the princess, the damsel, & the queen piece together the life of the author in three stages, while you serves as a note to the reader & all of humankind. Explores life & all of its love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, & inspirations.

This book of poetry is INCREDIBLE! I'm in awe of Amanda Lovelace's ability to string simple words together and make them into something emotional and powerful and beautiful. I honestly don't know how to describe how much I love this collection of poetry. I wasn't sure what to expect reading this, but these poems about Lovelace's life and thoughts and dreams and fears and hopes are so emotionally charged and will ring true for everyone who reads them. I've always found poetry too hard to decipher, too hard to dig through the words to get to the truth of them, but that's not so with this book. The truth is right there at the surface and yet each poem is stunning and makes you think.

This is a book that I know I will re-read over and over. And you should too.

Love this poem:

"once upon

a time,

the princess

rose from the ashes

her dragon lovers

made of her

crowned

herself

the

mother-fucking