Ricky Pine's Blog, page 16

Review: Under Wildwood

Under Wildwood by Colin Meloy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second sprawling story of the world of Wildwood also demands a Laika-produced claymation film adaptation, so here's really hoping that the Wildwood movie next year does well enough to merit a franchise. For this book, we get a brief glimpse of Prue in the real world of slushy wintertime in St. Johns - if I'd been able to read this book when I was younger, I would be a lot more aware of Portland actually possibly ...

Review: The Vermilion Emporium

The Vermilion Emporium by Jamie Pacton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

At first, after reading The Absinthe Underground, I didn't think I'd be able to find this earlier novel by Jamie Pacton at any of the local libraries. I guess I didn't look hard enough, because a few months later, after seeing The Vermilion Emporium on a Barnes & Noble shelf and checking the library website in Vancouver, I found it available to place on order, and so I did.

Just like Pacton's green fairy tal...

Review: Moonstorm

Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yoon Ha Lee brings his signature style of gender diverse Korean space opera to YA, and it surprises me greatly that this book doesn't have a higher Goodreads average, because it deserves one. Well, maybe my review will help bring it up a couple points or so. Sure, it's a bit predictable in its story beats, being a mecha story with a protagonist infiltrating the ranks to take down the empire that subjugated her people. And...

Review: Demon in White

Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I almost was worried that this book, at nearly 800 pages, would prove too bloated to make me want to continue with this series. How wrong I was. Even with this great size of a book, Ruocchio is really hitting his storytelling stride again. With all sorts of lavish detail to bolster this series’ ever excellent world building…but by far my favorite scenes were in the library with the revelation of the history ...

Review: Dr. No

Dr. No by Percival Everett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As Finn from Adventure Time would say, "MATHEMATICAL!"

As Cosmo from The Fairly Oddparents would say, "It's a show about nothing!...how do we know when it's over?"

As John Cage would say, "4' 33"."

This book has a literal lot of nothing going on, it's a nothingburger in an organic nothing bun with a spread of nothing condiments. And while I've still experienced little of Percival Everett's expansive bibliography yet, it's ...

Review: Mirrored Heavens

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rebecca Roanhorse brings her biggest story yet to its long awaited conclusion in 600 pages or less - well, technically, yes, a little bit less than 600. But it does take its time to reach that conclusion for our cast of (sometimes anti) heroes - to the point where I almost wondered if Roanhorse was waiting to make a surprise announcement that this wouldn't be the end of the series after all. Nope. It's the en...

Review: Wildwood

Wildwood by Colin Meloy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've had this one on my radar for a little while ever since Laika Studios announced that it would be the source material for their next stop-motion movie, expected in theaters next year. Being that this book came out a couple of years after Laika's breakthrough hit Coraline, I can imagine that Meloy and Ellis took some inspiration from that movie with the dynamic between Prue and Curtis - something like Coraline and Wybie,...

Review: Blood at the Root

Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I was still working at the Stanford Bookstore, I'd be hand-selling this book to the best of my ability. Unapologetically by and for Black boys who believe they have no magic in this life, LaDarrion Williams takes us to Caiman University, an HBCU for magic, and many types of magic as practiced in Black cultures throughout history. Malik, the protagonist, has known he's had magic for years, but due to a be...

Review: The Shadow of What Was Lost

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So this is where Islington got his start. I knew about the later books of Licanius from them being on the shelves at the Stanford Bookstore when I worked there, but for some reason the first book was never on sale there and I don't think my library in California had it at the time either. Now that I've picked this book up after reading my first Islington book with The Will of the Many, it's nice to ...

Review: Children of Anguish and Anarchy

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"It's been 84 years..."

And it's been worth one of the longest waits in YA history for this, the end of the Legacy of Orïsha, picking up on the dreadful and horrifying cliffhanger of Children of Virtue and Vengeance four and a half years ago.

I haven't been a bookseller since before Covid, but when this book arrived in my mailbox, I was able to set it aside just long enough to take it to work for lunc...