Ricky Pine's Blog, page 45
June 24, 2020
Review: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home
The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The third official novel of Welcome to Night Vale...aka the reason why I finally started binge-listening to the podcast today, at long last. This secret backstory of Mara Wilson's character is so vastly different from any of the other Night Vale media I've yet seen, being specifically a period piece and centered on a backstory set all over Europe in the l...
June 19, 2020
Review: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. BrownMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sorry, SJM, but this is now the best fantasy novel to use "Ruin" in the title. Sorry, I don't make the rules! Lol.
But seriously, though, after at least a year or two of dying for this debut - one of oh so many awe and some success stories from Pitch Wars (one day I'll be one of them too, one day...) I am happy to report that Roseanne A. Brown does NOT disappoint in the slightest. A lavishly built fantasy worl...
June 13, 2020
Review: This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story
This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen CallenderMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Right now everyone's raving about Kacen Callender for their newest book Felix Ever After, but sadly my library isn't open to distribute copies, and for some reason doesn't have ebooks of it either. I'm mystified that they haven't, especially during Pride Month, but at least they had the ebook of Callender's YA debut, which I've clearly been sleeping on for quite a while. Casually inclusive in its ...
June 11, 2020
Review: Aurora Burning
Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay KristoffMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
First off, Ms. Kaufman and Mister Kristoff, HOW DARE YOU.
I mean, that's standard operating procedure for any book by these two (especially the notorious latter, one of SFF's most rockstar writers there is), but with this book's ending, especially... HOW VERY DARE YOU.
Building on Aurora Rising and its brilliant hybridization of Alien and The Collapsing Empire, now we get to see the consequences of the ...
June 9, 2020
Review: A Song Below Water
A Song Below Water by Bethany C. MorrowMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Much highlighted as one of several big Black YA releases from last week, this one was pretty quick to get to me as an e-book loan through my local library - and damn, did it prove timely. Set in an alternate world where there are various fantasy beings living amongst humans, and where one of our two protagonists, Tavia, is a siren forced to deal with extreme bigotry at all times - this on top of her being a Bla...
June 8, 2020
Review: Shuri: A Black Panther Novel
Shuri: A Black Panther Novel by Nic StoneMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Nic Stone's really on a roll this year, first with her MG debut in Clean Getaway, and now, with a welcome side trip to the world of Marvel, a solo story for T'Challa's whip-smart, sharp-tongued sister Shuri. A truly all-ages adventure, Shuri takes us to Wakanda and Kenya and even London, following Shuri on a journey with her friend K'Marah, an equally wisecracking (in a way only Nic Stone could write) young Wakanda...
June 2, 2020
Review: Clean Getaway
Clean Getaway by Nic StoneMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Nic Stone's fourth book is, once again, a wildly different piece of fiction compared to the three she published first. Not only because it's MG as opposed to YA, but also because it's a bit less experimental and more straightforward in its storytelling style than her previous books, which each had their own unique stylistic twists. But Clean Getaway is no less important and timely than any of Stone's YA novels, dealing heavily in the i...
May 30, 2020
Review: Cloak of Night
Cloak of Night by Evelyn SkyeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The conclusion to Evelyn Skye's second YA fantasy duology picks up pretty organically where its predecessor left off, working to stop the existential threat we were left with last year before it can subsume the kingdoms across the sea. This time, of course, the stars of our show have a few more secret powers on their side - namely, Daemon's newfound ability to well and truly be one with the wolves, even if it may come at...
May 26, 2020
Review: Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes
Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes by Roshani ChokshiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I feel kinda bad that I've now read two Rick Riordan Presents titles out of publication order, having gotten around to Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe first. But this here third book of the Presents lineup's third series proves to be just as rollicking and awesome a Hindu-rooted adventure as its two predecessors, and with a much less foreboding title after the scary ones of the first two - though you know Chokshi ...
May 21, 2020
Review: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne CollinsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ten years on from the release of Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins has returned to the world of The Hunger Games with the long-awaited prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - a prequel that, I'm sure none of us have forgotten, provoked a storm of controversy when it came out that the protagonist of this one would be a much younger Coriolanus Snow in the year of the 10th Hunger Games, rather than the Haymitch-...
