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brianna’s 2021 challenge
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★★★★☆
a true-crime story about the disappearance and murder of 9-year-old canadian girl christine jessop and the investigation that led to an innocent man being jailed for 18 months
a really good one! i had to read this book for my class about cold cases at school and it was really interesting to get perspectives about the case that aren't present in any of the other public newspapers or documents. definitely would recommend for a fan of true crime!

★★☆☆☆
so ive literally been preparing to write this review since before i even got halfway through because this book is in a category all to itself that needs to be discussed.
so in short: i hated it. i've read cmbyn, which anyone who reads my reviews knows i hated with every fiber of my being. this is a close second. im not exaggerating.
this is gonna be super long and with random tangents, and ill try to remain as spoiler free as possible, but if anything feels super spoiler-ey ill mark it with bold warnings beforehand.
ANYWAYS. onto the review.
the assassin game is a story about a girl named cate from new money who goes to a boarding school on the isolated island of skull off the coast of wales. she is selected to participate in what is known to students as "the game." it's essentially a huge game of the classic high school game assassin but with a twist. the fake kills can be as creative as you want but no one is allowed to get hurt. and there's a vote each week about who you think "the killer" is: get it right and you win, get it wrong and you're out. the rules state that you can't actually hurt the players or involve non-players in any way. however, part of the way through the game, someone starts to up the stakes and play out kills that are way more dangerous than they ever have. cate, while juggling friend and romance drama, must figure out who the killer is before she gets targeted next.
ill start with the pros, which there are very few of.
the plot is a creative one. i picked it up because it reminded me of danganronpa and although they weren't entirely similar it was cool to see the concept somewhere else. also, vaughan as a character generally was my favorite (although he had his moments). he's just a class clown you would have in your high school math class and i loved him for it.
that's it. onto the cons.
i have a huge problem with a lot of aspects of this book. for one thing, the actual killer. spoiler warning here. alex being the killer in itself was interesting because there was really only one or two points where i suspected him and that faded away pretty quickly. i was too concerned with the idea of it being vaughan or daniel or even marcia to really look at him as a suspect. looking back though, the whole thing really confuses me. because the pipe bomb in vaughan's study room and him freaking about cancelling "the game" were super obvious and made me suspect him just for a little. however, none of that really said "killer" and there were literally no other indications that it was him other than that than i can remember. it was super obvious in the specific scenes kirsty mccay chose to subtly imply it but it made no sense in a grander scheme of the plot. ALSO, his motive??? literally killing his classmates for a fellow 16 year old girl and so that his game can go down in history books???that is the stupidest goddamn thing in the world im sorry
also the characters are sooo one dimensional. it seems like there was an attempt to make them seem more complex but they just feel like caricatures of themselves or one specific aspect of their personality. it does not make them at all relatable.
spoiler warning here. also, for a book that was advertising itself as what seemed like it would be a literal killing game, no one died??? sure there was emily rick and marzia but they didn't die. and that literally wasn't even until the last 7 chapters of the book, because it took 50% for "the game" to even START in the first place. not that i would’ve been happy if anyone died but if you advertise it that way, that’s what your audience will expect.
ive read a couple reviews and none of them seem to mention the biggest issues i personally had with it. which makes me wonder if ive been reading into this too much because it is a lot younger "young adult" book than im accustomed to. but there were a lot of cases in the book where i did not like the main character and felt she was extremely problematic. there were several cases of casual fatphobia in relation to the character tesha and roger, and also just casual drops of eating disorder behaviors:
- "tesha might be fleshy..."
- "[tesha's] tall and meaty; a good launching pad."
- "there'll be no thinking about danielgate or how my parents havent called or wondering if ill eat a proper tea tonight or sacrifice it for a guilty chocolate bar and a flatter stomach."
- "roger, an amiable chubster with glasses..."
there's also several parts that make casual jokes or uncomfortable mentions of mental illness.
- "athlete OCD neatness"
- "i scrub at my body like im little miss OCD"
- "i don't care about daniel either. he's drama but not in a fun way. he's just an energy sap...i'd put in endless hours of dealing with his moods and the frequent eeyore-type nonsense he habitually threw in, for what? an occasional, fun afternoon when he was doing manic, rather than depressive?" (((for context, later in the novel daniel does turn out to be kind of a creep but she doesnt know that here)))
there's a lot of sexism from the characters including the main character herself, internalized of course
- "she has a brother in a rock band and a not-so-secret tattoo, and she thinks she's hella edgy"
- "Vaughan frowns. 'oh lordy how female. you're practically insulted that you're not sexy enough to have been Killed.'"
- "emily should be applauded for even finding the library" - in reference to the fact that Emily is a female athlete and therefore stupid
THERE'S ALSO LITERAL RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA??
- "he's blond and tall and good-looking in a screwed-up hitler youth kind of way" referring to a blond hair blue eyed character alex what the fuck why is that even a comparison to be made
- several times one of the only characters from another country speaks she just randomly throws in words in a different language, which isn't bad in itself but she speaks fluent english and just randomly break out a couple words into spanish. most people with english not as their first language dont speak like that???
- also about the above character marzia, cate frequently says things that she says to marzia are "lost in translation" despite marzia speaking perfect english throughout the book
- "vaughan had a jamaican mother and irish dad, so in my mother's eyes, that was a perfect recipe for lazy and stupid"
the final thing im not going to directly quote because it could be triggering, so ill summarize it. so by the way, TW for sexual assault. in chapter 20, cate meets up with one of her friend's daniel and goes with him to his private study room. he starts talking to her and he gets really creepy, bringing up her romantic occurrences with vaughan and alex (alex before the novel started) and then implying that she and her favorite teacher mr. flynn are getting "very comfortable with one another." after that, he forces himself onto her and kisses her despite her trying to fight back. it doesn't progress much farther and she eventually gets him off of her.
but here's my problem with it. no, there's no issue to me if an author wants to talk about sexual assault in their book. it's important to show people it in a fictional setting in order to teach them about it, make them feel less alone, what have you. but that's as long as it's done in a tasteful, respectful way. to me, this feels anything but. it feels used as a plot point to push the love triangle agenda because "oh my god this guy is so obsessed with her that he kissed her without asking!!!" especially because the main character seems not at all bothered by it after the initial shock. there's no prolonged trauma or hesitance because of what he did to her. there's absolutely nothing to indicate it was an event that impacted her forever because it's literally only mentioned by her twice more in the last seven chapters. VAUGHAN cares more than her. also, it has literally no place in the plot because it came so out of right field and has nothing to do with the rest of the plot. it literally feels like it got thrown in just because at the last minute. and that's what i don't like. teach kids about these things but don't use it as an entertainment or shock factor on your reading. and on top of that, the book demonizes mental illness, shows casual representations of eating disorders that try to make light of it, perpetuates racist and xenophobic stereotypes, and more. young children dont need to be reading books where they're going to be more harmed than helped. especially because that's who the audience of this book likely is, younger people in the "young adult" bracket.
okay, im done here. that's pretty much all i can think of to rant about so thank you for listening!! please do not get this book im begging you

★★★☆☆
a compilation of some of junji ito's horror works
this was cool! it wasn't super scary and some of the stories fell a little flat for me because of that, but the stories were generally super enjoyable! my favorites were earthbound, death row doorbell, roar, and the mystery of the haunted house.
however, the panels were super cool! the drawings were so detailed and intricate that it definitely made them more scary. would 100% recommend for people who like horror but don't want super duper scary or are just starting out.

★★★★★
the modern retelling of persephone and hades in a reimagined way
this is my first dip into greek myth other than percy jackson and although this is a more modern retelling and reimagination, it's still *chefs kiss* and it made me want to do more research on my own. although this was a webtoon and it was ongoing for like two years i technically finished it in 2021 so i counted it anyways :)

★★★★☆
one day after class, high school student light yagami finds a "death note" which can grant him the ability to kill anyone he chooses. he decides to use it to create a world without crime.
so i watched the anime before i read the manga but the black page version was in barnes n nobles so i just had to read it for myself. so amazing to see a lot of detail that wasn't in the anime in the manga. love that we get to see more of light's character and how the death note slowly took possession of his mind.

★★★★★
now that light has killed off the fbi agent tailing him and his father, he thinks he is in the clear. however, his troubles are just starting. faceless detective l has brought him in to consult on the case, and the widow to the agent is looking for answers. will he get caught?
definitely my FAVORITE volume thus far. we get the face reveal for l and so many cool panels that weren't present in the show. overall a really good read
this year im trying to read 10 books. it’s less than ive done in the past but i figure it’s a good number to start with. so far ive already finished “the assassin game” and “redrum the innocent” - reviews to be posted here soon.
ive decided i wanna try out some more genres so im also taking manga and classic suggestions!
here’s to a book-filled 2021 :3