Here are the books I read in August. (Click on link for book info.)
There was a ghost-like character here so the title is not deceiving but that's not really the main plot. It's mostly about a girl that got sick and didn't know why and that messed up whatever she wanted to do. She's searching for answers but getting none, not until the very end but they didn't really elaborate on it or the ending but it was satisfying enough. The part where the main character drank someone's spit as a dare was gross and kind of inappropriate considering they are in the times after covid and I don't see why it should be an issue if someone wants to be careful about avoiding germs by not sharing things but I guess kids are cruel.
Aside from some spooky moments, there really wasn't much to the ghosts. I think if you remove the ghosts, just Riley (the main character), running around the school and reliving her memories of being bullied, it's still the same story. This dragged on a bit too long. Even the ghosts didn't make the story go faster.
The title, Riley's Ghost, I suppose it's a metaphor for Riley's own personal ghost, mainly her past self. One might say this is how Riley, the victim, can easily end up being a bully because she wasn't given the proper care she needed. Sure she got therapy but it didn't change anything but they stopped it because it was too expensive. What? Her absentee parents are very caring people leaving her alone for most days while they work hard for money that they won't be spending on Riley's therapy because they loved to work instead of spending time with their daughter, that's the impression I got.
The ending was fine but kind of incomplete but I suppose the author wanted the reader to assume an ending which would be fine if he hadn't included an epilogue that took place 16 months later. It's like the author is telling the readers to assume an ending and then give us a future glimpse to lead us to an ending but decided he didn't care to give details. We can all assume to our heart's content but that doesn't really tell us how Riley got being a lonely, depressed, angry girl to this well-adjusted, happy girl when all she did was sort of have a therapy session with the ghosts by reliving her memories (and some of the ghosts' memories). We are to assume Riley had learned her lesson/accepted her fate/gone to therapy/somehow got adjusted in a miraculous way because, heck, why bother with details when we can just picture everyone happy? Without the epilogue, this would have been better. I cannot believe Riley got better in just 16 months, not when she had been like that for many years, maybe if it had been like a couple of years instead, I might believe it.
I enjoyed this but I kind want Charlotte to meet Ben at the end but they didn't. There wasn't much an ending as there were no solutions to the bullying or to any of the sad events that happened but at least, Charlotte and Ben found a friend.
This was not as scary as I thought it would be. I didn't read the synopsis. I just read the beginning and decided it was interesting enough to read. And it was good though there were a lot of crying since everything that happened is sad but it had a happy ending though I think if they went all out for this ending and bringing back people who are supposed to be dead, they should have allowed Callista get her ability to see ghosts back which may be a spoiler but I had hoped she didn't lose that ability.
This was like a slice of miserable life kind of story. I guess I really did hope for some miraculous happy ending but it wasn't all miserable. There was some happy things in the end.
So I may had been misled and thought this was a YA or middle grade book and I had thought the main character was a young boy instead of a man. The premise - a dark wizard named Gav lost his memory and then try to get it back which he didn't try very hard because he was busy doing other things. The beginning was interesting but it soon got really boring. Maybe I didn't get the humor but it wasn't funny to me, not even a little bit.
[SPOILERS: Gav turning a man into a rooster - not funny. Gav being attacked by an octopus-like creature - not funny. Orla (a goblin cook who had apparently served many human wizard masters didn't know how to cook human food makes no sense but I guess they need her for laughs) makes dinners that contained live animals or animal heads - not funny. Garlic festival - not funny. The goblin staff being awkward at every instant - not funny. Gav falling down and being awkward - not funny. Gav having perverted thoughts of a gorgeous female wizard who often was scantily dressed - not funny. And there are so many details of what this female wizard wears - we know Gav is a man but why do we need to know all his lustful thoughts?
Gav is plain looking with a goatee and a slight double chin which apparently the author was trying to subvert the usual tropes of good looking leads but Gav was an evil dark wizard and most of the time, evil guys are usually depicted as unhandsome and even ugly so it didn't work. I didn't even care if he get back his memory or not nor whether he succeeded in whatever he wanted to do. I can't root for him. He's an asshole trying not to be an asshole because he wanted the princess to like him and maybe because he didn't have the guts to do anything evil but he's basically an idiot until they needed him not to be.
I can't root for Eliasha, the princess, either. She is also plain looking but wears a ring to make her look pretty but she's still a cliche - an unpretty girl who is smart and good at learning magic. If they had made her dumb, it would really subvert any cliche. But I don't think she's anything particular likable or unlikeable as we don't really get to know her because we got nothing but Gav's point of view, almost as if she is whatever Gav wants her to be.
At the end, it's all madness and no fun. Unless you think wizards losing their hands is funny or that Gav got a new hand. I know it's a fantasy but it's gross - having someone's else's hand. And we found out Gav had enchanted his face so when all the enchantment is gone, he is just as plain and unhandsome as before which makes no sense - why change someone's face from one plain one to another plain one even though it's the original? So he lost his goatee and didn't get his memory back - does that make Gav not evil anymore? Gav not having his memory back means he didn't have to face the consequences of all the evil things he did so what's the point of this book? Was this done so they can make this into a series? I won't read it if they do. END SPOILER]
I can't root for these characters because they seemed rather bland and unlikable - their goals were not particularly interesting or seemed like goals, more like they just wanted to get out of a situation but had no clear idea of anything. I guess if you have a character with no memory of what he did, he would sort of have to fumble his way through with a lot of dull self-introspection, ramblings, and lots of what-if thoughts. The slapstick moments that meant to be funny was silly and childish. If it wasn't for the lustful thoughts, nudity and semi-violent ending, this would be like a children's book but still kind of boring. The writing is a bit complicated for no reason, I had to look up a lot of words. I waited months to borrow this from the library and it wasn't worth the wait. I only finish it to see if there is something that might be funny but nope but the cover is quite nice though.
This was an enjoyable read if you don't mind talk of god and faith, opossums and shopping carts which I didn't mind.
This started out kind of fun but then it wasn't. I didn't like any of the characters. The ogre was especially annoying and his three aunts were also annoying. But I think I would enjoy this better as a child with all the weird characters and creatures.
I especially liked the story of Lucky and his immigrant journey. And the various fortune cookies' sayings were fun. The end was sad but I'm not sure I like the end end, that is, the second end. [SPOILER: Maizy goes back to LA with her mom and continue her life there. I thought she should have stayed in Last Chance, be with her grandmother, and later on, run the restaurant. Why go to a place, make connections and memories and then leave town? SPOILER ENDS]. There are a lot of ideas in this book but they seemed to go together well but I guess the main theme is mostly about immigrants and about a restaurant and its history and etc. I enjoyed this very much.
So maybe I didn't like all the numbers in the story. All of the numbers are written out in numbers because the main character Lucy is a math genius. But I enjoyed reading this.
I'm not much of cook so the food parts (lots of talk of food, cooking and there are even recipes), wasn't all that interesting to me. I sort of figure out how it would end but it's still a good read.
This was good. I guess I sort of wanted a miraculous ending but it was a decent ending though some things are not quite explained.
This is about a kid who is actually an alien from another planet and that he is goo and can shapeshift to animals or things or other people. Jake was a baby goo, his father touched him and he become a human baby so how did he grow from a baby to a middle grader? Does he just shapeshift through the years into an older version of himself or is that a natural process? They didn't explain that part. But they sure tried to explain about the goos that came out of the many sinkholes. I may have freaked out a little in a scene where Jake and Agnes witnessed goo taking over a family of three, basically covering them entirely and turned them into odd versions of humans - a little unnerving.
I didn't like the fictional Night Kite, the comic that Jake and Agnes revered. The two characters from this comic is mentioned often. And butt jokes because Jake's father is proctologist - I didn't like the butt jokes. I read a lot of books with girl protagonist so I do find this to be a very boy book. This was good with some little funny and freaky moments.
This was charming and kind of sweet. I like that the setting is in New York. Ten-year-olds Magnolia and her friend Iris just walked around New York trying to find owners to the socks without any kind of trouble, carefree, you might say. So maybe events happened just a bit smoothly but I like to think in this fictional world, everyone's kind and even if things didn't work out, they can all hang out and complain and eat all kind of food to make them all feel better. I guess in a way, this is a feel-good book. Nothing too dramatic or traumatic and like I said, sweet. And the illustrations were fun as well.
Favorite Passage: She thought of life as something that unfolded around her and happened to her while she was content being an observer.
Have you read any good books lately?
I hadn't heard of any of these - and am glad that you enjoyed at least some of them.
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child: I'm not surprised you haven't heard of them. We have different book taste and that's fine.
DeleteThank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.
They are all new to me. I don't like it when things don't make sense in a book I'm reading.
ReplyDeleteMary Kirkland: Judging from your blog, I can tell we don't have the same book taste so I'm not surprised you don't know these titles. I don't like either when things don't make sense in a book but what can you do about that but move on to another book.
DeleteThank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.
"The part where the main character drank someone's spit as a dare was gross and kind of inappropriate considering they are in the times after covid"
ReplyDeleteSeriously? Plus, butt jokes in another book? What's with middle grade these days?
Dreadful sounds, well, dreadful 😂. I understand where you're coming from about Maizy Chen, but it sounds like a good one (some for Cutie Grackle and Magnolia Wu).
Roberta: I don't know what's going either. The butt jokes weren't that bad but if you have a proctologist for a father, they maybe shouldn't talk about their work during dinner.
DeleteFor Dreadful, I just didn't get the humor. I have read reviews where people found this book hilarious, like it's the best book they had ever read and I don't get.
Maizy Chen - that was a really good book but I guess I don't understand how you can go somewhere, have the most amazing experience and go back to your mediocre life. I would have stayed considering there wasn't much to go back home to.
Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.