Category: Fiction

The Animators

Sharon Kisses and Meg Vaught meet in their college art course. They are both extremely talented cartoonists. After they finish college, they go on to create a cartoon about Meg’s life, called “Nashville Combat.” It largely focuses on Meg’s wild, alcoholic mother, who is now in prison. Their film is very successful and Meg spins out of control, drinking and doing drugs. She gets news that her mother was stabbed in prison and died of her injury. Meg and Sharon drive down to Florida to identify Meg’s mother’s body and to promote their film. Then everything spirals out of control, with Sharon ending up in the hospital and Meg sobering up. The two girls overcome some major challenges, but as soon as they reach the top again, they free fall back to the bottom. Meg and Sharon work well together, but are they also their own worst enemies?

This book was quite an emotional rollercoaster ride. I had to stop reading about a third of the way through and put it aside for a while. It was quite intense.

In the films that Meg and Sharon make, they address the hardships they have faced in their lives. Likewise, this book makes the reader look at her/his life in the same way. The story forces you to think about difficult subjects, such as rape, death, drug abuse, and heartbreak. The story pulls you in, so that you can’t avoid these problems, just like Meg and Sharon couldn’t escape these aspects of their lives.

I appreciated how this book addressed these important, inescapable topics. However, I felt overwhelmed by the wave of emotions that this book made me feel. This book was a little too intense for me.

New Release: The Finishing School

Seventeen years ago, Kersti Kuusk graduated from a boarding school in Switzerland, called Lycee. Now, she’s an author living in Toronto. She receives a letter from one of her classmates, who has just passed away from breast cancer. In the letter, her friend Lille tells her that she suspects the incident that happened at the end of their school year wasn’t an accident. In the final days of their senior year, Kersti’s best friend, Cressida, fell from her balcony. Meanwhile, Kersti is having marital problems due to the fact that she can’t get pregnant. She decides to investigate Cressida’s accident to distract her, and to give her inspiration for her next novel. 

The story alternates between Kersti’s life in the present and her life at the Lycee in high school. I often find this kind of narrative confusing but each chapter was marked by the place and date so I could remember where we were. 

I loved this book! I was so excited to read it when I saw the description and it didn’t disappoint. There were many twists and turns throughout the book that made the story unpredictable. The story was very moving. It won’t be long before The Finishing School is a bestseller!

Riverdale Vol. 1

Riverdale Vol. 1 is a collection of the new series from Archie Comics. In the last couple of years, they have released modern versions of their classic comics. These include a new Archie series, Betty and Veronica, Jughead, Reggie and friends, and Josie and the Pussycats. The first issues of each of these series are in this collection. They each have different artists who have made the comics look more realistic instead of the classic cartoons. 

This collection was released to promote the new TV series, also called Riverdale. The series is a modern murder mystery, set in Riverdale. The same cast of characters is there, but they are more diverse. Veronica lodge is latina and Josie and The Pussycats are African-American. This series deals with serious issues, such as murder, teenage pregnancy, and adultery, to name a few. 

I love how the TV series is a more modern view of the characters I grew up reading. It’s as if the characters grew up alongside me. The show reflects the new values in the new series of comics. I’m excited to see the next issues that will be included in Vol. 2. 

New Release: The Best of Adam Sharp

Adam Sharp is a middle-aged contract database architect, living in England. One day he receives an email from a former girlfriend. The first part tells the story of Adam and Angelina. They met while he was working on a three month contract in Austrailia. She was a married actress and they had a short affair. Twenty years later, when she is on her second marriage, she contacts Adam. Adam has to decide if he will follow his heart by returning to Angelina, or stay in England with his partner, Claire. 

Music plays an important part in the novel because Adam and Angelina meet while Adam is playing piano in a bar. At the end of the story, there is a list of all the songs referenced, as well as a link to a Spotify playlist. This was a nice touch that brings the reader into the story. 

This story tugs at the heartstrings with the moving story of Adam’s lost love. There were also major plot twists that I didn’t see coming. This novel is a great follow up to Graeme Simsion’s bestsellers The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect.

We Are All Made of Molecules

Stewart and his dad move in with his new girlfriend and her daughter Ashley. Stewart’s mom died a year ago, and Ashley’s parents got divorced because her dad came out as gay. Stewart is thirteen and goes to a special school for gifted children. Ashley is fourteen and goes to the local high school. But when Stewart moves in to Ashley’s house, he decides he wants to go Ashley’s school, to improve his social skills. Though Ashley is mortified that her new step-brother is going to her school, she soon figures out that she needs him as much as he needs her. 

This book covers a wide range of problems that teenagers face. Stewart has to deal with the death of his mother. Ashley has to learn to accept her father for who he is, and not be ashamed of him. They both have to face teenage drinking and parties, and the negative consequences that can come from that. 

I really liked how the book addressed so many important issues but was still able to keep a light, humourous tone. There were both laugh-out-loud and heartbreaking parts. Most importantly, this book shows that we all have something in common, despite our differences: we are all made of molecules. 

New Release: Definitions of Indefinable Things

One day, when Reggie is picking up her prescription for depression medication, she meets Snake. Snake has a tattoo on his neck and dark hair hanging in his eyes (to Reggie, he looks like an “emo” poster boy). But Reggie and Snake have something in common: depression. They see each other a couple of days later when Snake starts working at the same ice cream parlour where Reggie works. Though Reggie isn’t ready to let anyone in, she begins to “hate” Snake… in a good way. Her mixed feelings become even more complicated when she discovers that the popular girl at school, Carla, is pregnant with Snake’s child.

I loved this story because it has a unique plot. It deviates from a traditional love triangle, since two of the people are having a child together, though they aren’t necessarily “together.” Though most of the book deals with these serious issues, there is some comic relief with the caricatures of their parents. Reggie’s extremely religious mother and Snake’s lesbian moms provided some moments of relief between the dark discussions and therapy sessions.

This amazing debut novel explores what it means to be depressed, what it means to be lonely, and how to learn to love.

Fifteen Dogs

Fifteen Dogs has been a huge award winner. Not only did it win the Giller Prize last year, but it just won Canada Reads 2017 last week!

There are many reasons this has been a bestseller. First of all, it’s a short book that is easy to read.

It also has an intriguing plot that tries to answer the question of what makes humans happy. The ancient Greek gods Apollo and Hermes meet in a bar in Toronto and make a bet to see if animals will be happy if they are given human cognition and language. They put a spell on fifteen dogs, giving them the ability to speak and think like humans. These dogs make their own packs, with hierarchies. They each have distinct personalities, like humans. They even create their own language, though they still have the basic instincts of dogs (i.e. sniffing each others’ butts). Apollo and Hermes observe how the dogs interact and progress to determine the winner of their bet.

As a dog lover, I really liked this book. Now this may be a bit of a spoiler, but not all of the dogs make it to the end of the book. Nevertheless it is an excellent book that you should definitely read!

Uppercase Box March 2017

This is my first Uppercase Box! Uppercase is a Young Adult monthly subscription box.

This book, Hunted by Meagan Spooner, is very timely right now. It is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This box coincides with the release of the new live-action Disney film. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it came with a link to a website with special features for the book.

This box also included a pair of Jane Austen socks (my fave author!!!), a print of classic book spines, and a dragon sticker which reads “Book Hoarder.”

I was very pleased with this box and I can’t wait to see what will come in April!

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

This is the first book in the Lunar Chronicles series. It is a modern retelling of Cinderella, but with a twist.

Cinder is a cyborg, living in New Beijing. She was adopted by Linh Garan but he died soon after, so she lives with his wife and their two daughters. A plague is taking over the country which soon claims the life of their emperor. Cinder meets his son, Prince Kai, when he gets his personal android repaired by her at the market. This leads to her going to the palace where she finds Dr. Erland. After running some tests, he discovers that she is from Luna, the planet of their enemy. She is also immune to the plague since she is Lunar. Being Lunar is more dangerous than ever now, because the Queen of Luna is vying to become Prince Kai’s wife. The plague is brought close to Cinder’s heart when her favourite stepsister, Peony, becomes ill. Cinder has to decide how to use her secret of being Lunar to save the people of New Beijing and prevent Prince Kai from marrying Queen Levana.

This story and the following books in the series (Cress, Scarlet, Winter, Fairest, and Stars Above) are also very diverse, featuring characters from different backgrounds. The other books also have lead characters that are based on classic fairytales but they are all set in the same world.

This is one of my favourite new series! I hope you enjoy it too!

Station Eleven

It took me a while to read this book because the original printing had deckle edges, which I can’t stand! Now I wish I had read it sooner.

It’s about a virus that kills 99% of the population. It takes place in Toronto, Southern Ontario and the Northern U.S. An actor has a heart attack on stage on the night that the virus is brought to Canada from Russia. The story follows people related to the actor, from a girl who witnessed his death on stage to the paramedic who attempted to revive him to his ex-wives and friends.

Though the time and setting jump around between chapters, St. John Mandel weaves it together beautifully. The premise of a virus taking the lives of most of the world was very disturbing to think about. It was especially scary for me since the majority of the story happens in my hometown of Toronto. When the virus first breaks, it is compared to SARS, a virus that affected the city many years ago. However SARS didn’t have the repercussions that the virus in this story had.

The only part of the story that I thought was unnecessary was the subplot involving the paramedic. He was the only character on the outer edges of the main story. I think his part could be completely removed without changing the rest of the plot, making.

I loved this story and I’m so proud that it’s Canadian!