Title: The Stepping Off Place Author: Cameron Kelly Rosenblum Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Publisher: HarperCollins Source: Publisher via Edelweiss Format: Ebook Release Date: July 28, 2020 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Every girl loves her best friend, but Hattie is more like Reid’s social oxygen. Hattie’s the badass, Reid’s the wingman; that’s how it’s meant to be. But when Hattie drowns off the coast of Maine while summering with her family two weeks before the start of senior year, Reid must confront the devastating loss and her own identity crisis, all while hearing and seeing Hattie everywhere.
The police declare that Hattie died by suicide, but it just doesn’t make sense. Hattie was one of the most enigmatic and joyful people Reid has ever known. Something just doesn’t feel right, and in her grief, Reid immediately begins to question the circumstances surrounding Hattie’s death—and the secrets kept by the person she thought she knew better than herself. This is the summer that Reid is forced to reexamine everything she knows about alphas and betas, truth and lies, the complexities of mental health, and what it means to step into yourself.
Review:
Hattie is Reid’s energetic and fun best friend. One day, when Reid is looking forward to Hattie returning from her summer at the cottage, she learns that Hattie has died. Reid is shocked to hear that Hattie’s death has been ruled a suicide. Reid can’t understand how someone as happy as Hattie could have killed herself. Reid embarks on an investigation of her own to find the truth behind Hattie’s death.
This was an emotionally heavy book. Some trigger warnings are suicide and sexual assault. Mental health and grief also played an important part of this story. Even though someone may not appear to have mental health problems, doesn’t mean they aren’t suffering. Mental health illnesses can be an invisible disease, which isn’t apparent from a person’s outward appearance though they may be suffering internally.
I felt so sympathetic towards Reid throughout the story. She felt like she had a hard life because she had to look after her autistic brother. Her family had to organize their life around her brother’s schedule. Though everyone could see Reid’s brother’s autism, Hattie’s mental health problems weren’t as apparent at first glance. Reid couldn’t understand how her friend, who appeared happy, could struggle so much with her mental health that she would take her own life. Reid’s theories behind Hattie’s death were so convincing, I was tempted to believe her. This story shows how Reid copes with her grief by being in denial about the cause of Hattie’s death.
This was an emotional and powerful story.
Thank you HarperCollins for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Have you read The Stepping Off Place? What did you think of it?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and it is now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is a Freebie, so I chose an old topic: Books I Loved With Less Than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads. I did this topic last year and I found it so fascinating to see how many books that I loved didn’t have a lot of ratings. Here’s my list:
1. A Love Hate Thing by Whitney D. Grandison
2. Jo and Laurie by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz
3. The Summer Villa by Melissa Hill
4. Parachutes by Kelly Yang
5. The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordyn Taylor
6. Four Days of You and Me by Miranda Kenneally
7. Every Reason We Shouldn’t by Sara Fujimura
8. Echoes Between Us by Katie McGarry
9. Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell and Katie Cotugno
10. Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith
(All photos taken from Goodreads)
What’s your list of books on your Top Ten Tuesday?
Title: The Kids Are Gonna Ask Author: Gretchen Anthony Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Publisher: Park Row Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: July 28, 2020 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
A whip-smart, entertaining novel about twin siblings who become a national phenomenon after launching a podcast to find the biological father they never knew.
The death of Thomas and Savannah McClair’s mother turns their world upside down. Raised to be fiercely curious by their grandmother Maggie, the twins become determined to learn the identity of their biological father. And when their mission goes viral, an eccentric producer offers them a dream platform: a fully sponsored podcast called The Kids Are Gonna Ask. To discover the truth, Thomas and Savannah begin interviewing people from their mother’s past and are shocked when the podcast ignites in popularity. As the attention mounts, they get caught in a national debate they never asked for—but nothing compares to the mayhem that ensues when they find him.
Cleverly constructed, emotionally perceptive and sharply funny, The Kids Are Gonna Ask is a rollicking coming-of-age story and a moving exploration of all the ways we can go from lost to found.
Review:
Thomas and Savannah have a podcast where they interview the eclectic people their grandmother brings home for dinner. One evening, they get the idea to create a new podcast to document the search for their biological father. Their mother died when they were thirteen years old, and they have lived with their grandmother since then. They work with a media company to develop their podcast to find their father, which is called The Kids Are Gonna Ask. However, it brings them a lot of attention that they weren’t expecting and they don’t know how to cope with it.
Though this story has two seventeen-year-old main characters, it’s an adult novel rather than a young adult novel. Some of the chapters were writing from the perspective of adults, which I don’t think young adult readers would be interested in. Since this story has both teenage and elderly characters, it could appeal to a wide variety of age groups.
I liked the mystery of this story that slowly unfolded as Thomas and Savannah learned more about their mom and their biological dad. The identity of their bio dad was revealed fairly early on in the story, which cut out the suspense of wondering who he could be. The pacing slowed down after they found each other, though there were still some surprising events to come.
This story shows the dangers of doing a public search for someone. Thomas and Savannah had to make some serious decisions about how much privacy they were willing to give up in the search for their father. They were also criticized for possibly revealing the identity of their father and affecting him and his family. It’s important to recognize that others can be affected when embarking on a public search for someone through a podcast.
I really enjoyed this story.
Thank you HarperCollins for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber
Sadie by Courtney Summers
About the author:
GRETCHEN ANTHONY is the author of Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners, which was a Midwestern Connections Pick and a best books pick by Amazon, BookBub, PopSugar, and the New York Post. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Medium, and The Write Life, among others. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.
Have you read The Kids Are Gonna Ask? What did you think of it?
This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!
What I just finished:
This weekend I finished The Kids Are Gonna Ask by Gretchen Anthony.
What I’m currently reading:
I’m currently reading The Stepping Off Place by Cameron Kelly Rosenblum.
What I’m reading next:
Next I will be reading Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy.
What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?
The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.
This Sunday I’m reading The Kids Are Gonna Ask by Gretchen Anthony.
Goodreads Synopsis:
A whip-smart, entertaining novel about twin siblings who become a national phenomenon after launching a podcast to find the biological father they never knew.
The death of Thomas and Savannah McClair’s mother turns their world upside down. Raised to be fiercely curious by their grandmother Maggie, the twins become determined to learn the identity of their biological father. And when their mission goes viral, an eccentric producer offers them a dream platform: a fully sponsored podcast called The Kids Are Gonna Ask. To discover the truth, Thomas and Savannah begin interviewing people from their mother’s past and are shocked when the podcast ignites in popularity. As the attention mounts, they get caught in a national debate they never asked for—but nothing compares to the mayhem that ensues when they find him.
Cleverly constructed, emotionally perceptive and sharply funny, The Kids Are Gonna Ask is a rollicking coming-of-age story and a moving exploration of all the ways we can go from lost to found.
Title: The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea Author: Maggie Tokuda-Hall Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBT Publisher: Candlewick Press Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: May 5, 2020 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
A desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial daughter find a connection on the high seas in a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic.
Aboard the pirate ship Dove, Flora the girl takes on the identity of Florian the man to earn the respect and protection of the crew. For Flora, former starving urchin, the brutal life of a pirate is about survival: don’t trust, don’t stick out, and don’t feel. But on this voyage, as the pirates prepare to sell their unsuspecting passengers into slavery, Flora is drawn to the Lady Evelyn Hasegawa, who is en route to a dreaded arranged marriage with her own casket in tow. Flora doesn’t expect to be taken under Evelyn’s wing, and Evelyn doesn’t expect to find such a deep bond with the pirate Florian.
Soon the unlikely pair set in motion a wild escape that will free a captured mermaid (coveted for her blood, which causes men to have visions and lose memories) and involve the mysterious Pirate Supreme, an opportunistic witch, and the all-encompassing Sea itself.
Review:
Orphaned Flora changes her name to Florian to get off the streets and join a pirate ship with her brother. They take unsuspecting nobles on journeys to other lands, but then kidnap the passengers. Florian is given the task of guarding Lady Evelyn Hasegawa on her trip to meet her new husband. Florian ends up falling for Evelyn, and can’t stand the thought of having her kidnapped by the pirates onboard. Florian plans an escape for her and Evelyn that takes them on a long adventure.
There was a lot of diversity of the gender identities of the characters in this story. Florian was born a girl but presented as a boy to work on the ship. Evelyn had same-sex relationships. There were also some non-binary characters. I liked how natural it was for the characters to recognize non-binary gender identities. At one point, a character made a casual comment about their pronouns. It was nice to see the characters acknowledge these diverse gender identities.
There were great twists throughout the story. I love the unpredictability of pirate stories. There were battles and magical creatures which added to the suspense. I was surprised at the ending. I would love to see a sequel.
This was a fun pirate story!
Thank you Candlewick Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Dark Shores (Dark Shores #1) by Danielle L. Jensen
Scavenge the Stars (Scavenge the Stars #1) by Tara Sim
Have you read The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea? What did you think of it?
Jill's Book Blog 