I was hooked & invested for the first 30% of this, and then it dragged. I loved the premise- it was cool to have an alternative history with indgenous representation & for their community to have a dragon of their own after colonizers sought to take so much from them. I enjoyed the bisexual & autistic, non-speaking representation too.

My issue mainly became the plot and pacing. It was primarily focused on Anglish customs, and I know it was intentional to show Anequs navigating the school as a Native, but that was mainly the plot. Conflict was resolved swiftly, so it felt meandering & at 500 pages, it got repetitive. I loved how strong-willed Anequs was, but for a protagonist, her character didn’t develop much which made me lose interest. Things didn’t pick up again until around the 80% mark.

I did really enjoy most of the first 30-50%, but I would’ve loved to have seen more action & character development overall. I’m interested in the second book & hopefully this one set a good foundation for it.

This book was written so well, and I loved it. It deals with a lot of emotionally difficult, important topics like systemic & internalized racism, colorism, alcoholism, mental illness & addiction. This is why I love middle grade fiction and highly recommend it.

Genesis is a 13 year old girl who has been bullied by other kids & called derogatory names because of her dark skin, and she even faces similar sentiments from her own family. Tired of enduring this, she feels the need to lighten her skin, no matter the cost.

As she makes new friends after being forced to move again, and becoming inspired by artists like Billie Holiday & Etta James, Genesis confronts her self-worth and the narratives she’s internalized.

Even though this was an emotional read, there were still a lot of moments of humor & love that I enjoyed.

There were a lot of elements in here that I absolutely loved- the focus on Black homesteaders, a Black woman, Asian immigrants & Queer people surviving & thriving in the West together. I also just love a Western setting set in the early 20th century.

Unfortunately, these themes fell a bit flat. Characters weren’t developed enough for this to feel cohesive. The mystery trunk trope used for the first 20% of the book, and then the introduction of a lot of characters, led to the twist feeling hollow & not fully explored. The othering of ppl & ‘Sin,’ seemed to be a central theme, but it also wasn’t explored enough. Tbh, another 50-100 pages may have helped.

Moments that should’ve been tense were undercut by abrupt pacing. What should have been the climax & most emotionally impactful event of the story was basically skipped over & rushed.

While this didn’t work out fully for me, I’d still recommend it. I was invested in the first 30% of the book, and I love the themes.

going to need more personality besides being a bigot & fan of Whoopi Goldberg. This sucked bc I loved Death in Her Hands & also liked Eileen. When there’s an unlikable character, I need other elements involved, like a compelling plot, atmosphere or nice prose which this didn’t have.

Why should I care when the main character (I’ve forgotten her name already) doesn’t understand her own problems? With her simultaneously being wealthy, it made for a flat reading experience.

For awhile, I thought she was sociopathic with depression which would have been more interesting, tbh… then, I got a corny ass ending & felt even more in the dark about what the point of this was

pissed off about snowkit so I’m knocking stars off… that’s some major BS. Yes, these are books about cats but they’re also for kids & kids who are disabled, so the events of this book felt… nasty. I really like Cinderpelt bc of her disability & how she’s still valued for her skills, so to have a deaf kit get told that he’d never amount to anything & then what happened, ugh. I’m being dramatic but I really do find it annoying lmao

I don’t want to ever hear ‘big mama’ or ‘phallic alec,’ again. This didn’t work out for me & I’m too burned out to elaborate. I enjoyed the first 20% & I see what the author was going for, but I was too annoyed to really care, this was extremely repetitive

This was the most depressing one yet wtf

little too cartoonish for me with the dialogue & bad guys. I liked the themes of grief & aging, and if the writing hadn’t been as on the nose, I think it would’ve been great overall. Also had a lot of body horror & gore which I thought was done well!

“I was damaged in spirit.”

A dark narrative following Sequoyah, a 15-year old Cherokee teen who is placed in foster care after his mom’s imprisonment. While he struggles to connect to the world around him, he becomes obsessed with his foster sister, Rosemary, a Kiowa teen who later dies in front of him (not a spoiler). The story is told through Sequoyah’s recollections as an adult, so the narrative feels hazy, and his detachment from life makes for an unsettling read.

Sequoyah has a “cryptic affinity for the unknown,” and he doesn’t know who he is, so we’re left in the dark about most events that occur. I was hoping for less ambiguity by the end, but the more I sit with it, I understand why Hobson wrote this the way that he did, and it felt unique. While I wanted more, this was still beautifully written.

1st time I’ve started reading, nearly DNF’d, but then finished & immediately started re-reading a book.

“Could you get to the point, please?”

This was all over the place. It wasn’t entertaining or trashy enough from a reality television standpoint, and it wasn’t serious enough for it to feel like there was meaningful social commentary. The Hunger Games- really? It ended up being a slog.

There was an attempt at tension and hints to the “wars,” outside but they were never in any actual danger which the author points out multiple times.

Cool premise & attempt to comment on consumerism in this capitalistic hellscape, but it was undercut by the dull writing and the ending.