Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature once hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but has now moved to That Artsy Reader Girl! Each week, a new topic is put into place and bloggers share their top ten (or your own amount) accordingly.
I’m not a big on having an “auto-buy author”, since a lot of the time, I end up not liking other books by the same author. Which is why this list is only eight because I had to think for a long and hard time on which authors would I consider immediately buying a new or perhaps one that I missed book.
Rachel Caine I basically grew up with the Morganville Vampires and The Great Library series is one of my all-time favourite YA series. Of course, Rachel will forever be an auto-buy. I prefer her YA stuff but I have purchased her adult fiction, I just haven’t got round to reading them yet.
S.K. Ali Saints & Misfits and Love From A to Z are some of my favourite Muslim YA novels.
Madeline Miller When you’ve written something as iconic as The Song of Achilles, you deserve to be everyone’s auto-buy author. 😂
Tahereh Mafi I’m not a huge fan of the Shatter Me series but everything she’s written outside of it has me hooked!
In a strictly divided society, where high ranking men each
marry two women, a Primera and a Segunda, Daniela has risen to the very top of
her class despite her forged identity.
Medio is an island nation divided by a wall and aligned by
class. The mythos of the world reveals it was born after two sibling gods
fought over a woman. Those who sided with the salt god were cursed to live in
barren and ruined lands. The descendants of the sun god who reside in the
capital are wealthy and refused to change their disproportionate way of living.
The role of Primera and Segunda comes from the sun god and his two wives: one
who is responsible for running the household and one who must bear their
husband’s children. And the Medio School for Girls is accountable for raising
girls suitable for marriage.
Daniela is days away from graduating and getting married
into one of Medio’s high-ranking families. When an agent of La Voz, a group of
rebels within the city who protest the violence and disparity of the divide
between the island, calls out her fraudulent papers and supplies her with new
ones. Soon, she is blackmailed into spying on her new family. As she settles
into her role as Primera, she must make some unexpected choices if she wants to
survive.
We Set the Dark on
Fire is certainly engaging, a story not so far removed from our reality. It’s
a part thriller, part forbidden (sapphic) romance, and full on drama. I can’t
quite put my finger on what precisely, but it has that old school dystopian flair.
And Mejia brings her own Latinx twist to YA dystopia which I really enjoyed.
Mejia has crafted quite a world. I found it quite sparse at
first, especially with no map, I couldn’t really picture anything that wasn’t
the space that Daniela occupied and her descriptions of the border. Which is
such a shame because it really weakens the rebellion when you almost nothing
about it. Other than visual, there is a lot of detail in different ways. Mejia
takes on immigration, class disparity, corruption and oppression. And I really
enjoy the use of the salt and sun god’s actions which led to the way their
current society was formed.
I’m still a little wary over how the romance between Dani
and Carmen developed. I do like “enemies to lovers”, but this felt more like bullies
to lovers, and I really couldn’t put aside the fact that Carmen tormented Dani
for over five years. The romance is good, I would say it’s one of the books
strongest points, but how we got there was the issue. Other than these two little
titbits, I would still say this is quite a good read.
Overall, We Set the Dark on Fire was a refreshing read where my high expectations were surprisingly met. An action-packed narrative that discusses privilege and immigration, mirroring our own headlines. The plot twist at the very end actually threw me off completely. I am definitely excited to see where the story will go further in the next instalment.
*I received a copy via the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.*
Years after The
Gauntlet, the Architect returns with a new partner, MasterMind, to take
revenge on the Mirza family. Now twelve-years-old, Ahmad Mirza must face their latest
creation, The Battle. Ahmad is forced
back by the Architect to a brand new Paheli. A slicker and more modern update
raises the stakes, and with New York frozen in time, Ahmad must beat the game again
before it beats him.
Like the first book, the story is structured around three
challenges that Ahmad and Winnie must complete to defeat MasterMind’s game.
Riazi again gives readers not much time as our characters must rush all over
the city of Paheli. Ahmad remembers little from his past adventure, so he’s
just as confused as Winnie is. What definitely carries on the from the debut is
the fast-paced mix of monsters and high-stakes battles for survival. I loved the
descriptions of the new Paheli, it’s an entirely new landscape with some familiarity
with Ahmad and returning readers. The world-building of the novel and game
design shines through. The old Paheli isn’t there anymore, but parts of it
still manage to linger with a more significant emphasis on the steampunk design
this time around. I enjoyed the level of detail given to the setting. I’m
obviously not the intended audience, but this book is good fun, full of action
and adventure.
A similar issue I had with The Gauntlet was the disparity in characterisation between the
lead, now Ahmad, and its secondary characters. The Battle introduces Ahmad’s classmate, Winnie, as his companion
into Paheli. Throughout the novel, you really get a feel for Ahmad and watch
him grown as a person, but Winnie is not as fully developed. She’s a smart and
confident girl but doesn’t really impact the story as much you’d expect and
felt like a paper character meant to just tag along with Ahmad.
Overall, I have no doubt that younger readers will enjoy the new Paheli landscape with high-rise landscapes, flying cars and familiar faces. A surprising reveal at the end makes me wonder where the future of Paheli could lead. I personally didn’t enjoy The Battle that much which is quite disappointing, especially when I adored the first one. I absolutely loved The Gauntlet, but its sequel doesn’t match up with the magic of its predecessor. It is a solid and fascinating return but to those who loved the world created before may be disappointed by its execution.
*I received a copy of both books via the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.*
Shadow of the Fox
follows young Yumeko who is forced on the run when her temple is destroyed by demons
in search of a piece of an ancient text which summons one wish once every
thousand years. With nothing but her kitsune powers, she teams up with a
samurai who wields a demon-possessed sword and is unaware the very thing he’s
searching for is hidden within the folds of Yumeko’s clothes.
This book was quite fascinating. Inspired by feudal Japan, I
found Shadow of the Fox quite refreshing
in the first chapters. It’s a great mix of samurai fighting, demon magic and
folklore. Every thousand years, a dragon returns to grant one wish to the
bearer of its scroll. Fearful of its power, the scroll ripped and scatted across
the lands. Yumeko is a kitsune who was taught to hide from her abilities,
making her quite a naive little child in the beginning chapters. But once evil descends
on her temple, she is thrown right out of her comfort zone and into the real
world where foes are at her every step, and every village seems to be hiding a
secret that can kill. Tatsumi is our brooding love interest, who fears that he’s
unable to carry the sword he wields.
The rest of the group that ends up in Yumeko’s journey are
the highlight of this series. Despite the dark theme, they’re quite cheeky and
unique that provides a strange presence of entertainment that I hadn’t expected
from the book.
Despite enjoying their group dynamic, their mini-adventure detracts
from the main plot for a vast majority of this book that felt quite formulaic. Yumeko
and Tatsumi are clearly on opposite ends of each other, and their journey was
just one long love angst that I didn’t really have much interest in. While I
really enjoyed Yumeko’s growth and it felt like it kept digressing a lot. There’s
a lot of switching up: one minute she’s naïve, and the next page she’s cunning
before returning to appearing like a common fool for the sake of the comedic moment.
The inner struggle between Tatsumi and the sword deserved more than what we’re
given.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature once hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but has now moved to That Artsy Reader Girl! Each week, a new topic is put into place and bloggers share their top ten (or your own amount) accordingly.
The books I read as a kid primarily came from whatever my sister read and whatever little books my primary school had. Our city library had been remodelled and had a reopening when I was younger. I vaguely remember going to the opening and getting a new library card. But my dad was rarely able to take us to and from the library because he was so busy with work.
Nowadays, I just read eBooks from my library because my physical card ran out, and I’m too awkward to go back to the library to renew it. I’m not sure when I considered childhood to end, and considering, I’m only twenty-one at the time of writing, it seems too early to have this list include books I read up to until turning eighteen.
For me, there’s a blur between childhood/teenage years. So, this list will mainly consist of books that I read before the age of thirteen because it seemed like the easiest way to categorise this list. But it also makes it the shortest and hardest list to make because I have no idea what I read as a kid. I have a pretty terrible memory, so unless something is documented, I will struggle to remember it. And I didn’t start using Goodreads until I was like fourteen. Anyway, I’m rambling, but here are some books I’ve read in my childhood.
Jacqueline Wilson
Jacqueline Wilson, for me, was the quintessential British
children’s author. I didn’t read Harry Potter until I was like thirteen since I
used to see it as a book for Older Kids because my older sister really liked them.
And because of the international success of HP, I often forget that it is a
children’s series. I’m not too familiar with Wilson’s international success,
but here, in the UK, her books dominated the children’s section. Even if I
could never find a book I wanted, there was always a Jacqueline Wilson. Weirdly,
I’ve actually only read one Tracy Beaker book, but I did watch the show a lot. My
favourite was always My Sister Jodie,
The Illustrated Mum or Candyfloss. My Sister Jodie was actually the last one I remember reading, which
was like eleven years ago. I don’t think I’ve read anything past that.
The Morganville Vampires
I’m sort of toeing the age line at this point because I
think I was around eleven when I read this series. But these books are THAT
series for me that got me into becoming an avid reader and pushed me into reading
beyond what was in front of me. My sister used to buy the books each year they
came out, and I just read them because I didn’t have any other option because
we never really had space nor money to spend on books. But I’ve already
mentioned how much this series has changed me. I later discovered The Great Library series, also by Rachel
Caine, which is now and forever will be one of my all-time favourite book
series. I also had the pleasure of working with Rachel for the last three books
as a beta reader. And I honestly cannot tell you how thrilling it was to work
on those books and to have the opportunity to make it the greatest it can possibly
be. My notes were pretty shitty the first time, but it gave me a lot of experience.
During the month of June, I read 10 books. (Edit: I wrote this post after reading Jade War, thinking it was my last book of the month, but I ended up reading two more books 😂)
A feature section to highlight my favourite posts from my fellow bloggers that were posted this month.
63 Prompts to Help You Write That Book Review! – Even though I’ve been blogging for a couple of years now, I always struggle to write a review. Some days I can’t force the words out of me and I can’t seem to say what I want about the read I’ve read. The lovely bloggers over at The Quiet Pond have made a huge post with prompts to help get the words rolling. I’ve used this while writing two reviews and I’ve seen the immense boost it has given. I found myself writing a lot more and thinking more deeply about my review in places that I would’ve otherwise missed.
The Perks & Pitfalls of Readathons: Are They Worth It? – A Discussion – I personally have a love/hate relationship with readathons. I’m only doing #YearOfTheAsian because it’s quite easy to handle. (Since a lot of authors that are on my TBR are Asian and the rules for the readathon are simple) I love Nyan’s discussion about readathons!
There Are No Small Parts in Jeanie Finlay’s ‘The Last Watch’ – A post that reflects on the final season of GOT. Despite whatever thoughts you have about the writing, getting to see the heart of the production was why I particularly loved The Last Watch documentary so much. Daisy, an old school friend who studied film, really summarises her the documentary really well!
That’s it for this month! Tell me what went on in YOUR life this month! What sort of things was important for you this month? New obsessions? New TV shows? Or book? Any new song recs (I’m always open to new music!)? Best books you read this month?
as told by zaheerah 