This is the second Brenna Yovanoff novel I’ve read that, to my taste, didn’t quite stick the landing. She really knows how to set a scene around an intriguing premise. Here, that idea is that our main character, Mackie, is a replacement, a fae child that was left behind with a human family after their own was taken. In Mackie’s town, this sort of thing happens every seven years, except that most of the time, the replacement doesn’t live — it becomes sick and dies. […]
A dream wrapped in razor wire or razor wire wrapped in a dream
4.5 stars To everyone who knows her, Waverly Camdenmar appears to be pretty much perfect. She is intelligent, successful, one of the most popular girls in school (thanks to her Machiavellian scheming on behalf of her best friend, whom she’s pretty sure she doesn’t even like anymore). Said best friend keeps referring to her as a robot or android, but thanks to her, Waverly fits in. No one knows that nearly every night, Waverly battles insomnia and runs until her feet bleed. She also fears […]
And she comes rolling on through like waves
Paper Valentines is a ghost story murder mystery about grief. If I’m perfectly honest, I think there are probably one too many elements and it would have been a stronger story without the background serial killings/murder mystery. However, it’s moody and atmospheric enough that I’m willing to forgive the excess plot. I really enjoyed it is what I’m saying. One warning though, this book deals pretty intensely with anorexia, it doesn’t glorify the disease but I know that for some people the mere mention of […]
“The fact is, the contest has always been invulnerability, and even when you win, you still lose.”
Paper Valentine started off promisingly, an intriguing cross-genre YA story that explores loss and the fine line between challenging and enabling your personal demons. Hannah Wagnor is an almost uncomfortably silent protagonist, whose mind is always going a thousand miles a minute but who lets precious little of those thoughts slip through her lips. Part of that is self preservation — she’s (actually) haunted by the ghost of her recently deceased best friend, Lillian, and she isn’t in a hurry to make that fact known […]