The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett

TL;DR two teens navigating various interpersonal relationships

TBR #1542, added Mar 8th 2016

finished 4/7/16

I don't think I knew much about the book before I started. It was a pretty fun book to go blind into, and the dust jacket blurb made it seem like it was gonna be a pretty wild ride. 

I really appreciated the depth of the characters and how far-reaching their lives were. Their experiences and lives expanded a lot further than the book did, which made everything feel so realistic. There was more depth to everything than was initially hinted at and a lot of things were still left open-ended. 

I also really liked the relationship Beatrix and Jack had. They were a really good duo and really cared for each other. Also, the book is very sex-positive and I was glad of the portrayal of both Beatrix's relationship and how her brother was treated by the narration and the other characters. (The Rest of Us Just Live Here is also a good book if you want more of that, btw.)

The portrayal of both of the main characters' family dynamics was eye-opening, too. Reading about their experiences gave me a new perspective into some things my own family has gone through. I'm very glad for that. 

The ending of the book felt a little too Freytag's Pyramid, and I think parts of the resolution were a little too nice, but all in all I was happy with the ending. Some of the climax wrapped up a little too nicely, but there were also things that were left open-ended and unanswered, so I think it balances out. 

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart also had a ton of geographical cues and I probably used up half a pack of sticky notes trying to document them all. I don't know when I'll get around to making a map of them, but I had a lot of fun experiencing San Francisco through Beatrix's eyes. 

TL;DR the book felt very realistic and I really enjoyed it. 

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

TL;DR geography and interpersonal relationships

TBR #49 (added Aug 4, 2012)

finished 3/29/16

This is probably the highest book on my TBR that I've finished since I joined Goodreads. Definitely since I started paying attention to their positions. I've been trying to get my hands on this book for a while, but I didn't know much about it when I finally did, so I went in pretty blind.

Which was nice! I was really happy to learn just how big of a motif geography and cartography are in the story. (I might as well tattoo "geography nerd" on my forehead tbh.) There are so many sticky notes in my copy that I'll doubt I'll actually get around to making a map for it anytime soon. Which is kind of a shame because it's so detailed that I could make a really hella Google map for it.

Going in blind also meant that I was unaware of the other major topic: verbal / emotional abuse coming from a parent. It was difficult for me to read and it's a huge CW, so I don't recommend North of Beautiful if that's a sensitive topic for you.

I waited too long to write this review, tbh ;; Don't procrastinate, kids.

I loved reading a book that paid so much attention to spatial characteristics / geography, especially with how it tied into the story and the characters. I feel like the use of it was really nuanced and would be one of those things teachers would make you write an essay about in school.

(In a good way?)

I also liked how all of the characters were flawed and that the reasoning for it was explored. Terra put a lot of thought into trying to understand other people. None of the flaws were rationalized, but they were examined within the context of what the characters had experienced.

I really liked Terra and Jacob's friendship, but I think the book wrapped up a little too nicely. I was hoping for more uncertainty with how the last couple chapters went. I'm willing to let it go since it's a standalone though.

TL;DR it's really honest about interpersonal relationships and how that affects your own self-understanding. It definitely doesn't hold back. And there's also lots of geography, so that automatically makes it my fave.

Happy Friday!

I've been kind of busy lately and didn't have the time nor motivation to make a real post for today. So you get this non-post! (I've tried so hard not to do this. Hopefully this'll be the only non-post in the immediate future.) 

(Hopefully later today I'll remember to stick an image here, too, but it's like one in the morning and I should've been asleep by now. OTL.)

I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival last weekend, which was fun! I was supposed to have a blog post about it go up this week but I didn't get around to writing it yet. Whoops. 

I also won Camp NaNo yesterday! As of last night I had just under 16k words, and I'm hoping I can make it to 20k by the end of the month. I missed the window for a mid-month update, so I'll just have a review post next month. Possibly after exams. 

It's also been really nice weather lately and I'm really excited for it to be summer. I have two more weeks of classes and then exams in the second week of May, and then I'm free!

Hope you guys have a good weekend :)

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

TL;DR Laputa from Castle in the Sky 2.0

TBR #1150, added Nov 24 2014

finished 4/3/16

For some reason, I thought Magonia took place on another world. I'm not really sure why.

Anyway, I really liked the concept of the story! I'm not sure I'm happy with how exactly it was implemented, but I thought it was really cool how it was done. I think a lot of my hesitation is because I read my copy during a long car ride, and the library copy had pretty big pages, so it was harder for me to make progress than with other books. I alternated between reading and sleeping / looking out the window and I think breaking up my progress like that had an affect on how I feel.

There were also a lot of unanswered questions over the course of the book since Aza wasn't told much about what was going on.

I managed to kill all but 50 pages of the book during a 6 hour car ride, and I finished it off the next morning. My grandmother read it on the way back home and made some pretty good progress, and she seemed to like it. Which is actually really promising, since I don't think she's ever read YA before and I didn't realize she was reading it in order to explain the plot.

Aza's voice was distinct and she was a really resilient character. I feel like I don't know as much about any of the other characters, Jason included, but I'm hoping that Aerie will elaborate on everyone. The book was more plot-directed than character-directed so I can understand the focus on Aza.

Also, I understood Jason a lot better after reading The Rest of Us Just Live Here. I appreciate that Jason wasn't treated as any different, but I wouldn't have understood the implications of his characterization without reading about Mikey's experience. Of course, it's possible that I missed cues or explanations in Magonia due to my strange reading pattern.

I don't really agree with how the book ended -- I think it worked out a little too well considering the rest of the plot -- but I'm excited to see how Aerie will pick up from where Magonia left off.

TL;DR It's a good start to a series with a unique premise. Try to find time to read purposefully instead of reading bit-by-bit like I did.

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

TL;DR not as sci-fi as Cinder but just as good

TBR #1081, added Nov 6 2014

finished 4/15/16

If you've been around me for any period of time, you probably know I can't shut up about The Lunar Chronicles once I get going. That series has been my life the past couple years, and I was curious about what take Betsy Cornwell would take based on the same "Cinderella as a mechanic / engineer" approach.

And I was super impressed! Even with having the similar basic concept, it's such a wonderful story and stands completely apart from Cinder even with so much potential to overlap. I loved how the retelling was done and what liberties it took from the original. (Although, to be honest, most of my memory of the original is from the Disney movie.)

I had a hard time getting used to the narration, though. It's first person past in a way that makes it feel like Nicolette is narrating everything after it happens, almost like a fairy tale. (Which was probably the point, now that I'm writing this.) I felt like the narration style distanced Nicolette's voice from what she was talking about, like it dulled the emotions of it a little bit. I think it worked well overall, though. 

Nicolette was a great main character and I am so appreciative of her. She listened to both her heart and her head and worked hard to get what she wanted despite everything that got in her way. Fin and Caro were great supporting characters as well, and I loved them just as much, but I saw through Fin a little too easily. Maybe I just knew what I was looking for? 

Also, thank god Nicolette's stepsisters had different names than mine. I did crew for my school's production for the Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella and it drove me slightly crazy that one of them had my name. "Stepsister's Lament" was a good song, though. 

I'm glad that Mechanica told a version of the story where the Cinderella achieved her dreams through her own hard work and not some magic-waving. (Cinder is also another good one, if you're curious *cough cough*). Also, I really love Mechanica's ending even more than I did Cinder's, which is pretty amazing to admit. I'm so glad that Nicolette was able to determine her future and didn't let anyone try to dictate or influence it for her, and that the people that she cared for allowed her to do so. 

I'm a little sad that Mechanica is a standalone. I would've liked to see more of Nicolette on her own, but I know that it wouldn't be much of a retelling anymore. I liked the epilogue and I can appreciate how it didn't wrap up all the ends so nicely, that some were still left open. I'm also lowkey hoping for a new story set within the same universe, because the worldbuilding was beautiful and I want to see more of it.

I didn't realize until after I finished reading that Betsy Cornwell also wrote Tides, which I still find myself thinking about sometimes. I definitely recommend Tides as well! 

TL:DR it's almost like a more fairy-tale version of Cinder and it was done just as well.

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

TL;DR Little Red Riding Hood fighting the impending apocalypse

TBR #1555, added Mar 8 2016

finished 4/6/16

I really liked Cruel Beauty when I read it last May. Surprisingly, I hadn't added Crimson Bound to my TBR until a few weeks before I checked it out. I think that I wasn't as interested after finding out it was another standalone and not related to Cruel Beauty. Which is a little counter-intuitive looking back on it, because I don't like forced sequels. Cruel Beauty stood well on its own.

I feel like I have to admit that I'm still more partial to Cruel Beauty. My impression of it still pretty strong, and Crimson Bound didn't wow me as much.

Crimson Bound is still good though! The retelling aspect was much more subtle (really subtle, honestly, to the point that I forgot about it). It was unique and focused on entirely an entirely new world and cast of characters and I enjoyed learning about it. It stands completely separate from Cruel Beauty and I appreciated that.

(I really like the cover design of both books but I think that they should've been more unique compared to each other. The circular staircase motif suggests to me that the books are related to each other as part of the same series.)

I'm not completely behind how the bloodbound thing was implemented. The concept was cool but I don't think the boundaries / limitations were kept very well. The bloodbound didn't have very many physical limitations to their power (if at all; I don't remember), and the rules that were initially established at the beginning didn't stay until the end.

That said, most of my complaints stem from the last quarter-ish of the book. The speed of the story picked up significantly and it was hard for me to follow what was going on without having to stop and think about it. (This is probably also my fault because of how fast I read and try to process things. I'm impatient.) The bloodbound-related stuff was kept constant up until close to the climax.

I liked all the nuances of the characters' motivations. I think that was what impressed me most about the characters -- each of them had their own reasons and didn't exist simply to further Rachelle's story line. It felt natural in how they interacted instead of coming together to make the plot work.

TL;DR A lot of my feelings stem from unreasonably comparing Crimson Bound to Cruel Beauty and I'll admit that my opinion is biased. I still recommend Crimson Bound nonetheless.

Fan Art by Sarah Tregay

TL;DR flashbacks to my own senior year

TBR #713, added Nov 11 2013

finished 3/31/16

I'm not kidding. Reading Fan Art was like re-living the last few months of senior year, the only difference being that I'm not a gay guy in Idaho. I was the design manager of my school's literary magazine and went through some major internal chaos during my senior year, including a crush on one of my friends.

Luckily for me, the fanart that my friend had drawn of my crush and I had never gotten into his hands.

The fact that I can honestly say I've had someone draw fanart of us is weird. So in case you think the premise of the book is unlikely: it is completely possible. People like Eden do exist. And somehow I became friends with them. 

Needless to say, this was such a good representation of what it's like to finish out your senior year. It was reassuring to see that my friends and I weren't the only ones who didn't really know what to do with our lives. And that the kind of shojo drama we experienced wasn't unique to just us. It's reassuring, y'know?

The romance kept me guessing the whole time. I was so in tune with what Jamie was going through that I couldn't make any better predictions of the outcome than he could. I liked how everything was balanced and that it felt normal, not like some melodramatic drawn-out infatuation.

I also really liked how the tone of the book was light overall. I mean, I'm pretty sure there were some ups and downs, but my memory of the book overall is pretty warm. If that even makes sense. Like, sad books feel cold, right? Or is that just me?

Anyway. I found some more specific geography clues than just "Idaho", so hopefully I'll come back and add them in soon.

TL;DR if you ever want to know what my spring semester senior year was like, here you go. I'm pretty sure I'll buy a copy of Fan Art if I can find one.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

TL;DR living at the edge of every other YA novel, p much

TBR #1121, added Nov 14 2014

finished 4/3/2016

(The next couple reviews are going to be out of order. I finished this book after Fan Art and Magonia but got the review written first.)

I've loved the concept of the "normal" side of supernatural stories, so The Rest of Us Just Live Here was something I was excited to get my hands on. I'll admit that I didn't know too much about the story before I went into it and I was a little surprised.

I was expecting the cast of characters to be on the edge of the indie kids' problems, but I think I liked the story better when the indie kid plot was background noise and had a smaller impact on the story. TRUSJLH (I'm lazy, okay) was a great way to explore how two different storylines can affect each other and poke fun at the superhero / YA supernatural tropes that tend to pop up. The two plots were woven together so well.

The cast of characters was amazingly varied. I was surprised by how unique each of the characters were and how human they were -- they were imperfect people and didn't find anything wrong in that. They accepted each other as they were and supported each other through the problems the story brought about.

I think the romance was realistic, too. It wasn't clear-cut, but it wasn't love-triangle indecision, either. It reflected the layers of relationships that build up the longer you're friends with someone. TRUSJLH was also sex-positive and was never condescending about the different relationships the characters had with each other.

I think that's about all I can say without getting into any spoilers. I managed to finish the book within a day, which is pretty unusual. Usually I can't sit still and focus for that long. I mean, I did spend 6 hours in the car that day, but I spent a lot of the ride reading rather than trying to sleep. Which doesn't happen often.

I might come back and update this review in the next few days to add some quotes and maybe a map. We'll see. I'm pretty sure I sticky-noted some things worth adding.

TL;DR I really really liked this book and it's probably going to be stuck in my head for a while.

Casanova Progress: Jan - Mar 2016

These posts are supposed to help keep me accountable for my Casanova progress over the course of the year. I can't say that they'll really work, but I say that about everything else pretty much. And it doesn't hurt to try. 

I made a post about my writing progress in general back in mid February, so I'm gonna do my best not to repeat anything I said then.

This was my total word count chart for January. I was still trying to recover from NaNo burnout, so I spent a lot of time working on Aperture since it was easier for me to write. I think it was good to give Casanova a down time of about two months before I picked it up again. I got about 1k words written the three days in January that I wrote for it. 

This is the chart I made for February. (I should've labeled the pictures, whoops.) I pushed myself to write at least 100 words a day for Casanova starting Feb 1st and it worked really well! I had some really good days where I got a lot of writing done. My average was about 375 words each day. 

Most of these are vignettes or scenes I wasn't really planning on using. I wrote a lot of fluff to get back into the habit of working on the story, but it also helped me decide on some key elements of the story I didn't touch before. 

This is my March chart. I thought I did better during March, but Excel is telling my average was about 331 words a day ... :{ I think I also had more motivation and ideas for Aperture than I did for Casanova. 

In regards to what I've actually written: I don't think I'm much closer to being able to having a complete draft, but I have done some decision-making on things that I left up in the air during NaNo. I've also been refining character relationships and interactions and what effect they have on the plot.

I wanted to get a full outline done by March 31st to have for Camp NaNo, but I completely slacked on it. I finally started it during NaNo and I'm counting it towards my word count. Which is probably cheating if you think about it. I don't think I've made any other effort to make a timeline, though, so it's coming in handy. Trying to write the whole story in bullet points is actually fun.

My goals for the next three months:

• assign names to the rest of the cast (which I was really supposed to do during March)
• actually use the outline I wrote and maybe get some feedback on it
• figure out which scenes I need that I've been avoiding and try to tweak or work around them

Hopefully things will go as planned! I'll have a post up at the end of the month to talk about how Camp NaNo went. 

Fave New Music -- Feb / Mar

Here's another music compilation! I think I'll just stick to every other month from here on out. 

I made a playlist and embedded it the same way I did for my Aperture 8 song challenge. If you're curious about all the songs or don't want to listen to all of them, click on the read more below!