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.