Me on All the Crooked Saints

Title: All the Crooked Saints
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: October 10, 2017
Publisher: Scholastic Press

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars. At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo. They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.

All the Crooked Saints is a heavy book, full of the weight of all the characters and what makes them up. Their wants and their fears. Their secrets. The important things left unspoken.

It's hard to describe this book, like it is whenever I read a Maggie Stiefvater book. This seems so much like a book about people and their interpersonal relationships as opposed to a magical realism story about people and their interpersonal relationships. The magical realism is still there, the priest with a coyote's head and the twins tied together by a large snake, but to me it felt weighted down by the characters and their decisions. After The Raven Cycle, a series I found to be full of magic coursing through winds and whispers and trees, this felt far different. Slow. Heavy with shadow. Unfortunately for me, for my reading tastes, I didn't enjoy it as much as her previous books, but I imagine others might feel different.

(I received an advance copy of this title from Scholastic Canada.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (350)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Blood Water Paint
Author: Joy McCullough
Release Date: March 6, 2018
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers (Penguin imprint)

From Goodreads:

A stunning debut novel based on the true story of the iconic painter, Artemisia Gentileschi.

Her mother died when she was twelve, and suddenly Artemisia Gentileschi had a stark choice: a life as a nun in a convent or a life grinding pigment for her father's paint.

She chose paint.

By the time she was seventeen, Artemisia did more than grind pigment. She was one of Rome's most talented painters, even if no one knew her name. But Rome in 1610 was a city where men took what they wanted from women, and in the aftermath of rape Artemisia faced another terrible choice: a life of silence or a life of truth, no matter the cost.

He will not consume
my every thought.
I am a painter.
I will paint.

Joy McCullough's bold novel in verse is a portrait of an artist as a young woman, filled with the soaring highs of creative inspiration and the devastating setbacks of a system built to break her. McCullough weaves Artemisia's heartbreaking story with the stories of the ancient heroines, Susanna and Judith, who become not only the subjects of two of Artemisia's most famous paintings but sources of strength as she battles to paint a woman's timeless truth in the face of unspeakable and all-too-familiar violence.

I will show you
what a woman can do.

This definitely seems like one of those will absolutely wreck you books. It'll leave me a blubbering mess, but I want to read it. :)

Me on This Darkness Mine

Title: This Darkness Mine
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Release Date: October 10, 2017
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins imprint)

Sasha Stone knows her place—first-chair clarinet, top of her class, and at the side of her oxford-wearing boyfriend. She's worked her entire life to ensure that her path to Oberlin Conservatory as a star musician is perfectly paved. But suddenly there's a fork in the road, in the shape of Isaac Harver. Her body shifts toward him when he walks by, her skin misses his touch even though she's never known it, and she relishes the smell of him—smoke, beer, and trouble—all the things she's avoided to get where she is. Even worse, every time he's near Sasha, her heart stops, literally. Why does he know her so well—too well—and she doesn't know him at all? Sasha discovers that her by-the-book life began by ending another's: the twin sister she absorbed in the womb. But that doesn't explain the gaps of missing time in her practice schedule or the memories she has of things she certainly never did with Isaac. As Sasha loses her much-cherished control, her life—and heart—become more entangled with Isaac. Armed with the knowledge that her heart might not be hers alone, Sasha must decide what she's willing to do—and who she's willing to hurt—to take it back.

This Darkness Mine is dark, eerie, and twisted. It's an exploration of character, a look at what makes us us, how the pieces that make us up form us. But what if something inside our bodies wasn't ours to begin with?

Sasha is intelligent and gifted, she's methodical. A little cold, a little manipulative and calculating, but she knows what she wants. Friends who accept her as she is. A boyfriend who won't pressure her too much but knows what to do and what to say. A straight path to Oberlin and being a star clarinet player. Her future is ahead of her, bright and waiting. Until Issac Harver's name appears in her phone, in her text messages. Until he starts bringing up some rather personal details about her that no one should know. Until her heart stops beating, revealing a dark secret. Leaving Sasha with the knowledge that her heart might not actually be hers.

This felt very much like a psychological thriller kind of horror story. There's a lot to wonder about Sasha, her heart, and her lost twin. Were the messages and the moments with Issac really with her twin? Or was it all Sasha, looking for an escape after years of forcing herself to be prim and proper and hopefully successful? There's a lot about Sasha's mental state that I wondered about. The story as a whole didn't necessarily unfold the way I thought it would, but I would recommend this to those interested in creepy psychological thrillers.

(I downloaded an e-galley of this title from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.)

Me on This Week's Book Week (279)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

Hi there! It's been a cool-ish but sunny fall so far, but it looks like there'll be a bit of rain coming.

I'm so sorry that there wasn't a review up on Friday. I was laid up with a pretty bad head cold this week, all stuffed up and drowsy and useless, so I couldn't get though any books read or get any posts written. But I'm getting better and reviews will be back up starting on Tuesday.

Reviews going up this week will feature This Darkness Mine by Mindy McGinnis (Tuesday) and All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater (Friday). :)

Bought/borrowed/received:

Renegades by Marissa Meyer (ARC from Raincoast Books)
Last Star Burning by Caitlin Sangster (e-galley from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley)

Me on Berserker

Title: Berserker
Author: Emmy Laybourne
Release Date: October 10, 2017
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan imprint)

Her brother Stieg swears their powers are a gift from the old gods, but Hanne Hemstad knows she is truly cursed. It's not Stieg's fault that their father is dead, their mother has left, and their brother Knut has been accused of a crime he didn't commit. No, the fault lies with Hanne and her inability to control her murderous "gift"--she is a Berserker. When someone she loves is threatened, she flies into a killing state. The siblings must leave Norway for the American frontier or risk being brought to justice. Aided by a young cowboy who agrees to be their guide, Hanne and her siblings use their powers to survive the perilous trail, where blizzards, wild animals, and vicious bounty hunters await.

Berserker is a fast-paced journey towards hope and away from sorrow. It's a story of rage and death and fear, a story about a girl afraid to embrace the dangerous power that lives inside her. But to save her family, she'll have to harness that power.

Hanne is quiet, stoic. Strong. Protective of her family. She's also the holder of an ancient gift passed down from the god-king Odin through families, like her father and brothers are. Hanne is a Berserker, destined to fly into an unstoppable rage if any she cares about are threatened and will stop at nothing until those who wish harm are dead. But all she sees is a murderer, a monster. She wishes she'd never been given this gift. Until some drunk men appear, threatening her father, and Hanne's gift takes over once again. Now she and her siblings are on the run, tagging onto her brother Stieg's plan to leave Norway for America. But the gifts of families like Hanne's are desired by others, those who would seek to use them for their own purposes, and all siblings must be cautious for many reasons.

This is a bit of a short book but it does pack a punch. There's Hanne's inner struggles, her strained relationship with her sister Sissel, the culture shock and discoveries they make once the 4 siblings make land in America, and the inclusion of guide and cowboy Owen Bennett, a young man with a secret in his past and hope for the future. If he can only make a little money. I would certainly recommend this to readers looking for more standalone stories, those wanting something a little different in the late 1800's American West. Those wanting a contained story about a young woman who struggles so hard with what lurks inside of her, a young woman whose mind is at war with her instincts.

(I received an advance copy of this title from Raincoast Books.)