Dear Martin by Nic Stone

My rating: ☆☆☆☆/☆☆☆☆☆ (4 stars)

Pages: 210

Favorite quote: “You can’t change how other people think and act, but you’re in full control of you.”

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Book Summary (from Goodreads)

Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can’t escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.

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My Thoughts

This is such a relevant novel. Anyone who likes YA, and even those who don’t, should read this. This book tackles serious issues in an incredibly moving way.

I rarely read contemporary novels, and if I do read contemporary they’re hardly ever from a guy’s perspective. So reading Dear Martin from the perspective of a young, modern, boy was different for me. I enjoyed the writing though, and I liked the story. This definitely isn’t a relaxing read. Reading about racists and gun violence could never be relaxing. But I am so glad this story was told, because I think people can learn a lot from Justyce, SJ, Manny, and even Jared. In my lifetime I have encountered Jareds. One in particular comes to the forefront of my mind. A college athlete in one of my classes did a presentation on how he was at a disadvantage in sports because he’s white, and that’s racist against him. So there are Jareds all over the world, and unfortunately most of them probably won’t change like Jared-in-the-novel did.

Overall, this was a wonderfully relevant novel. Even if you’re not a reader, pick this up! It’s only 200 pages, and I guarantee you’ll walk away with a new perspective.

“You ever consider that maybe you not supposed to ‘fit’? People who make history rarely do.”

Love, Hate, & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

My rating: ☆☆/☆☆☆☆☆ (2.5 stars)

Pages: 281

Favorite quote: “My love for you is deathless.”

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Book Summary (from Goodreads)

A searing #OwnVoices coming-of-age debut in which an Indian-American Muslim teen confronts Islamophobia and a reality she can neither explain nor escape–perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Jacqueline Woodson, and Adam Silvera.

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My Thoughts

I am giving this 2.5 stars. Everyone has been raving about it, and honestly I just didn’t like it that much. I’m not a huge fan of contemporary novels, so already I was taking a risk reading this. I thought about giving it three stars, but 2 stars for me means that is was okay, not good. It was an okay novel. Definitely not a bad one, but just okay.

I appreciate that this is an own voices novel. I’m trying not to critique the family dynamic too much because it is an own voices novel, but it did seem a little cliche to me. Actually, a lot of this book followed the standard contemporary romance template. There’s the main character, who’s shy and doesn’t really party and go out with boys, but all of the sudden has multiple love interests. There’s the rich, beautiful, flirtatious best friend. And of course there’s the ever-present swimming scene, where the main character and her love interest have to go swimming in some secluded location, the guy has to turn around while she gets in the water, and the sparks fly.

Love, Hate, & Other Filters ultimately wasn’t anything special for me. I think it had the potential to really dive deeper into some of the issues surrounding Islamaphobia, white supremacy, and hate crimes, but it didn’t. While I wish it would have done more with those themes and less with the romance, at the same time I do respect that this is the story of one high school girl, and that’s the way the author chose to portray it.

“It’s selfish and horrible, but in this terrible moment, all I want is to be a plain old American teenager… who isn’t a presumed terrorist first and an American second.”

 

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

My rating: ☆☆☆☆/☆☆☆☆☆ (4 stars)

Pages: 320

Favorite quote: “Are you coming?”

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Book Summary (from Amazon)

An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.

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My Thoughts

I saw this book at work one day and decided I was finally going to read it. I was initially hesitant to pick this up because it’s written in verse, but I actually enjoyed reading it so much. Long Way Down is definitely a fast read. I think I read it in maybe an hour.

I was only a few pages in when I started to tear up a little. Long Way Down is incredibly moving and impactful. I think the fact that it’s written in verse contributes greatly. If you’re not a fan of poetry or verse, I would still recommend reading this.

Too often the victims of gun/gang violence are overlooked and forgotten. This is especially true of the victim’s families. Long Way Down gave a raw, insightful look into what happens to those affected by gun violence and the loss of a loved one.

I am actually going to have the opportunity to hear Jason Reynolds speak this March. I can’t wait to get a book signed by him and to hear what he has to say.

“but if the blood

inside you is on the inside

of someone else,

you never want to

see it on the outside of

them.”

 

Eliza and Her Monsters
by Francesca Zappia

My rating: ★★★★★/★★★★★

I received Eliza and Her Monsters in the May OwlCrate box, and I was really happy with this book choice. I don’t read much contemporary, so I love it when book subscription boxes include contemporary because it allows me to branch out from my usual fantasy reading habits. Normally when I receive a book from OwlCrate, it takes me a while, sometimes months, to get around to reading it. But for some reason, I just really wanted to read Eliza and Her Monsters, so I started it the very next day! I finished this book in two days, so clearly I loved it a lot! I was immediately drawn into the story and the characters, and I found this to be a refreshing and completely relatable contemporary novel. I’m sure most of us don’t run a weekly webcomic like Eliza, but her emotions and feelings throughout the book are so relatable, and I’m sure that nearly all teenagers have felt like her at some point.
This novel also dealt with social media and the online world and how older generations don’t fully understand it. I thought this was very interesting, because I think that the way Eliza keeps the extent of her webcomic a secret from her family is probably very similar to the circumstances of many kids/teens/even older people today. I feel like lots of bookstagram accounts, and even super popular twitter accounts, or just Instagram models etc. don’t tell their families about how popular their accounts are, so I just found this theme to be a very real one.
Eliza and Her Monsters also contained drawings throughout which was so cool! They were drawings from Eliza’s webcomic, Monstrous Sea. It also included snippets of Wallace’s written transcription of Monstrous Sea, which I really loved. Another interesting thing about this book is that it mentions the novels The Children of Hypnos, which Eliza and Wallace both love. Fun fact, you can actually read The Children of Hypnos! Since I loved Francesca’s writing so much, I can’t wait to catch up on this!

Follow me on Instagram to see my unboxing of the May OwlCrate box! @maevereads

Check out Francesca Zappia’s website and read The Children of Hypnos here or here!

Buy Eliza and Her Monsters using my Book Depository affiliate link and get free shipping!

The Love That Split The World
by Emily Henry

Normally I never would have bought this book for myself, but I received this in one of my recent OwlCrate boxes, and I included this in my May TBR pile, so I felt like I had to read it. The first half of this book mostly felt like contemporary to me, and that’s probably why I didn’t really like it. I’m fairly picky when it comes to what contemporary books I like, and most contemporary novels I read end up having pretty much the same story line. Girl meets boy.

However, the second half of this book was definitely more interesting to me. It kind of focused less on the boy/friend/family issues, and more on the supernatural aspect of the plot.

This book is based on time/world travel, which of course is a hard topic to explain and write about, so I’m not sure I fully understand what was really happening but I think I get the gist of it. Some of the passages that explained the travel were pretty confusing, and I had to reread them a few times. 

Overall, I gave this book 3/5 stars, and I would recommend it to people who really enjoy contemporary writing. 

Buy TLTSTW from Book Depository and get FREE shipping!


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The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
Published March 2016

I received this book in one of my OwlCrate boxes, I believe it was the March Box. After I read the summary of the book, I was hesitant to read it because I couldn’t tell what it was really about, and it was contemporary, and normally I don’t read contemporary because I find it boring. I’m much more of a fantasy girl.

But then I finished reading Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare, and I only had a few books in my dorm room, so I decided to try this one, and I am so glad I did!

This book is a wonderful story about three teenagers who live in Tennessee and are all getting ready for their lives after college. This book talked about many themes that I think are very relevant in teens lives nowadays, and it did it in a very realistic way. If anyone is feeling sad or confused about what the heck they are supposed to do after high school or even college, I would recommend reading this. If you enjoy Rainbow Rowell, or John Green then you will definitely like this book. Although Zentner did pull some John Green-esque moves that made me want to cry. That’s all the warning you get.

I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads, and added it to my favorites shelf. It’s definitely a book I will be rereading sometime in the future. Also, I started posting more pictures of what I’m reading and my OwlCrate unboxing on my Instagram.

Find Jeff here: http://www.jeffzentnerbooks.com

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