Tag Archives: 2015 books

ARC Book Review: Cut Me Free by J.R. Johansson

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Cut Me Free CoverBook: Cut Me Free by J.R. Johansson

Expected Publication is January 27, 2015 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux|Expected Number Of Pages: 219

Where I Got It: netgalley.com

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary/Thriller/Mystery

Check out Cut Me Free on goodreads

Goodreads Summary: 

Seventeen-year-old Charlotte barely escaped from her abusive parents. Her little brother, Sam, wasn’t as lucky. Now she’s trying to begin the new life she always dreamed of for them, but never thought she’d have to experience alone. She’s hired a techie-genius with a knack for forgery to remove the last ties to her old life. But while she can erase her former identity, she can’t rid herself of the memories. And her troubled history won’t let her ignore the little girl she sees one day in the park. The girl with the bruises and burn marks.

That’s when Charlotte begins to receive the messages. Threatening notes left in her apartment–without a trace of entry. And they’re addressed to Piper, her old name. As the messages grow in frequency, she doesn’t just need to uncover who is leaving them; she needs to stop whoever it is before anyone else she loves ends up dead.

What I Thought:

I’m not sure what to think about Cut Me Free.  Based on the summary, I was expecting something dark.  It is YA, so I figured something dark but not too dark.

And yet, the book was more about her romance with the guy helping her erase her old life than it was with Charlotte dealing with everything that happened.  It wasn’t explored as much as I thought or hoped.  And this is usually something I don’t notice.  Even when I do, I’m usually willing to overlook because it tends to not bug me.  But this time?  It didn’t sit right. What we did see of her old life…her new life didn’t make a lot of sense to me.  I get why she wanted to forget, but I think I would have preferred for it to stay with her a little more.  I know it’s something people deal with in many different, and that Charlotte’s story may represent quite a few people.  But the summary made it seem like it was more important than it really was.  I felt like the story was going to be more about her past, and it wasn’t.  The lack of details about her past made it hard to care about her future.

I wish I didn’t need her backstory, but this was a case where I really needed it.  It just made me feel distanced and removed from what was going on in her life.  She also seemed to adapt very well for someone who was basically imprisoned in her own home as a child.  Honestly, for someone who was never properly socialized, she should have been a lot more naive and not as street smart as she was in the book.  All in all, she did not act how I thought someone who was been through what she has been through should act.

As a thriller, it’s your typical YA thriller.  Parts of it sort of surprised me, but if you want a decent YA thriller/mystery, you’d probably like this book.

As for the girl that Charlotte takes in, I get why she took her in, and that she recognized that herself in this girl, but it felt like such an afterthought.  Especially the part where you learn the girl was a victim of human trafficking.  It felt very glossed over and in there just to be in there.  Yes, that girl went through some horrible things and that Charlotte sees herself in that girl, wanting to protect her the way she couldn’t protect her brother.  But something about it didn’t sit right with me at all.

Let’s Rate It: 

Cut Me Free didn’t completely work for me.  I couldn’t relate or even sympathize with Charlotte and I felt like the book described in the summary was a very different book than the one I read.  It’s not for me, but something about this book was sort of compelling.  Cut Me Free gets 2 stars.

Book Review: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

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The Bluest Eye CoverBook: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Published July 2007 by Vintage|143 pages

Where I Got It: checked out the e-book from the library!

Series: None

Genre: Adult Literary Fiction/African-American Literature

Check out The Bluest Eye on goodreads

Goodreads Summary: 

Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in.Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.

What I Thought:

I’ve been on a Toni Morrison kick lately, and so I picked up The Bluest Eye.  It is what I’m coming to expect from a Toni Morrison novel, well before we knew Toni Morrison.

I liked The Bluest Eye, and I felt like this one, more than any of the other books I’ve read (except for Home) was about…life.  The one thing that I keep noticing with Morrison is that I pay much more attention to the writing than the actual story.  It’s weird, because the actual writing is something I almost never pay attention to.

But with Morrison, it’s all I seem to pay attention to, and The Bluest Eye is no exception. There are several different narrators of The Bluest Eye, and they all come together to tell the story of Pecola.  Honestly, it took me a while to realize that there were several different stories of some of the people in Pecola’s life, and I found myself having to go back and re-read certain parts of the book, because it was starting to not make sense to me.  It’s definitely one of those books that you have to read carefully.

I did like reading The Bluest Eye after reading some of her other books, because her writing style- which has grown and changed- is still relatively the same.

Let’s Rate It: 

While I only liked the story (and found the narration to be a bit all over the place), it’s hard to not like The Bluest Eye. Morrison really does know how to tell a story.  The Bluest Eye gets 3 stars.

Audio Book Review: School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins

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School Spirits CoverBook: School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins, Narrated by Cris Dukehart

Published August 2013 by Dreamscape Media|6 hours, 57 minutes

Where I Got It: Audible.com

Series: School Spirits #1 (or quite possibly a stand-alone, I can’t really tell)

Genre: YA Paranormal

You can find School Spirits on goodreads

Goodreads Summary: 

Fifteen-year-old Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy’s older sister vanishes without a trace while on a job, Izzy’s mom decides they need to take a break.

Izzy and her mom move to a new town, but they soon discover it’s not as normal as it appears. A series of hauntings has been plaguing the local high school, and Izzy is determined to prove her worth and investigate. But assuming the guise of an average teenager is easier said than done. For a tough girl who’s always been on her own, it’s strange to suddenly make friends and maybe even have a crush.

Can Izzy trust her new friends to help find the secret behind the hauntings before more people get hurt? 

What I Thought:

After listening to Hawkins’ Hex Hall series, I knew I had to read School Spirits, the Hex Hall spin-off focusing on Sophie’s prodigium-hunting cousins.

I liked School Spirits and I liked seeing Izzy work on a case, but at the same time, there was part of me that wished I had listened to Hex Hall again, just to get back into this world.  Still, it’s not necessary to read that series in order to read this book (but I will say that it may help).

I did like that Izzy got to be a normal girl, who went to school and had friends and a crush on a boy.  I was amused that her mom got her some t.v. shows and movies set in schools so that Izzy could learn what school was like.  That really seem liked something Hawkins would do, because I felt like she writes some great paranormal books while also poking at them a bit.

There is the mystery of the ghost, and I was kind of kicking myself for not figuring it out before, but it is one of those things that wasn’t too surprising.

I’m not too sure about how I feel about Dex and Izzy.  I mean, I guess I get it, but I also don’t really have strong feelings either way, and it does seem like things for them are pretty resolved at the end of the book.

Speaking of the end of the book…I’m still trying to figure out if it’s a series or not.  If it is a series, it looks like there’s no 2nd book in sight (understandable, since Hawkins likely has other books she’s working on) but at the same time, it does stand on its own pretty well.  And the ending, while resolved, does leave things open for the possibility of a sequel.  I’m hoping it happens, because I want resolution with what happens to her sister.

I think my favorite moment of the entire book was when Maya insisted on helping Izzy because Izzy didn’t have to do things alone.  It reminded me of that moment in Spell Bound when Sophie had a moment of being just a 17-year-old girl, and wondering how she was going to save the world.  I can see how easy it is for Izzy to feel like she needs to do everything herself, and prove that she is worthy of being a Brannick, but I also like that she had help from people who insisted on helping her.

And Cris Dukehart, narrator of the Hex Hall series, is back narrating this book!  I really like her as a narrator, but I have mixed feelings about her as narrating this book.  Mostly because she’s ingrained as Sophie, and it was hard to get used to her as Izzy.  But…ot was nice having her narrate a world that she’s familiar with.

Let’s Rate It:

I liked School Spirits, but not as much as Hex Hall.  Still, it was fun to listen to, and I think Hex Hall fans would like School Spirits.  School Spirits gets 3 stars.

Book Review: Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

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Afterworlds CoverBook: Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Published September 2014 by Simon Pulse|413 pages

Where I Got It: checked out the e-book from the library!

Series: None

Genre: YA- Half Paranormal/Half Contemporary

You can find Afterworlds on goodreads

Goodreads Summary: 

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld comes a smart, thought-provoking novel-within-a-novel that you won’t be able to put down.

Darcy Patel has put college on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. With a contract in hand, she arrives in New York City with no apartment, no friends, and all the wrong clothes. But lucky for Darcy, she’s taken under the wings of other seasoned and fledgling writers who help her navigate the city and the world of writing and publishing. Over the course of a year, Darcy finishes her book, faces critique, and falls in love.

Woven into Darcy’s personal story is her novel, Afterworlds, a suspenseful thriller about a teen who slips into the ‘Afterworld’ to survive a terrorist attack. The Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead, and where many unsolved and terrifying stories need to be reconciled. Like Darcy, Lizzie too falls in love – until a new threat resurfaces, and her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she cares about most.

What I Thought:

Afterworlds really is a unique book!  It’s a novel-within-a-novel, and there is something very meta about this entire book.

I’m really not kidding.  I did get the sense that Westerfeld was poking a bit at YA tropes and just the YA community in general, but in a really good way.

I don’t even know how to begin reviewing this book…but I guess I should start with Darcy’s story.  I really liked her story, and I liked seeing her navigate New York and the publishing world, especially with the help she finds in other awesome writers.  I don’t know what that world is like, but it is one that feels so real, like that’s what it is like for one person- and it really felt like bits and pieces of it may have come from Westerfeld’s own experience as a YA writer.

I also liked that we saw Darcy over the course of a year, and how much she went through with her book and her personal life. And I loved that in quite a few ways, her life intertwined with Lizzie’s story, and how much Darcy and Lizzie had in common. Which does make sense, since Lizzie is one of Darcy’s characters.  They both had these really big things happen that would change their lives, and I liked seeing both of their stories.

I really like that we not only see Darcy working on Afterworlds but that we get the actually Afterworlds story! And not just an excerpt or quotes but the full novel.  It was kind of disorienting at first, because you get thrown into both stories, and there’s nothing to indicate which story you’re reading.  But the two stories are so different that I knew which story was which in no time.

I also liked Lizzie’s story, especially at the beginning.  It’s so weird, because I really liked Darcy’s story as the book went on, and I liked Lizzie’s story less as the book went on.  Still, it’s an interesting way to tell a story, and I think there was a lot of potential for it to not work.  For me, it worked a lot better than I could have expected or imagined, but I think the way it’s told isn’t for everyone.  Given that Afterworlds is such a big part of Darcy’s life, and different aspects of it come up throughout the book, it makes sense that we would see Darcy’s story.  It would be a very different book if we didn’t have her fictional story, and Lizzie’s story helps Darcy’s story come to life.  Both stories need each other, and you see the effects that each story has on the other one.

I found the conversations about re-telling myths and stories that are part of a culture to be not your own to be really interesting, especially given all of the recent discussions about reading diversely.  Like, it’s okay that Darcy re-tells stories from Hinduism, because her family is from India (even though Darcy herself doesn’t seem particularly religious, and her family, from what we see of them, don’t seem to be particularly religious either).  I have no idea why I find it super-interesting, but I do.  Also, I love that her family is totally cool with Darcy having a girlfriend, and that it wasn’t a big deal when Darcy told them.

Let’s Rate It:

I really liked Afterworlds, and how you needed both stories in order to tell the other one.  I liked seeing how Darcy’s life and Lizzie’s life intertwine, and how both stories have an effect on the other one.  Darcy’s story is easily 5 stars, while I’d really have to give Lizzie’s story 3 stars, so overall, Afterworlds gets 4 stars.

Mini Book Review: The Faerie Guardian by Rachel Morgan

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The Faerie Guardian CoverBook: The Faerie Guardian by Rachel Morgan

Published October 2012 by Smashwords|237 pages

Where I Got It: Nook store

Series: Creepy Hollow #1

Genre: YA Paranormal- Faeries

You can find The Faerie Guardian on goodreads

Goodreads Summary: 

Enter a hidden world of magic, mystery, danger and romance in this YA fantasy from bestselling author, Rachel Morgan.

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until a cute human boy who can somehow see through her faerie glamour follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion.

The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? Not when you factor in evil faeries, long-lost family members, and inconvenient feelings of the romantic kind. Vi is about to find herself tangled up in a dangerous plot—and it’ll take all her training to get out alive.

What I Thought:

I liked The Faerie Guardian!  If there’s something I know, it’s a book about fairies, and given how many I’ve read (and want to read), trust me when I say that this book is quite different than a lot of other fairie books.

I LOVE the idea of faeries protecting the human population from some really nasty creatures.  And naturally, things go wrong right from the start.  Things are also pretty predictable, but it was still a fun read.  Most of all, I loved how detailed and intricate this world was, and it really made me want to see more of it.

I didn’t particularly care about the romance.  It was pretty obvious, as far as romances go, but I also felt like there wasn’t anything special between Violet and Nate.  It very much felt like they were together for the sake of being together.  On the other hand, I did like the relationship between Ryn and Violet, and how their story was resolved.  I honestly think they have better chemistry, and I’m hoping that eventually, it’s Ryn and Violet, even though I’m positive that it’ll be Nate and Violet in the end.

Speaking of Violet, she is a pretty awesome fairie, and I really liked her!  I can’t wait to see what she has deal with in the books to come.

Let’s Rate It:

I don’t have much to say about The Faerie Guardian, but I really like the concept and the world that Morgan wrote.  I’m not thrilled with the romance, and I’m desperately hoping that it doesn’t go the way I think it will. I didn’t love it, but it’s still a fun read.  The Faerie Guardian gets 3 stars.

A Super Short Book Review: A Shade Of Vampire by Bella Forrest

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A Shade Of Vampire CoverBook: A Shade Of Vampire by Bella Forrest

Published December 2012 by Smashwords|149 pages

Where I Got It: the Kindle store

Series: A Shade Of Vampire #1

Genre: YA Paranormal- Vampires

You can find A Shade Of Vampire on goodreads

Goodreads Summary: 

On the evening of Sofia Claremont’s seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake.

A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood.

She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine.

An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains.

Sofia’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince.

Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night.

Will she succeed? …or is she destined to the same fate that all other girls have met at the hands of the Novaks?

What I Thought:

Like most of the books I read (especially lately, it feels like), I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started A Shade Of Vampire. I was definitely surprised, and I really liked what Forrest did with her vampires.  A coven on an island, full of really powerful vampires, where the sun never shines, and they look to a royal Prince, who just awake from a coma that lasted centuries.

I liked A Shade Of Vampire, but honestly?  Trying to talk about why I liked it almost 2 weeks after finishing it…I’m finding that it doesn’t really stand out to me as a book.

Why Sofia’s blood is so important was interesting, but that’s basically the one thing I can remember.  Oh, and she manages to get off of the island, but I can’t remember if she stays or goes, because I feel like she wasn’t sure about what she wanted to do. I do remember feeling pretty meh about the romance, because they didn’t really have any chemistry- it really did feel bland to the point of being pointless.

To be even more honest, I am not sure what else to say about A Shade Of Vampire.  Although…I can imagine a group of vampires being called a shade.  Like, a parliament of owls, but with shade and vampires?  On second thought, maybe that makes more sense in my head…

It is pretty short, and I know there are a ton of books in this series, and it does make me wonder if all of the books are going to be around 150 pages.

Let’s Rate It:

I do like A Shade Of Vampire, but unfortunately, it’s a book that is proving to be not memorable a couple of weeks after finishing it.  Still, A Shade Of Vampire gets 3 stars.

ARC Book Review: When by Victoria Laurie

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When CoverBook: When by Victoria Laurie

Expected Publication: January 13, 2015 by Disney Hyperion|Expected Number Of Pages: 338

Where I Got It: an ARC from netgalley, which hasn’t influenced my review in any way.  Promise!

Series: none

Genre: YA Contemporary with a paranormal twist

You can find When on goodreads & Victoria Laurie on twitter and her website

Goodreads Summary: 

Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client’s young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie’s whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it’s too late?

What I Thought:

I liked When!  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect or where the story was going, but I was surprised with where the book went.

I thought that Maddie’s ability to see your death date is an interesting, even though it doesn’t quite work.  I don’t know how to explain it but maybe it’s because we only see her do it for a handful of people.  And there’s the fact that people pay her so they know when they (or someone they care about) will die.  People are very cautious around her. and she does get treated differently because of it.  I don’t blame them, but at the same time, it’s something she has no control over.  Personally, I wouldn’t want to know, because I would never be able to think of anything else, you know?

But it’s people wanting to know that gets Maddie into such a big mess.  I totally get why law enforcement turns to her, and why they don’t believe her.  And yet, her uncle is pretty resistant to them giving her a test to see she’s really not making things up. This would eventually led to me wanting to slap Maddie upside the head for her stupidity (there were other times when she did some pretty stupid things, but one moment in particular…just…there are no words.

I don’t know how I feel about the murder mystery.  Maddie knowing people’s death dates made her a likely suspect (alongside her best friend) and the person behind things was unexpected.

What was most frustrating was the fact that the FBI would not her or Stubby alone- but especially Maddie. Things were really circumstantial, and while I understand their focus on her, I think they definitely took it too far.

I did like the link between the disappearing kids, which, now that I think about it, should have been able to figure it out.  And I liked that it was something people knew, which is a nice change from keeping it hidden.  I really liked that her uncle was there for her, and that she had Stubby.  And her one neighbor was such an awesome person who looked in on Maddie and made sure she was okay.

Let’s Rate It:

I liked When, because the idea is interesting, and it was hard for me to put down at times.  But I’m also torn, because the mysteries combined with her abilities didn’t completely work (but I think Laurie did make a really effort).  When gets 3 stars.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Most Anticipated Debut Novels For 2015

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, bloggers from all over share their own top ten list based on the topic of the week.  You can find all Top Ten Tuesdays here.

Top Ten Most Anticipated Debut Novels For 2015

I honestly don’t pay a lot of attention to when books come out, but I have to admit that I always like seeing which debut books are coming out.  These 10 really got my attention!  (PS- all links go to goodreads!)

  1. A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas.  Is it just me, or does it seem like there are quite a few Aurora/Sleeping Beauty re-tellings coming out?  This one seems particularly interesting, since it focuses on happily ever after.
  2. The Sacred Lies Of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes.  I don’t know why I’m fascinated with stories about girls escaping from religious communes, but I like the sound of this one.
  3. The Wrong Side Of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne.  This book is described as equal parts Princess Diaries and My Life Next Door, and as I love both, I’m even more curious about than I already was.
  4. Damage Done by Amanda Panitch.  A girl dealing with her brother’s crime, and a new, secret identity?  This sounds like my kind of book!
  5. The Distance Between Lost And Found by Kathryn Holmes.  A girl choosing not to talk after an incident with a preacher’s son, and then gets stranded on a mountain several months later?  I’m excited because I like the idea of a getting stranded on a mountain.
  6. The Conspiracy Of Us by Maggie Hall.  A YA book in the vein of The Da Vinci Code?  Sold.
  7. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard.  Just based on the summary, I totally see the comparisons to The Hunger Games and Divergent.
  8. Skyscraping by Cordelia Jensen.  Family secrets abound in this book, especially because of a parent that has HIV.
  9. The Girl At Midnight by Melissa Grey.  This one really reminds me of Shadow And Bone, City Of Bones, and Daughter Of Smoke And Bone, which means I’ll (hopefully) like this book.  I mean, an ancient people with feathers for hair, living underground in New York City!  Totally different.
  10. An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir.  It’s set in a Rome-like world, which is super-intriguing.

Book Review: Home by Toni Morrison

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Home CoverBook: Home by Toni Morrison

Published May 2012 by Knopf Doubleday|160 pages

Where I Got It: the library

Series: None

Genre: Adult Literary Fiction/African-American Literature

You can find Home on goodreads

Goodreads Summary: 

The latest novel from Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.

An angry and self-loathing veteran of the Korean War, Frank Money finds himself back in racist America after enduring trauma on the front lines that left him with more than just physical scars. His home–and himself in it–may no longer be as he remembers it, but Frank is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from, which he’s hated all his life. As Frank revisits the memories from childhood and the war that leave him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he thought he could never possess again. A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding his manhood–and his home.

What I Thought:

I really liked Home!  I read Sula and Beloved a few years ago, and while I liked them, I wasn’t completely into them.  But I figured it was a good time to give Morrison another try, and I’m actually really glad I did.

I really liked Frank, and how he had to deal with memories and what happened in Korea.  And he goes on a journey to help his sister, who went through some horrible things herself.  I really like seeing his memories and how he got to be the person we see at the beginning of the novel to how he became the person we see at the end of the novel.

I was struck by how Frank was trying to deal with everything that’s happened, and how he was trying to find his place after coming home.  You could tell how hard it was for him, and it’s something that still rings true today- with all of the stories of soldiers coming back with health issues and PTSD, and all of the recent events in places like Ferguson, you see how we’ve changed a lot, but at the same time, it’s still something that we’re dealing with.

Home is short, but Morrison makes every word count.  It’s simple and beautiful and this is one of the very rare books where I’m more interested in the actual writing than the story (even the story is great too).  Seriously, if you want to study writing, Toni Morrison is such a great place to start.  She can write, and she does it so well.

Let’s Rate It:

I really liked seeing Frank have to deal with so much, and even though his story takes place after the Korean war, so many things (like racism and PTSD) are still relevant today.  It’s also a simple but beautifully written book, and of the 3 books I’ve read by Morrison, I think this is a really good one to start with if you’ve never read Morrison.  Home gets 4 stars.