Book Review – ‘Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution’ by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo

Title: Fat Angie: Rebel Girl Revolution
Author: e.E. Charlton-Trujillo
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Word/Page Count: 352 pages (hardcover)
Publication Details: by Walker Books Australia on May 1st, 2019
RRP: $19.99 AUD (hardcover)

Synopsis from Goodreads:

More trouble at school and at home — and the discovery of a missive from her late soldier sister — send Angie and a long-ago friend on an RV road trip across Ohio.

Sophomore year has just begun, and Angie is miserable. Her girlfriend, KC, has moved away; her good friend, Jake, is keeping his distance; and the resident bully has ramped up an increasingly vicious and targeted campaign to humiliate her. An over-the-top statue dedication planned for her sister, who died in Iraq, is almost too much to bear, and it doesn’t help that her mother has placed a symbolic empty urn on their mantel. At the ceremony, a soldier hands Angie a final letter from her sister, including a list of places she wanted the two of them to visit when she got home from the war. With her mother threatening to send Angie to a “treatment center” and the situation at school becoming violent, Angie enlists the help of her estranged childhood friend, Jamboree. Along with a few other outsiders, they pack into an RV and head across the state on the road trip Angie’s sister did not live to take. It might be just what Angie needs to find a way to let her sister go, and find herself in the process.

Note: I haven’t read the first book and thought this functioned fine as a standalone

I knew from the synopsis that this was going to be a tough confronting read. I took a chance on this anyway because I desperately crave representation for queer girls and because this promised a road trip with friends so I figured there would be light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how difficult the first few chapters may be.

The good part was that the road trip portion of the book was excellent, a much-needed relief from the angst and suffering of Angie’s everyday life. The down side was that this road trip actually didn’t happen til close to half way through the book! I struggled to make it that far because the first half of ‘Fat Angie’ was so heartbreaking and made me waver between despair and fury.

ARC Review – ‘Keep This To Yourself’ by Tom Ryan

Title: Keep This To Yourself
Author: Tom Ryan
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller
Publication Date: May 21st, 2019
Word/Page Count: 320 pages (hardcover)

Blurb from Goodreads:

It’s been a year since the Catalog Killer terrorized the sleepy seaside town of Camera Cove, killing four people before disappearing without a trace.

Like everyone else in town, eighteen-year-old Mac Bell is trying to put that horrible summer behind him—easier said than done since Mac’s best friend Connor was the murderer’s final victim. But when he finds a cryptic message from Connor, he’s drawn back into the search for the killer—who might not have been a random drifter after all. Now nobody—friends, neighbors, or even the sexy stranger with his own connection to the case—is beyond suspicion. Sensing that someone is following his every move, Mac struggles to come to terms with his true feelings towards Connor while scrambling to uncover the truth.

I had such a good time reading this! I found it really engaging and raced through it, completely hooked by the twists and turns, and legitimately shocked and impressed by the end. YA mysteries can be hit-and-miss, but I thought this was very satisfying and tightly plotted.

Book Review – ‘We Are Blood And Thunder’ by Kesia Lupo

Title: We Are Blood And Thunder
Author: Kesia Lupo
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Word/Page Count: 448 pages (paperback)
Publication Details: by Bloomsbury Australia on May 6th, 2019
RRP: $16.99 AUD (paperback)

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In a sealed-off city, it begins with a hunt. A young woman, Lena, running for her life, convicted of being a mage and sentenced to death. Her only way to survive is to trust those she has been brought up to fear – those with magic.

On the other side of the locked gates is a masked lady, Constance, determined to find a way back in. She knows only too well how the people of Duke’s Forest loathe magic. Years ago she escaped before her powers were discovered. But now she won’t hide who she is any longer.

A powerful and terrifying storm cloud unites them. It descends over the dukedom and devastates much in its wake. But this is more than a thunderstorm. This is a spell, and the truth behind why it has been cast is more sinister than anyone can imagine … Only Lena and Constance hold the key to destroying the spell. Though neither of them realise it, they need each other. They are the blood and they have the thunder within.

What a riveting fast-paced fantasy debut this is! I’m so impressed with the author for crafting two compelling female protagonists and a well-written standalone story for her first outing in this genre.

I’m a little over those long drawn-out series that end on cliffhangers in every installment, so it’s a blessed relief to experience a fully self-contained story in this book! I really appreciate the compact storytelling with clear plot arcs that are built on and paid off by the end of the book, complicated character dynamics that continuously evolve throughout plus fantastic world-building, all conveyed in beautifully flowing easy-to-read prose. There was a ton of detail communicated effortlessly without the reader being bogged down in exposition, and I could visualize everything so vividly.