Kareila's Bookshelf

This 2005 book is technically a reread, but I was surprised to recently learn that it had received sequels in 2012 and 2015. The first time I read it was before I started keeping this journal, and I feel that it deserves a review.

This a juvenile fantasy book, but it's not really about a princess. It's about a girl who lives in a remote mining town in the mountains. The faraway king hears a prophecy that the prince will marry a girl from that town, so an academy is established to educate every girl of marriageable age who lives there, ensuring that whomever the prince eventually chooses to be his bride will be suitable for the role.

To complicate things further, it is gradually revealed that all of the miners can commune telepathically through shared memory, an ability that they call quarry-speech. The heroine, Miri, uses this ability along with her wits and courage to ensure the success of the academy's students and the safety of the town.

What I particularly appreciate about this story, in addition to the subtle feminism, is that there are very few villains despite the tension and character conflicts. Everyone is trying to do their best, and no one is beyond redemption.

Finally finished this, although the next book is scheduled to be published in May. The author has hinted that the tenth book should be the last, which implies a certain amount of ( spoiler? )

The plot points that I thought were going to be important in this book got resolved relatively quickly and painlessly, leaving lots of pages to spend on twists that no one saw coming. My loudest complaint (to my friend who encouraged me to read these) was getting bogged down at the very beginning just going through what was collected from the previous floor, plus multiple flashback scenes to include other backstories. Once things finally started happening again, it moved forward pretty quickly.

I've had this on my TBR pile since purchasing the graphic novel at Powell's ten years ago, but that copy is still gathering dust on my shelf. Instead I listened to the audiobook adaptation today while working through some ill-considered seasonal gift knitting. It's sweet and poignant, with more emotional depth than I expected from the premise.

Not as creepy as The Brides of High Hill, but still extremely grim, with themes of famine and cannibalism.

This is a juvenile chapter book that follows two teenage female cousins, one American and one French, on a mystery hunt across Paris. It's cute and predictable, but the riddles and puzzles are actually well-constructed challenges that would introduce young readers to several common encoding concepts. I would have bought this for my own kids when they were younger.

This book and its sequel, Secrets of the Purple Pearl, are best described as a frothy mashup of A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Mysterious Benedict Society, perhaps with a side of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. They're amusing and entertaining, but there's no real sense of compelling stakes involved in the action. I also feel obligated to point out that the "mad science" isn't actually science, just mystery and discovery. That being said, I definitely get the sense that the namesake Millicent Quibb intentionally invokes some of the author's best known roles: Jillian Holtzmann from the first Ghostbusters remake, Weird Barbie from the Barbie movie, and Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus Rides Again.

This book surprised and delighted me. It came recommended years ago by a member of my Mystery Hunt team, and with the spooky season approaching, I decided that I was finally in the right mood to see what it had to offer.

I don't want to say too much, but: it's set in Boston, and the location details were extremely authentic, so that was a big plus. The top two "if you liked this, also check out" books recommended by the author herself were The Westing Game and The Starless Sea, both of which I adored. If these also sound like selling points to you, definitely don't miss it.

Content warnings: grief, death, violence, gaslighting, domestic abuse

I have finally found the book that I would hand to anyone looking for an adequate orientation guide to our state's big college football rivalry, the importance of which is impossible to overstate and completely baffles people who didn't grow up steeped in the lore. (Or who did and just didn't care enough to pay attention, like my own kids.) It does an admirable job of presenting the facts on both sides and balancing the scales between them. That being said, it does keep things breezy by skimming and summarizing some eras, which is fine, because the book would be as thick as a brick otherwise.

This is a tale of mortals and faerie in a similar vein to The River Has Roots. Alas, this one felt much less compelling by comparison. The magic used here doesn't spring from the land, but instead from the hearts of selfish people who only harm themselves in seeking to curse others, culminating in a happy ending won by equal parts bravery, trickery, and convenient prophecy.

Although this YA story is pretty bleak, it is refreshing to encounter a protagonist who is believably autistic without being infantilized or abused for it. Living in a civilized country (the Netherlands) probably helps.

Content warnings: apocalypse, animal euthanasia, drug abuse, character death, ableism, betrayal