“Mexican Gothic” is a novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia that blends horror and historical fiction. Set in the 1950s, it follows a young woman named Noemí who goes to check on her cousin after receiving a disturbing letter. Her investigation leads her to a mysterious mansion in the Mexican countryside where she encounters secrets and eerie occurrences. The story delves into themes of family, colonialism, and what lurks beneath the surface of a seemingly charming facade.

In 1946, Eva leaves behind the rubble of Berlin for the streets of New York City, stepping from the fiery aftermath of one war into another, far colder one, where power is more important than principles, and lies are more plentiful than the truth. Eva holds the key to a deadly secret: Project Bluebird -- a horrific experiment of the concentration camps, capable of tipping the balance of world power. Both the Americans and the Soviets want Bluebird, and it is something that neither should ever be allowed to possess.

But Eva hasn't come to America for secrets or power. She hasn't even come for a new life. She has come to America for one thing: justice. And the Nazi that has escaped its net.

The only down side is it is very lengthy, but totally worth it.

Essentially, a man is attending college. He wants to join the ancient Greek class, but it is super mysterious and he is suspicious of what they learn. And then evil things happen MWAHAHAHAHAHHA

(TW murder, suicide, brief mentions of sex)

They Both Die at the End meets The Bell Jar in this haunting, beautiful young adult novel-in-verse about clinical depression and healing from trauma, from National Book Award Finalist Amber McBride.
Whimsy is back in the hospital for treatment of clinical depression. When she meets a boy named Faerry, she recognizes they both have magic in the marrow of their bones. And when Faerry and his family move to the same street, the two start to realize that their lifelines may have twined and untwined many times before.
They are both terrified of the forest at the end of Marsh Creek Lane.
The Forest whispers to Whimsy. The Forest might hold the answers to the part of Faerry he feels is missing. They discover the Forest holds monsters, fairy tales, and pain that they have both been running from for 11 years.

(TW abuse, neglect)

(TW language, infidelity, teenage pregnancy, and abortion)

In "Bright Red Fruit", we view the world through the eyes of Samira, a Sudanese-American girl with a million reasons to be rebellious: her mother, her culture, and most importantly, Horus. Having met the older poet on an online forum, Samira ends up venturing down a path that rips her trust and friends away from her.

The words to best describe this novel in verse are: shocking, enraging, and beautiful. Safia Elhillo's poetry manages to sound like prose with half as many words, creating beautiful imagery that easily makes you sympathize with Samira's decisions (even if you won't always agree with them). This is my favorite retelling of the Persephone myth, and I believe "Bright Red Fruit" is a great work to spark an interest in the novel-in-verse genre.

(TW adult/minor relationship, toxic relationship, sexual assault, emotional abuse)

I liked this book because it was a pretty chill story idea but had some cute romance in it. I like seeing how the two main characters grew from year to year and dealt with their struggles.

Slight spoilers: one thing that bothered me was that they could recall the previous Sunrise Night with complete clarity. That's just unrealistic. For the reader, it makes sense because its only like 20 pages later. But for the characters, it has been a full year since they saw each other and some of the details would have faded. It's such a minor detail but it kinda bothered me.

Veda has a passion for Bharatanatyam dance and has excelled at it. On the way home from a competition, the vehicle she is in gets into a serious accident, resulting in her needing her right leg amputated. The people around her believe she will never dance again, but she refuses to believe this and does all she can to prove them wrong.

I really enjoyed this book and I was able to read it pretty quickly. I also love to dance so that's what drove me in in the first place but it was cool to learn more about a style that I have no experience with at all.

Wow. This book is truly something. I would not recommend reading this unless you are in the correct headspace to do so. This book is about a girl who is sent to a mental hospital because she was found "cutting" at school. This book has many themes including mental health, neglect, broken relationships, grief, and healing. I really thought this book was very good. It brought me to tears multiple times because I could personally relate to some of the lines and struggles that Kenna, (the main character) was going through. However, there are many heavy and depressing topics discussed in the story. The main theme is self-harm, which is discussed in graphic detail and was often very upsetting to read at times. Although I enjoyed it and the writing and message was beautiful, I would make sure to do something happy afterwards to recover from this emotional rollercoaster.

I really enjoyed this book as it was surprisingly sweet and heartwarming for such a quick read. The themes remind me a lot of the book Wonder but in poetry form and much more concise. A great part of it is how you see the struggles of characters (like Callie's mom and Beatriz) who were seen as rude or inconsiderate but turn out to be going through really hard things as well.

I would highly recommend this book, especially for a younger audience. It was cute and still had a lot of symbolism.

The poetic nature, along with the decision to put all dialogue in italics, made the book feel like living through a memory. However, despite how well the story was told in this poetic format, I believe that the intensity of their experience (and the story as a whole) could have been conveyed much better through a structure closer to prose, as there were many details that could have been explored with much more nuance and in greater depth.

Overall, I think this book handles the original story very well and still manages to communicate intense despair and hope in a beautiful way.

He’s got his whole future ahead of him. He is passionate about art and poetry, and was looking forward to being accepted to a program geared toward the arts. Now, it seems like all of that is gone.

Until the boy wakes up, Amal is stuck. Or so he thinks. Once he finds out that the juvenile institution has art classes, he finds some sort of purpose, even though he’s been forced into this jail cell.

This story shows Amal’s growth and tug-of-war with emotion and reality. Anything could happen. He’ll go nowhere just punching the air, expecting it to fix things.

The story focuses around Whimsy (a conjurer), and Faerry ( a fae/witch). The story starts out with more of a realistic setting, in the real world, in a mental hospital. But then, in a metaphor of facing grief and sorrow, the setting shifts into more of a magical world filled to the brim with fairytale creatures in a haunted forest. The haunted forest is haunted by the ghost "Sorrow" and represents Whimsy's sorrow.

Throughout the book, both Whimsy and Faerry get trapped in the haunted forest (their sorrow and depression) and must work together to escape and make it past all tests and challenges the forest throws at them (find their way out of the sorrow and begin to be happier again).

I honestly really enjoyed this book. Some of the metaphors I wished were a little clearer, (though that might have just been things going over my head). The author, Amber McBride, did a good job of making the story feel magical while also keeping some of the really dark aspects that we have in real life mental illness.

I really enjoyed the structure of the poetry, as well as the flow of the story. As far as the plot, it made me sad and nauseous at times, but that is what it is supposed to make you feel.

It deals with themes of domestic violence, verbal abuse, and sexual violence.

Overall, I would rate it a 4/5 stars. Would read again.

It’s a traumatic story of a talented female artist in Rome, where she’s used and objectified by every man in her life, and later r*ped in her own sanctuary.

Her father who is the owner of the studio claims all of Artemisia’s work by signing it himself. And belittles her everyday through criticism of her work when his skill cannot even compare to hers.

Her useless brothers who somehow have more rights and freedom than she ever will but do 0.01 % of the work she does.

And worst of all, Her art teacher, who at first was a playful flirt but shows his true colors after artemisia rejects him.

Artemisia has to fight against the patriarchal society of men in order to get justice after her teacher r*pes her.

Somehow this book makes me so disgusted yet it’s such a good representation of woman suffrage ESPECIALLY as an artist.

"White Rose" tells the true story of a young college student, Sophie, and her brother Hans, secretly distributing anti-war and anti-Hitler leaflets in Nazi Germany. The story is not written chronologically, which can be confusing, but also provides relief from heavy parts of the plot. I enjoyed hearing what went into making these leaflets and what they made the main character and others think. One thing I thought was unique is almost every poem is either written in the perspective of Sophie or the Gestapo officer that catches her. It was good read, not lighthearted, but inspiring.

Overall, I enjoyed this book! Their unique family situation was something that I found really interesting. Their dad is a jobless alcoholic, and their little sister is obsessed with ballet. They survive solely off of their mom's paycheck (somehow..) and we get to see their experience going to a public high school for the first time ever, befriending two new people, and seeing them (mainly Grace) fall in love for the first time as well.

I will say, I think this book could've benefitted from seeing the perspectives of each family member, instead of just hearing Grace's perspective. But even so, I still really enjoyed Grace's narrative!

Lastly, one thing I found to be a bit problematic was how the author was speaking on the experience of that of a conjoined twin, despite never having been one herself. I found this problematic because throughout the book, she describes how Grace feels being perceived as "abnormal" or even in some cases "a monster" in the eyes of someone "regular/normal" despite the fact that she (the author) is someone "regular/normal" and therefore would never truly know how it feels.

But if I'm just talking about the contents of the book, I liked it! There were enough plot twists to keep me turning the pages, but not too many that I felt overwhelmed. Definitely more of a cozy read (in my opinion), but the ending WAS SO SAD, although I do think it was necessary.

Beyond the fact that they're both sad, there is something different about these kids... Major epic twist at the end! :0 Well-foreshadowed, but I didn't see it coming. While a lot of the writing can be kind of average, certain sections are very potent and can really make you connect with the characters and their feelings. Since it's a novel in verse it's also a nice quick read you can knock out in a couple evenings if you want.

4/5 stars idk how to add the rating thing that y'all did