

To Make Monsters Out Of Girls
I do not like poetry, with the sole exception of Emily Dickinson. But this was alright. Lovelace creates a very compelling storyline about her own personal history in so few words and such a small space. I’m not sure how to write a summary, beyond that she takes a very personal matter and decides to share it with the general public. I’m not terribly great at critically reading poetry, and I was terrible at critiquing it in my creative writing courses. I suppose it’s because I


Invisible Cities
I was introduced to Calvino in a creative writing class my sophomore year of college, so when I saw this book at work… Marco Polo has been tasked by Kublai Khan to travel his domain and return to describe the cities he’s come across. Separated into several categories, the cities are presented to the Khan while he and Polo discuss their existence. There was one specific chapter, Cities & the Sky 4, that didn’t sit well with me, specifically the descriptions of the ‘undesirable


Witches of Ash and Ruin
Lots of witches, very little ash, and not really any ruin. Dayna is a witch in the small Irish town of Carman. Her father is the local reverend, and with her mother out of the picture, Dayna spends most of her time with her best friend, Reagan, and her coven of witches. When dark omens start appearing around town - ravens hurling themselves into classroom windows, cows dying in droves, and crops rotting in the fields - Dayna and her coven are forced to join forces with anothe


One of Us Is Next
The capitalization of that title bothers me. I feel like the ‘of’ AND the ‘is’ should be lowercase, but what do I know? After the events of One of Us Is Lying, there is a hole left by Simon and his gossip blog, and someone has chosen to fill it with a game of Truth or Dare. If Maeve, Phoebe, or Knox choose a Dare, then their ugly Truths won’t be spread around the school. It seems like a “fun” game, until someone winds up dead. I really liked One of Us Is Lying. It felt new, a


Scythe
I’ve seen this book around for such a long time I finally bought it on #indiebookstoreday, and of course dove right in. Citra and Rowan are two teens who live in a utopian world. Death and disease have been conquered, and to stem the tides of population, people called scythes ‘glean’ other people. After proving they are of high moral character, Citra and Rowan are apprenticed to Scythe Faraday, but their apprenticeship gets that much more dangerous when it’s decreed that the


Midnight Beauties
Another day, another disappointing sequel. Six weeks after the end of Grim Lovelies, Anouk is stuck in a Paris house with the surviving Goblins, Viggo, and Little Beau the dog. That is, until a certain Prince comes knocking on her door with a proposition of marriage and a way to get her friends back. The Prince needs a magical being to help him defeat the Coven of Oxford, who have taken over England, and Anouk needs someone in her corner in her quest to become a witch. Of cou


Marked
I might’ve DNFed, but this book still counts. Zoey Redbird thinks the only thing she has to worry about is whether or not she looks good for her crush. That is, until she’s marked by a Vampire Tracker, and now she has to go to the House of Night to learn how to be a vampire. Chosen by the goddess Nyx, Zoey is super special, and now she has to figure out vampire high school, or die trying. I’m 95 pages in, and the last book I DNF’d was Allegiant 8 years ago, but I fucking CANN