I am in the state of mind where I just don't want to think at all. Depression and anxiety is such a monster that taming it takes all of myself. Reading is the therapy that has helped me since I could remember. I wish I could stay in bed and read and not go to work and deal with people I don't really know. Right now I'm thankful that Netgalley has approved some of the books I've requested. Here are the last 3 books I've gotten approved and read since my last Netgalley Mini Reviews.
____________________________________________
The Dark Beneath the Ice
by Amelinda Bérubé
Published August 7th 2018 by Sourcebooks Fire
Rating: ⭐⭐
Something is wrong with Marianne.
It's not just that her parents have split up, or that life hasn't been the same since she quit dancing. Or even that her mother has checked herself into the hospital.
She's losing time. Doing things she would never do. And objects around her seem to break whenever she comes close.
Something is after her. But a first attempt at an exorcism calls down the full force of the thing's rage. It demands Marianne give back what she stole. And Marianne must uncover the truth that lies beneath it all before the nightmare can take what it think it's owed, leaving Marianne trapped in the darkness of the other side. [1]
Review: I posted a little review on Goodreads after I read this book and I guess I can expound on that here. According to the blurb in Netgalley this book was Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity. I haven't seen Black Swan but I Googled it and it's about a ballerina who develops a dark side because of a rivalry with another ballerina. And then of course Paranormal Activity is a series where evidence of supernatural presence is captured on film. Let me say that the book is neither of those 2. Sure, Marianne is a ballerina and she let it go because she though she wasn't good enough and they she was only doing it because her mom wanted her to. The dark side is only revealed at the end of the book and everything from the beginning until the end was just prolonging the agony or actually finding out what was happening. It didn't even have the creep factor of Paranormal Activity. The book was so predictable it was painful. Didn't enjoy reading this book at all.
____________________________________________
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale
by Jane Yolen
Expected publication: November 5th 2018 by Tachyon Publications
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Jane Yolen facets her glittering stories with the craft of a master jeweller.”—Elizabeth Wein, author of Code Name Verity
“One of the treasures of the science fiction community.” —Brandon Sanderson, author of Mistborn
“[Yolen is] the Aesop of the twentieth century”—The New York Times
Fantasy icon Jane Yolen, adored by generations of readers of all ages, returns with this inspired collection of wholly-transformed fairy-tales, legends, and myths.
Yolen fractures the classics to reveal their crystalline secrets: a philosophical bridge who misses its troll; spinner of straw as a falsely-accused moneylender, the villainous wolf poorly adjusting to retirement. Each offering features an intimate new author note and poem, allowing readers to discover stories old, new, and beautifully refined for the complicated world in which we live. [2]
Review: This was a wow galley for me. I loved how Jane Yolen made you think you know the fairy tale but now you see them in a different light. The stories were your typical and then no so typical endings. I was surprised at every turn. I wish the author could make 1 book out of each of the stories in the book. I'd devour them.
____________________________________________
Toxic
by Lydia Kang
Expected publication: November 6th 2018 by Entangled Teen
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cyclo, the first and largest biological ship of its kind, is dying. A small crew of mercenaries have handed over the rights to their life to document the death of the ship, but the abandoned ship is anything but abandoned—one girl has been left behind.
Hana has known nothing but the isolation of a single room and the secret that has kept her there for seventeen years. When she meets Fennec, the boy assigned to watch her, she realizes that there is a world she has yet to experience but she is doomed to never meet.
When crew members begin mysteriously dying, Hana and Fenn realize that they are racing against the death of the ship to find a way to survive—unless someone kills them even before Hana’s truly had a chance to live. [3]
Review: How many time can I say I love Science Fiction? LOL. This book was light fast paced read about a girl who was only starting to live in a dying world. Unlike a lot of heroines in other YA books where it's already book 3 and they are still whining, I loved how fast Hana learned who she was, what her purpose was, and how brave she can look death in the face.
I loved the description of the ship Cyclo and the humanoids that came with Fenn on that one way mission to gather data. Didn't think I'd like the romance but it wasn't mushy and angstsy so I did.
I have a few more books from Netgalley I need to read and review but I need to pause for now because I just got the ARC for Wildcard by Marie Lu for the Blog Tour. Do watch out for that.
Has any one read these galleys yet? What did you think about them? What do you think about getting galleys?
____________________________________________
Thank you for dropping by. Tell me what you think of these books.
Click on the follow button to the right to get more awesome content.
Labels: ARC, book reviews, books, fantasy, library, Netgalley, Review Copy, series, YA
