Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares

Pages: 384 

Publisher: Harper Voyager 

Released: 28th of September 2023 

Rumor has it on the streets of sixteenth-century New Spain, there's a new vigilante in town serving justice. This reimagining of Zorro--featuring a heroic warrior sorceress--weaves Mesoamerican mythology and Mexican history two decades after the Spanish conquest into a swashbuckling, historical debut fantasy with magic, intrigue, treachery, and romance.

A new legend begins...

In sixteenth-century New Spain, witchcraft is punishable by death, indigenous temples have been destroyed, and tales of mythical creatures that once roamed the land have become whispers in the night. Hidden behind a mask, Pantera uses her magic and legendary swordplay skills to fight the tyranny of Spanish rule.

To all who know her, Leonora de Las Casas Tlazohtzin never leaves the palace and is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. The respectable, law-abiding Lady Leonora faints at the sight of blood and would rather be caught dead than meddle in court affairs.

No one suspects that Leonora and Pantera are the same person. Leonora's charade is tragically good, and with magic running through her veins, she is nearly invincible. Nearly. Despite her mastery, she is destined to die young in battle, as predicted by a seer.

When an ancient prophecy of destruction threatens to come true, Leonora--and therefore Pantera--is forced to decide: surrender the mask or fight to the end. Knowing she is doomed to a short life, she is tempted to take the former option. But the legendary Pantera is destined for more than an early grave, and once she discovers the truth of her origins, not even death will stop her.

What I Have to Say 

This was so good. If you want a tale of mixed race heroes fighting against colonialism then this is the book for you. It was so great at showing the many sides that Leonora had in her, showing her torn between her Spanish identity and her Native Mexican identity. I loved how it gave her the perfect place to hide in plain sight while still getting back to her mother's roots in the form of the vigilante Pantera. 

Though I really liked the plot, I did find that the fight against the Spanish was kind of lost towards the end. I feel like I would have been happy with just the Spanish as the enemies instead of bringing in demons to try and end the world. 

The characters in this were the best though. I loved Leonora's character so much as well as the love interest who was also many sided and sassy. I loved the banter between them and as well as Pantera's come backs when talking with the general. 

All in all, this is a really strong fantasy. If you have any interest in Ancient Mexico and the Nahau, don't hesitate to pick this up. 

4 stars 

My thanks goes to Harper Voyager and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Final Strife by Saara El- Arifi

Pages: 467 

Publisher: Harper Voyager 

Released: 23rd of June 2022 

In the first book of a visionary African and Arabian-inspired fantasy trilogy, three women band together against a cruel Empire that divides people by blood.

Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control.

Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance.

Clear is the blood of the servants, of the crushed, of the invisible.

Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the Empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.

Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the Empire. But dust always rises in a storm.

Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution.

As the Empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.

TW: Addiction, Drug Abuse, Violence, Child Abuse, Bodily Harm, Execution

What I Have to Say 

This book was powerful, but not for the faint of heart. For one thing, the children of the lowest class are maimed at birth and are left disabled for the rest of their lives. This is not a light hearted book at all. If you're looking for a light, fun romp, look elsewhere. 

I really enjoyed reading it though. It made the points about racism and classism in a really fascinating fantasy setting. The way the system was set up was both intriguing and well thought out. There were a few times I had questions about certain aspects of it, but all of them were answered by the end of the book. 

I listened to the audio of this book and really liked the songs in it. They got stuck in my head a bit, but were really enjoyable. I don't know if they'd be so enjoyable in print form though because they were really long. 

I would definitely advise the reader to be in the right headspace for this book, but I really did enjoy it and it made me think a lot. 

4 stars 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for providing me with this copy for review. 

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Pages: 350 

Publisher: The Borough Press 

Released: 16th of May 2023 

What's the harm in a pseudonym? New York Times bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn't write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American--in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R. F. Kuang in the vein of White Ivy and The Other Black Girl.

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena's a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn't even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song--complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn't this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That's what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can't get away from Athena's shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June's (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang's novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

What I Have to Say 

This book was truly fascinating. R.F. Kuang threw up all sorts of questions around morality, ethics and some of the biggest discourses in publishing and let the reader make up their mind what they thought. While Babel had a lot of dialogue about how the things portrayed in the novel were bad, Yellowface took the viewpoint of the bad guy and gave absolutely no handholding. We are to judge Juniper's actions by ourselves. 

Obviously Juniper does a lot of bad stuff in this novel. I was really interested to see how insidious the racism was. It would have been easy to show a raving mad lunatic with yellow fever in this book, but that wouldn't be an accurate representation of society. Juniper believes herself to be liberal. Her racist views come to light slowly and in tiny fragments over the course of the novel. This approach highlighted how easily these kinds of views take root. 

If I had to pick one thing I like most about this book, it's how much it's made me think. Though it's written in a more approachable style than Babel, it's still a very intellectual book and will leave you with a lot to talk about. 

4 stars 

My thanks go to the Borough Press and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

 

Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick

Pages: 320 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's UK 

Released: 4th of April 2023 

What would you do if you forgot the love of your life existed?

Stevie and Nora had a love. A secret, epic, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. They also had a plan: to leave their small, ultra-conservative town and families behind after graduation and move to California, where they could finally stop hiding that love.

But then Stevie has a terrible fall and the last two years of her life are erased overnight. Suddenly Stevie finds herself in a life she doesn’t quite understand – she’s estranged from her parents, drifting away from her friends and dating a boy she can’t remember crushing on. She’s headed towards a future that isn’t at all what her fifteen-year-old self would have envisioned.

And Nora finds herself … forgotten.

Can the two find their way back together through a lost memory?

A romantic ode to the strength of love and the power of choosing each other, against odds and obstacles, again and again.

TW: homophobia, racism, memory loss 

What I Have to Say 

This book was beautiful. The ending was perfect and made me cry so hard. I loved it so much. It was a wonderful story of sapphic love against all odds. Against a backdrop of racism and homophobia, it's about two girls tragically separated by memory loss and having to find each other again. 

I wouldn't like to speak about the medical stuff in the book. I don't know how accurate it is for memory loss and recovery, but it was a really interesting plot device and made for a really good story. It was in a way a coming of age story because it was her finding out that she was gay all over again. 

The only thing that made me pause was the fact that she was Asian. I loved the representation as it's always important to see in all sorts of books, but there was no explanation of her background. I was confused as to whether her parents or her mother were Asian or if she was adopted, because it felt like they fit into the town and there was no talk of them facing racial abuse or anything. It just left me confused about how it all fitted together. 

I really enjoyed it though and would definitely read it again! 

4 stars 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with this copy for review. 

Babel (or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

Pages: 560

Publisher: Harper Voyager 

Released: 23rd of August 2022 

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

Oxford, 1836.

The city of dreaming spires.

It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.

And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.

Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.

Until it became a prison…

But can a student stand against an empire?

What I Have to Say 

This book. Omg. It was everything I could have asked for. A beautiful and necessary book on the colonialism and racism in British history. Full of magic and knowledge as well as betrayal and pain, Kuang's Babel institute is the perfect example of the horrors of colonialism and the injustices that Britain is built on. 

This book was everything to me, but I can see how it would be a marmite book. Be aware that it is full to the bursting of language facts and language roots with the most complicated magic system I have ever seen. If you love languages as much as I do, then this is the book for you, but if it's not consider how much language nerding you can cope with. Don't be put off too much by the complexity though. Kuang does a really good job of explaining everything. There were a couple of bits that I had to reread to make sure I understood fully and the silver working needed the three examples she gave to explain, but I kept up very well. 

At it's heart though Babel is the story of people and their reactions to the mistreatment they encounter. The characters are really easy to like and feel for. This is definitely a book you will need tissues for! 

This is  a book that's going to stay with me for a long time. 

5 stars 

My thanks go to Harper Voyager and Netgalley for providing me with this book to review. 

Internment by Samira Ahmed

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 381

Publisher: Little Brown Book Group 

Released: 19th of March 2019 

Rebellions are built on hope.

Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.

With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp's Director and his guards.

Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.

Trigger Warnings: Extreme racism, imprisonment, violence

What I Have to Say 

This book was incredible. It was so atmospheric. It brought every feeling right off the page and into your heart. The undercurrent of fear and tension that existed inside the camp felt was there in every page of the book. I sympathised so much with all the characters having to live that way. 

It was really good how much Ahmed delved into history while writing this book. She brought in so much about the concentration camps from the holocaust as well as the Japanese internment camps in America. Having the camp that Layla is sent to near to one of the Japanese camps was a really good way to remind both the characters and the reader what these camps could become. I found the Japanese camps more relevant because that also happened in the US, so it gave us a good idea of what the US government has already proven to be capable of. 

I loved the characters so much. Layla was so strong, but also such an ordinary every day girl. She talked about Star Wars and missed her boyfriend and made friends in the camp. I think it's so important in these types of stories to really ground the characters in things that the reader can relate to. It brings it home to you and makes it feel more real. And adds a little bit of nerd humour for everyone to enjoy. 

Obviously this is a book that has some quite tough subject matter, but it's also a really good story about friendship, family, survival and resistance. The issues raised are so, so important but it's also a really great book in it's own right. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Little Brown Books for providing me with this free copy for review. 

Frostfire by Jamie Smith

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 288

Publisher: Chicken House 

Released: 1st of November 2018 

Chosen for the honour of bonding with a frostsliver - a fragment of the sentient glacier that crests her icy home - Sabira embarks on the dangerous pilgrimage to the top of the mountain. But when a huge avalanche traps her on the glacier and destroys the pass, Sabira is determined to find another way home. In order to survive, she must face up to the merciless mountain - but there are dark and fiery secrets hiding in its depths ...

What I Have to Say 

This took me a little while to get into, but I really loved it by the end. The scenic background of the book made it stand out compared to other books I've read lately. The description of the mountain and the vast scale of it really come across in the writing. You can almost feel the cold of it chilling you to your bone. It really brought home the situation that Sabira is in, stuck on the moutain, alone (mostly) and having to rely on all of her wits and those of the frostliver just to survive. 

Everything beyond that fitted in perfectly. The conflict between the two societies worked really well and the way that it played into the main story as well as the backstory of Sabira's brother and his own attempts to get a frostsliver were perfectly entwined with with the story. 

If I had one complaint, it's that the frostsliver didn't have a name. It had a nicely defined personality but I really think that it would have been given a name at some point. 

My thanks go to Chicken House for providing me with this copy for review.

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 264 

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing 

Released: 8th of February 2018 

Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. 

Just because her mentor is black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope. Maybe there are some things she could show other women about understanding the world and finding ways to be real, to make a difference. 

What I Have to Say 

This book was beautiful and had so much to say. In one way it was about a Black girl trying to get through life with a mother who works so hard and can barely afford to keep the family fed. On the other hand, it was also a book about a private school girl who finds it hard to assert herself and ask for what she wants out of life. And about how to make people listen to her when she does. It's about racism. It's about opportunities. It's about Spanish and poverty and being Black. It's about so much more than anyone could put into a small synopsis. 

I loved the bits of Spanish at the start of each chapter and how much that Jade was into languages. They made such an interesting point about how giving a girl a trip to the opera when she's passionate about the Spanish language and making collages, isn't much of an opportunity when they could send her on a trip to a Spanish speaking country or help furthering her art. Giving her opportunities for an actual career and life rather than just viewing her as an underprivileged Black girl who needs charity. 

At it's heart though, it's about Jade learning to speak up for herself. Learning what opportunities are worth pursuing and when she has to speak up and say "this isn't useful for me, this is what I want" and getting the people around her to listen. 

This book really has something for everyone. It's an incite into what it's like to be a Black girl, what it's like to be a teenager and what it's like to live in poverty while also giving out advice and life lessons that is useful for everyone to know. Definitely one of the best books I've read this year. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with this copy for review. 

Tender Earth by Sita Brahmachari

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 432

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Book  

Released: 1st of June 2017 

Laila Levenson has always been the baby of the family, but now with her older siblings, Mira and Krish, leaving home just as she starts secondary school, everything feels like it's changing... can the reappearance of Nana Josie's Protest Book and the spirit it releases in Laila, her friends and her local community, help her find her own voice and discover what she truly believes in?

A powerful chime rings through Laila's mind, guiding her to walk the footsteps of the past on her way to discover her own future.

What I Have to Say 

This book was amazing. I loved the plot, I loved the theme, I loved Laila even if her actions were questionable at times. It was a beautiful story of a girl with a lot of change going on in her life, learning about the world and how to make a difference in it. With such strong story lines about race and protest, it is a brilliant book to put into the hands of teenagers who might need to learn how to stand up for what they believe in. 

Diversity is a massive thing in this book. I don't think there was a single character who wasn't diverse in some way, whether through race, religion or disability. It was just so great to see so many different people represented in the book and coming together through Laila. 

I loved whole protest book and the way Laila was learning and connecting with a grandmother she'd never met through it. It was a lovely story to have at the heart of the book and a great way to bring in the political climate that's going on at the moment. This book didn't shy away from showing the differences between people and how much racism is a part of our country right now. 

I haven't read the other books in this series, so this has really made me want to read them. This was such a fantastic book and everyone should read it. 

My thanks go to Nina Douglas and Macmillan for providing me with this copy for review.

The Women of the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 368 

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre 

Released: 18th of May 2017 

A resistance widow. A silent co-conspirator. The only one who survived. 

The Third Reich has crumbled. The Russians are coming.

Can Marianne von Lingenfels and the women in her care survive and build their ravaged world anew?

Marianne - widow of a resistor to the Nazi regime - returns to the grand, crumbling castle where she once played host to all of German high society. She assembles a makeshift family from the ruins of her husband's movement, rescuing her dearest friend's widow, Benita, from sexual slavery to the Russian army, and Ania from a work camp for political prisoners. She is certain their shared past will bind them together.

But as Benita begins a clandestine relationship and Ania struggles to conceal her role in the Nazi regime, Marianne learns that her clear-cut, highly principled world view has no place in these new, frightening and emotionally-charged days.

All three women must grapple with the realities they now face, and the consequences of decisions each made in the darkest of times . . . 

What I Have to Say 

This book was interesting, but it frightened me a lot. I don't think I can read books about the lead up to the Second World Two and Nazi Germany for a while. It's just too close to what's happening politically in America right now and I'm not sure I can handle reading that. So much of the stuff that was shown in this book is so close to what's happening in America right now. The only comfort I can take is that I'm seeing a lot more resistance. 

The book itself though was pretty good. The characters and their different stories were really interesting and the way their personalities interacted showed how good characters they were and the way that their experiences defined their characters so much, both what they went through during the war and their interactions with the Nazi party before the war. 

Marianne's journey throughout the novel was really something as well. Her political opinions were so strong, whereas the other women didn't believe so strongly in things. It was interesting to see how that hardened her and how her pressure on the other characters to see things as black and white as she does effected them and her relationships with them. 

This is a novel about the shades of gray. This is a novel about the German people, how complicit they were, but also about how they were treated afterwards. It goes into morality and consequence and blame in a really fascinating way.

My thanks go to Bonnier Zaffre for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Battlemage by Taran Matharu

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 400

Publisher: Hatchette Children's Group 

Released: 4th of May 2017 

After the thrilling cliffhanger at the end of book two, we rejoin Fletcher and his friends in the ether, where they must undertake a mortally dangerous quest, all the while avoiding capture by enemies and facing foes more terrifying than anything they have yet encountered.

But this is nothing compared to what truly lies ahead for Fletcher, as his nemesis, albino orc Khan, is on a mission to destroy Hominum and everything and everyone that Fletcher loves.

What I Have to Say 

Apparently this was the last in the series? I'm surprised by that as I think they left a lot of stuff open. I guess enough was concluded, so perhaps they'll be a sequel trilogy or just a potential for tie in series or novels later on. It would be nice to see something from the other characters. The Dwarven characters especially are really interesting or something more from Sylva. I think Fletcher doesn't have much more to give, but I'd like to know at least in passing about how he does and whether he and Ignatious reach their full potential. 

I was looking forward to this book because of what happened at the end of the last book and I have to say I'm a bit disappoint. I wanted to explore more of the world the demons come from and see more of the different types of demons. There was a bit of that and I understand that the characters were concerned more about their survival and getting back to Hominum as quickly as possible, but maybe in the future it would be cool to get a book about people who go and explore. 

I think this was a good trilogy in general really. There were a lot of battle scenes towards the end of this book, though. They went on a long time and the strategies that Fletcher and his army were using were interesting, but after a while it was just too much. I was done with battles and wanted it to end.

 Also, I think the only thing that really sets this apart from other fantasy series was the issues of race. The Dwarven issues and the way the people in power were trying to set them up and force them into rioting and give them an excuse to round them all up hit me quite strongly. Especially in these political times, it's important to see how racism can be stirred up and incited by a manipulative power, especially when there are terror attacks involved. 

It's interesting that this series has so much to say about race and I definitely think that it's a good reason to read these books. 

My thanks go to Hatchette Book Group and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's 

Released: 9th of February 2017

Nicu has emigrated from Romania and is struggling to find his place in his new home. Meanwhile, Jess's home life is overshadowed by violence. When Nicu and Jess meet, what starts out as friendship grows into romance as the two bond over their painful pasts and hopeful futures. But will they be able to save each other, let alone themselves?

What I Have to Say 

I read this pretty much in one sitting. It was easy to read but also had a lot of very heavy subjects to addressed. Jess's life of abuse and worry intersect with Nicu's life trying to live life in the UK, while fending off the pressure of his parents. These teenagers affect each others lives in various ways and give the readers hope that they will achieve their dreams and forge a new life away from their various troubles. 

The most interesting thing about this book was the way that Nicu's sections were written. They were almost in verse, with a lot of broken English as he struggled to become proficient in the language. It showed a lot about how people treat foreigners, putting him in the bottom classes because his English wasn't good enough to express himself even though he was actually really smart. It really hit upon the point that sometimes when you make assumptions about people based on their race or level of English it can push them down and make these assumptions true because they can't get out of the box that everyone is putting them in. 

The ending disappointed me. It felt a bit of a let down and I felt what happened with Nicu was a bad portrayal of racial stereotypes. The worse thing about it was that the authors seemed to make such an effort with his character through the rest of the book and then just threw it away. 

If you're looking for a read that's easy and brings up a lot of interesting points then this could be a good place to start. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with this copy for review. 

A Seven Letter Word by Kim Slater

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 305

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books 

Released: 24th of March 2016

'My name is Finlay McIntosh. I can see OK, can hear perfectly fine and I can write really, really well. But the thing is, I can't speak. I'm a st-st-st-stutterer. Hilarious, isn't it? It's like the word is there in my mouth, fully formed and then, just as it's ready to leave my lips . . . POP! It jumps and ricochets and bounces around my gob. Except it isn't funny at all, because there's not a thing I can do about it.'

Finlay's mother vanished two years ago. And ever since then his stutter has become almost unbearable. Bullied at school and ignored by his father, the only way to get out the words which are bouncing around in his head is by writing long letters to his ma which he knows she will never read, and by playing Scrabble online. But when Finlay is befriended by an online Scrabble player called Alex, everything changes. Could it be his mother secretly trying to contact him? Or is there something more sinister going on?

What  I Have to Say 

Often in books, I find that when there is dialogue to show stuttering, it just irritates me. But with A Seven Letter Word, I found it very easy to read those parts. It may be that it was well researched so the stutter was very realistic, or just that I felt more sympathy with the character, but it didn't seem to trip me up or slow down my reading or any of the other things that normally put me off. 

This book was the sort that you can fall into. The characters and the world are as easy to sympathize with and understand. Finlay'se attempts to find his mother and win the scrabble championships are ones that you can fully support and get behind.

I also really loved Maryam. I think that a fiery female former scrabble champion in a hijab was exactly what this book needed. Without her, it wouldn't have been the same book and she made a wonderful friend for Finlay while adding a bit of diversity to the book. 

With mystery, bullying and scrabble, you really can't go wrong with this A Seven Letter Word 

My thanks go to Macmillan for providing me with this copy to review. 

The Improbable Wonders of Moojie Littleman by Robin Gregory

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 294

Publisher: Mad Mystical Journey Press 

Released: 1st of November 2015 

After his mother dies in a freak accident, eight year-old, disabled Moojie is sent by his disapproving father to live at St. Isidore's Fainting Goat Dairy, where he befriends a clan of outcasts from an alternate universe. Six years later, this forbidden friendship and subsequent events reveal an extraordinary boy’s tale of loss and connection, first love, and self-discovery.

What I Have to Say 

It took me a little while to warm up to this book, but I really got into it. Moojie is not the type of character I normally like and neither really was a lot of the humour, as it was quite dark humour, but it was written in a really captivating fairy-tale-like voice that drew me in. 

I'm not keen on stories starting with the birth of the main character or the main character being a baby. I feel like usually there's not much story to tell, though in this case, so much of Moojie's disabilities and development is explained throughout his early life, that this was actually a good place to start. 

I don't think this was ever going to be one of my favourite books, but I liked it well enough. It went through a lot of issues about racism, disability and poverty and is worth reading if you get the chance. 

My thanks go to Netgalley and Mad Mystical Journey Press for providing me with this e-Arc.