Thanksgiving Reads

I read a bunch of books on our Thanksgiving staycation, and here now are those books.

By the Book (by Amanda Sellet)

A YA romance about a bookish narrator named Mary, who is delightfully awkward and literary.  Very light, but enjoyable. As you know I’ve read a lot of YA recently and it definitely stuck out that the characters here were for the most part very white. These days, most YA novels have a more diverse cast of characters.  Just an observation.

Rogue Patrol (by Martha Wells)

The next book in the Murderbot series and another enjoyable installment. I must confess I don’t quite understand the big picture conspiracy (probably because it takes a while for me to read each book in the series since the library hold list is long) but I loved the story here, especially the arc of Miki, another bot who Murderbot semi-befriends. How do you not love Miki?

Long Bright River (by Liz Moore)

The 2021 Tournament of Books longlist is out, so let the reading begin! This is an atmospheric, litficcy thriller about a police officer named Mickey who is trying to find her sister, an addict who has disappeared. There are twists and turns, and a compelling plot. A page-turner.

Full Disclosure (by Camryn Garrett)

Love the premise: a girl who is HIV-positive navigating first-time romance and figuring out how to disclose to her friends and new love interest that she is positive. There was something off about this though; many weird moments that didn’t feel quite real (starting with the opening scene, Simone being all sex-positive and asking questions of her gynecologist while one of her dads is in the room being controlling, except he’s a doctor and of all people should know better).  There are numerous jarring moments like this, or where what people say or do doesn’t quite work with what has been established about them previously.  A bit rough.

Her Royal Highness (by Rachel Hawkins)

Very witty writing and a fun plotline (Millie goes off to school in Scotland and falls in love with her roommate, a princess) but torpedoed by godawful pacing. There are three long chapters before she even goes to Scotland (like, come on, we know she ends up there, we don’t need a full journey) but then the climax and denouement happen so fast it seems like the author was on some kind of deadline at the end.  And it doesn’t even quite make sense how it unfolds. Not in a rush to read the other books in this series.

I Wish You All the Best (by Mason Deaver)

Another strikeout in the world of YA. (I keep checking them out thinking something is going to live up to the amazing YA I’ve read this year, like More Happy Than Not or Stay Gold or Amelia Westlake Was Never Here). This is about a nonbinary character named Ben, great! But they are so angsty and unlikeable from beginning to end that it makes the romance part not work. (What does Nathan see in Ben? Why are they even friends?) Ben is described towards the end as “kind” and I honestly can’t recall a single instance in this book of where they were kind to someone else or even had a particularly kind thought. I also can’t help but compare it to Stay Gold, where I emerged with a visceral understanding of the main character as trans, but here I didn’t learn much about what it means for Ben to be nonbinary, and I really wanted to! Disappointing.