KIND OF A BIG DEAL By Shannon Hale

January 4, 2023 by Dani Young Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale
Published by Roaring Brook Press on 8/25/20
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy & Magic, Young Adult
Pages: 397
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

There's nothing worse than peaking in high school. Nobody knows that better than Josie Pie.

She was kind of a big deal—she dropped out of high school to be a star! But the bigger you are, the harder you fall. And Josie fell. Hard. Ouch. Broadway dream: dead.

Meanwhile, her life keeps imploding. Best friend: distant. Boyfriend: busy. Mom: not playing with a full deck? Desperate to escape, Josie gets into reading.

Literally. She reads a book and suddenly she's inside it. And with each book, she’s a different character: a post-apocalyptic heroine, the lead in a YA rom-com, a 17th century wench in a corset.

It’s alarming. But also . . . kind of amazing?

It’s the perfect way to live out her fantasies. Book after book, Josie the failed star finds a new way to shine. But the longer she stays in a story, the harder it becomes to escape.

Will Josie find a story so good that she just stays forever?

Short and Sweet Review

Josie peaked in high school, she was a great singer and she wanted to be on broadway but show biz is tough and she got turned away. Now Josie is a nanny in a state far away from New York. Josie still tries to live her high school life even though she dropped out to pursue her dreams, so she thinks about her boyfriend who’s been distant and her best friend who’s been too busy to talk. When Josie goes to a book store and gets a book and begins reading it she’s transported into the book and at first she’s scared but in these books she finds a way to see the people she misses and find a way to make her broadway dreams come true.

The plot of this story is great, who doesn’t want to go into their favorite books and see everything. The problem with this story is Josie. She wasn’t an easy character to connect to and unfortunately she thought very highly of herself and wasn’t great at taking criticism. She was more focused on making her dreams come true and in the process of doing that completely ignores what’s going on around her. Josie book hopped a lot and did a lot of complaining and over all everything was about her and by the time she learns a lesson about how the world doesn’t revolve around her the book is over. I didn’t care for the ending honestly if Josie was stuck in a book forever as punishment for her behavior I would have been fine with it, but overall not my favorite read and it took way too long for the climax to take place.

Filed Under: Reviews

THE VAULT OF DREAMERS By Caragh M. O’Brien

August 15, 2022 by Dani Young Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O'Brien
Series: The Vault of Dreamers #1
Published by Roaring Brook Press on 9/16/14
Genres: Dystopian, Mystery & Detective, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 433
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

The Forge School is the most prestigious arts school in the country. The secret to its success: every moment of the students' lives is televised as part of the insanely popular Forge Show, and the students' schedule includes twelve hours of induced sleep meant to enhance creativity. But when first year student Rosie Sinclair skips her sleeping pill, she discovers there is something off about Forge. In fact, she suspects that there are sinister things going on deep below the reaches of the cameras in the school. What's worse is, she starts to notice that the ridges of her consciousness do not feel quite right. And soon, she unearths the ghastly secret that the Forge School is hiding—and what it truly means to dream there.

Short and Sweet Review

The Forge is a prestigious arts school and Rosie Sinclair is lucky to be attending the school. The students are supposed to take a sleeping pill so that they get 12 hours of sleep to help their creativity. The students lives are filmed for the other 12 hours a day and their streams can be watched and based on their stream views the students are ranked. Rosie isn’t very popular she’s usually at the bottom of the rankings. Rosie skips her pill one night and she realizes that there is something off about the school.

Honestly this school has a plot that’s interesting and will pull you in but for me Rosie put me off. Rosie was basically playing a game of cat and mouse with the dean. I wish Rosie was smarter in the way she went about things. Obviously she found out that weird things were happening at the school during the times she should have been asleep, and instead of trying to be discreet she made it easy for the adults to figure out what she was up to. I will admit dream mining and seeding is quite intense and wrong and Rosie learns that the dean is doing these things, but the dean also knows that she’s sneaking around. It was a mess in that aspect it made you want to grab her by her shoulders and shake her, like be more careful. Anyway Rosie gets involved with Linus a guy who works in the kitchen and unfortunately because of Rosie he gets fired. I also didn’t like some of the conversations Rosie had with other people. She had a I’m right and I’m going to do what I want, a act now think later kind of attitude, even when people tried to warn her to be careful.

This is the second time I’ve read this book and I feel like my rating has gone down. The concept is great but Rosie as a main character just made me shake my head. I’m interested in seeing what happens in the next book just because of how this book ended.

Filed Under: Reviews

MOXIE By Jennifer Mathieu

March 17, 2021 by Dani Young Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
Published by Roaring Brook Press on 9/19/17
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 335
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

MOXIE GIRLS FIGHT BACK!

Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with an administration at her high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment, and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.

Viv's mom was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the '90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother's past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She's just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.

Moxie is a book about high school life that will make you wanna riot!

Short and Sweet Review

Vivian Carter is a normal high school junior. She hang’s out with her friends, goes to the football games, and see’s her grandparents almost daily. But when a new girl in class tries to answer a question and a boy replies with a sexist remark Vivian realizes she’s fed up. She’s fed up with the administration doing nothing, the boys getting away with everything, the harassment, and the sexist dress code. Vivian decides to make Moxie, a feminist zine that she leaves in the girls bathrooms anonymously. Vivian didn’t think that Moxie would mean anything, but when other girls start to reply she starts to realize how important Moxie is.

I loved Vivian, she was grounded, passionate, and realistic about what she wanted. Vivian’s mom was a Riot Grrrl in the 90s and that leads to some of Vivians inspiration to start Moxie. I love how Vivian left Moxie anonymous and there wasn’t a leader, I felt like that aspect made it easier for other girls to contribute which I loved!

Vivian becomes friends with Lucy after the mishap in class. Lucy is a pretty strong feminist and she loved Moxie and how it was sticking it the the man. We also see that Claudia, Vivians best friend didn’t really understand the idea of Moxie but eventually comes around. Vivian also begins a relationship with Seth. I did like Seth he was all for the cause but sometimes he did have to be educated on why certain things weren’t okay.

I don’t go to East Rockport High School, but I was tired of the boys and the sexist things that they got away with and the administrations lack of discipline. I loved seeing more girls band together to fight for what was right! Vivian got different perspectives from girls at her school and I just think it inspired her more.

I loved this book! It was fast paced and it was great seeing how Moxie started off small but ended up with most of the girls in the school joining the movement! This book has an important take on feminism and should definitely be read!