Category: Book Reviews

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell is a sharp and hilarious satire of Harry Potter featuring the worst chosen one ever

Simon Snow is the worst “chosen one” that has ever existed. That’s pretty much the line that drew me to Carry On. Rainbow Rowell is known more for her books like Eleanor & Park and Fangirl — pretty standard YA “outcast” fiction. But her first journey into fantasy was done so well that I wouldn’t be surprised if her next few novels are in the genre.

Carry On takes place in a magical world where magicians attend a school called Watford to hone their skills. Watford is run by a headmaster known as “The Mage” who takes an orphan boy under his wing because he believes that he is “the chosen one.” If you’re not catching a clear comparison here, then this should clear it up:

• Non-magical beings are completely unaware of the magical world and are called “Normals”
• Students are paired with their roommates through a crucibleMagicians use wands — along with rings, staffs, and other objects — to direct their spells
• Spells are phrases like “up, up, and away” and “some like it hot”
• There is a coven that is a board that handles all things political in the magical world
• There is a powerful being threatening the very fabric of the world called “The Insidious Humdrum”

Did you get it yet? Carry On is for all intensive purposes a satire (rip-off?) of the Harry Potter series. I didn’t learn until after I read the book that it was actually based on fan fiction written in Rowell’s previous novel, Fangirl. Which is why the book feels so familiar. In Fangirl, the series is meant to be a parody of Harry Potter. But as it’s own novel, it becomes a really well-made and unique satire that has strong enough roots to stand on its own as a unique novel.

Starting en media res, we are first introduced to Simon Snow in his last year at Watford. After surviving a goblin attack — the goblins decided that whoever kills him becomes their King — he returns to Watford. Throughout the beginning of his book he is obsessed with the whereabouts of his roommate, Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch or Baz, as he’s known. Baz is Simon’s sworn enemy and Simon is sure that he is up to now good. Throughout the book the two take swipes at each other and keep track of the other’s movements. However as the book switches perspectives, which it does every couple pages or so, we learn that there could be more than meets the eye.

But what made Carry On so fun and charming was that Rowell didn’t take the story and the world too seriously. There are silly YA romance moments that would make you roll your eyes in any other book. But Rowell embraces the silliness. She was not out to create high-art. She created a hilariously fun world filled with magicians and vampire and merewolves (mermaid-werewolves for you uncultured swine).

Not only that, she embraces the book’s roots in Harry Potter and turns them on their head. Rowell is able to create a plot and characters that are so distinct that any comparisons fade away by the end of the book. It is truly one-of-a-kind.

In the end, the most refreshing thing about Carry On is that it didn’t concern itself with making a series. I feel as if every single YA author thinks they need to churn out a trilogy no matter what. So, they write their first novel with a trilogy planned and that chip on their shoulder is always noticeable. Carry On doesn’t have that chip. Instead, Rowell starts and ends the story in the perfect places. If the book came as a series it would be the last one, and I’m happy about that. I’d like to think that Rowell did it on purpose to poke fun at the seemingly never ending series that has plagued the genre recently. 

7.5/10

Get Carry On on paperback, hardcover, or e-book on Amazon!

Wonders of the Invisible World is a refreshing adventure into the space of fantasy young adult genre that feels completely original

I think one of the most interesting and successful parts of the young adult genre is the “weird” factor. You have to admit, a lot of YA is weird with weird characters in weird situations. But no YA book is quite like Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak. Aiden Lockwood is your typical outcast in your typical small town high school. However, when Aiden’s former best friend Jarrod comes back to town he surfaces an entire hidden story in Aiden’s past.

Not only is the story hidden, but Aiden has simply lost large swaths of his memory. As he and Jarrod slowly uncover his past, they realize that the story is a lot more complicated than they initially thought. It transcends generations, time, and even worlds.

Like a lot of young adult novels, at the center of whatever conflict is a romance. However, what I really appreciated about the romance is that avoided almost all the cliches of a YA romance. First of all, Barzak doesn’t hit us over the head with “adorable” scenes that manipulate us into wanting the central couple to get together. The build up is very organic. He also doesn’t try to make the love interest sarcastically charming or a misunderstood rebel or bad boy with a heart of gold. We want the couple to be together because they’re right for each other. He doesn’t need grand romantic gestures to prove that.

And that is what is really refreshing about Wonders of the Invisible World is that Barzak doesn’t force Aiden’s personal storyline or the fantasy storyline into melodrama. In fact, for all the fantastical elements or potential for a soaring high school outcast story he keeps the story pretty lean. You’ll thank him for that in the end because it would pay a disservice to Aiden. His entire story is that he leads a non-fantastical life. The magic and curses and visions speak for themselves.




I will also say that this is a very weird book. It deals with things in a wholly original way that will catch you off guard throughout. But between family curses, disembodied voices, and a personification of death, it’s not exactly your typical book. It’s easy to forget that the fantastic elements are all that fantastic, though. Barzak’s nonchalant style when it comes to writing about the fantasy elements really refreshing. The lack of hyperbole makes the clearly magical parts of the story seem realistic.

Wonders of the Invisible World doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel of the young adult genre. However, it does spin it on a different rhythm. The tropes we have come to know and love and love to hate are twisted to make an entertaining and satisfying adventure into the mystical. 7.5/10

Sylvain Neuvel’s Debut Novel, Sleeping Giants, Deftly Avoids Becoming a Sci-fi Cliche

A dissociated birthday party, a new bike, and a 23-foot-long metal hand. And so begins Sylvain’s Neuvel’s debut novel Sleeping Giants. Sleeping Giants follows Doctor Rose Franklin, a gifted physicist working at the University of Chicago, who, after falling down a perfectly square hole onto the metal hand as a child, is now tasked with the responsibility of discovering the origin, composition, and function of the hand.

As more and more giant metal appendages are unearthed, Franklin begins to discover that this would-be statue is less than ceremonial. An unnamed man begins to develop an elite covert research facility comprised of Franklin, Kara Resnik (military pilot), Ryan Mitchell (co-pilot to Resnik), Victor Couture (linguist), and Alyssa Papadatou (geneticist). As Franklin and her team erect the colossal statue, its true function as a war machine becomes abundantly clear, and so does the fact that its origins are undeniably from another species.

I have to just start out this review plain and simple: I loved Sleeping Giants. In my opinion, it is a very entertaining story, and I flew through 300 pages. Granted, the majority of the novel is in an interview format, which certainly makes the book a bit of a quicker read; nonetheless, it was an engaging book that gave you just enough storyline without divulging its complete truth.




Personally, I need a book that doesn’t quite answer everything. That is the magic of the story is in and of itself: mystery. We are all fascinated and awestruck by what we do not understand, and by our own crass human nature we immediately lose any interest in something we completely understand. We always want what we do not have. Sleeping Giants plays perfectly on this communal personality trait that humanity shares by being cryptic, vague, and enigmatic but steadfastly dropping breadcrumbs for us to follow.

If you are a reader who needs definitive answers or explicitly rationalizations as to what is happening with a book, then, in the words of Randy Jackson from American Idol: “It’s a no from me, dog.” On the other hand, if you are intrigued by a fantasy novel delving into morality, mythology, and that unanswerable questions of, “are we alone in this universe,” then this is the book for you.

I also have to admit that, perhaps I lacked the foresight, but I genuinely did not see the twists of this book coming. I did not really ever know what to expect, and if I had to chart my prediction of the story prior to reading this novel, then I would have been way off. Like Christopher Columbus off.

Sleeping Giants also gave me an excuse to visualize Reznik as Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty, and if you didn’t know, she is one of my all-time favorite actors. While it was hard to visualize characters due to the formality of the interviews and documents, I did get to develop what I thought the characters of Sleeping Giants looked like through their actions and personality. Even though Neuvel described Reznik as having black hair, I am just going to conveniently ignore that fact and pretend he said red to better fit my Chastain visualization.




All in all, Sleeping Giants was a refreshing, exciting novel that, for me, got the whole alien thing perfect. Some novels just degrade into a silly story that just feels cheap and far-fetched about aliens. I’m not saying that this novel isn’t far-fetched, but it approaches the subject matter intelligently. The characters perfectly mirror our predictable reaction to alien life (unless you are the guy from The History Channel): ample scoffing and sarcasm that immediately devalues any claim on alien life. Sleeping Giants manages to perfectly nail what I want out of this genre: excitement, intrigue, that unsettling sense of never fully understanding the situation, and a modicum of restraint that separates this book from other novels in the genre that delve into the wow-this-is-cheesy territory. I am just going to sit around staring at my copy of Sleeping Giants until April 2017, when the sequel Waking Gods is released. 7.3/10

Before the Fall is a thrilling mystery that takes the time to dive both into its characters and our society. It’s a haven of a book for book nerds.

“For Emma, what made it so hard to return to the tiny apartment in the West Village she shared with two other girls was the sudden realization that for all those weeks of traveling she had been a stowaway in someone else’s life, an actor on a stage playing a part. She was a royal escort, the chaste concubine, immersed in servitude for weeks at a time, until the rules and boundaries she set to navigate her professional life became the backbone of her personal life as well. She found herself growing increasingly lonely, an object to be looked at, but never touched.”

Before the Fall soars in its ability to create a character, then completely subverting your expectations of them. It is something so beautifully demonstrated in this passage. Noah Hawley’s prose is something to marvel at in terms of language. However, when you take into account the emotional intelligence it takes to write about a character at this depth, it becomes one of the most incredible examples of storytelling in recent memory.

In an era of “fake news,” the resurgence of conservatism, and the reality television mindset of our society, Before the Fall is a lot more timely than I think was intended. It tells the story of a private charter flight that mysteriously plummets into the ocean sixteen minutes into its flight. Onboard were twelve people — a media mogul, a wall street titan, a security guard — however, only two people escape alive. This simple fact sets off a media firestorm and begins a story about what happens after you’re the one that survives.

Check Out: “Sleeping Giants” Book Review: A Unique, Engaging Sci-fi Thriller

The book centers on Scott Burroughs, a down-on-his-luck painter, who by chance meets Maggie, the wife of media mogul David Bateman on Martha’s Vineyard. She offers him a ride on their plane since they’re both heading to New York. This offer changes Scott’s life forever. After waking up in the middle of the dark ocean, he miraculously saves a four-year-old boy who was on the plane by swimming miles to shore. Improbably, yes? It is so improbable that some people think he may have been involved in the crash.

The mystery of how the plane crashed is what bookends the book. However, the real story is the lives of the passengers before and after the crash. How did Scott muster up the strength to save himself a four-year-old boy? How did a man go from a suicide apocalypse cult to flying a private plane? While the stories may seem ridiculous, their effect on the characters and event as a whole are fulfilling.

Bill Cunningham, a Bill O’Reilly type on ALC, is immediately suspicious of Scott and his place on board. Of course, as a conservative, he immediately points to terrorism. Cunningham is doing everything in his power (legal and illegally) to find out how he was involved, while NTSB agent Gill Franklin is on Scott’s side. As we meet each character before the fateful flight, we have to piece together the clues like an Agatha Christie novel.

As I alluded to earlier, the genius of Before the Fall lies in the character. People like the trophy housewife and the sexy flight attendant take on new meaning with this book. Hawley paints a complex picture of each character and analyzes how their pasts steered them towards the inevitable place on that plane.

Check Out: “Dark Matter” Book Review: A tense, well-plotted thriller

Before the Fall might be a bit difficult to get into at first. It begins slowly. However, The middle section of the book is an enthralling character study and analysis of key actors at the center of a tragedy: the survivors, the victim’s family, and the media. It analyzes how these people interlock and interact. More importantly, Hawley has an understanding of how we react to tragedy. It’s the last two chapters, though, that make this an incredible triumph of a thriller. As the story finally pieces together, you are treated with a character study and thrilling finale that doesn’t disappoint.

Before the Fall is the first book that I completed in 2017, and I couldn’t pick a more satisfying start. With mystery, compelling characters, and writing that is poetic and vivid, it’s a haven of a book. However, it’s commentary on society is one of the most interesting things about it. The amount of commentary is astonishing. From the media to fake news to masculinity, Before the Fall is a book in and of its time. And that’s something to marvel at. 9/10

Get Before the Fall in paperback, hardcover, or e-book on Amazon!

Covering nearly a century, The Tsar of Love and Techno tells the story of Russia through interconnected short stories that culminate into one of the best books in years.

There are some books that demand to be read, but The Tsar of Love and Techno demands to be dissected, devoured, and appreciated. To put it bluntly, Anthony Marra’s short story collection may be one of the best books I’ve read in my entire reading life. Short story collections are often hit or miss for me. While there were strong stories in Kelly Link’s Get In Trouble, their underlying connection wasn’t as satisfying. On the other hand, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad floored me with its grasp of time and place. Anthony Marra masters that concept and more. Not only does he have a grasp of time and place, but how the characters exist in those two dimensions.

Each story can be read individually and be effective, but when read as a whole it is completely satisfying. The Tsar of Love and Techno tells the story of Russia from 1937 until now. And while it’s very based on character, Russia itself is the most dynamic and interesting part. I’ve never been attuned to the history of Russia nor its society outside of the present day. However, Marra paints a vivid portrait of its history by following these characters within it. From poisonous lakes to its oppressive government to state propaganda, these things are just a fact of life. They fade into the background to give way to the characters and their interactions and lives with these staples.




The opening story “The Leopard” is an incredible exercise in the power of a talented writer. Anthony Marra gently paints a picture of a time, a place, and a person that feels complex and deep in a slight fifty pages. Not only that, he takes the main character through a satisfying emotional journey that feels neither rushed or incomplete. At the center of the story is a retoucher for the Department of Party Propaganda and Agitation, Roman Markin. His job is to erase people from history both literally and figuratively by removing them from photographs.

While “The Leopard” on its own is a phenomenal short story, The Tsar of Love and Techno comes to life as a collection when the subtle connections between the stories are revealed. The connection between the first story and the second, “Granddaughters,” is a blink-and-you-miss-it-line. When you realize it, though, its significance carries incredible weight. These connection continue throughout the story often unexpectedly. Some are more significant than others. But all of them carry the same emotional baggage.

“The Grozny Tourist Bureau” is a witty story about the former director of the Grozny art museum becoming the head of the nonexistent tourist bureau. It’s easily the funniest story of the collection. Though turning a war-torn city into “the Dubai of Chechnya” doesn’t seem the ripest for comedy, Marra has a handle of black humor that permeates through the entire collection. Of course, the story comes with a surprising profoundness and yet another piece of the puzzle revealed.




The title story, “The Tsar of Love and a Techno” is the only story told in the first person. And while it is not as satisfying as the others, it is certainly the most entertaining. More importantly, it represents a turning point in the story. Not only does it bring several storylines crashing together, it gives us a point of view we’ve never seen before: a person that lived as they wished.

But what is it about? That’s the question you always ask when it comes to a short story collection. What makes it more than a random grouping of interconnected stories? Well, for The Tsar of Love and Techno, it’s the idea of retaining the past. What happens when we are gone? Who is left? What is left? Who will remember us? How are we remembered? Are we figures in a painting or a frame with no canvas? Are we the center of a cautionary tale or the hero? No, we are remembered by the people who cared about us. The people who loved us.

In the final few pages of the book, we take a journey that all of us will take, but none will be able to describe. However, Marra articulates his take on it in beautiful prose that acts as the perfect cap to a near perfect book. He understands what he was trying to say. And in a few pages, he says perfectly. He reminds us that someone will remember you.

The Tsar of Love and Techno is available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book on Amazon!

The Age of Miracles, a speculative fiction coming-of age-story, is Karen Thompson Walker’s debut novel. It’s a look into the lives of 11-year-old Julia and her family during “the slowing”—due to unknown causes, the earth’s rotation has shifted, and the days are getting longer. Like, 40 hours of sunlight longer.

Walker speculates (hence, speculative fiction) what would happen if the earth’s rotation was altered. Gravity changes, and birds fall. The clocks are entirely off from sunlit and nighttime hours, forcing people to choose between “clock time” and “real time”. Scientists and ordinary people alike worry how much more sunlight or darkness their crops can handle in one sitting before they can no longer live on this planet. Can humans’ circadian rhythms adapt? How much longer until humans can no longer live on Earth?

Meanwhile, Julia is in middle school. Her father is a doctor, her mother a drama teacher. The slowing affects their lives in different ways, but it affects everything nonetheless. Walker succeeds in balancing what I’ll call world building—her descriptions of this unique time and place—with the microcosm of her characters’ world. The science-fiction premise drives the story as much as its characters.

Arguably, most of the characters are somewhat underwhelming. The novel is narrated by an older, nostalgic Julia, in first-person from a future perspective. This allows for some interesting and haunting moments of foreshadowing. Julia at 11 years old is excessively shy and extraordinarily ordinary in a way, but this narration from such an ordinary perspective makes her story all the more relatable and real. That is Walker’s greatest triumph—the novel’s utter realness.

Despite some things feeling like they might not have reached their full potential, there are so many people I want to share this novel with. I want to give it to my astrophysics-major friend, because Karen Thompson Walker actually consulted an astrophysicist to make sure the novel’s scientific developments made sense. I want my friend who’s not so into sci-fi to read it, because the driving force of the novel is how the characters deal with the age they’re in. And I want my friend who loves sci-fi to read it, because I truly admire the way Walker fleshes out this premise in so many angles while from one perspective.

As she goes through middle school during the slowing, Julia questions coincidence and fate, and the power of one event, one chance change. Walker’s debut novel is smart and compelling. Its premise excited me, and the novel did not disappoint.

Deborah Harkness’ All Souls trilogy began with A Discovery of Witches in 2011 (which is wickedly funny since the title-drop in that novel is, “It began with a discovery of witches”). The magical trilogy follows the romance between Diana Bishop and 1500-year-old vampire Matthew Clairmont, but hold your horses—Diana is not a love-struck teenager, but instead a witch too reluctant to use her powers, and an Ivy League professor and historian of alchemy. The trilogy follows not just their romance, but also their search for a missing manuscript that might be the key to the existence of all creatures: in Deborah Harkness’ universe, humans live alongside witches, vampires, and daemons.

Harkness is actually a professor and historian herself, and her love of history gleams throughout her novels. The sequel, Shadow of Night, features many historical characters in new contexts that only strengthen the novel’s uncanny basis in reality. The book is overflowing with magic, but the magic is grounded and elemental, which I find fascinating. The witches’ work is earthy and authentic; if witches are real, this must be how they exist. But their first book of spells—or is it the vampires’ Book of Life?—is missing, and only Diana can access it, as we learn early in the first book. And as Uncle Ben once said, with great power comes great responsibility.

Throughout all three novels, the drama intensifies as Diana opens herself up to magic and realizes her powers. As Diana’s abilities evolve and grow more complicated, so do the characters around her; witches turn on fellow witches, vampires turn on vampires, and despite the segregation of creatures brought about by the Congregation’s covenant, Diana’s and Matthew’s families must work together in order for their [naturally] forbidden love have a chance at working out.

But this is supposed to be a review of the third and final novel in the trilogy, The Book of Life, which came out this past July. I don’t want to talk about where this book starts, as that would spoil the first two for anyone who hasn’t read them, so instead I will discuss its ending. This novel has left me missing its characters (now that the trilogy is over) more than any other novel has for a very long time, which is both satisfying and unsatisfying, I suppose. It sort of goes all over the place, but like its protagonist’s, Harkness’ weaving is impeccable. I felt for these characters—I felt angry on their behalf when things went south, and I celebrated their joy.

Years ago, when A Discovery of Witches was first published, I remember reading something along the lines of this being the next step in living post-Harry Potter. When I finally started that first novel, I will admit that I took a break and did not know if I would finish the series. But in the end, the All Souls trilogy reminded me of other fantasy novels I have loved, and it was also unlike anything else I have read, which qualifies it to join my other favorites. I hope you give it a chance to join yours, too.