Simone and Her Books

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  • The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami // Book Review

    The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami // Book Review

    I’ve got to be honest, I really wanted to like this one and it was good and interesting, but it didn’t really blow me away.

    The story follows Sara Hussein, a retainee at the Madison facility where folks who are accused of committing violent crimes in their dreams are kept for a minimum of 21 days to ensure that these machinations never see fruition. In its simplest form, this is what the book is about. But it’s literary science fiction and of course it’s going to be about much more than a simple person’s want to escape a pretty heinous place for a crime she didn’t even commit.

    It’s a common thing we seen shared on social media . A woman getting upset at her husband for cheating on her in her dreams. But imagine if what you dreamed was monitored by the government and assessed that you would be a risk to someone else? Then maybe you would go and kill your “cheating” husband.

    That’s what The Dream Hotel argues here. In a world where you can input chips into your brain to help you sleep, but the company has access to your dreams, you know that the worst is going to happen, especially when the government gets involved. Of course, the dream reviewing benefits outweigh the risks. They have stats on how many potential mass murderers and serial killers they were able to detect. The time in the retention center can help calm the mind. They’re able to stop heinous acts before they happen. Everyone is safer this way.

    But then there’s the percentage of people who don’t have a violent bone in their body who may be having a stressful week or struggling with a transition in their lives and has that one dream where they kill their boss or abandon their baby somewhere. And like Sara Hussein, who just so happened to have one small dream (even hard to remember) is being accused of here. Because she had that dream where she poisoned her husband’s food, she’s stuck with the others in a retention center that acts much more like a prison.

    And yet, the book was just boring. Sara wasn’t an interesting character to follow and while we get to know about her upbringing, her insecurities about being a mother, and even the guilt she carried from childhood into adulthood, it just felt like tasting bland food and desperately in need of some salt. I found the other characters in the book far more interesting than Sara’s perspective. I wanted to know more about the firefighting Emily or the long-timer Victoria, or even Hinton the guard, but the perspective we got was soley Sara and it was a massive chunk of the book.

    I wanted to massively adore this book because I love this idea of being jailed for your dreams. In a world where it feels like everyone is constantly on edge over saying the right thing and doing the right thing, it’s an interesting concept to see something happen to someone for thinking. However, it went a different direction and just didn’t really excite me.

    I loved getting to know Sara, but I feel like Sara’s life and troubles were quite trivial in comparison to the others. It had some great commentary about the prison systems of America, which isn’t anything new. And I loved the bits about the technology and even the chapter about a woman who goes undercover at the retention center to see if her product placement ads in dreams (I mean, this is America) was working, but nothing really came from all of it. There was so much potential here and yet, the book just doesn’t deliver it for me.

    Thanks to Random House for a gifted copy of the book.

  • Red Dragon by Thomas Harris // Book Review

    Red Dragon by Thomas Harris // Book Review

    There’s nothing more intimidating than a super muscular demon on the book cover to represent the horrors of the villain within its pages. In this review, I dive into my thoughts on Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, the first book to feature Dr. Hannibal Lecter and before the even more famous The Silence of the Lambs. Having watched the movie (Manhunter, not Red Dragon) before reading the book, I started with a pretty good idea of the events that would take place hoping the book will fill in the gaps that the movie leaves out. To my surprise, I think I liked the movie more.

    The story follows William Graham, a retired investigator who had a hand in arresting some of the most notorious serial killers and mass murderers in the country, including the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lecter. However, years of sinking into the minds of monsters has left him a little more than an empty shell, so he decides to retire with his new wife and stepson in some remote part of Florida beaches. That is, until Jack Crawford, an FBI agent, comes to him with a new case in hopes of employing him one more time. What follows is William Graham on the trial to find what the newspapers have called “The Tooth Fairy” who murders entire families in their sleep and then does some pretty nasty stuff with their bodies.

    I was more intrigued by this component of the story. William Graham sounded like a Sherlock-esque investigator who likes to get into the roles of his murderers in order to find them. Think like they think, hunt like they hunt, and hopefully through this process find out who they are. And from what I can tell, it looked like he was pretty good at what he did. However, this is the part of the novel that I was frustrated by for the most part.

    One of the downsides of watching the movie first and then reading the book is that the movie leaves out little details that you can only get from the book. I was so intrigued by William Graham that I wanted to read more from the book in hopes of learning his process and holding onto the Sherlock vibes I was feeling in the movie. But I didn’t end up getting a lot of backstory from Will Graham. In fact, the person you learn the most about in this book is the killer.

    One of the downsides of reading the book after watching the movie is really seeing how unhinged some of the characters truly are and in the book, you really see Mr. Dolarhyde and his motivation for all the killings.

    Let me tell you, I wish I knew what I was getting into before I started reading the book. While the movie portrayal of him is more of a quiet, shy, lanky and tall dude with no social skills, what you get in the book is this husky, muscular man with military training, and the voice of the red dragon in his head. There’s also an added layer of gruesome when he’s masturbating to a movie he made of the killings, criticizing his own performance (mind you, naked and covered in blood), and then his voyeuristic search for the next victims who he calls “performers.” There’s a level of psychosis that I think a trained psycho therapist would adore about this book.

    But at the same time, it’s almost building a case for the reader to have sympathy for him. You see his upbringing. You see how he’s bullied and cast out and you think to yourself that this might be a good reason to almost root for the guy. Yeah, let’s root for the guy who randomly chooses regular families to kill so that a demon dragon from a William Blake painting can come to life inside him. It all makes perfect sense!

    I will say that Thomas Harris does a good job creating this villainous character. He’s definitely not the type of stranger I would like to meet let alone enter into a dangerous relationship with. However, I wish there was more to the actual police pursuit, the investigation, the part of the story you want to root for; the hero. And if this is a story where the villain is the hero, then maybe some edits to remove Will Graham and the Feds out of it would have been better.

  • Four ways to spend time in your reading slump

    Four ways to spend time in your reading slump

    Well, I don’t know what did it this time but I’m stuck in a reading slump this week. And instead of going without a blog post for another week because I’m not crunching out the books reviews, I thought I would write about it.

    I’ve been pretty mindful of my book slumps in the past. I never know what book causes it. In fact, I was on a streak of some 5-star reads so I’m a little upset this has hit me while I was having a really good time with my reads. But sometimes the universe has a tendency to tell you to slow down or pump the brakes, so you just have to listen to it. It’s almost like the acrid taste of burnt food on your tongue when you pick up a book and try to read it and you don’t want to. It’s bitter, so you go to your shelf to find something to get the taste out of your mouth and nothing looks good. It’s a horrible feeling.

    I’ve written about book slumps or reading slumps in the past. I know that you need to ride it out, play it by ear until the want to hold a book comes back to you. But I never shared some tips on what to do when books are just not cutting it for you. Some of these may seem fairly obvious while others may be new! Here’s what I’ve been doing to occupy my time:

    Rewatching a favorite TV show or movie

    Instead of reading books, I’m watching TV based on books. I’m rewatching the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice and it’s truly giving me life. This is my second time watching the series and honestly, it’s now trumped my ardent love for the 2005 Pride and Prejudice (you know, with THAT hand scene). There’s something about Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy that really makes you hate him and then absolutely love him and Jennifer Ehle’s spicy Elizabeth that really make you wish they get together in the end. The language is much more robust and the acting feels more on point with the time period. It hits differently for me and I’m here for it.

    Playing video games

    I’m not sure if everyone is a cozy video game person, but I love them. I’m really into this puzzle game called Block Blast right now. Some kids put me onto it and it’s like a complicated version of Tetris where you make combinations in both the horizontal and vertical positions. I could spend my day just sitting there trying to puzzle out each of the challenges.

    Getting into a different hobby

    Well, my favorite other hobby has always been knitting, but living in the state where the sun shines all the time, there’s really no need for sweaters, cardigans, or scarves. So I’ve decided to pick up gardening. This recent book slump had the perfect timing to hit me right when I’m trying to start up a vegetable garden for the new year, so instead of reading fiction, I’m reading articles on how to best germinate your peppers.

    You can always reread a book you loved or you can read an audiobook

    I rarely do these options mostly because it’s very hard for me to read anything when I’m in a slump and audiobooks are hard for me because I’m a visual learner (I can’t see what the author is describing). But these are still valid options for those who don’t struggle with that problem!

    What about you? What are some ways you pass the time when you’re not reading?

  • Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi // Book Review

    Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi // Book Review

    I’ve been on a weird kick lately reading a lot of books featuring demons, possession, the fight between heaven and hell, good and evil, etc. It’s a weird little kick and I think I’ve reached the pinnacle with Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi.

    The book takes place in a small orphanage somewhere in the Delaware valley right at the turn of the 20th century. For all intents and purposes, this was your average orphanage where there was never enough to eat and all the kids were subject to some cruel punishment at the hands of the priests in charge. You have dirt under your fingers, you don’t get dinner. You talk back to the priests, you get the leather strap. If you’re quite problematic, well, then they put you in the hole, which is something one of the brothers learned from his time in prison.

    Yup, just your average orphanage where the kids don’t get adopted, age out, and then become miners or farmers somewhere far away. Life isn’t easy with not enough to eat and chores too exhausting to do with little in their stomachs. You know, average life of a orphaned boy at the turn of the century.

    That is until the night the local authority bring in a man covered in scars, weird tattoos, and blood and the priests unleash an evil that possesses the boys at the orphanage. You can only imagine what ensues next.

    In terms of horror stories, I’ve read scarier. But as Stephen King so aptly put it on the front cover of the book, it’s “old-school horror.” It reminds me a lot of my teenage years reading The Exorcist and having that feeling of dread at the pit of your stomach. You’re wondering to yourself if the outcome is going to be good. Will good triumph over evil? Will they able to save this little girl from her sad fate? That’s kind of what you’re getting from this one and not some cheap jump scares to get you out of your seat. The horrors are there. I mean, you have kids possessed by demons causing destruction and butchering a horse so badly you can’t even tell it’s a horse anymore. But it’s more the rising suspense. It’s knowing that something is about to happen but you can’t figure out what it is just yet and it’s until the final page of the book that you feel the sweet release of anticipating. Satisfaction most definitely brought back this cat.

    One of the key components of this book is that it’s set in the perspective of one of the boys. Peter is nearly old enough to leave the orphanage. One of the other priests has high hopes that he’ll join the ranks of the church and help them run the place without the cruel punishments and intolerant oldies. But Peter has bigger plans for himself. He wants to get married and have a family of his own, but struggles with the decision because of the dark and twisted past he came from.

    While you’re reading, you get to know more about Peter and you realize slowly that this is a hero’s story and Peter is at the center. The one who will save the rest from the demons possessing the little boys. The one who is smart enough to know what’s really going on while the other fathers are all scratching their heads as to why a kid who’s never been a problem would hang himself at the chapel altar. You know, he’s smart. It was incredible to watch Peter step into this role. While he has been with the kids, playing father figure to the young ones, this is the moment that you’re hoping for in a hero’s journey. It’s that switch from “eh, I don’t know. I don’t think I can save the world,” to “oh wow. yeah I guess I’m doing the thing.”

    This level of growth in a character is what I want to see. I want to see the goofy kid who can’t decide marrying the girl of his dreams or becoming a priest fall into the role of hero out of necessity because there’s more to care about in the given situation than his reputation or even his life. This is the kind of story that I absolutely love to read.

    And while the ending will surprise you (trust me, I’m still reeling at what happens), it still satisfies. There’s still that hint of hope that despite all the horrors these kids somehow survived, they’re going to live…perhaps with a couple hundred hours of therapy.

    Overall, this was such a great, fast-paced novel that I devoured all too quickly. It’s my first from Philip Fracassi and I already have the next one of his lined up. Thanks to Tor Nightfire for the gifted copy of this book.

  • How Mickey 17’s trailer made me read Mickey7

    How Mickey 17’s trailer made me read Mickey7

    It’s a weird “chicken and egg” moment in a reader’s life when they come across a book through the trailer of a movie. What came first? Interest in the story because of the synopsis or because Robert Pattinson is starring in the Bong Joon-ho adaptation of said book? While I do know I have a deep appreciation for both Pattinson and Bong Joon-ho, it was the premise that finally got me picking up a copy of Mickey7, a sci-fi thriller about a guy named Mickey who’s reborn just to die all over again.

    From the trailer, the overall premise of the book is there. It’s about a guy named Mickey Barnes who decides to escape his current planet (not Earth) by becoming an Expendable on a new colony ship checking out the validity for sustainable life on a far away planet. However, what he doesn’t realize is that the position of Expendable is not a popular one and before Mickey took the job, they considered making it a conscription for some convict. Because the job requires you to pretty much be the guinea pig for any and all dangerous and life-threatening missions.

    That’s why you see a number at the end of Mickey’s name. He’s copy number seven.

    While working on his most recent mission, Mickey7 is thought to be taken by these mega gross creatures called “Creepers.” But Mickey7 was able to escape and return to the ship only to find that they’ve already made Mickey8. Having multiple copies of yourself is forbidden due to some major damages the creator of the copy machine made when he churned out thousands of multiples to live on his very own planet. The main plot is watching Mickey7 and Mickey8 try to dupe everyone into believing there’s only one Mickey and definitely not die.

    What’s so good about this book is how Edward Ashton builds this world. Through the stories Mickey tells of each of his iterations, you learn more about the colonies, humanity’s plan for survival on other planets, and the technology that’s really come a long way over the thousands of years. With each chapter, you’re given more background on how humans got to this pretty wild point in future history and really shows the level of creativity Ashton put into building this world. Let’s not forget that this book is also less than 300 pages long, so it says a lot that you’re able to explain a whole world without sacrificing pacing.

    The realistic storytelling also played a huge factor in my love for this book. I mean, when the author teaches quantum physics, you expect there to be some details in the book that can truly mimic real life. Which is why I felt like the characters in this book felt realistic as well. From religious nuts to egotistical jocks, each character held their own and made the story so much more enjoyable to read. But not only that, the deep explanations on the history of this world, the technology that is used, and even the rationing of food on the ship all made sense if the reader were really in that situation. Alongside it’s very dark humor, which I absolutely adore, this one really worked for me on many different levels. I think fans of Andy Weir and John Scalzi will really appreciate this deep dive into the “science” part of science fiction.

    And yet, I feel the only fault this story had is that it felt like a lot of it was trying to get you excited for book two. There’s so much introduced here thematically like the political systems, the Creepers and how they function, the technology that’s so intricate and involved, the morality of being a copied human (is he actually Mickey Barnes if he’s been copied so many times). There’s even a religion that’s introduced that I would love to know more about. Honestly, there’s makings for an entire series from what Edward Ashton introduces in this book. And I know that there’s another book out there, but what I struggled with here is that it felt like we’re being led to book 2. Instead of it being its own book, it felt like the preamble to another book in the series, which doesn’t leave a very satisfying reading experience when you get to the end.

    You can definitely tell there’s some changes to the story in the trailer. The most obvious one is the fact that there’s now 17 iterations of Mickey rather than 7. And there’s characters that were mentioned in the book maybe once who now play a much bigger role in the movie. But I do hope that the plot and world of this book remain the same because they were the ones that really entertained me throughout. I already know I’m going to watch the movie, but now I have the added benefit of having read the book.

  • Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao // Book Review

    Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao // Book Review

    If you’re looking for something that whisks you away to a Ghibli-inspired world of dreams, paper cranes, cloud hopping, and more, then this might be the book for you.

    Here’s more about Water Moon

    A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical journey when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike and enchanting fantasy novel.

    On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

    Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.

    Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.

    But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.

    Find it on Amazon | Find it on Bookshop.org

    My thoughts

    3.5 stars rounded up to 4

    This was a beautiful story set in a world that feels like you’re in a Ghibli film. Who wouldn’t want to look for their missing father someplace where you can travel through a rumor, or fly through a dream, or see your fate tattooed on your skin? I was so impressed by the beautiful world that Samantha Sotto Yambao created here, but it still fell flat for me.

    The story starts off with a pawnshop that’s disguised as a ramen shop in the middle of Japan. Those who are destined to find the shop will walk through the doors of the restaurant only to find themselves transported someplace else. Here, Hana and her family offer one thing: happiness in exchange for their regret. Hana and her family collect the regrets to give to the Shiikuin, who were basically like crime bosses that controlled the world Hana came from.

    When her father goes missing one day, Hana follows the clues back to her own world alongside her new human friend, Kei, who happened to wander into the shop. That’s when we see the beautiful world filled with so many things that will make you swoon for it to be real. And while the premise of this book sounded so good, the execution left a lot to be desired.

    Overall, it felt a bit confusing and maybe requiring a better editor to help organize the world. There’s a lot of potential here, but the way it was executed was distracting with a lot of leaps in logic, explanation, and melodrama. I really wanted to like this one and it was beautiful, but it didn’t wow me.

    Thanks to Del Rey for a gifted copy of the book.

  • When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi // Book Review

    When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi // Book Review

    Did I have that song “That’s Amore” stuck in my head every single time I picked up this book? Yep. I’m a huge fan of John Scalzi and his latest work he begs the question “how would the world react if the moon turned into cheese?”

    Here’s more about When the Moon Hits Your Eye

    From the New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain comes an entirely serious take on a distinctly unserious subject: what would really happen if suddenly the moon were replaced by a giant wheel of cheese.

    It’s a whole new moooooon.

    One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters — schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians — as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.

    Find it on Amazon | Find it on Bookshop.org

    My thoughts

    “I don’t pretend I can explain the moon turning into cheese. I can’t. No one right now can. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t explainable –it just means that, on this particular matter, we are no different than those humans ten thousand years ago looking at an eclipse.” (pg 77, ARC edition)

    This was a much different book than I imagined. While I’ve only read two other books by John Scalzi, both of them had a linear story line that moved across the entire book and gave you a satisfying ending. When the Moon Hits Your Eye comes at you with a different approach presenting the argument of a moon made of cheese and then showing the effects of said news on the human populous.

    From stories about politicians having sex with a wheel or brie to a young writer trying to get back into writing her book, the stories within the overarching theme of When the Moon Hits Your Eye gives you a small glimpse into how our world would react to this pretty ludicrous premise. I absolutely loved the small vignettes on people’s lives ranging from those directly involved and those indirectly involved. But there was one small detail that was kind of left out: no one explains how the moon got that way.

    I think it’s on purpose that John Scalzi doesn’t go into how this phenomenon happened. It probably would have been a different book rivaling the details of Andy Weir’s stories. So perhaps the moon turning into cheese isn’t the big part of the book. Instead, it’s just a plot device to what happens around the big event.

    I thought the characters represented in this novel really captured the depth and breadth of human life. Going into politics, religious beliefs, and science are all represented up front since those are probably the places most people’s minds would go, but then there are the smaller, more mundane folks who are touched by this moon thing in one way or another. From discussions with friends about ridiculous billionaires riding their own lunar landing to the hunk of cheese to two competing cheese shops fighting for retail supremacy in close proximity to each other, there’s more than just politics, religion, and science that would be touched by the events in this book.

    And yet, it carried with it John Scalzi’s lighthearted writing style, his ability to find humor in any circumstance, and how he’s able to make you care about a bunch of characters in such a small number of pages. It made me happy to read and while I don’t want the moon to turn to cheese any time soon, I welcome a sci-fi story that doesn’t fully bog you down with “end of the world” doom and gloom.

    If anything, this book is an examination of human life at the brink of its end. It’s not about telling cohesive story, but to show you that we all react differently when it comes to disaster and with the rising temperatures and ice caps melting in our very real world, you can’t help but to look at this text and wonder if this will be us one day.

    Overall, if you’re new to science fiction and you want to check out how an author can create literary (and funny) prose in a given situation, then I highly recommend checking this one out. Thanks to Tor Books for sending me a copy of the book.

  • Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan // Book Review

    Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan // Book Review

    I picked up Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan because I was absolutely enthralled by her first duology Daughter of the Moon Goddess. And as a standalone romantasy, I felt the need to check it out.

    Here’s more about the book

    A stunning, standalone romantic fantasy filled with dangerous secrets, forbidden magic, and passion, of a young ruler who fights to protect her kingdom, from bestselling author Sue Lynn Tan and set in the breathtaking world of Daughter of the Moon Goddess.

    “What the gods did not give us, I would take.”

    As the heir to Tianxia, Liyen knows she must ascend the throne and renew her kingdom’s pledge to serve the immortals who once protected them from a vicious enemy. But when she is poisoned, Liyen’s grandfather steals an enchanted lotus to save her life. Enraged at his betrayal, the immortal queen commands the powerful God of War to attack Tianxia.

    Upon her grandfather’s death, Liyen ascends a precarious throne, vowing to end her kingdom’s obligation to the immortals. When she is summoned to the Immortal Realm, she seizes the opportunity to learn their secrets and to form a tenuous alliance to safeguard her people, all with the one she should fear and mistrust the most: the ruthless God of War. As they are drawn together, a treacherous attraction ignites between them—one she has to resist, to not endanger all she is fighting for.

    But with darker forces closing in around them, and her kingdom plunged into peril, Liyen must risk everything to save her people from an unspeakable fate, even if it means forging a dangerous bond with the immortal… even if it means losing her heart.

    Find it on Amazon | Find it on Bookshop.org

    My thoughts

    If you’re a fan of Chinese fantasy dramas, then this is the perfect book for you. Filled with every kind of trope you can think of (I would list them, but they can be considered spoilers), this book delivers a lot of action, suspicion, big reveals, and romance. It really kept me entertained the entire time I was reading!

    The story follows Liyen, a young princess who has just inherited the throne from her late grandfather only after he had stolen a magical lotus to save Liyen from being poisoned. Sadly, the magical lotus also happens to be the item cultivated for the immortal queen and once she finds out, she makes it her business to go after Liyen and get that lotus back. Along the way, she comes across the God of War, who you guessed it will have an enemies-to-lovers romance with. The romance was a little instant for my taste, but at the same time it makes a lot of sense. In some Chinese dramas, you kind of see that bond come together quickly, but then a bunch of things happen that keep the lovers apart.

    I absolutely loved Liyen. She’s relatable, she’s strong, and she has convictions that you can stand up for. She wants to protect her people and she doesn’t care about immortal thrones. In fact, she’s hoping to free her people from the bonds of servitude to the immortals, which is why she gets involved in this mess in the first place. And as the story goes on, you learn more about Liyen, the white streak in her hair, and why she is the way she is.

    The only reason why I can’t give this book all five stars is because the delivery was just a little rushed. The pacing started off fine, but then it moved very quickly before slowing way down towards the end. It didn’t feel like it got its footing until much later in the book. There were parts I wished were shown rather than told and with my small knowledge of Chinese fantasy dramas, I know that they would much rather show you what happened 600 years ago then tell you what happened. That’s what I kind of missed about this book; the immersion into this world of immortals and mortals.

    Overall, still a great story and if you’re a fan of romantasy, this will definitely be a stunner.

  • Battle Royale by Koushun Takami // Book Review

    Battle Royale by Koushun Takami // Book Review

    I had originally read this book back when I was 23 and commuting via bus to work. It got a lot of interest from people who had read it before and absolutely adored it and honestly, that boosted my confidence that I would enjoy the book as well. And lo and behold, I did. I remember the violence, the brutality of these students, the sheer primal need to survive. But that was pretty much all I remembered until I decided I would read it again.

    Here’s more about the book

    Koushun Takami’s notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan – where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller – Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japanese pulp classic, now available for the first time in the English language.

    Find it on Amazon | (not available on Bookshop.org)

    My thoughts

    If I could suggest doing anything with your reading life, I highly recommend revisiting some of the books you read when you were younger. Maybe it’s the nostalgia or maybe it’s my hazy memory that made this reread well worth it. My original copy of this book got lost somewhere in the mingle of moving across the country. Maybe I lent it to someone and they never returned it. Maybe I just gave it up because I thought I wouldn’t reread it. Whatever the cause, I found another copy of this murderous thriller in a local used bookstore.

    The book was pristine. If someone had read this copy, then they read it with the level of care most readers put into their books and not the monstrous way I like to read. I broke in the spine. I wrote in the margins. I had a conversation with this book and it’s all because on this reread of one of my favorite books from 15 years ago, I realized I missed a whole lot.

    If you’re not aware of what this story is about, you will if you’ve ever played any sort of online multi-player video game that’s been invented since the early 2000s. Counterstrike, PUBG, Fortnite all use this book as the blueprint for their games: you’re trapped on an island with a bunch of strangers and you must be the last surviving member to be claimed the winner.

    Battle Royale starts off with a Japanese middle school group heading off to the countryside for a weekend retreat. On the way, their bus is mysteriously gassed and when the kids wake up with metal collars around their necks, they are told they are now in The Program. The rules were simple: be the last person to survive on the island. Do whatever it is you need to do in order to survive, and don’t get killed. The story is set in the perspective of Shuya Nanahara, but you read from the perspectives of pretty much all of the 40 classmates on this island with him.

    This is where I think Takami excels. He was able to diversify each of these characters providing personalities that truly humanized them. Some were scared. Some didn’t want to participate. Some played the game. And in each of these classmates, Takami creates their own interests, personalities, likes/dislikes, and all of them. You can recognize some of these people in your own class when you were growing up and it made reading their deaths all the more gruesome. Because not only was Takami good at creating these personalities, but he was also good at creatively killing them off.

    But I think what I loved the most about this book the second time around was the world-building. How I missed this the first time I read it, I will never know. But it’s this alternate history world where Japan and China somehow came together to create one totalitarian state. The people of Japan were forced into what seemed like a communist world and the Program in which these kids participated in was a tactic to instill fear and untrust across the masses. It’s a cautionary tale at the heart of a world that could have been and could be in the future.

    The story is also hyper realistic. While the idea that the government gathering a bunch of middle school students on an island to kill each other may be farfetched, what Takami doesn’t skip on is the realism towards people’s death, the way they think. There are no Mary Sues here. There is no hero. And the realism in this story is what drives this idea that this could possibly be a future if we’re not careful.

    Overall, this fast-paced thriller really blew me away with its literary prowess and ability to immerse you in the story. Highly recommend it for folks who wanted something much more realistic from The Hunger Games.

  • James by Percival Everett // Book Review

    James by Percival Everett // Book Review

    “I am the angel of death, come to offer sweet justice in the night. I am a sign. I am your future. I am James.”

    Well, I’m so glad I’m able to add another favorite of 2024 to my list before the year ended. This is the retelling of Huck Finn through the eyes of James, the enslaved Black man who follows Huck throughout the story. However, instead of whatever sense of adventure you’d get in Huck Finn, you see an incredibly intelligent man looking for freedom for his family and himself.

    Here’s more about James

    A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and ferociously funny—told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view

    When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

    Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

    Find it on Amazon | Find it on Bookshop.org

    My thoughts

    Through this retelling, James is a highly intellectual human being who misses reading books and writing stories and ponders philosophers like Voltaire and Jon Locke. And while he’s incredibly articulate, he as well as the other Black people in the story, speak in a dialect of English that’s obviously learned from hearing others speak it than from a formal education. This is one of the first clues into the story you’re about to read. It’s about the prejudices and stereotypes put on Black people because of where they come from, how they were brought about, and how we perceive them as enslaved people.

    When James finds out that he’s being sold off, he decides to run away in hopes of finding means to buy his own family and free them together. There he meets Huck Finn, a young white boy who has known James all his life and considers him his best friend. From there, they travel across the Mississippi river in hopes of running away from those looking for them. I can only imagine this being some sort of adventure for Huck, but it’s not that way for James. If anything, there’s terror and fear all throughout the story as James hides from white people, tries to pass as a white person playing Black, meets other white people intent on selling him for money. There’s threats to his life around every corner.

    The story rivals that of Homer’s Odyssey. The travels across the country meeting different people, facing challenges in hopes of returning to his family is just a glimpse into James’s world at that point. I found the different characters he comes across to be intriguing like the white-passing Black man or the enslaved Black people who were happy to be slaves. The depth and breadth of life Percival Everett put into each character really immerses you into the story hoping for those who are friendly to James and cursing those who aren’t. Through his expert storytelling and character development, you really come to know that James is more than just some companion -he could almost be a real person.

    Overall, this book truly blew me away and the fact that Percival Everett was able to deliver such a story in so few pages is really astounding. This is my second book read from this author and knowing he has a long backlog of books makes me excited to pick out another story from him and find myself immersed in yet another expertly created world.