Tag: contemporary fiction

Fence, vol. 1

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Fence vol 1 coverFence vol. 1 by CS Pacat (website, Twitter); illustrated by Johanna the Mad (Twitter)

Her Grace’s rating:  3.5 out of 5 stars

Genre: contemporary literature/YA

I read it as a: graphic novel

Source: public library

Length: 112 pp

Published by: BOOM! Box (31 July 2018)

Nicholas Cox is something of an outcast, the illegitimate son of a retired fencing champion. He wins a scholarship to Kings Row Boys School, where he will fight to earn a place on the fencing team. Failure to make the team will result in losing his scholarship. To his horror, he discovers that not only is his half brother Seiji Katayama attending Kings Row for fencing as well, he is also his assigned roommate. Nicholas and Seiji have only met in competition, where Seiji defeated Nicholas by a huge margin. Volume 1 leaves off with the tryouts for the fencing team still ongoing.

I really enjoyed this one. I don’t often read graphic novels, but I picked this one because it fits the bill for two Read Harder tasks, and I like fencing. Not that I’ve ever done it myself, but I think it’s cool, and I have a friend who used to be a competitive fencer. It is maybe one of a handful of sports I can watch without wanting to scrape my eyeballs out of my face through my ears. I generally hate sports. 

I liked the diversity in this book, though it seems that every student at Kings Row is queer, which kind of throws the stats off a bit, I think. But still, I love  the way they all interact with each other. Seems believable for a boarding school. Also, there are lots of kids who are people of color, not just all rich white snots. 

I loved the tidbits of fencing information scattered throughout. I know nothing about it at all, so that was just interesting to me. An educational graphic novel, this. 

There is a lot of simmering romance between several characters, mainly members of the fencing team. I saw that a lot of people ship Nicholas and Seiji, but unless there’s something I missed, they are half brothers so that totally grosses me out. Pair them up with anyone else, but I’ll skip the incest, thanks. 

I plan to read all the rest of this series. It was a delightful surprise for me. 

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The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

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47163589The Bookish Life of Nina Hill* by Abbi Waxman (website)

Her Grace’s rating:  3.5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Contemporary fiction

I read it as an: audiobook

Narrator: Emily Rankin

Source: my  own collection/Audible

Length: 9:03:00

Published by: Random House Audio (9 July 2019)

Nina Hill is the only child of a single mother who never told her anything about her father. Imagine Nina’s surprise when she receives word via lawyer that her father has recently died and has a provision for her in his will. Along with suddenly gaining a dead dad, Nina also learns that she has a huge extended family. To introverted book nerds like Nina, that is horrifying. She likes her life just the way it is, with her job at the neighborhood bookstore, her trivia team, movie nights, her cat Phil, and solitude to read to her heart’s content. Nina’s world is thrown into upheaval as she learns to navigate a world in which she isn’t alone and has people who she can learn to lean on.

I enjoyed this book as a light, fluffy read. It wasn’t mind-blowing, it didn’t make me reevaluate my worldview or anything, but that’s ok. It was what I wanted it to be. I liked Nina – identified with her a great deal, actually. As an introverted, self-confident book nerd who prefers my own company to anyone else’s, I get where she’s coming from. I thought it was great of Waxman to show an introvert who is self-confident. So often, introverted characters are also insecure in some way or lack self-confidence, as though introversion and insecurity go together, which is bullshit. By the end of the novel, Nina does learn how to embrace a more open and spontaneous life, but I like that she struck a balance between learning and exploring new things about herself and not losing herself in the process. Nor did anyone, like her boyfriend or family, make her change who she is. I HATE when that happens, whether in books or real life. It could be my indifference to most humans speaking, but I just can’t imagine or believe stories where, for example, a super introvert becomes the life of the party and loves it by the end of the book, and changes to make another person like a lover happy. I would not change my basic nature for anyone else. Nope. Fuck that. I am who I am, take it or leave it. So seeing Nina find that good balance is affirming, at least to me, on a deep level. 

I also liked that Nina was a confident and strong woman who also deals with anxiety. I also check that box. My anxiety isn’t as bad as Nina’s was portrayed, but my brain sometimes just doesn’t shut up and it can get overwhelming. Pot helps. So does Xanax. But I appreciated seeing a character like her who could have anxiety and not be depicted as completely unhinged, unbalanced, hysterical, fragile, or whatever else is so often inaccurately associated with women generally. I do think some of her coping mechanisms weren’t the healthiest. I get wanting to be alone to freak out in private, but sometimes being with people who care about you is better. 

Nina listed her Five Perfect Things in the book. Hers were: books, cats, dogs, honeycrisp apples, and coffee. Then she said that everyone has a different five perfect things. I think mine are:

  1. My imperfect daughter
  2. Books
  3. Apples with peanut butter (also honeycrisp for me)
  4. Tea
  5. Dogs 

I could add another, rainy days spent at home, since technically my daughter isn’t a ‘thing’, she’s mostly human. 

What five perfect things would you choose?

 

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The Book of Essie

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The Book of Essie34503571._sx318_* by Meghan MacLean Weir (website, Twitter)

Her Grace’s rating:  2.5 out of 5 stars

Genre: YA/ contemporary fiction

I read it as a: hardback

Source: my own collection

Length: 336 pp

Published by: Knopf (12 June 2018)

Seventeen year old Esther Anne Hicks, known as Essie, is the youngest child of a famous TV preacher, similar to the Duggars. Essie has grown up with cameras always on, hair and makeup having to be done Just So all the time, most of the family’s conversations scripted and rehearsed. Everyone who watches their show of course thinks the Hicks family is perfect and a model of Christian whatever. The issue, though, is that Essie is pregnant. Her mother has a meeting with the show’s manager, excluding Essie from the discussion, about what to do – do they sneak her out of the country for an abortion? Does Essie’s mother fake a pregnancy to be able to claim it as hers? Essie convinces her mother to marry Roarke Richards, a boy at her school. Roarke’s parents are deep in the hole and are about to lose everything they have. An ‘arrangement’ with the Hicks wherein Roarke marries Essie will ensure that the Hicks will pay off all their debts and allow them to be comfortable for life. Against all odds, they talk Roarke into this plan. But he and Essie each have secrets that they fear to share with anyone. 

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

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521953The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* by Mark Haddon

I read it as an: audiobook

Narrator: Jeff Woodman

Source: my own collection

Length: 06:02:00

Publisher: Audible Studios

Year: 2003

Christopher Boone likes to go walking at night sometimes. On one of his nightly excursions, he encounters Wellington, one of the neighbor’s dogs. Wellington is dead, killed by a garden fork. This is puzzling to Christopher, who likes to understand why things happen and likes it when rules are followed; Wellington should not be killed with a garden fork. He decides to discover who killed Wellington and begins “detecting” like Sherlock Holmes, asking his neighbors rather uncomfortable questions. In the process, Christopher uncovers many more truths than he ever expected to, and now he has to learn how to live with the consequences of those truths.

This was a sweet coming of age story, told from the perspective of a boy who is on the autism spectrum. Christopher is highly intelligent and is gifted in math – he is going to take his A-Level maths exams later in the book so he can attend university. But he doesn’t know how to buy a train ticket without help. He doesn’t understand humor. He can’t tell a lie and doesn’t understand why you must always tell the truth but can’t tell an old person they’re old or a smelly person that they stink. I loved that he says metaphors are lies, but similes aren’t, and that he hated yellow and brown but red was the best. I really loved his thoughts on logic and reasoning and religion. Getting the story from his perspective is a wonderful change of pace from the typical narrator. I listened to this on audio book, so I didn’t see any of the diagrams that I think were in it. But I did enjoy figuring out before it was explained in the story that the chapter numbers were prime numbers. If you know how good I am not at math, you will know how impressive that is. I was rather proud of myself.

Seeing Christopher’s growth over the course of the book was wonderful. He learns that he IS able to do far more than he ever thought he could or would be able to do. He figures out a soul-shattering secret that has been kept from him and it sends him into a spiral of confusion, anger, and pain. Fleeing to London, on his own for the first time, Christopher learns that he is capable of much more than her ever knew.

I also thought the way his parents were portrayed was probably pretty realistic. I don’t have an autistic child, so I can’t imagine how hard it must be. I AM the mother of a very smart and difficult child, though, and know very well how frustrating and exhausting it can be. I wouldn’t change it for anything, but I can maybe understand how some parents would snap after a while. It doesn’t make it right, but it is a human reaction, and I think Christopher’s parents were shown in a very human and sympathetic light.

Highly recommended!

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