“Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. That’s what they say, right?” – 1.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: lab rats, double standards, privileges, electric “bracelets” and silence.

Set in an America where half the population has been silenced, VOX is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed to speak more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial—this can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

This is just the beginning.

Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard.

But this is not the end.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

*Some spoilers ahead, proceed with caution!*

Vox disappointed me. When I first read the premise of the book I got really excited to get it and read it. A world where women are controlled to only say 100 words per day? I love dystopian books and this sounded amazing. And it was… in the beginning.

The story starts off nicely. They build the world and tell that women stopped having access to books, passports, information and other small, normal things. But after about a third of the book, the story changes direction abruptly and to me it felt like it was no longer about the main premise. The main idea was lost in things that weren’t even relevant to the story. 

The characters were so flat, plain and unlikeable that I didn’t care for anyone. The first third of the book made me hate Jean’s husband and older son – especially her older son. But I even disliked Jean. I tried to relate to her as a woman and a scientist (I’m not one anymore though), but I just couldn’t find a single relatable thing about her. She kept saying she cared about her kids, but she was selfish enough to get back to that italian (plain) guy just because he was good to her. I will say I liked how her relationship with her daughter was portrayed, but was she really willing to leave her other kids behind just because they were boys? Really? I will say I liked the fact that she had a daughter and sons because it was a good way to show the readers the contrast between gender privileges.

There are so many moments I thought “what the hell is going on”. This story could be realistic, but they seriously worked and developed a drug in weeks? Really? And that ending with her husband…? Oh my God. I had no words for so many reasons. And the way the book ends for Jean? I don’t want to get in too much detail, but this was the nail in the coffin for me. For a book that talks about woman power, the ending was just ridiculous.

I could be here all day to point out all the problems I had with this book, but in a nutshell: the plot is terrible, there is no backstory or explanation, the characters are plain and unlikeable and there are too many unbelievable coincidences and unnecessary stereotypes.

For a book I was so excited to read, I was bored the entire time. I’m honestly surprised I finished this book, but I just kept going because I hoped it would get better. I’m just disappointed because the concept had so much potential but the execution and plot completely ruined the book for me. Better books will come though!

xoxo,

“I believe my purpose is to bring joy to people, to make them laugh, and to share my story to help them. To show people that no matter what, they matter, and they can succeed. No matter how bad things go, no matter how dark your life is, there is a reason for it. You can find beauty in it, and you can get better. I know, because I’ve done it. That’s why my comedy so often comes from my pain. In my life, and I hope in yours, I want us to grow roses out of the poop.” – 3.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: comedy nights, domestic abuse, car accidents, groupons, bar mitzvahs, reading difficulties, pimps, celebrities, marriages, parties, free bags, foster care system, pain, growth and success.

Placed in the foster care system as a teen, and struggling to read at a basic level in ninth grade, Haddish found that humor and jokes helped her endure. When offered a choice between the Laugh Factory comedy camp or counseling to help recover from issues within the foster system, she chose the former and found her calling. In her first book, Haddish recounts her early life straight through to her powerhouse success both on the comedy circuit and in Hollywood with the 2017 film Girls Trip.

Wow, Tiffany went through a lot in her life. I never knew much about her other than what I saw in a few interviews in random talk shows, but to me she always came across as a very funny and humble person. After reading this book I found out she had a very difficult life – not only growing up, but also as an adult -, which surprised me because she always looks so positive and happy. She went through some crazy things, but it’s really inspiring to me how she always kept her smile and kept going to overcome her problems. 

But even though I love her and I think she’s hilarious, I wish her book was just as amazing. First off, I will say I understand the many bad reviews this book has. Throughout the book, Tiffany uses her comedian humour to go through her good and bad life experiences, but her humour can sometimes come across as insensitive. There are some chapters in this book that not everyone is going to enjoy – like for example, the Roscoe chapter. This chapter in particular will rub off a lot of people the wrong way, and I completely understand it. I personally don’t think she comes from a bad place when she is telling some of these stories so I didn’t get angry about what she said, but I know not everyone is going to enjoy this book for her choice of words. So keep that in mind if you decide to read this book, because you may find some of the things she says offensive and problematic.

Another big thing for me was the pacing and timeline of the book. I felt like the book was lacking in structure, connection and depth. Some chapters were composed by really random stories that had no connection with each other, some stories required some more depth and the timeline got very confusing. Overall, the quality of how the book was put together did not impress me, and unfortunately that reflects on my rating.

Other than that, I thought the book was very funny. I just kept laughing and thinking “this girl is absolutely crazy” the entire time. Of course there are happier stories in here, but there are a lot of sad stories like the story of her ex-husband. I would say the bar mitzvah old man story and the pimp story were two of my favorites – I almost peed my pants laughing at the end of this last one! Another thing I liked is how honest she is in her book. For a celebrity book, she was bold to be this honest! But I appreciate the authenticity of her words.

I listened to the audiobook version and I loved it because she is the narrator. I’m not sure I would like the book as much if I read the digital/physical copy, because the audiobook version feels very authentic. It’s like your friend is telling you her crazy stories, so it feels like a casual and relaxed conversation. I would definitely recommend the audiobook version.

Tiffany is a very humble, strong person. She definitely deserves her success and recognition.

xoxo,

“You don’t get to decide what your life means to anyone else.” – 4.25/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: trophies, sketches, bedtime stories, suicide letters, black labradors, identical twins, bathing suits, pills, donuts, statues of Jesus, graveyards, tattoos and family secrets.

Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.

The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit.

Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her—until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.

Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.

Unlike most of Colleen’s books, this is a true young adult book. She usually mixes things up and does mostly new adult and adult, so I wasn’t expecting a full on young adult book – and I loved it! 

This story is about a girl named Merit. She lives with her family in a repurposed church, but she doesn’t get along with any of her family members except for her four year-old step-sibling. And why not, you may ask? Well, long story short: she doesn’t get along with her twin sister because they’re polar opposites; she barely speaks to her older brother; her mother is afraid of leaving the basement where she currently lives and, to top it all off, her dad lives in the same house… with his current wife and new kid. Crazy enough for you? Spoiler alert: it gets worse; but you will have to read the book to find out! Merit is tired of all the family secrets she holds and to feel like an outsider, so she decides to expose every secret and leave them for good. But things don’t go as planned… and that’s all I’m going to tell you.

I went blindly into this book – like I usually do – because I wanted to be surprised. And I was. I think what makes this story so memorable for me is how weird it is. Merit’s household was insane! Everytime you feel like your family is crazy, just go back to this story and I guarantee you will feel better.

This is the kind of book that will make you think and give you a new perspective. A big thing I took away from this book is how we underestimate communication so often. If Merit and her family talked about their problems to each other, they would grow closer. Also, people always say twins have a strong connection to each other, but this book made me wonder if that applies to every set of twins. I never entertained the idea of having identical twins that don’t share a connection, but it makes sense right? Not everyone is going to get along.

What also surprised me was how full of triggers this book was. Of course there is romance, but it’s not the main theme of the book. Topics like mental health, depression, suicide and substance abuse are only a few of the most important ones mentioned in the book.

I listened to the audiobook, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the narrator. She did a great job narrating the book, but she sounded way too old for a seventeen year old.

It was a good, entertaining book. I know I will never forget it because it was very different and unique.

xoxo,

“Lions don’t know they are lions.
They don’t know how brave they are.” – 3/5 stars!

In Dearly, Margaret Atwood’s first collection of poetry in over a decade, Atwood addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature and – zombies. Her new poetry is introspective and personal in tone, but wide-ranging in topic. In poem after poem, she casts her unique imagination and unyielding, observant eye over the landscape of a life carefully and intuitively lived.

While many are familiar with Margaret Atwood’s fiction—including her groundbreaking and bestselling novels The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, Oryx and Crake, among others—she has, from the beginning of her career, been one of our most significant contemporary poets. And she is one of the very few writers equally accomplished in fiction and poetry.  This collection is a stunning achievement that will be appreciated by fans of her novels and poetry readers alike.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I didn’t love it!

The majority of the poems were about travelling, her sister – I’m assuming she lost a sister from what I’ve read – and the environment. There are also sprinkles of other topics here and there – like the poem where she talks about her grandmother, for example.

One thing I found interesting is the amount of animal references this book has. The author mentions so many animals,from spiders, slugs, birds, wolves, bears, whales and much more! She’s clearly very inspired by nature and I loved how she took that inspiration and made clever metaphors.

I will say I liked how the collection of poems felt so personal. It’s obvious she poured her heart into these poems because it shows. Some of my favorites were “If There Were No Emptiness” and “Shadow”. She is clearly very talented and I’m surprised this is her first collection of poetry in over a decade!

There were some poems I liked and others I didn’t like as much. The book overall just wasn’t my style, so I’m going to keep myself neutral in this one. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it.

xoxo,

“A heart of stone can still be broken.” – 3.75/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: bubble tea, tails, a basket of bones, stories and stone hearts.

An irresistible return to the captivating world of Elfhame.

Once upon a time, there was a boy with a wicked tongue.

Before he was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone . Revealing a deeper look into the dramatic life of Elfhame’s enigmatic high king, Cardan, his tale includes delicious details of life before The Cruel Prince, an adventure beyond The Queen of Nothing, and familiar moments from The Folk of the Air trilogy, told wholly from Cardan’s perspective.

This new installment in the Folk of the Air series is a return to the heart-racing romance, danger, humor, and drama that enchanted readers everywhere. Each chapter is paired with lavish and luminous full-color art, making this the perfect collector’s item to be enjoyed by both new audiences and old.

I was super excited to pick this up because I fell in love with this trilogy when I first read it. The world of Faerie was one of the most interesting settings I’ve read about this year, so I was more than happy to return to it! 

I could describe what this story is about by using two quotes from the book: “a heart of stone can still be broken” and “boys change and so do stories”. This novella – unlike the trilogy – is not about Jude… it’s about Cardan. If you read the series you know how poorly he treated Jude, and this novella explains some of his actions and attitudes. We are given a small window to his life and we get to see what he has been through while growing up and how much he has changed. Oh, and did I mention there are also BEAUTIFUL drawings throughout the story?

The story has its own sparkle and uniqueness, but it’s not a novella you HAVE to read (in my opinion). A few interesting things are brought up but it doesn’t add too much to the main story. I would say the coolest things about this novella were the tales and the drawings, because they brought the story to life and gave it the perfect fairytale feel.

It’s a simple book, but if you read the books from the trilogy and you liked it you will probably enjoy this too. It was entertaining!

xoxo,

“It’s not that we need more wolf hunters,” you say. “It’s that we need men to stop becoming wolves.” – 4.25/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: broken necks, old sayings, french expressions, menstruation, lapis blue necklaces, farmhouses, sickle moons, Halloween parties, poems, fresh bread, improbable friends and big bad wolves.

You are alone in the woods, seen only by the unblinking yellow moon. Your hands are empty. You are nearly naked.

And the wolf is angry.

Since her grandmother became her caretaker when she was four years old, Bisou Martel has lived a quiet life in a little house in Seattle. She’s kept mostly to herself. She’s been good. But then comes the night of homecoming, when she finds herself running for her life over roots and between trees, a fury of claws and teeth behind her. A wolf attacks. Bisou fights back. A new moon rises. And with it, questions. About the blood in Bisou’s past and on her hands as she stumbles home. About broken boys and vicious wolves. About girls lost in the woods—frightened, but not alone.

I swear I’m going to read EVERY retelling that comes from this author. After reading Damsel – which easily became one of my favorite books of all time – I was very excited when this book was published and I couldn’t wait to finally pick it up. I knew it would also be a retelling with a feminist twist just like Damsel, so I had high expectations!

Red Hood follows a teenage girl named Bisou, who lives with her grandmother in a small house in Seattle. Right after finding out she was menstruating for the first time, she finds herself in the woods in front of a terrifying wolf. It attacks her, but she easily fights it and kills it with knowledge she didn’t even know she had. The next day she finds out a boy from her school was found dead in the woods. Of course, this brings a lot of questions to Bisou, but fortunately her grandmother was waiting for the right time to have a very important talk with her.

For starters, I’m not sure I would consider this a retelling because the story is very different from Little Red Riding Hood. Sure, we have the same main elements – the girl, the grandmother, the wolves, the european references – but other than that, there is not anything else in common with the original story other than inspiration.

The book started out strong. That first chapter was… something. I know it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I personally really liked how raw this book is. I applaud the author for talking about topics like menstruation and sex in a very natural, non-taboo way. I was also surprised to find out this was written as a contemporary story instead of an historical one. I confess I was skeptical about this when I started reading the book, but it turned out better than I thought. The story is told in second person, so it’s told like the reader is the main character. I can’t remember if I ever read a story in this format before, but I thought it was cool and different!

But this story has a bigger purpose. It’s very obvious that the main topics of this book are abuse, double standards and consent – but it’s all said in a metaphoric way. Some men are wolves – not all of them, of course – and they take women as prey. Like I said, I wouldn’t consider this a retelling but I love the way the author uses fairytales and recreates them to encourage important conversations. The book talks about toxic masculinity, rape culture and “incels” (which I never heard about before until I read this book) and it encourages consensual relationships and gender equality. Overall, I would say this is a great story about woman empowerment. We live in a world where women are constantly being labeled, sexualized and shamed for their bodies instead of being accepted for who they are as a whole. It’s about taking our power back and accepting our bodies without feeling bad about them.

It’s not a beat-around-the bush kind of book because it will tell you everything as it is, whether you are comfortable or not! I honestly think it’s a great book that brings to light a lot of issues women have while dealing with “wolves”. It’s feminist, it’s raw and it’s empowering.

xoxo,

“You are not what happens to you. You are far greater than the sum of all events and circumstances that happen in your life. Don’t identify with them. Rise above them!” – 4/5 stars!

This is one of those books you will always want to keep near you. In fact, I swear this book came to me in the best time possible. I like to think of myself as a positive person, but the truth is that sometimes we go through phases in life that bring us down and make us question some things. Fortunately for me, there were some great things in this book that reminded me to put things in perspective and to reset my mindset.

I feel like the title doesn’t convey the true meaning of the book because when I first read it I was expecting a technical, rigid book… but instead I got a nice, wholesome conversation. It was easy for me to comprehend a lot of things the author said because I already try to follow this kind of mindset in my life, but I think this book would open a lot of people’s eyes to their attitudes and thoughts.

The book is composed of ten chapters and a small conclusion, focusing on different essential aspects that contribute to our happiness. I personally identified better with topics like how you shouldn’t care about other people’s opinions and to not let fear stop you from your goals, because that was what I needed to hear – or in this case, read. One thing I also liked about this book is how it’s filled with stories and examples. The author reinforces his lessons through both fictitious and real inspirational stories. Every story presented went really well with what the author was trying to say, and I appreciate how he incorporated people from different backgrounds (from fashion to technology)!

There is just one thing I wish was different. I had the opportunity to read a finished, published copy, so I was surprised to find some errors throughout the book. Not only that, but I found sentences that didn’t make a lot of sense and were written in a confusing way. It was nothing too bad and I was able to understand everything, but unfortunately this makes the book look a bit unprofessional. I wish the book was revised a few more times before actually being released to the market, but in all honesty it was not a huge deal to me because I was more focused on the content and these things can easily be fixed in the next edition.I’m not sure if an audiobook version is available, but I think it would be a great option to consider when picking up this book. Like I said, the book feels like a conversation, so I think that would work well in that specific format. Despite the errors, I honestly think the book is really good and it’s completely worth reading. It’s motivating and  very easy to read and to go through. It’s one of those books you can (and should) revisit from time to time, just so you can refocus on what’s really important. I recommend it for everyone who wants to live their best, happiest life!

***A big thank you to the author Alex Neumann for the free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review***

xoxo, Neide