ARC Review : The Last True Poets of the Sea

I received an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (Thanks!)

Is it bad that the main reason I picked this up is because Madeline Miller blurbed it? I'm honestly really glad I did though because this book was addicting.

This book is a YA retelling of Twelfth Night. Drake creates a complex main character in Violet, who goes to live with her uncle for the summer after her brother's suicide attempt and her wild party lifestyle in New York gets her in trouble. Violet becomes obsessed with shipwrecks while she is there since her ancestors helped found the town when one of them washed ashore from a shipwreck.

I loved all the interesting side characters that were created in this book as well like Liv, who is obsessed with the town's origin story and Orion, the marine biology obsessed boy who is in love with his best friend. I loved the setting, I could really feel from the writing how worn down this town is and its sleepy beach town vibes. There is bisexual rep in this book with a f/f romance.

All in all, this book is great for lovers of Shakespeare and lovers of summer coming-of-age stories.

Comments

Favourite YA Historical Fiction Novels (as of August 2017)

I feel like Historical YA fiction is kind of an underrated genre. YA Dystopian novels used to be huge back in the Hunger Games craze and now YA Fantasy and YA contemporary Romances are popular. A lot of the Historical YA books can run a little young sometimes but here's some of my favourites.

ARC Review: Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian

Rating: 3 stars. I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (Thank you!) Stay Sweet is a book about ice cream, friendship and feminism. The main character Amelia is tasked this summer with keeping the town's famous ice cream stand open after tragedy strikes. She has to work with the owner's nephew, a cute college boy, and struggles to maintain her friendship with her best friend. What I really liked about this book was Amelia's emotional growth. She starts the book almost kind of whiny. Amelia doubts her ability to be a leader, doesn't think that she's very fun, and is wondering why she was chosen to be the manager of the ice cream stand. As the book progresses, Amelia discovers her passions and becomes more confident, which I really loved seeing. I also really liked the diary entries from the owner of the ice cream when she started making ice cream during WW2. I did feel like there was a point where there were too many, but I do real...

Audiobook Review: As I Descended by Robin Talley

Rating: 2.5 stars. As I Descended was a decent Macbeth retelling, if a bit too loose. As I Descended is about Maria, a girl who is competing for a scholarship against Delilah, who she believes doesn't deserve it. Maria's secret girlfriend, Lily, thinks so too and after they have a seance, the girls decide to take matters into their own hands and try to reveal the true nature of Delilah. But when murder results, they start to question whether it was a good idea. I really only liked this book because of the similarities to Macbeth. Even then, it's hard to like it because it was only loosely based on the play. I picked up this audiobook because I heard great things about how diverse it was. I do have to agree that As I Descended did have quite a bit of diversity and did it well. I think my favourite character in this book was Matteo. I have no idea if he's supposed to resemble a character from the Shakespearean play, but I liked him the best; he was the most s...

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