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...

ARC Review: Welcome to the Slipstream by Natalka Burian

Rating: 1.5 stars. I received an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. (Thanks!) You know that feeling you get sometimes when you are watching a foreign film? The feeling that something of the importance that is happening is a bit lost on you because you're missing that context? That's sort of how I feel about this book. I would say that this novel was definitely unique, but I just wasn't knocked off my feet by it. I'm sure some people will like it, but I just don't think the writing was for me. Welcome to the Slipstream is about Van, a girl who moves a lot because of her mother's mental illness. Van's mom is a genius, but her mental illness makes her a bit difficult for people to deal with so she constantly changes jobs. The constant in Van's life is her surrogate grandmother, who helps to keep her mother sane. They move to Vegas, where Van discovers her dream of being in a band. But when her mother goes off to a self-help cult,...

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