Saleena's picks for July

 

This road trip book was interesting and I did enjoy watching the family dynamics as 3 cousins (each for their own reasons) accompany each other on a road trip across country.  The intersections & tensions make sense, as family doesn't always agree and the fact that the death of their grandmother is a catalyst makes the reader understand each person's why & how they are handling their grief.  My only issue is that it's ending is a bit too neat & tidy (don't want to spoil the ending but.....yeah, it's a messy thing you see coming and it is POOF! magically all better.....and life doesn't work that way).  I recommend you trying it and let me know if you agree or not. 




I love a good scary story, and this was fun.  The premise is that Alex doesn't get accepted to film school and her friends start a Go-Fund-Me to help her reapply with a better film.  An anonymous donation gives her almost a million dollars, and a retired film star offers free use of Vlad the Impalers castle in Romania.  Alex and her friends go off to make the film of her dreams and everything goes wrong.  Alex gets a bit whiny (kind of a lot) but the ending was a cool twist which let me ignore the whining and enjoy....read it and let me know what you think!




I am a huge fan of Adib Khorram.  He is an amazing writer and this sequel to Darius the Great is Not Okay, is amazing.  It jumps about a year or so from where the other left off.  Darius is working at the tea shop he dreamed of working at, has an amazing boyfriend and is enjoying being a part of the soccer team and looking forward to the playoffs.  Unfortunately, the family is struggling, his little sister is experiencing racism for the first time, and he isn't sure things are going so well with his boyfriend.  Following along as Darius works through his own issues, his family issues as well as ratcheting anxiety for all the things happening around him was difficult and heart-wrenching but SO worth it.  Highly recommended.



Out of the Blue is told in two voices, the mer-person & the human.  Crest is on his quest, requiring him to live as a human and do a good deed in order to return to the ocean and take his place as an adult in society.  Sean is a lifeguard, struggling with heartbreak and general insecurity as his boyfriend just left him for a hotter, more popular guy.  The story has a lot of typical mer-person tropes and also a lot of rom-com tropes, but the author spins it in his own direction.  Ultimately this is a story about finding your own strength and purpose and not expecting love to solve everything, which made me love it and roll my eyes with love at the sickeningly sweet rom-com moments I saw coming a mile away.  Definitely worth a read.


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