Chlorine by Jade Song REVIEW

Summary:

Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach is her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life.

But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Creatures that called sailors to their doom. That dragged them down and drowned them. That feasted on their flesh. The creature that she's always longed to become: the mermaid.

Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine, the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.

My Thoughts:

This was an intriguing take on a coming-of-age story. Ren is a swimmer who longs to be a mermaid like the ones she read about as a child, and swimming is her happy place. Her best friend Cathy is also on the swim team, and they both harbor secret feelings for each other. As Ren grows older and closer to going to college, her delusions about becoming a mermaid grow stronger. When she is disqualified for a spot in a swim competition, she goes deeper into madness. She'll never be disqualified again if she sews her legs into a tail.

I did like the dreamy writing style, but I do think this book was more coming-of-age rather than spiraling into madness and body horror. When Ren sews her legs together to make a tail, it's barely talked about other than the way other people view it, and I think that was a missed opportunity to get more into Ren's head and way of thinking. There also wasn't much description of how it looked, which made it hard to visualize while reading. That and the ending make the novel seem unfinished.

My Rating: 2 stars 

If Looks Could Kill by Julie Berry REVIEW

Summary:

It’s autumn 1888, and Jack the Ripper is on the run. As London police close in, he flees England for New York City seeking new victims. But a primal force of female vengeance has had enough. With serpents for hair and a fearsome gaze, an awakened Medusa is hunting for one Jack.

And other dangers lurk in Manhattan’s Bowery. Salvation Army volunteers Tabitha and Pearl discover that a girl they once helped has been forced to work in a local brothel. Tabitha’s an upstate city girl with a wry humor and a thirst for adventure, while farmgirl Pearl takes everything with stone-cold seriousness. Their brittle partnership is tested as they team up with an aspiring girl reporter and a handsome Irish bartender to mount a rescue effort, only to find their fates entwine with Medusa’s and Jack’s.

My Thoughts:

This was an interesting look into Jack the Ripper and Medusa. Tabitha and Pearl work for the Salvation Army; Pearl is more serious whereas Tabitha has a more relaxed demeanor. When they find out that a girl they helped ended up in a brothel, they are determined to help however they can. But infiltrating a brothel is tricky, especially with Pearl's new Medusa-like powers and Jack the Ripper on the loose.

I really like Tabitha's character. She truly cares about and wants to help the poor, even if that means putting down her duty of preaching. Pearl, on the other hand, is rigid and strict to follow the Salvation Army rules, which causes friction between them. Despite this, Tabitha deeply cares about Pearl's safety and well-being even though they aren't really friends. I love the concept of Medusa-like powers being passed to ordinary women so that they can help other women who are in harm's way. However, I do wish this was more expanded on. It would have been really cool to learn more about the origins and process.

My Rating: 4 stars 

My Best Friend's Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner REVIEW

Summary:

Elsie Hoffman has been engaged to her college boyfriend for a year and a half. Ginny Holtz has been in love with Elsie for almost a decade and a half.

When Elsie discovers her fiance already planned their wedding and honeymoon as a surprise and she's expected to be in a white dress in seven days, she swiftly realizes that she's let herself become too comfortable with a future she never wanted. She breaks things off and a week later is on a plane to the Caribbean for her nonrefundable honeymoon with her best friend Ginny instead.

Ginny thinks it's high time Elsie learned how to speak up for herself. So, they make a deal with her. For the next week, Elsie can have whatever she wants, wherever, however, and whenever she wants it, as long as she asks. They never expected Elsie to want them.

What starts as choosing activities and taking selfies soon turns to toe-curling kisses and much, much more. But what happens when the honeymoon is over?

My Thoughts:

This was a lot of fun and a nice breather to read. Ginny has been in love with Elsie since middle school, but when Elsie rejected her invite to the dance, Ginny hasn't brought it up since. When Elsie learns Derrick planned their wedding without asking her, she realizes she doesn't know what she wants. Derrick encourages her to go on the honeymoon trip with Ginny, since it is nonrefundable. But there, Elsie and Ginny acknowledge their feelings for each other, and after a fight, things are left uncertain.

The third act breakup was not needed and the reasoning was so stupid and made no sense. Why did Elsie care so much that Ginny quit their job? I do like that Ginny ended up starting their own business and that Elsie went forward with rebranding her father's store before they make up though. They definitely needed the break from each other to follow what they wanted to do. I also enjoyed the spicy scenes.

My Rating: 3 stars

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite REVIEW

Summary:

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn't hers - just as someone is found murdered. Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew, Ruthie. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor - and current suspect - knows more than she's letting on.

As one of the ship's detective's, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the passengers' schemes. But with someone not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something more sinister is afoot. Someone has found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed . . .

My Thoughts:

This was so interesting to read that I wish the novella was longer! I love the idea that memories are stored in a library so that when your current body dies, you can come back as a clone with all the memories from your past. It's also really cool that out of necessity, you can be brought back in someone else's body. I like the slow burn of the mystery of the killer's identity, but I do think that things were rushed towards the ending, and that the characters should have had more time on the page to get to know them better. That being said, I would love to check out the author's other works since I enjoyed this one a lot.

My Rating: 4 stars 

This Is My Body by Lindsay King-Miller REVIEW

Summary:

Gay single mom Brigid always thought that cutting ties with her extremist Catholic family was the best thing she could have done for her daughter, Dylan - and for herself. But when Dylan starts having terrifying fits of unnatural violence, Brigid can't shake her memories of a girl from her childhood who behaved the same way . . . until Brigid's uncle, Father Angus, performed an exorcism.

Convinced that Dylan is suffering from demonic possession, Brigid does the thing she told herself she'd never do: she goes home. Father Angus is the worst person she knows, but he's also the only person who can help her daughter.

But as Brigid starts to uncover secrets about Father Angus, that long-ago exorcism, and her family's past, she realizes that she and Dylan have never been in more danger.

My Thoughts:

This is by far the best exorcism book that I have read so far. When Brigid grew up, she cut all ties to her family and moved to the mountains to escape her trauma. Now a single mother, she runs a witchy store that she doesn't believe in either. When her daughter gets suspended from school for violence, Brigid is not sure what to do or believe. But when the demon reveals itself to be the same one she encountered as a child, she rushes Dylan to her uncle's house to get the demon exorcized. But secrets and truths from long ago start to surface, and Brigid doesn't know who or what to trust.

I do really like the author's writing style. It's part comedic, but also very real. Brigid is a character that a lot of people with religious trauma can relate to, especially those who are gay. I enjoyed the twists toward the end, but I do feel like everything could have been explained more and the book could have been longer. That being said, out of the two exorcism books I have read, this is the best by far and I would recommend it.

My Rating: 3 stars