Plague Of Books

Jilo Book Review

7:24 PM

Title : Jilo (Witching Savannah #4)

Author : J.D. Horn

Publisher : 47North

Total Page Numbers : 357

Target Audience: New Adult / YA

Genre : Urban Fantasy / Historical Backgrounds

ISBN : 9781503953734

Rating (Out of 5 Stars) : 3.5

Summary of Book: “Aged Mother Jilo is wise in the ways of magic…but once upon a time, she was just a girl.

1950s Georgia: King Cotton has fallen. Savannah is known as the “beautiful woman with a dirty face,” its stately elegance faded by neglect, its soul withering from racial injustice and political corruption.

Young Jilo—fiercely independent, intelligent, and ambitious, but thwarted by Savannah’s maddeningly genteel version of bigotry—finds herself forced to embrace a dark power that has pursued her family for generations, an ancient magic that may prove her salvation…or her undoing.

Explore the fascinating history of one of the Witching Savannah series’ most vivid and beloved characters, as the resourceful and determined Jilo comes of age, strives to master formidable magical skills in the face of overwhelming adversity, and forges her strange destiny against the turbulent backdrop of the civil rights struggle in the American South.”

Excerpt from Goodreads

What I Thought:

I have not read the first few books in the Witching Savannah series but from everything I’ve seen, they must be worth reading! Jilo was engaging and culturally accurate and full of life. Having not read the books that came before Jilo, I know I must have missed some connections but I did love the story overall. I like how the timeline of Jilo is splayed out clearly from birth to adulthood. It gave me a really good view of how Jilo will eventually mature into “Mother Jilo” like I’ve seen in the other books.

Savannah, Georgia and racism/black culture (at the time) are all portrayed so accurately it was like being there. I’ve never read a book set in that time and culture before, it was new and exciting.

One criticism I will give is that the beginning feels very slow and I did not pick up on some of the hints alluding to the other books in the series. No matter! J.D. Horn does a fantastic job of luring you in with words. The descriptions and literary devices in general were so good (english nerd over here…).

From the start, I knew this would be an interesting read, “ ‘The old woman couldn’t a picked a hotter day to get herself buried,’ ”. Like??? Who wouldn’t want to know what happens next?! The character relationships too, I should mention that. I liked how fleshed out each individual was from Jesse Wills to May to Jilo herself. They each were so diverse and different.

Jilo by J.D. Horn was an enriching and culturally diverse book with magic and romance and a strong story (and main character) to back it up. The cover is beautiful and so is the plot, characters, and setting. It a story sure to stick with you. :)

This book was provided by the publisher for a fair and honest review.

bookreview

The Queen of Sheba Book Review

7:05 PM

Title : The Queen of Sheba

Author : Jessica V. Barnett

Total Page Numbers : 155

Target Audience: YA / New Adult

Genre : Mental Health / Teen Romance

ISBN : 9780692739853

Rating (Out of 5 Stars) : 4

Summary of Book: “On the eve of her senior year in high school, Rachael learns that Leif, the boy she’s had a crush on for over a year — who disappeared the previous spring after showing signs of a worsening depression — is coming back to school.

Rachael knows a little something about depression. Hers comes in the form of a two-hundred-pound lion, named Sheba. At first, it seems like their shared experience with depression might bring Rachael and Leif together, but Sheba has other ideas. Rachael soon realizes that if she can’t get Sheba under control, she stands to lose a lot more than just her first crush.”

Excerpt from Goodreads.com

What I Thought:

This was a really great story! It’s hard to know where to begin with this book so I’ll try to break it all up evenly. It deals with themes that are maybe controversial in a great way.

The portrayal of mental health was so good.

I have to say, Barnett did a very good job of telling it like it is and showing how depression feels in real life. It was a risky and artistic move that totally paid off in the end. Honestly, I was skeptical when I first started reading because of the impossibility of it all, but as I read on, I became much more comfortable with the fact that Sheba (Rachael’s lion depmo) was just a part of Rachael’s life. I ended up feeling a little guilty when I became sad that Sheba left, but the more she was away the better I felt for Rachael. I liked that Rachael was a dynamic character with actual hobbies and a separate home and school life and that Barnett brought up the normal teenage things that normal YA books never really seem to do (ie: condoms, sex, that stuff).

Transgender issues are brought up…

YAY!! I was so happy about this! I have a few trans friends and I think that this aspect of the story made it so much more interesting and diverse, Didi is someone I’d totally want to be friends with. I liked how normal Didi’s character was. Sometimes I think that authors make trans characters act weird but Didi was just normal and so cool.

As well as eating disorders…

Although, briefly, eating disorders are brought up and it’s so important to acknowledge that they exist and that they can be helped.

And child abuse/rape.

I don’t want to give anything away or cause any triggers to occur, but this topic was a big deal towards the end of the book. No matter what gender or age, this stuff happens and Barnett shows us the multiple points of view that this situation can come in. I applaud that.

But it wasn’t overwhelming.

This novella was certainly one of the most diverse books I’ve read in a few months. It handles gender, sexuality, child abuse, mental health, sex, oddities, school, and romance so very well. It’s a clear, concise and quick read.

This book was provided by the author for an honest review.

bookreview

Time Zero Book Review

1:35 PM

Title : Time Zero

Author : Carolyn Cohagan

Publisher : She Writes Press

Total Page Numbers : 426

Genre : Young Adult / Thriller / Dystopian

ISBN : 9781631520723

Rating (Out of 5 Stars) : 5

Summary of Book:

“Fifteen-year-old Mina Clark lives in a future Manhattan that is ruled by extremists. Girls aren’t allowed to get an education, they need permission to speak to boys, and all marriages are negotiated by contract. But Mina’s grandmother has secretly been teaching her to read, leading Mina down a path of rebellion, romance, and danger that not only threatens to destroy her family’s reputation, it could get Mina killed.

Suspenseful and empowering, Time Zero is about what it’s like to be powerless, underestimated, and manipulated and what it takes to go against society to assert who you actually want to be.”

Excerpt taken from Amazon.com

What I Thought:

5 stars is right! This book positively blew me away. I read it in two days and I could not get enough! “The religion that governs the city in Time Zero is fictional, yet its rules have been taken from various religions around the world, including those that originate in the United States” (Timezerobook.com). This is the sentence I couldn’t get out of my head for the entire book. The fact that these rules actually exist and are being followed? That women are treated like that? Mina Clark, our protagonist, knows that the system she lives in is flawed. Men rule women in every aspect of life, what she wears, does, says, who she marries, etc.

We start out on the day of Mina’s Offering, where she will be bid on by multiple suitors and married off. Mina’s secret is that she can read, her Nana has been teaching her for five years. Leaking this information would mean she’d be unmarriageable and even face the possibility of death.

There’s a lot of things I liked about this book. I liked how it had that classic dystopian-YA feel to it, but how it was also realistic in a sense. Hopefully, in the next book, the Prophet and Uncle Ruho are given more detail. I want to know the deepest inner workings of this society and how it became so misogynistic. I agree with most other reviews I’ve seen on this book that the so-called “rebel cause” didn’t seem very “rebellious.” It mostly seemed like they hated males so it didn’t help much that they were just anti-men. Overall the plot was fascinating and it was a page-turner for sure!