librarymouse's reviews
401 reviews

Jack is such a stoic character in Every Heart a Doorway. It was really interesting to see the childhood glimpsed in the first book, in vibrant detail. While the book is about both twins, it's pretty hard to care about Jill. At the same time, her anger is justified. Jack being encouraged to be pretty, quiet, and nonargumentative let it seem like she was on the side of her parents, even though both girls were trapped in the lives their parents designed. It was interesting to see Jack being deemed the pretty twin, and Jill the sporty one of the two in their youth, and to watch those roles melt away as they acclimated to their respectively chosen roles in the moors. Jack is taught to be an individual with a responsibility to the community and a community to be a part of. Jill is molded into a selfish child of a monster, getting everything she's ever wanted and only learning to crave more. Jack left and chose Dr. Bleak to save Jill, knowing she'd never be able to measure up to the level of decorum expected of them as Jack would be able to - at least not as they were when they were young. She left because she knew Jill would grow to resent her, even as Jill yearned for a relationship with her sister. Alexis's death at Jill's hands, as the person who loved Jack and taught her to love and be loved in return, was also the final blow through which Jack realized she couldn't completely give up on her sister and watch her be rightfully killed by the mob of townsfolk. Jill's delusion that killing Alexis would reconstitute her relationship with Jack shows how much of an influence the Master had on her, and how far she's gone from humanity. I hope we get to see them again, back in the Moors and Jill having to learn how to live like a person again, now that she's dead and cannot be loved by the Master. The possibility of Alexis's second resurrection is something I still haven't given up on yet.
I also really enjoyed Jack's explanation for her masculinized look, as not hiding or dismantling her femineity, but preserving it from the dangers of her work.

It's hard to tag this book, as each illustration tells its own story. However, I loved it, and I'm hoping the illustrations are sold as prints in the near future! The interjections of inspirational text are sweet and hopeful.

Every time I feel like I know myself and I understand my identities, I find another a-spec writer/scholar who explains something about myself or my experience that I didn't realize I was self-conscious about, or feeling badly about, and something in me heals to know that it is normal - just by an alternate definition. Having representation, especially self representation of the a-spec experience is wonderful. I'm so happy that there are more books on the subject, by a-spec authors coming out!

I learned a lot from The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders, but I often found myself losing the plot of anecdotes or losing track of the years events were happening and who was affiliated with who. Overall, a good read, though!

Letters from Bear is sweet, beautifully written and illustrated, and is a fun twist on the gift of a magi story. I want posters of the illustrations - especially the last one. They are gorgeous. 

I've read this book twice now, and while The Higher Power of Lucky was published when I was a child, I've only ever read it as an adult. Lucky is a compelling character, as are Lincoln and Miles. Each character has interesting and unique quirks that make them feel like real and lovable children. Hard Pan, California - population 43 contains a cast of vibrant and interesting people and their equally interesting homes, and draws the reader in alongside Lucky as she navigates growing up and trying to find her higher power.

This book was a fine, but strange read. The author sometimes said things that felt a bit outlandish, and it occasionally read as a TED talk, but considering the publisher, I think it was on brand.
It's also a good reminder of the simultaneous wonder and horror that is globalization.

This was thrilling, fast read. Jennifer and Esther are just as compelling characters as their adult selves at the start of the novel, as they are as their fictionalized teenage selves in the simulation. The part that unsettled me the most was the characters' continuation to be stuck as their false teenage selves at the end, smothering the remainder of the memories from their adult lives and real childhoods. Jennifer loses her adult self but gets to keep her reputation and company. Esther loses everything, including losing her dad again and losing the drive that the horrific circumstances of his original death had stoked for her to seek out pseudoscience and charlatans to debunk. Not my favorite Mira Grant book, but not a bad read.

The Search for Belle Prater is a good sequel to Belle Prater's Boy. It holds a special place in my heart because of when I read it that I don't think this book lives up to, but it was a good read, nonetheless. There is some problematic language used in this book, in an attempt to teach the difference between what the majority references a minority group as, versus what they self-identify with and prefer to be called. I enjoyed the circus elements at the end, and the way Ruth White shifted the magical elements away from the idea of place and onto the mentalities of the characters with Cassie's sixth sense and Belle believing she flew. 

This is the third time I've read The Night Circus, and I love it just as much as I did when I read it for the first time a decade ago. The language is beautiful and the characters are so easy to love, flaws and all. With every read through, I see new details, understand innuendos I hadn't caught my first time around, and fall in love with the magic of the circus just as deeply. The moment I finished the book, I wanted to open it back up to the first page. I am a rêveur to my core, and as the name suggests, I dream of the circus.