Month: April 2023

Breakup From Hell

Breakup From HellBreakup from Hell by Ann Dávila Cardinal
on January 3, 2023
ISBN: 0063045303
Genres: Horror, Romance, Supernatural
Format: Fiction
Goodreads
three-stars

After spending her life in a small, idyllic Vermont town, Mica is ready for a new adventure. Unfortunately, her friends and Abuela don’t want her to leave to attend her dream college, UCLA. When the handsome and mysterious Sam shows up Mica falls for him hard, but it doesn’t take long for suspicions about Sam, his horrible sister, and Abuela’s concern about Mica’s changing behavior to show Mica that even small town Vermont can be exciting.

This angels-versus-demons, lovers-to-enemies horror-comedy is fast paced and fun but ultimately gets weighed down by unanswered questions and stock characters. More attention to Mica’s and her friends’ superhero-style development of their angelic powers would have helped lighten it up but it feels rushed for Mica and practically nonexistent for her friends. Maybe a sequel will explore these new powers in more detail?

Not an essential book for a YA collection but fans of Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Lucifer will probably really enjoy it.

Reviewed by Sarah Maciejewski, Patten Free Library, Bath

three-stars

Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality

Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal SexualityQueer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on May 24, 2022
ISBN: 0063069490
Pages: 240
Format: Chapter Book Nonfiction
Goodreads
five-stars

Using solid scientific data and humorous writing that will grab teens’ attention, Schrefer details the diversity of sexual behavior in the animal world proving that humans are not the only creatures who are queer. Interspersing his prose with the comics of Jules Zuckerberg, Schrefer provides examples from history, science, anthropology, and sociology to illustrate how animals from the albatross to doodlebugs to bonobos exhibit queer behavior and practice same-sex relationships.  This book opens the readers eyes to the ways in which we have viewed animal behavior through a lens of personal bias and Victorian values. Like humans, animal motivation is complex and this book removes some of the filters through which we have come to understand the natural world. A solid addition to YA and high school collections.

Reviewed by Jill O’Connor, Baxter Memorial Library, Gorham

five-stars

Sardines

SardinesSardines by Sashi Kaufman
Published by Quill Tree Books on October 18, 2022
ISBN: 0062995618
Genres: Realistic Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Goodreads
five-stars

A heartwarming middle grade novel about the power of friendship and positive thinking. Lucas is a middle school kid who is slightly adrift – his beloved older brother, Charlie, is dead, his mother has left to get “help”, and his father is distant and withholding.  Before leaving, Lucas’s mom signed him up for the middle school after care program, and it is here that he finds friendship, connection, and healing.  Between games of Sardines, a reverse hide-and-seek, Lucas and the other members of after care — new kid Finn, athlete Cat, popular Anna, and earnest but goofy Robbie — work together to make wishes come true, some simple, some complicated. Maine author Kaufman has crafted a story that is perfect for a classroom read aloud and that will have readers cheering for the rag-tag group as they come up with creative ways to lift up and support one another. Fans of realistic fiction and authors like Linda Mullaly Hunt, R.J. Palaccio, and Erin Entrada Kelly will love this book.

Reviewed by Jill O’Connor, Baxter Memorial Library, Gorham

five-stars