Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older [Review]

Title: Shadowshaper
Author(s): Daniel José Older
Edition: Audio, 7 hours 21 minutes/6 discs
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Publication Date: November 1, 2015
Source: Library
Buy: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository

Summary

Sierra Santiago planned to have an easy summer of making art and hanging out with her friends. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Her stroke-ridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears... Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on.

With the help of a mysterious fellow artist named Robbie, Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one -- and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret. Now she must unravel her family's past, take down the killer in the present, and save the future of shadowshaping for herself and generations to come.

Full of a joyful, defiant spirit and writing as luscious as a Brooklyn summer night, Shadowshaper marks the YA debut of a brilliant new storyteller.

(Goodreads)

My Opinion

If you have been aching for a great supernatural book with kick-ass Latinx and Black characters, full of family, danger, and love, then look no further because Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older has it all!

The first thing, and maybe this was even more apparent because I was listening to the audiobook, was the voice within this book is amazing.  Each character is distinct, and while maybe not wholly explored, rounded in presentation.  Within the voice comes each character's heritage.  Both Latinx and Black culture is prevalent, with a multitude of different countries represented.  Sierra, Robbie, and their friends all come from different families, customs, and beliefs, and this is reflected in their speech, clothes, and attitude.  I felt like I was in their slice of Brooklyn, one which I've never experienced before.

Older also didn't hesitate to discuss the differences between minorities either.  While it wasn't an especially big part of the book, the prejudices that do exsit between White, Latinx, and Black cultures were mentioned.  While I am in no way an expert on this subject, it made the events of the story more believable because it is set in a real society rather than a perfect one.  Also Sierra's group of friends feels even tighter for overcoming those prejudices and assumptions that color everyone's perception.

So with that, this book would've been just a fantastic contemporary exploring the dynamics and relationships of the neighborhood, and Sierra's crew.  But of course, there was magic to be had, and BOOM it turns into Urban Fantasy!  Shadowshaping is very unique.  It reminds me of a religion, and feels very dogmatic and synced into the machismo that can exist in Latinx culture. By the time Sierra learns about shadowshaping and her place within that heritage, the magic is dying, and it is up to Sierra, a girl never meant to be a shadowshaper, to save it.  

The mix of art and magic is very powerful, not only in the book, but in life.  Most artists, be it writers, painters, or musicians, work from the soul.  Shadowshaping takes that to another level, actually harnessing the souls of one's ancestors into the artwork to make it come alive.  Also the aspect that the medium of the drawing makes the shaping more powerful is too cool (for instance, chalk is easily destroyed, while paint is stronger).  It's beautiful, and a gift I wish was real (cause I'd want to learn PRONTO)!

The pacing is fantastic, the mystery is not easily guessed, and the ending leaves you needing more!  Luckily, there is a sequel coming out this September (Shadowhouse Fall) so you don't have to wait too long (unless of course you read it when it first came out, then you did have to wait a bit)!  Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older is one of my favorite 2017 reads, and one you don't want to miss!

Final Rating

Extras

E-Novella

Amazon     Barnes & Noble

Interview with Daniel José Older

Tweet

BLOG TOUR --- Love and First Sight by Josh Sunquist [Review & Giveaway]

Title: Love and First Sight
Author(s): Josh Sundquist
Edition: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook, 281 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 3, 2017
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Buy: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - iBooks - Audible - Book Depository

Tour Schedule

Week One:

2/6/2017 - BookHounds YA - Interview
2/7/2017 - A Gingerly Review - Review
2/8/2017 - Actin' Up with Books - Guest Post
2/9/2017 - The Hardcover Lover - Review
2/10/2017 - A Dream Within A Dream - Guest Post

Week Two:

2/13/2017 - Eli to the nth - Review (ME!)
2/14/2017 - Literary Meanderings - Interview
2/15/2017 - Here's to Happy Endings - Review
2/16/2017 - Wandering Bark Books - Guest Post
2/17/2017 - Just Commonly - Review

The Summary

Love is more than meets the eye.

On his first day at a new school, blind sixteen-year-old Will Porter accidentally groped a girl on the stairs, sat on another student in the cafeteria, and somehow drove a classmate to tears. High school can only go up from here, right?

As Will starts to find his footing, he develops a crush on a sweet but shy girl named Cecily. And despite his fear that having a girlfriend will make him inherently dependent on someone sighted, the two of them grow closer and closer. Then an unprecedented opportunity arises: an experimental surgery that could give Will eyesight for the first time in his life. But learning to see is more difficult than Will ever imagined, and he soon discovers that the sighted world has been keeping secrets. It turns out Cecily doesn’t meet traditional definitions of beauty—in fact, everything he’d heard about her appearance was a lie engineered by their so-called friends to get the two of them together. Does it matter what Cecily looks like? No, not really. But then why does Will feel so betrayed?

(Goodreads)

My Opinion

The title of this book, Love and First Sight is a very cute play on the commonly known phrase, love at first sight.  But just a light-hearted high school romance this book is not.  While there is a total platonic "meet-cute" where, Will, the main character, accidentally sits on his soon-to-be friend, Nick, and other kerfuffles, as Will learns to navigate his first foray into mainstream school, there are some heavy emotions to deal with surrounding Will's blindness, his surgery, and the lies his friends told him in the face of his blindness.

The research put into this book is obvious, as Sundquist is not, himself, blind.  And I can only speak as a seeing person, but I felt like I could understand, to a degree, how difficult it would be to "be born" again, as Will as to re-learn all the things that seeing people take for granted, just as a child would.  The mental taxation and depression that can stem from that is clearly addressed in the book.  The surgery results aren't all happily-ever-after, which makes the book feel very realistic in it's tone.

Of course, the humor is there.  Sundquist has a knack for writing about difficult subjects with humor.  He, himself, is a cancer survivor and amputee, has written about his own struggles in life in his first two books.  And Will's journey to be a "normal" kid in high school is fraught with humorous events.  But, ultimately, this book brings to light the questions of "what is beautiful?", "does race really matter?", and "is having sight all that it's cracked up to be?".

Excellent book, with a fittingly open-ended conclusion, Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist will make you question what you think is true and if what you "see" is real.  Pick a copy up at your local bookstore today!

Final Rating

About the Author

Josh Sundquist is a bestselling author, motivational speaker, and Paralympic ski racer. He has spoken across the world to groups ranging from Fortune 500 companies to inner city public schools to the White House.  Josh received a degree in business from the College of William and Mary and a Master's in Communications from the University of Southern California. He lives with his wife near the beach.

YouTube | Twitter  | Facebook | Tumblr | Snapchat | Instagram | Goodreads |

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-->

Tweet

Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices edited by Mitali Perkins [Review]

Title: Open Mic: riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices
Editors(s): Mitali Perkins
Contributors: David Yoo, Gene Yuen Lang, Cherry Cheva, Debbie Rigaud, Varian Johnson, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, G. Neri, Francisco X. Stork, and Naomi Shihab Nye
Edition: Audio, 2 hours 50 minutes/3 discs
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: September 10, 2013
Source: Library
Buy: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository

Using humor as the common denominator, a multicultural cast of YA authors steps up to the mic to share stories touching on race.

Listen in as ten YA authors -- some familiar, some new -- use their own brand of humor to share their stories about growing up between cultures. Henry Choi Lee discovers that pretending to be a tai chi master or a sought-after wiz at math wins him friends for a while -- until it comically backfires. A biracial girl is amused when her dad clears seats for his family on a crowded subway in under a minute flat, simply by sitting quietly in between two uptight white women. Edited by acclaimed author and speaker Mitali Perkins, this collection of fiction and nonfiction uses a mix of styles as diverse as their authors, from laugh-out-loud funny to wry, ironic, or poignant, in prose, poetry, and comic form.

(Goodreads)

My Opinion

I am making a pledge this year to read more diverse books, and participate in the 2017 Diverse Reads Book Challenge, so I started it off right by getting a hold of the audiobook of this gem of a collection.  Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices edited by Mitali Perkins has the perfect mix of humor, a little heartache, and a whole lot of strength, capturing the reality of experiences of people trapped between cultures.

There is a mix of fiction and nonfiction; a mix of prose, verse, and graphic within the pages.  But while each entry may be different, the underlaying purpose rings true.  As Perkins writes in her introduction, the purpose is to "...to break down barriers and draw us together across borders.”  And this collection succeeds.  From the romantic, in Cherry Cheva's "Talent Show" to the empowering, in Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich's "Confessions of a Black Geek; from half-way across the world, in G. Neri's "Under Berlin", to one's own house, in Francisco X. Stork's "Brotherly Love" and everything in between the autobiographical feeling of being trapped between two cultures, and the journey to fight against racism and the expectations of each culture is clear.

The audiobook was excellently done, with multiple voice actors doing the readings (a majority of whom are POC as far as I could figure out).  This made it much easier to differentiate between each entry right away, and also brought great character to the stories.  I love that Mitali Perkins narrated her own story, which is about her life.  It gave it just something special to hear her telling her story of being a boy-crazy Indian-American teenager trying to figure out how to "score some points" (read it to find out more!!!!).

I would love to see a Volume 2 come out in 2017, especially with the climate of America the way it is currently.  Diverse books containing stories from the very people represented in them is necessary and so impactful.  Each of these authors are amazing contributors to both the Young Adult and Middle Grade genres, but put them all together and is it amazing!  A great addition to the #ownvoices movement (published ahead of its time) and a necessary book that helps bridge the gap in our country, shining a light on racism and multicultural issues through humor.

Final Rating

Extras

Interview with Mitali Perkins

Tweet