September 2020 Wrap Up!

The first book I finished in September was actually a carryover from my August TBR. The Fever King by Victoria Lee is the story of Noam Alvaro, an immigrant's son and technophile hacker in the post-apocalyptic Carolinas. In this world, magic is a virus that spreads from person to person, leading to a high fever and eventually death. In the slums of Carolinia where Noam lives, filled with refugees from Atlantia, magic breaks out and kills almost everyone it touches. The few who survive become what is known as Witchings, and they can use magic at will. Noam survives the fever and becomes a Witching with the presenting power of controlling technology.

Noam is taken to the local government complex where Witchings are taught to further control their power, and to develop new ones. Always a revolutionary fighting for his people, he immediately falls in with the charming Calix Lehrer, one of the original Witchings who has been alive longer than anyone can even remember. Calix takes Noam under his wing to tutor him specially, but are his plans truly what they seem? Or are the warnings from is his beautiful but broken adopted son, Dara, true? Oh - did I mention Noam is bisexual, Jewish, and Hispanic? 

This book was a solid three stars for me. I loved the story, but I thought the author could have spent a little more time on world building. A few of the scenes jump around and aren't quite cohesive. I love the concept of magic being a virus  - something to be feared and avoided instead of desired and quested after. A disease instead of a saving grace. The characters are all different and the book has a diverse cast of kids and adults from different backgrounds. I wish we could have spent more time with them, too. I want a whole book on Calix, even though he's the antagonist! I will be picking up the sequel before the end of the year. Overall, I recommend reading this one. 

The second book I read in September was SLAY by Brittney Morris and let me tell you - this book is nothing like I was expecting. SLAY is an #OwnVoices book that tells the story of 17-year-old Kiera who is an honors student at her primarily white high school by day, and a video game developer of a robust, virtual reality MMPORG made exclusively for Black people by night. When a young Black man is murdered in another city because of a disagreement over game resources, Kiera starts to wonder if it was her game that got him killed.

Shortly after, she and members of her world start receiving threatening messages from someone who has broken in by way of a stolen code. The interloper demands that she face him and reveal herself to take responsibility for what she has done. Suddenly, her guilt is the least of her worries. She challenges the intruder to a battle - three rounds. Winner takes all. Her battle to save her world, culminating in a twist ending that I never saw coming, will leave you absolutely rocked. I literally yelled OMG!!! and almost dropped my Kindle. 

When I say that this book was nothing like I was expecting, I am not kidding. It had been advertised to me as a book about a series of murders based on this girl's VR video game. If you weren't aware, I absolutely love stories based around VR games. Ready Player One, Otherworld, and Sword Art Online are some of my favorites. As much as I love that genre this book was better than I expected. Because it is an #OwnVoices story, I was not only entertained but also educated by this book. I truly hope that Brittney Morris comes out with another SLAY book based in the world. I will be the first one in line to pre-order! I easily landed on 4-stars, and it is a Strongly Recommend That You Read It book.

The third book I read in September was The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis. Imagine Darkly Dreaming Dexter (yes, THAT Dexter) in high school. I'm going to give you the trigger warnings that I never got: this books centers heavily around sexual assault and rape themes! I will be brief and not go into details here so you can decide for yourself if this is something you can handle. 

Alex is a high school senior who harbors her own dark secrets. See, something isn't quite right with Alex, and since her sister was murdered three years earlier there's no one to contain it. She knows there's something wrong with the world, with the boy's club, with the phrase "boys will be boys!" and she intends to stop it where ever she can. Alex has always distanced herself from the world. She knows there's something dark inside of her and she wants to keep the world safe - from her and from the predators that lurk in the shadows.  When she meets the preacher's kid, Claire, at the animal shelter she volunteers at, she stumbles onto a collision course that will change the lives of everyone she meets.

I was hooked from the opening line, "This is how I kill someone. And I don't feel bad about it." My initial rating of this book was 4-stars. I dropped it down to 3 after further reflection. After finishing SLAY, I couldn't honestly say that this book made as much of an impact on me as that one did. This is a book that will cling to you. You'll remember lines from it as you're going about your day. You may even find yourself muttering "You wouldn't say that if Alex was here." This book is scattered with one liners that you'll probably identify with. That fact might scare you a little bit, given the subject matter of the book. I know it scared me. Ultimately, what brought the rating down for me was how unceremonious the end is. It just feels . . . anti-climactic. It ended the only way it could have, but I needed more from the author. I still recommend this one if you are able to handle the subject.

The last book I read in September was The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas. Remember how I was going for a spooky, murdery vibe? This is as close as I got. Trigger warnings for this book include suicide, substance abuse, and abortion. 

Five years ago, five cheerleaders wound up dead in Sunnybrook. Two were killed in a gruesome car accident, two were violently murdered, and one killed herself. Or did she? Her sister, Monica, intends to find out what really happened to her sister after she finds her sister's cell phone in her step-dad's desk one night. Her sister made a phone call to someone on the day she died and Monica intends to find out who it was and what they knew. What she learns will bring her whole world crashing down.

This book was another 3-stars for me. I can't really say I enjoyed it, but I will say that I didn't see the ending coming. Maybe I'm off my thriller game - I'm pretty sure the last thrillers I read were R.L. Stine's Fear Street books. It was a quick read with some twists that will surprise you. The last chapter was the most interesting part of the whole book, and I wish it had factored more into the actual story.