Books Forward

Thoughts on R.A.T.S: REVOLUTIONARY ARMY OF TEENS

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this first day of October? Things here are the same. Just waiting to find out if I’m still cripple enough for Medicaid if they ever do anything. Anyway, as you can see from the post’s title, this is going to be a book review! That book that was supposed to come out in June was finally released, so I’m going to go ahead and review it. R.A.T.S: Revolutionary Army of Teens by Claudia Daher was released on September 25th from Vanguard Press (an imprint of Pegasus Publishers). Rachel Lachney from Books Forward reached out to me about reviewing it. As usual, this is an honest and unbiased review. I will say that the ARC I received was from way back in March and I have no idea if any major edits have taken place since then or not. So, take this review with a grain of salt just in case I didn’t have the most recent version. Here we go.

R.A.T.S: Revolutionary Army of Teens follows a number of young people from all over the world, mainly David, as they become immersed in a video game about saving the world from climate change and an alien threat. When they find out the game isn’t just a game, but based on a real and imminent disaster, they take it upon themselves to use the training provided in the game to go save the world.

The age range of the kids has this book straddling middle grade and young adult, but it definitely reads on the younger end of middle grade. It’s an over-simplification of climate change and some other complicated issues that encourages kids to think about these things and try to work together on potential solutions. I like that part. In today’s world, adults (at least where I’m from) can’t even agree that basic access to affordable food and healthcare are rights, not luxuries. They certainly aren’t going to fix anything as complex as climate change. So, the premise of this book is great.

The actual plot, though. Meh. A lot of it reads like a C.S. Lewis book. Thinly veiled Christianity. The good aliens are beings of light and warmth who never interfere with a human’s free will, etc. While the bad aliens are beings of darkness and greed who destroy everything they touch, but they happen to be descendants of evil, lying, sinning humans. There’s also a random scene with a lion and a lamb, just in case everything else was too subtle. Oh, and David’s basically Jesus for reasons I won’t spoil, but which are glaringly obvious. Now, I’m not saying this is an inherently bad thing. I do think it will confuse the crap out of Republicans. “Must ban because climate change doesn’t exist, but it’s thinly veiled Christian stuff…” -internal meltdown-. I find that hilarious. I’m just saying, I’m not into books that try so hard to be religious and cover it up at the same time. So, it ruined an otherwise decent plot for me.

The characters are all pretty much perfect, except for the bad aliens and random young Texans. This is not a good thing, especially in a middle grade book. There are no flaws for young readers to relate to, no room for growth. Literally the only character growth in this book is when one of the Texans decides not to be a dick any more. Otherwise, everyone makes all the right choices at all the right times. There’s no tension. No internal conflict. Everyone is just perfect and it’s boring.

Side note: the dialogue is pretty standard if somewhat stilted, except for the Texans. They talk like some combination of the Beverly Hillbillies and every cliché Western movie. I’m not entirely sure if it was supposed to be insulting (if so, fair) or if that’s how the author actually thinks people talk here. It’s just weird that they’re the only ones who get lines that sound like “I done jumped ’bout as high as an armadilly what got it’s tail-end tickled with a feather” (not a quote, just my own example). I mean… why?

The writing was fairly unobtrusive. It flowed and made for a quick read. There are also pictures drawn by the author throughout the book, which was lovely.

Ultimately, I thought the premise of R.A.T.S: Revolutionary Army of Teens was great, but I was not a fan of the execution. Most of my dislike was a me problem. Personally, I just felt it could’ve been better.

Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. One because it was written and published and one because I know other people will like it more than I did. If you’re a fan of thinly veiled Bible retellings, you’ll probably like it a lot more than I did. If you’re a fan of middle grade sci-fi or have kids who are, check it out.

Thoughts on THE OTHERS

~ shawnaborman ~ 5 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? I’m not here to complain about life, so I won’t even get into it. Today, it’s time for a book review! No, it’s not the last Wednesday of the month, but Rachel Lachney from Books Forward (a marketing firm I’ve reviewed for before) contacted me to see if I was interested in reviewing a fantasy dystopian type book and I said sure. The Others by Evette Davis was released yesterday (the 17th) by SparkPress. My reviews are honest and unbiased. Let’s get to it!

The Others follows Olivia Shepherd who has strong empathic powers, but has spent most of her life ignoring and suppressing them. When a time walker appears in her room, Olivia is forced to acknowledge her abilities and the fact that the Others, magical beings like witches and demons and vampires and fairies, exist alongside humans. She’s drawn into a mysterious organization called The Council that manipulates the human world by dabbling in human politics. What will her role be in all of this? Is she capable of changing the world?

Sounds fun, right? It’s not. The blurb on the book is super misleading. It sounds like it’s going to be a fantasy driven book with an in depth look at the Council and how the Others live and work. But instead, it’s basically about a woman who ends up running a small political campaign in California and all the fantasy is secondary to that. The blurb also mentions a dystopian San Francisco. You can’t really call it dystopian if it’s just real life San Francisco. It’s just San Francisco in 2022 (yes, the book literally dates itself which is weird).

Aside from the misleading blurb, the plot and pacing were poorly done. The plot was super awkward. I think it wanted to be a political thriller, but it’s basically just a rant against MAGA America (which I totally get) and someone’s fantasy about fighting against it. Most of the book is a mundane political campaign. Everything cool and important happens off the page or is glanced over. Olivia has no idea how to use her powers, but two pages later she has everything mastered. It’s ridiculous. There are basic expectations when you pick up a fantasy book (like seeing the MC struggle with their power before they figure it out), but this book skips them all. Then, after a slog of two thirds of a book, a car explosion is thrown in and at the very end, a surprise parent reveal is made (if you were paying attention even just a little bit, it’s not a surprise). And there was a completely random almost-threesome thrown in for a laugh. I don’t know if I was supposed to read this book high for it to make sense or what, but it definitely doesn’t work when you’re sober.

The characters don’t do much to improve things. Olivia is an annoying and entitled person. She doesn’t seem to care about anyone else as long as she gets her way. William is supposed to be a southern gentleman, which is really just code for a douchenozzle. Everyone else are cookie cutter stereotypes and its sad. Elsa and Lily could have been great, but they just fade into the background. Everything good about this book gets pushed into the background.

The writing is another thing I have nothing nice to say about, since most of the problems stem from bad writing. I feel like I’m being harsh, but a quick scan of other reviews tells me I’m not alone in my thinking.

Ultimately, I almost gave up on finishing The Others and I probably should have. There’s nothing remotely satisfying about this book. I won’t be checking out the other two in the trilogy if they come out.

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Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. One and a half, actually. One because it’s been written. A half because some people seem to like it. I don’t recommend it, though, unless it has undergone massive revisions since I received my ARC.

Thoughts on MAGIC BY ANY OTHER NAME

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this delightful Wednesday? Things here are coasting along. I know it’s not the last Wednesday of the month, but this is an extra book review for the month! A while ago, Simone Jung from Books Forward (a marketing and publicity firm) got in touch and offered me access to an ARC for a fantasy book in exchange for a review. The premise was interesting, so I said sure. Magic by Any Other Name by Alison Levy was released yesterday (the 7th) from SparkPress. Let’s get on with the review!

Magic by Any Other Name follows Ivy (aka Georgette) as she and her best friend Mei-Xing run away from Ivy’s emotionally abusive mother and insane family. As she struggles to build her new identity as Georgette, she collects a strange but powerful found-family to help her figure out who she is while she helps them. Werehyenas, vampires, Valkyries, and numerous other magical folk fill the pages of this book. Plus, there’s the human love interest. But before she can settle down, Georgette must confront the darkest parts of her upbringing as a witch as well as work through her trauma.

The plot is standard fantasy fare. Witches enslave “familiars” (any other magical creatures collectively called fae for some reason) by branding them. But one young witch uses the brand to share power with her magical friends. One of her new friends’ family member (wife) was taken by the big bad (fae traffickers) and together they must save her. Things go from bad to worse until finally there’s a happy ending. Wrap it all up in family trauma and that’s the book. Not bad. I enjoyed the plot for what it is.

The characters ranged from fleshed out and interesting to stereotypes. I wanted more out of Kazimiera. She was on the flatter end of the spectrum, as was Mei-Xing. Georgette and Ishak were the fleshiest, so to speak. I wasn’t particularly a fan of Ishak. The whole point of the book is emotional growth, but Ishak keeps playing on Georgette’s guilt instead of trusting her to help him because she wants to. It’s super annoying. He does it all the way through and no one calls him out on it. Yes, she’s a witch. Yes, her kind are generally dicks. But she’s proven her loyalty to the fae time and time again. Stop being an asshat.

I don’t generally talk about book structure unless it’s glaringly flawed, so guess what! It’s not great. Every chapter is from a different POV. Usually, it switches between three characters, but there are at least nine POVs that get at least a chapter. It’s too many to keep track of, especially when they show up once and that’s it. It’s also unnecessary. The prologue being from the aunt’s perspective could have just as easily been in Ivy’s perspective. The aunt didn’t play a role at all in the book. And the guy who just shows up to die. His chapter was useless. Nico’s chapters were okay, but not exactly necessary either. Same with Neil. There should be like five POVs, tops. Any more and it gets super hard for the average reader to follow.

Me to half these POVs.

The writing itself was nice. There was a lot going on, but the pacing was pretty good. It dragged in the beginning, but got better.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Magic by Any Other Name for what it is. A found-family fantasy story. If there’s another one, I’ll give it a shot. It’s called book one, so I’m guessing it’s supposed to be a series, but it’s an okay stand-alone.

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Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. There’s room for improvement, but if you enjoy fantasy and found-family stories, it’s not bad.