Review: A Thunderous Whisper by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Title: A Thunderous Whisper
Author: Christina Diaz Gonzalez
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: October 9, 2012
Publisher: Knopf
Format: eARC
Pages: 304
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository
Read from October 7 to 9, 2012
My rating:  (2.5)

Summary: Ani believes she is just an insignificant whisper of a 12-year-old girl in a loud world. This is what her mother tells her anyway. Her father made her feel important, but he's been off fighting in Spain's Civil War, and his voice in her head is fading. Then she meets Mathias. His family has just moved to Guernica and he's as far from a whisper as a 14-year-old boy can be. Ani thinks Mathias is more like lightning. A boy of action. Mathias's father is part of a spy network and soon Ani finds herself helping him deliver messages to other members of the underground. She's actually making a difference in the world. And then her world explodes. The sleepy little market town of Guernica is destroyed by Nazi bombers. In one afternoon Ani loses her city, her home, her mother. But in helping the other survivors, Ani gains a sense of her own strength. And she and Mathias make plans to fight back in their own unique way.

No matter how loud the world gets, sometimes a single voice can be heard. 

I was first interested in this book because it's about World War II, and because someone said it is like The Book Thief, which is my number 3 most favorite book of all time. And when someone makes a comparison like this, I couldn't help but feel the need to check this book out, as it could be the next best thing that would happen to me for all I knew.

But it wasn't. It's not bad, but it's nowhere near as life-changing or sublime as Markus Zusak's masterpiece. It does have some lovely quotes that I highlighted, but other than that I didn't like anything particular about it. I wasn't into the story—I found the idea that small children can make a difference a bit too optimistic and far-far-fetched.  I was turned off by this notion, to be honest. Maybe this is because I didn't feel like the story portrays it convincingly enough, or well enough, or just enough. And in the end, I didn't believe they make any significant differences at all, and I mean at all, so that renders the title, A Thunderous Whisper, and what it stands for kind of invalid to me. And unlike The Book Thief's, the characters in this book aren't outstanding enough to secure a place in my heart. Most of the time I was just irritated by Ani and her mother.

This was an okay read to me. It's not that boring, not that bad, but also not that good. I expected it to be more interesting, but it sadly didn't measure up.

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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy from NetGalley and the publisher for review.

Review: Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

 

Title: Summer of the Mariposas
Author: Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Release Date: October 1, 2012
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Format: eARC
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository
Read from October 12 to 17, 2012
My rating:

Summary: When Odilia and her four sisters find a dead body in the swimming hole, they embark on a hero's journey to return the dead man to his family in Mexico. But returning home to Texas turns into an odyssey that would rival Homer's original tale. With the supernatural aid of ghostly La Llorona via a magical earring, Odilia and her little sisters travel a road of tribulation to their long-lost grandmother's house. Along the way, they must outsmart a witch and her Evil Trinity: a wily warlock, a coven of vicious half-human barn owls, and a bloodthirsty livestock-hunting chupacabras. Can these fantastic trials prepare Odilia and her sisters for what happens when they face their final test, returning home to the real world, where goddesses and ghosts can no longer help them? Summer of the Mariposas is not just a magical Mexican American retelling of The Odyssey, it is a celebration of sisterhood and maternal love.

We hiked through the sparse woods, making our way carefully down the beaten path we had created that summer, the summer of the mariposas. 

I gave this book two stars because I neither hated it enough to give it less, nor liked it enough to give it more. So what happened here? Oh, I merely tolerated it. Being given two stars is just as bad as one in terms of mental health if you use my rating system. It's not bad, but it doesn't stir anything within me except for never-ending, terminal, utter boredom. The kind that can drive me crazy, kill me, make me fall asleep within 3 minutes, and make me so bored that I want to cry because there's nothing else to do, and because I blame my chronic cannot-not-finish-books disease that's slowly killing me and damaging my happiness. With that said, I assume you now understand the way I feel about this book. 

I don't want to say anything much, simply because I don't really care enough about this book to want to talk about it. As a student of literature, I am fascinated by the idea of reading Homer's the Iliad and the Odessey one day. So when I saw that this book claims to be a retelling of the latter, I was deceived into wanting to read it. But honestly, it did not feel like it, it was not a retelling if you ask me. It annoyed me and bored me and annoyed me and bored me endlessly. The five girls took turns irritating me rather than made me like them. The journey wasn't fun. It dragged on and on and on and on. It could've ended much earlier than when it does. All I wanted to say is that if Homer's the Odessey were remotely anything like this, I'd stay far far away and never look back. 

The moment I finished this book I let out a big heavy sigh and almost cried. It would be tears of happiness. Not because the book made me happy, but because I was happy I got it over and done with. It's still a wonder to me, 2 days later, how I brought myself to finish it. I was tolerating it for so long, putting it down and not wanting to pick it up. It asked so much from me and I didn't even want to spend any more time reading it. It's true that I didn't hate it, but it bored me so much that I wanted to die. And that's worse. Now I can move on with my life. Finishing it felt like an accomplishment in its own right, and that's about the only good thing that came out of reading this book. It's just not for me.

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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy from NetGalley and the publisher for review.

Review: The Wednesdays by Julie Bourbeau

Title: The Wednesdays
Author: Julie Bourbeau
Genre: Middle Grade, Paranormal
Release Date: August 14, 2012
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 256
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Links: Goodreads, Amazon | Bookdepository

Read from August 2 - 3, 2012 

My Rating: 

Summary: Max’s village is absolutely normal in every single way and on every single day—except Wednesday. Most of the townsfolk shutter their windows and lock their doors to hide away from the many peculiar things that happen—things like cats getting stuck in the vacuum cleaner and birthday cakes meeting fiery and horrific ends. But Max is too curious for that, and so, breaking every rule in the village, he searches out the cause of all the Wednesday weirdness. What he uncovers is a secret so devious—so dastardly and mischievous—that life as he knows it will never be the same. Max himself is not the same. Suddenly the mysterious little accidents so common on Wednesdays are happening to him on Thursdays, Fridays—even Saturdays! What’s come over Max? And more importantly, is there any cure for a case of the Wednesdays? Mystery, magic, mischief and monsters abound in this slightly fantastical story of a human kid who wants to stay that way. 

A wednesday's job is never done as long as Wednesdays are. We heed the clock when it tolls twelve and come from near and far. We're never late -- we cannot be for then we'd miss the door. Neither do we dare to leave till Wednesday is no more.

So start one of the wednesdays' song.

This review will be short and simple because it's been 10 days since I finished this book and I already forgot some of plots of the story. I'll just say that I enjoyed this book. Normally I don't really enjoy middle-grade books because I find them too light for my liking. However, The Wednesdays has enough dark stuff in it. It's kind of paranormal, though I'm not sure if we can really call it that.

As the title suggests, this book goes around the wednesdays. We're talking about both Wednesdays as in the day after Tuesday, and wednesdays as in little paranormal creatures that come out on Wednesday to wreak havoc in Max's village. According to Max, they look like this:

Besides the silver eyes, the wednesday appeared more or less boy-like, in a crooked, simultaneously squished-down, stretched-out sort of way. It looked like a proper boy whose arms had been pulled like taffy, while the rest of his body had been scrunched down into a tubby egg shape with springy, squat legs. [...] The creature's head was mostly head-shaped and -sized, except for the fact that it seemed vaguely square and didn't seem to have the benefit of much of a neck to sit upon. Overall, the thing gave the impression of being rather putty-like.

That's the wednesdays for you.

I really like the idea of them coming out to cause trouble for everyone. It's fun to read, honestly. The elements and plot come together nicely to form an impressive ending. I wouldn't have thought the Wednesday songs could be that important, but Max figures it out, which is awesome. It's a little sad near the end, and I found it very moving.

All in all, great plots, nice illustrations (which really helped me picture the wednesdays more clearly), beautiful writing. A very enjoyable read.

Wednesdays come and wednesdays go but we know something you don't know. 


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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy from NetGalley and the publisher for review.

Review: On the Day I Died by Candace Fleming

Title: On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave 
Author: Candace Fleming 
Genre: Middle Grade, Supernatural
Release Date: July 10, 2012
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Pages: 208
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository

Read from: July 6 - 8, 2012 

My rating: 

Summary: The phenomenally versatile, award-winning author, Candace Fleming, gives teen and older tween readers ten ghost stories sure to send chills up their spines. Set in White Cemetery, an actual graveyard outside Chicago, each story takes place during a different time period from the 1860's to the present, and ends with the narrator's death. Some teens die heroically, others ironically, but all due to supernatural causes. Readers will meet walking corpses and witness demonic posession, all against the backdrop of Chicago's rich history—the Great Depression, the World's Fair, Al Capone and his fellow gangsters. 

This one definitely took me by surprise. I didn't expect much, and I came away more than satisfied. Candace Fleming's On the Day I Died is fun, spooky, and.. well, fun. Absolutely fun.

It's not exactly a short story collection although it is full of short stories. Let's put it this way: this book is a collection of short stories about how each one of the characters died. Mike, the only living character in the book, visits a cemetery one night to return a pair of shoes to a dead girl he ran into earlier that night. He's surprised when he sees that the ghosts that come out to welcome him were all teenagers. One of the ghosts starts telling a story of how he died, and when he finishes, another one tells his story, then another, and another, and another. This book therefore consists of 8 short stories that link back and forth between Mike's present and the time of their death, with Mike being the only audience.

The little tales are surprisingly spooky but in no way too dark. I felt uncomfortable and panicky when I read this at night. One little sound in the silent night could lead me into thinking if my house caught fire, or remind me of the haunted asylum I just read about. I shuddered at the images that were created in my head. I heard sounds that only I could hear. The voices of these ghosts haunted me in my sleep. This book is haunting and so much fun, even though I think it's quite pointless. The story really goes nowhere, and nothing is done. But the fact that it's a light and fun read makes it very enjoyable.


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This review is also posted on Goodreads.
I received a digital copy from NetGalley and the publisher for review.