The Babysitter's Coven, by Kate Williams

Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams

I was informed by Samantha (my bff and our head of the children’s room here at Asheboro), about halfway through this book, that it is a satire and that’s why I wasn’t enjoying it. I cannot, no matter how I have tried, get into satires. BUT! Once Samantha clued me into the joke, I was able to put my brain in the correct spot in order to really get into it.

Satire, for those of you like me who didn’t know this was a book genre, means it’s basically a book making fun of itself. It’s the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues according to Oxford Languages. Think SNL. In everyday language it means that the witches in this book are exaggerated and come across as making fun of the whole witchy genre.

This is a sort of spin off of The Babysitter’s Club books meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Please don’t call me old.)  This is the first of three books, the second of which comes out in September, called For Better or Cursed. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was even going to want to read the sequel to this one, but Samantha encouraged me to push on and I’m glad she did. The action of this book really doesn’t happen until the last 75 pages. It really does read like a set up for a series, taking time to introduce characters and the world they live in, which I can appreciate.

Esme Pearl is seventeen and a babysitter just like her best friend Janis. They are typical teenagers, talking fashion (a little too much honestly), boys, and scary movies. Unlike her best friend Janis, Esme is a witch. Along comes Cassandra Heaven, the new girl, who also holds a secret and a note, left by her late mother, that simply says, “Find the babysitters. Love, Mom.” A heroic lineage of superpowers, magical rituals, and saving the innocent from like, totally terrifying evil dudes.

My only gripe with this book, once getting past the satire of the novel, is the fact that Kate Williams used to write for magazines like Seventeen, NYLON, Cosmopolitan, Bustle, Urban Outfitters, Vans, and Calvin Klein meaning there is A LOT of fashion talk and references to fashion icons that really just went way over my head. I ended up skimming a good chunk of this book getting past Esme and Janis planning out their outfits every day. It got really old really fast since I don’t really know that much about fashion.

Other than that, this book was funny, action packed (eventually) and, knowing it’s a set up for a series, a really exciting build up. I’m looking forward to checking out the next one when it drops. For fans of Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson, like me.

Savvy B. is an avid Young Adult fiction superfan. 

Savvy's Reviews will be archived here, so you can catch up on all her thoughts on her latest reads.

That's Not What Happened, by Kodi Keplinger

That’s Not What Happened by Kodi Keplinger

[TRIGGER WARNING: MASS SHOOTINGS AND SCHOOL SHOOTINGS ARE MENTIONED IN THIS POST. If you need help please call

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255]

That’s Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger takes place three years after a school shooting in a small, rural Indiana town. This book is told in alternating narratives and memorials / memories of the victims of the massacre. We follow Lee as she battles with the truth of what has happened the day she lost her best friend and became one of the six survivors, discovering who she is, fighting off her existential dread, and figuring out her a-sexuality. The weight of the world is on her shoulders but even worse? So is the weight of the truth of what happened that day.

I had to keep telling myself this shooting never really happened and that this was a work of fiction, which not only speaks to Keplinger’s writing but the state of our world. The letters Keplinger crafts from the various survivors and witnesses of the shooting are so realistic and honest. They are raw and come from a place of truth. You really feel for each of these characters and the different places of pain they are coming from. One from pride. One from loss. Another from betrayal. Each one is right, true, and honest. But more than that, each one is real and each one hurts.

There was closure in this novel in a way that many books don’t provide. With so many characters it’s easy to leave loose ends but Keplinger ties them all up and hands them to us gently because she knows we feel the pain too. But she’s unforgiving and unapologetic which gives this novel the realism it needs.

“[Victims] all treated like angels after they die. Every description talks about how friendly and fun-loving and kind they were, even if that wasn’t always the case. But most people who died that day were kids. And sometimes kids are jerks. That doesn’t make them less worthy of mourning. It just makes them people. Acting like the dead were always perfect and innocent just distances them from us even more. Maybe it’s just me, but knowing these people were flawed makes them more real.”

For example, Lee battles existential dread every day of her life but so does every other YA character in existence. The difference is the way Keplinger addresses it. She does a bang up job of really getting the point across and putting the reader in that place of darkness. Equally as important is Keplinger’s dedication to Lee’s a-sexuality and how she deals with “feelings” for another one of our main characters. I was really afraid this aspect was going to be mentioned once and tossed to the wayside once Lee ‘figured out how she really feels for a boy for the first time.’ But I was happily proven wrong. I’m glad to see Keplinger really portray an a-sexual character and keep her feelings realistic and true.

Not once in this novel was the “shooter” named and I respect and appreciate that the most. We need to learn across the world that celebritizing mass shooters is a problem. Giving them fame or infamy is a poison we let loose on the future and the victims.

This book is not only about finding the truth but accepting it.

“It’s a good story. And you know what people like way more than the truth? A good story.”

In 2018, there were 82 school shooting incidents in the United States, the highest there have ever been since 1970. In 861 incidents, the shooter targeted specific victims. In 691 incidents, the shooter was a current student at the school. The shooter was male in 1,129 incidents and female in 57. There have been 288 school shootings in the United States alone since 2009. There were 29 incidents where the shooter was a police officer/SRO. 141 is the number of people killed in a mass murder or attempted mass murder at a school or college since Columbine. In 2018, there were 82 school shooting incidents in the United States, the highest there have ever been since 1970.

If you need help please call

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255

Savvy is an avid Young Adult fiction superfan.

Savvy's Reviews will be archived here, so you can catch up on all her thoughts.

Blackbird Vol. 1

Blackbird Vol. 1 by Sam Humphries

Okay. I’m not going to lie. I picked up this graphic novel purely because of the stunning neon cover and artwork. I was not disappointed with its contents either. In Blackbird Volume One we meet Nina Rodriguez who is convinced there is a hidden magical world hiding parallel to her own in Los Angeles, California. And when an all too familiar giant beast kidnaps her sister, Nina must confront her mysterious past to get her sister back and take back her disaster of a life.

This neo-noir fantasy is striking and gorgeous from cover to cover. I really wish I could get a giant blown up poster of the cover of this book. The story is a little rushed, which I find happens often with graphic novels and really leaves me wishing there was just more to it. I’m still very confused on the dynamics of this storyline. The artwork really is the saving grace of this collection.

This graphic novel depends on its visuals to tell the story, but you can really feel Nina’s rage and emotion and the action really jumps off the page. There’s definitely more to come from this story and I’ll be eagerly awaiting its next installment (while hunting down a neon poster of Nina Rodriguez – let me know if you find one!)

Savvy is an avid Young Adult fiction superfan.

Savvy's Reviews will be archived here, so you can catch up on all her thoughts.

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

         If I had started this book on a Friday and had a full free weekend ahead of me I would have finished this in a day. This book is now one of my favorite books because just when I thought I had it all figured out, it changed and then again and again. Less and less predictable with every page, this paranormal mystery is epic.

 

         Mila Flores and her best friend Riley are living in the small town of Cross Creek and they are just like every other teenage duo. Except, they’re witches. Do I not have your attention yet? What if I introduce not one, but three suspicious deaths? How about the fact that Riley is now one of those deaths? When the grief-stricken Mila refuses to believe that her friend’s death was a suicide, she brings Riley back to life with an ancient grimoire to uncover the murderer and help bring justice to their town. But you’ll never see this ending coming.

 

         Hilarious and inspiring this book had me crying in public and gasping out loud. *Cue my coworkers reminding me that we are in a library.* While reading this, Anderson voiced my concern when her character said, “Oh, great. Another clique I’m not cool enough to join. Possibly literally.”

 

         You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll shove it in all your friends’ faces and force them to read it. Undead Girl Gang is simply bewitching. Of course, “You wouldn’t understand. It’s a dead girl thing.”

Neverworld Wake, by Marisha Pessl

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

 

Life after death… the great unknown. What happens when we die? For Beatrice Hartley and her friends, life after death isn’t all pearly gates and angel wings. No, for Bea and her five once-upon-a-time best friends a fatal car crash doesn’t send them to heaven or hell but rather, the Neverworld Wake. Stuck in purgatory these six friends must come back together to make the ultimate sacrifice… of them, which one gets to return to the world of the living?

 

A year after graduation, Bea not only finds herself trying to make sense of the Neverworld Wake but also still asking questions about her boyfriend’s mysterious death. Does the Neverworld Wake hold the answers? Are her so-called-friends hiding something? Who is the mysterious old man, only known as the Keeper, and what does he want with Bea and her friends?

 

Neverworld Wake took me by surprise. I picked it up at the recommendation of a friend and found that it held a secret message for me. Hidden within its pages are messages from loved ones lost and the key to remembering that they will be with us always. It’s a mystery. It’s paranormal. It’s about friendship, love, and loss. But more importantly it’s about remembering. Not only who we are but where we come from and who we hold dear to us.

 

While you could spend years in the Neverworld Wake, you never know how soon your time on earth will end. With that, Neverworld Wake reminds us of the fragility of life and the importance of friendship. This is one of my favorites this summer and one I will recommend always. I would like to dedicate this review to my dear friend, Hannah James, who passed away recently. She was an integral part of this library and will forever be missed.

 

“The most we can do is hold out our hands and help each other across the unknown. For in our held hands, we find pathways through the dark, across jungles and cities, bridges suspended over the deepest caverns of this world. Your friends will walk with you, holding on with all their might, even when they are no longer there.” – Neverworld Wake