Music Monday (306): Nao, Jennifer Hudson, Loosefingers

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: One of my favorite artists, Nao, is back with a new single. Check out Elevate!

Adri: I love running into new-to-me songs. In this case, from 2005, my pick this week is Deep Inside by Loosefingers (Larry Heard).

Andrea: It's the middle of November, so, you know what time it is! It's time to share songs from my Christmas playlist! I saw Jennifer Hudson perform Santa for Someone live at a taping of her show. Now, I have her latest album, The Gift of Love, on repeat. Have an amazing week all!

What are you listening to this week?

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Raven King
Series: The Raven Cycle #4
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Source/Format: Purchased; Paperback
More Details: Fantasy; Young Adult
Publisher/Publication Date: Scholasic Press; April 26, 2016

Goodreads 

Synopsis from Goodreads...                                                                                                                                              All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

Earlier this year, I mentioned one of my blogging related goals was to tackle at least one of the unfinished series that had been on my TBR list for far too long, and one such collection of books was Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle. I know there’s a spinoff trilogy, but my goal was to read all of the initial books—or reread, in the case of The Raven Boys. And now, I finally got around to The Raven King.

“Richard Gansey III had forgotten how many times he had been told he was destined for greatness.”—pg.1

Every story has its beginning and its end. And every page of The Raven King felt like another ending. It was, effectively, the culmination of every plot thread, hint, and pivotal moment that occurred from The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, and Blue Lily Lily Blue. The Raven Cycle has always also been about its characters—the titular Raven Boys and Blue Sargent—as well as boasting of a colorful secondary cast that were given as much care as the core group. The character arcs came full circle in The Raven King too. And it was exciting—an emotional rollercoaster—to say the least, to see how it would all end: the hunt for Glendower, the prophecy that Blue would kill her true love with a kiss, Noah’s true role in all that had happened, and what would become of the places and characters with the threat of a demon and an unchecked (and horribly misguided) quest for influence.

Let me reiterate: The Raven King is a page turner, and it’s easily one of the best books I’ve read this year.

We Shall Be Monsters by Alyssa Wees

Title: We Shall Be Monsters 

Series: n/a
Author: Alyssa Wees
Source/Format: NetGalley; eARC
More Details: Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Del Rey; November 12, 2024

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble

Synopsis from Goodreads...

A dark, lyrical fantasy blending the world of the Fae with the stories mothers tell to keep their daughters safe - and the consequences of disregarding the truth, no matter how sinister.

Gemma lives with her mother in an isolated antique shop in Michigan, near a small patch of woods that conceals an enchanted gateway to fairyland. She knows she's not supposed to go into the woods - her mother Virginia has warned her multiple times about the monsters that lurk there - and yet defiantly, curiously, she goes anyway. Virginia understands her daughter's defiance. She knows the lure of the woods all too well. Her own mother warned her about the monsters that resided there, and she also did not listen. Until a witch cursed her true love, Ash - Gemma's father - into the form of a beast in the days before Gemma's birth. And if Virginia cannot break the curse before her daughter turns fifteen, Ash will eat Virginia's heart and Gemma will belong to the witch. So Virginia will do whatever she can to protect her daughter - even if it means stealing Gemma's memories away. But everything changes when Gemma inadvertently gets too close to the truth, and the witch steals Virginia away instead. Now it is up to Gemma to venture deep into Fae lands to try and rescue her mother and break the curse.

Told in alternating viewpoints between Gemma and Virginia, this lyrical novel is not only a tale of a girl's fantastical quest through a darkly magical fairyland, but also an examination of the complex bonds of love and resentment that lie between parents and their children.

Some of my favorite fantasy tropes include fairies (or fey equivalent) and woods that may or may not be friendly. Novik’s Uprooted and Spinning Silver come to mind, as well as Ava Reid’s A Study in Drowning, which is why I was drawn to the new Alyssa Wees novel, We Shall Be Monsters.

We Shall Be Monsters had fairies, monsters, and an antique shop wrapped up in a story about mothers and daughters and the three generations that have lived next to and seen the good as well as the worst the nearby woods have to offer. Oh, and the breaking of curses and the unraveling of long held secrets. So when the synopsis called this book a “dark, lyrical fantasy,” that description is accurate. We Shall Be Monsters has its whimsical and magical moments, but it was, at its heart, a darker story that, at times, felt much closer to horror. The woods were eerie, dangerous, and inhabited by fairies and other creatures, some friendly, some who offered dubious ties, or even those that were entirely driven by appetite or greed. There was also imagery of body related horror. However, those aspects worked well, since part of what the book tackled overall was the question of what truly makes a monster; and explored the divide between a hero and a killer. The characters made mistakes and payed for them, but they also learned from them. In that regard, We Shall Be Monsters is a nuanced story, and the characters that inhabited the pages were just as complicated.

Generally, I liked how Wees handled the viewpoints. It was first person, but Gemma and her mother, Virginia, each had quirks in the way they were written, which made it easy to tell them apart.

Gemma, like her mother and grandmother before her, was fascinated by the woods and didn’t recognize the danger posed by it, before she was confronted with the truth and tasked with a dangerous quest. Virginia was stuck in the past, figuratively and literally. Her history had everything to do with the issues that arose in the current timeline of the book, affecting not only her, but her daughter as well.

We Shall Be Monsters was, at the end of the day, right up my alley, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a dark fantasy story.

 

About the author....

Alyssa Wees is the acclaimed author of The Waking Forest and Nocturne. She grew up writing stories about her Beanie Babies in between ballet lessons. She earned a BA in English from Creighton University and an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago. Currently she works as an assistant librarian in youth services at an awesome public library. She lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband and their two cats.

Goodreads     Website     Instagram

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Del Rey) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you! 

Music Monday (305): Tempest, Oceans of Slumber, Rose Royce

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: I recently started listening to Tempest's music, specifically her Ep, The Ranch. One of my favorite songs is Worthy. Give it a listen!

Adri: I'm still mostly listening to my metal playlist, and what I currently have on repeat is  Oceans of Slumber's newest album, Where Gods Fear to Speak. My pick for today is The Given Dream.

Andrea: Hi all! This week I'm listening to I Wanna Get Next To You by Rose Royce. Have an amazing week!

What are you listening to this week?

The Friday 56 (250) & Book Beginnings: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. **Note: Freda @ Freda's Voice is taking a break from The Friday 56; Anne @Head is Full of Books is hosting for now.**

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

Beginning: "Richard Gansey III had forgotten how many times he had been told he was destined for greatness."

56: "These days, they all had their hands thrust into the sky, hoping for comets."

Comments: I have finally finished reading the first four books of The Raven Cycle series. I liked this one as much as the other three. What are you reading this week?