Pen and Parchment

Review: MOXIE

Title: MOXIE

Series: none

Genre: YA, contemporary

Format: eARC via Netgalley

Release Date: September 19th, 2017

Synopsis: An unlikely teenager starts a feminist revolution at a small-town Texan high school in the new novel from Jennifer Matheiu, author of The Truth About Alice.
MOXIE GIRLS FIGHT BACK!
Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with a school administration at her small-town Texas high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment, and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.
Viv’s mom was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ’90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother’s past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.
Moxie is a book about high school life that will make you wanna riot!

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Review: Girls Made of Snow and Glass

Title: Girls Made of Snow and Glass

Author: Melissa Bashardoust

Series: none

Genre: YA, fantasy, retelling

Format: print ARC

Synopsis: Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale
At sixteen, Mina’s mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.
Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.
Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

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A Teen’s Perspective on the YA Community

A Teen's Perspective on the YA Community

If you’re on book Twitter or bookstagram, you may have noticed a particular conversation that’s recently come up. Despite the fact that YA books are labeled specifically for “Young Adults,” it’s quite surprising how few young adults there actually are in our community. And those that are here, are not necessarily the more influential or strongest voices.

I debated writing this post for quite a while, mostly because I didn’t think my thoughts on this topic were unique or interesting enough. A few months ago, when this whole discussion started, they weren’t really worth reading. Now, as I started paying more attention and experienced certain things because of the fact I’m a teen, I think I finally have a post worth writing.

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Review: The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding

Title: The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding: A Fiendish Arrangement

Author: Alexandra Bracken

Series: #1 in the Prosper Redding series

Genre: Middle Grade, urban fantasy

Format: eARC via Netgalley

Release Date: September 5th, 2017

Synopsis: Prosper is the only unexceptional Redding in his old and storied family history — that is, until he discovers the demon living inside him. Turns out Prosper’s great-great-great-great-great-something grandfather made — and then broke — a contract with a malefactor, a demon who exchanges fortune for eternal servitude. And, weirdly enough, four-thousand-year-old Alastor isn’t exactly the forgiving type.
The fiend has reawakened with one purpose — to destroy the family whose success he ensured and who then betrayed him. With only days to break the curse and banish Alastor back to the demon realm, Prosper is playing unwilling host to the fiend, who delights in tormenting him with nasty insults and constant attempts trick him into a contract. Yeah, Prosper will take his future without a side of eternal servitude, thanks.
Little does Prosper know, the malefactor’s control over his body grows stronger with each passing night, and there’s a lot Alastor isn’t telling his dim-witted (but admittedly strong-willed) human host.
From #1 New York Times best-selling author Alexandra Bracken comes a tale of betrayal and revenge, of old hurts passed down from generation to generation. Can you ever fully right a wrong, ever truly escape your history? Or will Prosper and Alastor be doomed to repeat it?

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August Wrap-Up

I’m a bit late with this wrap-up post, but then again, I’ve been late with everything this month. I’d like to say this is one of those wrap-ups that’s happy and positive and all “Look how much I got done!” but I’m afraid August was quite the opposite for me. But before I launch into my rant about life, I’ll fill you in on my (pitiful) reading stats.

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