The albino boy Zal is born in a rural Iranian village to a mother horrified by his appearance. She calls him the White Demon, puts him in a birdcage, and keeps him there for the first ten years of his life. Finally, he’s freed from his cage and brought to America by a behavioral analyst determined to give Zal a normal life. Zal reaches adulthood(ish) still haunted by the dreams of his past as a bird, and as he tries to figure out how to be normal, he becomes involved with an artist called Asiya who has visions of disaster…
5 CommentsReading the End Posts
Note: I received a copy of Alias Hook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. When publishers release their seasonal catalogues, I make note of all the books that sound interesting, in my TBR spreadsheet. This is to stop myself from immediately requesting 50 review books, which would only lead to my having way too many books to read and not enough time to read them all. So usually what happens is that I forget about all of them until they’re already published and I can just get them from the library. In the case of Alias Hook,…
40 CommentsBack from hiatus, the Jennys review the reading year thus far: What disappointed us, what thrilled us, and what are we looking forward to in the second half? We review Sarah Lotz’s book The Three, we play a game of Whiskey Jenny’s invention, and we answer a piece of listener mail about binge-reading. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 25 Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We…
6 Comments“Being sixteen is officially the worst thing I’ve ever been,” says Kimberly Keiko Cameron at one point in the comic Skim. And the book certainly reminds you of all the things about being sixteen that were garbage — if not Kim’s particular problems, then certainly the general experience of being sixteen. Called “Skim” as an unkind joke — she isn’t slender, white, and blonde like the popular girls — Kim is an outsider at her private high school. She’s not an outsider in a Carrie way, but more in the sense that high school makes so many people outsiders: that…
20 CommentsHere’s what I did that was foolish. I read Legend (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), liked it, and considered writing my review of it right then. But my computer was kind of far away, and The Raven Boys was right next to my chair. So I read The Raven Boys. Now I can’t think about anything except for The Raven Boys. I’m going to do my best by Legend and the sequel, Prodigy, which I read on the Fourth of July. After failing the exams that would have given him a place in society, Day fled his home and…
7 CommentsSuperego: Return your library’s ebook copy of The Dream Thieves straight away. Id: No. I want it. Superego: Yes, I know. But remember? You own it now! In hardback. You impulse-bought it at the store. Id: Because I wanted it. Superego: Yes, because you wanted it, and you didn’t run that purchase order by me before making it, but that’s all water under the bridge. Now you have it! Hooray! You have it in hardback. Return the library ebook copy so somebody else can read it. Id: But I want it. Superego: YOU WILL STILL HAVE IT. Id: Might want…
20 CommentsI confess to being seduced into reading On Sal Mal Lane (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) by its cover. I am helpless in the face of vibrant blue with bronze highlights. And with the stylized children on the bottom. I couldn’t resist. Look at this here: The Herath family moves into Sal Mal Lane before civil war breaks out in Sri Lanka. Their beauty and kindness to one and all bewilders and attracts the families in the lane: Old Mr. Niles, confined to his bed and dreadfully bored before Nihil Herath begins coming to talk to him; slow, careful Raju, who is devoted to…
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