#deborah falaye

[caribeandthebooks]

Caribe's YA Fantasy & Science Fiction TBR - Part 2

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases! (June 6th, 2023)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Standalones/First in a Series:

The Dos & Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar 

Always Isn’t Forever by J.C. Cervantes

Love Letters for Joy by Melissa See

The Broken Hearts Club by Susan Bishop Crispell

Ride or Die by Gail-Agnes Musikavanhu

Saint Juniper’s Folly by Alex Crespo

Darkhearts by James L. Sutter 

The Chaperone by M. Hendrix

When it All Syncs Up by Maya Ameyaw

Something More by Jackie Khalilieh

Pedro & Daniel by Federico Erebia

The Grimoire of Grave Fates by Various

The Queens of New York by E.L. Shen

At the Speed of Lies by Cindy L. Otis

The Library of the Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Good as Gold by Candace Buford

Things I’ll Never Say by Cassandra Newbould

A Spark in the Cinders by Jenny Elder Moke

Our Vengeful Souls by Kristi McManus

Secret of the Moon Conch by David Bowles & Guadalupe Garcia McCall

The Secret Summer Promise by Keah Brown

New Sequels:

Some Shall Break (None Shall Sleep #2) by Ellie Marney

War Widow (Blood Scion #2) by Deborah Falaye

Wrath of the Talon (Talon #2) by Sophie Kim

Ruling Destiny (Stolen Beauty #2) by Alyson Noel

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Happy reading!

[shxpeshifterr]

[tradingmysorrows]

"I love you, Sloane. I love you so much I'd die for you." I shouldn't listen to him. I shouldn't allow him to sacrifice himself for me. I should choose death over a life of eternal slavery. Because if I do what Theo is asking of me, I know I will always be a slave to my guilt. I know it deep in my soul. Yet, my sobs pierce the gloom of the steel chamber as I utter the words, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Deborah Falaye, Blood Scion

[bethly126]

Quick Review: Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

Sloane is a scion in a world that has tried to erase them. She has powers believe to come from one of her people’s Gods but all traces of their heritage have been all but erased by a Colonial like authoritarian regime that has taken over her country. To make matters worst she has been drafted into a child’s army in service of her oppressors. She has to hide who she is while trying to survive…

[mistwraiths]

3 stars

Overall, I think Blood Scion was done pretty well to showcase the horror of child soldiers, anticolonialism, the eradication of a people and culture, and more. For me, this book was hard to get through.

I would have really loved learning more about the Yoruba culture and religion, and I assume there will be more in the next book. I would have really liked seeing Sloane train with her magic but unfortunately it is really just glossed over. I found the aspect of each Orisha having a music really cool and that shower scene was very good. As for the rest of the worldbuilding, I struggle a bit to understand everything. We also get thrown more names of organizations like Blades, Shadow Rebels, Black Wolf without really learning much about them.

Again, there is so much that this book covers with children being forcibly conscripted into the war and forced to fight their own people. On top of that, there's so many assaults and near assaults, on top of killings and horrific acts. Sometimes they feel like their constantly happening so much that we don't get time to actually sit with the emotional and devastating impact. However, in situations such as these, odds are they do not have any choice but to continue on. This book absolutely doesn't shy away from the brutality and horror. We watch Sloane continue to grapple with her guilt and horror.

The pacing felt really slow to me too and the timeline in the book really didn't fit well to me with all the things happening. I don't understand why they'd only train them for a month. And Sloane was whipped over 30 times at least so I don't understand how she was still able to train. It briefly mentions she reopens her scars but then how can it even heal if you're constantly reopening them. She's being starved, healing from her wounds, fighting with her magic, planning to steal and break into the Archives, and constantly training and fighting for her life. It's a LOT for barely a month. The reveals are pretty easy to spot too and it's a shame that they make the book a bit predictable.

I didn't find Sloane all that likable, and that's okay. I don't think we really got to really know her as character as much as see her try to survive a horrific time. A character doesn't have to be likable and honestly I don't think she had a chance to really shine except slightly in the beginning. I do think however she was a bit irritating in her constant assumptions that no one could possibly be like her, a Scion, and everyone is quickly following in line during the training by verbally saying the creed or doing things they have to. It feels like she doesn't consider that other people are just trying to survive too? They have no power so they just have no choice. That maybe not everyone wants to kill their own people or allies. Sloane is constantly shocked when she comes across situations where people are doing what they can or actually think the same way as she but they're not vocal about it, or other Scions like her. Or the spies, she's furious that one of the spies allows terrible things to happen. And its like yeah they have to, how else are they going to spy??? Honestly, my biggest gripe was that Sloane acted out too much in the Fort when it's stated like little dissents gets you killed so it kind of was jarring.

The romance happened super out of the blue to me and I didn't understand why nor did I like it. The whole male character paying too much attention to the female character making him the romance option, despite not being all that personable or good never made much sense to me. I really could have gone without it.

I kind of did like the ending. I think a lot of people didn't. I do think it dragged on in two different parts. Like sorry, a declaration of how they are terrible isn't needed. Just burn them down. I liked that things didn't work out. The book kind of just ENDS, I don't remember them really fleeing or saying we're going to go here. I assume since it's hinted at they're going to the Shadow Rebels and maybe meet her aunt.

Again, this was a good book full of dark themes and brutality.

[bookishfeylin]

just saw your anti booktok post from june 11 2023 and yeah. the way white authors write self-insert fantasies clearly for only white people. The way white audiences will eat it up because it has them as the mcs. the way fae fantasy/fairytale retellings only really focuses on white women. The awkward silence of being a woc and not being able to imagine yourself in the fantasy protagonist's shoes because how can you, they're all white. why would you step into a world where you're made to choose between a golden-haired good white boy and an abusive white bad boy with black hair. they are not even appealing to you. the way alina starkov and mal oretsev being made poc for shadow and bone was met with so much anger and imo violence from white women, cause they could no longer self-insert onto the protagonist because their fantasy of her being a white mc had been shattered. the sobbing and screaming in comments of youtube sections asking why couldn't alina starkov be white even though white people already have everything. and she's not even fae. the entitlement that comes with white privilege and therefore booktok. i'm tired

Hi anon! I assume you are referring to this post and yes, yes I wholeheartedly agree. There’s another post on here about the politics of escapism, and I feel like that really applies to booktok. Who gets to escape in fantasy? Who gets to read about characters that look like them go on adventures and fight monsters and ride dragons and practice magic? Who is included in their world? And who isn’t? Who is relegated as always to a servant, a competing love interest, a jealous ex, a side character in someone else’s story? Who can turn they brain off and ignore all the racism in fantasy and sci-fi—and who can’t because we live with that stuff day in and day out in the real world and it jumps out at us when we see it in our entertainment too?

And it’s so painfully apparent because whenever the same shallow writing is used but with a person of color as a protagonist, or even when the writing is solid and intense but a person of color is the protagonist, white people struggle to relate to them or argue they “have no personality” and couldn’t connect with the character (and even with side characters of color as well). For example, I recently read Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye and it was brutal and intense and a wonderful look into the psychology of child soldiers and how they are broken and what they will do to survive all from a fantasy perspective. But a lot of the (white) reviewers on goodreads say they can’t relate to Sloane, the mc, or that she’s nothing more than a cardboard cut-out who is ~traumatized~, or that the plot makes no sense, etc. The book is objectively well written, but it only has a 3.5 star rating on goodreads and people are much more critical of every aspect of the book than they are of, say, Sarah J Maas’s books when almost of these criticisms are even more applicable in her case. The double standard—the increased scrutiny of and disconnect with and dislike of characters of color—jumps out in booktok in particular because of how low the standards are for white-led and focused books and how much higher they are for POC-led and focused books. And for those of us who want to see ourselves in fantasy, it’s hard.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Young Adult Book Releases - November 2023

🦇 Good morning, my bookish bats. I hope you're bundled up with a fur baby, hot bev, and good book as you ward off this (lovely) chilly weather. No TBR is complete without a few young adult novels, and plenty were released in November! Here are a few YA releases to consider adding to your shelves.

✨ Artifacts of An Ex by Jennifer Chen @jchenwriter ✨ The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay by Dale Walls @dalewallsauthor ✨ Emmett by Lev A.C. Rosen @levacrosen ✨ Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood @alihazelwood ✨ Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng @lychengwrites ✨ Powerless by Lauren Roberts @laurens1ibrary ✨ Swarm by Jennifer D. Lyle @jenniferdlyle ✨ Nightbane by Alex Aster @alexaster ✨ Vengeance of the Pirate Queen by Tricia Levenseller @tricialevenseller ✨ Wish of the Wicked by Danielle Paige @daniellempaige ✨ What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez @isabelwriter09 ✨ The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard @stdennard ✨ Defiant by Brandon Sanderson @brandsanderson ✨ Murtagh by Christopher Paolini @christopher_paolini ✨ Dawnbreaker by Jodi Meadows @unicornwarlord

✨ The Way I Am Now by Amber Smith @ambersmithauthor ✨ With or Without You by Eric Smith @ericsmithrocks ✨ Loveboat Forever by Abigail Hing Wen @abigailhingwen ✨ The Revenge Game by Jordyn Taylor @jordynhtaylor ✨ Didn't See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto @jesseqsutanto ✨ No One Left But You by Tash McAdam @tashmcadam ✨ To Kill a Shadow by Katherin Quinn @katherinequinnwrites ✨ Godly Heathens by H. E. Edgmon @heedgmon ✨ Wren Martin Ruins It All by Amanda DeWitt @am.dewitt ✨ Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens @quartland ✨ Betting on You by Lynn Painter @lynnpainterbooks ✨ The Crimson Fortress by Akshaya Raman @akshraman ✨ War Widow by Deborah Falaye @deborahfalaye ✨ Where He Can't Find You by Darcy Coates @darcybooks ✨ Finding My Elf by David Valdes @davidvaldeswrites

[margokesses]

[bookclub4m]

Episode 176 - Fantasy

This episode we’re talking about the genre of Fantasy! We discuss whether fantasy needs magic, clam powers, forklore, Tears of the Kingdom, worksonas, It’s Always My First Day at Wizard School, and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse

Sing, Nightingale by Marie Hélène Poitras, translated by Rhonda Mullins

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune, narrated by Kirt Graves

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

The Chill by Scott Carson

Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

Big Machine by Victor LaValle

Other Media We Mentioned

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey (Wikipedia)

Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini (Wikipedia)

Read it online free!

Steven Universe (Wikipedia)

Sailor Moon (Wikipedia)

Squire by Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Golden Compass / Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Redwall (Wikipedia) Brian Jacques

The Discworld Mapp: Being the Onlie True and Mostlie Accurate Mappe of the Fantastyk and Magical Dyscworlde by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs

Discworld (Wikipedia)

The Chronicles of Narnia (Wikipedia) by C.S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

Wise Child by Monica Furlong

Juniper by Monica Furlong

The Sandman (comic book) (Wikipedia)

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wikipedia)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Wikipedia)

Yakuza 0 (Wikipedia)

A Song of Ice and Fire (Wikipedia) by George R. R. Martin

The series of novels on which the television series Game of Thrones is based

The Wheel of Time (Wikipedia) by Robert Jordan

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

Leaving Mundania: Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Role-Playing Games by Lizzie Stark

Links, Articles, and Things

X-Men (Wikipedia)

Scarlet Witch

Magik (Illyana Rasputina) (though her magic powers are separate from her mutation)

Magical girl (Wikipedia)

Alebrije (Wikipedia)

Dungeons & Dragons (Wikipedia)

Independence Day (1996 film) (Wikipedia)

30 Fantasy fiction by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Road of the Lost by Nafiza Azad

A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair

A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai 

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

The Björkan Sagas by Harold R. Johnson

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

The Return of the Sorceress by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Famished Road by Ben Okri

Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi

The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, June 20th we’re talking about celebrity book clubs and one book reading campaigns!

Then on Tuesday, July 4th we’ll be discussing non-fiction books about UFOs and Aliens!

[caribeandthebooks]

March 2024 Reading Wrap Up

I read 2 books and got 2 kindle challenge achievements this month!

Now let's look at the breakdown :)

Reading Challenge Progress: I committed to reading 30 books in 2024 so currently I'm ahead by 2 books!

Top Genre read as at 2024: Young Adult

My first read for March and 7th read for the year was Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye. Rating: 2.5/5

First of all, a moment for the cover. My main reason for giving this book a shot is that the book cover artist is West Indian and I give a coin for my people! I liked the representation of Yoruba culture in this book, often times books based on African Culture can feel like the author only experienced it second hand. I think the author portrayed the culture well while still making it understandable for those who haven't experienced it.

Blood Scion earned me the New Year Kindle Challenge Achievements - National Reading Month

Book #8 was Yellowface by R. F. Kuang . Rating: 4/5

This book won Best Fiction for 2023 so that placed it on my radar. Once I acknowledged that this was a horror novel and the main character wasn't to be liked I was able to appreciate the book for what it was. I also appreciated the insight into the publishing world this book gives the reader.

Thanks to Yellowface being a kindle read, I earned the New Year Kindle Challenge Achievement: Page Sage while reading this book. That rounds out all 15 Kindle Challenge Achievements for the Q1. Love that for me.

....

And that's it!

See you next month but in the meantime, what have you been reading?

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (November 21st, 2023)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

___

New Standalones/First in a Series:

The Queer Girl is Going to be Okay by Dale Walls

New Sequels:

Defiant (Skyward #4) by Brandon Sanderson

War Widow (Blood Scion #2) by Deborah Falaye

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Happy reading!

[scribnibbler]

Blood Scion - Deborah Falaye - Finished.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4/5 🌟

Wow.

So I loved this book. I loved the world, the characters, the plot pretty much everything.

It would of got 5 but I found that the writing at the beginning of this book was far far to slow you really have to persevere with it but once you hit that near mid way mark. Wow. Wow.

SPOILER

Sloanes journey will keep you gasping. The training process of the Lucis is brutal the amount of loss the character experiences is tremendous. Being a child soldier she is not aloud to have nothing for herself everything is a secret everything has to be controlled but as the reader it's the realisation that everything your so happy she gained just gets coldly ripped away.

The relationships that are built throughout this story felt like for sloane they was hard to acquire. To be able to trust was such a big deal. Just the fact that if someone just knew who she really was that in itself was a death wish.

I'm not going to go over the plot massively but just my views or how I felt but the ending... that's her dad?? Him? And Baba??? I have so many questions about the ending where she is going to go? Is Shango just a one time deal of had she become a vessel for him?

I cannot wait for the second installment coming out this year. So so worth the read.

[tradingmysorrows]

"Tell me, Reaper. Is there someone out there who wants you dead? Or are you just another hand amongst many pulling the trigger?"

Deborah Falaye, Blood Scion

[bethly126]

What I'm Reading Now: Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

I bought this book on a whim and so far it has been very good. Brutal but good.