Arc Review: House of Marionne by J. Elle

Image: Penguin Random House

House of Marionne by J. Elle. 432 p. Razorbill/ Penguin Young Readers, August 29, 2023. 9780593527702. (Review of bound manuscript courtesy of publisher.)

Happy Tuesday! I hope you are enjoying the sunshine and relative cool this morning! Boo and I were finally able to get in a nice long walk this morning. Teen Tuesday features House of Marionne by J. Elle. This is a fantasy series starter and will release in late August.

Seventeen-year-old Quel is used to life on the run with her mom. Quel possesses a dark magic she calls Toushana and an elite band of assassins called Draguns are tasked with hunting down anyone with this forbidden magic and killing them. So far, Quel's mom has been successful in keeping her hidden by moving frequently, but Quel messed up and now she's separated from her mom and the safe spot they were to meet in turns out to be not-so-safe. She turns to the one person her mother has forbidden, her grandmother. Turns out, her grandmother is headmistress of House Marionne and is delighted to reunite with Quel and determined to have her hone her magic and debut.

Quel is relieved to be safe, eager to learn magic that she hope will tame her toushana, but not too thrilled about the wardrobe, curtseying and etiquette lessons. She's also terrified of Jordan. He's been assigned to mentor her, but he's also a Dragun. What will happen if he finds out who she really is? And why is he so hot? It's distracting and dangerous.

Sinister and gothic with a steamy, slow-burn romance and plot twists galore. This was fun. Look for it August 29. Apparently, there's a limited edition first printing available for pre-order. Happy reading!

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

Image: Penguin Random House

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~10 hours, 26 minutes. Read by Deepti Gupta, Kamran R. Khan and Kausar Mohammed. Listening Library, March, 2022. 9780593502228. (Review of finished e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir. Ms. Tahir made a huge splash with her debut trilogy starter, An Ember in the Ashes. Here she turns from fantasy to contemporary realistic fiction and the results are gut-wrenching and utterly compelling.

Salahudin and Noor are eighteen-year-old seniors living in a small town in the Mojave Desert in California. They are the only Muslims in town and used to be best friends. Noor is an orphan who lost her parents in an earthquake in Pakistan when she was six. Her uncle, who owns a liquor store and was her only living relative, brought her to the U.S., but has banned her from speaking Punjabi or practicing Islam. Though Noor wishes to attend college and eventually study medicine, her uncle's plans for her to work at his liquor store full-time.

Sal's parents own the financially failing Cloud Rest Motel and his mother, Misbah has ignored her health problems due to lack of insurance. His father struggles with alcoholism. Sal learns of the severity of the financial problems when Misbah dies. His father is useless and Sal vows to save the motel, but makes a poor choice in order to do so.

The POV (point-of-view) shifts between Noor and Sal in the present with snippets of the past narrated by Misbah. The result is a feeling of immediacy and utter dread as the story unfolds. Issues of class, race, Islamaphobia, abuse, found family and the criminal justice system collide in a compelling, yet painful narrative. I read this one with my ears and had to stop often due to the intensity of emotions I felt.

Mature teen fans of the author's Ember in the Ashes Trilogy will most definitely want to read All My Rage, as will fans of contemporary realistic fiction. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time. 

I'm so glad I read this with my ears. The three narrators were pitch perfect. 

Friday Memes: Layoverland by Gabby Noone

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

Image: Penguin Random House

Layoverland by Gabby Noone. 302 p. Razorbill/ Penguin Random House, January, 2020. 9781984836120.

Publisher synopsis: Beatrice Fox deserves to go straight to hell.

At least, that's what she believes. Her last day on Earth, she ruined the life of the person she loves most—her little sister, Emmy. So when Bea awakens from a fatal car accident to find herself on an airplane headed who knows where, she's confused, to say the least.

Once on the ground, Bea receives some truly harrowing news: she's in purgatory. If she ever wants to catch a flight to heaven, she'll have to help five thousand souls figure out what's keeping them from moving on.

But one of Bea's first assignments is Caleb, the boy who caused her accident, and the last person Bea would ever want to send to the pearly gates. And as much as Bea would love to see Caleb suffer for dooming her to a seemingly endless future of eating bad airport food and listening to other people's problems, she can't help but notice that he's kind of cute, and sort of sweet, and that maybe, despite her best efforts, she's totally falling for him.

From debut author Gabby Noone comes a darkly hilarious and heartfelt twist on the afterlife about finding second chances, first loves, and new friendships in the most unlikely places.

First Line: You know the kind of crying where you're crying over one thing and then you think about a slightly less upsetting but still definitely upsetting thing and it makes you cry even more?

Page 56: "Well, that's too bad. I was all ready to bribe you," he says, wiggling his eyebrows slightly.

     "All right, that's it!" I say, pushing my chair back. "Actually, I'll make sure you number never gets called. Have fun eating wet slop and waring socks with sandals for the rest of eternity."

     He looks under the table at his feet.

     "Hey, how'd you know I'm wearing-"

     His jaw goes slack.

     "So you did notice me on the plane," he says.

     "No, I just noticed your shoes. Not you."