Not gonna lie, that was a difficult read. Ansel Packer is counting down the hours until his execution after some brutal murders. I found it quite unseNot gonna lie, that was a difficult read. Ansel Packer is counting down the hours until his execution after some brutal murders. I found it quite unsettling that his story was narrated in second person. It made being with him during his last 12 hours an uncomfortably intimate experience as his inevitable death drew closer. The writing is sublime and the tension palpable.
“You are a fingerprint. When you open your eyes on the last day of your life, you see your own thumb. In the jaundiced prison light, the lines on the pad of your thumb look like a dried-out riverbed, like sand washed into twirling patterns by water, once there and now gone.”
Whilst we see Ansel's point of view, it is actually the women in his life that drive the story and peel back the layers of time so we can build a picture of how such a man came to be. Their voices are powerful and haunting because we as readers know how his life will unfold and the devastation he will bring. Their accounts are raw and they felt like real women, not just characters in a story. This move away from a typical serial killer novel to where the focus lies with the women made the story more absorbing in my opinion. What is equally hard hitting is that we aren't there to hate Ansel. In fact, I felt compassion for the boy left alone. “In most of your memories, your mother is gone. And before she is gone, always, she is leaving.” That mixed with the feelings of revulsion I felt for his actions made for a head and heart spinning experience. After all “No one is all bad. No one is all good. We live as equals in the murky gray between.”
Content warning: I want to give an open warning about the animal harm in this book. None of the harm is on page but there are gruesome descriptions of animal bodies. There is also domestic abuse....more
It's wonderful to have more transgender representation in books and especially by ownvoice authors. That being said, the main character in this book wIt's wonderful to have more transgender representation in books and especially by ownvoice authors. That being said, the main character in this book was quite an unlikeable young man. His fake personas grew annoying and the desperation to increase his following was pretty superficial. I also didn't enjoy the writing as there was simply too much 'this happened and then that happened and then I did this'. It is, however, an important story which is why I kept reading. One where a young man is not accepted by his parents as a boy and plans for conversion therapy are been hatched behind his back. I did not feel drawn into the story until about the 90% mark where there were about 20 minutes of emotional and moving writing. Overall, this was a miss for me and the content warnings need to be checked out.
CW: (view spoiler)[transmisia, homomisia, dead naming, threats of conversion therapy, parents withdraw from teens life, suicidal thoughts/ideation, in one of the stage productions a transgender character commits suicide after receiving some conversion therapy, Mis-gendering, Coming out, Gender dysphoria (hide spoiler)]...more
That was a chaotically fun outing with aspiring Broadway diva, Millie Price. This book is filled with quirkily cool characters. There were pa3.5 Stars
That was a chaotically fun outing with aspiring Broadway diva, Millie Price. This book is filled with quirkily cool characters. There were parts that I think could have been edited out to make for a tighter reading experience as I did find my mind wandering at a couple of points, but it ended on a high note...see what I did there?
CW: (view spoiler)[death of loved one, drug overdose, abuse, neglect, child homelessness, assault (hide spoiler)]
Well that w3.5 Stars rounded up to 4.
CW: (view spoiler)[death of loved one, drug overdose, abuse, neglect, child homelessness, assault (hide spoiler)]
Well that was gritty and gripping!
I was thrilled to discover this tense survival story with a male protagonist as they are currently under represented in YA fiction. It followed two different timelines as we follow Sparrow surviving after a boating accident, and surviving as a homeless child before the accident. I love that Sparrow found kind people who watched out for him and offered him the support he needed. It's wonderful to have such an engaging book to add to my booktalks.
I normally hide content warnings but this one is not a plot spoiler and think needs to be mentioned. There are a couple of quite stomach churning animal deaths in this survival novel so proceed with caution. ...more
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