Here at Chapter Break, we don’t always write a full review of every book we read. Well, now we decided to do these monthly wrap-up posts with roundups of our reviews this month and mini-reviews to fill in the gaps. Enjoy!
The Woodshed Theater with the Sunnyville Buddies: A Kids (and Animals!) Doing Cool Creative Imaginative Stuff Outdoors in Nature Book I want to say how awesome it is that this book was written by a mom-son team! Go kids writing books! This was a cute story, with lots of creative characters and I enjoyed the little play they all put on for their town. Always great to see kids of all kinds using their imagination. It was a bit on the long side for my 7 year old, and it took us reading a chapter here and there to finish with a few delays in between due to having a leveled reader to read for school each day. I loved that the kids and their animal friends each had a special talent and most of all that they played outdoors! We also enjoyed the illustrations. Thanks for sending us a reader copy!
vViIrRuUsS: I Never Forget Thanks to the author for providing a review copy. When the author reached out for a review, the book was represented as a post-apocalyptic techno-thriller and the write-up mentions different viruses. That’s not what this is at all. This book is a collection of poems, mostly exploring broken-hearted emotions and the existential anxiety the writer feels. They sometimes read as poems from different POVs but it wasn’t clear how they all connected, or if they did. Some poems were a jumble of thoughts and others were very nicely written with rhymes and rhythm. A book of poetry is not my cuppa, and as this was completely misrepresented, I did not get to read the book I thought I was going to read. So I’m going to say I’m generally disappointed in that.
Empire of the Vampire: I gave myself a couple of days after finishing to think about my review. I’m still conflicted. So bullet point list is the way we are going.
- LONG. Like 700 pages\27 hours long. And honestly, I don’t know that it could have been edited down.
- Definitely not for children. All the vices are here (sex, violence, drugs, alcohol.)
- I don’t know that I’d say I enjoyed\liked it. But I also didn’t not enjoy it. The storytelling and Mr. Kristoff’s writing is very compelling. A page-turner for sure.
- Similar plot\set up to the Nevernight books, with a school I would not want to attend and teachers I would not want!
- The audio narration was well done. (And way better than the Godsgrave narration.)
- Honestly, if you are ok with really long books and a fan of Jay Kristoff, like me, I’d say go for it and read this one.
Under The Whispering Door: I wasn’t sure what to expect with this. It’s a story about grief, really, and the acceptance of death. Equal parts funny, sad, and poignant. I found myself with tears rolling down my face on more than one occasion. Yet another original and moving story from TJ Klune. Highly recommended. Even if you are dealing with recent grief. This book might help with that.
Roxy: Not one of those happy\uplifting books for sure! I don’t have a lot of knowledge or interaction with the drugs mentioned in Roxy. I struggled with figuring out which drugs were being discussed most of the time due to the variety of nicknames. I did find the anthropomorphism of different drugs into characters to be, not necessarily engaging, but compelling. I didn’t exactly connect with the characters. But I now can see how addictive drugs can be, even those that are prescription. Interesting. Not a page-turner. And probably not for those already dealing with addiction. Shout out though to Neal Shusterman’s Interlude narration. I always enjoy listening to the author narrate books.
Books we reviewed this month:
- [7 Mar] What Do You Remember, Dad? by Ryan Buckley ★★★★
- [14 Mar] Heir of Blood and Secrets by Linda Xia
- [15 Mar] Secrets of the Snow Globe by Catherine Stier ★★★★★
- [23 Mar] The Shattered Gate by Eric R. Swanson ★★★½
- [25 Mar] The Friendly Mouse by Sophia R. Tyler
I had no idea Empire of the Vampire was that long! That’s insane!
How strange that the book of poetry was marketed in a completely different way. That would be very frustrating to me.
I’m going has to try Jay Kristoff other books before reading Empire of the Vampire.
Hope you have a good reading month for April.
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