Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi

Oof. This is a hard book to read. It’s a refugee story and follows teenage Tareq from his home in Syria eventually to Europe. It’s heartbreaking on every single page, even though Tareq himself isn’t real. His story is similar enough to so what so many real teens are going through right now. Abawi, who is a foreign correspondent, grew up and was educated in America but now lives in Jerusalem; before that, she was in Afghanistan. She herself is the child of refugees. So Abawi does have more credibility than most others would in the way she portrays Tareq’s story, which includes much of his family’s death in the bombing that also destroys his home, his journey through parts of Syria controlled variously by Assad’s forces or ISIS, and his travels to Turkey, which is where I’m currently at in the book.

Abawi handles her topic well, and she writes her characters with empathy and nuance – even one young Isis recruit. She excels at creating tense scenes, particularly on Tareq’s drive through Syria where he must pass through ISIS-controlled checkpoints. Her narrative style isn’t completely working for me, though. She’s telling the story from the point of view of Destiny, which acts as an intrusive narrator at times, but at other times seems to fade away so that the story seems much more traditionally told. When Destiny suddenly re-emerges, it’s jarring. Sometimes, too, Destiny falls back on platitudes that aren’t as deep as they’re meant to be. I can’t help but draw parallels between Destiny here and Death in The Book Thief. Unfortunately, Destiny comes up short in the contest.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

I love fantasy, but fairies were never a huge draw for me, even as a teenager. But I read The Darkest Part of the Forest a couple of years ago for Cybils and thought it was pretty great. Holly Black knows her way around the English language, and she’s a fantastic world-builder. So far I’m enjoying her newest, which has received tons of accolades, but I’m not loving it. The writing is good, the characters are engaging, the narrative voice is distinctive, and Black’s fairy world is both beautiful and repulsive, making it fascinating to get lost in. I think the plot, which involves a human girl named Jude who has been raised among the fairies due to the fact that her half-sister is half-fairy, is just a bit too slow-moving for my tastes. I’m about halfway through and I feel like I’ve just gotten to the good stuff: she’s taken a job as a spy and has started to get herself entangled – only partly willingly – in a political struggle between several different power players in the fairy court.

Caitlin Kelly narrates the audiobook, which is how I’m reading this one, and she does a great job, particularly at getting across the danger, and Jude’s fear, of her situation, both in her spy endeavors and simply by existing as a human among fairies, who view humans as playthings and not worth the short life given to them. I suppose given all of the acclaim, I wanted to be blown away, so while I’m enjoying the read, it’s a bit disappointing not to be in love with it all.

White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

I’ve been on such a mystery kick lately (for over a year now!). I just can’t get enough of them. I heard lots of good things about Roehrig’s first book, Last Seen Leaving, and I had an arc of his second one just sitting there, practically begging me to read it. Who am I to resist? I’m about 100 pages in and it’s solid so far. It focuses on a teenage boy, Rufus, who is still smarting from being dumped by his hot and closeted boyfriend Sebastian a few months ago. When Rufus’ unpredictable half-sister April calls him and asks him to come over to help with something serious, Sebastian is trying to talk Rufus; he tags along to April’s instead. And when the two boys walk into April’s house…it’s a crime scene. Literally. April is kneeling over the body of her dead boyfriend holding a knife, covered in blood. She insists she didn’t do it, but was passed out and doesn’t know who did. Do we believe April? If we do, who is the guilty party – one of April’s many obnoxious, bigoted, probably violent friends? April’s drug-dealing older brother (Rufus’ half-brother)? Someone else?

It’s a solid setup, dropping a healthy dose of coming-of-age angst into an intriguing murder mystery. Most of the characters so far are terrible people, but in interesting ways. I’m about a third of the way in and I don’t have any idea who the culprit could be at this point. I’m eager to find out!