Time for another round of Yvo’s Shorties! This time around two new series I’ve started; one that has become an instant favorite and one that I won’t be continuing. I’m a huge fan of Victoria Schwab‘s work, so of course I loved her new MG story City Of Ghosts as well. I can’t wait for the next book! And I was hoping All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin would be interesting with the dystopian and mafia angle, but not such luck…
Title: City Of Ghosts
(Cassidy Blake #1)
Author: Victoria Schwab
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Paranormal
First published: August 28th 2018
Publisher: Scholastic
Finished reading: September 13th 2018
Pages: 272
“If we were a comic book, this would be our origin story. Some people get a spider bite, or a vat of acid. We got a river.”
It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of anything that Victoria Schwab writes, so after a few mediocre reads I turned to her books for something good. Just reading about how excited the author herself is about City Of Ghosts made me pospone my scheduled read of The Archived and pick up this new story instead. City Of Ghosts delivers right from the cover until the very last page. I knew I could trust my instincts when I picked up this title, but this first book of a new MG paranormal series has proven once again you cannot go wrong with anything Schwab writes. It was hook, line and sinker when I started reading City Of Ghosts and I had to put all other tasks on hold until I finished reading it. The writing, the characters and their development, the Scottish setting, the ghosts, the plot… There is a lot to love in this story, and Cassidy and Jacob have already found a place in my heart. I loved the story of her parents, the motive behind their travels and how well it works with Cassidy’s own story and development. Reading about the Scottish setting was almost like being there myself seeing all the sights… It was a truly delightful read and I can’t wait what the next episode has in store.
Title: All These Things I’ve Done
(Birthright #1)
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Genre: YA, Dystopia, Romance
First published: September 6th 2011
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Finished reading: September 15th 2018
Pages: 368
“Tragedy is when someone ends up dead. Everything else is just a bump in the road.”
I’ve had this one on my TBR for a long time, and I have always been intrigued by the dystopian and mafia angle in All These Things I’ve Done. So of course, when I needed a book set in the future, my first thought went out to this story. I really do think this story has a lot of potential, but instead of focusing on the more interesting aspects of the plot, All These Things I’ve Done is mostly just another teenage romantic drama with a few twists. Instead of focusing on the dystopian setting, when chocolate! and coffee! are illegal and resources seem to be limited, or the whole mafia background of Anya’s family, we mostly see the typical high school scenes with star-crossed lovers, food fights and other cliche elements. Definitely not what I thought I had signed up for. To make things worse, the main character Anya is absolutely despicable. Not only is she arrogant and thinks she is better than the rest, there is a lot of slut shaming going on. She constantly looks down on other girls, insults them and then sees herself as a ‘good Catholic girl’ while she is not that innocent herself. I think these views can badly influence or even shame the teenage target group this story was ment for, making sexuality seem as illegal as the chocolate in this story. And I’m definitely not okay with that. The pace was also quite slow at points, and like I said, the few mafia references only left me wanting for more. All in all I can’t say I can recommend All These Things I’ve Done.
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I don’t usually read MG books, since they don’t always appeal to me. But this is Victoria Schwab we’re talking about… so I really should give City of Ghosts a shot, especially since so many readers seem to be loving it!
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MG reads can be tricky for me as well, but City Of Ghosts is absolutely worth it. I didn’t even doubt reading it just because Schwab wrote it. 😉
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Very good point with that last sentence. 🙂
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Great reviews, Yvo. Glad your expectations for the first book were met.
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It’s always great finding a new favorite. 🙂
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Great reviews! Sorry to hear that All These Things I’ve Done didn’t work out. It does sound like a good topic though.
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It definitely has an interesting blurb… A shame the whole mafia angle wasn’t developed further.
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I still haven’t picked up any of Schwab’s books, but you definitely made me want to read City of Ghosts! It sounds fantastic 😀 Great reviews!
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Ohhh you should! I absolutely love her books so far.
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well, shh…t! two completely contrasting reviews here 😀 You made me want to give City of Ghosts a try even though I don’t really read MG but it sounds fabulous and Schwab, right? 🙂 as for the other book… yeah, I will pass. I admit, the blurb sounded soooo fascinating but Anya herself not so much!
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Haha I know right? At least City Of Ghosts made up for the other one… I don’t read a lot of MG books either, but Schwab makes you forget you are even reading a book addressed to younger readers. City Of Ghosts was definitely worth it.
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I adored City of Ghosts too! I am really excited that Schwab has broken into the MG genre. I know I would have loved CoG when I was a kid. Many have said they were disappointed with it, but I feel like people forget that it is written for a MG audience.
I will admit. I was worried the reality TV show aspect was going to be corny, but I think it worked very well.
I cannot wait for more books in this series.
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I’m glad to hear that! I honestly didn’t even remember it was a MG read when I was reading it… I feel it works perfectly well for an older audience as well, although I agree I would have loved it even more if I would have read it as a kid. I agree that the TV show element actually worked really well! I can’t wait to read the sequel. 🙂
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