We're an Open Book
10 hours 15 minutes | Listening Library | 08/31/2021
The first half of this book felt like it was all aesthetic and no bite but wow did the last half of this book flip the script! This twisted story of two schoolgirls and a centuries-old murder becomes an absolute page-turner as the pair dive into a centuries-old tragedy.
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384 Pages | Roaring Brook Press | Science Fiction YA | 5/4/2021
This book was very much Black Mirror but make it Cli-Fi.
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7 Hours 3 Mins | Harper Audio | Non-Fiction | 1/11/2011
I was excited to read this book because I wanted to compare it to the documentary but, after I finished the book I didn’t feel the need to watch the documentary. I got everything I need from this small but mighty book as it details the history of African-Americans and how that history impacts the foods we eat.
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13 Hours 33 Mins | Simon & Schuster Audio | Literary ? | 6/1/2021
Editorial assistant Nella Rogers is used to being the only Black girl at Wagner Publishing. Then Hazel McCall is hired as a new editorial assistant. Nella is optimistic that the new Black girl–with her activist lineage and “Harlem cool”–will help her challenge the company’s diversity problem. Instead, Nella finds herself slowly pushed out of the comfortable place she secured for herself in the company.
I’m not the biggest fan of books where racial trauma is used like this but I came into this book thinking it was a thriller so I assumed I’d at least get enmeshed in a unique world and it would have compelling plotting. But this book toes the lines more of literary fiction with speculative elements. It has elements of modern Black horror like Get Out and social satire like The Sellout but at the end of the day doesn’t really say anything. I just thought this was kind of silly and found it extremely tedious.
I do not know how to review this book without spoilers so….
*Here be spoilers *
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10 Hours 4 Mins | Midnight Ink | Mystery | 8/08/2017
I enjoyed this book and was looking forward to getting more into the series but I just found out Garrett’s publisher closed and the series has been on pause since book 2. Something like this happens to me every time I find a series I like!
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7 hours 33 mins | Scholastic Audio | Contemporary | 7/06/2021
Content warnings: parental loss, panic attacks, gun violence and nonconsensual picture sharing
You Should See Me In A Crown was one of my favorite reads last year and I was excited to see what Johnson had in store for her sophomore novel. The one was a little more of an emotional heavy hitter with an ambitious plot structure that left me wanting more.
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