"Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

This book has won multiple awards and is well-loved by many. There is really not much I can add to the accolades that are already out there.  It is a coming of age story about two sixteen-year old Mexican-American boys living in El Paso, about their struggles of growing up and discovering by bits and pieces of who they are. Dante is an only child of loving parents who seem to be sharing with each other all of their thoughts and feelings. Ari, on the other hand, feels surrounded by family secrets and pain that his parents are unwilling to open up about. His much older brother is in prison and thus erased from the family history. His father is haunted by the horrors of the Vietnam war and never talks about his wartime experiences. Ari himself feels that he does not belong: he has no friends and is not interested in any social interactions with his peers. And then the two boys meet, and the world becomes a much brighter place for both of them...

Without retelling the entire plot, I must say that my favorite thing about this novel is the fact that the parents of both boys play such a huge role in it. I am really tired of reading books where teenagers roam around and tackle difficult questions completely on their own, and parents are totally disengaged, disinterested or simply absent. This book is filled with deep affection and unconditional acceptance on the part of parents of both boys, and I just loved that. It is not only a beautiful story about growing up and falling in love, it is also about the love parents have for their children and by the same token about the way children force their parents to re-examine themselves and strive to be better. A great read. 5 out of 5 stars. 

"The Female of The Species" by Mindy McGinnis

Wow... This book blew me away.  A definite must read. It exposes the rape culture, and is written as an allegory. There are three points of view: a girl who kills the rapist (she is the vengeance), a boy who for the longest time as he admits "was led by his dick and drank too much" (basically representing the "boys will be boys" stereotype), and finally a preacher's daughter, a good girl from a nice family who is so wrapped up in her teenage drama she lowers her guard and almost gets raped (she probably represents the innocence of youth).

This book was perfect. If you read the story as a straightforward contemporary high school drama, the characters are caricatures and are completely unrealistic. We have a popular and smart jock (Jack), a hot cheerleader who sleeps around (Branley), a rebellious preacher's kid (Claire), and a lonely damaged vigilante (Alex). I also kept thinking that this book is sort of a parody on all the YA dystopian and fantasy novels out there. We do have a teenage superhero who acts way beyond her age and takes care of the bad guys. The difference is the problems in the book are real. One in three young women gets sexually assaulted. The same happens to one out of six guys. And as the book poignantly states getting through childhood without being molested is considered lucky.

I think this book tackles important subjects in a frank and unvarnished manner, and does so brilliantly.  We should read it, ponder it, discuss it and learn from it. I would have given this book more stars if I could. Many other books on my "favorites" list now pale in comparison. I am definitely planning on reading everything else Mindy McGinnis has written or will write.

"Kindred" by Octavia E. Butler

All I knew about this book going in was that it was the first science fiction novel written by a female African-American author. The main protagonist is a 26-year old African-American woman Dana living in California in 1976. She is a recently married young writer, who one night unexpectedly gets transported into antebellum Maryland. In a blink of an eye she finds herself on a plantation in 1815 and saves a young white boy named Rufus from drowning. Even though to her it seems like she'd been gone for hours, only seconds pass between her disappearance and reappearance back home. Over the next several days she experiences time travel several more times. She appears during various stages of Rufus' life and spends long periods of time (up to several months) on the plantation. Each time Dana appears to Rufus, he is faced with some mortal danger and she ends up saving his life.

Rufus is the son of a slaveholder, and Dana comes face to face with the horrors of slavery. He is also Dana's ancestor and no matter how badly he treats her and the slaves on the plantation, she cannot kill him until her great-grandmother Hagar is born. Rufus to me is the quintessential villain: he is cruel, deceptive, manipulative and lacks basic empathy or compassion. One could say he is the product of his time, and this is precisely the excuse he uses. He is not doing anything that is illegal at the time in the South, but that does not make it right. His inability to see the moral depravity of his ways is stunning. I cried a lot reading this novel.

The book is not just a vivid portrayal of slavery, it is also an allegory. Rufus is Dana's ancestor. What happened in antebellum Maryland is part of her family history. In addition, even though living in the late 20th century, she is seemingly safe from the horrors of 1815, yet at any moment the ugly face of racism can suddenly reappear, and she is yanked back to facing human depravity and prejudice. This is a must read. 5 out 5 stars.

"Gilded Cage" by Vic James

I got an ARC of this book from Netgalley.com. This is the first book in a new YA fantasy series. I am not sure how many books the author has planned overall, but she definitely started out with a bang. I enjoyed this book immensely. In fact, lately I have been quite disappointed with most new YA fantasy. They all seem to be a variation on the same theme: an ordinary teenager suddenly discovers s/he is special and goes on to outsmart the powers-that-be and save the world.

Gilded Cage is a refreshing exception and really stands out from the cookie-cutter YA fantasy that is out there now. At first, I thought the world was not terribly original. Basically, the story unfolds around our current time in Great Britain, and the population is divided into the ruling magic-wielding aristocracy (or "Equals) and the "commoners". The latter have to give up 10 years of their lives to serve as slaves either on an Equals' estate or in one of the industrial slavetowns around the country.

We follow several different perspectives: Abi and Luke Hadley are teenage brother and sister whose family decides to do their slavedays all together on an estate. However, Luke gets unexpectedly separated and sent to a slavetown, while the rest of his family (mother, father, and two sisters) gets sent to work on the estate of the Jardine family - the most influential Equal family in Great Britain. At the same time, we also follow the perspectives of several Equals: most notably the powerful and explosive Gavar Jardine and his power-hungry fiancee Bouda.  My favorite anti-hero in the book is Silyen Jardine. His magic (or "Skill") is extremely strong even by Equals' standards, but he is also secretive, manipulative and utterly creepy. He is by no means "a dark, brooding, swoon worthy" type of evil character, an overused and popular troupe in YA. On the contrary, he scares the crap out of me. We do not get any chapters from his point of view which makes his character even more fascinating.

The teenagers in the story - Abi and Luke - are very realistic. They are rash, naive, act their own age, and definitely do not discover any hidden special abilities or outsmart the powerful Equals around them. If anything, they are more like pawns in someone else's game and gradually come to realize their own powerlessness and inability to control anything. The plot was completely unpredictable, had a lot of twists and turns, and kept me on the edge of the seat the entire length of the novel. I found myself utterly engrossed and unable to put the book down. I cannot wait to get my hands on book 2, and am thrilled that it is coming out later this year. 5 out of 5 stars. This was definitely a rare gem in the sea of YA sameness.

"The Fate of the Tearling" by Erika Johansen

This is the final book in the Queen of the Tearling trilogy, an adult fantasy series which I've been following for the past couple of years. I read the first two books almost immediately after they came out, and I was really excited to find out how the story ends.

In this installment, we follow Queen Kelsea into Mortmesne, where she is being taken as the Red Queen's prisoner. Kelsea continues having visions/fugues in which she is transported to the early days of the Tearling, and sees where things went wrong with William Tear's utopia. Without spoiling the story, I should say that if you liked the first two books in the trilogy, you will definitely enjoy the third. We learn more things about the various characters in the story as well as the history of the Tearling. In addition, Kelsea true to herself continues on her mission to save her country. The ending was wholly satisfying. I really liked how Johansen wrapped everything up. I must say though, book 2 remains to be my favorite. 5 out of 5 stars from me to book 3. I hope Erika Johansen is writing more books!

"The Story of a New Name" by Elena Ferrante

This is book 2 in Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet, in which we continue to follow the story of two friends Elena and Lila. The first book was focused on their childhood. In book 2, Lila and Elena are becoming adults. They are 18. Lila is married and Elena is getting ready to graduate from high school. The novel relates their individual personal stories and also highlights how they intertwine and influence each other.

With Book 1, I had trouble getting into the story and some parts of the book seemed unbearably slow to me. So I decided to listen to the second book in an audio format and really enjoyed it. The reader was wonderful and I found myself really engrossed in the narrative. Not once did I lose concentration or drifted away in my thinking. So if you have trouble with Ferrante's writing, I highly recommend the audio book. I am definitely going to continue listening to the series.

The thing that I particularly liked about the second book is how genuine Ferrante's writing is. She lays bare all of her adolescent insecurities and struggles, and does not shy away from difficult subjects such as domestic abuse and infidelity. She is also very open about the difficulties of her friendship with Lila. On the one hand, they trust each other completely. On the other, their friendship is always tainted by competition and desire to outdo each other.

I gave this installment 5 out of 5 stars and cannot wait to continue with the series.

"Arcadia" by Iain Pears

This was a great read. Arcadia is truly multifaceted. It is a mix of fantasy, Sci-Fi, dystopian, historical fiction and time travel. This blending of genres as well as the complex plot and multiple points of view reminded me of Cloud Atlas, Station Eleven, and The Queen of the Tearling. So if you liked any of those, you will probably enjoy Arcadia as well.

I jumped into the book without knowing anything about the plot and I do believe this is the best way to approach this particular novel. That way various twists are revealed gradually and nothing is spoiled. The narrative switches back and forth between three different worlds/time periods. We start out in 1962 in Oxford where Professor Henry Lytten starts writing a novel about a world, completely different from ours. A few pages after that, the reader realizes that the world he has invented is real.

The world building in this book is intricate, the plot is engaging, and the characters are interesting and complex. The only weak point for me was the romance in the novel. It is by no means a major focus of the plot, however, in great contrast to the rest of the book, the romantic story line was quite juvenile and unconvincing.  I had a hard time believing that two complete strangers from different worlds who barely spent an hour together would start professing their undying love for each other. The entire scene between Rosie (disguised as a boy) and Pamarchon made me cringe. So I ended up docking one star from the overall rating because of the author’s halfhearted attempt at adding romance to the plot.

Overall, an excellent novel, I enjoyed it immensely and will definitely be reading more of Iain Pears’ work. 4 out of 5 stars.