Reviews | Homegoing, Lowriders in Space, Gertie's Leap to Greatness

These three books are all outside of my usual genres/reviewing norm so I decided to showcase them together in one post.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The unforgettable New York Times best seller begins with the story of two half-sisters, separated by forces beyond their control: one sold into slavery, the other married to a British slaver. Written with tremendous sweep and power, Homegoing traces the generations of family who follow, as their destinies lead them through two continents and three hundred years of history, each life indeliably drawn, as the legacy of slavery is fully revealed in light of the present day.

Effia and Esi are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle’s dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast’s booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia’s descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

I took a leap out of my comfort zone reading Homegoing.

Homegoing is Yaa Gyasi's debut novel. It follows the lineage of two sisters from Ghana. Homegoing is basically a book of short stories with each story focusing on a different family member. The timeline of the book spans hundreds of years, but there is a familial thread connecting all of the stories.

Homegoing has received tremendous praise and has been nominated for several book awards. As for my personal taste, I can liken reading Homegoing to watching most Academy Award winning films - I can see what all of the fuss is about, but it's not really my thing.

6/10: Good Read

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Lowriders in Space by Cathy Camper

Lupe Impala, El Chavo Flapjack, and Elirio Malaria love working with cars. You name it, they can fix it. But the team's favorite cars of all are lowriders—cars that hip and hop, dip and drop, go low and slow, bajito y suavecito. The stars align when a contest for the best car around offers a prize of a trunkful of cash—just what the team needs to open their own shop! ¡Ay chihuahua! What will it take to transform a junker into the best car in the universe? Striking, unparalleled art from debut illustrator Raul the Third recalls ballpoint-pen-and-Sharpie desk-drawn doodles, while the story is sketched with Spanish, inked with science facts, and colored with true friendship. With a glossary at the back to provide definitions for Spanish and science terms, this delightful book will educate and entertain in equal measure.

I found Lowriders in Space in the Texas Bluebonnet Award section of my library. I recognized it from other awards lists and knew I had to scoop it up. This was such a fun graphic novel. The first thing that struck me about Lowriders in Space was the colors used in the graphics. I didn't realize until reading the artist's note at the end that the drawings were all done with red, black, and blue ball point pens. I'm going to have a hard time in the office tomorrow not spending time creating Raul the Third style doodles.

My 10 year old thought Lowriders in Space was weird and confusing. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed the humor and the creative depiction of the lowriding culture. I look forward to seeing what they do in the next installment.

7/10: Recommended Read

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Gertie's Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley

Gertie Reece Foy is 100% Not-From-Concentrate awesome. She has a daddy who works on an oil rig, a great-aunt who always finds the lowest prices at the Piggly Wiggly, and two loyal best friends. So when her absent mother decides to move away from their small town, Gertie sets out on her greatest mission yet: becoming the best fifth grader in the universe to show her mother exactly what she'll be leaving behind. There's just one problem: Seat-stealing new girl Mary Sue Spivey wants to be the best fifth grader, too. And there is simply not enough room at the top for the two of them.

Oh, Gertie. This book broke my heart into a million wee pieces. It's really a wonderful book, though.

Gertie wants to be the best fifth grader that ever lived. We begin the book with Gertie creating her "what I did on my summer vacation" story. By her fifth grade year she was well aware that these stories were a competition, and Gertie needed to be the best! Gertie didn't count on there being a new girl in class this year - a new girl from California who knows movie stars.

Gertie's Leap to Greatness follows Gertie's fifth grade year and her struggle to be the best.

This book is adorable and horrible all at the same time. Kids can be so cruel to one another, and growing up is such a struggle. By the time I learned why Gertie needed to be so great, I was just a mess of broken pieces.

This is the type of children's literature that stands the test of time. I saw elements of my own childhood in the pages. I saw some of the struggles my own children are going through in school with their teachers and their peers. If you are looking for an excellent book for your kids or you happen to be like me and you've never outgrown reading kid lit, there's a lot to experience in this one little book.

7/10: Recommended Read

Review copy of Gertie's Leap to Greatness provided by publisher

Book Review | The Last Harvest by Kim Liggett

The Last Harvest is a YA horror novel from Kim Liggett.

“I plead the blood.”

Those were the last words seventeen-year-old golden boy quarterback Clay Tate heard rattling from his dad's throat when he discovered him dying on the barn floor of the Neely Cattle Ranch, clutching a crucifix to his chest.

Now, on the first anniversary of the Midland, Oklahoma slaughter, the whole town's looking at Clay like he might be next to go over the edge. Clay wants to forget the past, but the sons and daughters of the Preservation Society—a group of prominent farmers his dad accused of devil worship—won't leave him alone. Including Ali, his longtime crush, who suddenly wants to reignite their romance after a year of silence, and hated rival Tyler Neely, who’s behaving like they’re old friends.

Even as Clay tries to reassure himself, creepy glances turn to sinister stares and strange coincidences build to gruesome rituals—but when he can never prove that any of it happened, Clay worries he might be following his dad down the path to insanity...or that something far more terrifying lies in wait around the corner.

Holy crap, this is YA?

The Last Harvest could have passed for an adult horror novel if it weren't for the sterotypical spin the bottle, 7 minutes in heaven, and high school football games. I probably would have recommended this to fans of Ania Ahlborn if the maturity level pendulum hadn't swung quite so far.

First and foremost I enjoyed the horror aspects of The Last Harvest. It was gory and it was unsettling. There was a dream sequence element to it all which usually doesn't work for me, but Kim Liggett managed to successfully make me wonder what was real and what wasn't.

The only thing I didn't enjoy was the repetitive plot. Even when new things were happening, the structure of the story and the sequence of the action was very "lather, rinse, repeat". By 60% I was really wanting the story to wrap up.

Despite my frustration with the structure, the entire book lead up to a very satisfying conclusion. Kim Liggett is an author I will be reading again. If you are a fan of YA horror, I would definitely check out The Last Harvest. It's not like any other YA horror I have read.

7/10: Recommended Read