The Forest of Stolen Girls

I love reading books set in places I've lived. 

So I was super hype about this YA book being set in Korea.

Oh, and it's about missing teenagers who are being kidnapped and trafficked.

Min Hwani travels to Jeju in an attempt to find her missing father and reunite with her sister, Maewol. Hwani was sent a notebook containing information about a case her detective father was working when he went missing. She remembers little of her time spent on the island but is determined to finish her father's investigation. Upon Hwani's arrival, a missing girl turns up dead, in the same forest where she and 12 other girls were last seen. Maewol is practicing to become a Shaman and is called upon to find spiritual details surrounding the young girl's death.

Hwani and Maewol have a unique connection to this particular forest; they may have witnessed a murder. Either the fear or the bone shattering cold paralyzed the girls. They were not found for several hours. Because of their time alone in the forest, Maewol was believed to have shamanic insights. Thus separating the sisters; Hwani on the main peninsula, while Maewol stayed in Jeju.

This book was a little messy to me. I constantly was asking myself how we got to certain scenes. It was almost as if we were just dropped into a scene without any kind of warning. The author led us to the ideas wonderfully, but then the page breaks and we're suddenly in the mountains instead of the Shaman's hut. It was just an odd way for this story to be written.

Off the Leash

I'm a sucker for a dog book.

Matthew Gilbert used to be absolutely terrified of dogs, but after marrying his husband, Tom, they decided it was time for him to conquer that fear. But Matty didn't know what he was getting himself into. He began frequenting Amory, a dog park with a wide variety of dogs and their humans.

 

We all know that feeling when we're taking our pup to a new dog park. There's the regulars who know everyone and never want to welcome newcomers. There's the people who absolutely talk your ear off and the people who want absolutely nothing to do with you. There's the people who only take their dog to the park out of necessity and the people who would love to spend all day there.

 

Matthew and his pup, Toby quickly began regulars at Amory. Toby made friends fairly quickly, but he also made a few enemies too. As for Toby's human, Matthew needed to warm up to some of the characters at the park. He grew to love Margo, Hayley, Nash, Drew, and even Cell Phone Lady. These people really became Matthew's support system, not just within the park's fences, but in life. They discussed television, jobs, colleges, moves, life, death, and even the minuscule things like disposing of dog poop or when it's acceptable to tell another owner that his dog is humping yours.

 

It amazes me what we do for our dogs. Even if it means standing in single digit weather while our dogs roll around in the snow, mud, and rain. There is literally nothing I wouldn't do for my pup, Sophie. I've tackled the dog parks, the long walks, even puppy birthday parties. And I'd do it all again with one blink of her puppy dogs eyes.

My Dark Vanessa

I'm always a little weary about overly hyped books.

Which is why I let My Dark Vanessa sit unread for so long.

But man, this was very well written given the subject matter.

This book is so sad; not boohoo sad, but more of a depressive sad.

 

Vanessa is 14 years old when she transfers to her new high school, a boarding school where she's away from her parents for the very first time. The newness of the school and the freedom she's feeling is everything she could have hoped for. Struggling to make friends, Vanessa turns to her English teacher. Jacob Strane is nearly three times her age, coming in at a weathered 42. But he's giving her the attention she so desperately craves; which is why she believes she was a willing participant when the abuse began.

There's a lot of topics touched on in this book; things like grooming, sexual assault, rape, manipulation, drug usage, and suicide. However, the author found a way to create a dynamic between Vanessa at 15 and at 32. The novel alternates between the ongoing abuse and the aftermath that Vanessa is coming to terms with as an adult. There are great storylines for both Strane and Vanessa. It humanizes both of them. It highlights Vanessa's young mind being corrupted by Strane. It shows Strane struggling with the fact that he's "in love" with a teenager. But it also shows him taking precautions to prevent his reputation if word gets out that he's having an affair with his young student. But with the story being told through Vanessa, we see her naivety shining through everything. If she had never experienced young love, how was she to know that what he was saying and doing wasn't love?

 

I believe if I would have read this as a teenager, I don't think I would feel the same way. I would have been just as caught up in Vanessa's young love story as Vanessa was herself. In Vanessa's mind, she never wanted to back away from him. She was falling for this much older man because he wasn't like the boys her age. He was thoughtful (i.e., giving her books that reminded him of her such a Lolita and Pale Fire). He was constantly asking her if she was okay, because in his mind, he needed to hear her say "Yes, this is okay," in an attempt to clear in own conscious over what he was doing. He knew from the moment he laid eyes on her that she was an innocent girl with no one and nowhere to run to. He took advantage of her in the most obvious way, yet she could not even begin to confront those demons until the very end.

In my opinion, this book deserves all the hype it's gotten.

Glimmer of Hope

It always feels odd to me when reviewing a book about a tragedy.

 

On February 14, 2018, a gunman entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and opened fire, killing 17 students and teachers. But the survivors were determined not to let their school become just another statistic. Several groups of students started getting together to find some way to prevent this from happening in any other school. Within a week of the shooting, they had created March for Our Lives. A Glimmer of Hope is their story.

These students were tired of their classmates being gunned down. They were tired of attending their friends funerals. They were tired of the media circus taking over their lives and forgetting about this tragedy a few days later. They wanted to take back their story. They wanted to use the media to make a difference.

These students, anywhere from age 10+, began researching gun legislation and began voicing their opinions online and in the newsrooms. They began questioning their Senators and Congressmen, asking why they continued to allow this to keep happening. They met with several government officials to discuss their stances on gun legislation, commonsense gun laws, and overall the idea of gun reform. They were taking their tragedy and turning into a conversation that many government officials were not willing to have, especially with children and teens.

The Parkland teens began chatting with other teens all over the world about gun reform. They realized gun violence is not just happening in schools, it's happening in grocery stores, in neighborhoods, even within their own homes. Which lead them to create March for Our Lives and take their organization on the Road to Change tour. They were being open and honest in their opinions and demanding their voices be heard. They will not allow their tragedy define them. Their friends lost their lives; now this is their revolution.

Looking for other books on Parkland?

Parkland

Parkland Speaks

You Love Me

Our favorite lil sociopath is back!

Joe Goldberg is ready to settle down in a a quaint little town. He starts volunteering at the public library where he meets....You. Just kidding, her name Mary Kay. He's determined not to slip back into his old life. So he makes a promise to himself that he will not stalk this woman, he will not google her, he will not get on her social media. But before long they're shamelessly watching and liking each other Instagram posts. Mary Kay wants Joe, he knows she wants him bad. But he can't seem to convince her that they are meant to be together.

First he has to break into her friend group. Right off the bat, he's battling with her feminist warrior bestie and her high school hook up. But he knows another way into her life, and it's foolproof; bond with her teenage daughter, Nomi. After a quick conversation with Nomi about what goes on during their "Gilmore Girls" bonding days, he decides to hop on the ferry to Seattle and "accidentally" run into them. But on that ferry, Joe discovers the truth about Mary Kay. This is what he gets for following his on rules instead of following her.

 

 Once again, Joe grows up.

He really stepped up in Hidden Bodies. He loved Love. He cherished the idea of having a family, but the Quinn's crushed those dreams when they paid him to disappear. He had to start all over, hang up the baseball cap, and create a new, healthier version of Joe. In You Love Me, Joe has his heart set on being a husband and a stepfather. He's determined to make a life in this new city.

Looking for the rest of the series?

You (You #1)

Hidden Bodies (You #2)

For You and Only You (You #4)

Salt to the Sea

This was a beautifully written book.

I honestly have no other way to describe it.

I'm still learning to love historical fiction, but I have found that I love the way Ruta Sepetys writes YA historical fiction novels. I read Out of the Easy a few years ago and was in awe of the vivid details she includes in her writing. I'm not going to lie, I was completely unaware of what Salt to the Sea was about. When I realized it was set during WWII, I was skeptical that I would make it past the first few chapters....but it was so much deeper than your typical war story.

This novel centers around 4 young adults; Florian, Joana, Emilia, and Alfred.

I'm just gonna say it right now, Alfred made me want to barf every single time I got to his POV. He's a narcissist, with an incredibly inflated ego. He honestly believes that he's a hero. It was just so uncomfortable reading his letters and hearing his thoughts. No thanks.

But, oh, how I love Florian and Joana.

Everything around them radiated hope. I know how strange that sounds. I mean they're literally trying to outrun a war, with little hope of survival. They both had incredible backstories; Florian as an art apprentice and Joana as a nurse. But what's even more amazing is their story with Emilia, a Polish, pregnant, 15 year old girl. Florian will always be her knight in civilian clothes. Joana will always be her stand-in mom.

I just cannot believe that this was based on the biggest maritime disaster to ever happen and I had never heard of it until I opened this book. The last 100 pages or so no longer takes place trekking to the docks. It takes place solely on a ship carrying nearly 10,000 people, most of which were civilian women and children. There are stories out there than need to be told and I firmly believe that this was one of them.

Looking for other books by Ruta Sepetys?

Out of the Easy

Devil's Knot

This case made me so angry.

I repeatedly found myself setting this book down, composing myself, and then ranting to my husband about how these teenagers were fucked from the get-go.

In 1993, three 8 year old boys were found naked, hog tied, and drowned in a drainage ditch. They were severely beaten, cut up, and one boy had even been castrated. The police quickly set their sights on Damien Echols, a teenager who they believed was involved in the occult and Satanism. It seems as though the police turned their investigation into a literal witch hunt for someone who could tie Damien to these crimes. They found just that when they interrogated Jesse Misskelley for more than 11 hours, but somehow only got 34 minutes of confession on tape. A confession that was obviously coerced by police. The entire thing is the investigators leading Jesse to information about the crime, ignoring his repeated mistakes, only to lead him back to the answer they were looking for. What the justice system fail to recognize was that Jesse was mentally handicapped, and therefore more susceptible to coerced confessions. Not to mention he was a minor who was interviewed with a guardian or lawyer present.

 

So all of the evidence the West Memphis Police had was Jesse's coerced confession. They only motive they could come up with was that these killings occurred on the night of a full moon and could possibly be a ritualistic killing. Enter Damien. When Damien took the stand at his own trial, many felt that it hurt his case even more. He admitted he has read books on witchcraft, but that he also studies a variety of religions. Being that he is an angsty teen, he was exploring who he was and where religion fit into his life. I felt that him taking the stand was beneficial to his case because he explained literally everything that was thrown at him.

 

I also think that Jason Baldwin's action speak volumes about this case. Throughout the trial, his lawyers presented him with deals that would have him out in forty years, if he would just testify against Damien. He turned it down. They came back with a counter offer, testify and he'd be out in 20 years. Again he turned it down saying, they could let him out today and he still wouldn't testify against something he knows his friend did not do.

There was virtually no evidence leading detectives to these three teenage boys. But there was a mass of evidence pointing to a more likely suspect, John Mark Byers. Byers was the stepfather to one of the murdered boys, Christopher. He already had an arrest record that included assault charges. He admitted on camera to previously hitting Christopher with a belt. He told reporters that he himself was raped and left for dead in a drainage ditch. His alibi did not match the rest of his families alibi's for the night the boys went missing. Oh, and the most obvious evidence against him....a hunting knife with blood on it that was a similar type of blood to his murdered stepson who had been castrated with a knife similar to the one he owned.

It took 18 years before Damien, Jesse, and Jason were released from prison. They had their entire young adult lives taken from them. These three teenagers were tried as adults for crimes they obviously did not commit. They were sent directly into adult maximum security prisons, where they were expected to live out these rest of their lives. Damien was literally 19 years old and sitting on death row.

I cannot believe that any jury could listen to the court proceedings, hear the lawyers say, "We will be showing you negative evidence," and still find a way to convict three teenage boys for the murders of three 8 year old boys. Growing up in the south, I know how small town politics work. I know that any mention of witchcraft or Satanism would immediately cast a black cloud over anyone who believed it.

I feel sorry for these teenagers, now grown men, who spent more than a third of their life behind bars.

 

I feel sorry for Michael, Christopher, and Stevie for their tortuous murders.

 

I feel sorry the true killer or killers have never been punished for these horrific crimes.