Author Archives: Saanvi V.

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

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Warning: This book review may contain spoilers from the prequel to this book, These Violent Delights

The year is 1927. Any time now, a revolution is about to occur and everyone knows it. After sacrificing her relationship with Roma Montagov, Juliette Cai sets on a path to find the five missing insects, the ones Paul left behind for another to make more monsters to their benefit. Seeing Roma angry at her for something she didn’t do saddens her but she knows that what she did was for the best. Her cousin, Tyler Cai, is watching her as closely as ever; with one look of sympathy toward the White Flowers, her role of heir to the Scarlet Gang will be usurped by him.

Roma, on the other hand, is more bitter than ever. Unlike how he used to be, he kills off Scarlets at a rapid pace in the name of his friend who he believed Juliette killed. But reluctantly, he will have to team up with Juliette once again to figure out who controls the five monsters and what they wish to accomplish with the monsters. Shanghai is in chaos, both from the monsters and from the conflict ensuing between the Nationalists and the Communists. It is up to the two heirs to keep Shanghai in as much control as possible.

Usually, in a series, I like the first book more than the second book. But with this duology, that isn’t true. The suspense in this book is astounding. I could barely put it down because I wanted to know what happened next! The only times I would put the book down was to prepare myself for the devastatingly emotional scenes that I knew were coming. I will never forget these beautifully written characters and this amazing plot. I highly, HIGHLY think that everyone should read this book (if you are okay with some gory scenes and emotional damage).

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

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The year is 1926. In the city of Shanghai, two gangs have been rivals for generations. Leading the Scarlet Gang is the Cai family and leading the White Flowers is the Montagov family. Juliette Cai returns from living in America for four years as a flapper back to Shanghai to assume her role as heir when tensions are rising between the gangs. She is determined to kill all White Flowers for the sake of the blood feud but long ago, she didn’t think like this. Before she was in America, she was in love with the heir of the White Flowers: Roma Montagov. But because of how the blood feud worked, betrayal forced the two lowers apart and made them enemies once again.

News of a madness has spread across all of Shanghai after several members of both the Scarlet Gang and the White Flowers were found dead at a port, having their throats clawed out. People begin to fear its contagious manner and where it comes from: a monster lurking in the shadows. Together, Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov must set aside their hatred and work together to find the source of the madness and eradicate it before both of their gangs fall entirely victim to it. But will they be successful? Or will the entire city of Shanghai fall prey to a madness they cannot control?

This Romeo and Juliet retelling had me hooked from the beginning. I personally love books if they have a good writing style and because of the way Chloe Gong created this story, I fell in love with this book. The amount of creativity woven through her words, the memorable main characters, and the amazing plot were all reasons why I loved this book. The ending, especially, was what made the book worth it. I highly recommend it!

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Misrule by Heather Walters

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*Will contain spoilers to Malice, the first book of this duology*

Happy-ever-after never seemed to happen to Alyce. Just when she thought she received it, it had been snatched away from her before she could fully process what occurred. Betrayed twice and desperate for love, she does the unthinkable. And now, after a hundred years of living, she is starting to feel the consequences of her actions.

Before, she was hated by the entire society of Briar, comprising of humans and Graces alike. But now, she is beloved in this society she created with the destruction of Briar, comprising of goblins, demons, and Vila like herself. That is, until, everything descends into chaos when a young man washes up onto shore and breaks the princess’s curse that Alyce had struggled to do for a hundred years. And because of it, failure inches closer and closer.

This sequel completes the story of Alyce and Princess Aurora in the most beautiful way possible. It is a happy ending but it isn’t shaped as I thought it would, which ended up as a pleasant surprise on my part. Again, I couldn’t stop reading this book as soon as I started, wanting to know what happened next after things started to connect with each other and make conclusions that renew hope in the ending about humanity and the world in general. The characters in this book are as perfectly written as one can get, adding nuance into the plot through different actions and expressing emotions anyone can relate to. I highly recommend this book for those who love fantasy because everything about this sequel is what, I believe, makes a great ending to a magnificent story.

Malice by Heather Walter

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Once upon a time, Princess Aurora was cursed by an evil sorceress with the only solution being true love’s kiss. Many would imagine the story where Aurora was sent to be raised by three fairies and was awaken from her cursed sleep by Prince Charming. However, in this retelling of Sleeping Beauty, that is not the case.

Alyce is who someone called a “Dark Grace” but that doesn’t quite summarize what she actually is. A Grace is someone who tends to the needs of humans either by healing people through or making them more beautiful through their blood. But Alyce isn’t like the rest of the Graces since she is half-Vila, someone who is demonized by all of society.

Princess Aurora is stuck with a curse in which she would die by the age of 21 if she hasn’t kissed someone who is her true love. No one truly cares if she lives or dies since they have seen the same thing with her sisters and the ancestors that came before her. It seems as though Alyce and Princess Aurora would have no reason for their stories to intertwine but Fate turns the table and have the two unexpectedly fall into love with each other.

I find this fantasy book to be truly amazing. The world-building is spectacular, the characters are seen as genuine and relatable, and the plot is amazing. There are many plot twists that occur in the book and has developed the story into a tale of what love and hate equally could do to a person in desperate times. Many times, I couldn’t stop reading the book even when I needed to do something because it had intrigued me so much. I recommend this book for anyone who loves fantasy and loves the story of Sleeping Beauty.

Malice by Heather Walter is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library.

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

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This story takes place in a private school called Niveus Academy where only the prestigious and elite kids go to. Two students named Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo look forward to their senior year in the school as they were both selected to be Senior Prefects, something that puts them both in a position of being valedictorian. But soon, their year starts to take a dark turn when someone named Aces exposes secrets to everyone online about the two of them that could destroy their perfect plans for college and their futures in total. At first, the entire thing seems to be a silly prank but then it evolves to the endangerment of these two children’s lives as they battle to expose Aces and get their lives back to normal. But who exactly is Aces? And why do they target Devon and Chiamaka?

Contemporary is usually not the genre I would like to read but books such as Ace of Spades became an exception for me. I heard a little bit about this book from my friends and Tiktok before actually reading it and it exceeded the expectations I had about it, which I taught would be impossible. This book is not for everyone as it has some very triggering language and scenes that turned my stomach. But this book has shown me a new outlet to how the world could be and how some people in this world need to fight just to exist peacefully in this world. The plot twists that occur in the middle and the end of the book captured my attention and I couldn’t put the book down for hours at a time. I believe that everyone who can read this book should as it explains many complexities within life and within our society as well. I would say that this book is one of my favorite reads of this year!

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.

Horror Movie Recommendations

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The best holiday of the year is coming up at the moment: Halloween. Apart from getting candy, the thrill this holiday brings, either from getting scared or scaring other people, excites many like me. But nothing gives me more joy than watching scary movies during this time of year and if you are a lover of getting scared, these movies are what I recommend!

Sinister (2012): A man who writers true crime wishes to discern how an entire family was murdered in their house. He moves into that house (you can tell he isn’t very smart) and immediately starts to solve the mystery. However, when it becomes apparent that a monster of some sort lives in the house and starts to target him and his family, he realizes his fatal mistake. I found this movie very engaging when I first watched it and at the times when the paranormal force striked, I felt myself unnerved and looking away at some parts. The plot twist at the end will always amaze me and I now try to decipher clues hinting to that end.

Sinister is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.

Insidious (2010): The house of an ordinary family shows signs of being haunted when the son of the family falls into a coma. They hire a person who tells them that evil spirits from another world is using the son’s unconscious body to venture the living world. This horror movie was less scary than the others I have watched but it still entertained me with its random twists and turns. I have watched all of the movies in these series and love all of the movies, which is rare for me as a tough critic of horror movies.

It (2017): The story starts when the main character’s brother goes missing and is presumably dead. The main character and 6 high schoolers also fall victim to the cause of the missing brother: a clown who lives in a sewer and unleashes evil in the small town of Derry every 27 years. They must work together and learn to defeat their fears to take on the clown who calls himself Pennywise. I only advocate for the first movie of It and not the second one (I DO NOT like the second one at all). The first movie of IT terrified at 13 years old with some of the scenes they displayed and the reality of this movie. There were many times where I got so scared that I screamed because the jumpscares in this movie were amazing. Afterwards, I thought about how funny Pennywise was but during the movie, I was so engrossed that I got scared of looking at him.

IT is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.

Conjuring (2013): When a family moves into this haunted house, they call on the expert opinions of two private investigators: a man who is married to a woman who can detect supernatural activity whenever she is near to it. At first, the parents didn’t see any substance in their daughters’ worries about the house but as soon as some things escalate, they feel the need to call for someone’s help. The random appearances of Annabelle throughout this movie terrified me greatly as I am deathly afraid of her appearance. This was the first movie that I watched where I actually got scared, unlike some of the horror movies on Netflix. And knowing that it is a true story really got into my nerves.

These movies are really popular and most people probably already watched them but I still find them amazing and for those who haven’t watched it, I feel like you should give them a watch!

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

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With society threatened to be overrun with Hunduns, it is necessary for humans to utilize Chrysalises in order to fight against these mechanical creatures. But in order to function these machines needed to defeat these invaders in their surroundings, a boy must be a pilot while a girl acts as his concubine. It is common for the girl to die when in the Chrysalis for an unexplained reason, however, it is seen as the one of the most honorable things a girl could do in this sexist society.

When Zetian’s older sister is killed in this process by a famous pilot, she has made it her goal to avenge said sister through murder. So she signed up to be a concubine for that pilot herself and kills him swiftly. But this accomplishment only creates hysteria surrounding Zetian, earning her the name “Iron Widow” who killed off boys in the Chrysalis instead of the other way around.

In a way to control her extraordinary mental strength, they pair her off with another pilot, Li Shimin, who has been notorious for killing off every girl he is paired with as well as other actions he has done in the past. Whilst attempting to survive every battle with Shimin, she also wishes to avenge more than her sister and all of the girls killed in battle with the pilots everyone praises. Do girls die just because that is their fat in the Chrysalis or are there other factors at play hidden in the darkness of secrets?

Though this is Xiran’s first novel, it is one that I will never forget and admire so much. I was reading this book in the New York train for 2 hours and when I reached my final destination, I wish I could stay and read more. Do you know the feeling when you wish to read through a book fast so you know what happens next but also wish to read it slow since you don’t want to finish it too fast and feel sad? That is exactly what conflict I had when reading this book. It has wonderful representation of strong female characters, queer romance, and asian culture I was glad to learn about. If I must recommend a young adult fantasy book to someone, this would be the book I would tell them to read. I rate this book a 10/10 stars and wish for anyone and everyone to read this spectacular book. I cannot recommend enough!

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao is available to download for free from Libby.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

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Frances Janvier, the head girl and top of her school since 7th grade, has been determined to go to one of the most prestigious schools in England: University of Cambridge. On the downlow, she listens to her favorite podcast, Universe City, and draws fanart for the show. She never imagined her life as anything other than being a workaholic, earning good grades, and studying in university for the next few years of her life. However, everything changes when she is asked to collaborate with the creator of this podcast using her fanart. And later when she discovers out that Aled, a quiet boy a year older than her whose sister she used to be friends with, is the creator of Universe City. As the story unfolds, Frances finally discovers what it is like to have a true friend and embraces herself as more than a studious and intelligent person. But will all be destroyed over a revelation no one thought would occur?

I, personally, give Radio Silence the rating of 7/10. It wasn’t an excellent read in my opinion (which could be influenced by the book not being in the genre I usually read). However, I do recommend everyone to read it. It isn’t a typically love story between a boy and girl and shows the importance of true and beautiful friendship. It only shows many deep themes of finding one’s true identity, motivation, and connections with other people. It has shown me a different perspective to a genre of stories I never believed could be interesting to read: the main point highlighting the significance of one’s relationships other than romance. It is very rare for me to relate to characters in a book but this book definitely brought up some experiences I have had in the past and made the book all the more better. There is also a lot of representation that I didn’t expect but loved very much. I hope, if you read it, you enjoyed it as much as I did!

-Saanvi V.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.

Romance in Books/Media

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I have grown up reading books where romance had been the central theme of the book, a plot line on the side, and with side characters who have never actually spoken in the book. In every single book I had read, there was some sort of romance involved and it would be hard to ignore it since it is present, despite the characters not even being fully-fleshed. I have read books where the person’s personality revolves around their relationship to this one person who also doesn’t really have a personality. Even if the characters have a dynamic, it is there to compliment their lover (one wears black all the time and hates everyone while the other gives children cookies as a pastime in their rainbow clothing). These people who saw each other from across the room are kissing three seconds later which ensues a romantic relationship. These couples, primarily ones consisting of a man and a woman, start off as friends or they start off as enemies or they had just met and then all of a sudden, they are in a romantic relationship with each other.

Then, I started to watch television and it not only amplified whatever romance that was shown in the books I would read but also shown toxicity in the relationships that are deemed normal. There are toxic relationships in books but I saw it more in TV shows and at an alarming rate. The couple would disagree with something and then all of a sudden, they are screaming at each other and haven’t come to a conclusion until the next day where one apologizes and they go on upon their day. These couples don’t usually ask consent when wanting to do things which could lead to miscommunication on what they want and further damage their relationship without even realizing it. On screen, it would be surprising to everyone if the main character’s love interest asked if they wanted to kiss because it has been implemented throughout the story that they both wanted each other. But then, this logic reflects in our society and our lives. It could be the case that someone doesn’t want to kiss another and everyone would be disappointed because this person is so nice or this person really likes them so they should just do what they don’t want to do and kiss them.

Romance has been shoved down everyone’s throats, through many different platforms, to the point where everyone must have a romantic relationship in their life to lead fulfilling lives. I have grown up thinking that I must have a romantic relationship eventually in my life and if I don’t, I will be a disappointment. If someone is single at the moment, it wouldn’t last long because everyone wants to be in a relationship and they will be in one soon. I have grown up thinking that if a man or a woman were merely talking to each other or hanging out with friends, they must be dating. I know that other people in our society also feel this way.

And then, I read a book where there was no romance whatsoever. I didn’t know this beforehand so I had been surprised as I read through this book. The book is called Radio Silence by Alice Oseman. It is a story about how this girl and guy becoming friends after finding out they have affiliated with this one podcast they both love. At first, I didn’t like the book because it was boring and anti-climatic. But then, I researched why I felt so weird after reading a book that contains no romance in it and found it boring. I discovered this new concept called amatonormativity, where our society pushes people to prioritize finding romantic relationships over keeping one’s platonic relationships. I am reading the book again and now, I am finding new aspects in it and realizing how entrenched I had been in amatonormativity.

I am not saying that there shouldn’t be romance in books and in media. I believe there should be more interracial couples, queer relationships, disabled relationships, relationships dealing with people of color, and other relationships between marginalized groups. But I don’t want romance to be geared toward a certain group and to be held at such a higher pedestal than platonic love is. And for those still reading, thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end and hopefully you agree. However, this is all my opinion and no one has to agree with me. Thanks anyway!

-Saanvi V.

Random Facts About Books!

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As of 2010, there are 129 million books in existence: Google had released the number of books existing in the world to be exactly 129,864,880. The amount of books now since a decade had passed must be larger. I can’t find a more recent number of books in the world which isn’t surprising since I don’t think anyone wants to count all of the books in the entirety of the world. But you never know how bored people can get 🙂

The most popular book genre at the moment is Romance: Book sales has exposed the fan-favorite of all genres being romance. This could be since there are a lot of subgenres to romance and can be combined with another genre in many other cases. Another one to mention here would be that the most popular romance trope at the moment is enemies-to-lovers. Everyone loves a little bit of tension, especially Booktok based on the books they recommend with their very heart and soul. They have also really turned the tide against friends-against-lovers and honestly, I would like to see them proceed.

Bill Gates bought the most expensive book, sold for 30.8 million dollars: Come on, this is Bill Gates we are talking about. He probably earns that type of money in 10 minutes. But anyway, the book he bought was by Leonardo Da Vinci called Codex Leicester. This book is basically a collection of scientific writings named after Thomas Cooke who became the Earl of Leicester. Bill Gates said he bought it to share the same wonder and curiosity that Leandro Da Vinci had himself. And it was done on the 500th anniversary of his death!

Like the smell of books? Well, there is a word for it now: Those who liked the smell of books are known to be called Bibliosmia. Finally, a word that can finally describe my thought process as I first lay eyes on a book I newly purchased. Hopefully, I am not alone in this. I;m probably not. But you never know.

The longest sentence ever written contained 823 words: Victor Hugo really wants to torture his readers by having them follow along with this long sentence. But nevertheless, this occurs in one of his more famous books Les Miserables. I don’t know in what scene or act (I haven’t read the book) but even if I did, I think I would have skipped that entire sentence.

Authors’ names weren’t written on the book cover at first: This may seem like a normal sentence but the reason behind why may shock some (It shocked me). Back in the days, only the wealthy could read and purchase books because they were educated. And because the book covers could have been made with leather and actual gold so they would be able to afford it. To be honest, if I ever get a golden book, I think I will still find a way to break the spine (I don’t want to, though)

Well, I have exhausted all of crazy book facts I know from my friend’s deep dive into random facts she researched during International Read a Book Day. She got most of them from this website: https://www.yahoo.com/news/11-random-facts-books-weirdly-192533509.html. Let me know in the comments if you guys know any random book facts that I didn’t mention.

-Saanvi V.