2010s

Day / Michael Cunningham

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment 
Day

By: Michael Cunningham

Genre: Fiction, Literary

Number of Pages: 273

Published: November 14, 2023

Publisher: Random House

Dates Read: January 29, 2024 - January 30, 2024

Format: Library Book / Audiobook

A literary fiction novel about a family on April 5 before Covid-19, the spring during the Covid-19 lockdown, and right after the world starts opening back up.

I struggled with caring for the family on this one. The only one I really cared about was the little girl, and even she didn’t seem like she would be real to me.

This is the first book of Michael Cunningham’s that I’ve read and I’m not saying he can’t write. In fact, he wrote these days in such detail, I felt like I was really watching the family while I read them. But, it was just something that was missing for me to actually care about the characters.

Maybe it’s still weird for me to read books about the pandemic quite yet.

This book wasn’t 100% for me, but it’s still good. And I feel like those who like reading about family dynamics and such will greatly enjoy this.

*Thank you Random House and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

In Limbo / Deb JJ Lee

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In Limbo
By: Deb JJ Lee
Genre: Graphic Novel, Memoir, Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 348
Published: March 7, 2023
Publisher: First Second
Dates Read: August 27, 2023
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

Trigger Warning: suicide attempt(s), child abuse by parent

In Limbo is a graphic novel memoir about a Korean-American teenager, Deborah (Jung-Ji) Lee, as she navigates the struggles of high school while still feeling like an outsider. As the pressures of high school and the ever growing changing in her personal life, Deb doesn’t have anywhere to turn to – even home isn’t a safe place as the fights with her mom continue to worsen as time goes on. Her mental health falls fast.

But Deb’s a fighter. She soon discovers her real love is art. With that, along with self-care, Deb gradually begins her road to recovery. During a trip to South Korea, she realizes something that changes her perspective on everything.

The artwork in this graphic novel is beautiful. The topics and themes are hard. Being an immigrant is no doubt hard enough – but being an immigrant as a kid or teenager that’s stuck between two worlds is probably even harder. There are a lot of themes of not belonging and not being enough of one thing or the other. What was really hard for me was the abuse at the hands of her mother. The graphic novel made it very real for me as he captured the anger of her mother’s face.

I think the author’s note at the end of this is important – especially because the ending is almost kind of abrupt, but it works. Not everything is tied up in a nice bow and understood. It is a memoir afterall, but it does show the author and her journey through pain, anger, resentment (of herself and others), and forgiveness (both of herself and others).

Overall, I think a lot of people will be able to see themselves and possibly their experiences in this graphic novel memoir. For others, it will shine a light on someone else’s experiences growing up as an immigrant.

Warrior Girl Unearthed / Angeline Boulley

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Warrior Girl Unearthed
By: Angeline Boulley
Genre: YA, Mystery
Number of Pages: 400
Published: May 2, 2023
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Dates Read: August 6, 2023 - August 10, 2023
Format: Hardcover

After a bear and her cub cause Perry Firekeeper-Birch to get into a fender bender with a metal gate, she’s had to kiss her chilled out Summer of Slack goodbye in order to pay her Auntie Daunis back for the repairs. Now, she’s working in The Kinomage program, at the museum with Cooper Turtle. It’s not all bad though, she’s with the other outcasts in the group, Team Misfit Toys. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer can still be fun.

While working with Cooper Turtle, Perry attends a meeting at a local university where she meets the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives. After finding out how her ancestors are treated, Perry is determined to help return Warrior Girl to her tribe. She learns everything she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The law was passed back in 1990 and museums all over the United States have found legal loopholes to hold onto remains like Warrior Girl and others. The college has twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors’ remains and Team Misfit Toys are determined to bring them home through a heist.

I absolutely adored Firekepper’s Daughter and am constantly recommending it. This book is no different. This is another powerful and beautifully written story that really focuses on the injustices that happen within the Indigenous Communities both here in the United States and around the world. I always learn so much reading these books. Like, I know America has a horrible relationship with Indigenous and Native tribes, but to hear just how badly and cruel museums are handling the NAGPRA is so horribly sad. This book is set in 2014 and talks about how long it was taking museums to do something that was issued into law 20 years ago – it’s over 30 now and it’s probably not any better.

Perry is a bit impulsive and immature, but so works so well for this story. She loves her community and culture so much and will do everything she can for them. Perry grows so much in this story and I adore her so much.

This book is a 10 year follow up to Firekeeper’s Daughter but could totally be a stand alone too. Though I would highly recommend reading both because you really get the depth to the community, history, characters, and practices mentioned.

*Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co for a digital advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review

The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent / Ann Jacobus

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The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent
By: Ann Jacobus
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Number of Pages: 352
Published: March 7, 2023
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Dates Read: July 26, 2023 - July 29, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook

Trigger Warnings: Mentions of suicide, mental health, alcoholism, hospice, end of life, death

Eighteen-year-old Del is now sober, her depression and anxiety are being treated, she’s volunteering at a suicide-prevention hotline, and she’s living with her amazing Aunt Fran. Her own suicide attempt last year is in the past.

But, when Aunt Fran is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Del’s world is flipped upside down. She’s spent all her time now saving people, but she can’t save Fran – only help her prepare for what’s coming. On top of that, she’s got a crush on a boy she’s known since childhood, her first semester of college is quickly approaching, and she still has shifts at the crisis line. When Aunt Fran asks for Del’s help with her final request, Del must face her demons head on and rethink life and death.

Everyone handles grief differently. The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent talks about Del’s. It was a bit nice to see Del’s outlook on a lot of things, especially when it came to her talking about her suicide attempt and where’s she’s at mentally now. Is she a little callous when she views what happened to her and where she is now? A bit – but I’m also thinking that the mindset of her generation is a lot different than older ones. Shoot, I’m a millennial and our humor and mind set is dark, yet alone Gen Z’s.

I believe this is a good book for teens about both mental health and grief. Throughout this novel, I would remember my aunt passing away from breast cancer and the hospice she received at the later end of her time here on Earth. This also talks heavily about <spoiler> assistant suicide / death with dignity </spoiler>.

Overall, this is a heavy book, but one that will let others feel seen, especially during a time where they may have a loved one dying.

*Thank you Carolrhoda Lab and LibraryThing for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

Hurt You / Marie Mying-Ok Lee

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Hurt You
By: Marie Mying-Ok Lee
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Number of Pages: 254
Published: May 16, 2023
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Dates Read: March 23, 2023 - March 27, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook

Trigger Warnings: Racism, classism, disabled slurs and bullying

Georgia is a Korean-American high school junior who just moved to a new town in the suburbs so that her brother, Leo, who has significant developmental disabilities, can get better assistance. At her new school, she makes friends with members of the hagwon that runs in the back of the Korean barber shop. Her parents have a rough relationship due to the strain of raising Leo and Georgie does everything she can to help be a caretaker of her brother.

I slightly remember reading Of Mice and Men in high school – not every detail, but I remember the ending, so I was very curious to see how this book would go.

This book definitely deals with a lot that I honestly wasn’t expecting. Georgia takes on a lot of responsibilities in the caretaking for Leo and I was always forgetting he was the older brother – even though she talks about how he’s a big, strong young man. I’m glad her parents were aware of the situation though and had brought it up to her a few times in the novel because it does take a toll on her for sure.

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I was rooting for Georgia and Leo and even though in the back of my mind, I kind of knew what would happen, I was still shocked at how the ending played out. It did come a little quickly for me, but I still liked the open-ending of it too.

This won’t be a book for everyone, but I still think it’s an important book that covers a lot of topics you don’t read about often.

*Thank you Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for a digital advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Wandering Souls / Cecile Pin

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Wandering Souls
By: Cecile Pin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 240
Published: March 21, 2023
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Dates Read: March 5, 2023
Format: ARC / eBook

Trigger Warnings: Death, massacres, drowning, grief, war, racism, mentions of alcohol and drug use

Wandering Souls opens in 1978 in Vietnam as Anh and her brother, 14-year-old Minh and 10-year-old Thanh are packing for their trip to a refugee camp in Hong Kong ahead of the rest of their family before they make their way to their Uncle in America. Anh and her brothers make it to Hong Kong, but the rest of the family unfortunately don’t make it through their journey. The siblings eventually get accepted into Great Britain and over the next number of years, struggle to carve out a life for themselves in a country that’s not their own.

Told mostly through Anh’s POV, historical research, voices from lost family, and an unnamed narrator, Wandering Souls follows the lives of the last members of a family marked by war and loss and their persistence in the pursuit of a better future that they set out for years ago.

I read this book in one day, in roughly three settings. The prose of this novel were beautifully written and an emotional rollercoaster that will warrant a box of tissues for sure. Cecile Pin sprinkles in news articles and historical facts, along with personal experiences from an unnamed narrator between sections from the siblings.

This novel really deals with grief and survivor’s guilt of the three siblings. Their parents had such high hopes and dreams for them in America, but when they don’t make it there and are instead in the UK, they have to figure out what they will do instead.

Wandering Souls also opened my eyes to a lot of the horrors Vietnamese people experienced around the world as a result of the Vietnam War. I didn’t know who “boat people” were and both the piracy that could happen to them or the horrid conditions they had to travel in. Or the Koh Kra Island refugee massacres. Even in their own country, the psychological warfare the American would put them through with recordings of voices in the forests.

The dark side of immigration is shined on by Pin, but even with all the heartache, racism, and struggles the characters go through in this book, overall, it’s still about family, love, and grief. I couldn’t put this book down and I can see many others opening their hearts to this family and their journey.

*Thank you Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for a digital advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review