Mini Reviews : In Other Lands, Undead Girl Gang & Blood Water Paint

Hello, everyone! Today I’m going to write three mini reviews, two of these books I’ve read during the exam session, therefore I’ll apologize in advance for possibly being vague about things. Let’s say I might not remember a lot of things from those books – that’s what learning 9 textbooks afterwards does to you, sadly. Have you noticed how I never miss an opportunity to complain about college? I hope you all did.

1. Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

★★★☆☆

I had quite high expectations getting into this book, I was promised lots of witchy cool stuff, diversity and friendship and I feel like I was a bit robbed. The book was diverse, though, I liked that, but the plot – it was very difficult to take it seriously. And I didn’t connect to any of the characters, Mila made some awful decisions from time to time, she and Riley barely seemed to be BFFs, Riley annoyed me all the time. I don’t know, for me, this book was a mess. It’s quite a shame because I’ve heard great things about the author, I’ll probably try her contemporary novels, though. I’ve seen lots of people loving this book, so maybe it is a case of ‘it’s-not-you-it’s-me’.

2. Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

★★★★★

Trigger Warnings : rape, mentions of decapitation, torture, slut-shaming

I needed a fast read in between exams because I was getting too stressed and I wanted to relax for a few hours and this was the book I chose to go to because it’s written in verse and I flew through it, took me a few hours to finish it.

It’s very feminist, it focuses on Artemisia Gentileschi, that I didn’t know anything about prior to reading this book, which says a lot since she was an incredibly talented painter that should probably get a lot more recognition that she actually gets. Her story is also very inspiring, I admire her strength so much and how she fought for justice even though she knew she could lose everything and had very little to gain if she did win.

I liked the way other powerful women were integrated in the book, how the author chose to bind Gentileschi’s trauma to theirs and show why Artemisia might have chose to paint those particular women.

Very powerful read and I would totally recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind reading poetry.

#3. In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

★★★★★

“You will never find me in trouble. You will find me in the library. If you can remember where that is.”

I think I’m betraying myself by only giving this book four stars because it has my heart and I’ll surely remember it for years to come, but there were some times when I lost interest because things were repetitive and that’s why I’m taking a star off (also, because my bbys got together so late and I was deprived of them)

Okay, but I shipped a certain couple from the beginning and it was so nice to see them get together, but also so frustrating to see Elliot fall in love with a million wrong people before he actually UNDERSTOOD. GOD. When I read this book, my thoughts were somewhat along the lines : “when will these idiots understand that they don’t hate each other, but actually are in love??? why are they so dumb????” SPOILER : they took a while.

Okay, besides that, I got mermaids and elves and trolls and harpies and feminism. Lots of feminism in a very funny way. Brennan mocked our society by presenting the elvish matriarchal society, which borrowed lots of things from our patriarchy as we all know it and loathe it. There was a lot of ‘men should talk about their emotions since they are the softer sex and women who go to war and are cerebral, should only talk about rational things’, lots of ‘men should clean and care for the children because women are preoccupied with war’ and so on. It was nice to see this and Elliot’s commentaries to everything.

Which brings me to my favourite part of the book, my bisexual ginger son, Elliot, who owns my heart completely. It was love at first sight, he’s a bookworm who isn’t afraid to correct everyone on their wrongs, he’s a bit (or a lot) fed up with humanity and doesn’t like violence. He’s everything I ever wanted in a character. I loved how he would say everything that was on his mind, not caring on bit about the consequences, I aspire to be like him. Also, there was a lot of ‘going-to-the-library-to-research-this’ involved and it was refreshing to have a protagonist who didn’t fight and let the others handle battles while he wrecked his brain for solutions to end those battles.

Also, I’ll protect Luke, my gay prince, at all costs, don’t fight me on this.

Serene is amazing and a true queen, who would fight anyone who tries to hurt her friends.

READ THIS BOOK, you have no idea what you’re missing out on.

Have you read any of the books I’ve mentioned?

What did you think of them?