Not unlike Disney's "Mulan", Rain, daughter of a Neshu grandmaster and a Neshu fighter herself, is unwilling to let her twin brother and father leave to fight in the war. Especially because when she'd been little, she and her brother had fallen sick, and Rain was accidentally given the medicine reserved for the family's only son- leaving her brother with slight cognitive scars. Certain that her brother won't return from the battlefield, Rain disguises herself as a man and goes in his place, making every move to remain undiscovered including taking a powder to hide her monthly bleed.
“Why did everyone like that story so much when it wasn’t true? Why was everyone so eager to believe it? Was it because, in real life, ever after’s generally stink?”
The Grief Keeper tells the story of a young girl named Marisol who is trying to immigrate with her younger sister to America after the murder of their brother. She is caught crossing the border and told she must participate in an experimental study, or be sent back home to El Salvador. As part of the study, Marisol becomes a grief keeper, taking upon the grief of Rey, a young woman struggling with mental illness, to ensure she can stay in the country.
Delilah Dirk is about this adventurer who has to find clues to uncover a hidden city. She goes with her assistant, Selim, and a writer of the "Weekly Observer", who is up to something more mischievous. On the way she encounters many problems- for example she has to fight a ruler of a city to get a clue! The most compelling part of the book is when we (the reader) find out Van Hassel's real plan with the city. The sudden twist made the book very hard to put down.
The second book in the Lunar Chronicles, Scarlet, is a take on the well known tale of Little Red Riding Hood. The main character and namesake is Scarlet, a farm girl living on the outskirts of a small French town. Scarlet’s spunkiness and courageous attitude makes her an almost shockingly dynamic character compared to Cinder from the first book.
The action is intense and the storyline is fast-paced; there is always something going on. The setting in intergalactic space and the unforgettable characters make for a perfect storm of events that draws you in deeper the more you read. The writing style is beautiful and the slang feels so natural it's like the culmination of 7 people's autobiographies thrown backward in time.
This book details a young girl's journey that every teenager goes on at some point- one of family responsibilities and new friends and loves, all mixed with self discovery and coming out of a childhood persona. Bright writes in a way that completely encapsulates the reader in her world, leaving them surprised and disappointed when it comes to an end. I liked this cover because the imagery of the carved and gilded ship is indicative of the adventure Selah goes on, and the somewhat tarnished appearance shows that her world isn't perfect, and being royalty doesn't mean everything is easy.
You Must Not Miss will take you into a teenager’s messy life, and the perfect life she creates in her notebook. When Magpie is tired of all the problems life has dealt her, she decides to take matters into her own hands. She starts writing and creates her perfect world: Near.
In the world described in this book, there are two types of magic: spark, which is the "legal" and "good" magic, and weave, which, in essence, is weaving the strands of the fabric that makes up the world. However, it is illegal due to its "bad" nature. When two girls, Revna and Linné are brought together by the government, they find that their government is getting desperate to win a war and will cross lines it needs to do so.
In this book Hesina, the princess, takes the throne and immediately begins investigating her fathers death, believing him to have been murdered. She enlists the help of a convict who is much more than he seems. Hesina also learns who can be trusted and who can't be, and those who betray her are not who you would expect
