The Bees by Laline Paull, another MGR read, follows an unusual worker bee named Flora 717. The entire novel is written from her perspective. It took me a few pages to realize Flora was an insect! It becomes rather obvious that she has a monotonous existence. She is essentially as garbage bee working sanitation for the hive. Her belly is unusually big, apparently seen as ugly by society. Somehow she is able to talk, unlike other worker bees. She is curious about other parts of […]
THUG gave me all the feels
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas deserves all the hype and awards. The story centers around teenager Starr Carter who lives in the African-American community of Garden Heights while attending an expensive private school on the posh side of town. She has two sides of her life, two faces she shows each environment. Her white boyfriend Chris has never met her Dad. Her friend Kenya, who she shares a half-brother with has never met any of her high school friends. The two worlds collide after […]
Prophecies, magic and lust
A Promise of Fire is the first entry in Amanda Bouchet’s Kingmaker Chronicles. Our heroine protagonist, Cat, has been on the run for the past 8 years. At the start of this novel, she blends in with a magical circus. She tells fortunes and does fire tricks to pay her way. The circus becomes her adopted family with Cat helping out with performances from time to time. Things were going pretty well until a strange man catches her eye. He gives off the aura of a warrior […]
A worthy literary endeavor that left me underwhelmed
Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Underground Railroad, was another Mocha Girls Read book club selection. The novel follows Cora on her Odyssey-like journey to escape slavery traveling a magical realistic underground railroad. “Here was the true Great Spirit, the divine thread connecting all human endeavor – if you can keep it, it is yours. Your property, slave or continent. The American imperative.” – page 80 It begins in Africa following the first slaves as they were stolen and brought over to America. From […]