Since my last check in on 6/21, I read 2 books. I finished
My
Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult and Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia. I
think everybody’s heard of My Sister’s Keeper. It came out in the early
2000s and they made a movie out of it, so I think it’s pretty well
known. But, I’m gonna give a little summary anyways, because when I was
talking to my brother about it he had heard the title but had no idea
about the plot! It’s about a girl who was conceived to be a donor for
her sister who has an aggressive form of leukemia, but now that she’s
13, she wants to stop donating, which means she needs to get power over
her medical decisions. She sues her parents for medical emancipation,
but if she doesn’t donate a kidney to her sister, she’ll die. The book
switches perspectives between her, her parents, the lawyer, her older
brother and sister, along with the temporary legal guardian assigned to
the case. It’s interesting to see the case from all sides, and how it
affects the whole family. It also occasionally goes back in time to when
important events happened or decisions were made about the girls.
There’s also a subplot of the legal guardian and lawyer used to have a
thing and it ended terribly but now they have to work together, which
was an interesting (although sometimes cliched) side story.
The
ending was super cliche but it still got me good. I was crying while
trying to get through the last pages. And, (VERY MILD SPOILERS) when I
was perusing the wikipedia page after I finished, I found out they super
changed the ending in the movie! Based on what it sounds like, I think I
would have preferred the movie ending, it sounds slightly less cliched.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t think I would like it as
much as I did, because I already knew quite a bit about it and I
expected it to be pretty predictable. The characters had a lot of depth
which I think is what really made me love it. I really cared about what
was happening to them.
Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky is
another one from the Rick Riordan Presents collection. I talked about
that a couple check-ins ago, but I’ll just give a brief summary again.
Rick Riordan wrote books to support representation in media, but as a
white author, he steps back to support authors writing in a similar
genre to write about their own cultures. It’s a sort of “own voices”
initiative for kids/middle grade books. They’re usually focused on myths
or legends and I think they’re a fun way to find out a little more
about different cultures, and they’re great ways for kids to see
themselves represented as heroes in stories.
This one I really
liked. It’s based on African American folk tales and legends (and tall
tales!) and melded with West African folklore. Because it blended some
stories I was knew a little about with stories I knew nothing about, it
was really fun. It felt very unique and fresh. Tristan is 12, and going
to stay with his grandparents over the summer to get some peace and
fresh air after his best friend died. He has a journal full of stories
his grandmother told them, that his best friend recorded, and it’s all
he has left of his friend. The first night there, a creature sneaks in
and steals his journal! He gives chase, and ends up underneath a bottle
tree. He knocks some darkness free from a bottle, and tears a hole into a
realm called MidPass. The darkness he set loose, and the tear in the
sky are causing evil to overrun the realm, so he has to work to try and
return the world to normalcy so he can get back his friend’s journal and
go home. I really really liked this one.
I’ve started two
new books! The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (I’m really enjoying this one
so far!) and Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez.
As always, you can see all the books I’ve read on my reading list.
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