Adventures in Buddy Reading: Songs from the Deep

Songs from the Deep

by Kelly Powell

My best friend and I chose this book to read together as the second attempt of beginning an adventure into buddy reading! Our first venture was to read "The Affair of the Mysterious Letter" by Alexis Hall ~ but that was before this blog and also a book that we DNF'd at about 40%. Since I never gave it a proper review (I didn't even rate it on goodreads) and we had a lot of really mixed reasons for dropping it, we're just going to gloss over it as a failed first attempt and call it a day.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

For a spoiler-free review, please see my goodreads review.

Buddy Reading Breakdown

Preface: The way that my friend and I conduct our reading sessions is to meet up (usually at my place) and take turns reading aloud to each other. Whoever is not reading aloud is annotating their copy of the book. Sometimes we stop to chat, and sometimes we will read straight through and chat at the end. At the end of the session we copy each others' notes into the sections of the books we'd read aloud (and thus did not take notes on ourselves).

Date Began: 2/16/2020

Date Finished: 2/24/2020

Total Pages: 292

Reading Session 1: Sunday, February 16th || Completed up to page 73/Ch. 11

The story opens up with a very maudlin teenaged girl, Moira, who is obsessed with the sirens that live along the coast of her island. These sirens lure people out to sea, drown them, and eat them - they are incredibly dangerous creatures and are hated by most inhabitants of the island. However, since they draw in a lot of tourism, which the island heavily depends on economically, they are protected by a hunting ban that Moira's own father helped to instate ten years ago. A suspicious murder on the beach is blamed on the sirens and people start thinking about lifting the ban - but Moira doesn't think the sirens did it. 

The big thing that I took away from this first third of the book was that Moira is VERY much a teenaged girl. I say that like it's a bad thing because it annoyed the crap out of me in this first third. This is a YA novel, where the main character is seventeen and acts like a seventeen-year-old (albeit one with a borderline unhealthy obsession with blood and death), so really it's on me if I can't connect with the character -- being that I'm nearly thirty. I'm just not the right target audience for this particular character (and perhaps, judging from this first bit, the book as a whole). 

The mystery aspect of the plot so far is OK (not great but OK), but we're only in the beginning so there's plenty of time for it to flesh out and grow. I've got several notes with predictions and questions - mostly questioning Moira's thinking and the motivations of various characters - but the vast majority of my notes are on the characters themselves as I get to know them. There are at least six notes dedicated to pointing out how obsessed Moira is with blood. It's first-person POV and she's kinda creeping me out.

**Since my friend had work things and also had to go out of town, we decided to divi up the rest of the book and do reading assignments a la a more traditional buddy reading sort of thing.**

Reading Assignment 1: Read up to page 194/Ch. 25 by 2/23

I am clearly not the person who should be reading this book. This has been made quite evident by my reading experience of this section - because while I spent this part hating less on Moira, boy was I taking issue with Jude (the secondary character/ex-BFF/love interest?). We do spend a lot more time investigating the mystery and that bit improves quite a bit. There are several little twists and turns.

But the reveals... >.> Some of it just felt so paltry and low-stakes. I really think that it's more because I'm not the best reader for this book rather than it being any sort of fault on the book though. Jude's utter spinelessness bothers me though.

Also, TOTALLY called the reveal of the siren in the closet.

But the really disappointing thing about this section was the letdown of her release. I felt like there should have been more going on there. Instead, we discover the siren, then spirit her away and release her in about 7 pages. I really wish there would have been more to do with the siren at this point. I'm definitely getting the feeling that this is more of a contemporary sleuth sort of book than a fantasy, which is fine, but what I'm really curious about are the sirens and it's one thing that's left barely explained throughout the book so far.  

Reading Assignment 2: Complete book by 3/1

Huh. Okay, so I didn't hate this as much as I thought I was going to. Not to say that it's suddenly become one of my all-time favorites or anything, but I was fairly satisfied with the ending. Jude makes his stand and Moira more or less pulls her head of her ass. The bad guys get caught (though unfortunately not eaten - I really wanted them to be eaten), and it's all wrapped up in a way that made sense.

This last bit of the book mostly focuses on the Jude/Moira romance, though - or at least their feelings toward one another. Unfortunately, I just don't buy it. I thought that their dynamic worked well as friends who were reconciling. The romance aspect felt forced, almost like it was shoved in there because it's a YA book and YA books "must have romance". Which, I get that it's a common theme and I have no problem with that ~ I read plenty of YA and enjoy plenty of romantic plots and side-plots. However, in this case I just couldn't feel the chemistry. 

Final Thoughts

I'm glad I read this book, and I'm glad that I read it as a buddy-read because without that structure I probably would have A) DNF'd by the time I was done with the first third of the book or B) Hate-read it until the end with blinders on and refused to see the things that were done well within the book. Since I was able to take notes and then talk about the things that I was picking up on in the book, I was able to back myself up a bit and take a proverbial chill pill. Once I did, I was able to be more objective while reading so that, while I don't know that I'd go so far as to say I enjoyed the book, I certainly didn't hate it and can appreciate it for what it is. I also was able to learn more about myself as a reader, and what I do and don't like. For example - I don't like unreliable narrators. 

Things I Liked About This Book:

• The aging of the characters. These are very accurate portrayals of teenaged characters. They aren't just adults in teen bodies - but actual teenagers reacting to the events as they take place in the story. It was very realistic and very well done. Not only that, but the adults in the book were also accurately depicted in their responses to those teenagers and what they were getting up to. I particularly liked the way Moira's mom was done, and the relationship between the two of them. 
• The concept. I really liked the whole "sirens are real and they're an endangered species, they eat people but let's protect them" thing. It was interesting and different. Even if the approach wasn't quite for me (I would have wanted more info and interaction with the sirens themselves), I can appreciate why it was done the way that it was - with the sirens being more animal=like than people-like, even if they were... people-looking. 

Things I Didn't Like About This Book:

• The romance. I did not buy into the Moira/Jude relationship. It felt forced and very tacked-on, rather than it being an organic evolution of their relationship. After barely speaking or seeing each other for four years, they struggle to fall back into the rhythm of being friends, and then suddenly over the course of a few days they're in love with each other. If there had been feelings from before that were resurfacing then maybe, but four years ago Moira was a whole 12/13 years old so...
• Moira... or Jude. I just wasn't a fan of either of these characters, which is probably again - on me - but it's worth stating here. I found Moira unlikeable and Jude kinda pathetic for most of the book. Moira especially frustrated me with her motivations, even though they were in character for her. She was obsessed with clearing the blame from the sirens - when a young boy who was her own student that she was close with was the one who was murdered, and she saw his corpse. Her whole focus was on making sure the blame did not land on the sirens, rather than finding the real killer because they hurt Connor and that really rubbed me the wrong way. I might have had a less difficult time with it if she hadn't had such a personal connection to the victim. 

There are other things, yes, but most of those are touched on or explained throughout my little blurbs up there - so I won't go into them again if they weren't BIG THINGS. 

In all, I decided to give this book a 3.5/5 - by far one of the most unbiased ratings I've ever given. The writing was solid, and the story was there, but it was a slight miss. I think an actual teenager or someone who likes characters like Moira (unreliable brats) will enjoy this book far more than I did.

Together We Caught Fire

Together We Caught Fire - by, Eva V. Gibson

*Unplugged YA Box - February 2020*

This book came in the February 2020 Unplugged YA Book Box (obviously - that's literally the subtitle, but I'm trying to be consistent here). It arrived with a signed bookplate from the author (yay!).

What the dust jacket wants you to think this book is about:

Lane is a high-school senior with some issues, the biggest of which being that she's been pining after Greyson McIntyre since just about forever. Okay, so it's a little more complicated than "girl likes boy". It's more like "girl likes boy, boy becomes stepbrother, we're all horny teenagers, fuck this sucks (but not literally, because pining)". Oh wait, there's more! Greyson's girlfriend is also Lane's friend. She isn't her best friend, not really, but she's kind of her only friend so it still counts. Oh, and her friend's brother is also hot and very cool and now Lane isn't sure what she wants.

Now, to be honest, I wasn't sure about this whole thing based on what I gathered from the dust jacket. Lane and Greyson are very recently made into step-siblings, so it wasn't really the faux-incest thing that bothered me. It just didn't seem like the kind of book that I'd enjoy. I don't often read Contemporary YA and when I do it tends to be *Very Gay* and *Very Happy* and this whole premise just looked like a setup for a trash-fire of disaster. So, understandably, I was initially content to set this aside to be forgotten among the jungle heap of my TBR Cart until I was forced to unhaul it to make room for more books later down the line. Maybe I'd pick it up one day, maybe I wouldn't, but I wasn't too concerned one way or the other. 

Then my best friend, who also got the Unplugged YA box for this month, started to read it and I - in true petty me fashion - did not want to be left out. So, here we are.

What this book is actually about:

Lane is a young adult with a HELL of a lot of issues, the LEAST of which being that she's got the hots for her step-brother. Oh, don't get me wrong - it's a major plot point of the book and it comes up on a regular basis - but that's not what this book is about. This book is about trauma. This book is about what happens to you when everything starts out bad, then gets weird, then gets worse - all while navigating the hellways that make up the years between 15 and 25 (on average, because obviously some people are overachievers and have to start early or continue on with the disaster far past the initial onset). This book is about her issues, as well as the peripheral issues of the other major characters she interacts with (namely: Greyson, Sadie, and Connor), and how they all hurt each other and help each other and how none of it makes sense but all of it does at the same time. 

One of the things that intrigued me about the book, and kinda pushed me to read it, was that the author included a page of trigger-warnings at the very beginning of the book. It wasn't so much that I wanted to read something full of trigger-warnings, but rather that I felt that an author who had the consideration to include that page certainly deserved at least 50 pages worth of my attention to see if I liked the book enough to complete it. 

Things I Liked About This Book (in no particular order):

• Lane's family. Probably one of my favorite things about this book, to be honest, was Lane's family (yes, including you Greyson you twit). I loved that her family were practicing pagans, but that she was agnostic and there was no tension there. I loved that she got along really well with her dad and that they ran a stall at the craft market. I loved that literally the only point of contention she had about the restructuring of her family was that she had a major lady-boner for her new brother (I mean, okay, so not a small issue, but still). Most of all, I loved the relationship that we got to see form between Lane and Skye (who was written to be an actual person, thank you).
• That Greyson wasn't the hot jock/sexy douchebag everyone fawned over. It was literally just Lane that was mooning over him (well, and his girlfriend, but girlfriends don't count). He's a nerdy witch boy obsessed with attaining a 4.0 GPA and who passive-aggressively smudges when he's frustrated (which is a lot).
• Connor Hall. Hands down, favorite character. He my boi. *keeps him*
• The fact that Sadie's bullshit/issues is legit acknowledged by everyone at least once, and has consequences. It would have been so easy to make Sadie an antagonist and leave it at that, but I appreciated that her actions were acknowledged by the other characters. There was one particular instance where I thought "If she gets away with this, I'm 2-starring this book no matter how much I love Connor", and while her and Grey are certainly subplot to what's going on with Lane, it isn't just ignored or brushed under the rug either. 
• The ending. Without getting too spoiler-y here, I just really appreciated the choices that the author made regarding the characters, their motivations, and their choices and priorities. I thought it was realistic in an actually healthy way - which was a very good way to balance out the disaster-tram that was the rest of this book and their decisions leading up to it. I liked that you could see their growth toward where they all ended up.

Things I Didn't Like About This Book (also in no particular order):

• Sadie, for about 85% of the book. Yeah, she just really annoyed me as a person. I hated the way she treated both Grey and Lane. We got a few glimpses into her good traits but it was a bit choppy, like the author would randomly "oh yeah, I should probably let them know why Grey dates her and Lane is friends with her to begin with". Mostly, we hear Lane and Grey singing her praises but we just see the ugly side of Sadie.
• That I was teased with an LGBT+ character and didn't get one. Also, how that all played out. This was the hardest one for me. At the beginning of the book, we're told that Connor left home because he was gay - which threw me for a loop because the dust jacket kinda painted him as this other love interest option for Lane (who is cis-female). It's revealed, then, that this isn't true and it was just a rumor that the youth group kids made up about Connor as revenge for turning their back on them (declaring himself atheist and then subsequently getting kicked out of his house by his dad). I have so many issues with this. There were so many other ways this could have been done. Instead, I spent 70 pages thinking I was going to be getting what I theorized as being a bisexual character only for him to be completely straight and the whole thing was some weird sick joke. It was glossed over, and the characters made weird platitudes to reassure the reader that of course there's nothing wrong with being gay, then we moved on. It was literally a plot device to lower Lane's defenses, her thinking he was gay and off the table, so they could form some kind of friendship connection before she could consider him as a potential sex partner. I'm not going to go into all the other ways this could have gone, and what I wished could have happened. It just really, really bothered me.

There were other things that I didn't love in this book, but nothing that I actually saw as an issue. In general, though, I thought this was a really good book - one that I will likely go back and reread at some point if only so I can get a fuller picture of Lane's evolution through it all. When I read books I tend to just be along for the ride. I'm trying to get better about that, but right now I mostly just sink into the story without thinking to hard about it unless something really sticks out to me. It's on the second read of a book that I really start to notice things.

What I find particularly impressive is that this is a debut author. She clearly shows a lot of care for her characters and she thinks through (most) of her plot decisions very well. I loved how distinct each character was, and I enjoyed following them. I'm curious to see what she comes out with next - and (I can't believe I'm saying this, considering half this damn book) I'd be interested in reading a Sadie/Grey story just to see what happens with that. 

On Goodreads I rated this book 4/5 - though it's more of a 3.75/5. It could have been a 4.5, but the fakeGay thing just rubbed me all sorts of wrong.