FOLLOW ME INTO THE DARK BY FELICIA C SULLIVAN {review}

Paperback, 320 pages

Published March 14th 2017 by The Feminist Press at CUNY

Rating: ★★

Follow Me Into the Dark reminded me of a lot of other books; a merging of Fall on Your Knees and Sharp Objects in particular, though I never felt like Sullivan managed to bring her novel fully into its own space. Perhaps my largest problem with the book is that the characters are chaotic but largely empty. Comparing to Sharp Objects where Camille Preaker's emotional and psychological emptiness is given shape and voice, Sullivan doesn't quite manage that level of connection between reader and subject, never truly delving into the characters and what makes them tick.

Follow Me Into the Dark was purposefully chaotic and confusing, skipping through time periods, narrative perspectives, and characters, in a way that never allows the reader to fully grasp on to anything. I read on more to find out why the hell it was so vague and choppy, not because I had a connection with any characters. I constantly felt as though Sullivan was at the cusp of something great, but pulled back for a not-particularly-surprising twist and an aura of mystery.

Follow Me Into the Dark left me with no more of idea of who the characters were than I had on the first page. Sometimes that's a totally viable option but in this case, with so few characters, I wanted more, so much more. I wanted to know why Kate chose to act certain ways, why The Doll Collector killed girls, why, why, why? There just never seemed to be enough psychological reasoning. Characters acted that way because they did.

Ultimately, I just felt like I'd read versions of this book before, but enjoyed them far more.

THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR BY NICOLA YOON {review}

Hardcover, 348 pages

Published November 1st 2016 by Delacorte Press

Rating: ★★★★

I won The Sun is Also a Star in a Shelf Awareness giveaway. I entered knowing very little about it beyond that it was a young adult romance. I don't often read romance, either adult or young adult. It's not really a genre that greatly appeals to me, particularly heterosexual romances. I feel like I'm inundated with them at all times, in life, in media, in everything. It gets tiring.

Despite that, The Sun is Also a Star still felt like a breath of fresh air that frequently caused me to smile while reading. To start with, neither of the lead characters, Natasha or Daniel, are white. That's certainly rare in a sea of blonde teenage adonises and blue eyed heroines. Natasha is an undocumented Jamaican girl on the cusp of being deported due to a drunken mistake of her father's. She loves science, believes wholeheartedly provable facts, and likes the crackling pain in 90s grunge music. Daniel is the American born son of Korean immigrants, struggling between his parents' educational desires for him and his own dreams of being a poet. They're both adorable, wholly fleshed out characters that I really, truly liked.