Genre: Retellings

Sep 08

Bite-Sized Reviews of My Life in the Fish Tank; Girl, Serpent, Thorn; Flamer; and Graceling

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 9

I’ve got four reviews for you today: two YA fantasies, a MG contemporary, and a YA historical graphic novel. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! A compelling story about grief and mental health, My Life in the Fish Tank examines how secrecy and shame can be the root of pain. When Zinnia’s brother is in an accident, her whole life changes, not because he’s hurt but because it reveals an issue her family had been unknowingly dealing with for a very long time—her brother is bipolar. Now, Zin’s parents have asked her to keep her brother’s mental health issues private, while her friends seem to be expecting her to unload her grief on them—it all leads to Zin feeling like she’s under the microscope and like she can’t win, no matter how she responds to the circumstances. This book deals with mental… Read more »

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Feb 20

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 22 ★★★★

Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Google This book is a dark, brutal retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, an unflinching exploration of the victimization of women. It is not for the faint of heart, and I’m honestly a little unsure if I’d recommend it to the average YA reader. If you’re going to read this book, you need to know what you’re getting into. Not only are there many triggers in it, but Arnold pulls no punches when she depicts sex and violence (and menstruation, which is a big part of the story and is often described in vivid detail). That being said, it’s also incredibly powerful and will most certainly leave an impression. And the storytelling itself is masterful—I found myself flying through the book, eager to find out how the events would unfold. I was also surprisingly fond of the second-person narration (meaning that the story is told… Read more »

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Feb 14

Pippa Park Raises Her Game by Erin Yun: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 12 ★★★★½

You can purchase Pippa Park Raises Her Game at the following Retailers: To sum this book up, it’s Mean Girls for middle graders with the addition of basketball and a big lie that threatens to blow up everything! I know this is a Great Expectations retelling, but honestly, as I was reading this, I couldn’t help but think of Mean Girls often—it just has that vibe (I guess I’d forgotten most of GA, which I read in my high school days, but that didn’t cut down on my enjoyment of the book). Pippa has just transferred to a private school from the local public school, and she feels like a fish out of water. She wants so much to fit in, but she isn’t really sure how. All of the kids in her class come from money, and they seem to have a bunch of expectations that she has no idea… Read more »

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Jan 15

Bite-Sized Reviews of Every Other Weekend, Storm and Fury, The Afterlife of Holly Chase, and All of Me

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 30 ★★★★

I’ve got four reviews for you today: a YA contemporary, two YA paranormals, and a MG book contemporary in verse. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I had no idea this was going to be such an emotional read! I’ll confess that at first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like these characters: Jolene is rebellious(ish) purely for the sake of aggravating her stepmom (who I really sort of felt sorry for) and Adam comes off as a bit holier than thou and is horrible to his dad. If you’ve been around the blog for long, you know that I sometimes have trouble with “unlikeable” (to me) protagonists. There’s even a hint of almost-cheating involved in the story. So, it’s a testament to Abigail Johnson’s writing ability that she soon had me wrapped up in these characters’ lives and wrapped around… Read more »

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Jan 03

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 18 ★★★★½

Ever pick up a new series from an author you LOVE and feel both excited and afraid? You have such high expectations, but what if the new book doesn’t live up to your hopes? What if you’re … gulp … disappointed? That’s how I felt when I started reading Scavenge the Stars. Fortunately, it took me all of ten pages to fall in love with Amaya and realize I was going to be just as invested in this new series as I was in the last. I’ll confess that I don’t know the story that the book is derived from, so I can’t comment on how well it works as a Count of Monte Cristo retelling. But I can say that I found myself wrapped up in Amaya’s journey toward revenge right from the start. It’s hard not to root for her once you see how the kids aboard The… Read more »

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Sep 05

Tiger Queen by Annie Sullivan: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 26 ★★★★

When I heard that Annie Sullivan had written a retelling of “The Lady or the Tiger” I was incredibly excited! I’d loved her unique retelling of “The Midas Touch,” and I had no doubt she’d do one of my favorite short stories justice. I distinctly remember reading this story when I was a teenager and being left with that agonizing open ending. I read the story again with my own students when I taught at my homeschool co-op, and one of our exercises was to write their own ending (and, yes, a few of my students did have the princess sick the tiger on her lost love). I was curious to see if Sullivan would leave us with an open ending as well or give us her own version of closure. Of course, I can’t tell you the answer to that. You’ll have to read to find out! Sullivan has created… Read more »

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May 31

No Place Like Here by Christina June: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 24 ★★★★

Ashlyn has lived her life trying to measure up to her father’s expectations, but it’s always been a losing battle. So, even when he ends up in prison for tax evasion, he somehow still has a hold over her that she can’t quite break. She’s shipped off to work at a wilderness camp with her cousin—something she never would have chosen for herself—and she spends the summer wishing she could just go back home again. But the camp teaches her a few things about how capable she truly is, and she starts to realize that if she wants change, she’ll have to learn to speak up—as terrifying as that is for her. I felt for Ashlyn, and I could relate to her inability to speak up and her desperate need to avoid conflict. And I think almost any teen will understand Ashlyn’s sense of powerlessness in a situation that feels… Read more »

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Mar 19

Bite-Sized Reviews of Geekerella, Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword, and The Crossover and Rebound

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 12

I’ve got three reviews for you today: a YA contemporary, a MG fantasy, and two MG verse novels in a series. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I’ve been meaning to read this book for forever because so many of my blogger friends love it. A book about fandoms is pretty much guaranteed to be a win because so many of us have been in that place of adoring a book series or movie or TV show so much that we just can’t bear to see anyone ruin the story for us! Think of all those book to movie adaptations and all the fans who are just begging the producers to be gentle with their favorite story! I loved the focus on geekdom, of course–the title pretty much tells you what you’re getting into. These are people who LOVE their show and they’re not afraid… Read more »

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Mar 06

Bite-Sized Reviews of Song for a Whale, A Friendly Town That’s Almost Always by the Ocean, The Color of Lies, and The Lunar Chronicles

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 18

I’ve got four reviews for you today: two Middle Grades, a YA, and a YA series . I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This is one of those books that takes you into the heart and mind of a character whose experiences you might not be able to completely relate to—and you come out all the richer for it in the end. The story focuses on Iris, a Deaf girl who struggles to communicate with many of the people around her and to find her place in a world that doesn’t seem to know how to define her. When she learns of a whale with a similar issue, Blue 55, who can’t communicate with other whales, she makes it her mission in life to let him know there’s someone out there who understands him. I connected to Iris right away, even when I… Read more »

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Feb 15

Bite-Sized Reviews of A Curse So Dark and Lonely, The Simple Art of Flying, and The Language Inside

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 32

I’ve got three reviews for you today: a YA fantasy retelling, a MG contemporary(ish), and a YA novel in verse. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book! So much perfection! Lately I’ve honestly been slogging through a lot of my reading. I’ve been tired and unmotivated and most of the books I’ve read have felt really long. I don’t think it’s been the books’ fault—it’s just the state of mind I’m in. And then I picked up this book. And I flew through it. Every time I put the book down, I was just waiting for the moment I could pick it back up. It was pure magic. It’s hard to imagine a fresh take on the Beauty and the Beast story, but this one has so many nuances: First off, there’s the heroine with cerebral palsy whose condition doesn’t define her in any way–it’s just a fact about… Read more »

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