Ep 18 | Reading Wrap Up: I Read 4 YA Mystery Books

For today's episode, we're back with another reading wrap up, this time looking at some YA Mystery reads. 

Books covered in this episode:
1) Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
2) Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow 
3) Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
4) Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:06 Monday's Not Coming
• 2:43 Cherish Farrah
• 5:31 Where Sleeping Girls Lie
• 8:20 Delicious Monsters
• 11:25 Final Thoughts

Transcript

0:00

[Intro Music] Hey y'all. Welcome back to another episode of Flip the Page. I'm your host, Zo. And today we're back with another reading wrap up. I really enjoyed doing the last one, even though I hated the books. These episodes also don't take as much work. So I'm going to give it another whirl. The books on the menu today are all YA mystery slash horror books and you already know me and YA got a love-hate relationship. I'm not going to get- I'm not even going to get deep into that love-hate relationship. I ain’t got time for that. But that's enough rambling for me. Let's get straight into our first book. Again, I'm going to try to keep these little reviews as spoiler free as possible. Numero uno. Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson. This one is a story about a black teen, Monday, who goes missing, and her best friend Claudia's mission to uncover the truth behind Monday's disappearance. Unfortunately, this is the first Tiffany D. Jackson book I've ever read. And yes, unfortunately, I say unfortunately because I didn't enjoy it. It was a letdown. Who’s shocked? Who’s shocked? Damn. My issues weren't even with the premise of the book. It was the premise that drew me to pick it up as my first Tiffany D. Jackson book. My issue was more so with the execution. The plot just seemed to drag. It dragged on and on to a conclusion that was so painfully predictable, and I didn't find there to be any deep, meaningful message that could excuse the predictability of the mystery. This book honestly had no business being 400 plus pages long. I think trimming it down would have made the book more enjoyable. At least for me. Outside of the execution of the plot and obviousness of the mystery, the novel also suffers from unrealistic errors, inconsistencies, and poor character development. I gave this one two out of five stars, which in hindsight actually feels generous for me. I might have to reevaluate it. We'll see if I pick up a Tiffany D. Jackson book again in the future. Our second book, Cherish Farrah by Bethany Chamorro. Cherish Farrah tells the story of Farrah, one of two black girls in her country club community. Farrah is best friends with the other black girl, Cherish Whitman, who is adopted with wealthy white parents and who has been brought up privileged and coddled, giving Cherish a naivete about societal structures, which Farrah, who is extremely calculating, exploits. When Farrah’s family is faced with foreclosure of their home and she risks losing the life she has, Fara manipulates her way into staying with cherishes family. As she stays with the Whitmans, however, strange events occur, suggesting the Whitmans are not the perfect, kind family Farrah perceived them to be. This book was a sleeper. See why I can't trust the girlies on Goodreads, thhat’s why I don't be up on the app no more. Because we just never see each other. I actually enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would initially after reading the synopsis. I prefer mystery / horror / thriller stories that focus on social commentary. Because what is scarier than a microscope being hovered over the impacts of oppressive societal structures? I found this book did this well, along with blending suspense and horror elements into the plot, such as body horror, that kept me engaged and had me a bit squeamish while reading, which I was shocked by. Farrah is the main character of the story, whose mind I really enjoyed getting introspection to, mainly because she was so morally complex and functioned as a type of protagonist you don't often encounter with black girls. How manipulative and calculated everything she did was. Her ego and overconfidence in her abilities and belief she had cracked the cheat code to life, power and racial dynamics, when her thoughts and actions only revealed her own naivete when it comes to all these things... it was just very enjoyable to read. There were certain qualms I had with some narrative decisions when it came to Farrah's relationship with her mother. That whole dynamic was... interesting, yet questionable on a few levels. I'm also shaky on the ending, as I'm still unsure if the direction taken fully makes sense or feels right with the overall narrative. It kind of felt a little Disney-esque. Like a cop out when I felt opting for a different conclusion when factoring in race and class had the potential to really shake the table. I don't know. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it. 3.5 out of five stars for me. 3.5 leaning towards four, not three. Our next book. Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. Uh ohhhh... uh ohhhhh... This story centers around Sade Hussein, who is starting her third year of high school at a prestigious boarding school after a tragedy occurs in her family. After her first night at the new school, Sade's roommate, Elizabeth, goes missing. All eyes turn toward Sade as the culprit, and she quickly takes it upon herself to figure out what happened to Elizabeth, when a student turns up dead. As Sade investigates more into Elizabeth's disappearance, she uncovers horrible truths about her school and its students. Full disclosure because y'all know I'm nothing if not honest. This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024. When I tell y'all I held off on reading this for the longest time because I was so nervous. Come to find out. This the same author that penned the dumpster fire that was Ace of Spades. I almost took this book off my TBR because anyone who knows me knows I did not like Ace of Spades at all. The only thing that prevented me from tossing this book off my list was the premise hooked me. The cover chewed. And I didn't completely dislike another book by the same author “Four Eids and a Wedding”, I think it's called. With anticipation becoming trepidation, I finally flipped the pages of this book, open. Fortunately, it wasn't that bad. Unfortunately, it fell into the too many goddamn pages long trap. A lot of plot points could have been thrown out, as they were, more times than I like to admit, redundant. Not to mention, the plot didn't even really start jumping until about the halfway mark. Which is wild to say when you got a girl going missing in the opening chapter. Also, some moments in the story just were unrealistic. I just had to smile and wave as I flipped to the next page. Like, sure, Jan. Y'all also know nothing pisses me off more than a subpar, dull build up leading to a predictable reveal. Falls flat and it makes me sick every time. Oh my god, why am I getting a bit nasty? Let me cool off. The revenge plot thrown into the story also read very soap opera to me. Very much telenovela kind of came out of nowhere. Which would have been fine if I was watching an episode of General Hospital, but that's not what I signed up for when I picked up this book. Surprisingly, I gave this book a three out of five. Recollecting the story though, making this episode, I'm actually so tempted to drop that down to 2.5 because I just wasn't having fun. Our last book on the menu is Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury, aptly named because she was delicious. She cam. She gagged. And she gagged left. That's what a bad - does. That's what a bad - does. In this psychological horror mystery, Liselle Sambury intertwines the lives of two young girls with the past and the present. Daisy from the past, and Brittney from a decade in the future. Daisy sees ghost, an ability that adds complications to her life. Her ability to deal with these complications, however, are unable to prepare her for being dumped by her boyfriend. When her mother inherits a mansion in northern Ontario, Daisy jumps at an opportunity to move out of their small apartment in Toronto, especially post-breakup. What she doesn't expect and is completely unprepared for are the secrets held by her mother she's met with when they arrive at the mansion and she encounters spiritual beings unveiling truths about her mother's past. In present day Brittney, who runs a popular haunted web series, decides to focus the new season on what happened to a young black girl in a mansion ten years prior. Her investigations bring her closer to Daisy as their paths intertwine. This was a read. All shade, though I did not give a singular damn about what Brittney had going on. You couldn't pay me to. The real tea was Daisy's story, which was very unfortunate because I often times found myself trudging through Brittney's story, just wanting to get through it to see what was happening next to Daisy. I totally get how Brittney story connected with Daisy is thematically and structurally, blah blah blah. Both had relationships with their mothers, which paralleled often and Brittney's investigations offered hints, introspection, and answers to the situation Daisy was faced with in the past. However, I don't think much would have been lost if Brittney's perspective had been struck entirely from the narrative, and it was just set in the past. Now that I got the small negatives I had out the way, let me move on to the praises. The buildup in the story, the prose, the small crumbs scattered into the story that you saw pay off in little or big moments and reveals. The author chewed. This was definitely one of those stories where one of the main mysteries was obvious, though I'd argue this was done intentionally by the author. The handling of the subject matter was also done with great care. The multiple twists in the story were well executed and contributed to the overall narrative of the story. I love the moral complexities portrayed in the range of characters we met. This was just such a great read, which is a big deal coming out of my mouth, considering I don't tend to have an interest in stories with paranormal elements. Tens across the board. I say tens across the board, but I still gave her a four out of five star. I'm deeply unserious. But nah, I’mma stand in it, because I did feel like Brittney's insertion into the story was kind of boring. No shade to that girl. YA mystery might actually be the cheat code to get me to read more YA. Not that I have to, but... That's it for this episode. Don't forget to like the episode. Subscribe and drop a comment. Until next we meet. Buh byeeee.