Candy Bunny Reader

These are all the books I gave either 3 stars or less and all the DNFs. The only 3 star book:  Juliet Takes a Breath graphic novel by Gabby Rivera and Celia Moscote All the DNFs:  Deep as the Sky Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig Days at the Torunka Cafe by Satoshi Yagisawa Shokugeki no Sanji by Yuro Tsukuda Beach Read by Emily Henry Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour  Always a Catch Volume 5 by Mayo Momoyo Fall in Love You False Angels Volume 4 by Coco Uzuki The Island Book 1 by Gordon Korman A Condition Called Love Volume 1 by Megumi Morino A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan Brigands and Breadknifes by Travis Baldree Sorceline Volume 1 by Sylvia Douye Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay by Dale Walls Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Ju The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier All Systems Red by Martha Wells Sheeta's Little Big World Volume 3 by Yuk...

This is the prequel to Elatsoe , which I read and reviewed last year. You can read that review here . Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger is about the maternal grandmother of Ellie from the first book, named Shane (well, her name is Sheine Lende meaning sunflower in the Lipan language, but everyone usually just calls her Shane). Set in the 1970s mostly in Texas, Shane and her mother Lorenza have a search-and-rescue business along with their three dogs (well, two live dogs and a ghost dog) Neal, Nealy, and Nellie. They usually search for people in their community that go missing.  But one day as they are trying to investigate the disappearance of Bobby, the younger brother of their neighbor named Donnie, Lorenza mysteriously goes missing, too! Shane, her brother Marcos, and their Grandpa Louis team up with Donnie and her grandparents to find both people. They end up going on a road trip involving all sorts of things from eccentric scientists, otherworldly creatures, and invasive m...

  At least one of these are actually quite well known.  You can look at the previous parts under the Navigation page, as usual! 1. Morisaki Bookshop duology by Satoshi Yagisawa --Takako just broke up with her boyfriend and left her job...and finds herself living with and working at her eccentric uncle's used book store. Slowly Takako starts enjoying life again with all the new people she meets--and finds out something shocking about her long-lost aunt.   2. Mysteries of Trash and Treasure Trilogy by Margaret Peterson Haddix --of course I have to share something by Ms. Haddix! Each book follows Colin and his new best friend Neveah figuring out life-changing mysteries through the junk each of their parents collect.  3.  I Want to be a Wall manga series by Honami Shirono-- A 3 volume manga series about an asexual lady and a closeted gay man navigating their new life as a married couple not in love with each other. They also learn more about what it means to be...

The last book I read for Middle Grade March! The first book of the Witchlings series by Claribel Ortega follows Seven: a girl who gets placed in the "Spare" coven of her town. Being a Spare witch is practically considered a curse since they don't have full powers and are looked down upon by everyone. But Seven tries to break out of this situation to become a full-fledged witch by requesting to do an impossible task: hunting down the Nightbeast! It's been so long since someone invoked an impossible task, and anyone who fails to complete it gets turned into a toad. Seven, her new friend Thorn, and her bully-turned-friend Valley waste no time researching the Nightbeast and finding how to capture it. But at the same time, the Nightbeast and its minions called cucos have been attacking citizens in their town and nearby towns. The attacks always seem to happen whenever the towns (or at least Seven's town) try to vote on giving more rights to Spares. Someone Seven tho...

The second book I read for Middle Grade March ! Nightbooks by J.A. White is a middle grade horror novel. The main character, Alex, is a kid who loves all things horror, but has been having a hard time at school because of it. He decides one night to burn all of his "nightbooks" (notebooks that has scary stories he has written) in the boiler room of his apartment complex. But the night he tries to set out to do it, he instead gets lured into a mysterious and magical apartment unit instead. It is owned by a witch named Natacha.  Natacha imprisons Alex and makes him read a scary story to her every night. At the same time, Alex forms a bond (althought they did butt heads at first) with another girl imprisoned in the apartment: a baseball-loving girl named Yasmin. Yasmin's job is to tend to the plants that Natacha makes her essential oils with. Together, Alex and Yasmin figure out a way to escape, and they find out so many more shocking truths about the apartment and Natacha ...

  This book was a part of my Middle Grade March challenge, and it fits the prompt of a book featuring siblings. Well, if you've been on my page long enough, you know how much I love the majority of Margaret Peterson Haddix 's books! This was another great one.  Under Their Skin is about twin fraternal siblings Nick and Eryn, whose mother gets remarried to a guy named Michael. They all move into a new big house to live in. For some reason, Nick and Eryn are not allowed to meet their new stepsiblings. Whenever the twins are out meeting their dad, their stepsiblings Ava and Jackson come to their new house.  Of course, Nick and Eryn get all curious as to why they are forbidden to meet them, so during a snow day when they can't go to school and their mom and stepdad are out of the house, they devise a sneaky plan to go meet them. When they do, they get the shock of their lives of what secrets they're hiding.  I can't get too into details because it will go into spoiler ...

  A must read for Monster High fans (and new ones too)! The first volume of Monster High: New Scaremester is by several different authors. It is told in the style of American comic books. The first chapter is very chill and is about Clawdeen and Toralei's relationship (yes, they are a sapphic couple here!). The second chapter is about a gay couple, Valentine and Spelldon. It's also pretty chill. But with the last few chapters the story takes a darker turn. Many characters, including the Headmistress Bloodgood, mysteriously disappear. Many think it was the fault of normies (humans), and new rules are put in place restricting everyone's activities.  The friendship between our main six ghouls gets strained, and Frankie notices her/their father (he becomes the temporary headmaster) acting stranger than usual.  Well, I'll have to find out in the next volume what happens!  I gave this first comic book 5 stars . I love how this comic incorporated so many characters and lor...

 TW: Bullying, predatory relationships, terminal illnesses are all mentioned here.  This book had been on my TBR forever, and I am happy to report that this book was a great one! Lonely Castle in the Mirror by   Mizuki Tsujimura follows Kokoro, a 7th grader who's been avoiding going to school after getting bullied. One day she discovers the mirror in her room is glowing! She then finds herself on the opposite side of the mirror in a castle run by the mysterious Wolf Queen. Several other kids her age are there, too, and they've all been skipping school for similar reasons. They are tasked with finding the Wishing Key, which will grant them a single wish, and they must complete the task by March 30th before the castle vanishes. However, if any of them choose to make a wish, all their memories of each other and being in the castle will be erased.  Kokoro ends up forming close bonds with each of the other kids there while dealing with her own problems back home (mostly w...

  A mysterious and magical story set at a grand hotel! Winterhouse is the first book in the Winterhouse trilogy by Ben Guterson .  It follows Elizabeth, a bookworm who got a reservation at the famous hotel over winter break while her emotionally cold and distant aunt and uncle go on vacation. When she gets there the hotel has so much to offer--great food, great concerts, and a grand library! Elizabeth even befriends a boy her own age, named Freddy. But while they are enjoying themselves, there seems to be something mysterious about the hotel and it's owner, named Norbridge Falls. The things involved include a strange book, secret codes, magic, and two mysterious guests named Marcus and Selene Heims, who seem to have something against Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Freddy try to figure out what it all is!  This book got me hooked from page 1. I just love cozy mysteries like these that have a hint of seriousness in them. It's quite similar to Greenglass House by Kate Milfo...

These are my thoughts so far on Shadows House by Somato , since I read the first three volumes one right after the other (as of writing this the series is still going on and has about 20 volumes out). This story is set in a world where there are nobles known as "shadow people" and live isolated from society. Shadow nobles have living dolls that act as their faces. In volume 1 we follow one of the living dolls, Emilico, and her shadow noble, Kate. Living dolls serve shadow nobles, basically acting as their personal maids and butlers when they are not out and about. They often times have to clean up the soot their shadow noble emits.  Starting with volume 2 Emilico gets to meet and bond with other living dolls and learn about their shadow noble masters. There is so much she's never learned before, especially regarding the hierarchy shadow nobles and dolls have within the Shadow's House.  In volume 3 several shadow nobles and dolls are attempting to make their debut to s...

TW: Family member dying mentioned. The book itself has a lot more trigger warnings not discussed here. You can read the full list on this website here: https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Elatsoe_by_Darcie_Little_Badger    This was on my TBR forever, and I am glad to report that this book did not disappoint. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger is set in a world like ours--but have been shaped by magic and legends of different groups of people. The story is about a Lipan Apache girl named Elatsoe (or Ellie as she is usually called), her ghost dog Kirby, and her best friend Jay. They get thrown into solving a murder mystery case of Ellie's cousin, Trevor. When Ellie and her parents visit her cousin in law Lenore (Trevor's widow) and baby second cousin Gregory to keep them company, they find out the town they live in is rather...odd. It seems to center heavily around an eccentric doctor named Abe Allerton, who might have had something to do with Trevor dying. The task is dangerous...

Trigger Warnings: child dying, family members dying, toxic relationships, body horror The Deep Dark by Lee Ostertag  is a YA graphic novel set in southern California. It is a mixture of different genres: urban fantasy, mystery, and horror. The story follows Magdelena (or "Mags" for short) as she struggles dealing with her mental health after an incident that ended with a childhood friend dying. Mags felt that it was all her fault. She also is trying to rekindle her friendship with her other childhood friend, Nessa. Nessa also seems to be harboring some struggles of her own. The characters' struggles seem to mostly come from an unusual creature that lives in Mags's basement... I gave this book 4 stars . It was a great book, but surprisingly darker than the previous books of the author's that I have read before. All of the trigger warnings are listed above. I think the mental health rep, Latine rep, and queer rep were done really well!

I am briefly coming out of my semi hiatus to post all this week and part of next week. Anyway! You know I had to read this book after reading and liking The Starless Sea by the same author. You can read the review for that book here . The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is a historical fantasy book about a mysterious traveling circus that only appears to visitors at nighttime. The book follows several characters that are responsible for running the circus (to name a few): Celia, Marco, Chandresh, Tsukiko, siblings Poppet and Widget, and many others. There are also some chapters following a devoted circus visitor named Bailey.  It's a very whimsical book, but the circus does have a rather sinister secret behind it, and it mostly involves Celia and Marco. I love the way this author writes, it is so atmospheric! I like how everyone's stories come together at the end, and all of the twists, too.  I gave this book 5 stars . It's a new favorite! 

  The second literary fiction book I've read that was originally published in Japanese! The first one I read was Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa back in 2023. You can read that review here . We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida is one of those books where each chapter is its own story. They all follow the same formula: a person has a problem. They find themselves going to this mysterious psychiatric clinic where they get to keep a cat for about a week to help them with their problem. The problem is resolved, in an unusual way. The person found themselves very attached to their cat and end up keeping the cat.  It's a very heartwarming book, and it has great conversations about mental health! The book also has an overarching mystery with the clinic itself because it's so unusual. The last two chapters do answer some questions about the mysterious cat clinic, but a lot of it is still pretty open-ended and up for your interpretation. I won't get into it here b...

Wow! My first dark academia book, recommended by the wonderful @greenghostreviews over on Instagram.  The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern , to put it simply, is about Zachary, a college student who finds a mysterious book called Sweet Sorrows in his university's library. The book was donated by the equally mysterious Keating Foundation. Within the book are symbols of a bee, a key and a sword. Zachary wonders what it could all mean, especially since the story seems to be about him! He finds huge lead at a party that is literary-themed. From there he finds himself in the middle of a magical underground world of all the stories that exist in the world, as well as the people behind it that are trying to preserve it all.  This book was so atmospheric and whimsical! Intertwined with Zachary's story are other stories in and around the actual Starless Sea and its Harbours. Everything comes together neatly at the end. It kind of reminded me of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Gr...

  Every year I read and recommend so many books with queer representation in them! Here are some more books that I love and I hope you love, too: 1. Unfamiliar duology by Haley Newsome 2. Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything by Justine Winans 3. The Witch Boy Trilogy by Molly Ostertag 4. Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour 5. The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz 6. Monk and Robot duology by Becky Chambers  7. Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar 8. The Moth Keeper by Kay O'Neill 9. The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught 10. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callendar 11. Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar 12. Aquicorn Cove by Kay O'Neill 13. The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett 14. Witch Hat Atelier series by Kamome Shirahama 15.  Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh by Rachael Lippincott 16. I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver 17. Princess Princess Ever After by Kay O'Neill 18. Stars in their Eyes by Jessica Walton 19. Speak U...

  I need to read more middle grade horror books after this!  The Clackity by Lora Senf is about 12 year old Evie, who lives with her aunt Desdemona is a reportedly haunted town called Blight Harbor. One day, her aunt goes missing after investigating a strange phenomenon in an old abandoned slaughterhouse. Evie tries to get her aunt back, but she does so by making a deal with a creepy creature called the Clackity. The Clackity wants Evie to bring back the ghost of a notorious criminal named John Jeffery Pope. So Evie goes on this quest through 7 mysterious, magical houses to find her aunt--and the malicious John Jeffery Pope.  Whoa, this book had me on the edge of my seat! I like that was scary but not too scary. It was more mysterious and even a little whimsical at times. I can't wait to read the next book in this series! I gave this first book 5 stars .

  OMG! I think I found my true favorite Sharon Creech book of all time! Bloomability is now at the number two spot. The Wanderer is about thirteen year old Sophie, who goes on a sailing trip with her two cousins and three uncles across the Atlantic Ocean to meet her grandfather, Bompie, in England. They make a lot of pit stops along the way to get their boat fixed and to pick up more supplies. Sophie and her cousins also learn a lot along the way: about sailing, stories about each other, their uncles, and Bompie, and other random things like juggling. But the trip is not a smooth one! Sailing out onto the ocean blue isn't as whimsical as Sophie thought it would be, and they run into a lot of problems. Luckily, she has her family and they always support one another.  The story is actually told in alternating points of view of Sophie and one of her cousins named Cody. We learn that Sophie is actually hiding a mysterious past that she doesn't really want to talk about, and Cod...

  Oh, this one was just lovely! A French Girl in New York by Anna Adams is about Maude, a 16 year old who lives in Carvin, a small town in the north of France with her foster family, who act coldly towards her and refuse to talk to her about her birth parents. Maude also loves to sing and play piano, but unlike most people her age, she prefers opera and classical music. One day during a school field trip in Paris, she comes across an American social media influencer named Chad, and he invites her to perform inside. Maude sings a cover of a popular pop song, and to her surprise, Chad records the whole thing, and it ends up going viral. The next thing Maude knows, a record label president named Terence and his adult daughter Cynthia show up at her house and want to turn her into a pop star! Maude then finds herself in New York City learning the ins and outs of the music business. She also starts falling in love with two guys at once. One named Matt who is her music partner, and anot...

 TW: Mention of a parent dying This is Morgan Matson's middle grade debut, and I had a blast with it!   Firefly Summer is about Ryanna, who lives with her father, who is a famous movie director, and stepmother. One day they get a letter in the mail from Ryanna's maternal grandparents, the Van Camps, whom she's never met. They want her to come to their vacation house to meet the rest of her late mom's side of the family. The vacation house happens to be situated it what was formerly a summer camp site, that was also owned by the Van Camps. Ryanna's father is a little relunctant to send her at first since he had a falling out with his in-laws after his wife's death, but when he sees a note in the letter that it might be the last summer the Van Camps might be able to get together as a family, he agrees to send Ryanna. It coincidentally happens to be around the same time he has to go to Hungary to film a new movie, too.  When Ryanna gets there, things get off to a...