Forsythia Phlox

This book is fun and I can honestly say I love it despite its minor flaws. As a child, I would have taken this whole series from the school library and eagerly awaited each installment - if only it existed back then. I enjoyed reading it, and even managed to giggle at some of the jokes despite being am adult myself.

Stick Dog is a fun story about canine friends who seek out delicious hamburgers when they find a family grilling at the park. They have hilarious and adorable antics along the way, narrated by the child who drew them. (This gets a little confusing for us adults in the mix, because the child's name is also the author's name instead of a fictional character's. I assume it's done to avoid confusing children who read this book, but I worry perhaps it's an unnecessary blurring of the lines between reality and fiction.) Each dog has a unique appearance and personality, and they interact in a way which feels natural.

In terms of content, I can't say it's clear what the target audience is. There are words and scenarios which require an older audience capable of reasoning and vocabulary building (e.g.: distraction, contraction, rhinoceroses, and other large words). Parents of impressionable or particularly young kids may want to provide some guidance due to cartoon logic and some instances of dangerous behaviour not being fully addressed as very bad ideas. For the sake of helping parents make an informed choice, I'm listing things which stuck out to me as inappropriate for a very young reader unless they have proper guidance:

* In one instance, a dog suggests intentionally getting hurt - by jumping off a cliff into rocky water - for attention, so that humans will pity them and give them food. Her friends decide to shelve that idea as 'Plan B.' For mature readers, it's obvious they're placating her and think it's a terrible idea; for less reasonable readers, like young children, it may not be as clear.* In another instance, one dog says he can run face first into a tree and only get a little injured. The other dogs consider that a good idea, as it might help distract humans while they steal hamburgers. It's later likened to being as harmless as when a baby stumbles while learning to walk.* There are moments of animal prejudice - dogs against squirrels and mailmen - which may be inappropriate in some parent's eyes. I personally thought it was all in good fun, but just be aware it exists. One dog tolerates another's hatred of squirrels, despite feeling it's wrong, just to placate him. Another instance has a dog saying he had a human who was very nice to him, but he barked at his human anyway because there was no choice since that human was a mailman. It's the kind of logic racists use and doesn't get addressed, so it may be important to discuss with a young reader why this is not a good way to think.* I don't know how to explain this one bit without just transcribing it. The narrator is talking about how it feels to burn the roof of your mouth and says: "you burn the roof of your mouth so badly that it makes a little flap of loose skin hang down, and you spend the rest of the day trying to tear that thing off with your tongue???only it takes forever, and it SLOWLY DRIVES YOU CRAZY until you???d do just about anything, INCLUDING STICKING A VACCUUM CLEANER???S SUCKING TUBE THINGY IN YOUR MOUTH, just to get it out!" Emphasis is not mine; it's all caps in the book. There is also an illustration at this point of a child shoving a vacuum hose into his mouth. Needless to say, you'll want to make sure your child is mature enough to know this is by no means okay to do in real life!

As for those minor flaws I mentioned earlier: Well, much like many cartoons and children's books, there are illogical moments. Why does Poo-Poo the Poodle know what slingshots and cannons are? (Don't worry, it's all used in comical daredevil humour, not as tools for direct violence.) Why do suburban dogs know what a warrior human is or that said warriors have swords? (One dog mistakes a woman with cooking utensils as a warrior with a mighty sword.) How does a dog know the phrase “at a hundred miles an hour”? How does a dog know how to spell ‘distraction'? These things are inherent flaws, but given the book is for children and these elements make it more entertaining and fun, I can't fault it much. I mean, sponges also can't talk and dogs can't solve mysteries but Spongebob and Scooby-Doo are beloved children's media characters. Besides, this isn't just a book about dogs; it's a book about a kid telling stories he made up about dogs. There's a lot of leeway to be had there, since kids don't generally notice problems like that when telling stories.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely, yes. Would I let my own kids read it if I had any? Yep! If they were eight or younger, I'd want to discuss the book with them during or after they read it, but otherwise I wouldn't mind.

Avid and reluctant readers alike would probably enjoy the adventures of Stick Dog and his motley crew, but some may need the help of a trusted older person to understand certain aspects or words. I also think having a dialogue with children about reality vs. fiction is vital, and anyone whose child understands the concept likely won't acquire any dangerous ideas from the antics in this book. As for older kids, I can't say for certain. At times, this book feels more middle grade, but the contents and storytelling style seem like they might embarrass middleschoolers. I'd have loved it myself, but I never lost my love for cute animal-based stories.

Overall, I love Stick Dog and I'm so happy that I decided I need a simple, cute book to cleanse my palate after reading an infuriatingly bad one. Thank uhoh, Tom Watson, for the happiness Stick Dog and his friends gave me. I hope they do the same for children, especially those who need a reason to enjoy reading.

So, I've been on a binge of spooky/mysterious things on YouTube lately, and one video I landed on promoted this book. (I think it may have been by Scare Theater, but don't quote me on that.) Given I was enjoying the material provided on the channel and the narrator seemed to have enjoyed this book, I decided I'd give it a shot. With so few pages in it and my Kindle Unlimited trial still good to go, there was nothing to lose. Except maybe sleep, I suppose, but we all know sleep is a foregone option for people who fall down the YouTube horror rabbit hole anyway.

Though a few of the stories fell very flat for me, these are all bite-sized horror so the ‘meh' ones are more like biting into a gross Halloween candy: it's gone quickly and doesn't ruin the taste of the good ones. And boy were there ever some good ones in this assortment! The anthology starts out very strong, then becomes a bit of a roller coaster, but it's a fun ride overall.

I can't say much about the plots of the tales, given how brief most of them are, but I will share my impressions and individual ratings for each in the hopes of spiking curiosity for potential readers and providing a bit of feedback for the author. And, of course, for the sake of getting my thoughts out - the main reason I write reviews in the first place.

My Dark Box - ???????????????

This one is very short (less than two pages on my device), but effective in creating a bit of a chill down my spine. It seems like the story's going one way, then it seems like it's going another, and finally it arrives at a conclusion which doesn't feel quite so spooky - but only because I absolutely love the type of character involved and don't find them scary. I'd say more, but that'd completely ruin this one, and spoilers for a two-page story feel unfair to both author and potential readers.

Overall, I think managing twists and effective creep factor in so few words is an admirable feat and this would make a decent ‘campfire story.' I'm also very happy about the subtle yet effective representation, since within the first few sentences we learn that the narrating character is a (presumably young) woman who's eagerly awaiting a visit from another woman she can't get out of her head.

Human Mercy - ???????????????

The ending is a bit overly rushed compared to the beginning, but I loved how this one preys upon modern human fears. This one didn't so much scare me, but it did make me think in the way a psychological horror might. I enjoyed it a lot. I don't have an Alexa or anything of the sort, but for those of you who do... Perhaps after you've read this, you'll want to reconsider how much control you give Alexa. Maybe, someday, she'll really be able to think... and have a few opinions on the state of your existence, like the main character in this tale.

Burlap Agave - ???????????????

Yes, the imagery is a bit on the comical side at moments, but I still loved everything about this one. It's a little bit spooky, a little bit unnerving, and very entertaining. Once again, a very small amount of words manages to tell a somewhat complex and intriguing story with an unforeseen ending.

Six Minutes - ???????????????

You know that show Black Mirror? Yeah, I want an episode based on this! I love how there's this undercurrent of intrigue from the start and the ending really drives the point home. The only reason for 4.5 instead of 5 on this one is a punctuation flub: the use of double quotations instead of single quotes inside of dialogue. It tripped me up once because the dialogue had continued through a new page and suddenly I saw an opening quotation and thought I'd been misreading. I hadn't; it really was still a character speaking.

The Sands - ???????????????

This is the first “long” story in the mix, but it's also the first I didn't particularly like. It relies heavily on gross body horror and never gives much explanation for what's happening. When the story was over, I had far more questions than answers and just felt overall annoyed. I almost gave this one one star, but it was objectively well written in the quality of body horror, so I'm being generous.

Live Action - ???????????????

The formatting on this story irks me so much. It contains excerpts from a character's screenplay, but there is nothing to truly set that apart from normal prose. A different font, italics, or even indentation would have been much nicer. As for content... well, there are a couple of really interesting elements but as a whole I felt let down. It feels a bit like someone threw a few episodes of Black Mirror into a blender, but forgot to add sweetener to the resulting smoothie: I can see all the potential, but don't enjoy consuming it as-is.

Shuggah - ???????????????

This one is weirdly fun, albeit in a twisted manner. I wish there were more lore for the creature involved, but what's provided is plenty enough to paint a vivid mental picture.

Madeline Gray - ???????????????

I didn't like some of the wording used in sentences here because it often felt overly convoluted, as if the author were trying too hard to sound fanciful. The story itself is alright, but ends before what I feel would have been the best part. I like the concept, but I'm not all that fond of the execution.

Rex - ???????????????

Dead dogs and decomposition-based body horror are both extremely not my jam, so I honestly expected to hate this story. Weirdly enough, though, it had an odd sense of happiness to it, as the characters - dog included - all seemed quite complacent with their lot in life. The ending is... happy? I don't really think that's a good word for the circumstances, but the ending is oddly cute. There was an odd typo of “the it sounded more like,” which made me stumble for a second in the flow of reading, but otherwise this is a well-written and peculiarly compelling story. Skip this one if dying pets and animal body horror bother you a lot, but otherwise it's a quirky, spooky read. I was able to put aside my own issues with those things to actually enjoy the story of Rex and his human.

Salon Du Jour - ???????????????

I saw the twist in this one coming by the second paragraph, if not sooner. Similarly to Live Action, I find myself disappointed by the great potential in this tale compared to the generic and lackluster execution. Perhaps I'm expecting too much of a short story, but I really wish that even a small hint had been given as to why the main character behaved and thought as she did. Without nuanced motives, it just feels empty.

Make the First Swing Count - ???????????????

This one is rife with typos and makes no sense to me. I can tell what's happening but not why and the whole thing is just annoyingly confusing.

Sister Seafood - ???????????????

I'd say this one is just plain okay. Not bad, not great, just middle of the road. The action element felt very detached and unemotional, though the situation should have called for some form of emotional impact. Every character involved came across as a sociopath, and I don't think that was the intention.

Pepsis Formosa - ???????????????

This is everything I want from short, spooky stories. I definitely didn't realize where this one was heading, and the ending left me smirking. Loved it! I wish I could say more, but to do so would be to spoil this two-page story, and I absolutely refuse to do that.

Grandfather Mountain - ???????????????

He said. She said. He said. She said. Please, give me more dialogue tag variety than just a pronoun and the word said! It's a two-pager and successfully pulls off an edge of creepiness, but sadly this is a case of ‘cool concept, not fond of the execution.' It feels like a very weak way to end this anthology.

Overall Average Rating: ???????????????
My Overall Rating: ???????????????

Considering this book is free on Kindle Unlimited and available for $3 USD, I think it's priced fairly for the content and well worth reading. The stories I loved far outweigh the ones I felt indifferent toward and the small few I actively disliked. Plus, I think there may be a little bit of something for every type of horror fan in this anthology. As such, despite the technical average of all the ratings being three stars, I chose to give an extra for the enjoyment I gathered from my favourites.

Can't Possibly Be Show Canon

Uhm. This is... sure a choice that was made, alright. How do I even begin to unpack this one? Let's try a list of every absurdity which makes zero sense to canon.

STORY ONE: Wild Things

1. Josie is a total speed demon who drives a very nice car recklessly with her friends inside.??

2. Josie makes Veronica partake in vandalizing a Southside band's garage with Pussycats slogans as a rite of passage (and none of them get murdered by Serpents, either, despite what we know happened to Archie in canon for vandalizing less personal property).

3. The Pussycats get matching tattoos. Veronica's is right there on her left shoulder where it would be clearly visible in the show and, more importantly, to her parents in the comic.

4. Josie and Reggie drag race on a random town road.

5. Veronica and the Pussycats go to the Wyte Wyrm. During season one era. And chow down on food and hang out in a den of Serpents totally unfazed.

6. When the rival Southside band shows up in the Wyrm to get revenge on the Pussycats who they magically know are there, they have a Ghoulie-worthy punk aesthetic and are just as far out of place in the canon Whyte Wyrm as the Northside Pussycats.??

7. Josie invites a rumble with the local Southside band - named Venom, which implies Serpent ties - in the middle of the Wyrm and not only do no bystanders intervene but these four, tiny girls somehow win the fight against two guys and two girls all bigger than them. Riiiiight.

STORY TWO: The Case of the Sorrel Roan

1. Betty actively tries to stop Jughead from writing about Jason and also insults his writing style.

2. Cheryl refers to Betty and Jug as “#Bughead” - exactly how I wrote it there, hashtag and all - as if she should know they're together at that point and accept them. But back then, she literally actively hated both of them. Hell, the previous issue of this comic had Cheryl outright emotionally torture Betty and vow to destroy her when she overcame the bullying.

3. Cheryl goes to Betty and Jug... for help discovering whether her dad is having an affair.

4. Betty is so opposed to the chance to do sleuth work that she is grumpy at Jug for accepting the case. Betty Cooper. Opposed to sleuthing.??

5. Jug is portrayed as someone who doesn't know how to stfu and be stealthy while sleuthing.

6. Betty decides to keep the truth from Cheryl once they discover what Cliff is really doing.

7. Once more, Betty insults Jug's writing style.??

8. Jug says he only drinks juice from a squeeze pouch, but he's been seen drinking orange juice in the show.

So, yeah, that's an awful lot to unpack. And since this issue once again purported that the series takes place between episodes of the show I'm rating it accordingly. None of these things could have possibly happened in character, much less between episodes of season one Riverdale. Considering how absurd the Pussycats story is as a whole and how utterly meh it was seeing Betty rag on Jug while he was portrayed as something of a lowkey idiot, I can't give this more than one star. Maybe one and a half, but that isn't an option, so... one it shall be.

Clearly, this comic series isn't for me. I think this one will be my last, since it's the last one I rented from Kindle Unlimited. I'm glad I didn't spend money on it.

I'm so conflicted by this book. I found it in the YA section, but it's far closer to a children's book because it's so simplistic in both art style and writing. Most second graders would be able to understand the book with minimal help from an adult (or older sibling). Teens... I honestly can't imagine they'd be able to read this without feeling embarrassment because of how simply it's written.

In fact, I found it so odd that this is from the perspective of someone who was sixteen when her little brother was born yet the rhyme scheme is very juvenile and weak. At times, the rhyming drops entirely or would require a heavy accent to work. Other times, it's the kind of thing a child would write. The art also looks like something a child may draw: simple, no defined hands or features, colouring outside the lines. Also, there's a random goat which appears in a few drawings, but it has purpose at the end.

That said, this book tells a meaningful story about an older sister bonding with her little brother who's sixteen years younger. She begins to suffer depression (which is portrayed in one heartbreaking drawing as the goat having broken horns) and tries to explain it to her brother as she fights to maintain her facade of normalcy. But... I think she maybe kills herself? It's confusing. Things go from adorable to extremely dark very abruptly and the book ends on a very confusing note.

The sister says that she's tired of being a scapegoat and wants to find a home of her own off somewhere that she can be anything she wants. Except the things listed are all animals, which bring to mind certain beliefs about reincarnation. At the very end, her goat is shown with wings, and I can't tell if it means she's flying in an empowering sense or that she's an angel because she killed herself.I also can't tell what she means when she says the little brother learned from "them" to avoid and blame her. It's sudden and rushed and not as well explained as anything else. Maybe it's a sibling thing? Uncertain, since I have no siblings myself. It almost sounds more like he became a bad person...?

So, yeah, it's an interesting book and it attempts to tell an important story, but I think it suffers from the poetry scheme and I'm not sure what audience it's trying to reach or whether the ending is appropriate. (Is this a book to share with the younger sibling of someone who committed suicide? Or just the younger sibling of someone who ran away / moved away?)

Digital ARC provided by NetGalley. Review left voluntarily and contains honest opinions.

This book is... wow, it's an experience. I love books which make me feel things and get me invested in the characters, and Chasing the Blue Sky absolutely delivers in that regard. Everything from happiness to sorrow, anger to hopefulness, melancholy to wonderment: I felt all of them. Because of this, I had to put the book down several times to just get a break, but I never once wanted to outright quit reading because I just had to see Toby's journey through to the end.

Toby is a young pitbull mix, the puppy who was closest to his mother (whose life we see in the first chapters). He goes from a miserable environment with a doting mother and negligent, abusive humans to a loving home which soon enough turns just as negligent when the shine of a new puppy wears off. Ultimately, the parents make horribly cruel life choices which shatter Toby's life and the hearts of both children who were attached to him. Thus, he lands in the care of the local animal shelter where we meet most of the dog characters and the only human characters (except perhaps the boy child) who are actually worth knowing.

I don't want to spoil the fates of any of the dogs, thus I won't say who among the cast of dogs is lost, but I will say that it's vital to go into this book understanding that it features a "kill shelter" and pulls no punches in showing how innocent canine lives - and the lives of shelter workers who try to protect them - are impacted by human negligence, abuse, and shelter overcrowding. Don't go into it expecting a feel-good puppy story. But do go into it if you can handle the emotional journey - and be prepared to feel heartache and fury in almost equal measure.

The epilogue sums up wonderfully why the story in Chasing the Blue Sky is important, so I'll share:

Behind every lonely bark that resonates down the long, cold halls is a story. Behind the clatter of every stainless steel bowl on the barren floor is a vibrant, rich life, longing to be lived. Behind every frightened whimper from the shadowy corner of a concrete alcove is a story of redemption, waiting to be written. This book tells the story of one such life, but across our country, there are countless dogs like Toby, Jack, Marilynn, Oscar, Julius, Dizzy, and the others in these pages.

I can't say I enjoyed the story emotionally, but I can say I'm glad I read it and I liked the glimpse it offered of the plight shelter pets face. At times, I honestly felt disgust over being human just by association with real humans who are as horrible as some of the characters in this book. So... I like it, I just felt a lot of unpleasant emotions - especially as a result of being a highly empathic animal lover with a long history of rescuing strays and adopting furry friends.

For the story alone, I'd easily rate the book five stars. However, I had a few gripes with the way dogs are portrayed within and that knocks it down to four stars in my eyes.

I fully believe dogs are intelligent beings who understand and feel emotions. I also fully believe that their communication with one another is the best equivalent they can manage to the ways we know - albeit with scents, sounds, and body language instead of human language. I also completely understand using human language in a story to portray what dogs are telling one another. However, at times the dogs were excessively humanized to the point it detracted from the story... especially when it seemed to contradict their usual characteristics.

For example: the dogs are acknowledged as, logically, not being able to read signs or understand English. However, sometimes, the dogs do seem to understand and far too much emphasis is put on the nametags of the humans at the shelter to portray their names. (It would have felt more genuine to use the humans introducing themselves or to call them things such as Dreadlocks Man and Kind Smile Woman etc - how a dog might think of them before realizing the sound of their names were in fact names.) There also seems to be a shift midway from calling a dog's human family their people to using the term 'owner's when there's no reason Toby should know what an owner is and should be still thinking of them as just people.

At another point, during a horrifically depressing scene wherein one of the dogs is euthanized, the dog's foreleg is referred to as an arm; it takes away from the scene in an unpleasant way by bringing to mind an anime human-animal hybrid. And sometimes it's not made clear enough that the English used to portray dogs' communication is meant to be a human-readable approximation of what is really said between them in dog noises. For example, Toby is described as 'speaking' each word he says slowly, but there's no logical equivalent in dog noises thus it feels as if he's portrayed actually speaking English.

This story is too poignant and important for the cartoonish mental imagery those mix-ups bring to mind, and for that I feel they weaken an otherwise painfully amazing book. The author is far too skilled at causing empathetic reactions within the majority of the book to have to fall back on overly anthropomorphizing the canine characters.

Those characters will, however, stick in my mind for a long time - especially Oscar and Toby.

(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book through BookSirens. My review is left voluntarily, is not incentivized, and contains my honest opinion.)