Lila Danisa

This YA book was so good! So relatable with nowadays life.

The story is about how social media affected the lives of the children of so called "influencers" and/or "content creators". How these teenagers felt their privacy and mental health were disturbed by their own parents just for likes and brand offers.

I loved how real the characters in this book were. I also loved how diverse they were all. Definitely perfect setting and background for YA books.

The illustrations were also eye pleasing. So cheerful and youthful, YOLO kind of vibes.

The ending was realistic yet still meaningful. Told you this book is so realistic I loved it so much.

Thank you to Jennie Wood, Mad Cave Studios, Maverick, and NetGalley for the ARC.

That was good! I didn't expect I would love the story this much. Actually I expected nothing from the blurb and the cover. I intrigued by this book because from the cover, the illustrations looked a lot like manga. I missed reading manga and that brought me to read this book.

I honestly needed to get used to this book, both from the illustration and storyline. While the storylines were getting so much better along the way, the illustrations were still giving me a hard time. The illustration style was changing every chapter and it annoyed me so much. I was getting into the story and the characters but then the illustration style changed and made me adapt all over again. It was confusing because while each character overall vibes were still the same, I sometimes forgot who's who due to the changing in the style of the illustrations. If not because of the illustrations, this book would easily get 4,5 to 5 stars.

Since this is only the first book, there are many questions regarding the characters and the storylines. The ending was also a cliffhanger. I can't wait for the next book(s).

Thank you to Ben Harel, IDW Publishing, Top Shelf Productions, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Tiana journey continued to New York. She got invited to be one of chefs in famous Harlem restaurant. Her adventures started with the ups, downs, and light drama(s). Easy to read though the storyline was kinda flat for me.

Tiana's hardworking was something to adore. But her character somehow felt distant. Not only Tiana, other characters were also unengaging. I felt like they were just there though they had potentials.

I don't have anything to complain about the illustrations. They were really good and detailed. Personally I think the illustrations helped the story a lot.

Thank you to The Disney Comics Group, Papercutz, and NetGalley for the ARC.

At first it was hard for me to read this graphic novel. The illustration style was nothing like I prefer. It was stiff and giving an old style. The writing style was not different. So distant and dense. I needed time to get used to the illustrations and the writing, but the story dragged me in. The storyline was actually so good. About spionage and stuff. The storyline was giving the tension through the middle to almost the end of the story. However, I was kinda disappointed with the ending. I expected clear and grand final in the story. What I got were confusion and open end type of ending. The ending left me with many questions.

Aside of the (me) problems I got from the ending, this graphic novel forced me to explore new illustration and writing styles. Personally it felt rewarding how I could read and eventually enjoyed this book.

Thank you to Maria Hoey, Peter Hoey, IDW Publishing, Top Shelf Productions, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Fred the Snake and Friends continued their adventures across the US. Now is the west side of the US. They introduced and briefly explained interesting albeit tourist mainstream locations there. They quite covered many places though. They were so fast moving from one place to another. While it was so informative, the fast pace made me (and my son) overwhelming with many informations at once. The illustrations didn't help either. They surely helped to understand the trivial of each place but for me (and my son) the illustrations were all over the place and overwhelming.

I tried to immerse our (me and my son) reading journey by watching videos about each place. My husband had been to almost every place mentioned in this book, so he could verify the information provided by this book.

Thank you to Peter Cotton and NetGalley for the ARC.

Ah my heart! This book is so informative in simplest way to understand more about autism.

All aspects about autism were being explained in simple yet clear explanations. My 5 years old son could easily understand almost every word used.

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"Sometimes people help too much! They forget I can help myself too."

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That part was one of my favorites about this book. About independency. I (and we) often help too much and forget to ask if someone really need our help or not. I (we) sometimes forget that being independence is important stage of life. This book reminds me (us) that we need to give the independency people needed, especially autistic people in this case.

My son and I loved the illustrations so much. They were vibrant with colors without giving an overwhelming vibe. The illustrations helped strengthen the points this book wants to deliver.

Thank you to Rasha Hamid, Free Spirit Publishing, and NetGalley for the ARC.

What a weirdly funny book 🤣

Everyone in this book was so weird and helplessly funny. However, to be honest I think not everyone could find the characters and the story funny. The sense of humor in this book is so segmented. Meaning some, like me, would find the humor amusing. And some might think the humor is (totally) miss.

The story was so light and almost meaningless. Perfect for quick reading to escape a horrible reality.

Personally I liked the illustrations too. Fit the esthetic of the storylines.

Thank you to Jim Benton, Papercutz, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Fabulous book to get to know about fabulous creatures!

First of all, I loved the illustrations! I loved it so much because it was so magically beautiful. So lively and lovely with perfect choice of colors represent each creature.

I also loved the different explanations and descriptions of some familiar creatures like unicorns, dragons, and others. It boarden up my knowledge about those magical creatures. Another thing that I loved about this book was how diverse the creatures were. Some of them were beautiful (and scary) creatures I had never heard before. Again, my knowledge had been widespread by this book.

As Indonesian, I loved that Barong (magical creature from Bali) being mentioned in this book. The explanation about Barong was accurate. Though the illustration of it was too cute, so different on how Barong usually presented here in Indonesia. I completely understand since this book is for little ones, can't scary them with "real-life" Barong.

My only problem with this book was the writing style, including the words used. I felt like the words were too stifling for children's book. I needed to change most of the words and simplify them in order for my son to understand. I mostly only gave my son the point facts about each creature.

Aside from the writing style, we (my son and I) enjoyed this book so much. We immersed our reading experience by looking up in the internet about creatures we weren't familiar with. Very interesting rabbit hole we got ourselves into.

Thank you to Cornelia Funke, Ruby Warnecke (Illustrator), NorthSouth Books, and NetGalley for the ARC.

"Larry, popularity doesn't mean right. Often, the path we take is the smartest path, and hard work doesn't lead to results. Smart decisions do."

My son is familiar with leprechaun from his videos and this book gave a little bit different lesson about making smart decisions through boy leprechaun named Larry.

I said this book different is because other books my son read mostly taught about hard work and never give up. However, in this book, different yet realistic perspective is presented on how sometimes indeed hard work doesn't lead to good ending but smart decisions do. Larry's simple story in this book was so helpful to make my son understand that new realistic perspective. I still needed to elaborate with the subject since my son had quite many follow-up questions. At the end, I think my son understood that we need to both making smart decisions and still do hard work if needed.

The illustrations were good and strengthen the storyline. Since it's about leprechaun, the green is dominant color in the illustrations. Yet we (my son and I) didn't feel overwhelmed with the bright colors.

Thank you to Alan Howard and NetGalley for the ARC.

Light and humorous story about Amelia Shadows, the daughter of famous dark magician. For me, Amelia was so much like the real life teenager who has famous parent and wanted to be as good as said famous parent. She was sarcastically funny too.

Amelia had ghost mentor. One day, her father sent a new head ghost to evaluate her daily life. That's where the story got interesting. Simple and quiet entertaining story. I think this graphic novel is perfect for middle-graders.

The illustrations fit the theme of the story. Quite detailed too.

Thank you to Matthew Dow Smith, Papercutz, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Actual rating: 2,75 stars!

Wow what a chaotic story. So many weird things going on need to be discussed I don't know where to start.

The characters were equally a joke. No one serious in this story. Sarcastically funny and satire at the same time. Think about it more, I believe the story and the characters were like a mocking to the reality. How incompetent each character was really reflects the many people who run the country.

The ending was awful. I didn't know what that ending was supposed to mean and I didn't want to think about it hard enough. I left it like that. No explanations, nothing.

Nevertheless, thank you to Eliot Rahal, Mad Cave Studios, and NetGalley for the ARC.