Goldfish by Nat Luurtsema.

This book is: sweet, wonderful YA perfection.
Other elements: friendship, self-acceptance, fish, failure, body image, swimming.
Read it: if you want a good, quirky, entertaining story with undertones of heart-warmingness.
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Lou is a 15 year old girl who knows exactly what her life is about: swimming, her swimmer best friend, and her swimming goals. At least, that’s true until she fails to qualify at the time trials for the Olympics’ training camp and her life is turned upside-down. Who is she, if she’s not a competitive swimmer? It’s not a question Lou ever thought she’d have to answer.

The online presence for Goldfish brands it heavily as a humor book. I was amused by many parts of it, but it was more of a smile and a mental “ha!” kind of amusement than giggling out loud. I was actually surprised how heavily the website and promotional material I found tried to emphasize the comedy of Goldfish.

I actually thought that the weakest part of this book is the number of pratfalls that the main character takes. She’s always falling over. True, she’s a 15 year old athlete who has just stopped practicing her sport, so it’s believable that she’d be uncomfortable in her body, but the girl cannot stop falling over. I think if Luurtsema had focused more on letting Goldfish be the great story that it is and less on trying to insert laugh-out-loud moments, those weaker instances of forced-feeling physical comedy could have been avoided and the novel would have been stronger for it.

That said: I really enjoyed reading this book. It tells an engaging story with very human characters and touches on some important issues that any teenager (or grown-up teenager) can identify with. Failure, self-identity, friendship, loneliness, changing body image, and swim/dancing in tanks full of tiny, brightly-colored fish. It’s a quick read and worth your time.

For more reads anytime, check out my Amazon recommended books store. This post contains affiliate links.

My thanks to Feiwel & Friends for providing me with a copy of Goldfish for review consideration.

The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez.

This book is: truly strange but rather delightful.
Other elements: ninja thief ex-boyfriends, alternate universes, rogue fairy godmother ghosts trapped in pens, destiny, friendship.
Read it: if you’re in the mood for a totally off the wall tall tale of a novel.
Overall rating: 7.5/10

I’m going to start my review of The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by doing something I almost never do: copying and pasting the description on the back of the book.

Constance Verity has been saving the world since she was seven, and she’s sick of it. She sets off on one last adventure to assassinate her fairy godmother and become the one thing she’s never been: ordinary.

Ever since she was granted a wish at birth by her fairy godmother, Constance Verity has become one of the world’s great adventurers. It all began at her seventh birthday party when she defeated a snake. She has become a master of exotic martial arts, a keen detective, and possesses a collection of strange artifacts gathered from her adventures. But Constance has spent the past twenty-eight years saving the world, and she’s tired of it. All she wants is to work in an office and date a nice, normal guy. And she is finally figured out a way to do it: she’s going to kill her fairy godmother and reset her life. The only problem, though, is that saving the world is Constance’s destiny. She’s great at it, and there are forces at work to make sure she stays in the job.

Then again, it’s also her destiny to have a glorious death.”

Hell yes. This book is so far out of the ordinary that there’s no way to explain it without showing you an excerpt. Fairy godmothers, murderous genetically modified twins, alternate universes, engines of ultimate control – there’s pretty much no element from the Science Fiction and Fantasy cannon that doesn’t at least make an appearance in Constance Verity’s life.

For 95% of The Last Adventure of Constance Verity, I enjoyed the story’s constant flow of improbable events and the characters’ self-awareness that they were in a world where strange things happened. Every once in a while, though, it felt too over the top. But 95% delight and 5% eye rolling is still a pretty great experience.

If you’re in the mood for light, different, and entertaining, The Last Adventure of Constance Verity is exactly what you need. This would be a truly perfect vacation book.

For more reads anytime, check out my Amazon recommended books store. This post contains affiliate links.

My thanks to Del Ray for providing me with a copy of The Last Adventure of Constance Verity for review consideration.