Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Marshall Karp GENRE: Domestic Thriller. PUBLICATION DATE: March 4, 2025. RATING: 2.6 stars. In a Nutshell: An interesting and twisty domestic suspense about a woman on a mission before her time runs out. Marketed as a thriller, but not a thriller for the most way. I did enjoy the regular twists and surprises, but hated the deliberate misleading. I would still recommended this, but not as a must-read. Be ready to suspend disbelief. This is an outlier review. Plot Preview: Forty-three-year-old Maggie Dunn has it all: a handsome husband who loves her and is also a successful surgeon, twin teens who have a great rapport with each other and their parents, loving extended family (father, grandfather, and younger sister Libby), and a high-profile job as the mayor of their town. Now, something she has dreaded since the last twenty-five years has finally been confirmed: Maggie is going to die soon. And of the same illness that killed her mother at the same age. Cut to twenty-five year...

AUTHOR: Sirius Imnot GENRE: Poetry. PUBLICATION DATE: January 11, 2025. RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: The author hates poetry. I hate poetry. He made me read poetry. So I’m making him read more poetry. 🤗 This book begins with education, And moves on to introspection, Adds a dash of cheeky humour, A sprinkle of verse-phobic tremor, Finally parts with an ode full of frustration. That's the sum-up of this rhythmic assemblage, Highlighting the anti-poet's poetic knowledge. Some compositions gently flow; Others deliver quite a low blow. Overall, the effect is entertaining and savage. “In silence, I love you” was my favourite piece; Its sentiments came out with beautiful ease. The rest, I guess, is quite okay; I loathe poems, so I can’t much say. But yes, reading this book was a breeze. My good GR friend is Sirius Imnot, And just like me, he hates poems a lot. But much to my horror, he despises grammar. We'll agree to disagree on that thought! 🤐 I received this collec...

AUTHOR: Lisa Thompson GENRE: Middle-grade Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: May 8, 2025. RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade fiction about a troublemaker who tries to save a tree. A good story, but some minor issues stopped it from being great. I liked the ending though, and the illustrations are excellent. This book would be a nice option for classroom discussions. Do note that one of the key themes might be upsetting to some children. Plot Preview: Twelve-year-old Noah is going through a tough time at home as his parents are on the verge of splitting up. He rebels at school and resorts to mischief, which gets him in further trouble. So when he suddenly decides to assist Grace, the goodie-goodie girl of the school, in saving an old oak tree that the council is planning to cut down for a road widening project, even Grace doesn’t trust his motives and sudden change of heart. But Noah has his secret reasons for wanting to help, and he decides to sit atop the tree until the counc...

AUTHOR: Huda Fahmy SERIES: Huda, #2 GENRE: OwnVoices Graphic Novel. PUBLICATION DATE: October 10, 2023. RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An excellent standalone graphic novel about sibling bonds/breaks on a road trip. The OwnVoices Muslim-American perspective adds a lot of personal depth. Absolutely recommended! This is the second book of the Huda graphic novel series, and though this continues into the next stage of Huda’s life, the book works perfectly as a standalone. Huda, who has just completed her freshman year, is taken aback when her parents announce a road trip to Florida. Travelling with three of her four sisters isn’t going to be easy on a 24-hour long journey, but it is a worthwhile sacrifice in order to see Disneyworld. The journey and vacation cover Huda’s relationship with each of her sisters and her parents, her continued struggles over her Muslim identity, and the difficulty of fitting in as a visible Muslim in a non-Muslim society. Everything about this graphic nov...